MonsterHunter

The movie starts out with Tetsuro getting a message to once again board the Galaxy Express 999. (I’m taking a wild guess that he rode the rails in the original Galaxy Express 999.) Earth has become a warzone with invading something or others causing trouble for our high-pitched hero. Aided by a group of aging rebels who sacrifice themselves so that he can catch his train, Tetsuro boards the 999. The destination? Space adventure!

Met by the faithful bumbling conductor, Tetsuro wonders where he is going, but even the 999 itself has no idea. I must note at this point that watching the 999 take off into space is something else. It basically drives straight off a track that points up into the sky. It did this a few times during the course of this flick and each time I wanted to yell “hop on the Soul Train!”

His journey to parts unknown is sprinkled with incidents where he comes into contact with a number of characters and places. He is joined again by the beautiful and mysterious Maetel who was also with him in the first movie. Maetel has her own agenda and despite her affection for Tetsuro, she causes a little ruckus later on. There is also some type of robot woman on board the train and she has evil intentions. (Like you weren’t tipped off by the fact that she was a robot.)

Tetsuro stops off on some other worlds, meets up with some folks, helps them out in several action and explosion filled sequences and basically eats up about 45 minutes of time doing this. All the while that robot steals evil glances at him and generally skulks about the train, her ominous evil-robot music playing in the background.

The animation seems to be kind of standard for these affairs and was by no means as good as some of the more recent stuff coming out of Japan, but that can probably be chalked up to the fact that this movie was made way back in 1981. The man behind this film was Leiji Matsumoto, who was the driving force behind the Star Blazers films and TV series. These projects share a distinct look within the world of anime and you’ll hear talk of a “Leijiverse” which encompasses many of Matsumoto’s projects.

Among his creations are the space pirates Emeraldas and Captain Harlock. Naturally these two superstars make welcome appearances in this movie. Emeraldas has her own two part series available on DVD and Harlock is a veteran of several TV series and films. The only problem was that I ended up wishing I was watching Harlock’s The Arcadia of My Youth but that’s more a testament to that classic than a knock on the 999.

In any event, Tetsuro also encounters an evil train that takes control of the 999 for awhile. This ghost train warped the 999 off track, but they eventually got where they were supposed to go. They end up on some planet run by Maetel’s mother, a world of metal where the “awful” secret is revealed. I don’t like to spoil a 2 hour and 15 minute movie for you so the only thing I’ll say about the awful secret is that if the secret was a color it would be Soylent Green.

But what about the evil robot and Tetsuro’s destiny? She tries to double cross her human companions, but Tetsuro cries when the robot is fatally wounded and that turns the robot back to our side ! She later gets sucked out of a gaping hole in the 999 into a black hole, but at least she died all redeemed and stuff.

As for Tetsuro, he must battle an evil guy in black armor who is somehow connected to Maetel’s mother and he is also trying to destroy the universe or something and it turns out that this bad guy is Tetsuro’s dad. (And I thought my parents were trying to ruin my life when they made me join the marching band in high school!)

This was a solid effort, though marred by the abundant cliches you surely spotted in the above paragraphs. The idea of a space train is kind of nuts, but the rest of the film remains mired in space opera hi-jinks and never achieves the level of lunacy that mark many of these anime projects. There were moments of passion and emotion from these characters (getting your metal butt sucked into a black hole will really make you think about life) but I think they were undermined somewhat by the overly familiar finale.

© 2008 MonsterHunter