Galaxy Express 999

Maetel, Nanmi, and Tetsuro go down to an ancient battlefield. Fully automated tanks which activate when they detect the presence of life have been left behind there. After Nanmi is shot, Maetel suddenly points a gun at Tetsuro. What did Maetel have to do in order to survive this crisis?!

On a planet where war is considered a tourist attraction, the 999 stops and the passengers eat dinner while watching people actually in battle. Tetsuro was eating when a soldier is killed and another soldier, Zeda, sees Tetsuro and goes after him, thinking Tetsuro enjoyed it. Tetsuro takes his gun from the 999 and goes to work with the man to clear the misunderstanding.

Zeda is convinced to join a rebel militia by a female soldier named Santana and they set off to not fight as a tourist attraction, but to do battle with the leader of the planet. They are betrayed by Brudas and the enemy is given their battle plan. Tetsuro gives this information to Zeda but the government is plotting an ambush…

Tetsuro and the gang go to a planet full of industrious people. A planet that, although poor, is brimming with vigor. The husband and wife who run the inn where they are staying at are also hard workers. They are warmly welcomed. However, Tetsuro and Maetel lose their passes and luggage when a typhoon hits. Tetsuro suspects the husband and wife who run the inn, but…

A woman named Eroze who controls the tunnels that don’t absorb any sound tries to destroy the 999. In order to save the 999 from destruction, Tetsuro goes with the woman. We then find out she’s actually an android who was built for schadenfreude. Tetsuro becomes enraged that she’d pull off so many horrible pranks including destroying the 999. Then at long last…

An oddly shaped planet complete with giant life-forms appears in the 999’s path. Though they have the desire, the planet lacks the desire to move and the 999, unable to escape, sinks into the planet. In order to rescue the 999, the Galaxy Railways Administration decides to send out oscillation waves to destroy the planet. When that is supposed to happen, a transparent woman lands in a space ship.

The transparent woman is named Artemis. She lives on the oddly shaped planet but left to get a mechanical body and now she wishes to reside on the planet. But, to pay back her debts, she is forced to perform backbreaking labor. In the end, she returned to rest with her mother. Tetsuro cries at her death…

Maetel, mistakenly brings Manabu Sunayama, a boy with a pass for the 999 who looks identical to Tetsuro, back to the hotel. Sunyama and his siblings worked themselves to the bone to get a pass to board the 999. Manabu’s older brother lost his life in the process. But, the pass turns out to be a fake, and…

Tetsuro and Maetel are captured by a group of bug-humans named Insectors who rule the planet. They go to boil them to use as food for their children. But, the boiling point of water on the planet is low due to the planet’s environment, so they escape unscathed. However, the Insectors proceed to cover the 999 in a cocoon. They plan to use the 999 and its passengers as food for their children as they send them off to another planet with food.

Tetsuro is unable to shoot the Insector babies that hatch from their eggs. The 999 then takes off into space with the Insector babies on board. The babies eat the seats, floors, and everything in sight with an amazing appetite. Just when you think the humans are in danger, though…

On the Dinosaur Planet, a dinosaur named Tiny asks Tetsuro to let him board the 999. Of course, the 999 isn’t built for dinosaur-sized passengers, no matter how “tiny” he may be. However, the locals are fearful of people from other planets and attack and capture them.

Tiny, learning of Tetsuro’s trouble from his girlfriend Rayde, asks her to give a message to him. Rayde rescues Tetsuro in Tiny’s place and forwards the message. Tiny’s message says “You’re awfully polite considering we’re friends.” Tetsuro, unwilling to never see Tiny again, sets off to see him once again.

On a planet rumored to have ghosts, Tetsuro encounters a ghost made of water. After being asked by that ghost, Yayoi, Tetsuro digs up the spot underneath a tree. Maetel, worried about Tetsuro, drives Yayoi the ghost away. But inside of the package is…

The Lazy Man’s Mirror is a planet where everything has been made to be automatic and men have nothing to do. They’ve gotten obese enough to literally make their houses explode. A woman named Sabrina realizes that she doesn’t want to be on this planet anymore and asks Tetsuro to help her board the 999. But, the Galaxy Railways’ policies dictate that a pass is required to board…

They arrive on the Future Planet, a planet where the existence of the 999 is kept secret. There, Tetsuro’s pass is stolen by a young boy named Taro who dreams of traveling in space. Tetsuro and Maetel search for a place to stay and end up at a cheap hostel where they meet an aspiring comic-artist named Futoshi Adachi.

