El Alamein's Singing Voice

El Alamein’s Singing Voice

Manga Chapter 2-3

TV Episode 46

Manga Chapter Summary:

Tetsuro reads a newspaper from the library car discussing the discovery of the 5 rings of Uranus. He’s so engrossed in it that he just now realizes that the 999 has stopped at another station! The Conductor explains that they are at El Alamein, but only for 10 minutes, and they are asked to not stray far from the train. Maetel tells Tetsuro this is so he doesn’t get shot by the frightful archaic weapons that are there. Tetsuro thinks of how he has heard the name El Alamein before and Maetel claims it was a battlefield in North Africa where tanks once fought. The two of them head to the desert-like area outside, finding abandoned tanks all over the place. Tetsuro and Maetel wonder what types of lifeforms operated these weapons. 

 

Tetsuro notices that a tank turret behind them has started aiming at them! Maetel jumps at Tetsuro, pulling them both down just as the tank starts firing. Tetsuro realizes that the tanks aren’t completely abandoned as they are automated. Maetel says the on-board computer of one of them must have noticed them and they’re now all being activated. A fleet of tanks soon surrounds the two of them. The tanks start firing, nearly hitting them. Maetel pulls out a pistol, and asking Tetsuro to forgive her, shoots him. She points the pistol at herself and fires as well. Tetsuro wakes up later, back on the 999 with Maetel, brought back by the Conductor. Maetel apologizes to Tetsuro, saying she had to make it look like they were dead for a few moments. Once the machines no longer detected signs of life, they de-activated and descended back into slumber. Tetsuro says as long as there were humans here the battle would never end. The 999 soon takes off.

TV Episode Summary:

The TV adaption of this chapter adds a considerable amount to the story, chiefly through a new character, Nanmi. Nanmi looks at maps in the library room on the 999 and plans to make El Alamein his new home. The Conductor tells him they don’t stop at that planet anymore, but Nanmi requests it then pulls out a bomb and threatens to blow up the train when the Conductor refuses. Tetsuro heads to the library car while the Conductor speaks to the 999’s engine, which declines to give in to the threat. 

 

Nanmi tells Tetsuro his planet has been at war for a long time. We see a flashback sequence where he explains the war has gone on so long that people don’t know the cause, and any attempts to get it to end is stopped by gunfire. He was sent as an emissary to find a new planet for his people to live and hopes to make El Alemein that place. The Conductor returns and tells them about the engine’s decision. Tetsuro now wants to stop there too. Nanmi takes Tetsuro hostage although we see he doesn’t really mean it after the Conductor leaves. The engine this time relents and permits a stop for 20 minutes only. 

 

Maetel comes in to confront Nanmi. The Conductor also comes in and tells him the train will now head for El Alamein, but Nanmi claims he will bring Tetsuro with him. Maetel says she is going to come along as well. The 999 arrives on El Alamein and they head out. Out in the desert, Nanmi tosses the bomb, which he admits was a fake anyway. The Conductor waits by the 999 for them to come back. Nanmi likes how quiet El Alamein is, with only ruins around them. As everything must be started over here, he has hope for this planet. Maetel tells Tetsuro to stay close by her. Nanmi decides that he will call his colleagues here and they will establish a planet of peace. He returns to Tetsuro and Maetel, telling them his decision.

Maetel wants to go back to the train, but Nanmi wants to take some photographs. At this point the episode returns primarily to the original manga chapter storyline, with the tanks around them coming alive. Nanmi is struck by a tank blast and Maetel and Tetsuro bring him with them. After returning to the 999, Tetsuro and Maetel visit Nanmi in the medical room where he asks Tetsuro to tell his colleagues that he found a peaceful place for them to live. Maetel stops Tetsuro from telling the truth about how dangerous the planet is. Nanmi dies shortly afterwards. 

