Dark Africa, colonizers and Galaxy Express 999

Back when I was a freshman in high school, we had what I expect is a right of passage for any high school student — the state history class. I can’t remember if it was specifically about state history or a combination of state history and civics, but I know it had both things. All […]

The Evil that Lives After in Galaxy Express 999

So, it’s always felt that the Friends, Roman, Countrymen speech gets an unfair shake in popular culture. It’s never gets treated with the same gravity as the To Be or Not to Be. It’s not as rousing as the St. Crispin’s Day speech. It doesn’t even get the traction that the I am a Jew […]

Science the destroyer in Galaxy Express 999

When I watch anime, I watch it from a Western viewpoint, or to be more accurate, a very American viewpoint. In a lot of ways, this is not a surprise. I mean, I am American. I grew up in the United States with all of the propaganda and indoctrination that includes. I celebrate the Fourth […]

Puritans, capitalism and hard work in Galaxy Express 999

(Note: I’m going to use U.S. and America interchangeably. I just want to say that I realize this is horribly unfair to our neighbors to the north and south. I’m doing it because it’s easier to write, not because I believe that all of the Americas are somehow one monolithic culture. I apologize if anyone […]

Is it better to kill the babies in Galaxy Express 999?

I’m fascinated by the number of plants, animals, and even microbes that have traveled with people as they’ve moved from place to place. Once I listened to a series of lectures about turning points in U.S. history. One of those moments happened even before the country was founded in 1617 when a great epidemic swept […]

The Odds and Ends of Galaxy Express 999 (part 2)

I’ve almost made it halfway to the Andromeda Galaxy with Maetel and Tetsuro, which means I’m just about ready for another odds and ends post. I did one of these when I reached episode 25, which feels far longer ago than it probably should. I will say that overall, my pace has slowed down a […]

To push the rock or not in Galaxy Express 999

Sometimes it’s best to start at the beginning with one of these posts. I don’t really have a clever anecdote or a personal revelation to start this with. I just have a quote. A perfectly nonsensical quote stuck sideways in my head. It comes near the end of Episode 52 – Artemis of The Transparent […]

Dying free or living a slave in Galaxy Express 999

Though it’s only half a month away, the media’s gone An entertaining scandal broke today, but I can’t move on I’m haunted by a story and I do my best to tell it Can’t even give this stuff away, why would I sell it? Everybody’s pointing while at me they point a finger A world […]

Love in the time of existentialism in Galaxy Express 999

No one really gets to live happily ever after in Galaxy Express 999. OK. That might not be entirely true. There are a handful of stories about people chasing their dreams that end happily — Chromeria the revolutionary, Fraiya the artist, Sakezan, the booze-swilling Tarzan ripoff. But these are the exceptions. What is strange is […]

The Mysterious Maetel in Galaxy Express 999

I’m going to get meta here for a second. As I’ve been writing about Galaxy Express 999, I’ve noticed lately that I tend to focus on a particular episode. This has become more true the deeper I get into the show. This is pretty different from how I’ve handled other series. When I talked about […]