Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am beyond excited to be embarking on the Galaxy Express, and once more exploring the sights of Leiji Matsumoto’s fantastical adventure. The first episode proved more action-packed than I would ever have predicted, with our young hero Tetsuro responding to the death of his mother through a fit of righteously murderous fury, destroying the contemptible Count Mecha and fleeing the police with the mysterious Maetel. Escaping the earth as fugitives, the two now rest aboard the Galaxy Express itself, ready to experience the wonders of the universe.
Alongside the obvious excitement of so much immediate dramatic commotion, it’s also clear that, in spite of its fantastical embellishments, Galaxy Express is deeply concerned with the inherent injustices of modern society. Both Megalopolis’ stratified pleasures and the allure of cyborg bodies serve as clear illustrations of capitalism’s cruelties; the hope of “work hard and you’ll succeed” was immediately proven a false idol through the death of Tetsuro’s mother, emphasizing how class is for most people an inescapable life sentence. Whether Galaxy Express continues elaborating on that theme or uses its rambling structure as a vehicle for new meditations, I’m eager to experience whatever wonders are up ahead. Let’s get to it!
Episode 2
This OP ballad feels perfect for setting the tone of a majestic and mysterious journey. Trains really are the most romantic form of transportation; a journey by train is an event in itself, not simply a passage from one event to another
We begin on a bleak red-tinted wasteland, a scene seemingly designed to evoke the beautiful desolation of the American southwest
“The Red Winds of Mars.” I assume we’ll be leaving the solar system soon enough, but there’s no sense in disregarding the inherent emotional resonance of our celestial neighbors by skipping past them
Tetsuro is excited about seeing the stars, but Maetel seems fatigued. The two seem to embody contrasting perspectives regarding this world: Tetsuro comes from poverty, but has energy and ambition, a willingness to change his world that in part comes from his naivety. In contrast, Maetel clearly comes from wealth, and appears to have already despaired of anything truly changing this system
They’ll arrive at Mars in six hours. A fine pace, well-suited to allowing the Galaxy Express itself to be a major character
The Galaxy Express will stop at each planet it visits for one day, but that day’s length depends on the planet itself. A clever way to exploit the nature of planetary rotation in order to facilitate adventures of variable lengths
And it’s always sunrise to sundown, meaning the progress of the sun across the sky will provide a natural timer for Tetsuro’s excursions
“What if I don’t make it back in time.” “Then you’ll end up dying.”
“Tetsuro, soon you won’t be able to see the earth with your naked eye. Take a good long look.” I love the inherent melancholy of this whole passage. It seems like Matsumoto’s works generally embrace an alluring melancholy, a sense of time or opportunity steadily passing us by
“I’m fine not looking at it. All that’s left for me there are sad memories.” And Tetsuro immediately pushes back against this romanticization of the past, again emphasizing the difference in perspective between them
A train attendant stops by to inform them of their imminent stop, a man hewing to Matsumoto’s “weird little dude” archetype designs
As expected, the town they’re visiting on Mars is styled after frontier towns from old westerns. One of the things that’s great about watching old anime is that it’s frequently less mired in conventions drawn from other anime, and instead demonstrates a more wide-ranging engagement with art and storytelling
A purple-haired man on Mars embodies Matsumoto’s third character archetype: the lanky and long-haired Cool Dude, typified by folks like Captain Harlock himself
“Pops, if I fail and die, I won’t be needing a grave.” Hah, yeah, little chance of this show abandoning its core themes. Our cool dude is clearly one of the have-nots, understanding his life is of no value if he can’t somehow extract wealth from the Galaxy Express to protect his loved ones. So are we in for a train robbery?
“As long as the red winds keep blowing, I’m satisfied.” I appreciate the emphasis on the unique scenery of each train stop, an appropriate priority for this tour of the galaxy
Maetel explains that though they laboriously raised the air pressure to earth levels, the only people who live here are those with mechanical bodies. “It was a completely wasted effort”
She further warns him not to lose his pass as he explores Mars. The economic backdrop of this whole adventure lends a sort of queasy ambiguity to Tetsuro’s sightseeing; it’s all essentially a form of disaster tourism
The purple-haired man is named Geronimo, and he is indeed seeking a train pass
Tetsuro notes the soil is too barren for anything meaningful to grow here. Humanity wasted a hundred years and untold riches changing the planet’s atmosphere, but subsequently left what they had created as a barren wasteland, essentially an open-air prison
“This is a gold coin!” “Yep, and I’ve got tons left.” Not much of a survival instinct in this kid, unfortunately
The Mars bartender reveals he was only able to afford replacing his right leg with metal
“Don’t end up incomplete like me.”
Tetsuro offers the man all of his gold. “The Galaxy Railway gave me this. I didn’t earn it myself, so I really have no true appreciation.” Tetsuro is earnest and kind, so much so that the old man can’t actually take his money, telling him he will surely appreciate it one day
Tetsuro’s behavior reflects his understanding that the things he is given freely by society aren’t truly “his” in any meaningful way; he cannot see wealth given as wealth earned, a key distinction between him and those of inherited wealth, who tend to assume that inheritance is their natural destiny (which of course makes it much easier to stomach the inherent injustices of the world)
Tetsuro is taken on a tour of their home by the bartender’s daughter Fleme
Lovely mournful vocal track as Fleme guides Tetsuro through the wreckage of her home, explaining that anyone of means has already fled to other planets
They next visit a graveyard for all the immigrants from earth, who could not survive Mars’ harsh weather conditions. Going to Mars was initially a novelty, but when further planets became available, immigration dried up. A frontier town of a lost frontier, with restorative efforts abandoned once the novelty wore off
And of course, Fleme too only wants to leave. Geronimo emerges from the storm, intent on taking Tetsuro’s pass
“Don’t think badly of me. Only the strong survive. That’s the rule here.” And you really can’t think badly of him. There are no villains on this planet, only more people desperate to survive in a system that denies their fundamental right to a decent life
“I’ll work my hardest on some other planet.” His language echoes the hopes of Tetsuro’s mother
“If you love me, please wait until we get another pass.” Trust is hard won in a world this desperate
Ooh, love this unique panning shot as Fleme falls, employing some kind of translucent foil in combination with the foreground cel of grave markers
“Go on alone. I’ll be waiting here, just like you told me to. Forever.” What a brutal end for her. Better to die than to live without hope
Seeing the blood representing Tetsuro’s humanity, Geronimo is momentarily distracted, and loses his duel
Though he is a cyborg himself, he is jealous of Tetsuro’s hopeful red blood. An early indication that cyborg identity might not be all it’s cracked up to be
“Even though they both received eternal life, why were they unsatisfied? Why were they trying to get somewhere else?” An eternity of a life not worth living is actually far worse than a normal human lifespan
“One day, this red wind will bury me in red sand, and I’ll sleep.”
“I feel sorry for a man who isn’t able to die when his time comes”
And Done
Oh, that delicious sadness! As expected, Tetsuro’s trip to Mars was not in fact a joyous life-affirming adventure, but rather a continuation of Galaxy Express 999’s somber interrogation of how happiness can possibly exist alongside the cages and cruelty of modern society. The desolate frontier towns of Mars proved a perfect venue for exploring the nearsightedness of human ambitions, both on the individual, cyborg-centric level or on the level of wholescale planetary terraforming. Eternal life offered nothing of value to Geronimo and Fleme; it was only in death that they could live freely, joining the chorus of all those resting with dreams unfulfilled. Galaxy Express 999 remains as poignant and fantastical as ever as Tetsuro leaves the red planet behind him.
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