Laura of the Dual Planets

Laura of the Dual Planets

Manga Chapters 4-7 and 5-1

TV Episode 14

Manga Chapter Summary:

The 999 approaches the beautiful sight of twin planets, with a rainbow bridge connecting the two.  Maetel explains to Tetsuro that two more train cars are needed to pull them through the rain circulating between the planets. The Conductor explains their next stop is “Full Mechanization”, with a layover of just over 1 day. Maetel tells Tetsuro it is named that because everyone here are mechanized humans. Maetel tells Tetsuro after they land that there’s no reason to get off the train, but she’d like to show him something that will make him think before getting a mechanical body. She tells him to promise her he’ll remain calm, which he agrees to. They get up to leave, with Maetel making sure to bring a pistol with her.

 

Tetsuro and Maetel walk down a street of the town, with mechanized buildings everywhere. The fountain doesn’t have water running through it, but rather oil! The water faucets export liquid hydrogen. Tetsuro even finds the benches in the park to be rigid and uncomfortable. A woman passes by, calling Tetsuro a naughty boy and tells Maetel she should quickly obliterate him. As they walk around, Tetsuro notices that everyone here is attractive, although Maetel says they are boring and have all been mechanized since birth. The world lacks undertakers as no one has died in 200 or 300 years. The population hasn’t increased at all in that period either.

Tetsuro and Maetel go to a restaurant. When Tetsuro complains about not being served by the waitress she claims it is because he thought he was Maetel’s pet, a pig crab-monkey from Cassiopeia. When Tetsuro tries his drink he spits it out, as its liquid hydrogen. When the other people in the restaurant realize Tetsuro is a human, they beat him up and throw him out of the establishment. They start talking about what they’ll do with Maetel, so Tetsuro storms back in with his gun and starts blasting away. Tetsuro apologizes to Maetel afterwards; he had told Maetel he’d remain calm but after recalling the fate of his mother and thinking they’d do the same to Maetel he couldn’t control himself.

 

As they head outside to the street, Tetsuro proclaims that he wishes this planet would be destroyed forever. Tetsuro asks Maetel if all become like this when they become mechanized. Maetel claims a liquid hydrogen override formula she took is disagreeing with her. Maetel is about to speak about those who are mechanized, but passes out. A police officer walks by and asks for Maetel’s body, saying he wants to return to a human body, and will switch with hers. Tetsuro grows angry and blasts the man with his gun. Tetsuro falls over, having taken a bullet himself, and Maetel wakes up and tends to him. She notices the police officer getting up and blows him up with her gun. Maetel starts crying upon realizing Tetsuro’s heart isn’t beating and passes out herself.

Maetel later wakes up in a room with a lot of parts, and a female doctor tending to her who says her name is Laura. Laura claims Tetsuro is still unconscious, but will be fine as the shot went right through his body. Laura puts a device on her head and tells Maetel she is going to be switching her body with Tetsuro’s. She can’t tolerate being mechanized any longer. She claims Tetsuro will die if Maetel tries to stop the procedure mid-way.  Laura activates the device, and their bodies are switched. Laura, now in Tetsuro’s body, gets embarrassed with Tetsuro, in her body, talking about going to the bathroom. Tetsuro is frustrated at being in Laura’s body, and Laura claims she’ll now ride the 999 in Tetsuro’s body.

 

As they head out, Laura tells Maetel she’ll kill her if she tries anything funny, and there are lots who will pay a fair price to get her body. Back in Laura’s lab, Tetsuro tries to get out and notices it warming up. Laura has locked him inside. Laura tells Tetsuro she decided to dispose of her old body even though Tetsuro’s mind is in it. Maetel has had enough and blasts her from behind with a device she held in her fingers. She heads back to Laura’s lab, now aflame, with people trying to rescue Tetsuro. Maetel heads in herself, despite being warned, and realizes with the lab in disarray the bodies won’t be able to be switched back now.

Maetel asks Tetsuro if he’d be okay traveling in this body and Tetsuro says no, he wants his body back, even if he is short and not handsome. It is the body his parents gave him and contains memories of all the experiences he’s had thus far. Laura tells Tetsuro she understands, and is willing to switch their bodies back. She claims Mestol, one of her friends has a device that can do it. They go to see Mestol, but it’s a trap. He also wants to board the 999 and claims he’ll be taking Maetel’s body! 

 

Maetel tells Tetsuro to close his eyes, and says she hates this planet and wants it to disappear forever. She won’t forget those mistreating the hearts of others. She grabs a hold of Mestol and demands he switch back Tetsuro and Laura’s bodies. Mestol reluctantly agrees and gets frustrated at Laura causing all this trouble for him. Tetsuro is pleased to be back in his body and when the angry Laura lunges at him he swings at her, knocking her over. Tetsuro and Maetel depart, passing by a couple along the way who also talk about exchanging bodies. Maetel tells Tetsuro to go on ahead and she’ll be along shortly.

