The Fossilized Warrior

The Fossilized Warrior

Manga Chapter 2-10 and 2-11

TV Episodes 12 and 13

Manga Chapter Summary:

On the 999, Maetel tells Tetsuro to be careful as he walks towards the toilet. The 999 quickly shakes, causing Tetsuro to be slammed around and thrown out the window. The Conductor tells Maetel that someone has intentionally put large rocks on the train tracks. As a result, the 999 is temporarily inoperable. Outside, Tetsuro stares around, seeing a large group of stone faces in front of him. Maetel comes outside and tells Tetsuro this is a planet of fossils. 

 

Tetsuro wonders if the one who stopped the train is the same person who made these sculptures, but she tells him these aren’t sculptures, but a natural formation. She tells Tetsuro they should go back in the train while the rails and train are repaired and keep their weapons ready. Inside, Tetsuro wonders how those formations were created. Maetel tells him this planet is at the center of the galaxy and is very similar to Earth outside of the fact that these formations are found all around the surface and under the sea.

Tetsuro spots something outside and asks for Maetel’s binoculars. He looks close and sees the form of a woman in the rocks. Tetsuro heads outside and walks up to the formation, wondering how nature could give birth to such a beautiful form. Tetsuro looks around and finds a lot of human skulls nearby as well as the remains of their bodies causing him to realize they have been beheaded. Suddenly a man appears on the cliff above him, calling Tetsuro a fossil thief and that he will end up like them. The man charges with a sword and Tetsuro realizes he forgot his Cosmo gun. 

 

Later, on board the 999, Maetel helps stitch up the large cut on Tetsuro’s back left by the attack. The Conductor tells Tetsuro that he has to leave the train as he no longer has a pass, which was stolen by his attacker. Maetel says that anyone with a pass can board the train as long as they write down their name on it. Tetsuro heads outside with his gun. Maetel steps off the train as well, upsetting the Conductor. She tells Tetsuro that she promised to follow him anywhere and if he has to disembark, so shall she. 

 

The two of them return to the rock formation of the woman that Tetsuro saw earlier. Maetel says the man who stole Tetsuro’s pass will probably try to board the 999 so they should look for his home as it should be empty now. They climb the cliff where he attacked from and see a crashed spacecraft off in the distance. They approach it and confirm this must be his home as there is a hot fire still outside. The two of them head inside the ship and eventually come across the man in the halls, once again brandishing his sword. The man charges, but Tetsuro shoots him in the chest with his gun.

Maetel asks the man why he didn’t board the 999 while he had the chance. He claims that it is because he realized they weren’t fossil thieves. Had they been, he would have used the ticket and given up his position as fossil guardian. When he realized they weren’t, and he had no more reasons to leave, he chose to die, purposely attacking Tetsuro. Tetsuro asks the man why he is so fond of these fossils. He says once he left this planet behind on a spaceship, leaving his family and friends behind, seeking to investigate a strange gas cloud that was approaching the planet. He realized it was a petrifying cloud, and it was too late for his planet. When he got back all he saw was an endless sea of petrified faces. He decided to become their guardian and protect them from thieves who sell them on other planets. He hoped someday to be able to turn them back to normal and asks them to come back if they ever find a cure. 

 

The man returns Tetsuro’s pass and dies. Tetsuro and Maetel bury the man and Tetsuro promises that he will return here someday if he is ever able to find out how to revert the fossils back. As they depart, Tetsuro asks Maetel if they’ll ever be able to bring them back to life and she says she couldn’t say.

TV Episode Summary:

The TV adaption of this episode is fairly faithful to the original chapter for most of the first of the two episodes adapting it, and gets through so much of the story that they really could have gotten the entire chapter in one episode if they desired to. We get a few sequences of some increased dialogue, such as the Conductor asking Tetsuro if he can also use the binoculars and Tetsuro having a teary goodbye for Maetel when he’s kicked off the 999 (although like in the manga she joins him shortly afterwards anyway). The scene where the warrior takes out Tetsuro is extended; we see him take Tetsuro’s pass and Maetel arrive to fight him off. The warrior also admits in this sequence that he laid the rocks on the train tracks; who actually placed them there is not clear in the manga chapter.

