City of Fireflies

City of Fireflies

Manga Chapter 4-2

TV Episode 16

Manga Chapter Summary:

The 999 approaches a planet that looks a lot like Earth, but from up close one can see some sort of gold dust moving on the surface at night. Tetsuro notices this as the 999 nears. The Conductor says their next stop is Mariko’s Firefly where they will be staying for 2 days and 1 night. Maetel says it is impossible to truly take in this place during the daytime. 

The 999 arrives during the day and Tetsuro wonders what all those lights were that they saw as they approached. The planet has similar comforts to Earth, but Maetel says that the difference between rich and poor here is much crueler. A young woman approaches, asking if they have any clothes to clean or trash to take care of, but Maetel has nothing. Noticing her ratty shoes, Tetsuro follows her and provides her some gold coins that the Galaxy Express provides as an allowance. The woman seems to take offense at it and tells Tetsuro she’s not a beggar who accepts money for doing nothing in return. 

 

Tetsuro returns to the hotel room and tells Maetel about how his mother taught him to earn what he had and he’d be ashamed to receive something while doing nothing in return. The woman from earlier returns to the door, asking Tetsuro to come out with her tonight and he will be able to buy something if he wants. She hands Tetsuro a note and leaves. The note points out the location of her home and is signed Freya. Tetsuro wonders what to do. Maetel says she has business that night and to be sure to be at the 999 by 9:00 AM the next morning. Tetsuro decides to head out. Along the way he notices Maetel spending her time looking over magazines in a bookstore and realizes she didn’t really have plans, but left so he wouldn’t be pressured to stay.

Tetsuro walks down some alleys, briefly seeing a giant light along the way. He reaches Freya’s home where she is waiting for him. Inside he finds art supplies everywhere and she tells him she hopes to create animated films someday. She shows him storyboards of a tale about her pet cat, which she considers her most valuable item. She is unable to photocopy it due to the expense. Suddenly the lights go out and parts of Freya start glowing, as if she was a firefly. She tells Tetsuro to close his eyes and get out of here. Tetsuro realizes that the lights he saw as they approached the planet were people’s bodies. Freya says people’s attractiveness here is based on how brilliant their light is, which is decided at birth. Those whose full body shines are the most attractive while someone like her who only partially shines is considered unattractive. As such she thinks there’s no chance she’ll get a better job someday. Freya allows Tetsuro to take the storyboard with him, saying she hopes he’ll buy it and that she’ll show up at the hotel tomorrow. 

 

Along the way back Tetsuro runs into someone whose entire body shines. He tells Tetsuro he’s so ugly he can’t even call himself human and that he should die. As he heads to the hotel Tetsuro notices people who fully shine living it up while those who don’t live poorly in the streets. While the planet looked splendid from space, he realizes it’s even worse than Earth. He says the planet deserves to be destroyed and is accosted by a cop who overhears him. He is permitted to go when he reveals he’s a 999 passenger but is told to watch what he says. 

 

Maetel returns to the hotel room and sees Tetsuro crying over Freya’s storyboards. Tetsuro couldn’t help but cry during the saddest parts of the story. Tetsuro tells Maetel he saw Freya shining and wonders why people’s value on this planet depend on how much they shine. Maetel says it is a conceited planed, bound to the splendor of appearance. The next morning Freya returns to the hotel room and Tetsuro gives her 2 gold coins and also returns the storyboards. She thinks Tetsuro is showing her charity but he says that’s not the case; someday when she has completed her animated movie she will have to send it to him. Freya thanks Tetsuro and kisses him on the forehead. As they head to the station Tetsuro wonders where he will see Freya’s film and Maetel says maybe on his way back when he has a machine body. 

 

At the train station Tetsuro notices a man slapping around Freya, who had come to the train station, because her body hardly shines. Tetsuro realizes it’s the man he bumped into the prior night. He asks him if he is boarding the train and tells him before getting on that he is challenging him to a fight. The man quickly backs down to Tetsuro. Maetel asks him why he is leaving this planet. In a lawless galaxy his shining, tall body and pretty face won’t be of use to him; he would need courage and confidence in his abilities. If he feels good only due to his radiance he shouldn’t ever leave this planet. The man still boards the train, but goes to another train car, trembling in fear. Freya hands Tetsuro a gift as he boards. Tetsuro opens it up and finds that she made a little figurine of him. The closing narration explains that after some time had passed, Freya’s anime was shown in theaters on numerous planets and she dedicated it to Tetsuro. It is unknown if Tetsuro ever read those words.

