#143: Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985)

Director: Gisaburo Sugii

Screenplay: Minoru Betsuyaku

Based on the novel by Kenji Miyazawa

Voice Cast: Chika Sakamoto as Campanella; Mayumi Tanaka as Giovanni; Chikao Ohtsuka as Birdcatcher; Fujio Tokita as Lighthouse Keeper; Gorō Naya as Campanella's Wife; Hidehiro Kikuchi as Young Man; Junko Hori as Zanelli; Kae Shimamura as Giovanni's Mother; Kaori Nakahara as Kaoru; Miyuki Ichijou as Marceau

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

Around 1927, Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa wrote Night on the Galactic Railroad. After his death in 1933, this was found unfinished. Four versions existed in an attempt to compile a final text, Night on the Galactic Railroad now held with immense regard. This adaptation is such a distinct and idiosyncratic production to watch that it had a significant influence on the other work that has dealt with Kenji Miyazawa. It was such an idiosyncratic production to watch even as someone who has seen some truly unique anime.

The best way to describe the film's plot is that of a young boy Giovanni, looking after his ailing mother, finding himself on the titular railroad, a train that travels into outer space which he rides with his friend Campanella, encountering surreal environments and predating Leiji Matsumoto's Galaxy Express 999 manga, which I'm not surprised is inspired by this novel. Three details need to be considered. One is that our characters baring one huge exception are anthropomorphic cats, a trademark that lasted even to a biopic of the author, TV special Spring and Chaos (1996). It came after the production struggled with trying to get the adaptation right, finding this idiosyncratic creative decision the right one in tone. Secondly, this is a European influenced work right down to the use of the language of Esperanto, a constructed auxiliary language that Miyazawa was an advocate of, learning it and even writing poems in the language of, laced in the film here. Thirdly, Night on the Galactic Railroad was written soon after the death of Miyazawa's sister. A Buddhist in belief, Miyazawa's text is meant for children but the anime itself is one of the starkest and symbolically surreal meditations on death, Giovanni eventually learning to consider the path of virtue to help all other human beings rather than lamenting the loss of a loved one, as Miyazawa himself went beyond mourning his loved one to wanting to help all in his acceptance of death.

The pace of the film, which only gets to the introduction of the train until the middle half, is intensely methodical. Between this and Mamoru Oshii's Angel's Egg (1985), this pace is completely different from most anime, a glacial nature that even when you get on the railroad is tangibly quiet as the other passengers, who can just appear and disappear with ease, are polite and curious about Giovanni. It is amazing to think that for most like myself, director Gisaburo Sugii despite being a veteran working in the industry since the sixties is probably the most known for director Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994), a fighting video game adaptation (and one of the only few with lasting currency). That title's reputation was probably made more significant as Manga Entertainment, releasing it, made a goal to sell the title as a cross over hit including acquiring a soundtrack for the English dub including the likes of Alice in Chains and Korn. This history for him is a perverse and jarring experience when you return to this title; both are well made, Street Fighter II one of the only well regarded fighting game anime due to its technical and plotting cohesiveness, but Night on the Galactic Railroad belongs to an entirely different area of anime, a hauntingly beautiful piece.

This is poignant as, upon reaching the galactic train, the journey is openly surreal and littered in symbology between a mass excavation of ancient bones, one Giovanni attempting to take away immediately dissolving into dust, to a catching of swans that break into pieces and taste of candy. To try to unpack the meanings, some obvious and others vague, is something to consider on future viewings. Like Angel's Egg, whilst Oshii's film is more openly surreal and exceptionally minimalist in terms of lack of dialogue, these two films from the nineteen eighties where money was available for creative freedom produced two utterly distinct productions to admire.

Of note is that the screenwriter taking on this task of adapting the source, Minoru Betsuyaku, is not from the anime industry but an influential novelist and playwright, particularly for influence the Japanese “theatre of the absurd” (fujori-geki). Choosing an outsider to tackle this material proved a wise idea as, from an entirely different perspective, he could structure the material in a way appropriate to express whilst the team at Group TAC had to visualise the material. TAC sadly no longer exists, since 2010, but as the company behind the cultural monolith that was Space Battleship Yamato (1974), they can at least have a lasting legacy alongside their other projects. Theirs is an odd assortment of titles over the decades, including that Street Fighter II film. Also Tokko and Black Blood Brothers, two series both from 2006 I have no good thoughts on in the slightest, so let's think on Night on the Galactic Railroad again...

[Major Spoiler Warnings]

Notably when human characters interact with our cat protagonists, the film takes a very distinct direction. It is implied heavily, as two children with a young man, they were on the Titanic or a similar vessel which sink in the ocean, giving the film an explicit them that the railroad is where the dead travel on, Giovanni having found himself there as a rare case as he dreamt on a grassy knoll and will grow as a person because of this vision. This is all heavy for what was meant to be children's literature, but also compelling with the virtue that the original text, whilst incomplete, had all this detail inside with a beginning and conclusion, this allowing still a profound message from Miyazawa to still be told in his own journey of grief. The film does end on a tragedy, but it is not a tearjerker, a calm and collected take on grief which in itself is tonally isolated in terms of how calm the story is for profoundness.

[Major Spoilers End]

Technically as well, a huge factor at play is the music, of its time but ethereal. Notable it is from a Yellow Magic Orchestra member but not Ryuichi Sakamoto, the most well known member who went into cinema, but Haruomi Hosono. Hosono's work here is absolutely appropriate for such an unconventional mood piece, which cannot be stressed enough, a haunting nature to match incredibly unconventional material.

The result is something to behold. I had fascination with this feature film over years since I had first heard of it, but really wasn't prepared for how unique the actual feature was. Notably the source material's influence is profound, even making its way to anime and manga, from Galaxy Railroad 999 to Kunihiko Ikuhara's Mawaru Penguindrum (2011) that explicitly references the tale, from a creator of equally unique stories, including the motif of apples which connects back into Night on the Galactic Railroad, those here able to be multiplied in one's hands to distribute to passengers. Such as lasting legacy of course, just for this film, is to be found in how the aesthetic choice of humanoid cats representing anything related to Kenji Miyazawa was followed on from, showing how much this film fully honoured and succeeded in its goal to adapt the material.

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1) The implied references to the Titanic in the film take on a greater, unexpected emotion when you learn the composer is the grandson of Masabumi Hosono, the only Japanese passenger on the Titanic who survived but was ostracised by the Japanese society in his time for not going down on the ship.