Stone Flower

Stone Flower

Manga Chapter 15-4

Manga Chapter Summary:

The chapter begins with an old man sitting by a pool of water; a young woman asks him what he’s thinking about and he claims to be thinking about the truth of all things, the past, the future, and the number of rains. By this point he has forgotten how many rains have come and even his age! She says her name is Eina and he says his is Hinemaios. He is patient sitting towards the pool, even if he stays here until he starves. She hands him something to eat and leaves. Hinemaios spots the 999 approaching in as it reflects in the pool. Tetsuro looks down at the planet and says it reminds him of the ruins of the Inca/Mayans. Maetel claims this is a planet that has a mixture of civilizations.

The Conductor announces this stop as the planet Mosaic, a flowering civilization with a layover time of 33 hours.  Despite that description, the civilization seems dominated by stone and there are no highways or skyscrapers. Upon arriving at the station, Maetel and Tetsuro find it in ruin, with no staff present, although Maetel claims there are a lot of stones. Tetsuro and Maetel wander around a template made full of stones and eventually reach the hotel. Tetsuro is shocked to find it is not a traditional hotel but made of stone and there are no walls or ceiling. Their beds and the bath are right out in the open. Maetel tells Tetsuro he won’t be allowed to walk around unless he bathes, so he reluctantly undresses to take a bath. Suddenly the part of the floor where Tetsuro is standing on breaks off and plummets.

Tetsuro eventually wakes up in a pile of rubble. He looks around and realizes he won’t be able to get out and is trapped here. Tetsuro suddenly starts hearing voices; it is the stones talking to him! They claim they are no longer lonely and can be used at his disposal. Meanwhile, Eina comes up to see Maetel and says if she can help someone they’ll be able to save Tetsuro. We see that Hinemaios has been tied up and is before a giant crowd that demands he be crushed. They throw rocks at a large stone above him, causing it to fall towards him. The stone suddenly explodes into a lot of smaller pieces and Maetel grabs him and unties him. Maetel is surprised; she thought this planet was like a paradise but Hinemaios claims it is like that for everyone but him. Eina also claims it is like hell.

Upon telling him her name, Hinemaios feels like he’s heard Maetel before but struggles with his memories. Maetel and Eina take him back to the hotel so he can help them find Tetsuro and they are nearly crushed by more falling stones. Hinemaios speaks of a control room and leads them there, through a large aluminum pipe. They eventually make their way to where Tetsuro is and find that he has arranged a lot of the stones in an odd pattern. Hinemaios tells him to stop and suddenly the ceiling start collapsing. Hinemaios is hit by a large stone so Maetel is forced to carry him as they flee. Hinemaios directs them to a higher place. It shows an arrangement of stones as if they were computer circuits.

Hinemaios claims a large circuit of stones like this covers the entire planet and was on the verge of completion with what Tetsuro was doing. Hinemaios claims the humans here couldn’t do such a thing as they were clumsy. When fully connected, the stones would become complete mineral life forms that could freely move the planet and kill all its humans. He explains that, similar to the precision of a mechanical human, if they cut off one stone they would stop them. Hinemaios shows Tetsuro a stone he can destroy with his gun to cut them off.

Tetsuro shoots at some stones which collapse and crush the stone Hinemaios had pointed him to. Hinemaios claims the humans on this planet could no longer think because the stones gave them everything. They disliked any person who thought for themselves. He explains that he used to do small things with these stone circuits but gradually made it larger; he was the one who created them. Eina wonders if this planet will now become a true paradise and Maetel says it is up to Hinemaios. Tetsuro and Maetel return to the 999 and talk about Hinemaios as it takes off.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

“Stone Flower” is the first of 20 manga chapters (14 separate stories) that were not adapted to the TV series. My assumption is that these were chapters that either came out after the TV series concluded, or at least were made far enough along in the TV series’ run that the producers knew it was about to end and decided this was the point to stop adapting things. Given the long length of the TV series (113 episodes) I’m a bit surprised they didn’t see it to the finish line as it would have taken only 20 or so episodes to wrap things up. Although I suppose it is possible that Matsumoto made the decision to end the manga after the decision had been made to end the TV series, and at the time of the decision it wasn’t known if the manga would continue for only a short period of time, or much longer.

As a manga only chapter, this is a storyline I get to experience for the first time, a first for this blog. After the high point we just saw with the “Maetel’s Journey” storyline, this one can’t help but be a bit of a disappointment. We are back to handling stories where the 999 visits strange alien words with some sort of quirk to them. In this case it is a planet where the stone dominates. All the buildings are made of stones, and we eventually learn that stones are actually sentient life forms! This is due to the old man, Hinemaios, the central guest character of the chapter. He has essentially created stone circuitry that brought them to life, similar to a machine. By chapter’s end, with Tetsuro and Maetel’s help, he has brought it to an end.

The planet Mosaic is praised at the start of the chapter and at other times as well, but doesn’t seem that way as we spend some time on it. We eventually find that people can’t really think for themselves here with the stones providing them anything they could want. This reminds me of the earlier storyline “Idle One’s Mirror” although it was machines that caused that at that time. Probably the highlight of the chapter for me was getting to see some interesting looking stone structures, particularly early on in the chapter. From a sheer story standpoint, the chapter didn’t have much to enthrall me.

Spoiler Analysis:

The planet name of Mosaic is also used as the name of a planet in the movie Adieu Galaxy Express 999, although that movie didn’t adapt any of the look or feel of the planet that we see here in this chapter.