is a Japanese animated short series directed, written, and self-produced by Yōhei Kameyama. It is a sequel to , a 2022 original net animation also created by Kameyama. The series aired from July to September 2025, broadcast simultaneously on television and YouTube. A theatrical edit of the series was released in February 2026.
Premise Arrested for violating space traffic laws, the genetically enhanced "super human" Chiharu and cyborg Makina are sentenced to perform community service alongside four other convicts aboard the Milky Subway, a train used for interplanetary travel. When the train is suddenly activated, the group must scramble together to resolve the situation.
Characters
A 23-year old alien . She is cheerful and easygoing, but also careless and prone to being taken advantage of by others.
A 23-year old cyborg who is childhood friends with Chiharu. She has a violent and impulsive temperament, which has resulted in multiple assault convictions.
A human parole officer at the Ginkyo Prefecture Police Department.
The alien boss of a motorcycle gang. She has a quiet but fierce personality, and is overprotective of her subordinate Kanata.
A alien mechanic in Akane's gang. He is aggressive but physically lacking, suffering humiliating pratfalls as a result.
A cyborg who works for a legally questionable protection service. He is impassive and has powerful mechanical arms suited for combat.
Kurt's co-worker. He is upbeat and specializes in computer hacking. O.T.A.M.
The Milky Subway's deprecated animatronic train attendant, whose artificial intelligence is linked to the train's mainframe computer.
A human idol singer who is beloved by Chiharu, Makina and Akane.
Production Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express is created by Yōhei Kameyama as sequel of , an original net animation he produced as a graduation project and was first published in 2022. Much of the series' production is handled by Kameyama; he serves as director, writer, producer, character designer, modeler, animator, and editor. He used Blender to create the 3DCG, which he learned on his own.
On March 19, 2025, it was announced that Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express would be developed as a sequel series to Milky Highway. The series premiered on July 3, 2025 on Tokyo MX, with simultaneous streaming on YouTube, including dubs in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, French, Hindi and Russian. "Gingakei made Tonde Ike!" by Candies is used as the series' theme song. The final episode also features an insert song, , performed by Yukari Tamura in-character as Minami Miyase.
Episodes
Other media Manga On September 19, 2025, a comic adaption of the series with the same title by Don Kouya, in supervision by Yōhei Kameyama, began serialization in Shōnen Ace Plus.
Film On September 18, 2025, it was announced that the series would receive a re-edit with additional content. The film, titled , was theatrically released in Japan via Bandai Namco Filmworks on February 6, 2026. On May 19, 2026, Netflix announced that it will stream the film version of the series beginning June 1.
Reception Kara Dennison of Otaku USA Magazine wrote positively about the series. On the setting, which she describes as "at once futuristic and retro", she noted that "We can believe that the characters have lived, worked, and commuted within this world for all their lives and consider it 'normal,'" adding that the use of "Gingakei made Tonde Ike!" as the theme song "brings some honest-to-goodness Showa era feel to this Reiwa-era production". She also praised the "natural feel" of the dialog, writing that the main characters "sound like real people, less beholden to the conventions of anime voice acting".
The film debuted at number 10 on Netflix's weekly ranking of non-English language films, garnering 900,000 views during the tracking period from June 1 to 7, 2026, in the countries where it was most popular in Japan and Taiwan.
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