Leiji Matsumoto likes those character designs. He'd draw silly looking characrers like that and make 'em into biggest heroes. I don't mind that, except in the second episode of The Cockpit, I had hard time taking those potato-heads seriously.
Oh Sage, by the way, they were making him a MECHANIZED HUMAN *COMPONENT*, a PART. He'd basically be imprisoned on the planet for all eternity, that's a pretty horrible fate for anyone that values freedom and individuality and autonomy.
I see where Sage is coming from, but I don't see why he thinks most of the stops at the planets didn't really serve the plot. His initial goal was indeed to just kill Count Mecha, but along the way he learned about how mechanization destroys your humanity and he gained a greater goal. I'd say the stop at Pluto had the greatest impact on me when I first watched this as a kid and it's still haunting every time I watch the film. It's funny that he made fun of how Tetsuro looked in the childhood flashback because that's how he actually looks through the ENTIRE TV series and manga. I saw the movie first, so I could never get used to that silly face. Also, when they said they were going to mechanize him, they specified that they were going to turn him into a human BOLT to help maintain the planet. That's not really a reward... The big reveals at the end though? Yeah, that was just so damn random. Confused me as a kid and still confuses me now.
I agree but that ending wasn't confusing at all for me. The mother was a beautiful trophy and that's why she was hunted. Also, probably why maytal (probably not spelling that right) took her form. After he escapes the castle, it makes sense he'd want to make sure he destroyed the machine planet as his disdain for the machines and what they represent, have become the basis for his character.
Its a waste of time because the toxic trope that mechanization removes humanity needs to die. There are kids who think less of people with prosthetics because of this kind of shit.
@@MeepChangeling Having prosthetics and turning your body into a machine so that you can live forever (which is what the movie presents) are two VERY different things...also kids have all kinds of dumb preconceptions because they are kids.
Harlock was definitely the saving grace of this film. It's always good to see exactly how much of a raging hard on Matsumoto has for Harlock. I'm not even joking, Harlock appears in one form or another in EVERYTHING Matsumoto does, including the series which have absolutely nothing to do with him. I can't wait for Bennet to do the original Space Pirate Captain Harlock series.
Funnily enough the whole arc with Count Mecha is movie only. In the TV series he flat out kills the dude after five minutes of mourning. The series also doesn't offer any explanation as to why Maetel was kidnapped on Titan but that's because she freaking massacres the lot of them.
the year is 2023 and i am watching this again to revisit a video i laughed at so much growing up. Idk if this comment by the creators of this channel but i wanted to thank you bennett for making me laugh all those years ago when i was 8 or 9 years old.
I don't think Bennett and I watched the same movie....either that or he just can't seem to pay attention long enough to understand the easy as shit to follow plot. I don't think we can be friends...
I know this is a nitpicky gripe, but ALL of Leiji's female characters are fucking identical. Can he even draw one without her being a slender tower of a person who has floor-length hair?
All the guys in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure have the same face but no one points it out because it's not an epic meme Bruce Timm's Batman and Superman also have the exact same face and body
LM has pretty much 3 characters: Tall, slender women with long noses, lashes and hair, hot dudes with aquiline noses, wild hair and Go Nagai sideburns, and short, oval nosed, beady eyed eggplant/flounder monstrosities.
I could never get into Matsumoto's character designs. His humans had weird proportions and a scrawly look to them. His machine designs, though were top notch.
+theproplady And let's not forget that, from what I've seen from this video, most of the female characters looked exactly the same. No wonder Tetsuro didn't realize his traveling companion was in a copy of his mother's body: ALL women look the same to him.
Or at the very least, all women designed by the same artist tend to look the same - with the exception of harem hentais that actually take advantage of the harem setting. The culprit behind this tendency seems to be the mindset that all your female characters HAVE to be beautiful, so if the artist has a set idea of what is beautiful then all their female characters will be drawn that way.
The thing that ruins this movie is that it takes a couple years after the death of the mother. In the original series count mecha is killed first episode shortly after killing the mother. Also, most people do not realize that ge999 is most likely a sequel series to a show called queen millenia. All praise captain harlock
And Queen Millennia is SO much better. It is simply awesome! I loved the german version I watched in the early 90s. The series got aired for only 2 times in german television history. And regarding how good the german dub is, its simply a waste that it never went to DVD.
How can Galaxy Express 999 be a sequel to Queen Millennia, when it was made before it? Your reasoning for GE999 movie being ruined also doesn't make any sense.
sanjurosama My mistake, Queen Millenia is a prequel to ge999, sorry for getting the release dates wrong. The original series was about exploring the planets and the question of getting a robot body while the main character is still in shock about losing his mother, not revenge on count mecha as he was killed episode 1
While I see where Sage is coming from it still doesn't destroy my love for this movie. I remember first seeing 999 way back in the early 90s on TV, but that version was the HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE Roger Corman dub. Where names were changed and the 30 mins Sage was talking about gets cut. At the time though I didn't think it was bad, anime had a very little to no presence in America so seeing that on TV in a time slot normally reserved for slasher flicks was awesome. It wasn't til the late 90s when I finally got a VHS copy of the film did I see what I was missing. Everything from the art style to the great late 70s era soundtrack has been burned into my memory. Does it have it's flaws? Sure, most things in life do, but I can forgive that cause this movie opened my eyes to a animated universe full of characters I enjoyed watching. Hopefully Sage gets around to reviewing another movie from the 999 universe. Lastly, if you're interested in this movie or the edited version they're both up on UA-cam.
