Tear Jerker / Galaxy Express 999

• The first episode alone is a tearjerker. Tetsuro loses his mother to a human-hunting machine, nearly dies in the snow, and ends up traveling with a woman who looks exactly like his mother.
  • It's even worse in the movie: the time between his mother's death and meeting Maetel is years. He grew up in the slums, carrying his desire for revenge for his mother death, for a long, long time...
• The episode when Tetsuro is kidnapped by a hideous woman who tries to force him into marriage. It then is revealed that she only tried to do so to make her parents not worry about her and they could die in peace
• The countless occasions when Tetsuro can't help the people around him, no matter how hard he tries. The universe of Galaxy Express 999 is a really bleak place...
• In the final episode the defeat of the monstrously evil people that tried to kill both Tetsuro and Maettel is not a joyous affair. Despite her crimes, the empress of Promethium was still Maettel's mother and she's devastated by what she had to do (her father also had to die to kill her mother). Throughout over 100 episodes of the show, Maettel's had always been a pillar of strength for Tetsuro, even in the most dire of times she was confident and capable. Here, at the very end of their journey, she bursts into tears and it's up to Tetsuro to be the adult and offer a shoulder for her to rely on.
• Queen Promethium's real identity: Yayoi Yukino from Queen Millennia, at one point the savior of Earth.

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