In the third and final part of my coverage of the Galaxy Express 999 finale, I offer my thoughts on the end of the series for both the TV series and the manga.
(Note that my analysis will have spoilers for the movie version of Galaxy Express 999, as there are lot of comparisons to make between it and the two endings I am covering here)
Here we have the
conclusion of Galaxy Express 999. It has been a fulfilling journey, and hard to
believe that the end is here. We have two somewhat different conclusions here
with the manga and the TV show. We also have yet a third ending in the movie
version, which surprisingly enough came first, as the movie was released in
1979 while both the manga and TV show were still in production. All 3 versions
have some similarities, but also major differences. The biggest similarity is
that all 3 end with the 999 arriving at its final destination, the
mechanization home world. Maetel is revealed to be the daughter of Queen
Prometheum, ruler of the mechanized world. She has been acting as an agent for
her mother all this time, bringing numerous young men to this planet to be
mechanized. However Maetel carries with her a hidden agenda. She is conspiring,
along with her father (called Dr. Ban in the movie and manga) to rebel against
her mother and defeat her mother and the mechanized world. With this, we get
our answer for what was probably the biggest mystery throughout the manga and
TV series, the true identity of Maetel. While Maetel has been on a mission with
nefarious outward intent this whole time, she in fact is the heroine we have
come to know and love throughout the story and has been plotting to overthrow
her mother. It is a strong and fulfilling revelation.
It should be noted that the movie contains one additional element that is not revealed in either the manga or the TV show, that Maetel took her appearance from Tetsuro’s mother. Within the movie, Prometheum says it is the most beautiful body in the entire universe. For whatever reason, this is only revealed in the movie. I was quite surprised at this, as I considered this a core aspect of the secrets of Maetel. A big mystery has been why she resembles Tetsuro’s mother so much (beyond just Matsumoto’s habit to have his women look so much alike). Those who don’t watch the movie will never get that fact. Perhaps it is something Matsumoto decided to retcon in later versions, although I liked that reveal a lot and wish it hadn’t been removed.
Another mystery throughout
the show has been the several times where Maetel removes her clothes and shocks
another character into submission. Examples include “The Mirage Planet’s
Scribe” and “Snow Woman of Andromeda”. My assumption is that when she was doing
this, she was wearing the pendant containing her father, and for whatever
reason that pendant symbolized something important enough to get these other
characters to back off.
Another big plot point that comes to its conclusion here is Tetsuro’s quest for his free mechanical body. In a massive plot twist, at least in the manga version, it is revealed that the mechanical body waiting for Tetsuro was just a screw! (in the movie version it is a bolt). If one was thinking all this time that there was a catch to becoming mechanized, this is it. In getting his free mechanical body Tetsuro would be cursed to an existence where he could no longer move, and as we later find out, all these “living parts” on Andromeda have their life force drained from them anyway. Tetsuro wasn’t going to get to enjoy that machine body that he was looking forward to all this time. Earlier in the chapter we see Tetsuro looking through a catalog to pick out his machine body; my assumption is that even if he had picked something, Prometheum would have overridden it, although we don’t have an answer for sure.
The TV episode
drops this part, and it seems like Tetsuro would have gotten a normal
mechanical body if he had gone through with it. In the TV version Tetsuro
ultimately makes his decision to forego a mechanical body due to the sloth-like
lifestyle those with them have on Andromeda. He also sees a man kill himself,
sick of eternal life. I got to admit to being greatly disappointed with the way
the TV show handled things. Not only do we lose a great plot twist; Tetsuro’s
decision also seems to be made with little thought, and after 111 episodes of
him wanting to get a machine body, having a single scene of badly behaving
mechanical people (something that wasn’t enough to change his mind in the past)
suddenly is.
It was very
interesting to get the appearance of Agate, Claire’s mother, in the manga.
Ultimately it is through Agate’s help that Tetsuro is able to escape his fate
of being made into a screw. Tetsuro shows that he has saved the crystal tear,
all that remained of Claire, all this time and gives it to her. Seeing Tetsuro
hold on to this remnant of her daughter for all this time causes Agate to
realize that she should help Tetsuro and ultimately his life being saved and
Maetel’s plan wouldn’t have been successful without her. Agate’s appearance was
quite interesting in its minimalism, and although she gives a reason for it
that makes sense, it surprises me a little as she was so obsessed with vanity
for her daughter, but not for herself. In the TV version we instead have a
character named Mirai, who has a crystal glass body similar to Claire. This
character despairs over Tetsuro not being willing to become a machine and tries
to kill herself only for Tetsuro to convince her not to do so. As a result she
helps him and Maetel recover the pendant from Prometheum.
Prometheum’s
appearance varies greatly depending on the version; the movie presents her as a
rather spooky looking woman with a noh-mask like face and a dark body through
which it is as if you are looking into space! The manga version goes even further
with the spookiness, as she’s just a head and has two faces, the noh-mask like
face and Maetel’s face. This version of Prometheum appears inspired by the
Roman god Janus, the god of doors, who had two faces. The TV version of
Prometheum is noticeably less scary and interesting as the other two versions.
The manga version was by far my favorite.
Also varying with each version is the name of the planet that is at the end of the line. In the movie, it is planet Maetel, the TV show planet Prometheum and manga, the planet Great Andromeda. In the movie version the planet is presented to be half of Maetel’s self, an element that is not carried over to the other two versions, although the two-faced Prometheum of the manga comes off as if she has two different personalities, with the Maetel face acting much like Maetel, and speaking of having a direct connection to her thoughts and actions. So in this version it comes off as something very similar. The TV show drops this aspect entirely. Great Andromeda within the manga also matches the name of a planet in the Adieu Galaxy Express 999 movie and several buildings in the manga look very similar to designs from that movie.
In all three
versions it is quite sad to see the separation of Tetsuro and Maetel. They have
traveled together all this way and feel so strongly for each other. Maetel has
essentially become the surrogate mother for Tetsuro. Tetsuro’s journey all this
way has been an analogy for a boy growing older and gaining experiences. Maetel
is characterized as a vision of his youth, something he must leave behind as he
grows beyond his youth. I feel this most powerful in the movie version if only
because Tetsuro looks noticeably older there; he still looks like a little boy
in the manga and TV series when they depart. On an emotional level it was also
good to see how sad the Conductor was about saying goodbye to Tetsuro when he
thought he was becoming mechanized. He has become very fond of him over this
long voyage!
Looking at all three of the endings, the TV version is far and away the weakest for me and is actually a bit of a disappointment. The ending is arguably the peak of the storyline for both the movie and the manga, but not for the TV show, there are a lot of earlier episodes that I like more. I feel that it is a high level overview of the main aspects of the ending but skips several things I like a lot about the other versions such as the reveal of Tetsuro’s machine body and the design of Prometheum. Aspects of it also just come off as rather goofy. For example Maetel is locked up in a cell but they don’t bother searching her for weapons so she easily escapes because of them. Also the scene where Mirai steals the pendant containing Maetel’s father from Prometheum comes off as an incredibly easy endeavor. The overall design in general in that version is a downgrade compared to the other two versions, and Tetsuro’s decision to refuse a mechanical body seems made with little thought to it, enough so that you feel that most of the series was a waste of time if he’s going to change his mind so quickly based on what he saw on this planet, but not on others.
Well, the journey
through the original Galaxy Express 999 storyline has finally come to an end.
It was a lot of fun going through. I enjoyed reliving so many of the storylines
that I enjoyed from previous viewings as well as going through the original
manga for the first time. This is a project I started all the way back in
August of 2020 and it seemed like an insurmountable task at that time. Now it
has come to an end.
