Planet, Crossroads of Destiny

Planet, Crossroads of Destiny

TV Episode 88

TV Episode Summary:

The Conductor announces their next stop as “Planet, Crossroads of Destiny” with a layover time of around 26 hours. He says they will be lucky enough to witness a planet going extinct. This concerns Tetsuro, but Maetel says you can’t go against your fate. Tetsuro says the planet, which is another nearby their arrival planet, doesn’t look any different than other planets. Maetel claims the planet’s inhabitants have mostly already emigrated to Planet Crossroads of Destiny. The 999 stops at a station by a green field. Tetsuro is annoyed at the Conductor talking about a watching the nearby planet die. Maetel claims people celebrate the end so they can forget about the sad truth. Tetsuro talks about this is why people have chosen to get mechanical bodies, although Maetel reminds him that only a small fraction of people have been able to do so.

Maetel and Tetsuro spot a teenage boy and girl nearby. Yaku, the boy, shoots a crossbow at a boar, which soon chases them. They are able to jump in a tree, but the boar’s path ends up being where Tetsuro and Maetel are standing! Another man steps in the way and spears the boar. He grabs it and departs. We next see a large group of prehistoric-era humans praying before a fire on a cliff. Tetsuro and Maetel climb their way up there and Tetsuro talks about how these are sad people watching the planet die, but also young people like Yaku. Maetel asks Tetsuro about what he’ll do if the Earth dies out and says all they can do is start anew on a different planet. Tetsuro starts to run off, saying he can’t stand watching it. He spots Yaku in a field below, who shoots at some birds in a tree. He complains about not being able to get any protein. Tetsuro walks up to him, asking him why he’s so unaffected when his planet is about to die. He says he needs to focus more on surviving in the present, and asks why Tetsuro should care as it’s not his problem.

Yaku heads to a cave where we see an old man lying down. Yaku tells him all he can find are bugs. The old man says he should move somewhere where there are more natural resources. Tetsuro comes in and asks him to tell him more about his mentality. He tells him of his plan to get a mechanical body. Yaku lights a torch and tells Tetsuro to follow him. The two of them make their way to a carving of a woman in a cave, whom he calls Aya. Yaku says there is no more paper left where they are, but he is working on building weapons. Yaku asks Tetsuro what he intends to do about Earth once he becomes a cyborg. The woman from before, also named Aya, comes in, and Tetsuro realizes she’s the model for the statue. She carries some fish which she claims was provided by Mu, the man who killed the boar earlier.

Aya tells Yaku he has to increase his power, and she’s decided to go to the other side of the Fire Mountain. She wants Yaku to come with her, but he refuses; his grandfather can’t make the journey. Yaku asks Aya to stay with him, but she declines; she needs to survive and to do so live in an area with a lot of resources. Tetsuro says if they use up all the resources they’ll have to leave again, and she says so be it. Yaku claims this area used to be full of resources and they can return it to that. Aya says goodbye and runs off.  Yaku’s grandfather says the end of their home planet has come. Outside various people continue to watch their home planet, thinking of the variety of landscapes that were on it. The planet starts showing cracks and soon blows up. Yaku declines to look at it, saying it’s useless, and a new history will start tomorrow.

Yaku puts together a hammer-like weapon and runs off. We see Aya sitting before a fire as Mu gets together supplies. Yaku shows up and tells Mu to give Aya to him. Mu attacks Yaku’s inability to even help his grandfather and Yaku attacks him. Mu pulls out a club and blocks his attack then tosses him aside. Mu fails in any attempts to get up and beat Mu. Tetsuro wants to interfere, but Maetel stops him, saying this is the law of survival of the fittest. Mu again knocks Yaku over, into the fire. Maetel still insists Tetsuro not interfere. They are searching for a new way of life here. Yaku gets up, drops his weapon and walks off, telling Tetsuro he lost. We return to the cliff, seeing tears fall from the eyes of those who watched their planet explode. Yaku tells Tetsuro to leave him alone; he can’t beat Mu. Tetsuro tells him it’s too soon to give up. He’s lost with strength, but he still has his brain.

We return to Yaku’s cave, where he adjusts his crossbow, saying he’ll be able to fire a longer distance now. He aims at the statue of Aya and shoots it. Yaku tells Tetsuro to head back to the train, but Tetsuro says he’ll wait until after he shoots some prey. They come across Mu and Aya. Mu tells Yaku he can come if he pulls their sled, but Yaku declines. Suddenly a saber toothed tiger from the cliff above launches itself at them. Yaku shoots and kills it with his crossbow. He is surprised he was able to do it. Mu and Aya continue on. Mu dismisses Yaku’s weapons, saying he doesn’t need them as he’s strong.

