The Galaxy Express 999 movie is a piece of media that scares me. Upon this re-watch, it felt a bit intimidating as soon as the first emotional part began with Tetsurou's flashback. What scares me about this anime is that it forces the viewers to confront and think about very emotional and unpleasant topics. Still, Galaxy Express 999 forces us to confront these emotionally painful lessons for the best of us. Due to the episodic nature of the 113 episode TV series, it was easy for the staff to summarize it all in a satisfying way in a 2 hour film.

The topic of eternal life. Can living forever make you happy? Would it last forever? It's talked about as if it is the ideal existence, and yet no one has lived forever to tell us the results. Through Leiji Matsumoto's interpretation, eternal life can result in eternal suffering. One could lose themselves from all the modifications to their robot body. Your loved ones will all eventually die. Maybe life itself can vanish in the distant or not too distant future. And yet, you will still be there, alone forever.

The topic of death stopping you from achieving your life passions. Life is short, and many times, people die with so many ambitions left behind. Even when dying of old age, if you really think about it, is still dying young. Living 80 or so years. There really is barely anything you can do considering the grand spectrum of time and the possibilities, is there? For many people, living 80 years just wasn't enough, it felt as if life was only just beginning. This realization that one's life is about to end without all of one's dreams explored frightens me. That is why a certain death was so painful to watch. There is a lot I want to do myself. Will I have the time to do it all and be satisfied in the end? Or will I die angry and frustrated that I never really felt like I was truly alive and explored all my dreams? There are those who cherish their collections. Have they ever thought about what will happen to their beloved collections after death? It feels better at times to just not think about these things. And yet, Galaxy Express 999 shakes us to see these realities for what they are, not what we want to see, and readies us with these life lessons in advance for when it's our time to need to use them.

The topic of motherhood. Eventually, if it follows a natural path, a child or adult will have to confront the death of their mother. The person who raised you, sheltered you. That person who sacrificed so much in their life for you to be somebody. The person who did all they could to help you live a better life than they did. The person who gave you the push forward throughout all your life will one day inevitable be gone. Some may believe in a heaven or afterlife. What if it's not true? There are those who don't buy it and don't believe. Where will mother be after death? We really wouldn't know. Will that person still exist somewhere else? Their consciousness? Or has it all gone black and ceased to be? The movie tells the viewers to show their appreciation towards their mothers while they still can for all they did and continue to do for them.

Maetel is a woman who lives a melancholy life. She has existed for who knows how many hundreds of years, and crossed paths with many people who meant something to her at some point. Due to her eternal life, she had to say goodbye so many times, and still continues to do so. In the beginning, she bears witness to Tetsurou's poor struggle in the dirty city life, and eventually comes to understand him, respect his bravery, and what he is trying to do. This leads to the two becoming friends and thus their journey on the Galaxy Express 999 into space travel begins. A mysterious woman, she wouldn't be around forever, as she swaps bodies to continue to live as well. She eventually wants to part ways with Tetsurou. Maybe she will be right next to him one day, but he won't notice as she would be in a different body. All she'll be to Tetsurou could be memories of his youth.

Many of the characters introduced during the movie meet unfortunate ends or live under miserable circumstances. There is the question of Shadow. A woman that gave up her body to become an immortal robot. Despite this, she could never find an artificial body as beautiful as her natural one, and decided to have no face as a result. She lives on Pluto and watches over the bodies of the others who gave up their humanity for robots and were left frozen there. She often looks at her older body and marvels over the beauty she once had. Because she has lived there alone for so long, she becomes desperately clingy to Tetsurou when she meets him. Regardless, Maetel would split them and tell her that it was her choice to live forever and that she must deal with her loneliness on her own instead of trying to keep Tetsurou with her. Though she lives forever, she is dying of loneliness.

One character who's story haunts me is the mother of Ooyama. Now at an old age, she lives by herself on a dangerous planet with no real laws in a house in the woods. She would find Tetsurou after he was attacked, and helped him by giving him shelter and food. Tetsurou learns that she carries the pain of having been left by her son. Still, she accepts the fact that part of being a mother is to be able to let go of your child when it comes time for them to leave. Regardless, she tells Tesurou that a child should at least come back once to see their parents while they are alive, showing that deep down she still misses her son. Will she most likely end up living her last days in that house alone? As she is a very loving and caring mother, it gave me an ugly feeling that this can be a possibility.

The major realization that Tetsurou comes to is that death gives meaning to life. In the beginning he wanted to get an immortal robot body like his mother wanted him too. And yet, he sees throughout the film that many of these people are not happy. That it is a limited life that gives people the drive to live meaningfully. With only a short time to live, people are moved to give it meaning, whereas living forever made many people lazy and complacent. He feels that this limited life gives others the ability to feel for others and thus creates kindness. He tells Captain Harlock and Maetel that living forever isn't as great as it sounds as he wonders if it is really worth it.

The high production of the film made it very beautiful. It's from 1979, and features Leiji Matsumoto's iconic woman designs. You could say many of them might look too much alike. Still, I can't deny that his designs are beautiful. I do appreciate that they improved Tetsurou's character design from the TV series.

One of the best parts of this movie is the atmosphere and feeling it brings out of the viewers. One great example is the bar scene. It's a run down city, and Tetsurou walks in to a beautiful woman playing a melancholy song. Everyone around is drinking and looking down. He looks with fascination and asks the bartender why everyone is crying. The bartender says that the song reminds them of their youth, a time that's lost and that they will never get back. The song forces them to confront this reality. It's a great scene that captures that classic Galaxy Express 999 feeling. Among the highlights is also the beautiful soundtrack. It's consistently good throughout the film and greatly elevates the emotions the scenes try to show. My only real complaint is that Tetsuro, for being just a child, can achieve great things that don't seem realistic for him at all. At least they show him getting help along the way.

Considering all this, Galaxy Express 999 is a gold nugget from that peculiar 70s and 80s era in anime. It's from a time where writers were more sincere and aware of the world and themselves.