 

As we start approaching the end of the first episode, things start heading in a new direction. Rather than see Tetsuro immediately fight and kill the warrior, the warrior explains his backstory to Tetsuro and Maetel. Maetel notices a photo of a woman, who is Leija, the fossilized woman Tetsuro saw earlier and revealed to be the warrior’s lover. Tetsuro and the warrior are about to fight when a space ship arrives carrying fossil thieves. The warrior heads outside to fight them off and is initially successful, but eventually tricked and trapped, being held bound to the ground while the thieves continue with their attempt to steal the fossils, including that of Leija. Tetsuro and Maetel watch from nearby and Maetel has bad news, the petrifying cloud is approaching and will be here by noon the next day. The cloud is just about here as the first episode ends. 

 

In the second episode, the fossil thieves continue to work on excavating Leija. Watching from the distance, Tetsuro tells Maetel to go back to the 999, which she does, giving him an earring as she goes. Back at the 999, the Conductor is struggling with the level of power to enable the 999 to move so Maetel says he should request another train come and get them. When the fossil thief boss tells them to kill the warrior, Tetsuro throws down the earring, temporarily blinding the men and enabling Tetsuro to free the warrior and take out the thieves. 

 

Tetsuro demands the pass be returned. The warrior instead blasts the thieves so he can take back the fossilized Leija and runs into his ship. Tetsuro pursues, but falls in a trap door. The Conductor is successfully able to call another train car to come get them which will arrive in 2 hours. Tetsuro awakens in the ship and tells the warrior of the approaching petrifying gas cloud. The fossil thieves return, blasting a hole into the ship and entering. Traps in the ship kill many of them. Tetsuro throws himself into the door holding him until it breaks open. 

 

The warrior’s gun runs out of ammo so he resorts to using his sword, getting shot himself in the process. Meanwhile the fossil thief boss starts blasting the ship again but the warrior is able to fire back and blow it up. Tetsuro pursues the warrior into the desert, where he is carrying Leija. They decide to fight each other one last time and Tetsuro blasts him through the chest as he charges. Tetsuro realized the warrior was holding his sword backwards and had no desire to kill him. He appreciates having an honorable death and didn’t want to board the 999 if it would force Tetsuro to become a fossil. He asks Tetsuro to bring Leija over to him and asks Tetsuro the same thing he asks in the manga, to return someday if they find a way to revert the fossils. 

The petrifying gas cloud quickly approaches. The other railway car arrives to transport out the 999. Maetel wants them to stay a few minutes longer for Tetsuro but the Conductor is insistent that they go. Just then Tetsuro returns and they get on the train in time and it narrowly escapes from the petrifying gas cloud. The warrior’s body is fossilized alongside Leija.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Fossil Warrior – Osamu Ichikawa

Boss – Osamu Katou

Gardman – Seiji Sato

Operator – Kouji Totani

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

Our third two chapter storyline is a bit of a more action oriented one, although it involves once again the plot point of Tetsuro’s pass being stolen. That said I wasn’t as frustrated about it this time as it seemed a minor part of the storyline. In fact the story could have played out the same way without it if needed. Some confusion I have had has finally been resolved over the pass, it seems that the thief can simply write in their name on the pass and be able to get on board the 999, even if it is stolen. Way back in the first chapter we were told those using a pass with someone else’s name would be executed. Simply crossing out the name and using their own makes sense. 

 

These particular chapters aren’t as deep or philosophical as many other chapters are, but we are treated to some really strong artwork from Matsumoto. The landscape of petrified faces is really interesting to look at and we have a wide variety of panels showing them. Since everyone became like this due to a petrification cloud passing over the planet, I do wonder why everyone were gathered up in such tight groups though. You’d think people would be more spread out, unless they knew it was coming and decided to just gather together. With the unnamed attacker coming out to face Tetsuro after he spots the petrified woman you’d wonder if he was related to him or a lover, but we never get an explanation for it in the manga chapter. We never do get an explanation for who put the rocks on the tracks either. You would assume it was Tetsuro’s attacker, but then why would he have done it? He is trying to guard against people taking the fossils, so he has reason to stick around instead of trying to stow a ride on the 999.

 

The episode answers these questions and expands the storyline greatly, putting across two episodes a storyline that only really needed one. The petrified woman is indeed his lover, and he is trying to board the 999 in order to find a way to remove the petrification. While it contains plenty of action, and some tension as a new petrifying gas cloud arrives, the second episode largely comes off as unnecessary for me.