TV Episode Summary:

This episode is fairly faithful to the manga chapter with only a few minor revisions. We have a brief new scene where we see another train pass by the 999 as it approaches the Mariko’s Firefly. We also see Freya working on making the Tetsuro carving shortly after he first gets back to the hotel. You wonder why she didn’t give him the carving when she came to the hotel (in the manga my initial thought was she made it after he gave back the storyboard). Perhaps she needed to work on it more?

 

In the episode Tetsuro still expresses regret at trying to give Freya the coins for nothing in return, but it’s an inner monologue rather than talking with Maetel about it and he doesn’t speak to how his mother raised him. One other change I noticed is that Tetsuro running into a cop on the way back to the hotel is cut.

 

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Freya – Yokiko Matsuo

Young Man – Yoshito Yasuhara

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Tetsuro’s Mother, played by Akiko Tsuboi is also credited for this episode although she does not appear.

 

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This chapter brings us to a planet where people glow like fireflies, but their level of radiance decides their level of beauty and also their place in society. Matsumoto clearly seems to be criticizing the importance laid upon physical appearance/beauty in this chapter. While there is no doubt that in our society being attractive will give someone a step up, on this planet it seems taken to the full extreme. In our society one who is not attractive can still work themselves up in other ways and still be intelligent, have a successful career and make a lot of money. They can still have a relatively happy life. On this planet it seems like none of that matters. To make matters worse, your level of attractiveness on this planet is decided entirely at your birth. At least in our society one does have somewhat of an impact on their physical appearance through matters such as exercise, good health, grooming, fashion, etc… On this planet if you aren’t born with a full glow to you, your role is set, for good. It’s quite a depressing outlook on things. This theme of the chapter seems similar in nature to the theme explored in chapter 2-9, “The Formless World, Nuruba” and more of my thoughts can be read there.

 

Another theme of the chapter is charity, and the mentality of one receiving it. While Freya clearly needs the money, she simply doesn’t want to accept a lot of gold coins from Tetsuro for not doing anything. Tetsuro soon comes to the correct conclusion on this and realizes that he would feel the same way being in that position. It’s one I agree with as well. I feel strongly that one should earn what they have and I wouldn’t be comfortable just accepting something that I didn’t earn. It should also be noted that the money Tetsuro is giving away he didn’t earn himself. It was given to him by the Galaxy Express and has not much of an actual value to him; hence him giving the money to Freya can be seen as hollow in a way.

 

Freya is revealed to be an aspiring animator, which I enjoyed. Although it’s not in the manga version, the character Adachi from chapters 2-1 and 2-2 (episodes 60 and 61) is turned into a manga artist in the television adaption which is similar in nature, although the TV adaption of this chapter aired first. It is rather depressing to see Freya feel that she has to sell her most valued possession, the storyboard of her cat, although I like the conclusion that Tetsuro came to (and kind of sensed it would be coming) in that he wouldn’t physically keep it but treat the payment to be in exchange for seeing her movie of it at a future date. The revelation that she eventually did get her movie made is somewhat of a happy ending in that she was able to overcome her physical appearance and accomplish a great feat. Although it is arguable that this revelation is a bit unearned given the way things are on that planet.

 

Mud Maetel

 Mud Maetel

Manga Chapters 3-12 and 4-1

TV Episode 18

Manga Chapter Summary:

The 999 approaches a planet that Tetsuro says looks wet and slimy. Maetel tells him it’s called the City of Rain and it’s been raining non-stop there, without a second’s break, and no one has ever seen the sun. After getting out of the station the two of them see giant plants which Maetel claims are continuously growing. Tetsuro wonders where all the water goes. Maetel says she knows is that the underground has a lot of absorbing canals, but where it goes from there, she’s not sure. 

