1979-1990 Anime Primer Galaxy Express 999 (1979)

In the future, steam trains make stops throughout the universe, lawless space pirates are the stuff of legend, and the rich trade their flesh for cold, immortal steel. Tetsuro, a street urchin on Earth, longs for a mechanical body in order to take vengeance on the villainous Count Mecha for the death of his mother. To get one he must hitch a ride on the eponymous Galaxy Express 999, the only train making stops at the planet rumored to give such bodies away for free. After a failed attempt at stealing a boarding pass Tetsuro encounters the beautiful and mysterious Maetal, who offers him a ticket in exchange for his company. As they travel through space, Tetsuro finds himself learning many hard-earned lessons about the nature of the human spirit…Galaxy Express 999 is a film adaption ofLeiji Matsumoto’s (Captain Harlock, Interstella 5555) long-running manga, directed by the visually inventiveRintaro (Harmagedon, Neo-Tokyo). A far cry from hard sci-fi, the audience is presented with a romantic take on interstellar travel influenced by French cinema and American Westerns. Espousing at length the values of dreams and freedom as well as the fleetingness of life, the narrative can get schlamtzy, but like much of Matsumoto’s work it strikes a chord. So do as the catchy theme song suggests and let Galaxy Express 999 whisk you away onto a journey to the stars.

Galaxy Express 999 is currently available on DVD courtesy of Discotek.