Galaxy Express 999
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Plot
The movie opens with Tetsuro wandering around the slums below Megalopolis. He looks up a wanted poster for Captain Harlock and is 40 man crew and smiles. With a whistle he gathers his friends and they run off to the train station. A very dapper looking couple with machine bodies pulls up to the station. They get out and comment that if the people sitting around cannot afford a ticket then they should just move on, and they enter into the station. The woman books a ticket and the price comes up 245,255,000. The woman gives her money, the ticket pops out, just as the woman reaches for it Testuro runs up and grabs it pushing her over. Tetsuro and his friends lead the guards all around the station tossing the tickets between them. Tetsuro is captured by the guards and his pendent breaks off, Maetel picks it up and he believes her to be his mother. When he stops day dreaming he knocks the guards off balance and runs out of the station. His friends toss him the stolen ticket and he escapes on a hoverboard, cops in tow.
Tetsuro misses a jump in the road and falls back down to the slums, cops still on his tail. He hits a dead end and several cops come after him, looking up on some stairs he sees Maetel standing there. Tetsuro jumps over the wall and begins to run up the fire escape of a building towards Maetel. He grows increasingly tired, when he gets to Maetel he passes out and the ticket for the Galaxy Express falls out of his pocket. She drags him into a door that turns out to be an elevator and they escape the machine police.
At her apartment Maetel watches Tetsuro’s dreams as he sleeps. She sees what motivates him, and how he came to want a machine body. When he was a young boy his mother and him were walking in the snow. They talk about what it would be like if they had machine bodies. As they walk Tetsuro runs ahead and his mother sees red lights around them. She yells for Tetsuro to run, they have accidently entered Count Mecha’s hunting range, where he hunts humans for sport. Suddenly she is shot, she falls forward knocking Tetsuro over. With her last breaths she gives him a pendent and tells him to run. As Count Mecha rides up and Tetsuro hides in the snow. They pull the cover off his mothers body exposing her naked form and comment of how it will look well in his trophy room. After they go Tetsuro runs up and swears to get revenge on Count Mecha, picking up the snow stained with his mothers blood. He screams out in frustration which wakes him from his dream to find himself in an apartment in Megalopolis. He hears voices talking, and wonders if they are talking about him. He opens a door to find Maetel in the shower wearing only a pendent, nervously closes it and walks back out. (The pendent is the one that Queen La Andromeda Promethium gave her in the suitcase that contains the mind of her father) She offers him a ticket on the Galaxy Express in exchange that she must accompany him. He accepts happily, wondering if she is good or evil, but if he can get his machine body, he can do anything.
Suddenly there is a knock at the door, the police have come and they know that Maetel has Tetsuro. Maetel tells Tetsuro that if he boards the Galaxy Express that he can never return to earth, Tetsuro doesn’t care, he only wants to board the Galaxy Express. Maetel throws her earing and they escape to the station and board the Galaxy Express, which looks like an old nostalgic train. The conductor comes into the car and announces that the next stop is Titan, one of Saturn’s Moons. They will stay in station for 16 days Earth Days. The Galaxy Express stays in each station for one of the local days, and because each planet rotates at different speeds it may be shorter or longer than earth days.
As they step out into Titan a man next to Tetsuro is shot, just then Maetel is shot as well and carried off by two men. Tetsuro runs after him and is knocked unconscious. He wakes up in an old womans house, who feeds him and tells him that the Bandits have taken Maetel. The woman tells Tetsuro that the planets law is “Paradise Law” a man can do whatever he wants. The woman gives Tetsuro a hat, wraps him in a blanket and gives him a gun (This gun is one of the 5 most powerful in the Leijiverse created by Tochiro). Be boards a boat at the end of the dock and rows down the river. He sees a girl being kidnapped by a machine, he uses the gun and shoots the machine destroying it and the girl falls, just then a man runs out and catches the girl. Tetsuro is thrown into the river from the guns kick. He climbs on shore and shoots again. The man jumps out of the way and the beam goes through a tree, a machine man stumbles out and falls dead. The man asks him where he got a “warriors weapon” the only weapon able to kill machine men. Tetsuro is defiant, and demands Maetel returned to him. His men introduce the man as Boss Antares. Tetsuro tells them that in exchange for a ticket on the Galaxy Express he agreed to protect her. Boss Antares is disgusted that he is after a machine body, and Tetsuro shouts “how else can I kill Count Mecha, I will avenge my mother!”. Boss Antares grabs Tetsuro and drags him away. At their hideout they see if Tetsuro and Maetel are human with an X-Ray machine. After they determine that they are, they take them to where the children live, every one of the orphaned by Count Mecha. Boss Antares tells them that no one knows where Count Mecha’s Time Castle is except Space Pirate Emeraldas, and she isn’t telling anyone.