Zachary Erickson Like most series you have both good and bad episodes, I found the series to be okay. If you don't like older anime you might be put off by it. There are quite a few spin offs and side stories in the 999 universe, some with Harlock others focus on Maetal or Emeraldas it just depends on your taste in characters and story. It's a very deep universe of stories to get into.
10:40 Given that he's still a kid, a machine body would essentially render him forever a child. 17:19 "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?" 😅 19:27 Immortality is a curse that only fools wish for.
Harlock may be awesomeness squared, but his CGI movie was just stupid, for basically recasting him as an emo, nihilistic, mass murderering immortal, who's grand master plan is to destroy the universe, because life sucks.
FUCK YES! My favorite anime series of all time. This anime DEFINED anime as we know it today possibly more than any other. Watching this now, lets see how bad Sage fucks this up.
This actually my favorite anime movie, and what do you mean the ending was bad? the shot's of everything falling apart and the music that accompanied that scene is amazing, Hater's guna hate.
This is really similar to why I just couldn't take Clannad seriously. Most of the girls look like they're human-bug hybrids with severe Downs Syndrome.
Same thing with the rest of the characters from "The Flowers of Evil" how they look awkwardly realistic with their use of rotoscoping, badly textured character designs that look like they came straight out of a visual novel, with butt-ugly looking faces that look like they're drunk or on drugs
20:18 ok, that was awesome, one of the Sage's funniest jokes! that had me l-o-l-ing, or whatever it is the kids are saying these days, with their hippidy-hop, and boogaloo....
Leiji Matsumoto, for whatever reasons, tends to have minor characters drawn in a small, dumpier, weirder style than more important characters, and I ahve no diea why
Tetsuro's face looks all stupid like that in the dream sequence because that's how he looked in the manga...which, as someone who read the manga AFTER only having watched Adieu Galaxy Express 999 where he has doe eyes, was VERY jarring. Bruh. I love Jack in the Box tacos.
I don't know anything about this series but he looked like that in the anime too. I'm pretty sure it's an age thing and Bennett is a moron who had no idea what he was reviewing.
6:21...funniest...reaction shot...ever! Seriously, I nearly died because I was straining with all my might to not laugh out loud and wake up everyone in the house. (EPIC WIN for Sage!)
The version of this movie that removed 30 minutes is a Roger Corman project, and it's fucking god awful. It changes the names of almost all characters, has the worst voice acting *ever*, changes huge portions of dialog ,and actually removes things that are necessary to the plot. Also it's only available on VHS; it was part of the Children's Treasures series wherein Corman bought cheap licenses to dub animation from different countries, and if you know anything about Corman you'll know it's about getting it done cheap, and fast. I *definitely* wouldn't recommend it to a fan of the TV show, manga, or just anime in general. I got it in like 1995 at a dollar store when I was younger and even then I knew it was trash. It is available completely for free on UA-cam if you're curious about it. And if you're a fan of the GE999 soundtrack it's worth a look to hear the *incredibly* strange redub rendition of the song "Taking Off" by Godiego.
Honstely that version is the only version of the flim I've seen and I love it I also saw the viz dub for the second and while it has much better cast I still think roger corman version is great
They do explain why Maitel is in his moms body; they mention that they gave her the most beautiful body in the universe. It’s not inconceivable that they came across the mounted body in Count Mechas chamber and decided they wanted her to have that body.
Oh dear. The moment I saw what you were talking about, I started singing the (Italian, since that's where I'm from) theme from this beloved anime from my childhood. Galaxyyy, Galaxyyy, GALAXYYYYY!! (Yes, it starts this way.)
One of the biggest features of this film is that even though both the original manga and the TV anime version were not yet completed, the ending of the whole story was shown first, instead of leaving it as "Tetsuro's journey will continue". It was a bold attempt at the time to show the answers to the mysteries that had been raised from the beginning of the series, such as the identity of Maetel and the truth about the planet that gives you mechanical bodies for free. Some people were concerned about the effect this would have on the manga, but Leiji Matsumoto, the author of the manga replied, "The many encounters that Tetsuro has at the various train stops are more important, so it's okay." This production policy was also followed in the 1986 anime feature film Fist of the North Star.
This is one of my favorite Anime Abandon episodes for 2 reasons: 1. Suave's scene 2. Bennett the Sage is a Harlock fan, that mere fact upon seeing this made my day
Good to know that I'm not the only person who thought that GE999 was painfully stupid. But you didn't even get into the second film! That's where the creators just failed to further give a care. Go Tetsuro! Keep shoveling coal into that nuclear space engine! Star Wars? Never heard of it.
You know I totally understand where Sage is coming from in this review and I can understand the problems he mentions. However I still like this movie (and the whole Galaxy Express 999/Galaxy Railways mythos) for what it is.
"problems" like complaining about Tetsuro's old design as if it were some fucked up off-model look he'd never seen before (because he hasn't and he knows nothing about Galaxy Express) and zooming in on a cartoony-looking background character and going "WTF BAD ART!!!" this guy has no idea what he's talking about and the fact that people care more for his opinions on anime than those of, say, Roger Ebert is fucked up
He outright stated that he was aware it was a stylistic choice. He wouldn't have gone on about it being a clumsy decision to utilize that design in a dramatic moment if he treated it like poorly drawn animation. Not to mention how it creates an inconsistency with the redesign for the movies. It's an interesting nod to the classic look, but it isn't a well executed one.
