Product Details

• Actors: Masako Nozawa, Masako Ikeda, Yôko Asagami, Miyoko Asô, Toshiko Fujita
• Directors: Rintaro
• Format: Animated, Color, HiFi Sound, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Viz Video
• VHS Release Date: December 16, 1999
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304184352
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,091 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Leiji Matsumoto helped to create the modern boom in anime with his series Space Battleship Yamato, released in the U.S. as Star Blazers. A long, episodic fable about an interstellar journey on an updated version of an old railway train, Galaxy Express boasts an enthusiastic cult following. Tetsuro is a boy living in the slums of a future Earth; his mother was killed by the evil cyborg, Count Mecha, who hunts humans for sport. To achieve his revenge, he must get to a distant planet where he can trade his mortal body for a deathless mechanical one. A mysterious woman named Maetel rescues him from the robo-police and travels with him among the planets via the Galaxy Express railway. Tetsuro's search for vengeance builds into a war between humans and cyborgs.

As the battle reaches its climax, Matsumoto's popular creations, the space pirates Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas, arrive with unexpected assistance. Tetsuro ultimately learns that true beauty is always ephemeral, a concept that runs through Japanese art and culture. For years, Galaxy Express 999 was available in English only in an edited version that fans demoted as a mutilation; the Signature Edition from Viz is complete and uncut. (Ages 13 and older for violence and brief nudity) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My first anime..., June 28, 2000

By	Zack Davisson "All Good Things" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Galaxy Express 999 - Signature Edition (English Subtitles) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Galaxy Express was my first exposure to anime. I was about 9 when I saw it in 1981 in a double feature with Popeye. I was amazed by this "cartoon," and it started a life-long love affair with anime. The story is very powerful with very stirring visual images. I was always very taken by the young boy trying so hard to be a man, and the beautiful android who misses her human body. The moment that stuck with me the longest is the stop on Pluto, where all the frozen bodies are kept in a massive grave. Very haunting imagery.

By the by, I am so happy that they released the signature edition. As a 9 year old, I didn't mind that Captain Harlock spoke with a bad John Wayne impersonation, but it sure distracted from the film when I saw it years later. Yay for subtitled! Now if they would only release this on DVD...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can't find this movie anywhere. , December 20, 2004

By	jw shimkus "Movie Manji" (HI, Molokai) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Galaxy Express 999 - Signature Edition (English Subtitles) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I've tried to buy this on Ebay. The provider told me it would be a couple of months. I hung up on him. I watched this anime when I was a child. It was edited bad for television (smudging out suggestive shower scenes)But none of that mattered. The story remained true. Tetsuo is a boy caught up in a universal war. Where the pressures of getting a robot body are as bad as the finals in college. In order to compete with society, one must overcome spiritual morality. Religion plays into it also.(your body is a temple,etc.)Tetsuo needs guidance, he lost his mother, who was his last remaining member of his family, to a group of hunters. Hunters with robot bodies. Maitel is a woman whom Tetsuo finds one day. He watches her, clothed in a long dark trench coat. Blond, hay colored hair. Sparklying eyes. Pointy nose. He see's someone whom he loved. His mother. She would tell him of the Galaxy Express 999. Tetsuo hates the war, and he hates the robots for ruining his life. But he realizes that the only way he could kill the robots is to become what he ultimatly hates. So he decides to go with the lonely plan of assimilation. To do this, he must book passage on the Galaxy Express. A sort of Orient Express. Filled with interesting people from all around the universe. One of it's stops, Along with a wonderful amount of other stops, is the homeworld of the robots. Where he hopes to reach an end to his sorrows. The movie takes you for a trip around the neighborhood galaxy. Revealing short stories along the way. This is where the power of the film is reached. In its exploration and revealing a broad creativity. Be mystified and be revealed to a surprisingly solid story. Something that so many films lack today.-jeff

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An abridged "Nippon Swings!" review, December 28, 1998

By A Customer

This, to my opinion, is the "Star Wars" of sci-fi anime. The brainchild of manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, who brought us the venerable "Star Blazers" TV series, GE999 is, at its core, and like its "Star Wars" American counterpart, a sci-fi coming of age story. Our hero, Tetsuro Hoshino, drawn by a desire to avenge his mother's murder, wants a machine body to go up against her murderer, the villainous hunter of human trophies, Count Mecha. In order to do this, he must reach the Mechanization Homeworld. And the only way to get there is aboard the luxurious space liner the Galaxy Express 999, a spaceship designed to look like a 19th Century steam locomotive. Given a pass by a mysterious woman named Maetel, both she and Tetsuro trek across the Universe, making the various whistle-stops along the way to enigmatic planets. The GE999 is more than a spaceship, but a metaphor for life, with its passengers crossing the Sea Of Stars, their true destinies unknown. As fate would have it, young Tetsuro learns more about humanity, and his fate in specific, on his voyage across the Universe on the Three-Nine.