Galaxy Express 999

I saw this as a child in the late eighties and I must say, Galaxy Express is one of those films that sticks in your imagination for a long time. If you've never understood the appeal of anime, discovering this film may be your golden ticket to Otaku-town.

The story is as delicate and poetic as Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. The cell animation, while somewhat traditional, possesses a vivid style that explosively portrays Leiji Matsumoto's great talent for character design and visual storytelling.

This is one of those unique children's films like Star Wars, The Dark Crystal and The Wizard of Oz that completely transcends 'family entertainment' status and stands as a classic of cinema on its own terms.

I highly recommend this film.

One word can describe this movie and that is weird. I recorded this movie one day because it was a Japanese animation and it was old so I thought it would be interesting. Well it was, the movie is about a young boy who travels the universe to get a metal body so he can seek revenge. On the way he meets very colorful characters and must ultimately decide if he wants the body or not. Very strange, if you are a fan of animation/science-fiction you might want to check this out.

I was at my sister's apartment one night when I was around 14, and you know how it is when there is nothing on TV but you are bored so you keep flipping around, well this movie came on around 10 o'clock and I started watching it and although I wasn't able to follow what was going on exactly, I just could not turn it off. This movie was my first taste of Anime and it seems good Anime does that too you. I was deeply moved by Galaxy Express, to the point that I almost started crying towards the end. Quite a magical, imaginative movie. But yes, very very strange. I stayed up until two in the morning to see how it turned out.

this movie is a classic of the genre. deals with innocense lost, the idolization of parental figures, the journey myth. everyone in the movie, even the secondary characters, has an agenda and a complexity lacking most american live-action movies, let alone the animated ones.

one of the best things about this movie is its use of iconographic imagery, the trains, the pirate ships. in the future where bodies can be replaced by machines without trouble, why not have trains and pirate ships. their allagoric status is made more powerful by their total out-of-place-edness within an outer space environment.

what's more, their importance to the characters becomes clear. in a world where the loss of body can lead to the callousness displayed by the "evil" characters, and their eventual loss of inner humanity, icons of what it means to be human become that much more important. each character in this movie is ultimately looking for that which makes them who they are. the landmarks of their collective pasts as the human race are important.

the best anime, in my humble opinion, is that which asks those questions because it is in the peculiar position of being able to explore it in fantastic ways. GE999 works well along those lines.

*drops $.02 in jar*

This movie can be criticized as not having the hipness or technical quality of anime films today, but it is the depth of the story and passion of the art that make it such a classic. I'm not a big anime fan, and this is the only anime film I've seen that I would want to watch more than once.

The story is a wonderful and surrealistic coming-of-age type allegory. Despite elements common to science fiction (man vs. machine, hero setting out to avenge his parent's death), it stays free of cliche and retains an air of realism, or true surrealism. Almost all of the characters are more memorable and unique than most main characters in other anime films.

One of the unique things about this film is the way it conveys emotion so powerfully. I can't really define what gives it this quality, but it is extremely moving, like a good symphony or vast impressionistic landscape. The only other films I can think of (at the moment anyways) that have this quality would be the Godfather films.

In conclusion, anyone who appreciates what science fiction is about should see this film. It's a rare treat.