Doctor Flimflim He says "it's a style choice" but he doesn't acknowledge that's simply what the character looked like at that point in the story. Someone who's read the original manga or watched the anime for an extended amount of time should not have any trouble taking that scene seriously. The film is not a stand-alone work; imagine if I reviewed a One Piece movie and started crying about how they're not explaining Luffy's powers or how he got them or whatever the hell. This isn't a rare example of Bennett going into a movie or OVA series and not having any idea what it's about or what context it was made in. His most embarrassing moment (probably) was fabricating an otaku-centric historical context for the Devilman OVAs while not even knowing the whole thing is based on a 70s shonen manga.
Dead Stock Paradise Actually, it is a stand alone feature. Or at least, it's an attempt at one. This and its sequel, Adieu, are supposed to function as movie re-imaginings of an older story. It's not like with One Piece where its films are presented as special adventures the crew got into at certain points in their journey. Those films actually require a viewing of the original series to actually comprehend and fully enjoy them, because they don't start at the very beginning of the overarching storyline nor continue it in any significant way. With a movie retelling, however, it is something completely set apart from the original series and intended to tell a whole brand new alternate story, while maybe indulging long-time fans with a few treats and cameos for shits n' giggles. Macross fans don't exempt Do You Remember Love? from failing to function as proper stand alone feature, so it stands to reason the GE999 films shouldn't be let off the hook so easily either. In any case, there's also the issue of art direction inconsistencies, as mentioned before. You can't just re-imagine a character's look and then have their design in a flashback be reverted to the classic one without having some sort of in-universe explanation for it. It's just nonsensical. Even if one had experienced the original series, it's still all the more jarring when the random and brief shift happens. Art style retcons (such as the later seasons of Batman TAS) are already one thing, but when things are done like this, it's just awkward.
Doctor Flimflim Anime in general is not as obsessed with consistency and immersion as western media. What you see as a horrible design choice is what audiences back then likely just saw as a reference to an earlier piece of media in the franchise. All this doesn't change the fact that Bennett didn't even realize that was the guy's old design because he does no research about the things he talks about and in some cases actively avoids people who offer him information.
A lot of films have a similar problem to this one. I remembered I watched the Clannad movie and it more or less just told the same story as the show and I'm sitting there thinking "What was the point of this" Anyways good review as always Sage.
So, the vibe I'm getting from this review is to either read the original manga or watch the series Harlock is from? I must admit, he looks PRETTY badass.
They weren't going to make him a normal robot, they were going to make him a "Component". That means they were just going to mechanize him and then plug him into the planet as just a cog in the machinery.
This has to be one of your best episodes of AA to date. I find myself laughing at the majority of the jokes presented, most notably of your (short-lived) joy over Kagome's misery. The funny thing is that I enjoyed InuYasha during its run on Adult Swim in the 2000s. Now that I'm a bit older, I now ask myself, "WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!"
What's wild is that the 100+ episode TV series has this ten year old kid kill the asshole who murdered his mother (along with his dinner guests) in the first 15 minutes of the series. The point of the machine body was that it was the outward sign of wealth and status, the thing that the have-nots … have-not. Matel's motives are unclear right up until the end. The show is all about what people have lost or had taken from them and learned too late. Those who have any soul left in them hold out hope that the process can be or might be reversed some day so that they might FEEL again. It's fucking dark, dude! The reveal that Matel's mother is the queen of this machine people empire and that Tetsuro doesn't want to become a machine when he gets there (and that Matel was hoping for that) was there … but I have no idea why this movie ADDED stuff to story of the TV show in the process of trimming it down to a movie. That doesn't even really make sense. The real draw of this movie for me is not that it's good, because kinda it really isn't. But because it was one of the first anime I saw on SciFi channel all the way back when. The TV show is much better for story and just for knowing what the hell is going on exactly and having it make seme actual sense.
The looks of young Tetsuro on the scene of the death of his mother is exactly how he's drawn on the manga. And his looks, contrasting to the more elegant drawing of other characters, is totally intentional. In many cases in the manga it's outright stated that Tetsuro is ugly.
This whole goddamn review "Face to Face" was playing in my head. Except the Harlock scenes. Then "Aerodynamic" launched in with the best parts of the guitar riffs.
Yeah, without seeing the full anime, I can see how this movie would be unappealing to new viewers. But as someone who did watch the whole series, It didn't feel as insulting, but more so an odd and well animated highlight reel, with some alterations.
Lol,my mother took me to a showing of this at a Post(Ft Mac precisely)theater. When I was either 9,10,or 11,depending on the month of the year of the American release(79 or 81?). This is one of those movies I didn't appreciate at that age but presently do now. I also would love for her to be in the same room with me watching it so I can ask her during certain moments "Why didn't you take me out of there when that happened?"
....you didnt even talk about the epic climax where Harlock and Emeralda show and blow the absolute piss out the robot planet or the absolutely terrifying robot queen.
I have a confession to make: Despite being an old-school anime fan, I never really saw the appeal of Captain Harlock or any of it's related material. I'm sure the story is great..., it's just that I never could get past the animation style. It's such a visual turnoff that for me personally it completely diverged from one of the primary elements that drew me to anime when I was a teenager. I actually had to look up the wiki article on Captain Harlock just to see whether I'd like the plot and it doesn't sound that well thought out. I liked Vampire Hunter D as a classic considerably more. In spite of it's similar animation style, the somewhat more complex backstory, whose exposition is never completely offered in the film, did a lot more to catch and keep my interest, and that was in spite of the film's major flaws.