 

The Formless World, Nuruba

The Formless World, Nuruba

Manga Chapter 2-9

TV Episode 11

Manga Chapter Summary:

The Conductor announces that the 999 will next be stopping at Nuruba, the planet without form. This surprises Tetsuro and Maetel explains to him that no one has been able to see the shape of the universe; perhaps it has no defined shape. Nuruba is like the universe, hard to describe and depict and a planet where many people commit suicide. As the 999 approaches Nuruba, it is revealed to be a amoeba like in appearance rather than being round. As the 999 get nearer it changes its shape several times. Maetel tells him the planet has no fixed shape and as such it is useless for people to draw maps of it. 

 

The 999 comes to a stop, although not at a station as there is no ground to land on. Maetel tells Tetsuro there may be passengers, surprising him as he hadn’t conceived that people could live here. Maetel heads off to the dining car and suddenly vanishes. Tetsuro looks out the window, seeing a blob-like form there. He heads over to the dining car, but Maetel is still nowhere to be found. Maetel eventually comes and sits down, but she just sits there silently, not responding to anything Tetsuro says to her. All of a sudden the entire table turns into a blob-like form and starts enveloping Tetsuro! 

 

Later, the Conductor sees Tetsuro and Maetel, both silent enter their car and sit down. All of a sudden, a buck naked Tetsuro runs in, claiming a monster stole his appearance. He jumps on the other Tetsuro sitting there, stretching out his skin. Maetel remains silent but her body melts. The real Maetel steps in; like Tetsuro her clothes were stolen and something else took her form. By this point Tetsuro has tied up in a complicated knot the 2 blob-like creatures that had taken their form. Suddenly another blob comes in, claiming the blobs are his son and daughter and begs forgiveness. 

 

The father blob claims that his children have become fans of humans and wanted to take human form and travel among the stars. The father claims that he isn’t interested in being something with a form. Over such time those beings with forms grow ugly and die, eventually becoming nothing but a pile of ashes. Being interested in physical appearances can lead to bad thoughts, and he thinks the formless existence his kind have is ideal. The father becomes quiet upon seeing Maetel and soon leaves the train car to be with his children. The children ask about Maetel as the train takes off. Tetsuro ponders if being formless is ideal, although admits he thinks that because he is not handsome himself.

TV Episode Summary:

This episode doesn’t cut any material from the manga, but does include some additional scenes or dialogue to help fill up the running time. The most notable of which is more of a focus on the fact that Nuruba is a suicide spot. Maetel and Tetsuro spend more time talking about it and we see a couple kill themselves by jumping off the train at the end of the episode. A flashback reveals that they did so because they didn’t want to grow old. 

 

The other most notable scene is more time with the blobs; we see the children (named Tsuru and Suru; they were unnamed in the manga) rushing to the 999 as it arrives with their father chasing after them. This, along with the fact that we see Suru attacking Maetel results in a loss of the surprise that we get later on. 

 

We get a few additional minor scenes that are essentially filler, including the 777 train passing by and the Conductor being woken up due to Tetsuro and Maetel going in the diner car. This episode also includes Tetsuro flashing back to footage from episodes 1, 4 and 5. The footage from episode 4 was a flashback itself, so we now have a flashback of a flashback!

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Nuru – Shunji Yamada (Keaton Yamada)

Tsuru – Noriko Tsukase

Suru – Fuyumi Shiraishi

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

Nuru, the father blob, is named only in the credits. The couple that commit suicide are uncredited.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

A rather interesting planet in this episode, Nuruba, which is formless. The planet looks a bit like an amoeba, constantly changing its shape, and appears to have no solid surface to it. A tired trope, especially at the time this manga came out was always having aliens take some sort of humanoid appearance, with perhaps only slight modifications. So the concept of having an alien world here that truly is alien, where its inhabitants don’t have a form whatsoever is an interesting thing for Matsumoto to show us. 

 

Nuru asks whether it is worth really having a physical form, and that those of us with physical forms will eventually grow old, die and decompose. He prefers the formless existence that he has, thinking that physical forms can cause people to have opinions on what is beautiful or what is ugly and that can lead to bad thoughts. I can’t say I agree with his take. When you peel back all the layers, ultimately, the argument of beautiful vs. ugly or young vs. old comes down to reproduction. We are biologically wired to consider someone beautiful because we want to reproduce with them. Over time people age and aren’t considered beautiful anymore, because their reproductive function has mostly diminished. Can nature be cruel at times? Sure. But it serves a purpose, the continuation of the species. How do the beings of Nuruba reproduce? I wonder if it is asexually. That view point does make more sense for such a being. In any case, rather than just being a comedic chapter, what the father is saying does bring some interesting things into the mix. 

