Space Monk Dairuz

Space Monk Dairuz

Manga Chapter 11-3

TV Episode 67

Manga Chapter Summary:

As the 999 continues its travels, a loud bell starts ringing throughout the ship. Maetel says it is like resonating sound waves. The Conductor comes in, falling over from the effect of the sound waves and says he has to do something about the passenger causing it. The Conductor is afraid that the entire train will fall apart if this continues. He and Tetsuro head to the next train car, finding the bell coming from a monk who is claiming all worldly things are transitory and that all living things are required to die.

Within the engine room of the 999, the Conductor is told that if these sound waves continue, they will be dangerous to the train. The Conductor is ordered to remove the passenger ringing the bell from the train.

The monk, named Dairuz, tells Tetsuro that he has held onto this bell for 600 years, and that time is when he obtained his mechanical body. The Conductor approaches Dairuz with a gun, but he rings the bell again, knocking him back. This is enough to severely damage the train and knock it off course. Maetel realizes the dimensional shield is broken. Tetsuro starts feeling a lot of pain in his mouth. Maetel checks and notices that the sound waves are damaging Tetsuro’s molars. If it continues, his teeth will be ruined.  Dairuz continues to ring the bell despite Tetsuro’s pleas and all of his teeth start cracking.

The 999 engine decides to make a trajectory change and temporarily stop at an emergency medical asteroid for three hours. The Conductor tells this to Maetel and the 999 stops at the medical asteroid shortly afterwards. The Conductor tells Tetsuro that they look at both regular humans and mechanized ones here. Tetsuro is seen by the dentist, but is told the only solution is to have his teeth replaced with dentures! An angry Tetsuro storms out of the place and immediately confronts Dairuz. Maetel tells him to be careful as if he speaks too much his teeth will all fall out. This is exactly what happens as Tetsuro speaks. Dairuz puts his bell on the ground and smashes it with a rock. Dairuz says his eyes and ears act like radar and he is able to read Tetsuro’s heart rather than listening to his voice. By this point practically all of Tetsuro’s teeth have fallen out.

Dairuz grabs Tetsuro and drags him to the dentist, knocking him out when he struggles. Dairuz talks to the dentist and Tetsuro is operated on. When Tetsuro wakes up, Maetel hands him a hardened rice cracker which he bites into, realizing his teeth are now repaired. Tetsuro heads outside and finds that all that’s left of Dairuz is his head. Maetel tells him that a special calcium ore from Dairuz’s body was used to fix Tetsuro’s teeth. Dairuz says he was wrong, and was pathetic for thinking he was the best monk in the universe. He will be training and meditating for the next few thousand years. He tells Tetsuro that obtaining a mechanical body will continue one’s suffering as well. The 999 departs. The narrator explains that no one knows how long Dairuz trained on that asteroid and if he found enlightenment or not as the 999 never comes here again.

TV Episode Summary:

In the TV episode, Tetsuro’s teeth hurt from the beginning and he comments on having a cavity before the bell starts ringing. The ringing of the bell immediately starts hurting his teeth, while in the manga it takes a while to have an effect. We see the Conductor make a request to the locomotive to make an unscheduled stop to get Tetsuro’s teeth looked at, although the locomotive accepts it more so the train can get fixed than to help Tetsuro. In the manga, the locomotive makes the decision on its own and it is specifically to help Tetsuro.

We get more of Dairuz’s backstory in the TV episode. Dairuz speaks of having seen hell before and we flashback to him being a soldier in a war. We then see him walk in a dark chamber with numerous lit candles.

The biggest addition to the episode is a subplot involving a couple, Mikhail and Maria. A medical car arrives carrying the sick Mikhail. Mikhail ignores medical help and instead tries to rob the car and is shot by Tetsuro. We see Mikhail being operated upon. Maria says that they live on a nearby asteroid, and she says he was involved in a shoot out with his colleagues. She says Mikhail used to be kind, considerate and warmhearted, but when his parents were victim of a bank robbery he became a completely different person. Nothing she has done has worked and his heart has become completely sullied. The doctors come out and say the operation was a success, but tonight will be critical. Tetsuro says he wants to stay by Maria’s side that night. Dairuz heads into the hospital room as well.

Mikhail is angry upon seeing Tetsuro in the hospital room with him. He says they should just let him die and Tetsuro is angry considering how much Maria cares for him. Maria and Tetsuro head outside with the doctor, who tells him he may not live because he doesn’t have the heart for it. Dairuz tells Tetsuro he can’t save that man and to leave the rest to him. He heads into the hospital bell and prays while ringing the bell over Mikhail. Mikhail says he’s lost the will to live and to leave him alone. Tetsuro rushes in and calls him a coward, telling him he shouldn’t feel this way because his parents were killed. Tetsuro reveals that his parents are dead too but he hasn’t given up. He says Mikhail should live for Maria. The next day we find out that Mikhail has recovered.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Dairuz – Masashi Amenomori

Mechanical Train Car Voice – Kouji Totani

Dentist – Yumi Nakatani

Mikhail – Kiyonobu Suzuki

Maria – Chiyoko Kawashima

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Masashi Amenomori also played Sakezan in episode 29. Kiyonobu Suzuki also played a boy in episodes 60 – 61. Chiyoko Kawashima has appeared several times before including Claire (episode 3), Chromeria (episode 25) and Santana (episodes 47 – 48).

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

I’ve always been one who is squeamish about my teeth and hate going to the dentist, so this chapter, where Tetsuro’s teeth all crack and fall out is a particularly frightening one! I feel quite bad for him and its odd that only Tetsuro’s teeth are impacted, but no one else’s are. The TV episode adds a line about Tetsuro having cavities, which perhaps factored in. The monk character Dairuz comes off as a rather unlikable one throughout the episode. He seems like the type that is so dedicated to his religion and actions that how it impacts other people doesn’t matter to him. He repeatedly rings the bell, despite it destroying Tetsuro’s teeth and causing the train to crash off course.

Dairuz eventually changes his outlook thanks to Tetsuro. I felt this worked considerably better in the TV episode with the additional material. In the manga chapter Tetsuro screaming at him and I presume what Dairuz senses in Tetsuro’s heart is what causes him to destroy his bell. In the TV episode it is after Dairuz fails to have an impact on Mikhail’s condition, but he notices how much Tetsuro wants Mikhail to recover and how much he encourages him to go on.

Dairuz has a rather unique mechanical body and claims that doesn’t hear/see the same way a normal person would but rather can sense people’s hearts. His body also has some type of calcium ore that ends up being what saves Tetsuro’s teeth. Tetsuro seems about as angry as I’ve ever seen him in this chapter and he lodges quite a lot of profanity towards Dairuz in his anger.