The Final Days of the Underwater City

The Final Days of the Underwater City

TV Episode 92

TV Episode Summary:

On the 999, the Conductor announces their next stop as the “Planet of the Rainbow Sash”, with a layover time of approximately 19 hours. Tetsuro thinks the planet must be beautiful and Maetel agrees, from a distance. As they get closer to the planet we see parts of the planet floating around it. Maetel says a nuclear war occurred here 10 years ago. As a result, people couldn’t live on the surface anymore. Survivors were forced to flee to an underwater city. The 999 descends into the atmosphere, passing past the barren land and heads right into the sea. Eventually the 999 approaches a giant dome which contains the city within.  Once in the hotel, Tetsuro comments on how with the artificial sun here, you wouldn’t even know you were underwater. Maetel thinks it was a way to keep people from being homesick.

Maetel suddenly stops and says she senses an Earthquake. We see a member of the hotel staff refusing a room to an old man, saying only those with reservations can stay here. A janitor, Tadashi, asks why they don’t let him stay as they have vacancies and the manager fires him! Tetsuro tells the manager he is in the wrong here and Tetsuro argues with him, getting kicked out of the hotel too. Tetsuro tells Maetel not to worry; he’ll find someplace to sleep. He wanders around outside and Tadashi comes up to him, inviting him to stay in his apartment. They head to his rather shabby home, but Tetsuro says he is more comfortable here than at that high class hotel. Tadashi offers Tetsuro some instant ramen and says he’ll take it easy until he finds a new job. Tadashi tells Tetsuro his parents both died in the war. All the citizens, including them had opposed it. We flash back to a nervous man, the governor, who was so worried about other countries that he pushed the button to launch the nukes that started the war.

Tadashi says it’s as if his parents were killed by the governor. He only worked at the governor’s hotel in order to survive. Practically all establishments here are under his thumb. Tetsuro says he understands how Tadashi feels as he’s lost his parents as well. He tells him he’s on this journey on the 999 and Tadashi likes that but knows he’ll never be able to do it. Tetsuro notices photos of the woman from the hotel front desk and wonders if she’s his girlfriend. He says no, they just grew up together at the orphanage together. The ramen is his girlfriend! But we soon see the woman, Kumi, come in, She asks Tadashi why he behaved that way to the manager. Suddenly the place shakes due to an earthquake. Tadashi tells Tetsuro it’s happened a lot lately and he hopes its nothing serious.

Meanwhile the whistle of the 999 goes off. The Locomotive tells the Conductor it is detecting a seismic tremor and should call back the passengers. Tadashi says good night to Kumi and tells her he won’t be apologizing. Suddenly a car drives by and nearly hits them, crashing nearby. Tetsuro spots a woman inside who passes out. He says they should call an ambulance but Tadashi says there isn’t one in this society and he’ll take her in. Meanwhile Maetel makes it back to the station. The Conductor tells her that the underwater city is in danger of sinking into the sea due to effects on the area due to the nuclear war. The 999 has been ordered to leave as soon as possible. Maetel tells him Tetsuro went to rest someplace else and to wait as long as possible.

At Tadashi’s home, the woman from the car crash wakes up and says her name is Miyoko. She’s surprised they were kind to her and reveals she’s the governor’s secretary. Upon hearing of the time she sits up and gets quite worried, saying she only has 2 hours. They put her back to rest due to her condition. She reveals that there is going to be an earthquake in 2 hours that will destroy the city! Kumi says they have to escape, but Tadashi they’d need a pass for emigration capsules, things people like them can’t afford. Miyoko says to use a pass in her purse intended for a husband and wife pair that she was going to bring to the governor because he forgot it. She reveals her father and brother died in the war and it’s the governor’s fault. She’d rather save people who were kind to her. She passes out.

Tetsuro says he’ll notify all the town people and the two of them should flee. Tadashi worries as they’re intended for a married couple. Kumi tells Tadashi she’s always liked him and that they should become husband and wife. He’s surprised to hear it. Kumi tells him she’s going to go get her things. Tetsuro runs around outside banging a pan telling people about the upcoming Earthquake. People call him a dog of the governor and to shut up, even throwing a pot and eventually an egg at him! Several men show up in the street and Tetsuro flees. Tetsuro starts crying over people not believing him. Tetsuro overhears Kumi talking to another man about the evacuation. The Conductor tells Matel they can’t wait any longer for Tetsuro. The 999 can’t be sacrificed for one person and he believes Tetsuro will make it through. Maetel asks him to at least have the 999 wait at the surface of the water.

Tetsuro spots the 999 taking off and realizes he’s now going to have to get into an evacuation capsule as well. Kumi and Tadashi meet up with each other and head in the evacuation center with a large piece of luggage. They get in the capsule and it is launched. Meanwhile the governor yells at someone over the phone about his capsule ticket not being delivered. The earthquake rages around the city, causing cracks to appear around it and for the ground to collapse. Water starts making its way into the dome and it starts sinking into the depths of the ocean. Tadashi and Kumi look outside, happy that they were able to make it out.

