The Mirage Planet's Scribe

The Mirage Planet’s Scribe

Manga Chapters 2-7 and 2-8

TV Episode 28

Manga Chapter Summary:

The 999 enters a new planet, the Mirage Planet. Maetel tells Tetsuro that while the atmosphere is livable, the mirages in the area disrupt people’s minds and it is uninhabited as a result. A thrown stone quickly proves this wrong, smashing through one of the 999’s windows. With a layover of 2 days, Maetel says they have time to explore and find out more about this place. With the hot weather, Maetel dons a new outfit although Tetsuro wears his usual garbs. 

 

Using a sensor, Maetel picks up a sign nearby, which is a structure that looks like an old gas tank. They approach the old contraption but quickly fall into a hole below it. Some sort of electronic camera notices them and a voice comes out, making it clear that the hole was intended to capture animals, not humans, and they’ll soon be let out. Tetsuro and Maetel climb out of the hole and enter the gas tank. Inside they find an old man, with hair so long that it goes across the entire floor. Massive stacks of paper are piled up throughout the room. The man claims his name is Shousetsu Yoi, and he is writing the greatest novel in the universe, which is currently on approximately the 130 millionth page! 

 

Yoi claims he always thought solitude was suitable for a writer’s inspiration. Turning, he is surprised to realize a woman among his guests. Yoi admits to throwing the rock, claiming everyone who interrupts his solitude is an enemy. He doesn’t think they would understand the hardships he’s lived through since coming to this planet. As he claims he had an epiphany, Tetsuro suddenly finds himself passing out. When he wakes up, Tetsuro finds his pass and gun stolen, and both Maetel and Yoi are nowhere to be found.

Tetsuro finds the device that Yoi lives in nearby, although it is now moving, forcing him to chase after it. Tetsuro worries about the prospect of the 999 leaving without him, then with shock sees it in the sky taking off! Tetsuro wonders what to do, and heads into Yoi’s home, which has now stopped. Yoi is gone, although his writings are still there. Tetsuro returns to the station where he finds only machines. Tetsuro returns back to Yoi’s home and figures the only thing left for him to do is write novels. Tetsuro ponders a sequel, knowing he’ll have to read the millions of pages first and thinks of how his hair and beard will grow out as long as Yoi’s. Tetsuro quickly realizes he’s not interested in reading Yoi’s story and eats some synthetic ramen he has left behind, then goes to sleep. 

 

Tetsuro wakes up later, realizing that he is all alone and in despair quickly falls asleep again. When Tetsuro wakes up again, Maetel and Yoi have returned! Yoi throws Tetsuro’s pass back at him and Tetsuro is told he got rejected due to clearly being older than the real Tetsuro. Yoi pulls out Tetsuro’s gun and claims that despite working on his novel for 30 years, he had a change of mind upon seeing Maetel’s beauty and decided to leave this planet. He craved a world filled with beautiful women like her once again. A beautiful woman had betrayed him once and he lived through many adventures that led him here until he forgot everything.

Finding another gun nearby, Tetsuro pulls it on Yoi. Maetel tells Tetsuro to wait outide a moment. She tells Yoi she will show him what kind of woman she really is. If he still desires not to live on a womanless planet, then he can kill her. Maetel pulls open her coat, revealing herself to Yoi. Maetel exits the room afterwards, telling Tetsuro the train won’t wait for them. Yoi returns to his writing, dedicated to writing the greatest novel in the universe. 

 

Back on the 999, Tetsuro and Maetel talk about how he didn’t shoot Yoi when he had the chance. During those few hours alone, Tetsuro got a strong feeling of the end of the world and feels like Yoi will become the greatest writer in the universe. Maetel asks Tetsuro if he also desires to see what she really looks like and he says there’s no need; just having her by his side is enough. Maetel says Yoi ended up here after he was betrayed, but she will never betray him, even if he considers her a monster someday.