I like how this guy just dismissed the 3 minutes as oh that's the mother's son that died but actually got transferred into the computer of the Arcadia on space pirate Captain harlock, this is basically a mature person kind of animation like heavy metal you don't understand that because all he thinks is about is Looney tunes will watch Looney tunes if you want to see people hitting there head with a mallet all day that's fine......
He looks like that most likely because the guy who thought up the show was the same guy that thought up Queen Millennia, and if you don't know what Queen Millennia is, here's the link to the Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Millennia
I completely understand and even agree with alot of his arguments in this review. BUT you have to understand that this 2 hourish movie broke down 120+ episodes of an amazing series, and actually managed to do so pretty well. I would recommend anyone to go watch the series, if you can find it (cracle had it all free a while ago) it is only subbed as it should be. There are 120+ int he main series, more than 2 additional series and over 3 movies for the entire anime, that's a hell of alot of lore and anime to watch, and it's overall pretty good.
this was the first anime thing i ever saw and knew it was anime... i vaguely knew something was different about sailor moon and its 5-6am time slot, but i was to young, this was literally the first anime thing i ever watched... given the time i watched it, it could have been so much worse, but damnit this made me seek out more anime and because it if shaped who i am today.
It's funny, but I remember really liking this one when I saw it. Here's the thing though. First, I had little to no conception of what anime was yet. Second, I was in my early teens, which means I was just pretentious enough to ignore its flaws. As flawed as this was, though, I maintain that it was still better than the sequel. How, you ask? Well, the sequel can be boiled down in four words. Lazy Star Wars ripoff.
This movie was far better than the series! The series was paced way too slow and the movie fixes that and gives the kid plenty of character growth. I legit feel feelings every time i watch it because it completely draws me in! Stop hating!
This episode has the best Suave segment ever in the entire show XD
every suave moment is gold.
I laughed a lot, that's all that matters to me
Thomas Jenkins
golden boy?
***** that's one of my favorite reviews. that and the love hina one he does.
Lord and savior, Man crush, bromaphobic, he-pussy. The best lines that Suave ever said
"French. REALLY, REALLY FRENCH."
Well, that explains Interstella 5555.
XD
One More Time
we're gonna celebrate
oh yeah
all right
don't stop the dancing
that's not rintaro dum dum
I do not think that Tetsuro's design ever took away from the drama in that scene. Hell, he looks goofy for the entire run of the TV series and manga.
Leiji Matsumoto likes those character designs. He'd draw silly looking characrers like that and make 'em into biggest heroes. I don't mind that, except in the second episode of The Cockpit, I had hard time taking those potato-heads seriously.
Oh Sage, by the way, they were making him a MECHANIZED HUMAN *COMPONENT*, a PART. He'd basically be imprisoned on the planet for all eternity, that's a pretty horrible fate for anyone that values freedom and individuality and autonomy.
I see where Sage is coming from, but I don't see why he thinks most of the stops at the planets didn't really serve the plot. His initial goal was indeed to just kill Count Mecha, but along the way he learned about how mechanization destroys your humanity and he gained a greater goal. I'd say the stop at Pluto had the greatest impact on me when I first watched this as a kid and it's still haunting every time I watch the film.
It's funny that he made fun of how Tetsuro looked in the childhood flashback because that's how he actually looks through the ENTIRE TV series and manga. I saw the movie first, so I could never get used to that silly face.
Also, when they said they were going to mechanize him, they specified that they were going to turn him into a human BOLT to help maintain the planet. That's not really a reward...
The big reveals at the end though? Yeah, that was just so damn random. Confused me as a kid and still confuses me now.
I agree but that ending wasn't confusing at all for me. The mother was a beautiful trophy and that's why she was hunted. Also, probably why maytal (probably not spelling that right) took her form.
After he escapes the castle, it makes sense he'd want to make sure he destroyed the machine planet as his disdain for the machines and what they represent, have become the basis for his character.
Its a waste of time because the toxic trope that mechanization removes humanity needs to die. There are kids who think less of people with prosthetics because of this kind of shit.
@@MeepChangeling Having prosthetics and turning your body into a machine so that you can live forever (which is what the movie presents) are two VERY different things...also kids have all kinds of dumb preconceptions because they are kids.
@@MeepChangeling wahhh anime doesn't like my reddit transhumanism :(
Harlock was definitely the saving grace of this film. It's always good to see exactly how much of a raging hard on Matsumoto has for Harlock. I'm not even joking, Harlock appears in one form or another in EVERYTHING Matsumoto does, including the series which have absolutely nothing to do with him.
I can't wait for Bennet to do the original Space Pirate Captain Harlock series.
Yeah I'd love to see that
To be fair, who DOESN'T have a hard on for Harlock?
all you need is a crossover with the other eponymous character of the 80s lupin the third
I really don't think Galaxy Express 999 needed a saving grace. Emeraldas and Harlock were just a nice bonus.
MsCreepyChan Before I considered myself pansexual, I was definitely gay for Harlock
Funnily enough the whole arc with Count Mecha is movie only. In the TV series he flat out kills the dude after five minutes of mourning. The series also doesn't offer any explanation as to why Maetel was kidnapped on Titan but that's because she freaking massacres the lot of them.
