Ginga Tetsudō 999
| Ginga Tetsudō 999 | |
|---|---|
| Original title | 銀河 鉄 道 999 |
| genre | Adventure , drama , science fiction |
| Manga | |
| country |
 Japan
|
| author | Leiji Matsumoto |
| magazine | Shonen King |
| First publication | 1976 - ... |
| expenditure | 5 |
| Television series | |
| Country of production | Japan |
| original language | Japanese |
| Year (s) | 1978-1981 |
| length | 25 minutes |
| Episodes | 113 |
| music | Nozomi Aoki |
| First broadcast | Sept. 14, 1978 - March 9, 1981 on Fuji TV |
Ginga Tetsudō 999 ( Japanese 銀河 鉄 道 999, Ginga Tetsudō Surī Nain ), also known under the English title Galaxy Express 999 , is a manga by the Japanese artist Leiji Matsumoto , which has been published in Japan since 1977. In 1978 the manga received the " Shogakukan Manga Prize " in the field of shōnen and the "Animage Anime Grand Prix" in 1981.
action
In the distant future, humanity has opened up large parts of the galaxy. Wealthy people transfer their consciousness into machine bodies ( Kikaikajin ), which is why they achieve immortality , but many poor live in the slums. The slum boy Tetsurō Hoshino ( 星野 鉄 郎 ) grew up with his mother, his father died fighting against the mechanization of people. Together with his mother he goes to Megalopolis, where they want to earn money to travel to the distant planet Dai-Andromeda ("Great Andromeda") on the Galaxy Express 999 space train . Machine bodies are said to be in abundance there, so that immortality can also be granted to them. The train looks like an old steam train. But his mother is hunted by Count Mecha, only to be exhibited as the most beautiful of human women as a trophy in his castle. Tetsurō becomes an orphan , but does not give up the dream of traveling to Dai-Andromeda. He also wants to avenge his mother and kill Count Mecha.
One day, Tetsurō meets the enigmatic woman Maetel , who travels on the Galaxy Express and looks very much like his dead mother. She takes him on the train and Tetsurō begins an interstellar journey through many alien planets. On the trip Tetsurō learns that many machine people are unhappy with their existence, that they have been corrupted by their immortality and have lost their humanity. He begins to question the meaning of this immortality. The former bodies of those who wanted to achieve immortality are laid out on Pluto, so that it became a huge cemetery. Maetel and Tetsurō also meet the cruel Count Mecha and fight against him.
Finally they reach the planet Andromeda, where they meet the Queen Prometheum , the ruler of this machine world. She rules the planet through the machine-people she controls. It turns out that Queen Prometheum is Maetel's mother and Maetel brings her young people for her machinations. Tetsurō, who feels betrayed by Maetel, should now also become a machine man. But Maetel wants to stop Prometheum and together they destroy the queen and the planet. Tetsurō then returns to earth to lead it into a better future, and Maetel continues her journey.
Later, Tetsurō goes together with Maetel on a journey on board the Galaxy Express 999. This time they want to go to the place where time and space meet. Shortly after her departure from Earth, however, the solar system is shrouded in darkness by the Queen of Darkness. So Tetsurō now has to compete against this queen.
Origin and classification in Matsumoto's work
The idea of traveling through space by train comes from Leiji Matsumoto's childhood. At that time he lived on train tracks and imagined the journey by trains through space. In contrast to modern trains, the steam train should stand for simplicity and "homeliness". It is also a reference to the Japanese fantasy classic Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru . According to Masanao Amano, the manga deals with the development of a boy who overcomes loneliness through courage and ambition, a motif that is also used in other works by Matsumoto.
Several characters from earlier and later works of Matsumoto appear in the series, for example Tetsurō meets Captain Harlock and Maetel's sister Emeraldas. Yayoi from Queen of the 1000 Years appears as Queen Prometheum and is also the mother of Maetel and Emeraldas.
publication
Matsumoto's first Galaxy Express 999 series appeared in Shōnen King magazine from 1976 to 1981 . After a break of almost two decades, the mangaka has continued the series since 1996. Until 2000, the chapters appeared in Shogakukan's Monthly Big Gold magazine . Matsumoto has published the story as a webcomic since 2000 . The chapters published up to 2000 were also brought out in five anthologies.
The publishing house Kana published parts of the manga in France. From 1997 to 2002 the individual chapters of the five volumes of the second part were also published in the magazine Animerica by Viz Media .
