ANI-MOVIES, *Galaxy Express 999

Being one of the first ever motion pictures taking place in the "Leijiverse", Leiji Matsumoto's manga series of Galaxy Express 999 first stated out as a sci-fi manga in 1977, followed by an anime TV series in 1978. This 1979 film was a retake on the first season of the TV series along with its own original conclusion, as the series hadn't yet concluded. Most of the Leijiverse titles include Captain Harlock, Queen Emeraldas, and Cosmic Warrior Zero. This movie combines some of those elements from given corners of the Leijiverse, and was directed by Rintaro, who later went on to do other anime movie adaptations such as X and Metropolis. An edited version of the film was first released in English by movie legend Roger Cormen in 1980, but later the complete film was put out as The Signature Edition in 1996 by Viz, and then put on DVD and Blu-Ray by Discotek Media.

Tetsuro is an orphan boy on Earth in the future which is monopolized by the Machine Empire(no relation to the Power Rangers!), and struggles to gain access to the space train called the Galaxy Express to take him to the empire's homeworld where he can get a mechanized body to live forever. Tetsuro befriends a blonde woman named Maetel who bares a strong resemblance to his dead mother, and helps him get onboard the train as they both journey to the end of the line. Their trip has them coming across the evil cyborg Count Mecha who killed Tetsuro's mother, and encounters with Harlock, Emeraldas, and Tochiro(that would later get their own origin movie in Arcadia Of My Youth). The duo finally reach the end of the line, which is called Planet Maetel, as its revealed that Maetel herself is the daughter of the Queen Promethium, and had her mind put into a clone of Tetsuro's mother. Maetel plans to use a special pendant housing the electronic soul of her father to destroy Planet Maetel, all while Harlock and Emeraldas attack the Machine Empire forces. Tetsuro and Maetel escape and go back to Earth after Tetsuro decides to live life as a human as Maetel departs back on the Galaxy Express.

The movie had a direct sequel that came out two years later acting as its own original continuation to the first film, as well as a prequel OVA and TV series. The story itself does has some pacing problems as its a compilation of plot points from the first part of original story sporting its own tied up ending. The animation was done by Toei who already had 20 years of production success prior to this movie, and their experience comes through in this spectacular production. It's a visually gorgeous space opera, which does suffer from continuity hiccups, but still makes for an exceptional landmark in anime history.