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Shelf Life - Adieu Galaxy Express 999




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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1333
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 2:06 pm Reply with quote
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It also suffers from the fact that Galaxy Express 999 is a perfectly good beginning-to-end story on its own, which makes this sequel intriguing from a critical point of view but unnecessary for the average viewer.

That sums it up rather well. I remember reading in the liner notes for the first movie that a second, final-chapter movie had been planned. And yet one of the criticisms against Adieu was that much of it was a repeat of the first, and the first ended on a definitive conclusive note. Was that because a sequel wasn't guaranteed at the time they made the first movie? Tetsuro and Maetel's arc ended on a sufficiently satisfying note, I wish that alone wasn't messed with in the "final chapter," where they decided to just go all dark and sad.

Still, I do like the ED theme song, and I'm contemplating getting the blu-ray if just to read the liner notes. Further still, I had rewatched Eternal Fantasy a short time ago, and honestly would've preferred that as a sequel to the first movie--it headed in a more intriguing direction (albeit stops on an open-ended note) and the continuation of Tetsuro and Maetel's relationship felt more true.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 2:15 pm Reply with quote
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Even the Three-Nine itself, previously an almost magical entity that was largely unaffected by whatever happened around it, shows signs of vulnerability. It's pushed out of the way by another train, is unable to resist being pulled towards its destination, and is in just as much peril as the film's human characters in the final action sequence. Where its predecessor offered the feeling of adventure that comes with a first big journey, Adieu carries the heavier emotions of a final trip.


That's pretty much the only "sentimentality" it has going for it--
I'm not sure how much of Adieu's script was Matsumoto's and how much was Rintaro's, but nothing that happens to Maetel or Tetsuro matches the feels of seeing Earth's track-ramp crumble after the 999's last takeoff. Crying or Very sad
Everything else feels a little Rintaro-style artsy-posturing, trying to turn Tetsuro into a teen-action hero, where the appeal of the series had been the slightly younger potato-head Tetsuro being Pinocchio in Outer Space to Maetel's Blue Fairy.

Even the trivia of seeing the Conductor retire and turn in his coat, so we could finally see what he looked like underneath, was given away in one of the TV episodes, IIRC.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11458
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 3:11 pm Reply with quote
Apparently this edition of Princess Mononoke is Shout Factory's re-release of their 2017 re-release with a 40 page artbook this time around, which explains the price. Without the artbook is still available for around $25. Also, Shout Factory restored the original "literal translation" in the subs that Disney axed for its BD release, and that Zac's review complained about it lacking.

Fwiw, I'd guess the review "so old it doesn't have a date" was posted around 2002, since he mentions people talking about it for 3 years (US release was 1999) and the DVD page didn't exist until then.
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Zendervai



Joined: 06 Apr 2012
Posts: 199
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 8:29 pm Reply with quote
pachy_boy wrote:
Further still, I had rewatched Eternal Fantasy a short time ago, and honestly would've preferred that as a sequel to the first movie--it headed in a more intriguing direction (albeit stops on an open-ended note) and the continuation of Tetsuro and Maetel's relationship felt more true.


Eternal Fantasy is such an odd movie. It's like, trying to be a sequel to both the show and the movies at the same time, it cuts off super abruptly and it's like 90% set-up for a sequel that never happened.
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