Tombstone of Dead Leaves

Tombstone of Dead Leaves

Manga Chapter 2-6

TV Episode 21 (Second Half)

Manga Chapter Summary:

The narrator explains how in this universe, every living thing, animal or planet will eventually pass away and there will only be gravestones left. The 999 heads through an area filled with dead leaves. Maetel explains that there was once a planet here with luxurious nature, but it disappeared in an explosion and now only dead leaves are left, forming a ring around the original orbit of the planet. 

 

As the 999 stops, a new passenger gets on, which Tetsuro is surprised to see is a machine man made out of wood! He explains that wood is cheap here and he got made out of Heather wood, which is what is used to make pipes. The man introduces himself as Yutaka Moriki. The 999 continues its way through the dead leaves. Tetsuro suddenly sees an electrifying mushroom on the ground. Moriki tells him not to touch it and grabs it. Since he is made of wood, his body doesn’t conduct electricity, but any human who touched it would be electrocuted. Suddenly the train shakes and topples upside down. 

 

Tetsuro and the others head to the engine room with the Conductor, finding that the circuits are damaged and another electric mushroom is disrupting the locomotive’s functions. Tetsuro tries to grab it with some wood sticks, but Moriki stops him again, worried that Tetsuro will be electrocuted. Despite the risk to himself, Moriki heads in to grab it. His entire body bursts into flames and by the time the Conductor grabs a fire extinguisher, it’s too late. Moriki’s entire wooden body is gone, leaving only his electronic brain, which will stop function soon. 

 

Moriki tells Tetsuro that he leaves him everything in his bag, things which assisted him for a long time. Tetsuro and Maetel look over Moriki’s bag, finding it to contain art supplies, and realize he was a painter. His possessions include a self portrait and his wooden pipe. Tetsuro says Moriki didn’t fear death and wonders if that is the case for all who have machine bodies. Maetel says it is hard to say.

TV Episode Summary:

This chapter is adapted as the second half of episode 21, with the previous chapter making up the first half. The episode is fairly faithful to the manga chapter. One additional thing we get is that Tetsuro opens the window in the episode; this is what causes the first electric mushroom to get in. The Heather wood is called briar wood in the TV episode. There is also some dialogue at the end where Tetsuro and Maetel talk about Moriki’s original planet being destroyed and Tetsuro wonders if he could live on Valera, the planet they visited in earlier in the episode.

 

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Briar – Hiroshi Ohtake

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

For some unexplained reason, Moriki is credited as Briar in the end credits.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This is another rather basic chapter, but is a bit more interesting than the previous one. The 999 makes its way through an area where the original planet there was destroyed, but the dead leaves still remain (and, as we soon discover, electric mushrooms). A new passenger joins the train, the artist Yutaka Moriki (although where exactly he boarded from isn’t made clear). Moriki is a sympathetic character and likable from the start. This includes with his design, which despite being a machine man, is designed in a much friendlier manner than most machine people we have met. His entire wooden figure is an interesting one and goes to show that in this age of becoming mechanized, people can be quite original with how they choose to look. I figure the fact that Moriki was once an artist probably had a hand in this.

 

Unlike many 999 chapters, there isn’t any real big character conflict here, but rather nature throws a curveball with the dangerous electric mushrooms. The one damaging the train’s engine ends up being Moriki’s end. Having a wooden body protected him from electrocution, but surely his body burned quicker than the others probably would have once it caught fire. All that remains is his small electronic brain, which soon stops functioning. I was disappointed to see him go! Tetsuro and Maetel are so often portrayed as being the only passengers we see on the 999, and I would have liked it if we had a recurring other passenger for at least a few chapters. We do see what Moriki looked like as a human and he looks sneakily similar to what Leiji Matsumoto looks like.

Spoiler Analysis:

Moriki is just the first of many artist characters Tetsuro will meet, we’ll also see this come up in the manga chapter “City of Fireflies” and the TV episodes “Illusion World of 4 1/2 Mats” and “Tale of a Short Life” at the very least.