 

A few other minor changes Include the scene with Tetsuro reading about Uranus’ rings at the beginning being cut, we see a flashback to the battle on El Alamein and Maetel claims the gun she used to shoot Tetsuro and herself was just a stun gun.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Nanmi – Shuichi Ikeda

Directive Voice – Shunji Yamada

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

I’m assuming the Directive Voice is the voice of the 999 engine. Nanmi’s voice actor, Shuichi Ikeda, would soon go on to a lot of fame for voicing Char Aznable, the famous Gundam franchise character, who he was doing the voice for at the same time he did his role in this episode.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

It is a rather simple premise with this chapter, as Tetsuro and Maetel travel to a world with no apparent life, but the ruins of what appeared to be a grand battle. The Conductor warns them not to stray too far from the train, and the layover is a mere 10 minutes, but in that short time Tetsuro and Maetel find themselves in danger. The seemingly silent tanks quickly come back to life at the sense of human presence and it is only through faking death that Tetsuro and Maetel are able to make it out alive. This brief chapter leaves several questions. Who created these tanks in the first place? Is there a reason why they are set up to destroy any life they sensed? Did the civilization that create them destroy itself because of it? Or perhaps the tanks were left here by some enemy force intentionally, to wipe out the enemy, while they were safely away? Perhaps scariest of all, is that these tanks became sentient on their own. I’d say this is kid of taking a cue from Terminator but this chapter was written several years before that movie came out. There are lots of possibilities to think about.

 

The television adaption adds in a new element with the character of Nanmi. Nanmi represents a group of people on his home planet who hope to escape the war that rages there. Nanmi hopes to have them settle on El Alamein, but it is a poor decision and ends in his demise. You would think that there would be an explanation for why the 999 doesn’t stop there and this could be explained to him, but such logic is left out. I didn’t mind his addition to the episode (the original chapter didn’t have enough content to support a full episode) although that particular aspect did bug me. Similar to the prior 2 chapters, despite this chapter appearing relatively early in the manga, its adaption is held off for quite a while.

 

As briefly mentioned in the chapter, El Alamein is a reference to a real life location, a town in the country of Egypt. The town was the location of two battles during World War II. The first occurred in July 1942 where the Axis forces marched towards Alexandria but were stopped by the Allied forces. The second battle took place a few months later, in late October to early November of that year, and had the Allied forces breaking through the Axis line and forcing them to retreat to Tunisia.

 

Illusion World of 4 1/2 Mats

Illusion World of 4 1/2 Mats

Manga Chapters 2-1 and 2-2

Episodes 60 and 61

Manga Chapter Summary:

The Conductor announces the 999’s next destination as the Planet of Tomorrow, with a layover of 14 days. Maetel tells Tetsuro to keep the fact that he is seeking a mechanical body and the Galaxy Express a secret. This is a peaceful planet that doesn’t even know of the existence of the Galaxy Express. She tells him to leave his cosmo gun here. The 999 lands, trying to blend in with the local trains. As they arrive it is pitch dark out. Tetsuro imagines this is what the Earth must have looked like when he was a baby. 

 

The next day the two of them find it to be quite crowded. Maetel asks Tetsuro if he’d like to eat some Ramen. Tetsuro is quite pleased; on Earth it was difficult to find healthy ingredients and it became a rare dish. They go to a restaurant. Tetsuro starts tearing up with joy as the food is delivered and he eats it with such joy that the owner throws them out, claiming they’re overdoing it. Tetsuro is quite happy and he and Maetel fall asleep in a park. When they wake up, they find that their passes and money have all been stolen. They are unable to mention anything to the police about the Galaxy Express and thus must find their passes within the next 2 weeks in order to be able to leave.

Through a real estate agent the two of them are able to find a place to live, saying they’ll work off what they owe. Tetsuro and Maetel claim to be brother and sister. As they arrive they meet the old woman landlord who lives there and Adachi, a young tenant who like Tetsuro loves Ramen. Another houseguest is working on making razors to sell to the Yakuza. The landlord lends them some futons to sleep on. When Tetsuro and Maetel wake up, they find they have been robbed again; now their clothes are gone! 

Later, Adachi tells Tetsuro that he should get a job and tells him he doesn’t look anything like the true beauty that his sister is. When Adachi asks Tetsuro where he was born, Tetsuro points up to the stars, but Adachi doesn’t believe him. Adachi does however mention he heard of rumors of the Galaxy Express and would really like to get on board. Adachi brings Tetsuro to a restaurant that ends up being the same place that he ate at yesterday! The owner agrees to let them eat before working, but Tetsuro and Adachi eat so much they pass out! Meanwhile, Maetel visits the Galaxy Railways local office and is told that lost passes can’t be reissued. If they can’t find their stolen passes, they will be forced to stay here. Maetel is told to be cautious as people on this planet are starting to believe in the existence of the 999.