 

They head into an exquisite hotel and Tetsuro excitingly says he’s going to take a shower. In actuality all he does is stand out on the balcony and let the rain pour down on him. Tetsuro’s underwear quickly slips off of him and floats into the room. Maetel tells Tetsuro to ensure his pass is always on him; it’s his most valuable possession. Maetel receives a phone call and tells Tetsuro she needs to pay someone a visit. She recommends he lock the door and go to sleep after finishing dinner. Tetsuro says he’d rather take a look around and Maetel says okay, but to not go near the mud ponds. 

 

Tetsuro soon decides he doesn’t want to go outside anymore, but receives a phone call. The person on the line claims they are waiting for him and provides directions to take a path towards the bottom of the street. Tetsuro is initially hesitant but decides to head outside, bringing his gun with him. He could tell it was a woman calling, but beyond that has no idea who it could be. Tetsuro finds nothing at the end of the street except a large pit of mud. Suddenly a hand comes out and grabs him by the ankle, pulling him in with it!

Tetsuro is completely covered by the mud. When he wakes up he finds himself in a giant bubble, which a woman has made her home out of. She claims most poor people like herself reside in a place like this. She tells Tetsuro she knows about him by seeing him on the television. With so much rain, there’s not much to do beyond watching television. Tetsuro tells the woman he’s only staying a week and will need to go back. She claims they are 200 meters under the mud and she can sink the house further and cause him to die from the pressure if she wants. 

 

Six days pass. Tetsuro tells the woman he is bored and getting father. He decides he can’t take it anymore and forces his way out of the bubble to try and swim back up to the surface. Tetsuro soon passes out, with no end in sight, and wakes up in the bubble again. The woman tells Tetsuro they are talking about him on the TV. Anyone who finds Tetsuro can have the compensation of their choice. The woman looks at Tetsuro’s pass, saying she could go anywhere she wanted if she had it. She tells Tetsuro her name is also Maetel! Tetsuro starts thinking about the other Maetel and how she is probably worried and mad at him.

Soon there are some sucking noises as giant devices start sucking up all the mud. This eventually brings Tetsuro and “Maetel” back to the surface, where Maetel is waiting. “Maetel” says her house was destroyed and asks a nearby technician why. He claims the government has ordered the construction of residential districts here and she will get a home on the surface. In response to Maetel telling her she can have anything she wants, “Maetel” says she wants a 999 pass and Tetsuro! 

 

We cut to the 999 at a later time, now having taken off. “Maetel” is on the train and Maetel tells Tetsuro he belongs to her now and has to go over to her. She tells Tetsuro to sit next to him and hold her hand and that she is going to sleep. Once she falls asleep, she suddenly starts disintegrating! Maetel tells Tetsuro that she had lived in mud so long that her cells were completely altered, and this was the result of her being in a dry atmosphere. 

 

Tetsuro feels bad and says he wishes he had been more considerate to her. Maetel tells him he had been, after all he didn’t tell anyone she had pulled in him the mud. Maetel tells Tetsuro his kindness will save him. Tetsuro asks if there are other people like “Maetel” in the city of rain and Maetel says there are other people like her who lived in mud and lost their home. They’ll die little by little and people on the surface will never understand their wish to live that way. Tetsuro starts doing some laps in the train car, hoping to lose the weight he has gained.

TV Episode Summary:

The overall plot for this episode is similar to that in the manga, but a number of the details are changed. Early in the episode, at the hotel, Maetel suggests Tetsuro take a shower by going outside rather than him thinking of it himself. Also, Maetel doesn’t receive a phone call summoning her elsewhere, although she leaves nonetheless.

 

A number of changes occur once Tetsuro encounters the second Maetel in the mud. First, she reveals her name to him much sooner, as soon as they meet, rather than waiting many days as occurs in the manga. Tetsuro’s stay in her mud bubble home is a lot briefer than in the manga, appearing to be mere hours rather than 6 days. Tetsuro tries to escape fairly quickly rather than waiting days to do so. “Maetel” tells Tetsuro she specifically chose him to kidnap because he lived in poverty as she has. At one point she starts crying and tells Tetsuro she’ll make their home into a paradise. This doesn’t calm down Tetsuro, who has a big meltdown over being stuck here with her.

 

“Maetel” decides to call the Galaxy Express administration herself to tell them she has Tetsuro and get the reward. This prompts all the mud to be sucked out. This is a bit different than in the manga, where it was just a coincidence that the mud was being sucked out at that time to make more homes. In the manga the man doing it claims they’ll be doing it to make it a residential district and someone like her can live there. In the TV episode this character is cut out entirely, and “Maetel” claims they are forcing out all the poor people to build homes for the rich. 