 

The father seems to know something about Maetel, or at the very least she worries him. Why that is the case, who knows. It is becoming a running theme now as we had her reveal something to Yoi last chapter that caused him to back off on demanding her to stay with him.

The Mirage Planet's Scribe

The Mirage Planet’s Scribe

Manga Chapters 2-7 and 2-8

TV Episode 28

Manga Chapter Summary:

The 999 enters a new planet, the Mirage Planet. Maetel tells Tetsuro that while the atmosphere is livable, the mirages in the area disrupt people’s minds and it is uninhabited as a result. A thrown stone quickly proves this wrong, smashing through one of the 999’s windows. With a layover of 2 days, Maetel says they have time to explore and find out more about this place. With the hot weather, Maetel dons a new outfit although Tetsuro wears his usual garbs. 

 

Using a sensor, Maetel picks up a sign nearby, which is a structure that looks like an old gas tank. They approach the old contraption but quickly fall into a hole below it. Some sort of electronic camera notices them and a voice comes out, making it clear that the hole was intended to capture animals, not humans, and they’ll soon be let out. Tetsuro and Maetel climb out of the hole and enter the gas tank. Inside they find an old man, with hair so long that it goes across the entire floor. Massive stacks of paper are piled up throughout the room. The man claims his name is Shousetsu Yoi, and he is writing the greatest novel in the universe, which is currently on approximately the 130 millionth page! 

 

Yoi claims he always thought solitude was suitable for a writer’s inspiration. Turning, he is surprised to realize a woman among his guests. Yoi admits to throwing the rock, claiming everyone who interrupts his solitude is an enemy. He doesn’t think they would understand the hardships he’s lived through since coming to this planet. As he claims he had an epiphany, Tetsuro suddenly finds himself passing out. When he wakes up, Tetsuro finds his pass and gun stolen, and both Maetel and Yoi are nowhere to be found.

Tetsuro finds the device that Yoi lives in nearby, although it is now moving, forcing him to chase after it. Tetsuro worries about the prospect of the 999 leaving without him, then with shock sees it in the sky taking off! Tetsuro wonders what to do, and heads into Yoi’s home, which has now stopped. Yoi is gone, although his writings are still there. Tetsuro returns to the station where he finds only machines. Tetsuro returns back to Yoi’s home and figures the only thing left for him to do is write novels. Tetsuro ponders a sequel, knowing he’ll have to read the millions of pages first and thinks of how his hair and beard will grow out as long as Yoi’s. Tetsuro quickly realizes he’s not interested in reading Yoi’s story and eats some synthetic ramen he has left behind, then goes to sleep. 

 

Tetsuro wakes up later, realizing that he is all alone and in despair quickly falls asleep again. When Tetsuro wakes up again, Maetel and Yoi have returned! Yoi throws Tetsuro’s pass back at him and Tetsuro is told he got rejected due to clearly being older than the real Tetsuro. Yoi pulls out Tetsuro’s gun and claims that despite working on his novel for 30 years, he had a change of mind upon seeing Maetel’s beauty and decided to leave this planet. He craved a world filled with beautiful women like her once again. A beautiful woman had betrayed him once and he lived through many adventures that led him here until he forgot everything.

Finding another gun nearby, Tetsuro pulls it on Yoi. Maetel tells Tetsuro to wait outide a moment. She tells Yoi she will show him what kind of woman she really is. If he still desires not to live on a womanless planet, then he can kill her. Maetel pulls open her coat, revealing herself to Yoi. Maetel exits the room afterwards, telling Tetsuro the train won’t wait for them. Yoi returns to his writing, dedicated to writing the greatest novel in the universe. 

 

Back on the 999, Tetsuro and Maetel talk about how he didn’t shoot Yoi when he had the chance. During those few hours alone, Tetsuro got a strong feeling of the end of the world and feels like Yoi will become the greatest writer in the universe. Maetel asks Tetsuro if he also desires to see what she really looks like and he says there’s no need; just having her by his side is enough. Maetel says Yoi ended up here after he was betrayed, but she will never betray him, even if he considers her a monster someday.

