Elza From the Sea

Elza From the Sea

TV Episode 87

TV Episode Summary:

The Conductor announces the next stop as the “God-Given Planet”, where they will be stopped for approximately 19 hours. As the 999 approaches the planet, Tetsuro spots a bunch of explosions occurring on the ground. He is initially worried, but Maetel tells him they are practicing for war via a drill. Tetsuro is surprised they are doing this on a planet with so little land mass. Maetel thinks being at war may be humanity’s fate. When the 999 reaches the station, members of the military come on board and request to see their passes. Tetsuro immediately starts resisting since they won’t give a reason why. The Conductor comes in and says all trains are inspected here. Maetel hands over her pass and Tetsuro does shortly afterwards. Realizing they are just travelers, the military commander wishes them luck on their journey and departs. The Conductor says they are looking for stowaways. The soldiers report to their commander that they have found no stowaways. The commander notices that one of his men is missing, Nasuka. He tells his sister, Naminami, who is also in his forces to bring him here as he must be skipping work. Tetsuro notices Nasuka sleeping on one of the other seats in the train car and wakes him up. Naminami rushes in and tells him to hurry up and head outside and he follows.

We next cut to the hotel where Tetsuro wakes up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Maetel says it is cooler than usual. Some loud explosions occur outside and Maetel says the night drills have begun. Tetsuro gets frustrated over the temperature and noise and wants to make them stop; leaving despite Maetel telling him it won’t make a difference. Tetsuro runs outside and quickly falls into a trench. He tries to climb out but nearly gets shot. Standing before him are several soldiers. They bring him to the military commander who tells him to not interfere. It is for the sake of this planet so he should accept some annoyance. A soldier comes in saying Nasuka is missing again. The commander gets angry and decides he will shoot him for desertion. They depart the tent and we see Naminami listening. Tetsuro makes his way to the shore and wonders where the hotel is and if Maetel is worried about him. Tetsuro sees Nasuka pushing a boat into the water and runs up to him. Tetusro tells him he’ll be shot next time they come across him. Nasuka doesn’t want to kill anyone or be killed himself. He says he is heading to Honiara Island. He says an elder there will be able to cause the fighting to stop. Naminami shows up and begs him not to go, but Tetsuro and he head off in the boat.

The boat eventually reaches an island with a large rock structure. A mechanical device stops them and shoots at them, asking if they have a death wish. Tetsuro tells the device he is from the 999 and whoever is controlling it relents and opens up an entrance. Nasuka and Tetsuro head inside where they find the elder, who knows they want him to stop the fighting. He says he is unable to. This planet’s temperature is getting colder. Based on the planet’s rotation around its sun, it is entering a time period where the planet will get colder and colder. Nasuka is happy making him think there will be more land mass and plant life as a result. The elder claims the planet becoming colder will attract the Suraroids, who abandoned this planet for the seas and space in the past. Nasuka tells Tetsuro the Suraroids departed the planet to get away from the heat. He doesn’t mind them returning, but the elder is mad at them for fleeing and says this planet is theirs. This is what the training on the planet has been for.

Nasuka rows the boat away from the island. He says he understands the elder’s reasoning as they worked really hard after the Suraroids left, but he feels they should forget the past and welcome them back warmly. The planet had belonged to both of them. Tetsuro tells Nasuka he’s a good person. The elder gets a message from an underling telling him the Suraroids are going to return from being under the sea. The elder says he won’t allow it and sends out some missiles into the sea, causing a big explosion. Tetsuro notices that the sea is glowing blue as if there are flames within. They see a woman’s body floating in the water and pull her onto the boat. Nasuka recognizes the woman as Elza. Meanwhile, Maetel packs her suitcase in the hotel and worries about if Tetsuro will return in time as the 999 is leaving in 4 hours. Tetsuro and Nasuka watch over Elza in a cave and Nasuka reveals she was his girlfriend. Years ago she fled for the underwater city. He was supposed to go with her, but his sister showed up, saying he’s a Britennian and she didn’t want him being with a Suraroid girl. She threatened to kill him and herself if he left. Nasuka felt a debt to his sister, who raised him and couldn’t go against her. Nasuka tells Tetsuro to return to the 999 before he misses the train. Elza calls out that her home will be destroyed and wakes up.

