Femail's Memories

Femail’s Memories

Manga Chapter 8-4

TV Episode 42

Manga Chapter Summary:

The 999 is heading towards the station “Visage of Memories”. Tetsuro and Maetel notice the Conductor walking by with some food in hand, in a good mood. Tetsuro heads to the other car where he finds the Conductor giving the food to a passenger named Femail, a rather ugly looking older woman. The Conductor tells her the food is free and he can get her a drink to which she responds she knows and will try whatever he brings her. Femail spots Tetsuro and tells him to come over. After introducing themselves, she tells Tetsuro that the Visage of Memories is her hometown. She is graduating from school and returning to her home after working hard to come up with the money, having to even cut back on meals. Tetsuro speaks of how it used to be the same for him; he’d go weeks where all he and his mother could eat was snow. Tetsuro returns to Maetel, telling her Femail is an unbelievable person. The Conductor comes by with some various beverages for Femail, still in a good mood.

The 999 nears Visage of Memories, which looks like Saturn. Suddenly the 999 goes out of control, right into a meteor shower. The Conductor rushes by Tetsuro and Maetel, checking to see if Femail is okay. Femail angrily yells at the Conductor for the train not being operated safely and tells him to get them back into the proper orbit. She continues to yell at the Conductor and Tetsuro notices an electronic device on her belt. Maetel speaks up, claiming this couldn’t have happened on its own; rather someone intentionally sabotaged the train. Femail says they should catch the criminal who did it and that messing with the train means the death penalty. She angrily storms off to the other train car. Maetel tells Tetsuro it is Femail interfering with the train and Tetsuro mentions seeing a control device on her belt.

Femail comes back in and confronts the Conductor, insulting him. She heads to the dining car and Tetsuro follows, telling her to show her the device on her belt and asking her why she derailed the train. Tetsuro pulls out his gun and shoots just as Maetel heads to the train car. Femail is unharmed, causing Tetsuro to wonder if she is a mechanical person. Maetel comes in and tells Tetsuro it is useless to fire as the device on her belt is able to absorb the energy of the gun. Femail responds by slapping Maetel in the face. The Conductor comes in telling her to stop, and punches her in the face. He also pulls the belt off of her and tells her if she’s quiet he’ll leave her alone until the next station, but will throw her out of the train if she doesn’t behave. Tetsuro and Maetel watch, with Maetel mentioning that the Conductor must know Femail well.

Later, the Conductor says their next stop will be the Visage of Memories, where they’ll be staying for 64 hours. The 999 makes its way out of the meteor shower and down to Visage of Memories. The 999 touches down at the station, which Tetsuro finds to be rather old fashioned. The Conductor tells Femail they have arrived. Tetsuro wonders why he’s not turning her over to the authorities. Femail steps off the train and we realize she was wearing a mask and is much younger and prettier than she was making herself appear to be. Femail tells the Conductor he’s no different than he was in the old days. She considers him a stupid man chasing empty dreams and questions when he’ll accomplish the hopes he told her a long time ago. She thinks he’ll die this way, a lowly man still chasing her. She says goodbye and walks off.

Maetel says that Femail had come here to test the Conductor and hid her real appearance. Tetsuro angrily rushes out to confront Femail. The Conductor holds him back and says it’s okay. Tetsuro screams at Femail as she walks away. The Conductor tells Tetsuro that Femail would have been happy if he was a rich man. They had a relationship in his younger years and looked at the sky together, talking about her future. Her real name isn’t Femail, but he doesn’t say what her real name is. He says he dedicated his younger years to her but doesn’t regret it. He will keep the memories of his youth with her in his heart, which no one can take from him and will stay with him until he dies. 

