Night on the Galactic Railroad
The Summer Night Story for Adults

Date：30, Dec, 2013
Investigated and Written by Misaka Youhei
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Around Japanese New Year holidays, we can often see an animated film broadcasted on the local air. It is “Night on the Galactic Railroad” which was originally released in 1985 summer.

“Night on the Galactic Railroad” is a classic novel originally written by a late author; Miyazawa Kenji. He passed away when it was unfinished, which has called numberless interpretations. With their unique sense and technique in the middle of 1980s, they reconstructed that world in an animated film.

It is very unique that cats act the characters in the play. Computer graphics are in glory nowadays and it is difficult for us to find the apparent borderline between animation and live action here. However, they were able to create it in nothing but the animated world because there were not “Toy Story” and “Jurassic Park” yet.

Needless to say, it is never meaningless to have described them as cats. Watching the film in the darkness, you would probably feel mysterious uneasiness. The origin novel has the atmosphere and they unerringly expressed the taste in animation. They are acted by cats, a mysterious symbol, and then, it has fruited. If they were just human, we would never feel and it must have failed.

The story goes plain and also the characters look kind of cool. You may think it means no longer contemporary entertainment at all. That is just like what makes their elocution on the stage work bit by bit, however. Moreover, it is fit for the poetical worldview very much.

Miyazawa Kenji’s younger brother; Miyazawa Seiroku gave them big praise for the movie as saying “Kenji would be glad” right after Seiroku watched the film. It shows they suitably described the heart of “Night on the Galactic Railroad,” which Miyazawa Kenji had tried to depict before he got gone.

You will get most of a lonely journey called life, from the animated film which shows us some summer night episodes. So rather than children, it is fit for adults. Beautiful is also the music written by Hosono Haruomi, which makes some wonderful harmony. They were played by top-ranking voice actors like Tanaka Mayumi, Naya Goro and so on. These mean it is sufficient to taste.