TV Episode Summary:

The TV episode pretty much keeps the storyline of the manga in tact; the only thing I don’t recall being there is comments from Yoi about by being betrayed by women in his past. The layover on the planet is described as far shorter (5 hours rather than 2 days), and the planet looks a lot greener than it does in the manga. Rather than claim to be writing the world’s greatest novel, Yoi claims to be writing the world’s longest novel. He also claims to be purposely seeing how long his hair and beard can grow. Tetsuro references the Guiness Book of World Records in this scene which I won’t deny I was also thinking of when I read the manga chapter. 

 

Yoi gets a number of more scenes in the episode. We get a flashback scene with Yoi as a much younger man with a crying baby, loud children and complaining wife, trying to work on his novel. We also see a lot of construction going on around him, spurring his decision to neglect society and live on his own. We see Yoi piloting his craft towards the station with him and Maetel still on it, shortly after Tetsuro wakes up. We later see a scene with Maetel and Yoi on the 999. It is revealed that Yoi was able to put Maetel to sleep as well. The engine detects that the age of those on the ship has greatly changed, so the Conductor comes out and we have a rather comedic sequence where the Conductor initially thinks Yoi is Tetsuro wearing a costume and wig. 

 

When they return for Tetsuro, Maetel initially claims that Yoi had to attend to a pressing matter, which is why they returned, although Tetsuro quickly surmises he likely screwed up something.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Shousetsu Yoi – Takuzou Kamiyama

Shousetsu’s Wife – Harumi Baba

Policeman – Keaton Yamada

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

I’m not sure who the policeman is, I’m assuming that was an error in the credits and was intended for the 999’s engine.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

Although this chapter once again returns to the so often repeated plot point of Tetsuro having his pass stolen, it was still a fairly good chapter in my eyes and a bit of a unique one. No real action in this episode, but we meet the rather odd Yoi, who has spent 30 years trying to write the world’s greatest novel! Yoi is so dedicated that it comes off as if he hasn’t gotten a haircut or shaved in 30 years! Alas, Yoi has clearly neglected a very important point, editing. If one takes 30 years to write a novel and it has hundreds of millions of pages, there is no way it could ever be considered the world’s greatest novel. Who would have time to read it? Would anyone ever finish it? If his goal was to write the world’s longest novel, then perhaps he’s succeeded at that at least. I’ll admit, as a fan of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, I can’t help but be reminded of him by this chapter, and the exceedingly long wait between each book in his series.

 

Despite his attempts at solitude, Yoi ends up throwing away his desire to write the world’s greatest novel upon witnessing Maetel’s beauty. He suddenly wants to return to a world with beautiful women again. Ultimately Yoi wasn’t able to get over his biological urges once he realized what he had left behind.

Tetsuro is quite lucky in this episode, with the 999 actually returning for him once Yoi tries to board with his pass, and I assume tries to play himself off as Tetsuro. I don’t know how he ever expected it to work with how old he is and how long his hair and beard are. Previous chapters have given the impression that once the 999 leaves, it leaves for good. Tetsuro would get no special treatment. And yet here he gets it. It is rather frustrating, but at the end of the day if it is done in service to a more interesting story, one just has to accept the continuity error for what it is. And I will say that I enjoyed those few pages when Tetsuro was by himself and contemplating what type of life he would now live on this planet, so it ultimately gave us something that was worth reading.

 

Maetel’s revelation of her true self seems enough to cause Yoi to submit and remain, writing his novel. What is it that she showed Yoi? One should remember that Maetel revealed herself to Tetsuro in similar manner all the way back in the first chapter to show to him that she did not have a mechanical body. Has something changed? Is this another continuity error on the part of Matsumoto? I’m not sure. I do like the further expansion of the mystery of just who Maetel is. That she can shock someone like Yoi into submission essentially by doing this. Again, even if continuity seems a bit forgotten, it was an interesting plot point as we wonder just what is going on with her. It should be noted that this works better in the TV episode as Maetel’s revealing herself to Tetsuro was cut in the TV adaption.

Spoiler Analysis:

While I will admit I don’t currently have plans to cover it on this blog, and haven’t read it in many years, in Matsumoto’s mid 1990s revival of the manga, Tetsuro is found early on locked up on Earth with his hair grown to great lengths, albeit not as long as Yoi’s is here.