Night on the Galactic Railroad

Night on the Galactic Railroad is a 1985 anime film directed by Gisaburo Sugii based on the 1927 Japanese fantasy novel by Kenji Miyazawa. The screenplay was written by Minoru Betsuyaku. It was released on July 13, 1985, and features Mayumi Tanaka as Giovanni and Chika Sakamoto as Campanella.
==Voice Cast==
Character 	Actor 	Actor
Character 	Original 	English
Giovanni 	Mayumi Tanaka 	Veronica Taylor
Campanella 	Chika Sakamoto 	Crispin Freeman
Zanelli 	Junko Hori 	Oliver Wyman
Teacher 	Ryounosuke Kaneda	Greg Wolfe
Store Owner 	Ryuji Saikachi 	
Giovanni's Mother 	Kae Shimura 	
Dairy Woman 	Reiko Niimura 	Rachel Lillis
Bird Catcher 	Chikao Ohtsuka 	Oliver Wyman
Lighthouse Keeper 	Fujio Tokita 	Eric Stuart
Wireless Operator 	Takeshi Aono 	David Moo
Young Man 	Hidehiro Kikuchi 	Sam Riegel (as Gil Ramsee)
Kaoru 	Kaori Nakahara 	Lisa Ortiz
Tadashi 	Yuriko Fuchizaki 	Amy Birnbaum
Conductor 	Tetsuya Kaji 	Scott Cargle
Marceau 	Miyuki Ichijou 	Rachel Lillis
Campanella's Father	Goro Naya 	Eric Schussler
Dairy Man 	Seiji Kurazaki 	Scott Rayow
===Additional Voices===
Japanese
* Ayumi Ishijo
* Shun Yashiro
* Yuriko Fuchizaki
==Production==
The film was produced by Nippon Herald and animated by Group TAC with in-between animation done by Gallop. The most prominent but controversial alteration made in the anime is that the main two characters (and their classmates) are depicted as cats. Some other characters, such as the children from the ship, are humans. Many members of the anime staff ultimately went on to high-profile careers as directors or as studio founders, such as Kōichi Mashimo, then a storyboard artist, who more than ten years later would go on to form the famed studio Bee Train.
==Use of Esperanto==
The captions throughout the film are in Esperanto as an homage to Kenji Miyazawa, who was strongly interested in the language. The film's title in Esperanto is Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo. Text appearing in various scenes was also written in Esperanto, such as writing on the blackboard in the classroom. A newspaper being printed in the printing house where Giovanni works tells of the shipwreck of a passenger ship bearing the Esperanto phrase Dio, pli apud vin (Nearer, My God, to Thee).
==Soundtrack==
The film soundtrack was composed by YMO member Haruomi Hosono.
==Home video==
The film was licensed by Central Park Media in the late 1990s, and was released on VHS with English subtitles. The subtitled version played irregularly on the Canadian station Space in 1997 and 1998. When it was later released on DVD in 2001, CPM produced an English dub that starred Veronica Taylor as Giovanni and Crispin Freeman as Campanella. The film was re-licensed by Discotek Media and released on DVD in 2015 and Blu-ray in 2016.
==Reception==
Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network commented that the film was "a beautiful journey, albeit an ominous one. Slowly, the mood of the trek shifts from excited and childlike to desperate and profound."https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2006-12-21
==Accolades==
The film was honored with the Ōfuji Noburō Award for 1985.
==References==
==External links==
* 
Category:Japanese films
Category:Anime films
Category:1985 films
Category:1985 animated films
Category:Rail transport films
Category:Animated films about cats
Category:Animated films about trains
Category:Anime films based on novels
Category:Fantasy anime and mangaCategory:Pages stolen off Wikipedia