The Gunman's Elegy

The Gunman’s Elegy

TV Episode 89

TV Episode Summary:

The Conductor rushes in, closing all the blinds on the 999, claiming he has to protect the passengers from bullets. Maetel claims that there are a lot of outlaws coming up on the next planet, which the Conductor calls “The Hangman’s Planet”. As the 999 approaches the station we see the planet is rather desolate, with a western-type feel. Tetsuro claims to like this type of atmosphere once they arrive. He immediately sees a woman in trouble at a nearby building. Inside there are two burglars stealing from the place. Tetsuro quickly gets in a gun fight with them but a new man arrives, shooting one of the burglars and the other escapes. The man silently leaves. The young woman there, named Mimoza, claims the man who came to their rescue is called Wester.

Maetel and Tetsuro check in at the hotel. A man behind Tetsuro, White, dumps a bag of money in front of him and asks him if he’d lend them his skills. Another man called Black tells Tetsuro he’ll pay double. Tetsuro gets angry and refuses both of them. Tetsuro overhears Mimoza and her father talking in one of the rooms, about how he doesn’t want her to work at a bar to help pay off his debt. A lot of shooting occurs outside, causing many to close their shutters. Maetell tells Tetsuro they mine gold here and there are disputes over the rights to it. Tetsuro wonders what the mayor and sheriff are doing. Maetel claims they are a do nothing government. Tetsuro and Maetel go and eat at the restaurant later, where Mimoza is waitress and her father plays the piano. Tetsuro considers it a waste for this town, but she claims only music here can heal people’s hearts. Mimoza’s father hopes to create a music hall.

Wester comes in and Tetsuro thanks him but is ignored by him. Wester asks Mimoza if she was trying to borrow money and she says yes, but she was denied. Suddenly a number of men enter shooting at each other. Mimoza’s father grabs a dropped gun and demands they stop but he is quickly shot down.  Mimoza cries over her father’s death. The sheriff comes in and offers his condolences to Mimoza. She says she’ll work at the bar and realize her father’s dream to build a music hall. Tetsuro tells the sheriff this wouldn’t have happened had he done his job. The sheriff claims the Black gang is up to no good, but he can’t do anything about it. Wester approaches White, asking if he’s still interested in hiring him. Wester leaves with some money, but is confronted by Tetsuro. Tetsuro is mad at him helping one of the sides as the fighting between the White and Black gangs caused the death of Mimoza’s father. Wester tells Tetsuro to leave him alone and walks off. Tetsuro returns to the hotel and finds Maetel knocked out.

Later, the sheriff comes to Tetsuro and claims the White gang is behind this as there were eyewitnesses. The sheriff is hesitant to arrest any of them due to the danger and Tetsuro desires to get revenge himself, although Maetel warns him against it. She claims she was ambushed and attacked with a chair once she got back to the room. She thinks it wasn’t just a random event. They also had masks, similar to those involved in the shooting of Mimoza’s father. Tetsuro simply gets knocked around upon demanding from the White gang that they hand over those who attacked Maetel. Tetsuro starts shooting a lot of the bar and says he’ll fight anyone, causing most to flee. Outside, Black praises Tetsuro and says he’ll help him get his revenge. Black claims he has no evidence that he was involved with those who caused Mimoza’s father’s death and that the White gang made it up. Black claims they are on the same side now and heads off.

White is told that Black’s gang is rounding up its group, so White decides to hit them. He tells Wester it’s time for him to put forth his value for them. The sheriff spies on both groups and reports to the mayor, saying things are going exactly as planned, as they fell for their trap. A giant shoot out between the White and Black gangs occur in the town with numerous people being gunned down. Wester takes part, shooting down several men. Tetsuro and Wester confront each other and in the confusion, Black is shot down. White demands Wester take down Tetsuro as the one person from Black’s gang remaining. He also tells his underling to kill the survivor between the two. Tetsuro is disappointed in Wester doing things for money. Wester intentionally doesn’t shoot at Tetsuro, but guns down another man in the bar. White then fires at him, and Wester kills him but takes a bullet. Tetsuro asks him why he didn’t shoot him and Wester says he had no reason to duel with him. He gives Tetsuro his money and tells him to give it to Mimoza. He just did this due to wanting to help her. He says he wanted to trade his life for that music hall and dies.

The sheriff comes in, saying Tetsuro is under arrest for robbery and murder. He feels he has Tetsuro trapped as he’s holding a dead man’s money and everyone else here is dead. He seizes the money from Tetsuro and says Tetsuro will be hanged tomorrow. Maetel shows up and says that the sheriff used the Black and White gangs to annihilate each other so he could get his hand on the gold. He also used them. She shows him several tied up underlings, the men who killed Mimoza’s father as witnesses. The sheriff walks outside and finds a hangman’s noose prepared, with the mayor standing before it and a large crowd there. The sheriff drops his gun and falls to his knees. Tetsuro is bewildered at the fact that the conspiracy went all the way up to the mayor. Later, Mimoza stands at Wester’s grave, watching as the 999 takes off. Tetsuro talks to Maetel about how the worst people there were the mayor and the sheriff. Compared to them, Wester was a great man. Maetel agrees, but says in this day and age it’s not easy for a real man to survive.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

White – Banjou Ginga

Black – Kouji Yada

Mimoza – Kazuko Sugiyama

Mayor – Yasuo Tanaka

Wester – Toshio Furukawa

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Banjou Ginga has portrayed many prior characters, mostly in minor roles, and also voices the Mysterious voice. Kouji Yada has also appeared many times as minor characters. Kazuko Sugiyama previously appeared as Fleme (episode 2), Eruza (episode 65) and Nasake (episode 74). Toshio Furukawa previously appeared as the Handsome Man (episode 6), Ikari (episode 74), and Lestel (episode 85). Oddly enough the Sheriff, the main villain of the episode is uncredited, while the minor Mayor character is credited.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

In this episode, which is a TV original, we have Galaxy Express 999’s take on the western. Several previous storylines have had western elements or settings to them, for example chapters 3-2/3-3, “Professional’s Spirit” or “12-4/13-1”, “The Pirates of the Time Castle”, Although this is really the first episode that goes full tilt with making the whole structure and theme of the episode that of a western. I’ve seen many western stories over the years, whether as part of serialized storytelling, or even as one shot episodes (such as the western episode of The Prisoner). Galaxy Express 999’s version of it has a lot of what you would expect. Tons of gun violence, a loner-type character who is essentially the hero of the episode (Wester), the unlucky damsel in distress (Mimoza) and so on.

The episode’s plot is rather convoluted in nature; a little too much considering the short running time. We’ve got several factions fighting each other, scheming government officials in the way, Wester and Tetsuro as wild cards, etc… Despite being a kid, Tetsuro has become quite the pro by this point with his gun. I’m sure all the practice back in the Professional’s spirit storyline helped! Tetsuro and Wester are hired by opposite sides, but in the end Wester has a good heart and can’t shoot down Tetsuro, despite the fact that Tetsuro has been angry at him most of the episode. The sheriff being behind everything points to the theory that power corrupts. He came off as quite the unlikable do nothing type character throughout much of the episode so I was happy to see what his fate was.