Maetel returns to their home where the landlord provides her some wine and cakes to eat. She finds Tetsuro is already asleep, but he left her a package of ramen to eat. Tetsuro talks in his sleep, first about Count Mecha then saying Maetel over and over. Tetsuro wakes up and goes to Adachi’s room, asking if he can sleep there with him. Adachi provides a lot of shorts for them to sleep under and tells him to be more optimistic; things will get better. 

The day arrives when the 999 is to depart. Tetsuro says it is a really nice planet and even with the bad stuff that happened he likes this place. They decide there’s no harm in going to the station. When they get there they find a boy sitting on a bench, holding both of their passes. The boy gets up and angrily slams them down, leaving. Maetel stops him, asking him why he threw them away. The boy claims he wasn’t able to find a job here. Even if he left for another world he wouldn’t be able to accomplish what he can’t here. He feels it would be cowardly to leave his friends and girlfriend behind. Tetsuro provides him some cups of Ramen that he bought with his wages and lets him go. Maetel asks Tetsuro why he let him go and Tetsuro says it doesn’t matter, and they would have been good friends had they grown up together.

Tetsuro rushes back to the home they stayed at and tells Adachi to continue to fight and never give up. He says he will never forget him. Tetsuro leaves him some ramen cups and leaves. That night as Adachi eats his ramen he looks up in the sky and sees the 999 departing. He asks the landlord if she would believe him if he said he saw a flying space train. She claims she saw a couple when she was young but now he needs to find a job and finally become an adult. He wonders if Tetsuro and Maetel were on that train. On the 999, Tetsuro tells Maetel that perhaps this is called the Planet of Tomorrow as the future of everyone on the planet is probably wonderful. Adachi is fighting every day for his own future. Maetel says maybe they would have lived a happy life there had they not found their passes. 

TV Episode Summary:

In the TV series adaption, these chapters are spread across 2 episodes, 60 and 61. The biggest change to the episodes is a lot more time focused on Taro, the boy who steals Tetsuro’s pass (he is unnamed in the manga). While in the manga we only see him at the station on the day the 999 is to leave, we see a variety of scenes featuring Taro, his girlfriend Hanako and their friends. This includes them being introduced spotting the 999 as it approaches their planet. Taro following Tetsuro and Maetel and stealing from them twice and it makes more sense why he stole Tetsuro’s clothes as he plans to wear them as he boards the 999. We see several additional scenes with his friends including him offering Maetel’s pass to Hanako, who declines it, Hanako and his other friends planning on making a magazine about Taro’s departure (which they eventually produce) and a scene with him returning to his friends after the 999 takes off. They decide to change the focus of their magazine from being about Taro’s departure to being about the discovery of the 999.

Other changes included the layover only being 2 days rather than 14, Adachi being a struggling manga artist, Tetsuro having a flashback to eating Ramen with his mother back on Earth, the dagger-making resident at the dorm owning mini-turtles instead and a scene with Maetel on a bridge as Hanako and her friends pass by. When Adachi sees the 999 it gives him inspiration for his manga!

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Hanako – Keiko Yokozawa

Taro – Kiyoshi Komiyama

Boy A – Yoku Shioya

Boy B – Kiyonobu Suzuki

Adachi Futoshi – Shigeru Chiba

Dormitory Woman – Miyoko Asou

Ramen Shopkeep – Jouji Yanami

Real Estate Agent – Kunihiko Kitagawa (Yonehiko Kitagawa) (episode 60 only)

Tetsuro’s Mother – Akiko Tsuboi (episode 60 only)

