Breakdown Clock

Breakdown Clock

Manga Chapters 18-3

Manga Chapter Summary:

The Conductor announces the 999’s next stop as “17 Stones”, with a layover time of 18 hours. As the 999 approaches the planet a number of craters can be seen, but each has a clock within it! Tetsuro hears a clicking sound as the 999 lands and Maetel says the whole planet is like an old clock. Clocks are seen everywhere, at the station, on the street and at all the various restaurants around. Maetel suggests they go get something to eat. Tetsuro finds that even the table is made out of a clock. The waitress arrives and she has the head of a clock! Tetsuro asks for ice cream and Maetel coffee. The waitress says it will be 3 minutes, but nothing arrives within that time.

They head back outside and make their way towards the hotel, which also has numerous clocks around its outside. They go to sleep in their hotel room, where giant clocks are on the wall above them and even their blankets have clocks within them. Tetsuro has had enough of the noise and smashes the clock above his bed. He notices a shining hole towards the back and strange noises. He climbs into the hole left by the destroyed clock, then falls in it completely. Tetsuro ends up falling into a spherical pit where there are a lot of clock parts on the bottom. The screws here remind him of those he saw on Ulatores. Maetel gets in as well by climbing down a rope, although it soon becomes untied, Maetel suspects by someone, trapping them in here.

Suddenly a hole opens up in the bottom of the pit, sucking in the various parts, and Tetsuro and Maetel along with them. The two of them crash into a large black spherical object with a lot of clock parts on it. Maetel says this is the central cavity of 17 Stones, a place where all the detached parts gather. Maetel thinks they were brought here by someone. Suddenly a voice speaks out and confirms it. The voice claims it is 17 Stones itself, the planet talking to them. 17 Stones asks for their help. It claims that there are often leftover parts whenever the clocks on this planet are made or repaired making them inaccurate. None of the clocks on this planet point to the same time and it doesn’t even know what time is correct. It wants to know the correct time.

Maetel claims the planet is famous because it doesn’t properly keep track of time. She whispers to Tetsuro that 17 Stones was once a famous watch collector before becoming the planet itself. Maetel realizes that in order to properly help 17 Stones they will need to help repair all the clocks here. Tetsuro asks if it will let them out if they help. She then tells it to read chapter 738 of the Andromeda Galaxy. A rope ladder is released to let them out. Tetsuro and Maetel make their way to the station where the Conductor is waiting for them.

After the 999 departs it, the Conductor says 17 Stones is moving, It claims it will be heading to another part of space. Maetel says chapter 738 of the Andromeda galaxy says there is a utopia at the end of space, although no one who has gone there has returned. Tetsuro realizes that 17 Stones is going to a place where there is no time. Maetel says in a utopia it doesn’t matter what time it is. The Conductor wonders if such a place actually exists. Maetel asks if this is a place they should want to go. We see 17 Stones continuing to travel further away into space. Tetsuro hopes 17 Stones can make it there. Tetsuro asks Maetel if she’s ever seen a place without time and she says yes. She says for both her and the 999, no matter when time stops, they will have no rest.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

This is our last stand-alone story in the manga before the finale, which takes place across the final 5 chapters. In this chapter the 999 travels to the planet “17 Stones” a rather odd name that seems to have nothing to do with the planet or anything that happens within it. The gimmick of the planet is that there are clocks everywhere. From a design standpoint, Matsumoto does a good job giving them to us as much as possible. Everything you can think of has clocks in it. Even the streets, the tables people eat from, and blankets. The sole person that Tetsuro and Maetel meet during the chapter has a clock for a head! Alas, with all the clocks means lots of ticking and this drives Tetsuro crazy enough to smash one. Incidentally enough this leads him to a pit with a lot of old clock parts.

Once in the pit, Tetsuro and Maetel are able to communicate with the planet itself, which is a sentient being. It is rare for us to encounter an entire planet that is a sentient being, the one I always think back to is the rather perverted planet in “A Star Named Curiosity (chapters 2-12/3-1 and episode 68). This planet is at least more polite than that planet was, but it does have a rather monumental task for our heroes, to fix all the clocks on this planet. As we see early in the chapter at the restaurant, all the clocks are telling different times, so it’s really hard to get anything time-related correct. Luckily Maetel comes up with a better idea; the planet can go to a place where there is no time, and hence no need to worry about the clocks being wrong.

Like many of these manga only chapters, I can’t say I was the most interested by this chapter, although I do like seeing the sentient planet concept revisited.