Galaxy Express 999 is an adventure story with many twists and side-quests to depict the conflict of humans and mecha that is a real concern for Japanese culture. It is noteworthy that in Japan there is much moral debate over the use of transplants because of this phenomenon (as well as common beliefs). This work portrays Japanese fear of its own technology in a subtle tone, while adhering to the manga through animation techniques: Tetsuro’s iconographic characteristics allows one to “participate” in his experiences; and the movie and illustrates McCloud’s assertion about the role of the audience and by characters such as the cryptic Shadow, the evil count, and Maetel and her mother graphically emphasize darkness. Shadow is so desperate for her humanity (warmth) that she tries to steal it from human visitors. The evil count represents numerous evils; for example, he is responsible not only for the demise of Tetsuro’s mother b
ut of thousands of orphans seemingly banished to Titan. His hunt of human beings for sport, although these beings obviously possess the same soul as he, adds to this picture because it reiterates the Japanese standing that mecha cannot hold loving or moral feelings positively acceptable to their culture. Maetel, who is initially looked upon lightly, has reasonably suspect motives because of both her questionable identity and, later, the Titan Grape Valley Bandits distrust of her. Despite her respectable cause, she also typifies Japanese view of mecha because she cannot be completely trusted and is yang (Japanese ideal imported from China) of a repulsive planet: “I cannot…this planet is my other self”. Her mother is the ultimate evil, believing that humans should be enslaved for the benefit of all machines.
Galaxy Express 999 is a hero epic that readily absorbs Japanese culture. I enjoyed this movie because of the manner in which the plots and dialogues were
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