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Galaxy Express 999

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Galaxy Express 999 (銀河鉄道999 Ginga Tetsudō Surī Nain) is a 1979 Japanese anime film directed by Rintaro and based on the manga and anime by Leiji Matsumoto. The film is a condensed remake of the first year of the most popular episodes of the anime series. It was released on August 4, 1979 in Japan.

Synopsis

After the death of his mother at the hands of the evil robot Count Mecha, young Tetsuro has become a delinquent street urchin who dreams only of revenge. Tetsuro lives in a far future world in which humans have the choice to travel to another planet where they can exchange their bodies for immortal, robotic counterparts. His goal is to someday acquire (through theft) enough money to board the Galaxy Express 999, a train which is capable of traveling through space, and which will take him to the planet of robots. One day, after escaping from the police, he meets the beautiful Maetel, who resembles his mother. She offers to take him on the Galaxy Express 999 to get a robotic body and to get revenge on Count Mecha. Along the journey, the two meet many varied people, and Tetsuro learns what it means to be human.


Dubbing History[]

Galaxy Express 999 was originally dubbed and released in the United States under the title Galaxy Express in 1980 by New World Pictures, the production company of notorious B-Movie maker Roger Corman. Although relatively faithful to the original script, Corman's dub was highly edited, removing approximately 30 minutes of content and changing character names. The voice characterizations are more cartoony in nature compared to Ocean's dub. Antonia Levi, the author of "Samurai From Outer Space" said that "many otaku consider it too damaged to watch."[1]

The film was later redubbed in 1996 by Ocean Productions for Viz Media. Released on VHS, this dub was more true to the source material. Viz would also dub the sequel, Adieu Galaxy Express 999. For many years, this release would only be exclusive to VHS as Viz had lost the licenses for the two films. The films would finally get a release on Region 1 DVD in 2011 by Discotek Media. They later announced on June 11, 2017 at AnimeNEXT that the films were slated for a 2018 Blu-Ray release.

Cast[]

Image Character Seiyū New World Dub[2] Ocean Dub
Tetsuro Hoshino Masako Nozawa B.J. Ward Saffron Henderson
Maetel Masako Ikeda Fay McKay Kathleen Barr
Conductor Kaneta Kimotsuki Corey Burton Terry Klassen
Captain Harlock Makio Inoue Tony Pope Scott McNeil
Emeraldas Reiko Tajima B.J. Ward Nicole Oliver
Claire Yōko Asagami Janyse Jaud
Antares Yasuo Hisamatsu Tony Pope Don Brown
Count Mecha Hidekatsu Shibata Booker Bradshaw Paul Dobson
Ryuzu Noriko Ohara Fay McKay Willow Johnson
Renee Feldman
(singing)[3]
Queen Promethium Ryōko Kinomiya Fay McKay Kathleen Barr
Kanae Hoshino Akiko Tsuboi
Dr. Ban Gorō Naya Tony Pope Gerard Plunkett
Tochiro Ōyama Kei Tomiyama Corey Burton John Payne
Shadow Toshiko Fujita B.J. Ward Jane Perry
Narrator Tatsuya Jo Don Brown

Additional Voices[]

New World Pictures Dub

Notes[]

  • The Character name changes in the New World Pictures:
    • Tetsuro was changed to Joey "Hanakanabobakananda" Smith
    • Captain Harlock was changed to Captain Warlock
    • Tochiro Ōyama was changed to Sundown McMoon
    • Antares was changed to Olaf
  • Harlock's (Warlock's) voice characterization in the New World dub was an imitation of John Wayne, while the Conductor's is an imitation of Ed Wynn.
  • The New World dub replaces the lyrics to the song "Yasashiku Shinaide" and renames it "Love Seems Light Years Away".

Transmission[]

Date(s) Channel Country
1997-1998 Space Canada Canada
— Sci-Fi United States United States

Video Releases[]

Distributor Year Format Dub Region Country
Embassy Home
Entertainment 		1984 New World NTSC United States United States
Viz Media 1996 Viz
Discotek Media 2011 1
NTSC
2018 BD A
DVB-T

See Also[]

References[]

  1. ↑ Levi, Antonia. "Chapter Five: Androids, Cyborgs, and other Mecha."Samurai from Outer Space. 1996, Carus Publishing Company. Fifth printing, 2000. 94. ISBN
  2. ↑ Galaxy Express on CrystalAcids Anime Voice Actor Database. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  3. ↑

External Links[]

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