They return to the old womans home and Tetsuro tries to return the things she gave him. She tells him that he can keep it and that they belong to her only son, that she wants Tetsuro to have them. He left them behind with her when he went off to where ever, he will be wearing the hat she made for him, and if Testuro should see him, Tetsuro promises to tell him that his mother is waiting for him. Then you see a picture of Tochiro sitting on the mantle in the home.
The next stop is Pluto and the layover will be 6.39 days. Maetel tells him that it is called the “Faltering planet” because it is small, desolate and frozen to the core. But the cold is attributed to the travelers soles that are imprisoned there. She wraps her coat around a very cold Tetsuro who remembers how his mother used to do the same on the cold Earth nights. Maetel goes off to do an errand but tells Tetsuro to stay within city limits. He walks to a building in the middle of a Frozen lake, and sees Maetel kneeling over the ice. He looks down to see many people frozen in the ice, a woman walks up. She says her name is Shadow and she tends the grave of ice. Of people who died from illness or who abandoned their bodies for machine ones. She takes Tetsuro to see her old body, he squirms against her cold touch. She said that no face could be as beautiful as her human one so she decided to have no face at all. Shadow says she wants Tetsuro to stay with her forever, and he begins to freeze. Maetel comes in and commands for Shadow to let him go, because she is too cowardice to choose between a machine life and a human life does not let her take an innocent child for herself. Shadow becomes distraught and runs to her human body, crying. Her and Tetsuro leave. She explains that human bodies are kept here so that ones who have decided to have machine bodies may return to them, that whether or not this is kindness or cruelty is not yet decided. They head to the restaurant on the train, and Tetsuro is mesmerized by the waitress who is made of glass crystal. Tetsuro is nervous and wonders why she was warm and Shadow is cold. Maetel tells Claire that Tetsuro is curious about her glass body. She answers that her vain mother picked out glass, but she is working on the Galaxy Express to buy her body back. It is being stored on Pluto and sometimes she goes to visit it on her days off. The body she has is very pretty, but light and shadow go right through it and that makes her sad. She touches Tetsuro’s hand and he blushes. They enter a tunnel and it becomes pitch black, suddenly Claire lights up. She illuminates their path and walks Tetsuro back to his cabin. The lights turn back on and the train is jarred. Emeraldas is flying parallel to the Galaxy Express and demands right of way.
Tetsuro tries to get her attention, so he fired Tochiro’s gun at the ship. Emeraldas fires back and docks with the Galaxy Express. She boards and everyone looks at her terrified, her footsteps echo through out the cabin. She demands to see who fired upon her ship. Testsuro draws his gun on her and she shoots it out of her hand. She looks down and recognizes the gun, and demands to know where he got it. Tetsuro tells her that an old woman on Titan gave it to her along with a hat. Maetel pulls the hat down from her face and Emeraldas immediately recognizes her, Emeraldas asks where the original owner is. They don’t know. Emeraldas grows very sad. Tetsuro asks where the Time Castle is, and Emeraldas asks if he means to kill Count Mecha. Maetel pleads with Emeraldas to tell him where it is. Emeraldas explains that it will appear at Traders Fork, their next stop. Maetel tells Tetsuro that Emeraldas is looking for the owner of his things because he is her one and only beloved. They get off at the next stop Planet Heavy Melder Traders Fork.
