Leiji Matsumoto Books

I love Matsumoto's work. Maetel is one of my all-time favorite characters, as is her friend (and in the movie "Maetel Legend", her sister) Emeraldas. Harlock is...interesting, but kinda cool. Tetsuro, well...he's okay.

The plots are incredible! They really make you think (and I'm not just talking about the blurbs at the end of each segment!). There are very few manga that can do that.

I reccomend this series to any and every anime/manga fan!

In the distant fututre, ayoung boy named Tetsuro steals a boarding pass to a train called the Three-Nine. After emabarking, he meets a woman named Maetel, who bares a striking resembelance to his deceased mother. A grand journey begins that will take Tetsuro to the edge of the universe and back. He will meet many friends and enemies in his journey of wonder.

Despite the artwork which will turn off fans of superhero-style comic books, Galaxy Express has a style unto its own that needs to be appreciated by a more mature reader. The story is excellent, the social commentary is superb, my only problem is the SLOW release schedule. This book easily ranks equally alongside the other great (translated) mangas of our times, including Nausicaa, Lone Wolf and Cub, Dominion, and Adolf... Buy this book!

Here's a summery of the 18 volumes, NO spoilers^_~

"You think Tetsuro Hoshino has seen the last of the Gallaxy Express? Starting where the 2 part movie left off, Maetel sets Tetsuro back on the path to Manhood (NOTE, he is VERY young) & the trail of goals, making new friends & discovering the ones he'd thought gone, learning the harsh lessons of reality in the endless sea of stars. Mysteries come to light, only to be darkened by a new challenge or question or an old memory, & the entire gallaxy asks only of Tetsuro to survive & NEVER to forget.

Leiji Matsumoto, the creator, is second in popularity only to Hayao Miyazaki (Kiki, Totoro, Laputa, Lupin), & has one many awards for his interconnecting series.

This is one the whole family should watch because it's sincere, complex, inovative, provocative, dramatic, & contemplative above everything else. It's a helluva good story/plot that makes you think about the facts of life & its challenges. It has nothing corny or cliche, a literary masterpiece(despite the craappy artwork). It teaches about achieving goals, following hopes & dreams & beliefs, finding ones purpose in life, & keeping promises.

Personally, I wouldn't trade MY collection if you offered me 3 times what the whole set is worth^o^

His writings are like.......Pringles. "Once you pop, you can't stop."

I have liked GE 999 ever since I started readng it in Animerica magazine. So, I got this book, but discovered that this is actually the *sequel* to the *first* adventure of Maetel and Tetsuro. I got this information from the biographies of the characters and the clues in the story. As a result of not havign read the first series, I am a tad bit lost. Can someone tell me WHY they chose to publish the sequel in English before they translated the first series? It doesn't make any sense!

Anyway, the characters are fun and I enjoy their adventures. But the blurb at the end of every chapter is too deep and confusing for me to understand.

I like this, and I will look up the first series--right after I find out who started this translating mess in the first place.

Star Blazers is the English title of the Japanese animated TV series "Space Battleship Yamato." Growing up, I was the world's biggest fan of the show, and deep down I still am.
It's high space opera, but the characters have a depth and the stories a level of thought and sophistication unmatched in 1970's era animation (heck, it was a good sight better than most live-action science fiction of that period--or of today). Even as an adult, I consider Desslok my favorite fictional villain, thanks largely to the depth he is given in this book. His final, redeeming moment in the series is captured here wonderfully.
This comic book adaptation summarizes the first two seasons' storylines (the 3rd was never broadcast in the U.S.), using two frame devices: first of Wildstar reading Captain Avatar's diary after the Argo has returned home, and then of Desslok ruminating on the changes he and his people have undergone in the course of their conflict with Earth. The book is loyal to its source (the dialogue is taken verbatim from the English TV scripts in most places), but also expands on it to give the characters greater depth and the story line greater internal consistency than they had before. The art is perfect, much better than in the comic books produced by Comico™ several years ago. Information about the show is given in a lengthy appendix at the back. Clearly a labor of love by people who enjoy Star Blazers as much as I do, and that's saying a lot. I wish that more "graphic novels" were as well done as this one.
My one reservation is that the adaptation covers a great deal of story in a short space (which is in the nature of such a project), and newcomers may find it difficult to follow. As a fan, that's hard for me to judge. I believe they will still enjoy it.
This book was intended as a launch for a new comic book series using these characters, but as memory serves that series only ran for a bit over a year (and I honestly didn't like it as well as this book). You can still find back issues of it in comic shops. And videotapes of the TV series are still commercially available, so far as I know.