Galaxy Express 999

Director
Nobutaka Nishizawa
Production
Toei
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
113 episodes
Year
1978

Ginga Tetsudo 999

By Stephen Lerch
17th Apr 06

Ginga Tetsudo 999 or as it is known in English, Galaxy Express 999, is an Anime series that ran on Japanese television starting September 14, 1978 and ran for 113 episodes until April 9, 1981.

This review covers the R2 Japanese DVD box sets. These boxes consisted of 6 boxes that housed 5 DVDs (first box is only 4 discs) each for a total of 30 DVDs. The 30th DVD is a bonus DVD only available with the 6th box set. The sets are limited edition and were released by Avex and Toei. There are also priced down single releases that will partially cover in the review which are not limited edition.

Names in the review follow the Japanese naming convention, with family name first followed by the character’s given name.

Synopsis may contain spoilers.

Short Synopsis:

Ginga Tetsudo 999 or Galaxy Express 999 is a series that explores what it means to be human.

As the series begins we are presented with the forms of a little boy and his mother running through the snow. We quickly learn that these two flesh and blood humans are being chased like a deer by hunters. The hunters in this case turn out to be Mechanoids; or mechanical humans who have given up their flesh and blood bodies to become immortal through the process of mechanization.

The smaller form is that of Hoshino Tetsuro, the main protagonist of this beautifully told and well woven tale. The taller is that of his Mother, a woman we come to learn much about in ensuing episodes, even if she is not physically present in them.

The Mechanoids train their weapons upon the woman and shoot her in the back. Tetsuro watches as his mother dies in his arms, with her telling him to find a way to become a Mechanoid and escape the abject poverty that plagues the flesh and blood humans of the Earth which he promises to accomplish. She hands Tetsuro her medallion and tells him to run. Her body is then collected by the Mechanoid by the name of Kikkai Hakushaku (Mechanical Count) while Tetsuro is left in the snow to die.

Tetsuro makes his way as far as he can in the snow, until he finally collapses. Minutes later a vehicle is seen in the snow and the next thing we know young Tetsuro awakens in a cottage, meeting for the first time his savior, Maetel. Maetel is a woman with a lot of secrets, but also a great proposition for the now orphaned Tetsuro. If he allows Maetel to travel with him, she will grant him a pass to board the 999, whose final stop is at the planet Andromeda where he will have a Mechanoid body bestowed upon him. Enthralled by her beauty, and his outrageous fortune at having been given a pass to board the 999 (a very expensive trip, in more than just a monetary aspect indeed), Tetsuro agrees, but not before meting out revenge upon Kikkai Hakushaku.

The 999 is a train that rides the Galaxy Railways. The Galaxy Railways are trains that traverse the Cosmos, transporting passengers and cargo from one end of the Cosmos to the other and back again. The Galaxy Railways factor prominently in Matsumoto’s work, even being resurrected so to speak for the Ginga Tetsudo Monogatari/The Galaxy Railways Anime that marked the 50th anniversary of Matsumoto as a Manga author.

What will Tetsuro’s ultimate decision be? Will he decide to become a Mechanoid as he promised his dying mother, will he give up before arriving at Andromeda or will he decide to remain a flesh and blood human?

Video:

Toei has yet again gone well out of their way for the restoration of this Anime classic. The series has, as in past remasters, been released using a new component master with new source materials created. This results in a video quality unsurpassed likely by even the originals shown on television.

The colors are all corrected, cel crawl is kept to a minimum and dirt is nearly nonexistent. There is some cel damage in certain scenes which was not fixed due likely to the costs involved.

One process Toei seems to always do when remastering shows is the addition of grain to give the show more of a film look. Having seen the Glass no Claire remastered special, taken from footage from the television series and crafted into a 17minute theatrical special, I have to say that this process gives the animation a closer to animation feel than NOT adding the grain. The clarity seen in the Glass no Claire special just feels a bit unnatural when compared to the animation on the television series.

The bit rates on the DVDs themselves remain in the high 8 to low 9 range consistently, so there are no compression problems or artifacts associated with low bit rate video.

The animation itself is of the highest quality given the time.

Matsumoto Leiji’s character designs are to die for.

Audio:

For the audio there is a single option on these discs, that being Japanese Dolby Digital Mono (duplicated across a Stereo mix).

There is the expected hiss and crackle associated with mono material from this time, but there are no drop outs and no issues with the audio over all. I believe Toei has also remastered the audio to eliminate any of the degradation that would be normal given the age of the show.