Traders Fork is very old western. Tetsuro wanders off to find out about Count Mecha and the Time Castle. Tetsuro wanders into a western saloon. He asks the barkeep about when the Time Castle will appear. The entire bar stops, and the barkeep drags him to the back and tells him that Mount Gun Frontier will hold the information he needs. Two guards burst in and Tetsuro speeds away. He crashes the bike and finds a ship embedded in the sand (Leiji fans will recognize the ship’s Skull and Crossbones). Tochiro walks out and Tetsuro recognizes him immediately. Tochiro asks him where he got his things, and Tetsuro tells him from his mother. He tells Tochiro that his mother misses him and wants to see him. Tochiro invites him inside, and Tetsuro wants to know where the time castle will appear. As Tochiro coughs he tells Tetsuro he’s dying. He crawls to a bed and Tetsuro tells him that Emeraldas is looking for him as well. Tochiro seems sad, and asks Tetsuro to pull a lever, to make sure to shoot Count Mecha in the head, and that his castle will appear at midnight. Once Tetsuro pulls the lever Tochrio becomes apart of his best friends ship, Harlock’s Arcadia. As he walks away from the ship, Tetsuro is attacked by Count Mecha’s goons, they beat him up and take his gun.
Back at Tochiro’s grave a man appears and Tochrio’s bird runs to him crying. Tetsuro returns to the bar to reclaim his gun. A man walks in and breaks the goons hand off, Tetsuro recognizes him as Captain Harlock. Harlock forces milk into the mechanical goons mouth. Tetsuro and Harlock return to the Hotel to find Emeraldas with Matel. Tetsuro begins to tell Emeraldas about Tochrio, and she becomes over eager, Harlock tells Emeraldas that Tochrio is dead. Emeraldas turns on her heel and walks away into the night.
Tetsuro climbs a mountain and finds the Time Castle. He sneaks in and stumbles into a parlor to find his mother mounted over the fireplace like a deer. The girl from the saloon is there and he turns around to find Count Mecha. He has his gun shot out of his hand and one of the guards grabs it and points it at him. It turns out to be Boss Antaraes and they hold off the guards as Tetsuro goes after Count Mecha. As Count Mecha turns to fire, Tetsuro blows his arm off. Mecha begs for his life, then turns to fire on Tetsuro. Boss Antares takes the shot. They enclose themselves in a glass case and Mecha commands Ryuzu to move time forward. She does not do so. Antares moves towards the glass, to destroy it with the unexploded bullets in his body. Mecha continues to shoot at him and Antares presses his body against the glass, and with his last breaths tells Tetsuro not to trust Maetel. With the glass broken Tetsuro runs up to Count Mecha and shoots him in the head destroying him. Ryuzu tells Tetsuro to run and get out the castle will soon crumble to dust. She too also begins to crumble to dust with the castle.
Harlock and Maetel meet Tetsuro at the Time Castle’s remains and ask if his vengeance is over. Tetsuro explains that eternal life isn’t happiness, that being human is. He must remove all mechanization from the universe, living forever is not a reason to get a mechanical body. Tetsuro will travel to the Mechanization homeworld and destroy it, to stop people from getting machine bodies. Maetel and Tetsuro quickly run and board the Galaxy Express as the last call is sounded. In the distance the Arcadia takes off as well. Emeraldas visits Tochiro’s grave.
