Galaxy Express 999 (manga) (2024)

Galaxy Express 999 is a manga series written by Leiji Matsumoto. Weekly Shonen King began publishing the original series (coined the Andromeda edition) on 24 January 1977, and the original series concluded with its ninety-first chapter on 11 November 1981.

Then, after 15 years, Matsumoto began a revival to the original manga, coined the Eternal edition. Big Gold began publishing the series in September 1996, and the sequel series concluded with its fourty-third chapter in 2001.

The stories were broken into parts, and then later released as a whole when released onto a collected format. For example, Departure Ballad was originally released over a three-week span, but the entirety is marked as one chapter in the collected release.

Story[]

In the year 2221, ten-year-old boy Tetsuro Hoshino and his mother travel through a harsh snowstorm, trying to reach Megalopolis Station. His mother is shot dead before his very eyes by an evil mechanical being known as Count Mecha. Tetsuro is left for dead in the snow, but is awoken by a mysterious woman named Maetel. She offers him a pass to ride on the Galaxy Express 999, under the condition that he travel with her. Tetsuro wants to ride on the legendary train to go to a planet where he can receive a mechanical body and with it, eternal life.

Throughout their journey, Tetsuro and Maetel travel to many planets, meeting many natives and learning their stories. Some of them wish to leave their home planet and ride on the 999 themselves, even going so far to steal Tetsuro or Maetel's pass. Tetsuro meets many who have made the change to a mechanical body, most of whom regret giving up their original body. They also cross paths with legendary space pirates Captain Harlock and Emeraldas.

Characters[]

Tetsuro Hoshino

A boy who ventures with his mother in to Megalopolis Station to try and obtain a pass for the Galaxy Express 999. They want to ride the train to travel to a planet where they can obtain a mechanical body and live an eternal life. They encounter a blizzard, and his mother is shot before his very eyes, and dies as she gives Tetsuro a pendant to remember her by, telling him to live as long as he can. Tetsuro swears vengeance on his mother’s assassin. He wakes up in a hut next to a fireplace, and finds a beautiful blonde woman there. She introduces herself as Maetel, saying that she saved him from freezing to death in the snow. Her radio picked up the sounds of Tetsuro and Kanae, so she went to go pick him up after discovering that his mother had died. Tetsuro wishes to go to Megalopolis to work to save up enough to purchase a pass for the 999. Instead, Maetel offers him a free pass, only under the condition that he travel with her.

Maetel

A mysterious beauty who meets Tetsuro after hearing his and his mother’s voice on her radio. After his mother is killed by Count Mecha and Tetsuro is left in the snow to die, she rescues him. He was working towards Megalopolis to one day get on the Galaxy Express 999 for a mechanical body, but she offers him a free pass, as long as she goes with him on her trip.The duo travel to Megalopolis. There, a mysterious voice communicates with Maetel, telling her to stick to the child and that if she fails to do so, her body will be incinerated. Tetsuro overhears the conversation, but is unaware of who “the child” is, and thinks of it as nothing. Is Maetel hiding something from her traveling companion?

Conductor

The nameless conductor of the famous Galaxy Express 999 train. Living out of his Galaxy Railway rulebook, he takes his job as conductor very seriously. Before every station, he reads off the name of the planet that the 999 is arriving on, and how long layover is. He works tirelessly at his job, rarely ever taking a vacation. While he initially treats all customers equally, he eventually becomes friendly with Tetsuro and Maetel, even occasionally breaking the rules or instructing the locomotive to disobey orders if it benefits them. Unfortunately, this also leads to him getting involved in their hijinks on planets that they visit.

Promethium

The ruler of the Mechanized Empire, mother of Maetel, and the mechanized version of the woman once named Yayoi Yukino. She instructs her daughter to bring boys to her planet on the 999 so she can use them as part of her empire. Knowing Maetel's love for her mother, Promethium takes advantage of her. Despite her hatred for humans and their way of life, she is quite courteous to Tetsuro, thanking him for traveling with her daughter. Once married to Dr. Ban, she scolds him and his beliefs against mechanization, thinking nothing of him after his transformation that left his soul contained within a pendant.

Chapters[]

Note from the admin: While some declare the original run and the revival run as two separate series, we choose to title the chapters as one in the same, as the series was still called Galaxy Express 999, and when the manga was re-released, those chapters were collected the same way.

Andromeda[]

Eternal[]

Mechanisms[]

Main article: List of Galaxy Express 999 mechanisms

Planets[]

Availability[]