Trader's Fork

Trader’s Fork

Manga Chapters 5-6 and 6-1

TV Episodes 9 and 10

Manga Chapter Summary:

The narrator explains how the Galaxy Railways branch out along many local lines. Many don’t know for whom these lines exist, but books claim it is how the underprivileged in the universe travel. Tetsuro spots two trains ahead of them and Maetel says they are at a giant crossroads that provides service to many local planets. They see one such train pass by, which is a water proof train intended for planet Reptile. Numerous people are on board it and Maetel says it is filled with employees heading to and from their jobs.

 

The Conductor comes in, saying their next stop is planet Trader, where they will be for nearly 4 days. Maetel claims the planet is always crowded and full of life. Many travelers meet others here and friendships and relationships are made. The 999 passes by another train and approaches its station on Trader. Maetel tells Tetsuro to be careful as there are many thieves here. The two of them stop by to have some food, Tetsuro’s favorite, authentic Ramen. Several solicitors stop by, asking if the two of them want to work for them or purchase a weapon.

Tetsuro thinks back to Adachi (chapters 2-1 and 2-2) and how he wish he could let him have a taste. Many people stand outside the window looking at them eat. Tetsuro mentions without his pass he’d have been in the same situation as them, and is no longer hungry. The two of them head to their hotel. Tetsuro isn’t hungry and says he’ll eat outside later. He refuses Maetel’s request for him to take a bath at first, but relents and gets in it, cursing the man who invented the bath. Maetel locks him in the bathroom until he is finished with his bath.

Maetel wakes up from her sleep later and finds a note from Tetsuro saying he went out to eat. Tetsuro has left his gun behind. Maetel looks outside as a train heads to planet Wildflower. At that very moment, Tetsuro wakes up, having been dragged onto that very train! A woman nearby tells him to sit down and not bother the other passengers. Maetel checks into things and is told trains can return from Wildflower in merely 4 hours. Tetsuro finds himself at Wildflower station, which is surrounded by numerous flowers. The woman who brought him along tells Tetsuro she’s going to introduce him to her parents. She tells Tetsuro her parents are getting old and she wants to introduce them to her future husband!

 

The woman brings Tetsuro to her parent’s house, where her name is revealed to be Hanako. Hanako hugs her mother, then runs inside and hugs her father. She introduces Tetsuro as her future husband, pleasing her parents. Tetsuro is provided a big bowl of rice and fish by Hanako’s mother. She shows Tetsuro a photo of Hanako when she left to look for a job, revealing that she had been far prettier than she is now. Tetsuro wakes up later, finding Hanako outside, crying. She begs Tetsuro to not leave and that she will bring him back to Trader tomorrow. Tetsuro decides to remain there the rest of the night.

The next day Hanako and her parents say goodbye to Tetsuro, with her parents thinking he has a lot of work to do. Tetsuro heads to the station, where he finds Maetel. She says she arrived last night, but didn’t want to ruin the happiness of Hanako and her parents. On the train ride back to Trader, Tetsuro wonders why Hanako chose him to pretend to be her fiance. Maetel claims it is because he didn’t properly bathe with soap before going out. Only those who come from far away smell clean.

 

Maetel believes Hanako introduced Tetsuro to her parents to reassure them. She worked hard all her life and grew old before finding a husband. Maetel thinks Hanako will always be grateful to Tetsuro for not telling her parents the truth. Tetsuro comments on how despite living on such a beautiful planet, their house was in shambles. The narrator explains that while the local lines regularly take off from Trader to other planets, visitors rarely visit planets like Wildflower. Tetsuro stares at Wildflower as the 999 departs Trader, never forgetting the warm touch of Hanako’s hands.

TV Episode Summary:

For some reason this was one of the earliest adapted storylines, despite it being nearly the 40^th unique story in the manga thus far. It is adapted across 2 episodes. Early in the first episode, Maetel makes a comment about one of the other trains they pass going to planet Emeraldas, which is probably a reference to that character. We see more trains pass by in space and the Conductor also explains many of them.

 

The first 10 minutes or so of the first episode are fairly faithful to the manga. Things diverge more in the second half. Instead of Maetel waking up with Tetsuro already being on the train to Wildflower, we see Tetsuro and Maetel head outside and split up, with Maetel giving Tetsuro his allowance from the 999. Tetsuro starts looking for a place to eat and is quickly surrounded by a number of people begging for him to give them money for food. Tetsuro flees and finds another restaurant with food he wants, only to discover that more beggars have followed him.

While sitting on a bridge, Tetsuro spots a small Ramen restaurant in the distance and heads there. Hanako appears, begging for leftover food. The owner tells Tetsuro she used to work here. Tetsuro spots Hanako going through the trash in back and asks her to have some ramen with him. While she eats, some random man comes in and orders ramen, claiming Tetsuro will pay and that he should do so as he gave Hanako food. The man calls out to a large crowd of beggars outside that Tetsuro is paying, so a number of people come in and demand the same. Eventually the money runs out and Tetsuro is chased by a bunch of angry people until Hanako helps him flee down an alley and into the sewers. Tetsuro realizes that Hanako lives here in the sewers. He claims it’s similar to his home on Earth. Later the two of them go to a small park where Tetsuro falls asleep. The first episode ends as we see the train departing from Trader.