Without even food to eat, Tetsuro begins to work. But, they won’t reissue his pass so unless he gets it back he will be unable to board the 999. So Tetsuro and Maetel decide to wait at the station to get their passes back. There, Taro shows up, but he’s suddenly not sure if he truly wants to board the 999…

Under the “Perfect Sleep” law, you are not allowed to go out at night on the planet Town without Night. There, Tetsuro gets into a scuffle with a group of men hoping to get a shot of the kind monster Heron, and the police are called. He’s taken in by the police and it looks like he won’t make it back in time to board the 999. Then, Heron appears once again…

Tetsuro is asked by a woman to kill her sister Lelan who is trying to launch an artificial sun on planet Dark-Dark, a place enveloped in the dark of night. Her concern is that they don’t know what will happen if the artificial sun is launched and it is not dark anymore. But, Lelan kidnaps Maetel and sets her plan into motion!

On the planet, the Mecca of Silence, where making loud noises is against the law, Maetel tries to stop Tetsuro when he goes to yell out the window of the 999 but fails. Tetsuro is quickly put to death for no reason other than making the loud noise, but is rescued by a woman named Sylvia. It turns out her husband was killed as well. However, they begin to chase after Tetsuro again…

On the planet the Witch’s Harp, a land where almost all food is given as tribute to the queen and the people are in a food shortage, they meet a young man named Nichola who is killed over a tiny amount of food. Enraged, Tetsuro and Maetel set off to the queen’s island to stop this tributary system. However, there they have a surprising discovery…

The Foggy Funeral Planet is a planet where, as all its inhabitants have become cyborgs, everyone is immortal and they think not much of death. They’ve begun to practice performing funerals for whoever they feel like and they make a pastime of it. Maetel and Tetsuro are attacked and buried alive but are rescued by a woman named Machiru. She tells them why the planet has become the way it has, but then she is sacrificed for a funeral herself!

Space Monk Dyruz travels the galaxy from planet to planet ringing his bell. The vibrations from his bell derail the 999 and cause Tetsuro’s teeth to fall to pieces. Because of this, they go for emergency treatment at the Emergency Medical Treatment Asteroid. There they encounter two people. One of them, a young man named Mikail, is badly injured and is ready to give up on life. Tetsuro and Dyruz compete to see who can give the young man hope again…

On planet Curiosity they capture humans out of curiosity and dissect their bodies. They force the 999 to land there then force Maetel to get naked. They then command the Conductor to dissect Maetel. But, when Tetsuro cuts into the planet with the knife instead…

The 999’s locomotive, C62, leaves the passenger cars behind and takes off. Though it’s a test to see how Tetsuro will pass the time, Tetsuro plays merrily with the Conductor and Maetel and kills the time. But, there are two robbers who stole a good amount of money on board, and…

The people on the Flower Capital, which is overflowing with flowers in bloom, all have a special armor. This is because the flowers there all emit a poisonous pollen. But someone has to burn all the flowers in order to save the people…

On Limbo, a planet without grass nor trees, Tetsuro and Maetel meet a man living tough life tilling the ground in such hard conditions, and his son, Yosaku. They plan to till the ground until the crops are ripe but a monstrous bird comes attacking. In order to protect him, Tetsuro and Yosaku fight the bird…

Planet Kilimanjaro is a snow-laden planet with three shining suns. There, Tetsuro and the gang are captured by a race of people who are as thin as paper, the Ghost Hoppers. They’re proud of their technology and plan to use them as specimens in a scientific experiment…

The gang successfully escapes from jail and encounter the Ghost Hoppers’ sacred queen. She says their people pushed science too far and that is why they look the way they do. The Queen helps them revert the 999’s tracks back to the way they were. She decided to rebel against her own subjects who would not heed her advice.

The 999 lands on a planet where every inhabitant is a beggar. But there is a married couple, Rage and Pity, who want it to stop. They board the 999 because they are sick of all the beggars and want to go to another planet where they can live on their own power alone. They steal the money and clothes from Tetsuro and Maetel, but…

“Heed our requests or we’ll blow you up!” Those were the words that came from a planet that even Maetel didn’t know that forced the 999 to make an unscheduled landing. The people on the planet mostly live underwater. The one who issued the order to land was the president of an underwater race which had emigrated there, Waterpress. These people had polluted the water as much as they could and continued to fight against the planet’s natives, the Cheyenne Fish…

The chief of the Cheyenne Fish, Navarro, gives chase to Water Press who had forced the 999 to take his people on board. He chases them in an old-fashioned space shuttle in order to continue to the fight. The Administration sends out an armored car to rescue the 999 after receiving a distress signal. But, with Tetsuro and Maetel as hostages, there is nothing they can do. Plus, they allow Navarro to enter the train after flying up in the old-fashioned shuttle.

