The Legend of the Young Warriors

The Legend of the Young Warriors

TV Episode 105

TV Episode Summary:

Tetsuro comments on their destination of Andromeda as coming closer. Maetel senses that Tetsuro doesn’t have as much enthusiasm at the moment about obtaining a mechanical body. The Conductor announces their next stop as “Legend”, where they’ll be stopping for 21 hours. The Conductor also seems to be quite glum. Maetel says that those who approach this planet start feeling glum and that he’ll understand more once they get there. Tetsuro and Maetel depart at the station, which they find to be a mess. Maetel claims it is this way because they could repair it whenever they want. They find many people sitting in the streets being quite lifeless. Maetel says they’re all mechanical people and she’ll tell him what’s going on when they make it to the hotel.

The hotel is revealed to be in the shape of a castle. Tetsuro trips over one of the staff and complains about what a poor hotel it is. Maetel tells Tetsuro to take whatever hotel room he likes and that she has some business to take care of. Maetel steps in a phone booth and pulls out a small circular device from which the mysterious voice starts speaking. He asks Maetel why she stopped at Legend and tells her she cannot digress from her orders. He recommends that she return to the 999. Tetsuro looks at the fog outside and feels rather down. He gets on the bed in his hotel room only for it to collapse underneath him! The stubborn Tetsuro decides to sleep here anyway.

That night voices shout out asking for Tetsuro. A young man, Meimu, and girl, Saki come and approach Tetsuro, asking him to come with them, and that they can only come out like this when the fog is out. Several knight-like humanoids watch them go. Tetsuro is brought to the entrance of several caves where a number of other teens come out. One of them, Kil, tries to stab Tetsuro. Meimu tells some others to throw Tetsuro in a prison, and they throw him into a caged cave. Tetsuro hears laughing in the cave and finds that Maetel is there as well!

Tetsuro wants to shoot off the lock on the cage, but Maetel says he’ll be caught and killed if he does so. Meimu and Saki approach the caged entrance. Meimu says this is the only way Tetsuro will live. The two of them want to stop Tetsuro from getting a mechanical body and ask him to join them in fighting mechanical people, who are trying to exterminate human life from this planet. Tetsuro says he swore to his mother that he’d get a mechanical body and they tell him a mechanical man killed his mother. Meimu tries to convince him that obtaining an eternal life is not worth it; flesh and blood humans live their life to the fullest while mechanical people live like those Tetsuro found out in the street doing nothing. Tetsuro is insistent that living as a human is living like a worm.

Meimu and Saki say they are going to launch a full assault on Cyborg Castle. Maetel asks Tetsuro what he is going to do and Tetsuro still wants to fulfill his mother’s dream. More approach the cage, led by Kil, who says they are going to kill them. Several vehicles piloted by mechanical knights detect life in the valley and head there. Tetsuro and Maetel are chained up against the mountain wall. Meimu asks Tetsuro one last time to join them and he says no. Several approach with guns in their hands and prepare to fire. Just as they are about to do so, the mechanical knights arrive and fire at them. All the humans run off. The head knight comes up and breaks Tetsuro’s chains. Meimu and several of his colleagues meet up. Meimu still wants to recruit Tetsuro to their side.

Later, we see that Tetsuro has been brought to the castle where the knight, the Cyborg Lord of the Castle is pleased that Tetsuro resisted the threats and still wants to become a mechanical human. Tetsuro asks him why they have to fight each other and he says to make this entire planet exclusively mechanical people. Tetsuro is puzzled why they can’t live together. Maetel tells Tetsuro he must be tired and to rest for a while. Later that night, Tetsuro heads out to the balcony and Tetsuro thinks of the Cyborg Lord calling the humans inferior. Tetsuro thinks of Meimu and Saki and struggles with what decision to make. Maetel thinks to herself that there is still time and Tetsuro should think carefully.

Suddenly there is an explosion below; it is an attack from the humans. Meimu and Saki are among those heading in, shouting out for Tetsuro. Maetel says that they’ve come to rescue him despite the threat to the lives of their colleagues. Several of Meimu’s colleagues are shot down. Tetsuro runs down the hall and runs into the Cyborg Lord who tells him not to worry. Tetsuro asks him if he sees him as a worm, and he says yes, a smart worm. Tetsuro angrily pulls out his gun and the Cyborg Lord has him taken at gunpoint by one of his men. Meanwhile Kil is shot and killed as he, Meimu and Saki head up a spiral staircase shouting out for Tetsuro. At the top of the tower, the Cyborg Lord steps out, holding Tetsuro at gunpoint.