 

The minor plot point about Tetsuro gaining weight by not moving around much in the bubble, and him exercising once back on the 999 is cut.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Mud Maetel – Noriko Ohara

Announcer – Kazuhiko Inoue

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

Oftentimes we see Tetsuro’s pass being stolen, but in this chapter it is Tetsuro himself who is taken! The chapter takes place on the City of Rain, named so because it is continuously raining there. Tetsuro’s curiosity can be an Achilles heel of his at times and that is certainly the case here as it leads to him going outside and getting kidnapped by the woman in the mud. Incidentally enough, the woman is also named Maetel. Why this is the case is never explained. Maetel is a rather unique name, but maybe it’s not so in the universe that Galaxy Express 999 takes place in? We don’t really get an explanation for why this other “Maetel” desires Tetsuro so, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s probably loneliness. Why she picked Tetsuro instead of one of the other passengers I’d probably chock up to him also coming from a poor background. In the TV episode they add dialogue where she indicates exactly that.

 

Despite living in a bubble inside the mud, “Maetel” seems to have pretty much the same amenities anyone else would have including a bed, sink, toilet, television and more. I do wonder how she gets electricity to power that TV though! Eventually the mud is all sucked up and the two of them are brought up to the surface, although this seems to be simply due to a coincidence as the area was intended to be made into a residential district (wasn’t it already that?) So much of the time Tetsuro is kinder to the people he encounters are to him, and that’s no different here. “Maetel” is able to take the credit for finding Tetsuro even though she kidnapped him in the first place and gets to have whatever she wants as compensation. She is given not only a 999 pass, but Tetsuro too! Poor Tetsuro has to now become someone else’s possession. Although it doesn’t end up lasting that long as “Maetel” isn’t able to survive outside of the mud. A person being in the mud so long that they eventually become as if they were made of mud themselves is an odd and totally unrealistic concept, but as often is the case in these 999 chapters I’m fine going with it as it provides an interesting conclusion to the storyline. While she did kidnap Tetsuro, she does come off as a rather sympathetic character and it was sad to see her fate. While “Maetel” shares the same tall, slim figure and long hair that most Matsumoto woman have, he does make her at least a little more unique looking by having her eyes be completely black. Perhaps it was a side effect of her living in the mud for so long.

 

The Armored Planet

 The Armored Planet

Manga Chapters 3-10 and 3-11

TV Episode 17

Manga Chapter Summary:

As the 999 approaches its latest planet, a dark craft passes by. Maetel tells Tetsuro it’s an artificial satellite launched by the planet’s people and has been in orbit for 3,000 years. They are approaching the Armored Planet, which Maetel says looks just like the Earth but there are barely any people on. When the two of them exit the train, they find the temperature to be rather mild.

Suddenly a beetle starts flying by Tetsuro and Maetel. It’s shell is so hard it flies through a metal column as they try to avoid it. The beetle flies through Maetel’s shoulder, injuring her greatly. Tetsuro drags Maetel back to the 999, which is protected by a protective barrier. The 999’s engine tells Tetsuro and the Conductor that there is a doctor 10 kilometers to the east, so Tetsuro heads out to find him. Maetel is worried for Tetsuro, thinking he’ll be in danger and is worried over the fact that she didn’t tell him about this planet. 

 

Suddenly a loud voice rings out, demanding the Conductor leave the train car or die. The Conductor complies. The voice tells Maetel she shouldn’t have let down her guard, but it won’t let her die. Maetel removes her clothes and light emanates from her. Tetsuro heads through the plant filled planet and realizes he hasn’t seen any insects other than that beetle. Tetsuro soon comes across the corpse of a large bug-like being. It has an armored exterior but insides that makes it look like it was once a living being. Tetsuro spots a deceased man nearby who looks like a human, but like the large bug appeared to have biological organs inside it. 

 

Tetsuro detects a living being nearby. Another humanoid, armored like the deceased man Tetsuro found  approaches. The man, named Nutalle, is angry at Tetsuro for speculating that he is an android. Tetsuro claims he is looking for a doctor for Maetel. Nutalle tells Tetsuro that he has trespassed and is going to die. Tetsuro shoots at him, but Nutalle tells him no weapon in the universe can destroy his body. Tetsuro flees and falls off a cliff. 

