* {{Adorkable}}: The Conductor has his moments, thanks to his joyful, kind and goofy personality.
* CompleteMonster:
** 1979 film:
*** [[AristocratsAreEvil 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 [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame 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 [[ButForMeItWasTuesday remember them all]] and tries to murder the boy as well.
*** [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen 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 [[AndIMustScream serve in perpetual agony]] as the [[LivingBattery power source]] of La Metal, having [[AbusiveParents 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'': [[BigBad Lord Hardgear]] is a MadScientist 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 [[SoulEating 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.
* FridgeBrilliance: 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.
* FridgeHorror: 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''?
* GeniusBonus: The capital of Earth is named as Megalopolis-just like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalopolis,_Greece a real city]] in '''Arcadia'''.
* MemeticMutation: ‘[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYB5DrH67eI The Money Tiger]]’, a mock-opening sequence of a supposed cheesy Hebrew dub of a ‘70s/‘80s anime[[note]][[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext It’s about a business man named Esteban Jiménez who got hit by a special ray from planet Zorigon V, which changed his molecular structure and turned him into a business man in the day and crime fighter by night.]][[/note]], used the opening sequence of ''Galaxy Express 999''’s and ''Manga/TigerMask''’s anime series. The parody gained modest memetic status.
* MoodDissonance: 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.
* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing: Creator/TheOceanGroup's dub of the first two films still holds up beautifully over 25 years later, with special mention going to Creator/SaffronHenderson's tough, emotional, and complex performance as Tetsuro, Creator/KathleenBarr's empathetic and motherly Maetel (and doing [[ActingForTwo double duty]] as Promethium) and Creator/ScottMcNeil'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.
* UglyCute: Tetsuro isn't exactly a good-looking kid, he lampshades it in one episode; but both his attitude and kind heart make him adorable.
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