Shadow of the Planet of Hesitation

Shadow of the Planet of Hesitation

Manga Chapter 1-6

TV Episode 5

Manga Chapter Summary:

Pluto is called the planet of hesitation because as travelers arrive here, the last stop in the solar system, they wonder whether they will return alive. As the 999 approaches the planet, Tetsuro grows quite cold. Maetel claims that everyone gets unbearably cold as they approach the planet, even those on heated space trains and spaceships. She says some believe it is due to the souls of frozen travelers. To warm up Tetsuro, Maetel clings him to her, underneath her coat. Tetsuro tells Maetel that this reminds him of when his mother would bundle up with him. 

As they exit the station, Maetel tells Tetsuro that even those with mechanized bodies feel cold as their internal heaters break down here. As they exit the town, Tetsuro finds to his surprise that there are numerous bodies held underneath the ice. Maetel tells him that the bodies of travelers who died here, as well as those who died from illness are buried here. Those who abandoned their human bodies for mechanized ones have also left them here. Tetsuro sees Maetel weeping over one of the bodies, but she tells Tetsuro its nothing when he asks. 

 

As they start to depart the area, a mechanized woman, Shadow approaches. Shadow claims to be the caretaker of the ice graveyard. She says she got her mechanized body here on Pluto and didn’t feel like continuing on. Shadow asks Tetsuro if he wants to see what she looked like long ago and takes Tetsuro with her despite him declining her request. As Shadow touches Tetsuro he immediately starts shivering. Shadow brings Tetsuro before her beautiful human body, encased in ice. Shadow claims that no human body could have a face as beautiful as her human one, so she chose to not have a face at all. 

When Shadow refuses to let go of Tetsuro, Maetel arrives with a whip to stop her and gives Tetsuro some hot milk. Shadow starts crying, saying she wants to retrieve the warmth of her original body and return to Earth again. Maetel tells Tetsuro that she feels sorry for her, and ponders if someday people who have lost interest in their mechanized bodies will come back to return to their former living ones. She thinks those who left their bodies here are happier than those who lost their human bodies forever. Tetsuro thinks it would be nice if Shadow could return to her beautiful human body someday. Tetsuro and Maetel get back on the 999 and the Conductor claims their next stop will be the Comet Zone. As Maetel starts describing it to Tetsuro he falls asleep. Maetel says it’s better to forget this place, the saddest place in space.

TV Episode Summary:

This episode is the most changed yet from the original manga. The first half of the episode predominantly covers what was included in the manga chapter. The key difference is that rather than traveling to the graves of ice together, Maetel requests that Tetsuro stay at the hotel and she goes there on her own. Tetsuro ends up following her and still witnesses her crying over someone’s grave. Shadow has additional dialogue in the TV episode about becoming a machine body in order to preserve her beauty, and also says that she will be able to return to being human by taking Tetsuro’s soul.

 

The second half of the episode, aside from the 999’s departure, is new material. After saving Tetsuro, Maetel brings him to the hotel where he recovers in bed. Maetel warns Tetsuro to not leave. Tetsuro asks Maetel who she was crying over and she claims it was the grave of her dearest friend. That night, Tetsuro hears his mother calling from outside. Tetsuro struggles immensely, telling himself it is not real and that he shouldn’t go. Eventually he gives in however and goes outside to be with his mother. Tetsuro’s mother seems different, telling him to take Maetel’s whip with him and that he should stay with her here now instead of trying to get a machine body. Tetsuro’s mother leads him to the cave where Shadow brought him earlier and Maetel arrives shortly after, having woken up and realized that Tetsuro is gone. 