Oh my God. The first anime I've ever watched. The nostalgia right now...
Hi, we're from Bennettopia, and we're here to spread the word of our Lord And Savior, Captain Harlock.
the year is 2023 and i am watching this again to revisit a video i laughed at so much growing up. Idk if this comment by the creators of this channel but i wanted to thank you bennett for making me laugh all those years ago when i was 8 or 9 years old.
I don't think Bennett and I watched the same movie....either that or he just can't seem to pay attention long enough to understand the easy as shit to follow plot.
I don't think we can be friends...
Your Suave character is at his funniest in this video.
Every time I think about growing my hair out, Bennett reminds me what a horrible mistake that'd be.
I know this is a nitpicky gripe, but ALL of Leiji's female characters are fucking identical.
Can he even draw one without her being a slender tower of a person who has floor-length hair?
TO GOOGLE!
+K. “Dwessie” Charrette Thought his art style looked familiar....no wonder I was getting Nova flashbacks.
All the guys in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure have the same face but no one points it out because it's not an epic meme
Bruce Timm's Batman and Superman also have the exact same face and body
Doubly weird for me because they all look like my sister in-law.
LM has pretty much 3 characters: Tall, slender women with long noses, lashes and hair, hot dudes with aquiline noses, wild hair and Go Nagai sideburns, and short, oval nosed, beady eyed eggplant/flounder monstrosities.
I could never get into Matsumoto's character designs. His humans had weird proportions and a scrawly look to them. His machine designs, though were top notch.
+theproplady And let's not forget that, from what I've seen from this video, most of the female characters looked exactly the same. No wonder Tetsuro didn't realize his traveling companion was in a copy of his mother's body: ALL women look the same to him.
+Bluecho4 I'll given you that, every woman in everything Matsumoto from around this time had the same body type, but again this was the 70's.
Or at the very least, all women designed by the same artist tend to look the same - with the exception of harem hentais that actually take advantage of the harem setting.
The culprit behind this tendency seems to be the mindset that all your female characters HAVE to be beautiful, so if the artist has a set idea of what is beautiful then all their female characters will be drawn that way.
The thing that ruins this movie is that it takes a couple years after the death of the mother. In the original series count mecha is killed first episode shortly after killing the mother. Also, most people do not realize that ge999 is most likely a sequel series to a show called queen millenia.
All praise captain harlock
And Queen Millennia is SO much better. It is simply awesome!
I loved the german version I watched in the early 90s. The series got aired for only 2 times in german television history. And regarding how good the german dub is, its simply a waste that it never went to DVD.
How can Galaxy Express 999 be a sequel to Queen Millennia, when it was made before it? Your reasoning for GE999 movie being ruined also doesn't make any sense.
sanjurosama My mistake, Queen Millenia is a prequel to ge999, sorry for getting the release dates wrong.
The original series was about exploring the planets and the question of getting a robot body while the main character is still in shock about losing his mother, not revenge on count mecha as he was killed episode 1
I can't find queen millenia anymore on the internet
i dont know what you're talking about, this movie is GREAT!!! especially the music
The movie went over his head.
6:20 had me dying XD
+Thomas Vincent Kennedy (狼) 20:30 had me XD
+BeigomaStudios053
Roger that!
Had his mom dying too.
While I see where Sage is coming from it still doesn't destroy my love for this movie. I remember first seeing 999 way back in the early 90s on TV, but that version was the HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE Roger Corman dub. Where names were changed and the 30 mins Sage was talking about gets cut. At the time though I didn't think it was bad, anime had a very little to no presence in America so seeing that on TV in a time slot normally reserved for slasher flicks was awesome. It wasn't til the late 90s when I finally got a VHS copy of the film did I see what I was missing. Everything from the art style to the great late 70s era soundtrack has been burned into my memory. Does it have it's flaws? Sure, most things in life do, but I can forgive that cause this movie opened my eyes to a animated universe full of characters I enjoyed watching. Hopefully Sage gets around to reviewing another movie from the 999 universe.
Lastly, if you're interested in this movie or the edited version they're both up on UA-cam.
I wanna see the Corman dub now. Where could I find it?
DenMon 2019
Punch Galaxy Express 999 in your youtube search, be warned though, it really sucks.
MarsGundam
Buddy, I've watched all of the Joseph Lai ripoff Korean anime. I think I'm okay.
Zachary Erickson
Like most series you have both good and bad episodes, I found the series to be okay. If you don't like older anime you might be put off by it. There are quite a few spin offs and side stories in the 999 universe, some with Harlock others focus on Maetal or Emeraldas it just depends on your taste in characters and story. It's a very deep universe of stories to get into.
Huh. Looks like there's bad guys on Titan. Guess you could call it "Attack on Titan..." OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!
10:40 Given that he's still a kid, a machine body would essentially render him forever a child.
17:19 "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?" 😅
19:27 Immortality is a curse that only fools wish for.
All I could think throughout this whole review was TETSUROOOO!!! KANERRRAAA!!!!
TETSUROOO ARAKIIIII!!!!
Tetsuro losing his mother was done more tasteful in the original anime.
Harlock may be awesomeness squared, but his CGI movie was just stupid, for basically recasting him as an emo, nihilistic, mass murderering immortal, who's grand master plan is to destroy the universe, because life sucks.