The train’s whistle sounds and Tetsuro and Yaku say goodbye to each other. Yaku talks to himself, carrying the tiger’s body. He knows Mu’s strength will fade in time. The 999 departs the planet. As it takes off, Tetsuro happily looks at Yaku running in a field watching it. Yaku is confident that the era of knowledge is here. Back on the 999, Maetel asks Tetsuro what he’ll do once he has a mechanical body if the Earth dies. He says he never thought about the Earth going extinct. He’s got a lot of things to do once he obtains his mechanical body and hopes the Earth isn’t extinct by then. The narrator says Tetsuro continuously thought about the end of the Earth and how he will live when that time comes.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Aya – Chiyoko Kawashima

Yaku – Hideyuki Tanaka

Mu – Norio Wakamoto

Old Man – Hiroshi Masuoka

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Chiyoko Kawashima previously appeared in roles such as Claire (episode 3), Chrowmeria (episode 25), Santana (episode 47 – 48) , Maria (episode 67) and Rei (episode 83). Norio Wakamoto previously voiced an electric car in episode 59. Hiroshi Masuoka voiced Gudara in episode 59, Gandel in episode 69, Chaward in episode 75 – 76 and a Policeman in episode 40.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This is another episode of the TV show that is based on Matsumoto’s Manga “Four Dimensional World”, in particular the chapter “Purple Sky of the New World”. In this episode the 999 makes it to a planet whose residents just recently immigrated there from another planet that is about to explode (and eventually does in the episode). The episode is primarily focused on how a few of the planet’s residents react to living in a society where they have to essentially start from scratch. We don’t see what their original planet was like from a society standpoint (we do see some shots of nature of it), but I would assume that they weren’t that advanced technologically, as you’d think they’d bring supplies if they had.

A big theme of the episode is the concept of strength versus knowledge. This is portrayed through the characters of Mu and Yaku. Mu is the cliché strong, powerful man; he successfully spears a boar, finds fish and for all intents and purposes steals Yaku’s girlfriend Aya away from him as a result (although Yaku’s stubbornness in refusing to go with them basically causes that). Mu isn’t portrayed as a bad guy, he doesn’t want to fight Yaku and offers to let him come with him, but he is also pretty stubborn in his view, that it is all about strength, not knowledge, in what will enable them to survive further on this planet.

Yaku on the other hand is all about knowledge. He spends the episode perfecting a crossbow, and we see him work on creating other weapons, such as a hammer-like tool that he attacks Mu with. Yaku also points out that they are basically behaving like parasites, consuming all the natural resources in the area and then moving onto the next. He wants to stay behind, create a civilization where that won’t be the case.

As we approach the episode’s end we find that Yaku’s work on his crossbow pays off and he is able to kill a sabre toothed tiger that threatens the lives of Mu and Aya. Matsumoto eschews the typical cliché ending, where you’d expect Aya to run to Yaku’s side and for Mu to admit he was wrong. In fact Mu doesn’t even seem that appreciative of what Yaku did, and he and Aya leave anyway. Yaku ends up showing that his desire to get by based on knowledge rather than strength was a correct one. Or at least a viable alternative to the mentality that Mu has. At the end that doesn’t change Mu’s mind though, or cause Aya to stay. It is melancholy in a way, as Galaxy Express 999 often is, although at least this time we didn’t have to resort to someone dying in order to see that.

Another big theme of the episode is Tetsuro’s desire to get involved while Maetel tries to hold him back. The concept of a planet dying out greatly upsets Tetsuro, but there is ultimately nothing that can be done about it. This isn’t a new side of Tetsuro, we’ve often seen him desiring to change things that he ultimately cannot. I don’t think Maetel is entirely wrong; after all Tetsuro is just a temporary guest, and those on this planet really need to learn how to survive on their own. If anything it may be insulting to them for an outsider to simply swoop in and save the day. Tetsuro is forced to think about what will happen if the Earth itself dies out someday. Tetsuro constantly talks about how he has a lot of things to do once he gets his mechanical body, although we’re not sure why being on the Earth is so important to that. After all, his parents are both dead and he got his revenge on Count Mecha long ago. Perhaps Tetsuro has a desire to use his machine body to help prop up the poor on Earth? That would be a lofty goal and something I could totally see Tetsuro getting behind.