 

Tetsuro climbs back up, finding Nutalle gone. He is knocked over when a couple of fireflies fly into him. Tetsuro spots a glowing home nearby and heads to it. Inside, Tetsuro finds an older, armored man laying in a bed. The man, who is the doctor, and Nutalle’s father, Subari, tells him he can’t move and is almost completely dry inside. He tells Tetsuro to never come back to this planet as all living beings on it will cease to live shortly. Tetsuro is surprised due to their advanced technology. The doctor tells him he can’t heal as easily as him with his rigid armored skin. 

Nutalle shows up again and chases Tetsuro to the edge of a cliff. Suddenly Maetel shows up and shoots him with a gun, this time one that succeeds in damaging him. Nutalle’s legs are blown off and he falls off the cliff. Maetel tells Tetsuro dimensional reaction weapons like this can’t be withstood. She says she didn’t mean to kill him as he’s one of only two people left on the planet, and he will live. 

 

Maetel tells Tetsuro that she’s okay as the Conductor sent for another doctor. Maetel tells Tetsuro that those on this planet have died of starvation. The living beings’ armor was so strong that they couldn’t east each other. Eventually their numbers declined and they’re nearly extinct now. She claims in order to survive a society needs some sort of sacrifice from weaker beings. Tetsuro thinks about how if no other living being is the prey, then nothing can be born. Tetsuro thinks of how sad the universe is because of this.

TV Episode Summary:

This episode is really faithful to the manga chapter, with no added characters or storylines, nor any cuts. A few minor things I picked up on was that Nutalle talks about sacrificing Tetsuro as a way for he and his father to live longer in the episode. Also, his father tries to hold him back, including crawling out of his bed to do so when Nutalle finds Tetsuro at their home.

 

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Nutalle – Kiyoshi Kobayashi

Subari – Isamu Tanonaka

Man’s Voice – Banjou Ginga

Mechanical Car Voice – Shunji Yamada (Keaton Yamada)

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

In this chapter the 999 heads to the Armored Planet, a planet where its living beings have skin as hard as metal. Initially one would think this would be a good thing, as such beings would be quite powerful. But as we see in this chapter that when all living beings are so strong, they aren’t able to prey on each other in order to survive. Living beings often need to consume other living beings in order to survive. Humans consume animals, animals consume other animals, both consume plants, and so on. Weaker species unfortunately have to sacrifice much of themselves in order for the stronger species to survive. It would be righteous for all to survive, and that’s a lofty ideal, but if that’s the case then all will die as they have no ability to consume food and remain living.

 

That said, the beings of this planet can be quite powerful and scary in comparison to beings from other planets. A mere beetle flying around is enough to severely injure Maetel, and Tetsuro was no match for Nutalle. It was kind of frustrating though for Maetel to have a gun that suddenly could damage Nutalle when Tetsuro’s Cosmo gun did no good earlier. Speaking of Maetel, she suffers serious injury in this chapter and for the third time the mysterious voice appears. It is quite threatening, telling the Conductor he will die if he doesn’t leave the train car. Through the power of the mysterious voice, Maetel is healed of her wounds. Whatever her mission is, this mysterious voice won’t let her die until she fulfills it. Tetsuro doesn’t really question things when Maetel shows back up and claims the planet had another doctor, which is quite unfortunate.

 

Beyond the interesting story elements above, I did like the designs in this chapter as well. The armored planet was a lot more plant filled than one would expect based on its name. The insect designs, as well as those of the humanoid inhabitants on the planet were interesting. It’s unfortunate that they are all dying out!

 

Spoiler Analysis:

We will get a later chapter, 8-1 “Mists of the Fog Capital” (episode 39) which is for all intents and purposes the opposite of this storyline, a planet where people are extremely weak compared to regular human beings.

