Galaxy Express 999 / YMMV

Adorkable: The Conductor has his moments, thanks to his joyful, kind and goofy personality.
Complete Monster:
- 1979 film:
  - Count Mecha is the nemesis of young hero Tetsuro Hoshino. Once a man who accepted mechanization, Count Mecha decides to fill his days with hunting to alleviate boredom. His chosen prey is human beings. Mecha hunts down and slaughters countless innocents on his private world, including Tetsuro's mother, before taking them and mounting their remains as obscene trophies. When Tetsuro arrives, Mecha only sneers that he's killed too many mothers to remember them all and tries to murder the boy as well.
  - Queen Promethium, the mother of the heroine Maetel, condemned her world La Metal to mechanization and tried to murder Maetel's father when he attempted to oppose her. Running La Metal as a horrific dystopia, Promethium has people abducted and made into living machines to serve in perpetual agony as the power source of La Metal, having forced Maetel into a machine body so Maetel will gather victims for that purpose. When Maetel reveals her true plans against her evil mother, Promethium attempts to murder Tetsuro herself to deny Maetel any sense of victory.
- Maetel Legend: Lord Hardgear is a Mad Scientist who wants to encase all of humanity in machine bodies that he can brainwash and control. Convincing the Queen of his planet to undergo the mechanization process, Hardgear has her order her subjects to do the same and threatens to kill those who refuse. During the mechanization process itself, the soul is separated from the body, which Hardgear liquefies and drinks. While fighting the Queen's daughters, Hardgear sends mechanized versions of their friends to attack them, relishing in exercising control over their former comrades.
Fridge Brilliance: As noted below, Earth's capital is named like an actual town in Arcadia, only it has been much expanded and covered in concrete... Meaning that Earth's actual Arcadia has lost the unspoiled and harmonious wilderness that made it a metaphorical Arcadia, just like humans that get mechanized are losing their humanity.
Fridge Horror: Maetel once blew up a planet in a fit of anger... Yet those who know her and her sister insist the dangerous one is Emeraldas, and they agree. What did Emeraldas do to top that?
Genius Bonus: The capital of Earth is named as Megalopolis-just like a real city in Arcadia.
Memetic Mutation: ‘The Money Tiger’, a mock-opening sequence of a supposed cheesy Hebrew dub of a ‘70s/‘80s anime^note, used the opening sequence of Galaxy Express 999’s and Tiger Mask’s anime series. The parody gained modest memetic status.
Mood Dissonance: Is the 1987 laserdisk arcade game Freedom Fighter your first introduction to Galaxy Express 999? If so, you probably thought that this classic series was a farcical comedic space adventure. And shocked when you finally saw the anime and realized...it's not.
Superlative Dubbing: The Ocean Group's dub of the first two films still holds up beautifully over 25 years later, with special mention going to Saffron Henderson's tough, emotional, and complex performance as Tetsuro, Kathleen Barr's empathetic and motherly Maetel (and doing double duty as Promethium) and Scott McNeil's memorable turn as Captain Harlock. It's obvious that the dubbers took the project seriously and did their best to remain faithful to the source material.
Ugly Cute: Tetsuro isn't exactly a good-looking kid, he lampshades it in one episode; but both his attitude and kind heart make him adorable.

YMMV / Galaxy Express 999

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