Tale of a Short Life

 Tale of a Short Life

TV Episode 82 

TV Episode Summary:

The 999 approaches its next stop, “Butterfly’s Dream”, where the stop will be only a little over 5 hours. The Conductor speaks to Maetel about preparations they must make and she says they will need to wear something on the planet. As the 999 arrives at the planet, a couple of the planet’s inhabitants, who bear wings as if they were butterflies, watch. One of them, Kureha, wants to board the 999 someday, but Hanza, a man with her says to stop such silly thoughts. She asks why they don’t travel more, since they have wings, and he says it is due to their short life span. Kureha grows frustrated and flies off. The 999 arrives. Maetel gets off the 999, wearing butterfly wings! At Maetel’s urging, Tetsuro comes out, but is embarrassed by his wings and the Conductor laughs as he gets off.

On the streets, Tetsuro sees various people flying and sees that everyone has wings. Maetel says it isn’t really everyone. She tells Tetsuro that the two of them are wearing fake wings as its proper etiquette for disembarking on this planet. They see a wingless boy nearby tossed out of a building. Tetsuro comes over and helps him out, picking up the small peat rocks that the boy was carrying in his basket. Tetsuro finds a bunch of people surrounding Maetel, fawning over her wings. Tetsuro is shoved aside but helped up by Kureha. Hanza quickly approaches, saying he’s been looking for her. She claims she was in the woods nearby. With it about to rain, Hanza says it is about to rain and they should go.

Maetel grabs Tetsuro and they get drinks at a restaurant nearby. Tetsuro overhears Hanza nearby, telling Kureha she shouldn’t interact with that filthy boy. Tetsuro thinks he’s talking about him but Maetel tells him to stop. We find out that Kureha has been speaking with Leaf, the boy who Tetsuro helped earlier. In a flashback, we see Kureha get stuck in some vines in the woods, and Leaf helps cut her out of them. They briefly talk to each other. Leaf thinks her friends will hate her for coming here and she should go soon. Kureha sees a painting on an easel and asks Leaf about it. He talks about being an aspiring artist and they exchange each other’s names. The clouds grow dark. Kureha asks Leaf if she can see him again and he says he’ll give her a painting when it stops showering. Back in the present Kureha talks about how bright she felt being with Leaf. Hanza is against it, saying she could get exiled for breaking the law. Kureha doesn’t care and thinks those in this town are wasting their lives away.

The rain stops and Kureha says she has to go as Leaf is going to draw something for her. Hanza angrily leaves. Kureha asks Tetsuro to help Leaf. In the woods, Leaf finishes drawing Leaf. Hanza confronts Leaf, claiming he has seduced Kureha and tears up the drawing. He tells him it’s illegal for him to talk to people in town and throws Leaf to the ground. He grabs Leaf’s painting and destroys it as well, flying off afterwards. Kureha and Tetsuro show up shortly after.  Leaf tells Kureha to go home and that bad things will happen to her. Kureha says she doesn’t care if they exile her and she is going to break off her engagement to Hanza, wanting to be with Leaf instead. In town, Hanza claims in front of a crowd that Leaf has kidnapped Kureha and the crowd flies off with him. Maetel, standing nearby, worries for Tetsuro.

Leaf and Tetsuro work on digging up some peat from the field. Kureha asks Tetsuro if he is tiring of working and he says no, talking about when he worked with his mother. Kureha offers to help as well. Kureha says those in town just care about having fun and looking beautiful but she likes the type of life Leaf lives better, thinking he is living his life to the fullest. Tetsuro tells them how he is traveling on the 999 in order to get a free mechanical body. Tetsuro asks about the planet’s law and Kureha dismisses it, saying it’s a discriminatory law created by those in town as they only want to be around those beautiful during their short life.

The townsfolk led by Hanza arrive and Tetsuro pulls out his gun. Tetsuro tells Hanza that Kureha is breaking off her engagement with him and she admits it’s true. Hanza tries to convince Kureha to come back with him but she says she wants to experience other ways of life. He says they will get her by force and the crowd rushes them. Tetsuro tries to hold his ground so Leaf and Kureha can flee. He shoots at several of the townsfolk, but Hanza quickly catches up with Leaf and Kureha. Hanza punches out Leaf and the townsfolk destroy Leaf’s home. Tetsuro threatens Hanza, who dares him to shoot. Maetel arrives and tells Tetsuro he is ignoring the laws of this planet. She asks Tetsuro if he really thinks Kureha and Leaf can live happily together. Hanza grabs Kureha and flies off with her.

