The Destruction of Macaroni Au Gratin

The Destruction of Macaroni Au Gratin

Manga Chapter 15-2

TV Episode 108

Manga Chapter Summary:

Tetsuro and Maetel eat macaroni in the dining car. Tetsuro has a funny face and says it’s delicious but he likes something more chewy. He wonders why macaroni has a hole in it. Coincidentally, the Conductor announces their next stop as “Macaroni Au Gratin”, with a stop time of 6 and a half hours. Tetsuro asks if is a planet full of delicious macaroni, and the Conductor says no. They approach the planet, which is shaped just like a piece of macaroni! The 999 heads towards the inside and Tetsuro notices the insides have a texture that looks like Macaroni Au Gratin. As the 999 heads towards the station we see a big, advanced city. Meanwhile a couple of men talk on the phone about how the 999 has arrived and to not panic. The Conductor says that this is a scientifically advanced planet, in fact the most so in the Andromeda galaxy.

Tetsuro walks around the hotel and wonders if as civilization becomes more advanced it will become more monotonous like the hotel. Tetsuro heads down to the hotel room and asks for Macaroni Au Gratin, which is immediately delivered. Maetel says it is via a particle transfer device. Tetsuro regrets picking macaroni, but steak is immediately provided in its place. He is told it can be replaced with whatever he wants here. Tetsuro happily eats the steak and compliments it. Maetel mentions it as a planet with no inconvenience. Tetsuro goes on the bed to go asleep while Maetel goes to the bath. Tetsuro annoys Maetel with his snoring, but then his body completely disappears! There is an announcement over a loud speaker that there is an air raid and they should retreat to the underground. Missiles start dropping from above them and there’s a big explosion.

Maetel finds herself with Tetsuro, transported away via the particle transfer. She is told that her body would have been destroyed had it not been brought here. Tetsuro wakes up and both of them look up, finding a giant mechanical man staring at them from above! We cut to the station where the Conductor worries about Tetsuro and Maetel as the 999 is about to leave, but they haven’t returned. He looks around the station but sees no staff on the premises either. He places a call to the hotel and hears a message that it’s a state of emergency and war has been declared. We are told that war is erupting all over the planet. The Conductor heads to the 999 Locomotive and is told it is an unpredictable situation and to not leave the train; the safety of the train is top priority. Explosions ring out all over the planet and it completely explodes, with the 999 departing just in time.

The Conductor sheds a tear over the supposed deaths of Tetsuro and Maetel and wonders if he should quit. But the 999 Locomotive quickly tells him there are passengers on the 999! The Conductor doesn’t find Tetsuro and Maetel in their usual seats so he heads to the dining car. He rushes there but finds two mechanical men sitting there, asking for some oil drinks. He looks at their passes; they are called Mane and Sub Dendorium. The Conductor wonders if they are brothers. We hear the voice of Maetel sound out and discover that she and Tetsuro have shrunken greatly in size and are in a glass! Maetel and Tetsuro, who are brought to another table eat some food, albeit much smaller portions given their new size. The three of them wonder what the mechanical men are doing. They made them smaller and have fled their destroyed planet but don’t feel sad about it.

Mane and Sub laugh as they talk to each other. They lived 283 and 280 years respectively on Macaroni Au Gratin. They wonder why they were born there on a planet they feel was boring. While there they were the President of the Inland Zone and Land Zones and had fought against each other. They say those who died behind them were lower humans who didn’t deserve to live. Tetsuro tells Maetel he feels like a cockroach at this size as he laps up some spilt water. Maetel tells him the particle transfer device was destroyed along with the planet; they may be stuck like this. Tetsuro wants to ask the machine men about it and tries climbing down.

Mane and Sub talk about sleeping, and have a funny feeling. Suddenly their bodies explode, taking a lot of the train car with them! The Conductor tells Tetsuro that something sudden must have happened. Maetel thinks it has to do with the mother computer breaking, or perhaps they had a type of body that can run out of control and explode. Tetsuro wonders what will happen to them and if they are stuck at this size. They also think they don’t have their passes anymore, although the Conductor tells them there was a trunk, clothes and pass brought on board, which happens to be Tetsuro’s pass. The remains of the partially destroyed train car are decoupled, and the Locomotive complains about how it will have to go at full speed to catch up to its schedule. There is a lot of shaking as the 999 speeds up and the chapter ends.

TV Episode Summary:

The episode begins with the war raging on Macaroni Au Gratin. Mane and Sab talk to each other about how war is not interesting to them anymore; it was only so when humans were around and they want to leave. They mention mother computer junior is watching them, but plot to use the 999 to escape. After this things follow the manga until the 999 lands and we see a brief scene where they depart the station via a mechanical car. We see the car heading to the hotel and dropping them off there.

After Tetsuro starts eating in his hotel room we see Mane and Sab plotting to take the places of Tetsuro and Maetel on the 999. The scene once Tetsuro and Maetel are shrunk and see Mane is longer, with him telling them he had shrunk them and having them bound to the wall, with a band placed on their head. The intent is to trick someone into thinking Mane and Sab are still here when they’re not.