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

Dread quickly built up in me early in this chapter when Tetsuro and Maetel’s passes were stolen. This is now the third time we have had this plot occur in merely 10 chapters. Yet as I read more of the chapter I didn’t mind it as much. It allowed for the ability to explore the life that Tetsuro and Maetel may have lived had they stayed on this planet. We didn’t see them really spend any time looking for their passes, and with the fact that the 999 is kept a secret on this planet, that made some sense. After all how can they ask about passes for a train that doesn’t exist? Although there are at least some rumors of the 999 and Adachi sees the train depart. I have got to figure that more people can see the 999 as it leaves. I wonder if there are mysteries surrounding it like there are for UFOs in our society? The stolen passes plot is resolved fairly easily in the end as Tetsuro comes across the boy who stole them as they arrive at the station and he decides to give up on them. Considering the passes were stolen in order to board the 999, it does make sense to simply wait for the thief at the station rather than spend a countless amount of time searching for them. The boy claims he doesn’t want to leave his girlfriend and friends behind, although he had two passes so he could have brought his girlfriend with him. Although I again go back to the explanation of the passes in the first chapter, that once someone’s name is signed on them, anyone else using said passes will be put to death. It kind of makes any pass-stealing plot moot. But with this being the third time it has come up, I suppose Matsumoto just expects us to act as if it never happened. 

In terms of other stuff from this chapter, I did enjoy quite a lot Tetsuro’s love for Ramen. Tetsuro’s love of Ramen noodles is one of the things that I fondly recall about Galaxy Express 999 and this is the first time it has come up as a plot point. I’ve always been a big fan of Ramen myself. Tetsuro claims they don’t have it on Earth anymore which surprises me, as it is kind of a cliché that Ramen is the perfect type of food for broke people as its cheap and all you need for it is hot water. Fellow tenant Adachi is a likeable character and as Tetsuro mentions, I think he and Tetsuro could have been good friends had they lived on the same planet together. I wonder if his spotting of the 999 will spur him on to try and board it someday. 

The TV adaption provides a lot more development for Taro, the pass thief. While I think this was included to provide more backstory for him, I think the net result is that Taro comes off as extremely unlikable. He often has this angry look on his face and is too dismissive of his girlfriend and friends. Stealing from Tetsuro not once, but twice is quite cruel. He makes a comment about how Tetsuro and Maetel must be rich and can easily buy more passes, which is incredibly dismissive and just him trying to shift any guilt for his bad actions off of himself.

Although the Planet of Tomorrow wants to keep the 999 a secret, changes in the TV episode means it probably won’t be for much longer, as Taro’s friends plan on making a magazine about it and it also is inspiring Adachi’s manga (perhaps in universe he will be a proxy for Leiji Matsumoto?)

Despite this being a relatively early pair of chapters, in the TV adaption it was held for a considerable amount of time before being covered. I think this harms the TV episodes considerably, and in reading over comments I made from viewing the episode years ago I found that I was extremely critical of it. This was primarily due to the stolen pass storyline which by that point had been done many times. With it coming up a lot earlier in the manga it’s not as bad for me this time. The manga is helped by the far smaller role of Taro too. He is probably my most disliked character in all of Galaxy Express 999 thus far so the less of him the better.

 

Beethoven of the Water Kingdom

Beethoven of the Water Kingdom

Manga Chapter 1-9

TV Episode 15 (Second Half)

Manga Chapter Summary:

As the 999 nears the next station, Planet 4D-3, Maetel puts on a pair of sunglasses and asks Tetsuro to do the same, claiming the planet is giving off a strange radiation. They pass through a black cloud in space and near the planet, which looks as if its center is empty. Maetel says 4D-3 is also called the drop of water, as its surface is 100% water. The planet’s inhabitants live underwater, and the 999 is forced to dive into the water upon their arrival. There are several underwater lands spread out around the equator which are surrounded by a bubble of oxygen and is where the people live. Tetsuro thinks it sounds like a fairy tale, but Maetel tells him there are other places in the universe like this and some are far from being the perfect fairy tale world. 

 

 

The 999 enters the oxygen bubble, enabling them to open the window. Maetel claims the fresh air is the best oxygen in the universe. The 999 lands in an area that looks like ancient Earth. While the 999 stops, there is no station, as the law on 4D-3 is to leave nature as undisturbed as possible. With it being spring here, they are able to see various aspects of nature that have vanished from the Earth, such as tadpoles and butterflies. Tetsuro and Maetel approach the inn and upon being told he looks odd, Tetsuro finally takes his sunglasses off. As they drink some tea, Tetsuro tells the innkeeper of his plan to head to the planet where he can get a free machine body, to which she replies that every youngster dreams of that lately.

The innkeeper suggests Tetsuro take a relaxing bath and he heads outside to some hot springs. Maetel gets in the hot springs with him and Tetsuro dons his sunglasses again to restrain himself from looking at her too much. Tetsuro speaks of his recollection of taking a bath with his mother as a child. They soon hear the sound of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Tetsuro says if Earth were only as nice as this planet, he wouldn’t need a machine body. Tetsuro passes out and suddenly a sword wielder jumps into the pool, attacking them. Maetel tells Tetsuro to hide their 999 passes as the mysterious person attacks her. Tetsuro grabs his rifle to defend Maetel with, but the innkeeper says to stop, the attacker is her son. 

 

 

The innkeeper’s son says he spends his days writing melodies and writing them on the piano. He desires to leave this place, with no electricity or lights, and be somewhere more civilized where there are big cities. He begs Tetsuro and Maetel to give him their pass or at least let him on the train. Maetel says they can’t help him and he’ll have to save up and buy a pass himself. He says he will become a famous composer then, earn a lot of money and move to the biggest city in the universe where he can perform in concert halls with his own compositions, with thousands in attendance. Back on the 999, Maetel tells Tetsuro that there were many young people with their heads full of dreams who admired the lights of the city like that boy, but they understood quite fast that the Earth was a mechanical planet. The nature is beautiful on this planet, but the average age is only around 60. With a machine body they could live forever. Who is wrong? Who is right? Maetel says we won’t know until the day that space history ends. As the 999 departs 4D-3 lights up and Maetel wonders if this shining light is the hope and ambition of that young Beethoven.

TV Episode Summary:

The TV adaption makes up the second half of episode 15, with the first half being dedicated to the previous chapter.

 

 

The TV adaption is fairly faithful to the manga chapter, without changes of major consequence. The overall theme of any changes I did identify deal with us seeing a bit more of the “Beethoven” character, including him seeing Tetsuro and Maetel as they leave the 999 and another scene with him playing the piano angrily before his attack. After his attack we see a brief scene of him conducting and playing a piano, presumably for a crowd in his imagination. A visual change I noticed was that Tetsuro wears his sunglasses for a far shorter amount of time than he had in the manga chapter.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Beethoven – Yu Mizushima

Beethoven’s Mother – Reiko Suzuki

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

I presume that Beethoven is not the character’s actual name, but that is what he is titled in the credits.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

Probably more so than any chapter to this point, this chapter is lacking much of a plot and is a rather dull one for me. The first half or so of the chapter is dedicated to the 999’s travel to 4D-3 and its unique appearance of a water-filled planet with landmasses inside of it. As they land in one of such masses, we find that nature is beautiful here, and there is wildlife which we find for the first time is no longer on Earth. Is all of Earth mechanized these days? As one who loves the outside, it would be a sad day for me if that ever becomes the case. The second half of the chapter features a brief storyline with the young Beethoven (unnamed in the manga) who has dreams of making it big as a musician and heading to a planet where things are much flashier and livelier. It is an interesting contrast with Tetsuro, who briefly speaks about how much he would like it here and that he wouldn’t need a machine body if Earth was like this. This is the third time now in the manga that we have a character seeking to board the 999 (previously occurring in chapters 1-2 and 1-7). The 999 is in very big demand which makes this appear to be a common plot point.

 

 

Tetsuro briefly passes out in the hot spring with no explanation, which puzzled me. Also, Tetsuro makes a comment about the fact that he keeps wearing his sunglasses in the hot tub to restrain him from looking at a naked Maetel which I also found odd. If anything wouldn’t wearing the sunglasses make him more apt to do that? Given the fact that Tetsuro views Maetel as a mother figure though, I don’t really think he would look at her in a sexual manner (and he hasn’t gone through puberty either).

 

 

I don’t have much in terms of comments on the TV adaption as it is mostly faithful to the manga chapter. I can say that historically this storyline has been one I have viewed as one of the weakest of the early episodes; it is helped considerably by it being in the same episode as the Dark Knight storyline which I liked a lot more.

Spoiler Analysis:

With Tetsuro donning his hat and sunglasses, his appearance reminds me a bit of Tochiro Oyama, the Captain Harlock character who will appear in the Galaxy Express 999 movie.