The Sleeping Warrior of Titan

 The Sleeping Warrior of Titan

Manga Chapter 1-4

TV Episode 3 (second half)

Manga Chapter Summary:  

The 999’s second destination is Titan, a satellite of Saturn which is the second largest satellite in the solar system. Tetsuro is surprised to find out that a day on Titan is the equivalent of 16 days of Earth time, but Maetel tells him he won’t have time to get bored, calling it both the most beautiful place in the solar system and the most terrifying. Although initially covered by thick clouds, the skies on Titan have parted and it is now a blue and green moon, as much so as the Earth. 

 

Mere moments after stepping out of the station, a man is killed right in front of Tetsuro and Maetel is kidnapped! Tetsuro pursues the kidnappers but is blasted by a tranquilizer gun and passes out. Upon waking up, Tetsuro finds himself in Flower Hotel, being tended to by an old woman. The woman claims Maetel has been kidnapped by the warriors of Grape Valley. She claims Titan has “Paradise Law”; people have the absolute freedom to do whatever they want; only opposing such freedom is a crime. But such freedom provides people the ability to murder other people and face no punishment whatsoever. When Tetsuro claims that he has to rescue Maetel, the old woman shows him a map and allows him to ride on a boat. She also gives him a hat to prevent heatstroke and a pistol which belonged to a lonesome space warrior.

Tetsuro heads out on the boat, and with the peaceful weather is about to take a nap when a bug approaches from the distance. As it approaches the bug is revealed to be giant in size and Tetsuro jumps into the water to avoid it. He realizes a machine man is hunting him, using the bug as a human hunter would use a falcon. Tetsuro’s gun fails to do anything, but a single shot from the pistol the old woman brought him destroys the giant bug. Tetsuro blasts the hunter shortly afterwards. Seeing Maetel’s coat and hat floating in the water, Tetsuro continues on and soon finds her, surrounded by dead bodies of numerous machine men. 

The two of them return to the old woman, who tells Tetsuro he can keep the hat and gun. She claims it belonged to her son, who was a space warrior and went on numerous space adventures, but he eventually came back to Titan where he died. As they depart, Tetsuro says that the hearts of men living in an absolute paradise like this eventually dried up, and the hearts of those in a hostile world are more beautiful. As they return to the 999, they are told by the Conductor that their next stop is Pluto, to be reached in 15 days.

TV Episode Summary:

This chapter takes up the second half of episode 3 of the TV series, sharing it with chapter 1-3. This is another faithful adaption, with just minor changes made. In particular, the old woman doesn’t show Tetsuro a map through Grape Valley like she does in the manga, and Tetsuro finds Maetel passed out instead of awake.

 

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Old Woman – Hisako Kyouda

Titan Man - Seiji Satou

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

I am assuming the Titan Man is the unnamed hunter character. Satou had voiced another mechanized person in the first episode.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This chapter focuses on the beautiful moon of Titan, described as if it were a paradise. People on Titan are provided absolute freedom, called “Paradise Law”. The ability to do absolutely anything they want. But rather than be absolute freedom, Titan comes off more like anarchy. I’m one who supports as much freedom as possible and frequently pushes hard against attempts to restrict it. But even then, freedom does have to have some limits for a society to properly function. We see on Titan that you can literally kill someone and no one can stop you from doing so or hold you responsible for doing it. Such a society really pushes survival of the fittest to the forefront. If you are weak in such a society, you don’t really have complete freedom. You only are free as long as someone with more power than you doesn’t decide to do something not in your best interest.

For the second time we see a machine man hunting humans, although Tetsuro is much better equipped this time than when Count Mecha killed his mother and he is able to defeat the giant bug and the hunter sending it with the powerful gun the old woman gave him. Speaking of the old woman, I’m surprised that in a society like Titan she is able to live in a fancy hotel and that someone hasn’t seized it from her. You’d think it wouldn’t be difficult. Perhaps this son of hers is highly respected in Titan’s society and she has been left alone to honor him?

 

Maetel continues to show that she is quite a powerful individual. We saw in the first chapter that she blew up an entire building, here she is able to kill a number of mechanized kidnappers, although her doing so occurs off page/off-screen.

Spoiler Analysis:

This is another chapter that largely makes its way into the movie version. Plot points such as paradise law, Maetel being kidnapped and the giant bug all are included. The old woman’s role is changed somewhat in that she lives in a more traditional house rather than a hotel, and her son is revealed to be Tochiro Oyama of Captain Harlock fame. Tochiro will show up later in the movie, a plot point not from the original manga. To my knowledge the old woman’s son is of no long term importance in the manga and isn’t brought up again.