The Silent Holy Land

 The Silent Holy Land

Manga Chapters 6-7 and 7-1

TV Episode 64

Manga Chapter Summary:

The Conductor announces their next stop as Silver Valley, with a stop time of just under 5 hours. Tetsuro has a hard time hearing the Conductor due to him speaking so softly! Maetel tells Tetsuro he is practicing his speech for the next stop and that this planet is likely not suitable for him. As the 999 reaches Silver Valley, Maetel tells him they’ve entered a silent track and noise reduction zone. It is not advisable to speak normally on this planet and Maetel recommends Tetsuro not leave the train.

After the 999 lands Tetsuro sits on the train, bored, and he wonders if they serve boxed lunches here and shouts out to a man nearby. The Conductor quickly grabs him by the mouth and tells him to eat in the dining car if he’s hungry. Even this causes trouble as the Conductor claims he’s eating too loudly! Tetsuro starts flipping out over the need to stay quiet. He spots an explosion near the train car and shouts out if they are okay, with the Conductor again covering his mouth. Tetsuro sees that the police and ambulance came quickly without making a sound.

The time continues to go by slowly for Tetsuro and even the noise of a dropping bolt worries the Conductor. The departure time suddenly passes, but the 999 doesn’t leave! The Conductor claims this is because Maetel hasn’t gotten on board yet. The Conductor says Maetel is the only one with this special privilege. The Conductor goes to get Tetsuro a cold drink, but when he returns, Tetsuro is already gone, having wandered out into the city to look for Maetel. Everyone Tetsuro asks flees and Tetsuro suddenly finds himself surrounded by several vehicles. Tetsuro is sprayed with some sort of gas and wakes up in a jail cell!

Tetsuro is told that he is going to be hung due to the violation of silence! Some time passes and Tetsuro is brought out before a crowd of people, who are eager to see him hung, but are just barely whispering. Tetsuro starts yelling at the priest praying next to him, causing the priest to yell in return! The priest is told he will need 20 years of hard labor if he doesn’t want to be executed. Tetsuro is struck with a hammer in the head to knock him out and is hung. The bottom falls out underneath him though, and the noose snaps.

Maetel appears and tells Tetsuro to yell as loud as he can. Tetsuro does so, causing everyone around him to either fall down in pain or to clutch their ears. Maetel tells him this nation long ago began the habit of making false accusations. All who were accused were executed. This resulted in everyone eavesdropping on another, but people in response started talking a lot quieter. Because of this they all got special eardrum upgrades to be able to detect any sound, even a voice miles away! Simply talking normally here has become unbearable to them.

Suddenly a shot rings out and nearly hits them. Maetel realizes someone had protection and shoots back with a beam from a ring she is wearing. They rush back to the train, being shot at by vehicles flying over them from above. Tetsuro yells at them and they crash as well. Tetsuro notices someone approaching around the corner by their shadow and also shouts out, causing him to fall over in pain as well. They rush back to the train. The Conductor asks if they should sound the whistle, but Maetel says Tetsuro will be more than enough. Tetsuro asks Maetel what she was doing while on the planet, and she says just attending to business. She won’t tell Tetsuro what it is, but says she’d like to quickly come to a time when she can tell him everything.

TV Episode Summary:

The episode retains the core plot, but adds some additional material. At the start of the episode Tetsuro asks Maetel about her looking down lately. When they arrive on the planet, it is Tetsuro’s idea to stay on the train rather than being told to not get off. Tetsuro in the dining car is elongated a bit to add more comedy and noise to it. The comment from the Conductor about them holding up the train for Maetel is cut.

When Tetsuro is shouting loudly in the street, prior to his arrest, a woman pulls him into an alley, but Tetsuro simply shoves her aside and runs out into the street again, which is when the police catch him. A new scene features Maetel talking to the mysterious voice, on the edge of a cliff. He says he is anxiously awaiting for her to return as soon as possible, and she questions if has to take Tetsuro with her. He says no matter how tough it gets, this is her mission. Maetel returns to the 999 and the Conductor tells her Tetsuro is gone. The woman from earlier shoots at them, but it is revealed to be a message, staying that Tetsuro has been arrested.