On the Galaxy Express Maetel and Tetsuro toast to having avenged his mother. Tetsuro notices that as they get closer to La Metalle Maetel becomes more and more depressed. The conductor comes through the car to announce the final station The planet Maetel, the mechanization homeworld, but Tetsuro is sleeping. As he steps off the train he hears that the planet has the same name as Maetel. He is shocked and demands to know why from Maetel. They are greeted by guards, and they address Maetel by your highness. The guards explain that the planet is run by human mechanized parts. That as penance for his sin of killing Count Mecha he will become one. He asks Maetel if it’s a trick and she says no, Tetsuro jumps and smacks her. The guards knock him unconscious. Claire and the conductor watch as they drag Tetsuro away. The guards take Tetsuro to Queen Promethium. They say that his strong spirit and soul will be perfect for a block bolt that will not fail from use or shock. Maetel runs to Tochrio and he insults her, the Queen threatens to kill him if he addresses her daughter in that way again. A voice comes and says that Maetel also loves Tetsuro, the Queen recognizes the voice as Doctor Ban, and Maetel pulls out the pendent affirming that it is her father. The voice talks to the Queen that they have been planting people in strategic places to destroy the planet and her. Maetel brought each person here to be made in to parts willingly, to betray her mother. Parts begin to attack and Tetsuro protects Maetel.
Maetel has an internal battle that both the planet and her human self are both her. If she destroys the planet she destroys her other self. Meanwhile outside Harlock is attacking the planet Maetel. Her father reminds her of the horrible things the machines have done, the queen demands that Maetel gives her the pendent. The queen lunges at Maetel knocking the pendent out of her hand, but Tetsuro grabs it first.
As a machine takes aim on Harlock, it is suddenly destroyed and the Queen Emeraldas comes up from behind. Doctor Ban tells Tetsuro he knows he can do it, throw the pendent and destroy the machines, Tetsuro runs and throws the pendent into the core. Tetsuro grabs Maetel and they run to escape the destructing planet. Maetel falls as the ground gives way, but Tetsuro grabs her and saves her pulling her onto the ledge. He wonders how she can be so warm and still be a machine. She tells him that the body is a copy of his mothers, when a body grows old she gets a new copy, she is a shadow in a human body. She can survive the ages by jumping from one body to another as it wears out. Tetsuro and Maetel are able to make it aboard the Galaxy Express just as it is leaving the station. Aboard the train, Queen Promethium grabs Testuro and tells Maetel that in punishment for her betrayal she will kill Testuro. Claire runs up behind Queen Promethium and grabs her, forcing her to let go of Tetsuro. Claire says goodbye to Testuro, her one and only true friend, and self destructs destroying Queen Promethium. The conductor releases Claires glass shards into space. Tetsuro picks up a perfectly shaped glass tear and Maetel tells him that it just might be Claires heart. Emeraldas and Harlock fly off into space, as Maetel and Tetsuro continue on the Galaxy Express. Maetel tells Tetsuro that she is to conintue to Pluto to get her original body back. He tells her that he will wait for her, and she says he won’t recognize her. She kisses him, and gets on the train saying that she will only live on in his memories. Tetsuro runs along side the train crying out Maetels name for as long s he can and watches as the Galaxy Express flies off into the stars.
Characters
Tetsuro Hoshino
Tetsuro Hoshino is an orphan living in the slums of Megalopolis. His mother was mudered by Count Mecha when he was hunting humans for game. This was the catalyst that made Tetsuro want to board the Galaxy Express 999 to get a machine body so that he can seek revenge on Count Mecha for killing his mother. He's a very perseverent person and no matter how bad the odds are stacked against him he continues through to the end to accomplish what he feels is right. After destroying Count Mecha Tetsuro changes and no longer wants to get a machine body, but realizes that mechanization is a plague in the universe and that he must continue to Andromeda to destroy the machine empire. He meets Tochiro's mother as well and she gives him a blanket, a hat she made and Tochiro's gun. He ends up looking exactly like Tochiro. Japanese Voice Actor: Masako Nozawa