"I guess a breach of privacy means nothing in the future!"
More relevant now in a post 2001-2019 world.
every time suave shows up, hilarity ensues.
This and Dominion Tank Police were one of the first animes I was introduced to. Also Scott McNiel's voice as Harlock.. Mmmm....
FUCK YES!
My favorite anime series of all time.
This anime DEFINED anime as we know it today possibly more than any other.
Watching this now, lets see how bad Sage fucks this up.
Pretty bad.
This actually my favorite anime movie, and what do you mean the ending was bad? the shot's of everything falling apart and the music that accompanied that scene is amazing, Hater's guna hate.
Tetsuro is the definition of the luckiest bastard in that film.
I still has a soft spot in my heart for this anime. I also still laughed my ass off at Suave.
I am Tetsuro Hoshino!
You killed my mother!
PREPARE TO DIE!!!
This Galaxy Express 999 has lots of special effects that are more common in the 1980's. Pretty ahead of its time.
"Major breaches of privacy mean nothing in the future."
They mean nothing now. Google and Facebook do it every day.
This is really similar to why I just couldn't take Clannad seriously. Most of the girls look like they're human-bug hybrids with severe Downs Syndrome.
Same thing with the rest of the characters from "The Flowers of Evil" how they look awkwardly realistic with their use of rotoscoping, badly textured character designs that look like they came straight out of a visual novel, with butt-ugly looking faces that look like they're drunk or on drugs
20:18 ok, that was awesome, one of the Sage's funniest jokes! that had me l-o-l-ing, or whatever it is the kids are saying these days, with their hippidy-hop, and boogaloo....
Leiji Matsumoto, for whatever reasons, tends to have minor characters drawn in a small, dumpier, weirder style than more important characters, and I ahve no diea why
uh Bennett....... do you know who voiced Harlock in this dub? That is Scott McNeill.
the one in the same.
Sean Bateman awsome
Piccolo in the Ocean dub of DBZ.
Tetsuro's face looks all stupid like that in the dream sequence because that's how he looked in the manga...which, as someone who read the manga AFTER only having watched Adieu Galaxy Express 999 where he has doe eyes, was VERY jarring.
Bruh. I love Jack in the Box tacos.
+ToruKun1 Yeah, not to mention that Tetsuro's nose either looks like a butt crack or a cleavage.
I don't know anything about this series but he looked like that in the anime too. I'm pretty sure it's an age thing and Bennett is a moron who had no idea what he was reviewing.
6:21...funniest...reaction shot...ever!
Seriously, I nearly died because I was straining with all my might to not laugh out loud and wake up everyone in the house. (EPIC WIN for Sage!)
The version of this movie that removed 30 minutes is a Roger Corman project, and it's fucking god awful. It changes the names of almost all characters, has the worst voice acting *ever*, changes huge portions of dialog ,and actually removes things that are necessary to the plot. Also it's only available on VHS; it was part of the Children's Treasures series wherein Corman bought cheap licenses to dub animation from different countries, and if you know anything about Corman you'll know it's about getting it done cheap, and fast.
I *definitely* wouldn't recommend it to a fan of the TV show, manga, or just anime in general. I got it in like 1995 at a dollar store when I was younger and even then I knew it was trash. It is available completely for free on UA-cam if you're curious about it. And if you're a fan of the GE999 soundtrack it's worth a look to hear the *incredibly* strange redub rendition of the song "Taking Off" by Godiego.
Honstely that version is the only version of the flim I've seen and I love it I also saw the viz dub for the second and while it has much better cast I still think roger corman version is great
I love how Suave is describing Harlock like Zapp Brannigan.
They do explain why Maitel is in his moms body; they mention that they gave her the most beautiful body in the universe. It’s not inconceivable that they came across the mounted body in Count Mechas chamber and decided they wanted her to have that body.
"I guess major breaches of privacy mean nothing in the future!"
If only he knew how soon that future was...
Oh dear. The moment I saw what you were talking about, I started singing the (Italian, since that's where I'm from) theme from this beloved anime from my childhood. Galaxyyy, Galaxyyy, GALAXYYYYY!! (Yes, it starts this way.)
Awesome I remember seeing Galaxy express 999 on the sci fi channel on the Saturday morning block, I know there's a sequel too.
There's a sequel, but it's pretty much a rip off of Star Wars (or was at least, greatly influenced by it.) It was kind of forgettable.
Rip Leiji Matsumoto
" I haven't seen a movies that concisely breaks down a season or two" one comes immediately to mind, DBZ revival of F
The Resurrection F movie came first.
Yeah, I'm six years late lol
@ConnorTerrell no worries. However, whether it came out first or not, it definitely shows everything one needs to see from the arc in super
One of the biggest features of this film is that even though both the original manga and the TV anime version were not yet completed, the ending of the whole story was shown first, instead of leaving it as "Tetsuro's journey will continue". It was a bold attempt at the time to show the answers to the mysteries that had been raised from the beginning of the series, such as the identity of Maetel and the truth about the planet that gives you mechanical bodies for free. Some people were concerned about the effect this would have on the manga, but Leiji Matsumoto, the author of the manga replied, "The many encounters that Tetsuro has at the various train stops are more important, so it's okay."
This production policy was also followed in the 1986 anime feature film Fist of the North Star.