 

Maetel shoots at Tetsuro’s mother with laser beams from her earrings, revealing that it was all a delusion and Tetsuro’s mother is in fact Shadow. Possessing Maetel’s whip, Shadow attacks Maetel relentlessly until Tetsuro shoots the whip out of her hands. Tetsuro threatens to kill Shadow, but decides a more fitting punishment would be to destroy her human body. Shadow throws herself in front of it, begging Tetsuro to not destroy it. Maetel pulls the gun out of Tetsuro’s hands and convinces him to stop, and the two leave. As the episode ends we have a shot of the body that Maetel was crying over, that of a blue haired woman.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Shadow – Mieko Nobusawa

Tetsuro’s Mother – Akiko Tsuboi

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

After having some action the last couple of chapters, we return to a more quiet tone here as the 999 touches down on Pluto. The cold on this planet seems to affect everyone, not just flesh and blood human beings but also space trains, spaceships and mechanized humans. The frozen city is a beautiful one to look at and we have one of Galaxy Express 999’s more memorable sights to me, the numerous frozen bodies laid to rest underneath the ice. Those who were wondering what happened to the original human bodies of those who were mechanized have an answer here. Although from Maetel’s dialogue it seems that only certain people have left their human bodies here while others have lost them forever.

 

Like Claire a few chapters before, Shadow shows regret over being mechanized. A line of dialogue asking why her body had to die on this planet makes me wonder if she had some sort of illness that forced her to become mechanized. In the TV version her dialogue is changed to claim she became mechanized to preserve her beauty. Shadow misses the warmth of her original body and misses the great beauty she once was. That Shadow chose to have no face due to being unable to match the beauty of her human face is interesting storytelling, but does fall apart when you think more about the logistics. You would think with advanced technology that one could match or even exceed the beauty of their original body by becoming mechanized. Just look at Claire from a few chapters earlier as an example. Shadow also refrains from replicating her bright orange and voluminous hair, which to me was the most beautiful part of her human body. You would think wouldn’t be difficult to replicate; she instead opts for a far more toned down appearance.

The chapter includes a brief moment where Maetel sobs over the body of someone in the ice. Whom this person could be is not explained in the manga chapter and it’s a plot point dropped pretty quickly, with Tetsuro not even making the attempt to look and see who it was. It is an interesting mystery. One would wonder if it is Maetel’s original body, but then we just further evidence in the prior chapter that she is not mechanized. In the TV version Maetel claims it is the body of her closest friend and we see the body at episode’s end.

 

The additional material added to the TV episode is fairly effective for me. The manga chapter only has enough material to warrant roughly half an episode. Rather than combine this with the next chapter, as had been done for chapters 1-3 and 1-4, new material has been added involving a second attempt by Shadow to seize Tetsuro. This is the second time in just a few episodes that someone takes the visage of Tetsuro’s mother in order to trick him, although this time it was a lot more effective than the hallucination from chapter 1-3 (episode 3) as we get to see Tetsuro struggle considerably, telling himself it’s not real but ultimately being unable to control himself from going to see whom he thinks is his mother. Shadow’s attack on Maetel with her whip is quite intense, as if she is taking out all her anger and frustration on her. Tetsuro’s threat to destroy her human body is an effective one, and as it is clearly the most important thing in the world to Shadow, is the best way to stop her. Would Tetsuro had gone through with destroying it had Maetel not stopped him? I’d think most likely so; Tetsuro by this point has killed several people and I don’t think he’d hesitate to destroy what is already a dead body.

Spoiler Analysis:

The original manga chapter is adapted in the movie version, with some slight changes. Maetel heading ahead on her own as is done in the TV episode is also done in the movie version. Shadow’s human body isn’t as elaborately beautiful, in particular they’ve done away with the bright orange hair. It is stored in a formal glass coffin instead of just a block of ice. Shadow’s second attempt at capturing Tetsuro that appears in the TV episode is excluded.

 

Just who is Maetel looking at in the ice? I don’t believe it is definitely said in the manga or TV series, but in the movie it is said that it is her original human body, which makes sense and can probably be speculated by anyone with a sneaking suspicion that Maetel isn’t really a traditional human.