Four Dimensional Elevator

Four Dimensional Elevator

Manga Chapter 14-2

TV Episode 99

Manga Chapter Summary:

The Conductor is about to announce the next stop but finds Tetsuro and Maetel aren’t in their usual spot. They are actually in the dining car where they’ve just finished a meal. Maetel asks Tetsuro if he ever thinks about the cow that the steaks he ate came from and he says he’ll think about it someday. The Conductor steps into the dining car and announces their next stop as the “Bottomless City”, with a stop time of 66 hours, 66 minutes and 66 seconds. The 999 descends towards the city, which is filled with various skyscrapers. The station is in one of the skyscrapers. Maetel tells Tetsuro it has this name because they don’t know where the bottom is. Tetsuro and Maetel make it to the hotel and the bell boy tells Tetsuro to never use the elevator, only the stairs. Their elevator here is famous and you don’t know where it will take you. Tetsuro spends some time reading a giant tour book, then sleeps for a while. He wakes up hungry but finds Maetel isn’t in the room.

Tetsuro heads out to the hallway and realizes he has to go from the 66^th floor down to the 12^th floor. He starts going down the stairs, but decides to head into the elevator and use it. Once in the elevator it starts going down, but soon starts going in a whole bunch of different directions. It eventually brings Tetsuro to a transparent tunnel between buildings. Meanwhile, Maetel realizes that Tetsuro is no longer in their hotel room and that he got on the elevator. A man approaches her, saying Tetsuro got on it. He claims it is really rare for someone to get on it. Suddenly the elevator returns to their floor. The door opens up and Maetel finds Tetsuro’s cloak and hat inside. The man tells Maetel his name is Kizaluna and he knows where Tetsuro went. He encourages Maetel to get on the elevator with him, which she does. The elevator starts moving.

Maetel tells Kizaluna it would be easy for her to kill him. She is also confident she will remember her way and be able to make it back. The elevator stops and opens, and they find themselves in an area with various stores and restaurants. Kizaluna points out an apple he claims Tetsuro ate, but Maetel says it doesn’t have any human teeth marks. Maetel turns down an offer from Kizaluna to kiss him. He also shows Maetel an empty plate of steak he claims Tetsuro ate. They eventually make their way to a green field, where Kizaluna comments on the animals and smells the flowers. He points out a big city nearby where only live human beings are. He also shows Maetel a desert wasteland with bodies on the ground of gunmen he claims Tetsuro defeated. Maetel worries that Tetsuro got hurt. They head to a saloon and Maetel and Kizaluna have a beer. Maetel asks again where Tetsuro is and Kizaluna points out a grave marker nearby with Tetsuro’s name on it.

The two of them make their way over there and Tetsuro crawls out of the grave! Maetel says it’s time to go, but Kizaluna doesn’t want them to leave. He says he wants them to wander this world endlessly and pulls out a gun. He claims eventually Maetel will have to become his wife. Maetel stoops over and Kizaluna reveals he poisoned the alcohol she recently had. Tetsuro pulls out his gun and kills Kizaluna. He realizes Kizaluna was a mechanical human. Maetel tells Tetsuro they can make it back if he thinks of the home in the middle of his heart. They get on the elevator, which brings them back to the 66^th floor. Back on the 999, Maetel tells Tetsuro the 4 dimensional elevator went to the world that Tetsuro desired in his heart. Kizaluna was a mechanical person whose hobby was to drag humans into the dreams of others and play with them. The Conductor wonders what kind of desires Tetsuro has.

TV Episode Summary:

The TV episode cuts some minor things while also adding more scenes to flesh the episode out. At the start of the episode, the dialogue from Maetel and Tetsuro about the cow used to make the steaks is cut. The layover time is cut to 16 hours.

We see Tetsuro and Maetel check in their hotel via the lobby. Kizaluna spots them and calls out to Maetel from the bottom of the stairs, asking her if she’s forgotten him and she’ll remember him soon. Tetsuro asks why they are taking the stairs and the bellboy tells them about the elevator as he does in the manga. They are forced to climb up all 66 flights!