This is one of my favorite Anime Abandon episodes for 2 reasons:
1. Suave's scene
2. Bennett the Sage is a Harlock fan, that mere fact upon seeing this made my day
Good to know that I'm not the only person who thought that GE999 was painfully stupid. But you didn't even get into the second film! That's where the creators just failed to further give a care. Go Tetsuro! Keep shoveling coal into that nuclear space engine! Star Wars? Never heard of it.
You know I totally understand where Sage is coming from in this review and I can understand the problems he mentions. However I still like this movie (and the whole Galaxy Express 999/Galaxy Railways mythos) for what it is.
"problems" like complaining about Tetsuro's old design as if it were some fucked up off-model look he'd never seen before (because he hasn't and he knows nothing about Galaxy Express) and zooming in on a cartoony-looking background character and going "WTF BAD ART!!!"
this guy has no idea what he's talking about and the fact that people care more for his opinions on anime than those of, say, Roger Ebert is fucked up
He outright stated that he was aware it was a stylistic choice. He wouldn't have gone on about it being a clumsy decision to utilize that design in a dramatic moment if he treated it like poorly drawn animation. Not to mention how it creates an inconsistency with the redesign for the movies. It's an interesting nod to the classic look, but it isn't a well executed one.
Doctor Flimflim He says "it's a style choice" but he doesn't acknowledge that's simply what the character looked like at that point in the story. Someone who's read the original manga or watched the anime for an extended amount of time should not have any trouble taking that scene seriously. The film is not a stand-alone work; imagine if I reviewed a One Piece movie and started crying about how they're not explaining Luffy's powers or how he got them or whatever the hell.
This isn't a rare example of Bennett going into a movie or OVA series and not having any idea what it's about or what context it was made in. His most embarrassing moment (probably) was fabricating an otaku-centric historical context for the Devilman OVAs while not even knowing the whole thing is based on a 70s shonen manga.
Dead Stock Paradise
Actually, it is a stand alone feature. Or at least, it's an attempt at one. This and its sequel, Adieu, are supposed to function as movie re-imaginings of an older story. It's not like with One Piece where its films are presented as special adventures the crew got into at certain points in their journey. Those films actually require a viewing of the original series to actually comprehend and fully enjoy them, because they don't start at the very beginning of the overarching storyline nor continue it in any significant way.
With a movie retelling, however, it is something completely set apart from the original series and intended to tell a whole brand new alternate story, while maybe indulging long-time fans with a few treats and cameos for shits n' giggles. Macross fans don't exempt Do You Remember Love? from failing to function as proper stand alone feature, so it stands to reason the GE999 films shouldn't be let off the hook so easily either.
In any case, there's also the issue of art direction inconsistencies, as mentioned before. You can't just re-imagine a character's look and then have their design in a flashback be reverted to the classic one without having some sort of in-universe explanation for it. It's just nonsensical. Even if one had experienced the original series, it's still all the more jarring when the random and brief shift happens. Art style retcons (such as the later seasons of Batman TAS) are already one thing, but when things are done like this, it's just awkward.
Doctor Flimflim Anime in general is not as obsessed with consistency and immersion as western media. What you see as a horrible design choice is what audiences back then likely just saw as a reference to an earlier piece of media in the franchise.
All this doesn't change the fact that Bennett didn't even realize that was the guy's old design because he does no research about the things he talks about and in some cases actively avoids people who offer him information.
I hope you'll one day take an unusual turn and review Interstella 5555. Same animator.
Of the anime my late father owned, Harlock was always first on the shelf
"My name is Tetsuro Oshino. You killed my mother. Prepare-" "To die? Yeah, yeah, I heard THIS before."
What is the music playing during the Harlock segment called?
A lot of films have a similar problem to this one. I remembered I watched the Clannad movie and it more or less just told the same story as the show and I'm sitting there thinking "What was the point of this"
Anyways good review as always Sage.
So, the vibe I'm getting from this review is to either read the original manga or watch the series Harlock is from? I must admit, he looks PRETTY badass.
19:30 I think the implication is that mechanization robs you of free will.
They weren't going to make him a normal robot, they were going to make him a "Component". That means they were just going to mechanize him and then plug him into the planet as just a cog in the machinery.
Sometimes I think bad decisions are made by entertainment companies just to see the looks on the faces of internet reviewers 30 years later.
This has to be one of your best episodes of AA to date. I find myself laughing at the majority of the jokes presented, most notably of your (short-lived) joy over Kagome's misery.
The funny thing is that I enjoyed InuYasha during its run on Adult Swim in the 2000s. Now that I'm a bit older, I now ask myself, "WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!"
Captain Harlock the man that watch the grand armada sin to the bottom of the cosmos while shed one manly tear that man is a true legend =***)
is this the guy who did Insterstella 5555?
No one ever had the decency to tell you yes
Hey Sage. Here's a good one; Why don't you try to review Interstella 5555?
What's wild is that the 100+ episode TV series has this ten year old kid kill the asshole who murdered his mother (along with his dinner guests) in the first 15 minutes of the series. The point of the machine body was that it was the outward sign of wealth and status, the thing that the have-nots … have-not. Matel's motives are unclear right up until the end. The show is all about what people have lost or had taken from them and learned too late. Those who have any soul left in them hold out hope that the process can be or might be reversed some day so that they might FEEL again. It's fucking dark, dude!
The reveal that Matel's mother is the queen of this machine people empire and that Tetsuro doesn't want to become a machine when he gets there (and that Matel was hoping for that) was there … but I have no idea why this movie ADDED stuff to story of the TV show in the process of trimming it down to a movie. That doesn't even really make sense.