TV Episode Summary:

The TV episode pretty much keeps the storyline of the manga in tact; the only thing I don’t recall being there is comments from Yoi about by being betrayed by women in his past. The layover on the planet is described as far shorter (5 hours rather than 2 days), and the planet looks a lot greener than it does in the manga. Rather than claim to be writing the world’s greatest novel, Yoi claims to be writing the world’s longest novel. He also claims to be purposely seeing how long his hair and beard can grow. Tetsuro references the Guiness Book of World Records in this scene which I won’t deny I was also thinking of when I read the manga chapter. 

 

Yoi gets a number of more scenes in the episode. We get a flashback scene with Yoi as a much younger man with a crying baby, loud children and complaining wife, trying to work on his novel. We also see a lot of construction going on around him, spurring his decision to neglect society and live on his own. We see Yoi piloting his craft towards the station with him and Maetel still on it, shortly after Tetsuro wakes up. We later see a scene with Maetel and Yoi on the 999. It is revealed that Yoi was able to put Maetel to sleep as well. The engine detects that the age of those on the ship has greatly changed, so the Conductor comes out and we have a rather comedic sequence where the Conductor initially thinks Yoi is Tetsuro wearing a costume and wig. 

 

When they return for Tetsuro, Maetel initially claims that Yoi had to attend to a pressing matter, which is why they returned, although Tetsuro quickly surmises he likely screwed up something.

TV Episode Cast:

Tetsuro Hoshino – Masako Nozawa

Maetel – Masako Ikeda

Conductor – Kaneta Kimotsuki

Shousetsu Yoi – Takuzou Kamiyama

Shousetsu’s Wife – Harumi Baba

Policeman – Keaton Yamada

Narrator – Hitoshi Takagi

I’m not sure who the policeman is, I’m assuming that was an error in the credits and was intended for the 999’s engine.

Non-Spoiler Analysis:

Although this chapter once again returns to the so often repeated plot point of Tetsuro having his pass stolen, it was still a fairly good chapter in my eyes and a bit of a unique one. No real action in this episode, but we meet the rather odd Yoi, who has spent 30 years trying to write the world’s greatest novel! Yoi is so dedicated that it comes off as if he hasn’t gotten a haircut or shaved in 30 years! Alas, Yoi has clearly neglected a very important point, editing. If one takes 30 years to write a novel and it has hundreds of millions of pages, there is no way it could ever be considered the world’s greatest novel. Who would have time to read it? Would anyone ever finish it? If his goal was to write the world’s longest novel, then perhaps he’s succeeded at that at least. I’ll admit, as a fan of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, I can’t help but be reminded of him by this chapter, and the exceedingly long wait between each book in his series.

 

Despite his attempts at solitude, Yoi ends up throwing away his desire to write the world’s greatest novel upon witnessing Maetel’s beauty. He suddenly wants to return to a world with beautiful women again. Ultimately Yoi wasn’t able to get over his biological urges once he realized what he had left behind.

Tetsuro is quite lucky in this episode, with the 999 actually returning for him once Yoi tries to board with his pass, and I assume tries to play himself off as Tetsuro. I don’t know how he ever expected it to work with how old he is and how long his hair and beard are. Previous chapters have given the impression that once the 999 leaves, it leaves for good. Tetsuro would get no special treatment. And yet here he gets it. It is rather frustrating, but at the end of the day if it is done in service to a more interesting story, one just has to accept the continuity error for what it is. And I will say that I enjoyed those few pages when Tetsuro was by himself and contemplating what type of life he would now live on this planet, so it ultimately gave us something that was worth reading.

 

Maetel’s revelation of her true self seems enough to cause Yoi to submit and remain, writing his novel. What is it that she showed Yoi? One should remember that Maetel revealed herself to Tetsuro in similar manner all the way back in the first chapter to show to him that she did not have a mechanical body. Has something changed? Is this another continuity error on the part of Matsumoto? I’m not sure. I do like the further expansion of the mystery of just who Maetel is. That she can shock someone like Yoi into submission essentially by doing this. Again, even if continuity seems a bit forgotten, it was an interesting plot point as we wonder just what is going on with her. It should be noted that this works better in the TV episode as Maetel’s revealing herself to Tetsuro was cut in the TV adaption.

Spoiler Analysis:

While I will admit I don’t currently have plans to cover it on this blog, and haven’t read it in many years, in Matsumoto’s mid 1990s revival of the manga, Tetsuro is found early on locked up on Earth with his hair grown to great lengths, albeit not as long as Yoi’s is here.