The next stop is the Rainy Pond. They will be stopped there for 64 hours and 23 minutes. Tetsuro and Maetel check into their hotel on this planet where the rain never stops. But, a man who was also on the 999 makes a big fuss. He spends the night reciting sutras and bothering the other 999 passengers in the hotel. The man says he is praying because there is a witch on that planet who eats people’s souls and he doesn’t want anyone to be harmed. Maetel says she’s heard of this witch before…

The woman says she is the most beautiful woman in the universe and she drinks people’s flames of life in order to maintain that beauty eternally. Her name is Cueflame and she is after Maetel’s flame of life. Working underneath her is the old lady from the hotel and a young woman named Arc. Following Cueflame’s orders, the two of them go to remove Maetel’s flame of life. If she drinks the flame of life from Maetel, she will die. So then, Tetsuro goes to recapture it…

Planet Heavy Meldar. Once they pass through here, they will leave the Earth Administration’s jurisdiction and enter Andromedan jurisdiction. Right before arrival, they encounter a man wearing a cloak. They didn’t get a good look at his face but he’s carrying a space soldier’s Cosmo Gun of which only four exist in the universe. Upon arrival, Maetel says she has to take care of some business and leaves. Feeling that was odd, Tetsuro goes to look for her and enters a drinking establishment…

Leryuz lets Tetsuro know that Maetel went to the Castle of Time to battle with the pirate there. Tetsuro asks the people in the bar where the Castle of Time is, but everyone is fearful of Captain Harlock, who rules the Castle of Time, and refuses to help Tetsuro. But, the man in the cloak from the train saves Tetsuro from their violence. Encouraged by the words of the hooded man, one man lets Tetsuro borrow his auto-bike to go to the Castle of Time. He leaves all alone to go rescue Maetel from the duel with Harlock!

Tetsuro is sent into the past. There, against all of Tetsuro’s efforts, his mother his killed just as before. Tetsuro realizes that he cannot alter the past. But then through Leryuz’s ability to manipulate time, he is brought back to the present. While this is going on, we find out what kind of a horrible man the fake Harlock is in his duel with Maetel. He used to fight to restore peace to the galaxy, just like Maetel. But, he betrayed his people, including Maetel, and disrupted their attempt at a revolution.

The next station is a plant called “The Butterfly’s Dream.” There coexists graceful people with butterfly wings and a discriminated lower class without them. The people with wings live short lives that run out when the season of the cold winds comes. Because of this, they try to live their days having as much fun as possible. But, one girl, Kureha, wants to see more of the world during her short life, so she goes into the forbidden woods. There she meets a poor, wingless boy named Leaf.

Planet number one, Zaba, and plane number four, Maya, are engaged in a war to the death. Though they knew nearby planet number five was about to blow up, the 999 had to make a critical stop on planet number three. Upon exiting the train, Maetel and Tetsuro are attacked by a mysterious ape-man and their passes are stolen. While researching the planet, they meet a boy from planet number one, Seth. He came with his girlfriend from Zaba, which was on the verge of destruction. They plan to stop the mysterious degeneration on planet number three to create a new Zaba.

Tetsuro spots a message in a bottle from the 999’s window. In it is a letter written by the adventurer Stanley, who is exploring the planet Arcadia. From the looks of the letter, Stanley and his crew are in grave danger in their search for the giant elephant, Flame. Tetsuro persuades the 999 to go the planet. Quickly following the clues, they come across Stanley, his wife Merusa, and their assistant, Narl. Though Merusa and Narl are happy to be rescued, Stanley stubbornly wishes to continue his exploration.

They stop for thirty-eight hours and fourteen minutes on the Planet of Illusive Love. There, Tetsuro loses sight of Maetel and encounters a girl selling her poems, Naya. Naya is curious about the aspiring artist who lives in a room that she goes to visit, Lestel. Lestel, though, is in love with a women who poses as his model, Feras. But, Feras appears to be in love with a rich young man from the café she works at, Bina.

The next stop is the Wisdom Tooth Planet. There many of the children have ran away from homes so there are many impatient adults who have grown weary from waiting for them to return. The son of the owners of the inn Tetsuro and Maetel stay at also ran away from home. The father, suffering from a case of stress-induced dementia, is convinced that Tetsuro his is long lost son, Tetsuo. But then the real Tetsuo, a fugitive murderer, returns home…