Adaptations
Television series
From 1978, the Toei Animation studio , directed by Nobutaka Nishizawa, produced a 113-part anime television series based on the manga. The character design was created by Shigeru Kogawa and Shingo Araki. In addition to the 113 episodes, three specials were created that were cut from other episodes or represent a long version of an episode. The series was first broadcast by Fuji TV from September 14, 1978 to March 9, 1981 . The Crunchyroll site has been streaming the episodes of the series since January 2009.
The first broadcast in the USA was done by a New York station with original sound and English subtitles and was only available regionally. A first English release happened in 1979 as Galaxy Express by New World Pictures, with the series being heavily edited and designed for young audiences. One film was also released in Japanese cinemas, heavily edited. Today FUNimation Entertainment distributes the series in North America and AB distribution in France. There were television broadcasts in Italy, Spain and France.
In 2003 a new series on the manga entitled Ginga Tetsudō Monogatari was broadcast, which was continued in 2006. In 2004, a 13-part sequel with the title Supēsu Shinfonī Mēteru: Ginga Tetsudō Surī Nain Gaiden ( Space Symphony Maetel: Galaxy Express 999 Side Story ) followed.
synchronization
| role | Japanese speaker ( seiyū ) |
|---|---|
| Maetel | Masako Ikeda |
| Tetsuro Hoshino | Masako Nozawa |
| Count Mecha | Hidekatsu Shibata |
| conductor | Kaneta Kimotsuki |
music
The music for the series was composed by Nozomi Aoki . The opening credits are Ginga Tetsudō 999 , the credits are underlaid with Aoi Chikyū , both by Isao Sasaki and the Suginami Children's Choir.
Original video animations and films
The television series was followed by several cinema and video productions. The following films were released in Japan:
- Ginga Tetsudō 999 (銀河 鉄 道 999 ; 1979, 130-minute film)
-
Ginga Tetsudō 999: Glass no Clair (銀河 鉄 道 999 ガ ラ ス の ク レ ア ; 1980, 17-minute short film)
- A 3D short film of the same name by Mamoru Hosoda was made in 2000.
- Sayonara Ginga Tetsudō 999: Andromeda Shūchakueki (さ よ な ら 銀河 鉄 道 999 ア ン ド ロ メ ダ 終 着 駅 ; 1981)
- Ginga Tetsudō 999: Eternal Fantasy (銀河 鉄 道 999 エ タ ー ナ ル ・ フ ァ ン タ ジ ー ; 1998)
- Ginga Tetsudō 999 - Niji no Michishirube ( 銀河 鉄 道 999 虹 の 道 標 ; 2001 at the Kitakyūshū Hakuransai Film Festival 2001)
- Ginga Tetsudō 999 - Yume to Kibō no Station ( 銀河 鉄 道 999〜 夢 と 希望 の ス テ ー シ ョ ン 〜 , 9-minute short film on the Tōei Uzumasa film village ( Tōei Uzumasa Eiga Mura ))
In 2000, the original video animation Maetel Legend ( メ ー テ ル レ ジ ェ ン ド ) with 4 episodes was released in Japan , followed in 2006 by Ginga Tetsudō Monogatari - Wasurerareta Toki no Wakusei ( 銀河 鉄 道 物語 〜 忘 れ ら れ た 時 の 惑星 〜 ).
musical
Galaxy Express 999 was released as a musical . It ran from November 1997 to January 1998.
Video game
In June 2001, a game for PlayStation based on manga and anime was released in Japan . It was developed by Bandai and published by Banpresto. The action adventure offers a journey through the works of Leiji Matsumoto, with the Galaxy Express 999 playing a key role. The player begins the journey as Tetsurō, later he changes roles from other mangas Matsumoto's.
reception
Manga
The manga received the Shōgakukan Manga Prize for best manga in the Shōnen category in 1978. In 1981, it was awarded the Animage Anime Grand Prix . In addition, the Japanese Post issued stamps with motifs from the series in 2007.
Frederik L. Schodt thinks that Leiji Matsumoto managed to create a romantic and at the same time mysterious atmosphere by choosing the steam locomotive as a means of transport. Jason Thompson ranks Galaxy Express among the most important Japanese space operas. However, the sequel does not offer such a profound plot as the first part. The actual reason for the new trip remains annoyingly unexplained. Despite some unmotivated acting parts of the plot, a lot of atmosphere is conveyed and the characters remain lovable as in the original. Matsumoto's drawing skills would have waned compared to the 1970s, but they were still unmistakable. Masanao Amano writes of a poetic description of Tetsuo's loneliness by Matsumoto. The series found "countless fans" in Japan .