 

Within the second episode, the scene with Maetel finding out about Tetsuro being on a train to Wildflower is cut. Hanako’s father also seems more obviously sick in the TV episode than he had in the manga. As with the first episode, we have some added content. Tetsuro tries to leave after eating, but Hanako stops him and brings him upstairs to her old bedroom in which she locks him in. Tetsuro eventually climbs down via a vine and runs into Hanako again, seeing her crying. Hanako’s parents have invited over guests for a wedding banquet for Hanako and Tetsuro. Upon entering the room, Tetsuro realizes Hanako’s parents are the only ones there, despite there being places set for several more people. It is apparent that Hanako’s parents really are senile, especially as Hanako’s father starts introducing Tetsuro to people who aren’t there.

 

Tetsuro and Hanako talk about it in her room afterwards. Tetsuro is hesitant to go to sleep, but falls asleep anyway. Hanako finds him gone the next morning. Hanako spots the train departing Wildflower and tells herself Tetsuro must be on it and goodbye to him. Tetsuro wakes up on the train back to Trader with Maetel there with him. The line from Maetel about Hanako picking Tetsuro due to him not using soap in the bath is cut and changed to simply her saying Hanako chose him because he was kind to her. Maetel seems to know a lot of details about things despite not being there for any of it.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki (episode 9 only)

Restaurant Father – Shinji Hase (episode 9 only)

Ramen Shopkeep – Katou Osao (episode 9 only)

Hanako – Kouko Kagawa

Traveler – Seiji Satou (episode 9 only)

Hanako’s Father – Isamu Tanonaka (episode 10 only)

Hanako’s Mother – Taeko Nakanishi (episode 10 only)

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This is a rather quiet chapter, focusing on the geographical importance of the planet that Tetsuro and Maetel head to, as well as the story over Hanako. Trader is a planet that acts as a crossroads for numerous trains; while the 999 merely stops by it, the planet has many local trains that bring people from one planet to another. As someone who took the subway often for many years, I felt some familiarity as another train passed the 999, packed with people, and Maetel explained that it brought people to and from work. The 999 has been largely empty, and most chapters don’t feature anyone on it beyond Tetsuro, Maetel and the Conductor. This chapter shows that the 999 is a rarity in this sense.

 

Trader is another example of Tetsuro getting to see other poor people, and he comments on how he was like them not long ago before Maetel gave him the 999 pass. It is rather sad to see a number of people waiting outside, practically drooling over Tetsuro eating Ramen. Speaking of Ramen, Tetsuro is fortunate to be able to have authentic Ramen on this planet, and thinks back to fellow Ramen lover Adachi from the “Illusion World of 4 1/2 Mats” chapter all the way back in chapters 2-1 and 2-2. The TV adaption adds some more scenes about Tetsuro trying to get some food for himself only for the beggars to harass him. Tetsuro eventually finds a quiet place, but his kindness to Hanako gets himself in trouble as the beggars take advantage of him to get their own meals. Any sympathy I had for the beggers completely vanishes due to their extremely entitled behavior. It’s the type of thing that would make someone hesitant to do the same good deed in the future; although Tetsuro probably is that rare person who would just ignore the experience and be as generous in the future.

 

Tetsuro waking up and finding himself on another train, heading to another planet is quite a shock in the moment, but luckily it is a very short journey, a mere 4 hours away. Hanako, who looks rather haggard, has brought Tetsuro with her to pretend that he is her fiancé. Picking Tetsuro is a rather odd choice; he is merely a 10 year old boy, so you’d think her parents would notice it. They don’t pick up on it at all. Perhaps their eyesight is really bad? In the TV adaption it is more clear that Hanako’s parents are really senile. Her mother clearly has bad eyesight and her father is really sick. There is an entire scene about them having a ceremony for Hanako and Tetsuro with guests who don’t even exist. Part of me wondered if the mother made it up and knew what she was really doing, but was trying to put things past Hanako’s father. It could have been both of them though. There is the comment from Maetel on how Hanako picked Tetsuro based on his improperly bathed smell. We don’t get to see much of Hanako, but like many side characters we meet it is rather depressing in a sense that she has worked hard for quite a while, with apparently not much to show for it and was never able to get married like her parents wanted.

Overall it’s a storyline that I was never that fond of, and in the TV adaption they probably could have squeezed it into one episode if they wanted to.

Spoiler Analysis:

In the Galaxy Express 999 movie, “Trader’s Fork” is instead used for an entirely new planet, Heavy Melder, which hadn’t appeared yet in the manga. An entirely new story is used, and any content here is cut, beyond the name. The storyline used in the movie would eventually be used in the manga, with some changes, as “The Pirate’s Time Castle”, which is chapters 12-4 and 13-1.