Tetsuro arrives at the 999 and he and the Conductor wait a few moments for Maetel to return. As the 999 departs the planets, Tetsuro speaks of how terrible they are. He wonders if all people become like that after mechanization. Maetel claims they are monsters made of science. Tetsuro questions if he should still get a mechanical body. He thinks about the far longer life span that those with mechanized bodies can have. Maetel tells him the road ahead of them is still long and she’ll be by his side until the day he gets a mechanical body. Behind them the two planets explode. The Conductor claims the energy control device of the planets had broken down. Tetsuro thinks of how Maetel came back to the 999 late and wonders if she destroyed the energy control device of the planets herself. Just who is she?  

TV Episode Summary:

This manga chapter has a lot of stuff to cover, so we have several cuts in this episode, although the overall storyline doesn’t have major changes to it.

 

We do have a few new scenes, in particular at the start we see the 999 engine request another train car that joins the 999 to help it go through the rain storm between planets (there is just dialogue on this in the manga chapter). Also we see Laura hit Tetsuro with her car as he’s trying to pull Maetel out of the street, which is how she comes upon the two of them (it is unexplained in the manga).

In terms of cut material, a woman that runs into Tetsuro and Maetel outside and tells her to destroy Maetel is removed. Also removed is the police officer who encounters Tetsuro and Maetel before Laura shows up. Some dialogue about Tetsuro needing to use the bathroom while in Laura’s body is cut out. Also cut out is Tetsuro questioning whether he should get a mechanical body at the end of the episode.

 

One final change is that at the end, the planets crash into each other; in the manga they each blew up on their own.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Laura – Minori Matsushima

Mestol – Kunihiko Kitagawa

Mechanical Car Voice – Shunji Yamada (Keaton Yamada)

Man A – Kazuhiko Inoue

Waitress – Toyoko Komazawa

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

Here we have a rather eventful pair of chapters as Tetsuro and Maetel visit a planet full of mechanized people. At first things are rather comedic; Tetsuro struggles with the various things that are clearly made for a fully mechanized populace. Of particular comedic effect is when the waitress thinks Tetsuro isn’t Maetel’s traveling companion, but rather a monkey pet that she owns! Things quickly grow dark though. The mechanized people of this plant are equivocally portrayed as evil. Things really get out of hand in the restaurant and despite Maetel asking Tetsuro to remain calm, he goes on a rampage and kills a bunch of mechanized people.

 

From here, the chapter takes an odd turn. People on this planet have been mechanized since birth, and as such never really knew what it was like to be a human, in contrast to earlier mechanized people like Shadow who longed to be human again. Despite this, we have 3 separate characters that want to swap bodies with Tetsuro and/or Maetel in order to become human. Why? Especially odd is the police officer. At least Laura and Mestol appear to be doing it in order to board the 999. The police officer states he won’t be boarding the train. It seems like an element of the story added in to further show the depths of evil the people on this planet will go to, but doesn’t really mesh with the overall mentality of mechanized is good, human is bad on this planet. It does give us some pages of Tetsuro and Laura with swapped bodies though, which was interesting.

 

As the chapter approaches its end, Maetel clearly does something to fiddle with the energy control device of the planet and as the 999 departs, both planets completely blow up. Way back in the first chapter we saw Maetel blow up a building after some thieves took Tetsuro’s pass. Here we see her blow up two entire planets. Maetel comes off as a kind, motherly type of person to Tetsuro, but she is clearly capable of acts of mass murder and has completely wiped out two planets here. Yes, they came off as evil, but did literally everyone on those two worlds deserve to die? The mysteries over Maetel continue.

 

The events of this chapter, probably more overtly than any other chapter before it examine whether it is a good idea for Tetsuro to get a mechanized body. The lesson of this chapter seems to be pointing in the direction that it is a bad idea, that one can be evil by having one. We also see that Tetsuro doesn’t simply want to be handed a mechanical body against his will. Tetsuro could have remained as Laura permanently (assuming he was able to get out from her attempts to kill him that is) but fights against doing so. He had also declined the chance for a mechanical body back in chapter 1-7, although that time he would have been in great debt to get it.

Spoiler Analysis:

Maetel’s dialogue early in the chapter makes it come off as if the experiences on this planet will make him think if he really wants a mechanical body. And for Tetsuro it absolutely is something to consider. For Maetel, given her mission in bringing Tetsuro with her, it doesn’t make the most sense to put Tetsuro in a position to want to reject getting a mechanical body though. If Tetsuro decides that he no longer wants one because things were so bad on this planet, all her plans kind of go up in smoke, don’t they?