The Future Planet

The Future Planet

Manga Chapter 9-3

TV Episodes 49

Manga Chapter Summary:

The Conductor steps into the train car to announce the next stop, but finds both Tetsuro and Maetel are asleep! The 999 approaches its latest planet, which has a variety of spiky hole-like objects jutting out from it. Tetsuro and Maetel wake up finding the 999 has already landed. Tetsuro claims this planet is like the 4 ½ Mat Planet they visited. Maetel says she’s sleep and they should go to their hotel and sleep. Seeing old fashion, dilapidated houses around them, Tetsuro is reminded of the hut he and his mother used to live in. Tetsuro spots a man repairing his roof only for the man to fall through it!

They make their way to a larger building, which is the Galaxy Express’ hotel for this planet. Tetsuro finds the inside of the hotel to remind him of a western. The innkeeper tells them their room is on the second floor and that he’ll bring them a meal later. Tetsuro finds the stairs about to fall apart below him and finds the view from the room both good and bad. The innkeeper brings them their meal, which includes fish and a large bowl of rice that he and Maetel eat. The innkeeper also tosses in an old radio. Tetsuro wonders if he can listen to it and Maetel says it was left for a reason.

Tetsuro is full and plops down on the floor. A young woman comes in shortly afterwards, Nami, the innkeeper’s daughter, to bring them tea. She angrily yells at her cat wandering around the hall. Tetsuro looks around for the bath and is told by Nami that it’s downstairs. Tetsuro gets in the bath but finds it lukewarm. The innkeeper overhears him and works on throwing more wood in the fire below to heat it up. Nami comes to wash Tetsuro’s back and he tells her about the scar on it he obtained on the Fossilized Planet. She says she’s envious of his ability to travel to various places.

Tetsuro returns to his room and Maetel goes down to get a bath herself. The innkeeper says he’ll wash her, causing Nami to strike him in the head with a mallet. That night both Tetsuro and Maetel get in their beds to go to sleep. Tetsuro suddenly hears a lot of noise and realizes the windows are boarded up. Suddenly things get very crazy and the entire building starts collapsing around them, caused by a fierce typhoon outside. Once it’s over, the entire hotel is rubble. Tetsuro is shocked to find that the hotel was the only building impacted! Tetsuro realizes that his pass has blown away. Maetel says it must be with her trunk which is also missing.

The innkeeper shows up and asks Tetsuro and Maetel if they heard about the typhoon on the radio. He had nailed the windows and doors shut after hearing about it. The innkeeper and Nami don’t seem too bothered about the fact that the entire hotel collapsed. Tetsuro and Maetel head to the station where they sit on the stairwell, waiting until whoever has the pass comes here. Tetsuro is concerned about the happiness on the innkeeper and Nami’s faces, wondering if they had something to do with it being taken. Some old people come by and give them some food to eat. As they eat, Tetsuro tells Maetel the people here are really kind and it’s just like the place he grew up as there are no great houses around.

Night falls and Tetsuro wonders how long the 999 will stay here. Maetel tells him to stay here and live with her. Tetsuro says this is just like what happened when they were on the 4 ½ Mats planet. He doesn’t want to stay here, but continue on his journey and get his free mechanical body. Tetsuro and Maetel wake up later and find their clothes, suitcases and passes sitting in front of them! The innkeeper and Nami are there and say they searched all over town. Tetsuro is surprised no one wanted to use the 999 pass. Both of them say they would want to earn it themselves. No one here is envious of what others have and feel there’s nothing they can’t get. They head back to rebuild their hotel. Tetsuro feels good and Maetel says this planet is like he is. The 999 departs. Tetsuro says he wishes he could have been born on a planet like this.

TV Episode Summary:

The core plot of this episode is intact, with only minor changes made for the most part. We have a little more dialogue early on with the Conductor announcing the name of their next stop as “The Future Planet”. The planet looks vastly different in the episode, kind of like Earth. When Tetsuro and Maetel walk through the streets towards their hotel we focus on more people beyond just the man on the roof.

Nami’s cat comes into the hotel room while Tetsuro and Maetel are eating; leading to Tetsuro and him fighting over the fish. Nami is the innkeeper’s wife rather than daughter. Tetsuro tries to get Nami to lie for him about him taking a bath but she refuses and tells him he smells. Tetsuro ends up getting too hot in the bath when the innkeeper warms it up.

We have a new scene at night of the Conductor talking about how quiet it is here. In bed, Tetsuro asks Maetel if the incredible kindness of the innkeepers are real. After the hotel is destroyed, Tetsuro is skeptical of the innkeeper and Nami immediately rather than waiting until they head to the station to feel this way. Tetsuro also gets a lot more upset on the stairs at the station than he does in the manga. We have a flashback of Tetsuro’s mother’s death when he is on the stairs thinking about his mother’s dying wish. Finally, at episode’s end we have an added scene with the hotel being repaired as the 999 takes off.

All references to the 4 ½ Mats Planet is cut as this chapter was adapted in the TV show prior to that one.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Inn Owner – Jouji Yanami

Nami – Mami Koyama

Mother – Keiko Miyazaki

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Jouji Yanami previously appeared as the Dark Knight in “Beethoven of the Water Planet” (episode 15) and the father in “Fury Planet” (episode 31). Mami Koyama previously appeared as Spiral in “Ulatores’ Mountain of Screws” (episode 33).

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This chapter returns us once more to the most overused plot in all of Galaxy Express 999, Tetsuro losing his pass. It is as infuriating as ever, because we just got that storyline last chapter. This time it comes due to very strange circumstances! Tetsuro and Maetel stay at a hotel and a typhoon hits, causing their passes to blow away. Yet when they wake up from the wreckage, they realize that the hotel was the only building that was hit! Somehow the typhoon was small enough to only impact this one building. One immediately starts wondering if foul play was involved. Did the typhoon really happen? Was it manufactured so their passes can be stolen? Tetsuro becomes suspicious of the innkeeper and his daughter as they seem so happy despite their hotel being destroyed, and were so nice to Tetsuro and Maetel beforehand as well.

The big twist ends up being that there was no foul play at all. It was all a giant coincidence. And because everyone on this planet is so nice and has no envy for the possessions of others, the townsfolk look around for the pass and are able to find it and return it to Tetsuro and Maetel. They people of this planet are much like Tetsuro himself in that they are hardworking and have a strong work ethic. Despite having something so valuable in their possession, the innkeeper and his daughter simply give the passes back to Tetsuro and Maetel. While an unexpected end, this ultimately ends up being one of the least interesting chapters/episodes in all of Galaxy Express 999 because just so little happens and the main plot returns to something that has been so overused.