The voice acting on this series is easily some of the best ever rendered. Ikeda Masako plays Maetel in an emotionally profound way, causing the viewer to be swallowed up in the emotion of a scene. Especially poignant are the scenes in which Maetel calls out for Tetsuro when she loses him or he is in trouble. The transformation of her voice at the beginning of the series, sounding like a person worried about her charge, to a frantic and emotional motherly voice later in the series is simply beyond compare. Tetsuro plays an equally emotional part and is voiced by Nozawa Masako. The pairing here, as Tetsuro and Maetel play the lead roles, are not only perfect for their given character, but it would be nigh impossible to imagine any other voice actors to play their parts.

Extras:

Each box set comes with a pack in extra, from a replica of Tetsuro’s mother’s pendant to Maetel’s pendant.

Box 6 forgoes the pack in extra and instead is given a bonus disc (bringing the disc count up to 30) which collects TV spots for various goods associated with the Ginga Tetsudo 999/Galaxy Express 999 (my favorite being the Valentine’s day commercial) and also includes episode 114, which is basically a single 25 minute episode that compresses all of the television series. The video for episode 114 is NOT remastered, and by comparing the video on it and the television series, one can easily see that they eliminated a lot of issues with the remaster.

Also included in the box sets are design document booklets that collected various design elements associated with the episodes included in the box. These include, but are not limited to, rough sketches for characters to designs for various ships and technology. Also included are interviews with some of the vocal cast and even Matsumoto Leiji. There are also interviews that were created around the time of Ginga Tetsudo 999/Galaxy Express 999’s original television airing.

Also included are high quality press board illustrations, one per box, done by Matsumoto Leiji.

The booklets and the information they collect, along with the bonus goods and press boards included with the boxes are NOT present in the single releases, though the single releases come out to be cheaper when comparing MSRP between the boxes and the singles they collect.

Packaging:

Each box has newly designed artwork (not from Matsumoto Leiji) and represents a scene that defines the major story elements contained within the box. The boxes are high quality chipboard and there is a spanning image of the 999 that covers the spines from box 1 through 6 and out onto the TV Specials box with the 999’s headlight shining onto it.

The artwork on the dual DVD cases themselves consists of a scene captured from an episode contained within that DVD case. The covers are simply OK and probably could have been done better. The single releases have different artwork (since they are a single disc per case release) but are done in a similar fashion with a screen grab as the cover art.

On the cover’s reverse, seen through the transparent DVD case, is a listing of the episode names, the episode number and gives information on the time the show aired.

On the back cover are episode listings with a small screen capture for the episode appearing next to the title.

Final Analysis:

How can one accurately describe this series? It is an emotional train ride that if one allows themselves to be immersed in its brilliant characters, amazing designs and masterful story telling, can have the viewer gasping in awe and amazement around every turn.

The pace at which Tetsuro and Maetel’s relationship evolves, from two characters sharing a trip, to two travelers sharing a journey of self discovery, is perfectly laid out. The two form an emotional bond not only with one another, but also with the viewer that has caused me to spend time, even after having not viewed the series in a few weeks, reflecting upon them and thinking fondly of them, even getting a bit misty eyed thinking on the journey, the outcome and the characters. The journey isn’t simply shared between two characters on screen, but also with the person who is sitting on the opposite side of the screen.

Maetel is easily one of my favorite characters in the Anime world. Throughout the series, almost ever present upon her face, is this profound and unfathomable sadness, which when cracked with a smile causes the viewer to wince in pain themselves when the sadness, seemingly deeper than before the smile, returns to her countenance. Her happiness is fleeting, yet Tetsuro manages in the course of the series to work his way deep into her pained heart.

I actually waited for Tetsuro to become a whiny and annoying childish brat. Thankfully this side never materializes, though on occasion he can be rather selfish just as you would expect of a child. He is always put back into place by Maetel however.

Notable guest appearances occur in the form of Matsumoto’s lady pirate, Queen Emeraldas, who appears in a single episode, episode 22. Herlock also makes an appearance, in the series’ only 3 parter, in grand fashion for episodes 79-81. The Herlock 3 parter stands out not only as one of the greatest storylines among great storylines, but achieves this level of greatness despite being thought up by the television staff without a Manga chapter to follow.

When the series ended, I honestly felt like I could have easily watched another 113 episodes and not been bored. This says a lot as I am one who tends to dislike longer series because of all the filler. Ginga Tetsudo 999 has filler to be certain, but even the filler could be considered a great meal on its own and is generally used to evolve the relationship between Tetsuro and Maetel, or to shine light on some of the mysteries surrounding the journey.

For those that have viewed the Galaxy Express movie and believe you have done yourself justice, think again. The movies were a great retelling, for sure, but with the amount of character development you miss out on it can barely compare to the television series. If you have an option to see the television series, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Ginga Tetsudo 999/Galaxy Express 999 is an Anime classic. This is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Anime series ever created, bar none. This is a series I will visit repeatedly through my life.

-- Stephen Lerch 17th Apr 06

Galaxy Express 999 Images