The German trade magazine AnimaniA describes the manga as an SF classic, the stories are wonderfully sad, but the drawing style takes getting used to. The work has set new standards, especially because it has put sophisticated narrative over action scenes. In addition, the series lives off the “special inspirations” of Matsumoto, like a steam locomotive in space, and the mixture of several genres, so that the manga sometimes turns into a western. The frequent ignoring of the laws of nature make the series an absurd science fiction fairy tale. The character design corresponds to the basic patterns often used by Matsumoto, but it is not to everyone's taste and looks rather ugly. Overall, the series is probably the most serious and melancholy Matsumoto's.
Anime series
According to Jerry Beck, the anime was also a huge hit in Japan, but not in the US. The American publication was also criticized by the fans because of the heavy editing, inappropriate change of name and other things. According to Antonia Levi, this version is viewed as distorted by many otakus , but the main themes still come into play here. Some parents of the children who watched the series at the time praised the anime for dealing with death and loneliness in a child-friendly manner, even though the children should better watch the series with adults. According to Fred Patten, Galaxy Express is one of the television series that followed the success of Space Battleship Yamato in the US and made a significant contribution to the growth of the anime fan base in the late 1970s. He also names the soundtrack of the series as Nozomi Aoki's most important work alongside the music for Armageddon . According to him, like the anime, the manga was a huge hit.
Patrick Drazen recognizes a reminiscence of Metropolis in the city in which the story begins and which is divided into a city of the rich and the poor . The portrayal of the stay on Pluto, on which the lifeless bodies are lined up and a guardian doubts whether she should really have given up her beauty for eternal life, is particularly moving.
Antonia Levi names Galaxy Express as one of the series that thematize death, loss and loneliness and convey a differentiated image of good and bad. The fact that Maetel does not succeed in really replacing Tetsurō's mother and that he remains lonely shows the complexity that anime would often have, and the rejection of a happy ending or a simple solution, as often occurs in American productions. In addition, Tetsurō's relationship with Maetel is complex; she takes care of him like a mother, but Tetsurō cannot really trust her. He also feels it, as he reaches puberty, also as desirable, but unattainable. At the same time, he continues to mourn his mother. As a statement from Galaxy Express , Antonia Levi understands that everyone close to us is lost and cannot be replaced and that you always have to make the most of every moment before it's over.
literature
- Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews. Stone Bridge Press, 2004. (English)
- Antonia Levi: Samurai from Outer Space - Understanding Japanese Animation. Carus Publishing, 1996. (English)
Web links
- Entry on Leiji Matsumoto's website
- Anime News Network about the manga and the first television series (English)
- Ginga Tetsudō 999 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c AnimaniA No. 29, p. 34 ff.
- ↑ a b c Jerry Beck: The animated movie guide . Chicago Review Press, 2005.
- ^ A b Masanao Amano, Julius Wiedermann (ed.): Manga Design , p. 472. Cologne 2004, Taschen Verlag
- ↑ a b Frederik L. Schodt, Osamu Tezuka (preface): Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics p. 20. Kodansha America, 1983.
- ↑ Paul Gravett: Manga - Sixty Years of Japanese Comics , p. 7. Egmont Manga and Anime, 2004.
- ↑ a b Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition. P. 214. Berkeley 2006, Stone Bridge Press.
- ↑ a b c Levi, 1996, p. 49.
- ↑ Entry on leijiverse.com ( memento of the original from April 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ AnimaniA No. 43, p. 78 f.
- ^ "Japanese Stamp Special Issues: Galaxy Express 999, Godzilla, Gamera and More" , scifijapan.com
- ↑ Jason Thompson: Manga. The Complete Guide , p. 119. New York 2007, Del Rey.
- ↑ AnimaniA 43, p. 32 ff.
- ↑ Patten, 2004, p. 57.
- ↑ Patten, 2004, p. 95.
- ↑ Patten, 2004, p. 241 f.
- ↑ Patrick Drazen: Anime Explosion! - The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation p. 217 f. Stone Bridge Press, 2002.
- ^ Levi, 1996, p. 109.