Tetsuro tells Maetel he hates her and that the townsfolk were in the wrong. Leaf seems settled on the fact that he and Kureha can’t be together due to his lack of wings. Leaf thanks Tetsuro and wishes him luck. Maetel tells Tetsuro to let him go and that Leaf knows that he and Kureha will have to be apart. Leaf walks off into the woods. Tetsuro and Maetel return to the 999. The Conductor comes by, praising Maetel’s wings, but she is rather silent and Tetsuro is too, being in a bad mood. Maetel asks Tetsuro if he is still mad and he says yes. Maetel says the winds are coming soon, which shall signal the end of their lives.

We see Hanza fly after Kureha; the landscape now mostly in ruin. Kureha claims she still wants to work hard until the end of her life and flees from him. Hanza collapses shortly afterwards. Kureha calls out for Leaf and approaches him, but falls to the ground. Kureha tells him she’ll work alongside him and passes away. Leaf says they’ll change the way they are in the town someday and he’ll keep living until that happens. The 999 returns to space. Maetel asks Tetsuro what he would have done if he was Leaf and Tetsuro says he wouldn’t have abandoned Kureha. He asks Maetel if she would give up on someone she loved because of a law. Maetel says nothing, and the narrator says if she has a reason, Tetsuro wouldn’t understand.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Hanza – Akira Murayama

Kureha – Keiko Han

Leaf – Yoku Shioya

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Keiko Han has played several characters previously including Yuki in episode 27, Miru in episode 63 and Toto in episode 66. Yoku Shioya played a boy in episodes 60 and 61.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This is the first episode of the Galaxy Express 999 television series to not actually be based on a Galaxy Express 999 manga chapter. Instead this episode is based on a chapter titled “Farewell, Time of Life” from another Matsumoto manga, “Four Dimensional World”. Unfortunately I don’t own a copy of this manga so I am unable to review the original story which it is based on. At this point in the television series, having just completed the show’s only 3 parter, the show takes a break from adapting Galaxy Express 999 manga chapters for 8 episodes, either adapting other Matsumoto manga or doing episodes that are completely TV originals. Why it happened at this point I’m not entirely sure, but my speculation would be that the producers of the TV show were quickly reaching the point where they were running out of chapters of the manga to adapt so they started adapting other Matsumoto works or creating their own works until more material was ready. While one could look at the original publication date of each manga chapter and compare it with the TV episode air dates to research further, given the time it takes to produce an episode, using that method probably wouldn’t be that reliable.

In any case, while I’m not familiar with Four Dimensional World, this episode comes off as a typical Galaxy Express 999 episode so they made a good choice with picking what storyline to adapt (or with what changes that made), at least in terms of making it fit Galaxy Express 999. Although I will say this episode is strikingly familiar to the chapter/episode “Town of Fireflies” (manga chapter 4-2 and episode 16) which is also about a society where people are judged and discriminated against based on a bug-like characteristic (how much they glow instead of wings) and the main episodic character we meet is an aspiring artist. That does leave this episode feeling somewhat of a rehash of that episode.

That said, the whole concept of the short life is unique to this storyline. Hanza is taking the perspective that the life of those living on this planet are short, and that they should enjoy life while they can even if it is not as adventurous as someone like Kureha wants. Kureha takes the totally opposite view, leading to her encounter with Leaf and desire to leave Hanza for Leaf. To a certain extent this part of the storyline comes off a bit silly. Kureha seems to fall in love with Leaf immediately, to an extent that it is super unrealistic. I also wonder if he was kind of in the right place at the right time, and Kureha would have fallen for any guy she came across in the woods who did their own work instead of spending their time having fun in the town. I wonder if this has to do with the short lifespans they have? Is everything in life super accelerated? Perhaps a relationship that comes off as foolish to a regular human being wouldn’t as much for a being who lives such a short period of time. Many other questions also arise such as if Leaf will also die soon or if the fact that he is wingless means he lives longer, and how they are reproducing in their society. Kureha dies too quickly to have any children, whether it was with Hanza or with Leaf, and with her talking of an engagement with Hanza you wonder how much they have thought this out. They are going to get married just to die shortly afterwards? The more I think over things, unfortunately the more plot holes arise.

Tetsuro comes off as quite mad in this episode, arguably as mad at Maetel as we have ever seen him be. Maetel tries to convince Tetsuro to just accept things as they are, but the way I look at things if there is a bad law, they should change it. Because the episode fails to answer a question such as if Leaf lives longer due to not having wings, I question what the real point of the law is beyond vanity.