Tetsuro says to Meimu and Saki that they need to create a world where humans aren’t considered worms. Meimu and Saki drop their guns. The Cyborg Lord fires at Meimu and Saki steps in the way, taking the bullet and dying. Meimu angrily grabs his gun and shoots at the Cyborg Lord but misses. The Cyborg Lord shoots and kills him too. He then says it’s now Tetsuro’s turn and throws him off the edge of the tower. Tetsuro is able to grab a hold of a flag. Maetel steps behind the Cyborg Lord and shoots him several times, causing him to fall off the tower to his death. Maetel sternly asks Tetsuro if he still wants a mechanical body. The flag rips and Tetsuro falls.

Tetsuro wakes up, after some shaking from Maetel. He’s still in the hotel room; everything has been a dream. Maetel tells him it could the souls of those who fought here. Tetsuro looks at one of the statues by the wall which looks like the Cyborg Lord, with the same bullet holes from when Tetsuro dreamed Maetel shot him. Back on the 999 Tetsuro asks if it really was a dream. Maetel says those who fought to leave behind flesh and blood people wanted to leave him something. She asks Tetsuro how he will live once he has his mechanical body.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Meimu – Kaneto Shiozawa

Saki – Keiko Han

Kil – Hirotaka Suzuoki

Castle Lord – Hiroshi Masuoka

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Kaneta Shiozawa previously appeared as Sirius in episode 47, Takeshi in episode 53 and Bina in episode 85. Keiko Han previously appeared as Yuki (episode 27), Miru (episode 63), Toto (episode 66), Kureha (episode 82) and Kumiko (episode 92). Hirotaka Suzuoki previously appeared in episode 93 as Futoshi. Hiroshi Masuoka previously appeared as a policeman (episode 40), Gudara (episode 59), Gandel (episode 69), Chaward (episodes 75 – 76) and an old man (episode 88).

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

For most of its way this was quite a good episode. The question of whether Tetsuro should really get his mechanical body is brought to the forefront. Tetsuro encounters a group of young boys and girls, probably only a few years older than he is, fighting against the mechanical rulers of the planet. They desire to retain their humanity because human life is valuable and worth living. Those who become mechanical, at least on this planet are displayed as having no real value or purpose in their life anymore, most of them simply living on the street not doing anything. The one outlier is the Cyborg Lord, the main villain of the episode. Tetsuro is conflicted in several ways. He views living as a human like being a worm. Those who have mechanical bodies are able to basically stomp all over them, with no concern for their life. Beyond that, the dying wish of Tetsuro’s mother was for him to get a mechanical body and he feels he can’t go back on that.

Tetsuro has strong convictions even though Meimu and the others plan to execute him since he won’t join their side, At the same time, Tetsuro’s convictions would make him a strong ally to have and Meimu and the others come to rescue Tetsuro later. While the Cyborg Lord initially comes off as a friend to Tetsuro, even having a lavish dinner with him, Tetsuro can’t get over the feeling of being like a worm to him and the other mechanical people. Meimu and his friends are willing to put their lives on the line to free Tetsuro and unfortunately every single one of them dies as a result. It looks like it may be the end for Tetsuro as well as the Cyborg Lord throws him off a tower. Maetel, who has been very uncharacteristically cold to Tetsuro the whole episode asks him once more what his decision will be over his mechanical body.

Unfortunately the wheels fall off at this point when it’s all revealed to be a dream, which is incredibly disappointing. Based on Maetel’s dialogue it seems like events like this took place many years in the past (and the body of the Cyborg Lord is in Tetsuro’s room as a statue), so much of what Tetsuro dreamed about really did happen.

As we get closer and closer to the end of the show this is a good time to forego having the typical stand alone episode on some strange planet but to instead do an in depth look at Tetsuro’s conflicted decision over obtaining a mechanical body. I’m glad to see them using this episode, which was a TV original, for that purpose rather than just coming up with something that would be just a rehash of something we’ve seen in the past 100 plus episodes.