We get a new scene of the electronic car bringing back Tetsuro and Maetel’s things from the hotel; this happened in the manga but we don’t actually see it. Maetel soon realizes the planet’s war will soon force the 999 to take off so she uses a device on her ring to destroy what is keeping them bound to the wall. They destroy the bands on their heads and Tetsuro tries climbing out despite Maetel telling him not to. He soon falls down. Maetel hears the voice of her mother! Her mother, who appears only in silhouette, and can’t be seen by Tetsuro tells Maetel to bring Tetsuro with her now and that the Dendrobium brothers have left the planet, leaving them there as decoys for the mother junior computer. Tetsuro asks Maetel who she is talking to. Using the particle transmitter the two of them are transported away.

When the Conductor sees Mane and Sab on board, he brings them glasses to drink, while the glasses were already there in the manga. Tetsuro reveals himself in the glasses. Sab shakes the glass around and Mane throws the Conductor down when he tries to stop them. Maetel reveals herself to the Conductor from nearby.

Maetel’s mother, Prometheum, contacts the mother computer junior about the brothers running away. Prometheum also orders it to return Tetsuro and Maetel to their original forms. A blast from mother computer junior arrives and kills the two brothers. Tetsuro and Maetel also return to their normal size. Maetel tells Tetsuro that the two of them forgot mother computer junior controlled all and Tetsuro thinks back to their time in the particle transmitter.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Mane Dendoro - Toshio Furukawa

Sab Dendoro – Bin Shimada

Mechanical Car Voice – Kouji Totani

Mother Computer – Keiko Miyazaki

Prometheum – Ryoko Kinomiya

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Toshio Furukawa has had several prior appearances including Handsome Man (episode 6), Ikari (episode 74), Lestel (episode 85), Wester (episode 89), Hanza (episode 98) and Damu (episode 102). Keiko Miyazaki previously played a mother in episode 49. Beyond playing the 999 Locomotive, Kouji Totani has also portrayed various minor characters.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

An interesting chapter this time as the 999 heads to a world that looks like a giant piece of Macaroni! The planet and episode is named after Macaroni Au Gratin, which is a type of macaroni served with cheese sauce and a three cheese blend. Upon landing on the planet we find it is a technologically advanced planet, with giant skyscrapers and a particle transfer device that can instantaneously deliver food to rooms, or even transfer people as later happens with Tetsuro and Maetel. When war breaks out, the two of them are transferred away, but somehow shrunk to a tiny size! Matsumoto has experimented with all sorts of different concepts and ideas, but shrinking Tetsuro and Maetel is something that hasn’t come up until now, making things a bit fresh.

Macaroni Au Gratin quickly spirals into all out war, forcing the 999 to depart. Luckily Tetsuro and Maetel are brought on board by Mane and Sab, two machine men, who we see talking to each other earlier. In a rare inversion to what we typically see for those boarding the 999, both of them have legitimately purchased passes. They don’t seem to have that nefarious a desire to do anything with Tetsuro and Maetel. Despite having them on their table with them, they are fine with letting them go as they talk amongst the two of them about other things. Although they got on the 999 legitimately, they suffer that fate of practically everyone beyond Tetsuro and Maetel that board the 999 and end up dying, with their bodies exploding! I know we’re far into the manga/TV show at this point, so there isn’t the most room to do it, but just for once it would be nice to have a new recurring character that stays on board the 999 for a while! Even just a few chapters!

While it doesn’t have a lot of focus in the chapter, it appears there is also a slight focus on how Macaroni Au Gratin became so advanced that things became boring. When you can simply ask a particle transmitter what you want and it will immediately bring it to you, there is doubtful to be much struggle left for existence. This gets a lot more play in the earlier chapter “Idle’s One’s Mirror” but was at least used as some motivation for Mane and Sab.

In another big rarity, this chapter ends on a cliffhanger. While we often have cliffhangers at the end of part 1 of a 2 part story, this is the first time I can think of where we had a cliffhanger beyond that. Tetsuro and Maetel end the chapter still at their small size. How will they return to normal? We’ll have to go to the next chapter, “Maetel’s Journey” to find out.

The TV adaption retains the core plot but has several major additions and differences as well. Mane and Sab are put forth as more nefarious and we get more time with them plotting their escape. I wasn’t happy at seeing them be so mean to tiny Tetsuro! Although there was a brief mention by Maetel of a mother computer in the manga, it has a larger role here, specifically trying to keep Mane and Sab on the planet, and destroying them after they leave (despite the planet no longer existing). The cliffhanger from the manga chapter is resolved by episode end, with Tetsuro and Maetel going back to their normal size.

The most interesting new change though was Maetel’s mother appearing! This is our first time in the series we have seen her, and she helps out Tetsuro and Maetel, seeking them to make it to wherever she is. We don’t get an actual good look at her (her body appears in silhouette) and it appears that Maetel may be telepathically talking to her as Tetsuro is only able to hear what Maetel says.