Maetel
Maetel is actually the daughter of Queen Promethium. She has been running humans, who willingly sacrificed themselves, to be placed in strategic points on La Metal so that she may destroy it in the end. She is being guided by her father, Dr. Ban, who had his mind trapped in a pendent she wears around her neck. Maetel is neither human nor machine, she has the ability to jump from one human body to another as hers wears out. She originally is the Princess of La Metal, but her feelings for Tetsuro and his being turned into a bolt for the planet finally drive her to betray her mother. At the end of the movie she fights a battle within herself because she is both human and machine. She decides after La Metal is destroyed to head back to Pluto and take her own body back, and departs on the Galaxy Express leaving Tetsuro on earth. Japanese Voice Actor: Masako Ikeda
Tetsuro's Mother
Tetsuro's Mother took care of him on earth. They were wandering in the snow when she realizes that they have stumbled into Count Mecha's hunting range, where he hunts humans. She is murdered by Count Mecha, but is able to save Tetsuro from being discovered. Count Mecha takes her back and mounts her bust on the wall above his fireplace in the Time Castle. Japanese Voice Actor: Shoki Tsuboi
Boss Antares
Boss Antares is the most famous bandit on Titan. Titan has whats called "Paradise Law" where anyone can do what they want. It turns out that Boss Antares's hate for machine comes from the fact that he takes care of several children, all orphans from Count Mecha's hunting. Boss Anatares has several unexploded bullets lodged in him from other fights he's been in. He doesn't trust anyone, even Tetsuro who saves one of the children from being kidnapped by a machine. Antares helps Tetsuro in the Time Castle when Count Mecha catches him by surprise. He eventually sacrifices himself when Count Mecha blocks himself behind a large glass barrier to escape Tetsuro, by using the unexploded bullets and his body as a bomb to blow up the glass barrier giving Tetsuro access to Count Mecha so that Tetsuro can kill him. Japanese Voice Actor: Yasuo Hisamatsu
Tochiro's Mother
Tochiro's mother is an older lady with a home on the river. She is a kind old woman with a cat. After Tetsuro is attacked she takes him in and cares for him before sending him on his way to save Maetel. She gives Tetsuro a blanket, a hat she made and a gun that belonged to her son. She tells him that she misses her son and wishes that he would come home to see her. Its eventually shown that her son is Tochiro. She never gives any name to either Tetsuro or Maetel. Japanese Voice Actor: Miyoko Asou
Count Mecha
Count Mecha is a very heartless mechanized man. He lives in the Time Castle with can move forward or backwards through time and only Emeraldas knows where it will be. Count Mecha hunts humans for sport and mounts them on his walls like animals. He was the one who murdered Tetsuro's mother, and then mounted her body above his fireplace. He is well known for his cowardice and underhanded techniques. When Tetsuro first aims to kill him he begins to beg for his life, then when Tetsuro is distractd Count Mecha tries to kill Tetsuro and runs to escape. With Count Mecha's death the Time Castle and everything within it turns to dust. Japanese Voice Actor: Hidekatsu Shibata
Conductor
This is the conductor of the Galaxy Express 999. He makes sure that the train always stops where its supposed to and runs ontime. Mostly just a giant blue coat, he has a problem keeping his arm band up. In almost every scene he is fiddling with it and pulling it back up as it falls down. The Conductor is never really given a name. Japanese Voice Actor: Kaneta Kimotsuki
Claire
Clair is a waitress on the Galaxy Express. She has a mechanized body made entirely of glass crystal. This is because her mother was very vain and picked out the body for her. Claire is working on the Galaxy Express so that she can save up enough money to buy her real body back, which is being stored on Pluto. When they go through a meteor field Claire is able to light the cabin by making herself glow. She becomes very fond of Tetsuro and begs The Conductor not to stop at Traders Fork. In the end she sacrifices herself to save Tetsuro when Queen Promethium tries to kill him. Tetsuro finds a perfectly shaped glass tear, which Maetel guesses it might have been her heart, after Claire is shattered and keeps it. Japanese Voice Actor: Youko Asagami
Shadow