The real draw of this movie for me is not that it's good, because kinda it really isn't. But because it was one of the first anime I saw on SciFi channel all the way back when. The TV show is much better for story and just for knowing what the hell is going on exactly and having it make seme actual sense.
It's good to see you again, Sage
Can I take your, "why would you do that?" and apply that to Game of Thrones?
Those are Canadian voices playing the characters.
My most forgotten series are absolutely seen before
If that kid at 6:20 were to have eyesight problems, then he'd need a monocle.
Red Dwarf reference ftw!
The looks of young Tetsuro on the scene of the death of his mother is exactly how he's drawn on the manga. And his looks, contrasting to the more elegant drawing of other characters, is totally intentional. In many cases in the manga it's outright stated that Tetsuro is ugly.
107 episodes? This is only the 100th of the playlist.
This whole goddamn review "Face to Face" was playing in my head. Except the Harlock scenes. Then "Aerodynamic" launched in with the best parts of the guitar riffs.
Fun fact :galaxy express 999 was also made into a fmv game for the. Philips cdi called escape from cyber city
16:21 it feels so wrong that i know exactly what Suave us talking about
Yeah, without seeing the full anime, I can see how this movie would be unappealing to new viewers.
But as someone who did watch the whole series, It didn't feel as insulting, but more so an odd and well animated highlight reel, with some alterations.
Lol,my mother took me to a showing of this at a Post(Ft Mac precisely)theater. When I was either 9,10,or 11,depending on the month of the year of the American release(79 or 81?). This is one of those movies I didn't appreciate at that age but presently do now. I also would love for her to be in the same room with me watching it so I can ask her during certain moments "Why didn't you take me out of there when that happened?"
....you didnt even talk about the epic climax where Harlock and Emeralda show and blow the absolute piss out the robot planet or the absolutely terrifying robot queen.
I have a confession to make: Despite being an old-school anime fan, I never really saw the appeal of Captain Harlock or any of it's related material. I'm sure the story is great..., it's just that I never could get past the animation style. It's such a visual turnoff that for me personally it completely diverged from one of the primary elements that drew me to anime when I was a teenager. I actually had to look up the wiki article on Captain Harlock just to see whether I'd like the plot and it doesn't sound that well thought out.
I liked Vampire Hunter D as a classic considerably more. In spite of it's similar animation style, the somewhat more complex backstory, whose exposition is never completely offered in the film, did a lot more to catch and keep my interest, and that was in spite of the film's major flaws.
I like how this guy just dismissed the 3 minutes as oh that's the mother's son that died but actually got transferred into the computer of the Arcadia on space pirate Captain harlock, this is basically a mature person kind of animation like heavy metal you don't understand that because all he thinks is about is Looney tunes will watch Looney tunes if you want to see people hitting there head with a mallet all day that's fine......
Strange that they released an abridged film in the west but not the TV series it is from.
First Anime Abandon episode of the year!
Suave's Rod Serling impression is pretty on point.
He looks like that most likely because the guy who thought up the show was the same guy that thought up Queen Millennia, and if you don't know what Queen Millennia is, here's the link to the Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Millennia
I completely understand and even agree with alot of his arguments in this review.
BUT you have to understand that this 2 hourish movie broke down 120+ episodes of an amazing series, and actually managed to do so pretty well.
I would recommend anyone to go watch the series, if you can find it (cracle had it all free a while ago) it is only subbed as it should be.
There are 120+ int he main series, more than 2 additional series and over 3 movies for the entire anime, that's a hell of alot of lore and anime to watch, and it's overall pretty good.
Praise be to Harlock, Prophet of Badassery.
this was the first anime thing i ever saw and knew it was anime... i vaguely knew something was different about sailor moon and its 5-6am time slot, but i was to young, this was literally the first anime thing i ever watched... given the time i watched it, it could have been so much worse, but damnit this made me seek out more anime and because it if shaped who i am today.
Would have loved this as a child but it was banned in Sweden because of the plot involving a child acting out violent revenge on an adult.
Harlock is the George Clooney of anime; if you **wouldn't** sleep with him, there's something wrong with you.
+LittleDog It's not gay if it's Harlock.
VladNorris I have a new motto.
Nothing wrong with wanting captain harlock, whoever you are.
"One of them was Doomed Megalopolis. And we all know how that turned out."
Better or worse than the source material?
It's funny, but I remember really liking this one when I saw it. Here's the thing though. First, I had little to no conception of what anime was yet. Second, I was in my early teens, which means I was just pretentious enough to ignore its flaws.
As flawed as this was, though, I maintain that it was still better than the sequel. How, you ask? Well, the sequel can be boiled down in four words. Lazy Star Wars ripoff.
This movie was far better than the series! The series was paced way too slow and the movie fixes that and gives the kid plenty of character growth. I legit feel feelings every time i watch it because it completely draws me in! Stop hating!
Regarding the segment on Harlock, I'm surprised you didn't say "I don't care that he's voiced by Scott McNeil."
Captain Harlock has been sitting in my "to watch" stack for ages.
Is it its own thing i never heard of this
You haven't seen the pairing down thing done well before? What about the Fist of the North Star movie?
The TV show is on Crunchyroll, so no reason to even watch this.
8:10 "the first sealab REFERNCE of 2015"
Say goodbye to your left testicle, Gabe.