? In a word, due to this faint kindness and repeated inquiries about this work on the Internet, I have a deeper and deeper understanding of this work, and finally I started the collection of Galaxy Railway 999.
First, the plot
? The story is set in the distant future. At this time, it has become the mainstream for human beings to replace mechanical bodies. Many people change their bodies into mechanical bodies, so that they can live to at least 1000 years old, while ordinary people can only live to 1000 years old. In this context, the teenager Hoshino Tielang and his mother still remain flesh and blood and live a dependent life. On a snowy day, the mechanical earl suddenly appeared, shot Tielang's mother and made her body into a specimen to watch. Tielang narrowly escaped and fainted in the snow. The mysterious woman Maadyr saved Tielang and gave him weapons. Tielang entered the mechanical earl's mansion alone to avenge his mother. After that, he decided to take the Galaxy Railway 999 with Madl and go to the planet where his mother mentioned before his death that he could replace the mechanical body for free and replace his body with a mechanical body. Since then, Tielang and mysterious beauty Madl have started a long interstellar journey.
? Galaxy Railway 999 is a magical train. Although it looks like an old-fashioned train, it is an "ultra-modern train with energy-resistant infinite electromagnetic shielding protection". In order to reassure passengers, it is specially set to the shape of a traditional steam locomotive. Galaxy Railway 999 will stop at every station, and the stop time is a day of the planet, and the "day" of each planet is different. Some planets can only stay for 10 minutes, while others stay for several weeks. In the early stage of comics, the model of "one planet, one planet" was basically adopted, describing various planets and customs that Tielang and Madl saw during their long interstellar travel.
As mentioned above, comics still honestly appear on the planets we know, such as Mars and Saturn. After leaving the solar system, the author began to play freely, and many strange planets appeared, such as missing stars. People here enjoy the sad atmosphere of funerals, and kill people as fun in order to enjoy this atmosphere. Another example is the Miaojun Life Museum, which is said to be the planet where dead pets live ... and dinosaurs live. The dinosaurs here are not only huge in size, but also talk to humans and want to take the 999 train out of their own planet ... Seeing these strange planets, I always feel that this cartoon is no longer in the category of science fiction, but the author's sentence "Anything can happen in the universe" seems to be back, and Teacher Matsumoto is really good at it.
However, apart from these special planets, most of the stories revolve around the themes of "mechanical body" and "human body", including the portrait protagonist Tielang who wants to replace the mechanical body with Yinhe Tedao 999; Some people regret changing the mechanical body and want to change back to flesh and blood; What's more, there is a planet full of mechanical human beings, which is ruthless and regards natural human beings as playthings, just like the mechanical earl who shot Tielang's mother. Tielang and Madl's journey can be divided into two parts: the first half is within the scope of the Milky Way, and many planets where natural human beings exist can be seen; The second half is in the territory of Andromeda galaxy, which is the world of robots. Although there are natural humans in Andromeda galaxy, most of them are enslaved by mechanical humans and lead a miserable life. What Tielang saw in front of him made him start to shake: Is it really right to give up flesh and blood and become a mechanical body? Changing into a mechanical body seems to have an almost eternal life. But when he has a mechanical body, can he still keep a warm heart? Will I be one of those heartless mechanical monsters?
? Tielang was accompanied by Madl, a beautiful woman. Her long hair is fluttering, mysterious and elegant. Girls feel really elegant even after reading it, but why do they always help Tielang unconditionally? Even saved Tielang's life and death many times. Her identity is a mystery, but it should be very background, because even the Galaxy Railway No.999, which claims to leave absolutely on time, has made many exceptions and waited until she got on the bus. Moreover, Madl is often seriously injured, but in the end she always appears in front of Tielang as if nothing had happened, which makes people wonder if she is also a mechanical body … ..
? At the end of the story, which is also the terminal of Galaxy Railway 999, we came to the great Andromeda planet. This is the capital of the mechanized world, where Tielang learned that he was about to become a screw, one of the 99,999 screws supporting Andromeda. If he refuses, Mudd will be put to death. In fact, Madeleine is the daughter of Prometheus, the queen of the mechanical empire. She has been in and out of Andromeda many times, bringing young people who will be part of the Queen here. The fire of these young people's lives, which are regarded as parts, is absorbed and becomes a part of supporting this planet: the human soul is the energy that supports the mechanized world. In fact, Madl has long been tired of such behavior. The young people who have become parts that she intends to bring back are actually placed in important positions, but the binding force between them is very fragile and easy to be destroyed. Maadyr secretly saved Tielang, who was about to become a screw, and threw the capsule made by Dr. Pang, his father's anti-mechanized world, on the queen. Under the influence of this capsule, the queen will be dragged to the super gravity cemetery to rest. ...
