Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru

-No spoilers are contained within this review-

Night on the galactic Railroad is quite the ride… to say the least. Before beginning this movie I had been given fair warning, yet I still proceeded giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Story (2/10)

Have you ever smoked acid? Me neither, but I’m pretty sure this story is something that might pop into your head if you did. Get ready for the ride of your life as you follow two cardboard cutouts into a cluster of strange and meaningless scenes. Usually stories have linear plots and character developments with a twist at the end that makes ... everything make sense. Gisaburou Sugii throws all of that out the windows. Night on the Galactic Railroad is a tale that will leave you shocked at the fact that you just spent over an hour of your life watching nothing.

Animation (1/10)

Bambi was made in 1942 and the animation still hold up to this day. Night on the Galactic Railroad was made in the mid 1980’s (38 years later) and the animation was terrible. This is a slideshow of a movie. Almost every shot is either a panning shot or a series of recycled animation.

Sound (1/10)

Never has there been a more disturbing sound track in anime. For 113 minutes I squirmed in my seat out of discomfort. The soundtrack consists of nothing but scary, creepy, and unsettling music. Even if the characters are going through something heartfelt or loving the music would cut in and ruin everything. The quality of the music is also a problem. This static music not only sounds bad but it breaks all illusion of immersion, destroying the atmosphere, which in all honesty is a breath of fresh air.

Characters (1/10)

Have you ever sat down and looked at a piece of cardboard covered in crayon scribble. That’s basically the experience of watching these characters on the screen. There has never been a more cold hearted character as Giovanni. This ice cold cat stares without compassion as children drown before his eyes. The only other being that is as heartless as Giovanni is his prick friend Campanella. This couple stares poker-faced as they see horrific sights and atrocities committed in front of them. It does not matter what these characters go through, their facial expressions will not change in the slightest.

Enjoyment (1/10)

The sound scraped against my ears, the animation scraped against my eyes, and the story scraped against my soul. This movie was uncomfortable, horribly written, and everything about it made me want to turn it off. This was a train-wreck of a movie.
Other Thoughts
I would not recommend this movie to anyone and neither should you.

Night on the Galactic Railroad is one of those movies that tries really hard to be deep and meaningful. If you like these sorts of movies, you’ll probably be able to find enjoyment in this one. It’s not entirely on the same level of weird, abstract/surreal as something like 2001 A Space Odyssey, but it’s approaching it.

The characters are dreadful. They don’t react to anything that happens around them, even when insane things are occurring. It’s hard to talk about the characters because they do not do very much throughout the movie. Mostly we see shots of them looking at things and being ... bored. I would say we’re shown their reactions, but as I already mentioned, the characters do not react to anything and have blank, bored looks plastered on their faces.

Did I mention this movie is incredibly dull? Nothing even vaguely interesting happens until around 30-40 minutes in. And a lot of the things that occur before then are just shots of Giovanni walking. There is a lot of reused footage in this movie which contributes to the boredom. I would mention the story, but like I already said there isn’t one because not having a coherent plot makes the film “deep and introspective.” I wouldn’t complain about this so much, but this movie is just not visually entertaining at all. I find it frustrating that we’re shown random things with no buildup and somehow we’re supposed to find this emotional? It just feels like a lazy way of making the story seem “cerebral.”

I liked the soundtrack, though a lot of the music feels misplaced. The animation and art are terrible for something made in the 1980s.