Shadow is the keeper of the Graves of Ice on Pluto. They are the bodies of people who have died from illness or who had abandonded their bodies for machine ones. She is very vain about her own body, she keeps it in a glass coffin in the building so that she may look at it. Because she knew no machine face could ever rival the beauty of her real face, she decided not to have a face at all with her machine body. Shadow's touch is very cold, and she tries to keep Tetsuro with her forever by freezing him to death. Maetel runs in and saves him and exposes Shadow's cowardice in not being able to choose between life as a human and life as a machine. Japanese Voice Actor: Toshiko Fujita
Captain Harlock
Captain Harlock makes a cameo appearance in the Galaxy Express Movie. He is seen after Tochiro's death when Tetsuro pulls the lever to fuse Tochiro with Harlocks ship the Arcadia. Harlock visits Tochiro's grave, and then saves Tetsuro from Count Mecha's goons in the bar. He does this as repayment for what Tetsuro did for his best friend. Harlock also is the one to tell Emeraldas that Tochiro is dead. Harlock uses his ship and crew to make sure that Tetsuro makes it back to Earth, by attacking La Metal when Tetsuro goes to blow it up. He has a lot of respect for Tetsuro. Japanese Voice Actor: Makio Inoue
Emeraldas
Emeraldas also makes a small cameo in the Galaxy Express Movie. She comes in when Tetsuro fires upon her ship. She knows the whereabouts of Count Mecha's Time Castle and gives in to Maetel's pleeding to tell Tetsuro. She is always looking for Tochiro, Maetel comments that Tochiro is Emeraldas's only beloved, the one whom she's dedicated her heart, body and soul. The news of Tochiro's death hits Emeraldas hard and she leaves Harlock, Maetel and Tetsuro. It takes Tochiro contacting her from the Arcadia after his death to remind her that Tetsuro needs her and that she must help him. She ends up joining Harlock in his attack on La Metal. At the end of the movie it is said that Maetel is the only daughter of Queen Promethium of La Metal, but in OVA's written by Leiji Matsumoto he states clearly that Maetel and Emeraldas are twins. Maetels presence with Tetsuro on the Galaxy Express, along with his posession of Tochiro's gun is what saves him from being killed by Emeraldas. Japanese Voice Actor: Reiko Tajima
Tochrio
Tochiro is Emeraldas's true love. He left his home on Titan and never returned, he now lives on Planet Heavy Melder in a crashed ship with his vulture. Tochiro wanted to kill Count Mecha within his lifetime but was unable to. Tetsuro seeks out Tochiro to find the location of the Time Castle. Tochiro realizes that his life is ending and he is about to die, before he dies he climbs up into his bed and asks Tetsuro to pull a lever that will infuse his mind into the ship of his best friend, Harlock's Arcaida. He also goes to Emeraldas to tell her that Tetsuro needs her help and she has a duty to help him. Japanese Voice Actor: Kei Tomiyama
Bartender
The Bartender in Trader Fork on Planet Heavy Melder is very kind to Tetsuro. When Tetsuro walks into the Bar and orders a milk several of the patrons ridicule him. Then when Tetsuro asks about the location of Count Mecha and the time castle he saves Tetsuro by dragging him into the back room and giving him the location of where he can find Tochiro. He is able to let Tetsuro escape before Count Mecha's goons burst in. He is a very old man who is very kind. Japanese Voice Actor: Ryuuji Saikachi
Queen Promethium
Queen Promethium is the queen of the planet La Metal. She turns humans into parts with living wills that hold and run La Metal. She is very unemotional, yet vengeful. Queen Promethium is also Maetel's mother. After Maetel betrays Queen Promethium and destroys La Metal, Queen Promethium attempts to kill Tetsuro as retribution. She is thwarted by Claire who grabs ahold of Queen Promethium and self destructs taking Queen Promethium with her. Japanese Voice Actor: Yoshiko Kimiya
Ryuzu
Ryuzu is the love of Count Mecha. With her guitar and song she is able to bring the entire bar at Traders Fork to tears. She forces herself to go through mechanization because it pleases Count Mecha, but she ends up betraying him when Tetsuro comes to kill him. She refuses to allow them to escape by moving time forward. Ryuzu says that its because Tetsuro reminded her of her youth. After Count Mecha's death Ryuzu turns to dust with the rest of the Time Castle and all thats left is her guitar, which Tetsuro plants in the ground as a grave marker. Japanese Voice Actor: Noriko Ohara