Once in their room Tetsuro brings up Kizaluna and thinks he’s making up knowing Maetel. Kizaluna calls Maetel in the hotel room and says they should reminisce over dinner. Maetel heads down to the lobby. Tetsuro then wakes up, leading to the sequence we see in the hallway of him getting on the elevator. We eventually see Tetsuro thrown out of the elevator. Maetel realizes when she meets Kizaluna outside the elevator that Kizaluna called her to draw her away so Tetsuro would get on the elevator.

We see Tetsuro wake up with restaurants around him. He goes into a restaurant and eats a massive amount of food, and is allowed to put it on his tab. Tetsuro sees Megalopolis off in the distance (the same city we saw in the manga, although it wasn’t named there). He is then confronted by a gunman whom he shoots. He sees some farmers nearby and they tell him Maetel and Kizaluna are being wed at a nearby church. Tetsuro heads inside where he sees the two of them being wed by a priest! Tetsuro rushes towards them but they disappear. The entire church then collapses around him!

The apple Kizaluna shows Maetel is cut, and they also see a restaurant that says Tetsuro has reservations. We see Kizaluna dropping a tablet into the beer he gives Maetel. Kizaluna points out Tetsuro as being under a pile of rubble nearby instead of a grave marker. When confronted by Tetsuro, Kizaluna tells him many women have fallen into this trap and that he eventually got tired of them, showing Tetsuro numerous graves. Maetel wakes up and uses a whip to knock the gun out of Kizaluna’s hands, which enables Tetsuro to shoot him.

We have an additional scene of the Conductor worrying about if Tetsuro and Maetel will make it in time. Maetel is no longer able to remember the floor they got into 4 dimensional space via due to the drug Kizaluna gave her. Maetel says if they remember in their hearts they’ll be able to make it back, which they do. Maetel and Tetsuro make it back to the 999 just in time as it takes off. At the end of the episode Tetsuro tells Maetel not to get married!

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Kizaluna – Makio Inoue

Boy – Hideyuki Tanaka

Pastor- Yasuo Tanaka

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Makio Inoue previously played Pascal in episode 38, the Cloaked Man (Captain Harlock) in episodes 79 – 81 and Tennoji in episode 92. Hideyuki Tanaka previously played Yaku in episode 88. Yasuo Tanaka played the mayor in episode 89 and Captain in episode 96.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

We have a rather interesting setup for this chapter/episode. The 999 makes its way to Bottomless City, a planet where we just see tall skyscrapers, without seeing the bottom. Tetsuro and Maetel are warned not to use the elevator in the hotel, as they don’t know where it may bring them! Of course Tetsuro often does things he is told not to do and that ends up being what happens here. Hungry, he wanders into the hall, and wanting to save himself walking down 50 flights of stairs takes the elevator and disappears! Maetel journeys to rescue him and is accompanied by a rather odd man, Kizaluna.

By traveling through the elevator we are brought to a world that is essentially constructed out of Tetsuro’s subconscious. We see a row of shops, including restaurants and Tetsuro’s favorites like ramen and steak. We also see a beautiful field, and an old-west like setting similar to those we’ve seen other times. In the TV episode we have the added element of Tetsuro seeing Maetel and Kizaluna get married! It is questioned in the episode whether this is a desire or fear within Tetsuro. Is it that Tetsuro wants to get married to Maetel someday? Or does he fear her getting married and not acting in that motherly role for him any longer?

Either way, Kizaluna fully desires to marry Maetel and we find in the episode he has gone through numerous other women (reminding me of the Spherical Housing Complex chapter/episode). Thankfully Tetsuro is able to defeat him and he and Maetel are able to escape back to the normal world.

The concept of a 4 dimensional elevator is quite interesting. Beyond the fact that it can take one to their subconscious I also liked the concept of an elevator that could go not only vertical, but horizontal. It was also a fun sight to see Maetel drinking a beer! Overall result is we have a fairly interesting chapter and episode that is unlike most of the others.