Sakezan's Continent

Sakezan’s Continent

Manga Chapter 4-6

TV Episode 29

Manga Chapter Summary:

The 999 heads to its next stop, Sakezan’s Continent, with a layover of 3 hours. Maetel tells Tetsuro that a sort of Tarzan that drinks a lot of alcohol lives here and it embodies every man’s dream. The 999 lands in an area filled with boundless vegetation. The Conductor warns Tetsuro to look out for Sakezan as he gets off the train and Maetel tells Tetsuro he has a hard time understanding people who want to be mechanized. Maetel warns Tetsuro against drinking the nearby pond water but they see some monkees nearby that Maetel wants to drink the alcohol of. Both Tetsuro and Maetel drink some, which is good.

Suddenly a spiked club comes flying through the air and hits both Tetsuro and Maetel, knocking them out. The brutish Sakezan comes out of the jungle, mad at them for stealing the monkey’s alcohol. Sakezan tosses Tetsuro aside, but brings Maetel with him, screaming out his name as he swings on some vines. Tetsuro rushes back to the 999 to get his gun, but the Conductor tells him it’s no use, as Sakezan has 100,000 monkeys under his rule.

 

Tetsuro wonders if he can talk to him instead and heads back outside, seeing a large amount of monkeys. One of the monkeys clubs Tetsuro. Sakezan thanks him and grabs Tetsuro, swinging off with him. The vines snap, causing them both to fall to the ground. Tetsuro thinks he has the leg up on Sakezan, only to get punched out by him. Sakezan eventually makes his way to his home in a large twisted tree and locks Tetsuro up in a wooden cage. Sakezan demands Maetel bring him some wine, which she does.

 

That night, a beautiful black haired woman calling herself Liza shows up and opens Tetsuro’s cage, telling him if he wants to flee, it’s now or never. She asks Tetsuro to bring him with her on the 999 and hopes that as a survivor on this planet they’ll let her board, even without a pass. Liza was on a spaceship that crashed on this planet long ago. She has been with Sakezan ever since but hopes to escape now with Maetel taking her place. Tetsuro realizes that Sakezan sleeps with a chain around Maetel’s neck. Tetsuro doesn’t want to leave without Maetel, but Liza spurns him on and Maetel wakes up and silently signals for Tetsuro to go.

 

With Sakezan’s monkeys passed out drunk, Tetsuro and Liza are able to climb down the tree and head back through the jungle. Suddenly the angry Sakezan jumps up from behind them and strikes Tetsuro with his club, tossing him once again in his cage. Liza is able to escape. While Sakezan is distracted, enamored with Maetel, Tetsuro bites his way out of his bindings and starts carving a tunnel through the soft tree trunk. He is able to surprise Sakezan by poking him with a sharp stick from underneath him. Tetsuro wants to fight Sakezan so he can rescue Maetel and leave and Sakezan immediately clubs him in the head again. Tetsuro tries to get up again but passes out.

 

Tetsuro wakes up on the train, finding himself there with the Conductor and Liza. The Conductor claims a beast dropped him through the window and the train is leaving in 5 minutes so Tetsuro doesn’t have time to rescue Maetel. Suddenly Maetel shows up, waving goodbye to Sakezan and his monkeys. Maetel tells Tetsuro that Sakezan let her go because he didn’t want to abduct the friend of a strong man like Tetsuro. He was starting to like Tetsuro! She says Sakezan wanted Maetel to convince him to stop his quest to get a mechanical body but rather live in nature while drinking alcohol.

 

Suddenly Liza runs off the train, embracing Sakezan. Maetel says if Liza really wanted to escape she could have long ago, but she’s in love with Sakezan. As the 999 departs, Tetsuro says if he never gets the chance to get a machine body, he’d like to visit Sakezan again, whom he considers the luckiest man in the universe. Sakezan, Liza and their monkeys watch as the 999 departs.