Suddenly a man bursts his way out of the luggage, it is the hotel manager! He says a woman (Kumi) will do anything for the man she loves, which is him! The manager pulls out a gun and tells Tadashi to get out of the capsule. Tetsuro reveals himself; he also snuck in the capsule and shoots away the gun. Tetsuro demands the manager himself leave, but Tadashi tells him its okay. Tetsuro asks him why he’s being nice to them after they lied. Tadashi says he felt happy simply from Kumi telling her she loved him, even if she lied. The manager shoots at Tadashi but accidentally hits Kumi. Tetsuro shoots the manager and he falls back into the luggage. Kumi tells Tadashi she was an idiot for being deceived by him and was sick of living in poverty so she fell for his kind words and high status. She says her eyes are now open. Tadashi says they’ll have to work hard for those who died, but they’ll create a peaceful world without war. The capsule surfaces and the 999 stops by to pick up Tetsuro. The various capsules that have made it to the surface blast their way into space. Tetsuro waves goodbye to them. Tetsuro tells Maetel he hopes their dream will come true. The two of them believe it will happen.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Tennoji – Makio Inoue

Mechanical Car Voice – Kouji Totani

Mieko – Minori Matsushima

Kumiko – Keiko Han

Tadashi – Yoku Shioya

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

I’m assuming Tennoji is the hotel manager character, who isn’t named in the episode. His voice actor, Makio Inoue previously played Pascal in episode 38 and the Cloaked Man (Captain Harlock) in episodes 79 – 81. Miyoko is also credited as Mieko (although this may have been a translation error by those subbing the episode for Crunchyroll/Tubi). Her voice actress previously portrayed Laura in episode 14, Alice in episode 44, and Miiru in episode 68. Kumi is credited as Kumiko, which I assume is her full name. Keiko Han previously appeared as Yuki in episode 27, Miru in episode 63, Toto in episode 66 and Kureha in episode 82. Yoku Shioya previously appeared as Leaf in episode 82, Nasuka in episode 87 and as a boy in episodes 60 – 61.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

We return here to an episode based on the Leiji Matsumoto manga “Tale of a Time Gone By”, in particular the chapter “The Big Deep Sea Mansion”. This is one of several recent episodes/storylines we’ve seen featuring underwater cities, such as “Elza from the Sea” in episode 87. We also had “Cheyenne, the Nation of Water” back in episodes 75/76 and chapter 12-2. It’s a popular setting for Matsumoto, but is running the risk of getting overused so hopefully this is it for a while.

A couple of the themes we visit here are similar to ones we’ve seen before, but still ring true. The city has a powerful governor who through his fear and incompetence caused a giant war that made the entire surface uninhabitable. Despite that he is still in charge of the current society as well, owning much of the establishments. Those who work for him and/or are loyal to him have pretty good positions while others live poor and destitute.

A society conveniently being in big trouble just as the 999 arrives is another constant theme that we revisit here (granted there has to be some action for the stories to happen!). An earthquake and the destruction of the entire city is imminent. Tetsuro befriends Tadashi and has much in common with him; they have poor backgrounds, they’ve lost both their parents, and they love ramen! Through sheer luck they are able to discover the incoming destruction of the city. It’s unfortunate that the locals hate the governor so much that Tetsuro’s attempts to get them to evacuate are completely ignored. All of these people surely died when the city was destroyed.

Kumi, who was raised at the same orphanage as Tadashi makes an appearance, conveniently shortly before they find out from the Governor’s secretary what is going to happen. Upon hearing that their pass to safety has to be for a married couple, she out of nowhere tells Tadashi that she likes him and wants to be his wife. I was suspicious of this from the moment it happened, and as we soon see, it was a trick. She is in fact in a relationship with the hotel manager that fired Tadashi and they double cross him. Luckily Tetsuro was around to save the day. Kumi seems to change course at the end of the episode and like Tadashi after all, although I do still think it’s a bit convenient. She doesn’t have much of a choice now other than to be with him. And it isn’t clear if the hotel manager character dies or not, could he just come back? Although he doesn’t have the status anymore that attracted to her to him. I should also mention that Kumi at least cared enough for Tadashi to visit him after his firing, before knowing about the city’s oncoming destruction.

And so, the underwater city is completely destroyed, with at least some survivors making it out okay. It was fitting to see the governor not be one of the ones who made it out alive, considering his responsibility for them being in this mess. I was worried that they’d forget about the earlier brought up plot point about the radioactive surface, but the escape capsules are revealed at episode’s end to be able to bring them to space, so those on this planet still have hope to settle elsewhere.