TV Episode Summary:

Whereas in the manga we don’t know for certain that Femail was the former girlfriend of the Conductor until near the end of the chapter, it is made obvious fairly early in the episode. The Conductor comes to talk to Femail, and she mentions the Visage of Memories is his home town. The Conductor flashes back to time he spent there with his girlfriend Marvelous (Femail’s real name, which wasn’t revealed in the manga). The Conductor points to the stars and about his goal to be the 999’s Conductor. Femail says she’ll go to school while he’s away and become a cyborg technician. In the TV episode the Conductor realizes that Femail is Marvelous due to recognizing her voice. There is some more dialogue here where Femail tells the Conductor his girlfriend will be disappointed in him and he should get her some food, which is where the manga chapter begins.

After the train is derailed and Maetel claims Femail is responsible, we see a brief scene with the Conductor thinking to himself, wondering why she would do such a thing. Tetsuro talks to the Conductor briefly before confronting Femail, and the Conductor relays this to Maetel. The Conductor doesn’t mention throwing Femail out of the train when he takes her belt (Note that the previous time he threw someone off the train, all the way back in the first chapter wasn’t in the TV adaption).

In the TV episode we are shown that Marvelous has long blonde hair and that she was wearing a wig while pretending to be Femail. In the manga her face is also much more obvious a mask than it comes off as in the TV episode.

In the TV episode we also get some new footage after Marvelous leaves where Tetsuro questions how the Conductor could have stood up for a person like her. When Tetsuro sleeps Maetel says Tetsuro will become a cyborg before obtaining memories like those the Conductor has of Marvelous. We have a final shot with Marvelous where she watches the 999 take off, still thinking negatively about the Conductor.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Femail – Miyoko Asou

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

For the first and only time in Galaxy Express 999, we get a chapter and episode dedicated to the backstory of the Conductor. Beyond Tetsuro and Maetel, he’s the most recurring character in the storyline and it’s kind of surprising that this is the most we get for a storyline dedicated to him. He was at least a big factor in chapter 4-4/episode 19, “The Kingdom of Atonement”, but that episode was still mostly dedicated to Tetsuro and Maetel while things much more involve him here.

From the start of the chapter we see the Conductor in a very happy mood and realize that he must have some familiarity with Femail, a new passenger on the 999. Unfortunately Femail is quite rude and nasty towards him and goes as far as to purposely derail the train, which we discover was done in order to test the Conductor. The Conductor and Femail, whose real name is Marvelous (at least in the TV episode) used to be lovers. The Conductor dreamed of becoming the Conductor on the 999 while Marvelous headed off to school. Unfortunately over the years, Femail seems to have changed (or maybe the Conductor’s memories of her aren’t entirely accurate). She was hoping the Conductor would be more accomplished and wealthy, but becoming the Conductor of the 999 is as far as he has gone. He hasn’t reached the lofty heights she was hoping him to reach and through her test of him confirms for herself that she no longer has any romantic interest in him.

It’s a sad story for the Conductor, but unfortunately a harsh reality for many. If your romantic partner betters themselves, you do risk that they will increase their standards and that is exactly what happened with Marvelous. The Conductor and her seemed happy together in the flashback but she is nothing but demeaning and rude to him throughout the entire present section of the chapter/episode. And while the chapter doesn’t literally delve into this, it goes to show that long distance relationships aren’t real relationships. The two have been separated from each other for quite a while and surely that helped Marvelous move on from him.

For much of the chapter Femail comes off as a really over the top character. Matsumoto goes out of his way to portray her as being quite ugly, with beady eyes and a pig-like nose. You can tell from the first time you see her that there’s a good chance she’s wearing a mask. This seems a bit more toned down in the episode. This chapter/episode is a bit of a lost chance to see if there is anyone else of the same species as the Conductor, since Femail/Marvelous is human.

I hope for the Conductor’s sake that he moves on from his feelings towards Femail/Marvelous. He has always seemed like a good guy and she isn’t deserving of his love. Granted guys like the Conductor unfortunately don’t seem to do good with the ladies anyway. From a presentation standpoint I think Matsumoto does a good job with the penultimate page getting across the feeling of sorrow for the Conductor, having him alone against a dark background.