The Graveyard at Gravity's Bottom

The Graveyard at Gravity’s Bottom

Manga Chapters 3-8 and 3-9

TV Episodes 7 - 8

Manga Chapter Summary:

The 999, now 750,000 light years along on its journey, is about to arrive at a location where an accident occurred 2 days ago. The 999 is traveling so fast that the stars appear as blurs to Tetsuro. The Conductor asks Maetel to sit backwards as part of their defense against the strange happenings. The 999’s navigation starts failing, then it plummets downward. Eventually the 999 stops, having run into another derailed train. The Conductor says they are at Gravity’s bottom; it’s like a space version of the Sargasso Sea, a deadly sea where ships washed up. The Conductor says that the other train appears rather old, and they are able to travel over to it because of the 999’s barrier. 

 

As they head inside the other train, Tetsuro and Maetel find all the passengers, still sitting in their seats. But when the Conductor is able to restore the lights, they realize the passengers are all skeletons! Maetel notices that the skeleton’s clothes are deteriorating despite being of a kind that lasts several centuries. The Conductor thinks it is as if the train has aged 300 years. Maetel tells Tetsuro that in the mere 2-3 minutes they’ve been on this train, more than 34 hours have actually passed. For some reason time is passing by on this train at an incredible speed. It is dangerous to stay here much longer or they may become like these skeletons. 

 

The Conductor senses someone walking up from behind. They see a strange cloaked woman behind them. Maetel and the woman, whom Maetel calls Ryuzu, seem to recognize one another. Ryuzu claims she has affected 20 trains in this manner, and that she will let the Conductor and Maetel go, but she wants Tetsuro to come with her. Unless they obey she will accelerate time 1000-2000 years immediately. Maetel leaves silently, and Ryuzu drags Tetsuro with her, claiming he will be living at her home from now on. 

 

Ryuzu brings Tetsuro into a small spacecraft and flies over to her home, which is located on a tiny planet. As they arrive at Ryuzu’s house, Tetsuro notices skulls and bones everywhere. Ryuzu claims they are those who didn’t listen to her, so she accelerated time. Ryuzu tells Tetsuro to come with her to her room, but he is still considerably frightened. He goes along with her, finding her room to be a large circular room with a round screen on the ceiling that Ryuzu claims can see the flow of time in every corner of the universe. 

 

Ryuzu removes her cloak, revealing her mechanical body.  Ryuzu tells Tetsuro she will give him a mechanical body if he stays here and shows him numerous mechanical bodies she obtained from train passengers. Tetsuro claims he didn’t take this journey to exchange his freedom for a mechanical body and he must decline if that is the cost. Ryuzu claims that she has been the sole inhabitant of this planet for 300 years; before that she had a warm, living body, but got a machine body to seduce the one she loved. She was a mere pawn for his entertainment however and left her for another woman with a newer model. She eventually came to this planet, at the bottom of gravity’s well to live. Somehow an error occurred when she received her mechanical body that enabled her to control the flow of time.

Ryuzu asks Tetsuro again if he still prefers not to live here even though she can age him to death. Tetsuro claims that he wants to decide his future and will have no regret dying for that. Ryuzu tells Tetsuro his mother must have been an exceptional person. She wishes she had the same determination rather than becoming mechanized, against her will, to please the one she loved. She tells Tetsuro that one day he’ll have to lose his freedom to protect Maetel. 

 

We cut to a later time; Tetsuro has been returned to the 999 and is with Maetel. Maetel says Ryuzu has brought back the flow of time so the 999 is able to move again. She tells Tetsuro she let Ryuzu take him without saying anything as she had faith Ryuzu would never harm him. Tetsuro, thinking of how Ryuzu lived on that planet for 300 years wonders how old Maetel is. Maetel asks Tetsuro if he would like to visit here again someday after he has a mechanical body and Tetsuro says yes.  Maetel thinks Ryuzu will be waiting for him.

TV Episode Summary:

Following the television series order, this is the first 2 parter (it is not if you go by manga order). Episode 7 concludes when Ryuzu heads off on her craft with Tetsuro.

 

The two episodes encompass everything within the manga chapters and add some additional material, primarily to pad things out. The 999 continues to travel with the high speed 444 in front of it, which it joined with at the end of episode 6. In what is a dark pair of episodes, we do get a little more humor added including the Conductor’s hat briefly falling off and Tetsuro freaking out when he doesn’t see a head, Tetsuro imagining himself becoming a skeleton and some funny Tetsuro facial expressions. 

