Sayonara Galaxy Express 999

(from ebookjapan):

"If you can't stand your sadness, just look up to the sky and call me. I'll be watching you from this train, that is running through the Galaxy. Since I've started this never-ending journey, I've never forgotten you. I'm always beside you, so please don't cry."

A boy, Tetsuro Hoshino, and his mother dream of getting a machine body that can live for 1000 years. However, his mother is killed by Count Mecha's human hunters. Tetsuro escapes and collapses in a snowstorm, but is rescued by a mysterious beautiful woman named Maetel.

She offers him a pass on the "Galaxy Express 999" train to Andromeda, to a planet where he can obtain a mechanical body for free, if he accompanies her...

This masterpiece was adapted into an anime and became a huge hit. Through the boy Tetsuro and the mysterious woman Maetel, who travel from the Milky Way to Andromeda on the Galaxy Express 999 in order to obtain a mechanical body, this full-length drama explains what "life" means to human beings.

Note: Volume count based on the bunkoban.
1st part "Andromeda" concludes on vol 12 chapter 91.
2nd part "Eternal" concludes on chapter 138+[138 is last collected in the Bunkoban version but there are 7 more chapters only collected in the Eternal collectors edition vol 4]

• Won the Shougakukan Manga Award in 1977 for Shonen