Tielang finally decided to give up his mechanical body and return to earth. This time, Mudd won't go with him. Before he left, Madl said that perhaps Andromeda, the mechanized home planet, was actually the future or past earth.
? Although the cartoon ended in this way, the various planets and characters set by Matsumoto in the cartoon and the ideas expressed through these plots and characters did not stop: although the high-tech earth and natural human beings in the cartoon were enslaved by mechanical human beings, it seems far away from us, but will the earth really become what it looks like in the cartoon one day? People hate mechanical humans who enslave themselves and hunt at will, but at the same time they long for eternal life and take the initiative to mechanize their bodies. ...
? On the whole, the comic itself is still wonderful. Teacher Matsumoto's brain hole is really big. It is not easy for such a long cartoon to come up with so many different planets and people. However, what I want to vomit is that some routines in the middle and late period of comics are really a little aesthetic fatigue: First, the protagonist's passport will always be stolen/robbed. However, it is set in the cartoon that the indigenous people of many planets in the universe dream of leaving their own planet to travel to the outside world by taking the Galaxy Railway 999, or changing their mechanical bodies. Moreover, the ticket for the Galaxy Railway 999 is very expensive and not everyone can afford it. Then it is reasonable that the protagonist often encounters the event that his passport is taken away. Secondly, when confronted with powerful enemies or difficult troubles, the protagonist Tielang always faints. When he woke up, he was either saved by Madl, or the local attackers saw Tielang's quality/behavior on the one hand, and were deeply moved at once, and let them go on their own initiative. If it's once or twice, it's ok, but the number of times is really too many ... Matsumoto's golden finger for the protagonist is too big. There are many big scenes that Matsumoto could have described in depth, such as Queen Merida and the pirates of the universe, and the decisive battle with Prometheus, the queen of machinery, and so on. It makes people feel that the story is about to reach a climax, but it suddenly stops, making people feel like they are in the throat and don't spit.
Some pictures drawn by the teacher of Galaxy Railway Crossing the Universe are really profound and beautiful:
At the beginning and end of every story, there are always sentences that express Matsumoto's thoughts:
Second, binding
? Yinhe Railway 999 Collector's Edition published in Taiwan Province has a total of *** 10 volumes. There are 222 Nietzsche book covers available, and they must be 222 W. The ordinary 222 book covers are not wide enough ... The books are bound with sewing thread, which can be spread evenly at 180 degrees, which is probably the most suitable for comic lovers.
This cutting-edge design of the book box is also very beautiful. Although the design was simply spit out when it first came out, it was quite satisfactory when it was actually obtained. Around the box is a black space map, dotted with the shimmer of stars. The words "Galaxy Railway 999" are printed in silver gray and white on the top and back of the bookcase, but it seems that nothing has been done.
On the spine of the cartoon itself is a photo of the protagonist. The gift is a copy of the signature card slightly smaller than the book.
It is worth mentioning that the top of the book box is set with the style of the above picture, which is said to be convenient to take. Because in the past, the bookcase was always spit out. But no matter what the design looks like, there will always be people who vomit. Personally, I don't like this style very much because the coat can't cover the dust. It doesn't matter if I don't open it, but it's a little troublesome for me who has already opened it.
The color pages and two-color pages of this 10 series are very strange. Not every book has color pages or two-color pages, and the number of pages is not balanced. Is it the restoration of color pages during the serialization period? In the process of reading comics, I counted the situation of color pages and two-color pages as follows:
The first is the color page: there are three color pages at the beginning of the first book. The fifth volume, 337-340, has four color pages. Volume 7 has four color pages on pages 82-85 and five color pages on pages 269-273. Book 9, page 99- 103, has five color pages. The first four pages of Book 10 are color pages.
Followed by two-color pages: Book IV, page 19-34 is a two-color page. This is the first time I have seen a two-color page with the length of 15 in a cartoon.
Volume 7, pages 87-90, and pages 275-282 are two-color pages. Volume 10, page 3 17-324 is a two-color page.
In addition, the lines in the first and second lines on page 307 of Book 1 seem to be printed backwards, but I have read the dialogue carefully. It shouldn't be a typo, but the protagonist in the plot visited an upside-down planet, so he deliberately printed the dialogue backwards?
Color page appreciation:
Two-color page appreciation: