Departure Ballad

Departure Ballad

Manga Chapter 1-1

TV Episode 1

Manga Chapter Summary: 

A young boy, Tetsuro Hoshino, and his mother watch as one of the trains of the Galaxy Express, #776, returns to Megalopolis Tokyo station from space. Tetsuro and his mother wear shabby looking cloaks and expect snow to be coming soon. Tetsuro’s mother talks about mechanical bodies, with which they wouldn’t have to be concerned about the cold and could live for a long time, about a thousand years, rather than the mere hundred a human can live. She also talks of Tetsuro’s father, who was killed due to being opposed to humans buying mechanical bodies. If he hadn’t died, she says they could have bought a mechanical body for Tetsuro. The snow starts coming down and they start heading back to their house. Tetsuro’s mother senses something and they rush off in the other direction only for her to be struck by a beam blast. About to die, Tetsuro’s mother tells him something she was keeping secret from him, that if one rides on the Galaxy Express #999, they eventually will arrive at a station where they can get a mechanical body for free. She tells him to get on that train and go to that planet, and passes away.

Tetsuro hides as a pair of riders approach on horses. They are a mechanical man, Count Mecha and a hunting partner. Pleased by the beautiful body of Tetsuro’s mother, Mecha plans on hanging it on his wall. Count Mecha and his companion ride off. Tetsuro continues to wander through the snow, thinking that the idea of getting on the Galaxy Express is just a dream. His body starts feeling numb and he collapses. Tetsuro later wakes up, in a cabin with a blonde woman who gives him some soup. The woman tells Tetsuro that her name is Maetel and she had been listening into the conversation he and his mother had on a sound detector. Tetsuro asks Maetel if she has a mechanical body and she removes her coat to prove that she doesn’t. Maetel tells Tetsuro that she will give him a pass for the Galaxy Express if he goes along with her. Tetsuro asks what her destination is, but she won’t say. Tetsuro asks if Count Mecha’s home is nearby and she points him to where to find it. She says it is dangerous, as people with mechanical bodies can shoot those with ordinary bodies at night. Tetsuro says his condition for going along with Maetel is that he first goes to Count Mecha’s home. Maetel provides him a gun and he heads out into the snowy wilderness.

 

At Count Mecha’s mansion, he proudly displays the stuffed body of Tetsuro’s mother to a number of dinner guests. Tetsuro bursts through the front door and upon seeing her opens fire upon all of them. Count Mecha begs Tetsuro to not shoot his brain as while he can repair the rest of his body, he will die for real if his brain is destroyed. Tetsuro ignores his pleas and crushes his head with the butt of his gun. Tetsuro swears that he will get a mechanical body and return to Earth, killing all with such bodies. He shows the pass to his mother’s body and declares he’ll be heading on the 999 to the planet where he can get a free mechanical body. Tetsuro lights fire to the house and flees as it blows up. Maetel is waiting on a sled nearby and tells Tetsuro he can hold onto the gun. Listening to the radio, they hear that the 999 will be departing at midnight. Maetel tells Tetsuro to take a good look at the scenery as he’ll have mechanical eyes the next time he is here. Tetsuro finds it strange that Maetel looks a lot like his mother and wonders what it means.

Tetsuro and Maetel stay at a hotel in Megalopolis that is specifically meant for those traveling on the 999. Maetel answers a knock at the door only for a smoke bomb to be thrown in the room that knocks the two of them out. When they wake up, Tetsuro finds that his pass has been stolen. Maetel realizes that Tetsuro’s pass was stolen but hers wasn’t as he failed to write his name on it. She tells him that someone using another person’s pass will result in the death penalty! The two of them head to the streets of Megalopolis where the poor reside. While there, Maetel’s coat is stolen from her. Tetsuro and Maetel make their way to a building where they find a giant computer. Knowing that the computer is involved with those who stole Tetsuro’s pass, Maetel demands its return and rebuffs any threats from the computer to have them captured or killed. The computer angrily returns the pass which Maetel has Tetsuro immediately write his name on. As they leave, the entire building explodes, which Maetel claims is from a bomb she left, not wanting any affiliated parties to come after them.

As they head through the alley Tetsuro comes upon the man who had stolen Maetel’s coat. He tries to take it back, but Maetel feels sorry for the man, who just wanted something warm to sleep with and lets him keep it. Tetsuro and Maetel return to the hotel and Maetel gets in the shower. Tetsuro hears a conversation taking place in the shower, with Maetel being told she will be killed if she doesn’t follow orders. Tetsuro bursts into the bathroom but finds Maetel alone. Tetsuro apologizes and tells himself that even if Maetel were a devil or witch he’d accept it, just so he can ride the 999. As midnight approaches, the two of them depart the hotel and head for Megalopolis station. The narration tells us that while a great number of people have headed out via Megalopolis station, the train is usually empty when it returns. Despite this, people still fight for a chance to get on the train.

 

Arriving at the track, Tetsuro realizes that the 999 looks like an old fashioned train car. Maetel tells him it is protected by an infinite electromagnetic barrier. The train was made to be old fashioned to keep people at ease, especially as many riding it would never return. Tetsuro swears he’ll return with a mechanical body. Tetsuro gets on the train while Maetel goes to get some food as the dining car won’t open until later. Tetsuro finds a woman onboard, dressed in ratty clothes, having mistaken her for trash at first. The woman claims she worked hard to buy a ticket for this train and wonders why no one riding this train has come back alive. Midnight strikes and Tetsuro calls out for Maetel to hurry and make her way back to the train. The train takes off, and Tetsuro is surprised to realize that Maetel already was onboard. Maetel gives him some food and tells him to enjoy the taste; when he has a mechanical body he will no longer be able to taste the flavor. Tetsuro asks Maetel about how those who take the train never come back and she claims it is just a rumor.

The train continues forward, eventually surpassing its track and flying up into space. Tetsuro looks at the lights on the ground in the city; the areas populated by those with mechanical bodies while the dark areas are where those without them reside. As the train departs Earth and flies by the moon, the passenger Tetsuro met earlier starts freaking out and pulls out a gun. She is afraid to go to a place where she won’t be able to return and demands the train do a U-turn and go back to Earth. Maetel claims this is not possible due to railway regulations and the woman shoots at her. The Conductor grabs the woman from behind and throws her out of the train into the void of space. Maetel says he had no choice due to her refusal to follow the rules. Maetel explains to Tetsuro that they will be going to Mars next, then Titan and Pluto after that. The 999 will remain at each station for the length of one full day on that particular planet. She tells Tetsuro that one must make it back to the 999 by the departure time or they’ll die. Maetel tells Tetsuro to look back at the Earth; even if he just has sad memories of it he will miss them someday. Tetsuro doesn’t feel like it, just thinking about getting a mechanical body.

TV Episode Summary: 

The TV episode retains the initial part of the storyline largely intact, including the death of Tetsuro’s mother, Maetel rescuing him and offering him a pass for the 999, and Tetsuro taking his revenge on Count Mecha. A few key changes including removing the line about Tetsuro’s father being opposed to mechanical bodies as well as the removal of one of the more memorable panels from the manga, Tetsuro’s mother being displayed stuffed on the wall. In the TV episode it’s merely a deer head. Although when you think things through, it makes a bit more sense in the episode, given that Tetsuro kills Count Mecha mere hours after his mother’s death. The episode includes an element completely absent from the manga chapter with the local police pursuing Tetsuro, both initially after his attack on the mansion as well as once he and Maetel make it to Megalopolis. I assume this was to include more action sequences within the episode.

 

Many aspects of the manga chapter are cut, including the entire sequence where the pass is stolen and Tetsuro and Maetel head out to find it. As such there is just one consolidated scene at the hotel room, which includes Tetsuro hearing the mysterious voice in the bathroom. Also removed are all mentions of the fact that those who ride the 999 don’t come back. The fellow passenger who the Conductor throws out of the train is removed as well; which results in us not meeting the Conductor yet. Small portions of Maetel explaining the 999 to Tetsuro are kept, but most are removed, with some explanatory dialogue moved to episode 2.

A few other key differences in the TV episode include Tetsuro’s mother giving him a pendant to wear around his neck, which was absent from the manga (it also features in the TV ending credits) as well as the fact that Tetsuro’s mother has dark hair instead of being blonde. 

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Tetsuro’s Mother – Akiko Tsuboi

Count Mecha – Hidekatsu Shibata

Count Mecha Subordinate A – Seiji Satou

Count Mecha Subordinate B – Takashi Tanaka (Banjou Ginga)

Police – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Note that the Police voice actor will also voice the recurring Conductor character.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:  

At 66 pages long, the opening chapter of Galaxy Express 999 is one of its longest; for quite a while most chapters are approximately 20 pages long, with longer stories taking place across multiple chapters. It will be over 80 chapters before we get another chapter of this length again. With its longer length, this opening chapter has the opportunity to do some initial world building and set the overall stage for what will be a lengthy story. Many core aspects of the storyline are introduced here. For starters we have the concept of mechanical bodies. At this point in the future, humans are able to have their body parts replaced with mechanical ones, enabling a far greater life span. Tetsuro’s mother claims one with a mechanical body can live for 1,000 years, although my recollection from past 999 materials I’ve read or watched is that one could live forever if they got the necessary parts replaced. It is said that a human body can only live for 90 to 100 years, which still is quite a long time, slightly longer than most people live these days. It seems like one can go as far as to have practically their entire body replaced, as the only human looking component of Count Mecha is his hair (which could be a wig) and his colleagues also look fully mechanical as well. It is a rather dystopian future for regular human beings; Maetel claims that mechanized humans are able to hunt natural ones at night, and beyond Maetel, anyone who has a human body appears to be poor and destitute. We are also introduced to the concept here that having a mechanical body may make a person more apt to do bad things. Count Mecha’s killing of Tetsuro’s mother and having her body hung on the wall is quite a horrific sight and something that has always stuck with me going back to when I originally saw it in the movie version. Tetsuro’s mother speaks of how his father was opposed to those having mechanical bodies, although oddly enough then talks about how they would have bought Tetsuro one if he were still alive.

Maetel is a kind figure, saving Tetsuro from certain death and giving him the one thing he wants most in the entire world, a pass for the 999. She has some mystery about her as well though. Maetel and Tetsuro talk about her being a professional traveler, but we don’t know why she boards the train or where she is going. Tetsuro hears Maetel speaking to a voice while in the shower, one that is demanding she follow certain orders, but Tetsuro finds no actual person there with her when he bursts in. We do see a phone on the wall, although you’d think Tetsuro wouldn’t have been able to hear it. Tetsuro also can’t help but notice that Maetel looks a lot like his mother. Given the art style of Leiji Matsumoto where most of his women have the same look to them, this was to be noticed by the reader regardless, but Tetsuro specifically brings it up multiple times, and we’ll have to wait to see if we ever get an explanation for it.

 

The world of 999 is a bit of a grim one in other ways. The 999 has an odd rumor surrounding it, that no one who rides it ever returns. Is this because those who get mechanical bodies have no desire to return to Earth? Or does something nefarious happen to them? Despite its popularity, we see only one other passenger on the 999, a woman who looks as destitute as Tetsuro and his mother were. She is unable to get the rumors of what happens to those who board the 999 out of her head and it ultimately is her undoing. The Conductor literally throwing her out of the train to a certain death was a grim sight to see. We also have the sequence where Maetel blows up an entire building with a bomb after being able to recover Tetsuro’s stolen pass. She claims nothing but computers was in it, but do we know that is the case for real?

Overall this is a dense and strong first chapter, giving us a nice foundation for the Galaxy Express 999 storyline. I found the TV adaption quite a bit less effective due to key cuts, such as the mystery of people never coming back on the 999 and the other passenger onboard. Although I was happy to see the subplot with the stolen pass being removed.

Spoiler Analysis:  

This chapter features the first of what will be an oft occurring plot point, something that has frustrated me considerably in the past, Tetsuro’s pass getting stolen. My recollection from watching the TV series is that this comes up as a storyline at least 15-20 times over the course of the show. This is my first time reading the original manga series and given that the TV episodes almost certainly contain some padding in them to stretch out the storyline, I am hoping it’s great frequency is primarily driven by the TV adaption needing to add more content to certain episodes. We shall see.

We have a discussion of Tetsuro’s father, and it is said he fought against the machine people and passed away. In the TV series my recollection is Tetsuro’s father isn’t brought up again in dialogue, although we do see him in a flashback in episode 4. The second Galaxy Express 999 movie, Adieu Galaxy Express 999 reveals that Tetsuro’s father didn’t die and became the machine man Faust, working for Maetel’s mother Prometheum. This movie is not “canon” with the manga and TV series though, being an original work, so it shouldn’t tie into this storyline.

 

The hair color of Tetsuro’s mother will greatly vary in future TV episodes, with her having blonde hair in some, but dark hair in others. This is most likely a continuity error.

Many key aspects of this chapter are included in the original movie version, including the death of Tetsuro’s mother, his rescue by Maetel, Tetsuro hearing Maetel talk to a mysterious voice and most of the explanations Maetel provides about the 999. Most notably, Tetsuro taking his revenge on Count Mecha is shifted to far later in the movie, with Count Mecha appearing to have a far higher position in mechanized society than what is displayed here. While it is cut in the TV version, the sequence where Tetsuro sees his mother’s stuffed body on Count Mecha’s wall returns. Much like with the TV episode, the sequence where Tetsuro’s pass is stolen is cut, as is the crazed passenger on the 999.