TV Episode Summary:

Most of this episode is faithful to the manga chapter, although there are a few key changes. For starters, the layover time is increased from 3 hours to 10. The monkeys speak in the TV episode, although all they say is “Sake”. After Sakezan first takes Maetel, Tetsuro encounters a group of drunk monkeys rather than going back to the 999 to get his gun (as he is already carrying it). Sakezan shows up and captures him here. When the vine Sakezan is swinging on breaks, knocking him out, Tetsuro ties him up although Sakezan breaks out as soon as he wakes up.

 

Liza’s design has been changed; she now has orange hair rather than black. When Tetsuro and Liza are leaving, Tetsuro flashes back to episode 12 when Maetel got off the 999 to be with Tetsuro (who at the time got kicked off the train as his pass had been stolen). Tetsuro is dedicated to doing the same for Maetel and not leaving without her. Tetsuro trips over some sleeping monkeys which is what wakes up Sakezan and Tetsuro’s subsequent capture.

 

A few notable character changes are made for Sakezan and Liza. Sakezan does speak a bit more intelligently in the episode than he did in the manga. Also Liza seems more sad to be leaving than she did in the manga. She speaks more of the relationship she’s had with Sakezan and we get a brief flashback to when she crashed on the planet.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Sakezan – Masashi Amenomori

Liza – Rihoko Yoshida

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This is the rare example of a Galaxy Express 999 manga chapter that totally falls on its face and flops. This is by far one of the worst chapters of the manga I’ve read, arguably the worst overall. This is a chapter that not only fails to provide much interest to me but has a number of logic holes or contradictions. I think chief among the dislikes is the central character of Sakezan, who just comes off as such an unlikable brute in this chapter. That he ultimately lets Maetel go and views Tetsuro as a strong man I think comes just because Matsumoto had to end the chapter somehow. He constantly attacks and knocks Tetsuro out, so I don’t get the sudden change of heart. Speaking of knocking Tetsuro out, Sakezan initially knocks out Tetsuro and Maetel, has the chance to take Tetsuro with him but tosses him aside, yet a couple of pages later comes back out to capture Tetsuro. It makes no sense and I assume was only done this way to fill pages.

 

The character of Liza is also a total flop. After being with Sakezan for what seems like quite a long time, he tosses her aside when Maetel shows up, spurning her chance to escape on the 999. Yet at the end of the story, despite the fact that she is let on the 999, without a pass, she tosses that aside and returns to Sakezan. Why?! Maetel says Liza is in love with Sakezan. How does she know this? Why does Liza so willingly go back to Sakezan after he tossed her aside for another woman without a second thought just hours earlier?

 

Another thing that really bugged me, especially because it was so easily avoidable is the 999 having a short layover time of only 3 hours on the planet, yet all these things happen including Tetsuro being knocked out many times, having to travel back and forth to the 999 numerous times, all within the span of 3 hours. There’s just no way things could have happened that fast. Also, at least as one who doesn’t consume alcohol that much, the presentation of it in this chapter just seemed quite over the top. All these monkeys drinking alcohol, Maetel encouraging Tetsuro, a little kid to drink alcohol, it is just all ridiculous.

While the TV episode is still one of the weaker episodes for me, it does make several changes to improve upon the manga chapter. The layover time of 10 hours rather than 3 helps a lot, although something even longer would still make more sense. Liza going back to Sakezan at the end fits better too. You genuinely feel more sadness from her and that she is closer to Sakezan than she comes off in the manga. I still am not a fan of her final decision given how he tossed her aside for Maetel, but it is at least a slight improvement. Sakezan also speaks more intelligently in the episode making him at least a little bit more likable.

 

Sakezan is obviously influenced by Tarzan, who is name dropped in the chapter. Tarzan was a character created by the author Edgar Rice Burroughs, and first appeared in the story “Tarzan of the Apes” which was published in a magazine in 1912 and later as a novel in 1914. Stranded in the jungle as an infant after his parents die, Tarzan is raised by a group of apes. Eventually he comes across a young woman named Jane, who was also marooned and she becomes his lover. Obviously Liza was based on her. From what I’ve read, the original Tarzan was very sophisticated, but later adaptations portray him in a lesser light which is probably what Sakezan was derived off of.