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.