Galaxy Express is a tvshow that from the late 70's and early 80's. With 113 episodes plus several movies and some spinoffs it was a big project at that time. The last tv show from that series was in 2005. It's very well known in Japan but in the west not so much. Probably because at that time Anime was not that know in Europe and the USA and then the project was big to thwart some investment. With the internet it was easier to people to learn about this show but unfortunately it's still not well know because, well people have problem starting a show with 100 plus episodes (plus the art is not that good compare with nowadays).
This show also suffers from some problems - and it's the format on itself. Each episode it's full of really not that important stuff in the great scheme of things.
Well, I am getting astray. Basically the anime follows Tetsurou and his quest to get a mechanical body. With the help of the enigmatic Maetel he boards a train with a free pass and will get him to a planet where getting a mechanical body is free. Although it's never specific a lot of people have mechanical bodies but some are even poorer than him - I don't know why but it's never explain. Apart from a couple episodes each episode it's basically a life lesson and it's way of Maetel and other times coincidentally to make him learn something.
There are a lot of interesting episodes but as I said before most of them are just fill. They would made all the sense but so far Tetsurou doesn't learn anything - or at least it seems. Apart from a couple episodes, as I said before, they could be seen in any order you want. This is the problem with episodic tv shows. Detective Conan suffers from the same problem. But as long you are enjoying it doesn't matter 90% is fillers.Each episode deals with different stuff for the creator to make us wonder and think about something.
From stories that deal with where's our place in the universe (society), to our misguided and someone nostalgic feel of where is home and our delusion (sometimes of it); to dealings where foreign powers abuse your own country; to critiques to the poor who turn rich and spit on the plate they once ate. Another episode dealt with technology vs nature faction and why they can never live one without the other or even the the ridiculous growth of manufacturing goods in the 70's with no responsibility to damage they were doing to nature. One interesting episode dealth with material money and how other people see it (not everything is just what it seems). I remember this episode being very sad (ep16). Episode 17 was another sad one where we are told about the rule of survival of the fittest and how to the strong to live the weak must perish..
As you can see a lot of theme and such. As I said, unfortunately even if in the episode Tetsurou connects with those characters in the next they are soon forgot. Let us see where the next 70 eps lead us.
There are some other stuff we will talk about a later day like the imagery quality and characters themselves.
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