Ghost people don’t get free will in Galaxy Express 999

Galaxy Express 999 has a strange relationship with self-determination. I took a week off of writing about Galaxy Express 999, and I’ve hit a pocket of exciting episodes that I really want to write about. So I may have picked possibly the one topic I may be the least well-equipped to talk about. Well, outside […]

Getting rich on ecological disaster in Galaxy Express 999

(Note: I apologize ahead of time for any gross oversimplifications of history that are contained in this blog post.) When I was growing up, I remember seeing news stories about W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods and the legacy of cancer they left in Woburn, Mass. Just for context, between the 1960s and 1970s, W.R. Grace […]

The Angriest Planet in Galaxy Express 999

I’ve been thinking a lot about subtlety and nuance lately. Yes, I know that isn’t the most exciting topic, but this is my blog, and I like to think about how people use words and what they mean. When bloggers, reviewers or critics use the terms subtlety and nuance, it’s often together. For example, I […]

Skeletons, murder and tragedy? More Galaxy Express 999

Sometimes a show hits me with a conundrum that I don’t have an answer to. Typically, this comes when I’m hit with a concept or an execution that is way smarter than I am. I can see that the creator intended for a theme or a message to come through, but I’m just not capable […]

Odds and Ends of Galaxy Express 999 (Part 1)

Normally, I do these odds and ends posts right before I do my wrap-up post for the series, but Galaxy Express 999 is different. This show is long. I’m 25 episodes into the show. In a typical 12-episode show, I would have finished it a long time ago. Even in a 24-episode series, I would […]

The space train of Winesburg: Galaxy Express 999 and grotesques

“Anderson evokes a depressed landscape in which lost souls wander about; they make their flitting appearances mostly in the darkness of night, these stumps and shades of humanity.” Irving Howe, Introduction to Winesburg, Ohio One of the most challenging parts of writing these analysis pieces is coming up with an introduction. Sometimes I settle on […]

Maetel kills them all?

One of the most famous pieces of X-Men lore revolves around the death of Jean Grey at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga. During the Dark Phoenix Saga, Grey destroys an alien planet, complete with killing billions. The unprovoked attack showed the brutality and power of the character. It would also prove the end […]

Food zombies and wildflowers: Galaxy Express 999 and poverty

Growing up Leiji Matsumoto had an up-close relationship with poverty. His father was a former Japanese aviator who gave up piloting after the end of World War II. While his father could have gotten a job working as a pilot following the war, he did not want to. Helen McCarthy mentions this in her biography […]

Lotus Eaters and Steam Trains: The Myth of the Galaxy Express

Author’s note: I wrote this after watching the first 10 episodes of the show. If there is anything further on that contradicts this, I apologize. Galaxy Express 999 is filled with seeming tonal contradictions and it’s always bugged me on some level. In the span of the first episode, the main character’s mother is gunned […]

All aboard the Galaxy Express 999

I have a strange love for Leiji Matsumoto. What makes this strange is I’m not from the right generation to have watched Star Blazers as a teenager. Sure. I have vague memories of a concerned hero peering up at the bust of Admiral Okita and wondering if he can ever live up to his memory. […]