 

The Conductor also gets more to do. When Ryuzu first shows up he tries to lead her out of the train car but she throws him off the train. Later, while Maetel waits in the 999, the Conductor tries to separate the train from the crashed 333. There is a small amount of new dialogue between Ryuzu and Tetsuro, and Ryuzu claims to have been on her planet 500 years rather than 300. We also get some additional padding via some more scenes with Maetel waiting while Tetsuro is with Ryuzu, Tetsuro having a flashback to Maetel giving him the pass in episode 1 and Tetsuro imagining crashed ships in the Sargasso Sea.

 

Unlike the manga, where Ryuzu just tells her story to Tetsuro, we see actual flashbacks of it here. We see Ryuzu as a human dancing for her lover, Baron Clock. Clock pressures her to get a mechanical body, which she relents to. The two of them dance at a ball and Ryuzu shows off her new mechanical body to the crowd. Later at a cookout, many women remove their clothes and reveal they all got the same mechanical body as Ryuzu. This angers Clock, who rides back to his mansion in a rainstorm with Ryuzu falling out of his carriage as they arrive. He heads inside and locks her out, telling her he’s no longer interested in her since she no longer has the newest fashion.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Ryuzu – Haruko Kitahama

Computer Voice – Kouji Totani (Episode 7 only)

Clock – Kan Tokumaru (Episode 8 only)

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

Quite a scary pair of chapters this time! We rarely get to see what is going on with the other trains of the Galaxy Express and here realize that one of them has suffered a previous accident (and later, that it has happened to a great many of them!). The 999 plunging and eventually crashing with the other train is an exciting sequence that changes to sheer horror as our heroes step on the train and find everyone on board is dead. Ryuzu’s ability to speed up time is a scary one. I’ve often heard said that time is our most precious resource, the one thing that everyone wishes they had more of. With Ryuzu’s ability she can cause a days to go by in mere minutes, or scarier yet, cause a thousand years to pass by in a moment. It’s effectively the ability to kill any living being at a moment’s notice, making her someone you definitely don’t want to get on the bad side of!

 

Ryuzu brings Tetsuro with him to her home; she doesn’t go in depth about why, but I’d assume she wants companionship given the bodies of all the others there, meaning she has done what she did with Tetsuro to many other people. Perhaps it’s a motherly instinct in her that causes her to desire Tetsuro to be with her rather than the others. Tetsuro is offered the choice to obtain the mechanical body he so desires, but it will cost him his freedom as he will be forced to stay here with Ryuzu. Tetsuro bravely refuses the offer; he’s willing to die if it means not giving up his freedom. It is a commendable decision. Would many do the same? Perhaps. I feel that in today’s society freedoms are being chipped away little by little, so people don’t notice what is happening or push back against it as much as they should until it is too late. Tetsuro has a very direct choice in front of him here; it takes some bravery, but the outcomes either way are made obvious to him.

 

Ryuzu is another in the line of mechanized women we meet who regret being made a machine (Claire and Shadow being other examples). Ryuzu gave away her humanity in order to please a lover who threw her away as soon as she was no longer “the newest model”. It’s a sad story, and it is unfortunate Ryuzu was unable to see the way her lover really was until it was too late. Obviously that is not a justification for Ryuzu to do the horrible acts she does which resulted in many people’s deaths, but it is good that we don’t have a one dimensional villain here. In what is probably a continuity error in the manga, Ryuzu’s hair changes both length and color when she removes her cloak, as if she was wearing a wig. 

 

After faithfully following the order of the manga for the first 7 chapters, the TV series skips 21 chapters to bring us this story. I’m not sure why they jumped around, and they will continue to do this throughout the adaption. While I didn’t care for the additional padding in the episode, I do think Ryuzu’s backstory comes off as a lot more effective in the TV show because you actually get to see it happen rather than her just explaining it. Similar to the added content for Shadow in episode 5 of the TV series, I do think the adapters have shown the ability to provide some more effective emotional moments in the show with their new material (although most of the additions tend to be not necessary).

Spoiler Analysis:

While Ryuzu doesn’t appear in the movie version, her name was used for another character, a newly created blue haired singer who was the lover of Count Mecha. Said character would then eventually appear in the manga chapters “The Pirate’s Time Castle”, with the name Leryuzu, and is revealed to be the sister of the Ryuzu from this chapter.