Elza is happy to see Nasuka again, and he introduces her to Tetsuro. Elza claims her undersea city was destroyed by a missile attack, and Nasuka and Tetsuro realize that is what the flames underwater were. Tetsuro heads outside and sees the damaged city below them. Elza claims millions lived there and were happy it was cooling down so they could return to the surface. We see the missile sent by the elder hit the city and cause it to completely fill up with water and kill those within it. Nasuka says it was the elder behind this and the military commander confirms. He is standing behind them, with Naminami and many other soldiers. Nasuka realizes his sister led them here. The commander says it is in exchange for cancelling his execution.

The commander tells Nasuka to execute Elza, the one survivor of the underwater city. The commander knocks away Tetsuro when he objects and has him arrested. The commander is somewhat pleased that an altruist like Nasuka is being forced to kill, and his girlfriend at that. Tetsuro tells Nasuka not to do it. Elza says she doesn’t care and to live for her. Nasuka says he can’t kill her and that they’ll die together. The other soldiers there ready their guns. Naminami pleads to the commander not to do it but he won’t listen. Suddenly there is a flashing light; it is Maetel, who is standing on the cliff above. Maetel tells the commander to take his men and leave. He says he’ll find Nasuka wherever he goes and departs with his men. Maetel says she got worried and followed them here. Nasuka tells Elza to come some place far away with him where they can live together. He doesn’t care that she’s a Suraroid. Nasuka doesn’t know what will happen but wishes Tetsuro and Maetel luck and heads away. Naminami stands in front of Elza and her brother, not wanting them to go. Nasuka refuses to stop and walks past her. Naminami lowers her gun and says to be happy. Nasuka says goodbye and heads off with Elza.

Tetsuro asks Maetel if they’ll be okay. Maetel says they’ll have to go to the north to survive. The south will become a battlefield and only the harsh area of the north will be devoid of it. Explosions ring out and we see many soldiers walking around as the elder demands no Suraroids be left alive. The 999 departs the planet. Tetsuro worries for the bloody war that is to come, but Maetel says there is nothing they can do about it. Tetsuro says if they all hated war like Nasuka, there’d be no war.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Naminami – Michiko Nomura

Nasuka – Yoku Shioya

Captain – Banjou Ginga

Elder – Masanobu Okubo

Elza – Yoshiko Matsuo

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This is another TV episode based not on the Galaxy Express 999 manga, but rather the manga “The Tale of a Time Gone By”, in particular a chapter with the same title. This time we feature the 999 returning to a planet where a large scale war is expected. Members of the military are in training, although it takes us a while to figure out what they are training for. Tetsuro befriends Nasuka, a young soldier who is an altruist and doesn’t want to participate in the fighting. I’ve got to assume that Nasuka was drafted against his will, or perhaps forced into things by his sister as he doesn’t seem like one who desires to fight at all. As we see in a flashback, he had already hoped to run away with Elza, but was stopped by his sister.

Tetsuro and Nasuka visit the elder of the planet, and I got to say, I was a bit surprised. Instead of the cliché wise old man who wants peace, it seems like the elder is the one who is pushing it above anything else. He is quite angry at a race called the Suraroids who fled as the planet became warmer. The elder speaks to the Suraroids heading to sea and space. I initially thought they’d be coming from outer space, but we soon see that millions of them have actually been living under the sea. With this revelation, a lot of the motivation of the elder and the military falls flat to me. The Suraroids aren’t really an invading force; they were already on the planet with them. In fact it seems like the surface dwellers, called the Brittenians are the aggressors. We see the elder launch missiles at the underwater city that results in the death of millions! Elza is the sole Suraroid we meet, but she is human and no different than anyone else.

As the episode starting coming to a close, I was expecting something bad to happen, as this show and manga have made me so used to it. Would Nasuka have to kill Elza? Would the military kill both of them? Worst of all, would Nasuka end up getting killed by his own sister? In the end none of this happens and we get, at least for Nasuka and Elza, a pretty happy ending? At least a happy ending on a curve I guess I would say. They still have to head out to the northern wilderness to escape the war, and we see the war happening as the 999 departs the planet.

Overall it was a fairly good episode beyond some frustrations over the elder’s rather misplaced hatred for the Suraroids.