Undersea Super Train: Marine Express

Undersea Super Train: Marine Express
The cover for the Japanese VHS release of Undersea Super Train: Marine Express from VAP video.
海底超特急 マリン・エクスプレス (Kaitei Chōtokkyū Marine Express)
Genre	Drama, Science fiction, Fantasy
Anime television film
Directed by	Satoshi Dezaki
Studio	Tezuka Productions
Original network	Nippon Television Network
Released	August 26, 1979
Runtime	91 minutes

Undersea Super Train: Marine Express (海底超特急 マリン・エクスプレス^?, Kaitei Chōtokkyū Marin Ekusupuresu) is an anime television film created for the Nippon Television Network's annual 24-hour charity program, Ai wa Chikyū o Suku, which roughly translates to "Love Saves the Earth". The movie contained a veritable "Who's Who" of Tezuka's notable characters. Each one had an important role, and many of them had individual, intertwining stories which would overlap with the ones of others. To coincide with the central theme of the charity program, the movie emphasized on the dangers of environmental destruction, and that such disasters can be overcome by banding together.

For the previous charity special in 1978, Osamu Tezuka and Tezuka Productions created One Million-year Trip: Bander Book. The year after, when the special was held again in 1980, Tezuka and Tezuka Productions created another film, Fumoon, based on Tezuka's manga entitled Next World.

The plot of Marine Express can be described in two parts. The first part focuses on the people boarding the train and the problems they encounter on it. The second part takes place after the train has stopped at its half-way point, an island that used to be home to an ancient civilization millennia ago and has its fair share of secrets.

The story takes place in the year 2002.

Construction has finished on an amazing piece of engineering and technology: the Marine Express. Traveling on a rail through large glass tunnels, the train is capable of taking passengers from Los Angeles, California to Japan. To celebrate its completion, a test-run has been arranged with many of the train's founders and family on board. The train was designed by Doctor Narzenkopf, whose oldest, and adopted, son, Rock, is the train's pilot. Also with Doctor Narzonkopf is his youngest son, Adam. Funding the train's construction is Director Credit, who is on the train with his daughter Milly.