In a rather comedic addition, Tetsuro shouts out so much at his execution that they put a pot over his head. The priest yells out loud not due to an argument, but because Tetsuro steps on his toes. He is told he’ll need 100 lashes instead of 20 years hard labor. Instead of the noose snapping on its own, it is fired at by Maetel and the woman from before until it severs. Maetel uses her earring to temporarily blind the crowd and pulls out her whip while Tetsuro escapes with the woman. The two of them jump into water and escape. Oddly enough during this sequence we hear police sirens go at a normal sound.

The woman tells Tetsuro her name is Sylvia. Sylvia explains the origin of the rule of silence on the planet as Maetel does in the chapter and we see a flashback sequence with people spying on each other and a dictator who was in charge. We see a man listening to the two of them from afar. Sylvia reveals her husband was put to death because of the law. Their baby was sick and because he loudly banged on the door of the doctor and called for help, he was executed.

Sylvia realizes someone is there and Maetel reveals herself, but they notice when some rocks fall that yet another person must be nearby. The three of them flee through some sewers into a mechanized room where they can hear whispering around them. The police send two hoses into the sewers emitting some sort of gas, forcing them to climb a ladder out of the sewers. The three of them are surrounded by a mob at which point Tetsuro is able to shout at them loudly to get away as he does in the manga. Tetsuro and Maetel say goodbye to Sylvia and head to the 999 which departs.

Design-wise we see the authorities on this planet using the swastika as a symbol which I was quite shocked to see. My assumption would be this was used to make us feel anger at the former dictator of the planet.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Sylvia – Eiko Masuyama

Chief Guard – Kouji Yada

Governor – Ichirou Nagai

Mysterious Voice – Banjou Ginga

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This is another one of those types of chapters where the 999 visits a world were something is out of the ordinary, this time people’s hearing. Everyone is forced to talk really quietly, and speaking even at a normal tone, let alone yelling, can get you sentenced to death! Of course for someone like Tetsuro, this is an extremely difficult thing to do, and Tetsuro quickly finds himself arrested and sentenced to be hung! While it was obvious something was up, you do wish that Maetel and the Conductor had simply flat out told Tetsuro what the rules and consequences were on this planet, although I suppose we don’t have much of a story if that happens. Tetsuro is lucky enough that the noose snaps and Maetel conveniently shows up. All of a sudden Tetsuro’s tendency to shout out really loud becomes a big strength and by doing so he is able to ensure their passage back to the 999. Even flying vehicles are taken down by his voice!

I liked the explanation we eventually got for why people need to talk so quietly. It would have been very easy for Matsumoto to simply have some easy explanation, that people were born that way, but he instead takes the time to provide an explanation that while a little complicated, makes sense and also fits the theme of mechanized humans so prevalent in the manga/show. This chapter’s storyline reminds me a lot of an old horror comic story I read in the horror comic “The Haunt of Fear”. In it, a king loves loud parties, but when his daughter dies due to no one being able to hear her calls for help, he orders the entire kingdom to be silent, punishing anyone who dares to speak or even make breathing sounds! He eventually has a metronome sewn into him by an angry mob that goes off anytime he moves and he throws himself off a cliff, being unable to hear the noise. I’m sure there’s no connection between the two; that comic predates this by approximately 25 years, and was published in America so Matsumoto probably didn’t read it.

This chapter has the rather annoying storyline of the 999 not moving because Maetel hasn’t returned. I do recall that this comes up at least one other time, although I can’t recall if it’s been in a chapter I’ve already covered or one that is yet to come. In any case, that Matsumoto goes to this well when it is convenient is quite annoying after many storylines where we have a rushed race to get back to the 999 by its departure time. Chapters like this one tell us it is meaningless. Also, we never get an explanation for where Maetel has gone; adding more to her mystery, but also starting to become a bit annoying as Tetsuro is totally fine without getting any explanation for it until Maetel is ready. We get it by this point, Maetel has something mysterious about her; we don’t have to keep repeating the same old plot of her going off on some business but needing to keep it secret. As often is the case, the TV episode does provide an answer, showing us that while being away she was talking to the mysterious voice we have heard from many times throughout the show.

The TV episode fleshes things out a bit more, most likely to ensure the running time was met as this isn’t the most complicated chapter. Sylvia is a likable and sympathetic character although oddly enough the baby of hers we see in the flashback gets completely forgotten about in the present time. I hope it’s alright! With her being on the run who is taking care of it?

Spoiler Analysis:

Tetsuro being bored on the 999, something which took up a decent portion of this chapter is something we’ll eventually get an entire chapter dedicated to with chapter 8-3 “C-6248’s Rebellion”.