[Limelight] 999-in-Us and Matsumoto Who Became 1000

Growth and Healing Through Space Travel Pointed Out by Late Matsumoto
Life Guide Metel Leading Children's Proper Growth
"I Don't Want Immortality" Highlighting Human Weakness Greatly

On the 13th, Matsumoto Reiji passed away due to acute heart failure. He is a special manga artist for those born from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. During their impressionable childhood, animations based on his manga swept across TV. The starting point was the 1980 MBC broadcasts of 'Princess Aurora and Son Goku' and 'Flying Battleship V.' The original titles were 'SF Saiyuki Starzinger' and 'Space Battleship Yamato.' The government banned the broadcast of SF manga animations, and the airing was cut off in August of that year. In 1982, 'Space Pirate Captain Harlock' was aired, followed by 'New Taketori Monogatari: The 1000 Year Queen' the next year. In 1986, 'Planet Robot Danguard A' was broadcast under the title 'Fly Star Ace.'

One of his representative works, 'Galaxy Express 999,' aired every Sunday morning from January 1982. It was not known that it was by Matsumoto or a Japanese work. At that time, Japanese animation could not officially enter the domestic market. The restriction was lifted only in the mid to late 1990s. MBC rebroadcast 'Galaxy Express 999' from 1996 to 1997. In 2003, it was aired on MTV, and in 2008 on EBS. From the early 1980s, it was steadily introduced to new generations roughly every ten years.

▲ An Object of Longing Visible Only to Youth

The background of most of Matsumoto’s works is space. In 'Space Battleship Yamato,' Earth is on the brink of destruction due to alien invasion. The space battleship Yamato departs for a star called Ascandale to receive an environmental restoration device called the 'Cosmo Cleaner.' In 'Galaxy Express 999,' Tetsuro boards a train bound for Andromeda to obtain a mechanical body. In 'Space Pirate Captain Harlock,' Harlock is an anarchist pirate who boards a pirate ship opposing the corrupt Earth government.

The stories and themes embedded in each work were groundbreaking at the time. Until the mid-1970s, Japanese animation mainly focused on 'robot wrestling.' Especially works by Nagai Go such as 'Steel Jeeg,' 'Getter Robo,' 'Great Mazinger,' and 'Mazinger Z' were very popular. They all focused on fights to realize justice. Matsumoto’s worldview was quite different. For example, in 'Galaxy Express 999,' the galaxy express was like a vertical track of life that readers or viewers face or could face. Matsumoto symbolized growth and healing as a long journey with someone who would never abandon you.

The protagonist is Tetsuro, a boy living on future Earth. Right after losing his mother to the Machine Count, he meets a woman named Maetel. Maetel hands him a ticket for the Galaxy Express 999, and Tetsuro heads to a star that offers a mechanical body guaranteeing eternal life for free. Although the Galaxy Express 999 looks like a steam locomotive, it is a train packed with the best technology in the universe. It departs from Earth, passes several stars, and runs to the terminal station in the Andromeda galaxy. At each stop, Tetsuro meets various beings, has adventures, and grows. Maetel is always with him during moments of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. She helps him overcome difficulties but is a mysterious companion who hides something.

Maetel describes herself in the ending of the first 'Galaxy Express 999' movie as "I am a phantom of youth. A woman traveling through time visible only to young people." Matsumoto explained with a similar nuance at a press conference during his visit to Korea in 2017. "Galaxy Express 999 is unfinished. The number 1000 means becoming an adult. The young Tetsuro of 'Galaxy Express 999' can see Maetel, but those who have reached 1000 cannot."

The first time he conceived Maetel was in 1956 when he was eighteen. He boarded a train departing Tokyo and imagined a sea of stars flowing behind a woman sitting across from him. Matsumoto began drawing Maetel only when he was thirty-eight. The name is a variation of the Latin word 'meta,' meaning mother. Choi Heup, CEO of Stakpedia, interpreted in his book 'The Secrets of Galaxy Express 999, Candy Candy, Glass Mask, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Faraway Country, Neighbor Country, and Golden Bat' as follows: "The woman he imagines is, on one hand, a strong woman who fights when she must as an Asura, and on the other hand, a woman who plays the roles of mother and lover."

Matsumoto depicts Maetel as a reliable helper. He hints at this from the moment Tetsuro first boards the Galaxy Express 999. "You are about to start a journey that a young person faces only once in a lifetime. You don’t have to think about failure. Now you will have an unforgettable journey. Your journey has begun like this." At the moment the train departs, young readers and viewers strangely identify with Tetsuro. They each have their own dreams and visions and need a life guide to lead proper growth. Conversely, for adults, it is a new journey that nostalgically retraces their vanished childhood. It briefly returns them to youth and awakens neglected truths. "Life is always uncertain, and the possibility of doubt is infinite."

▲ For the Day We Meet Again

Matsumoto’s manga studio, Reiji Company, described the master’s death as "departing on a journey to the sea of stars." "He always said we could meet again where the ring of time touches. We also look forward to that day," they stated. The scope and depth of his domain are vast. Matsumoto connected his manga through various links, called the 'Reiji-verse (Matsumoto Reiji + Universe).' From the early 1980s, it illuminated the process of existing manga protagonists meeting each other and the childhoods of mysterious protagonists.

Representative works include 'The Ring of the Nibelung' and 'Maetel Legend.' The latter features Maetel’s mother, portrayed as a mechanized villain in 'Galaxy Express 999.' It convincingly explains why the image of the pitiable 1000 Year Queen disappeared. The home star Lametal Castle becomes uninhabitable by humans after the 1000 Year Queen leaves. The 1000 Year Queen chooses a mechanical body but gets caught in a conspiracy and loses all her personality. Finally, when she forgets her heart as a human, she boards Maetel and Queen Emeraldas on the Galaxy Express 999.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Eternal life is one of the keywords that runs through Matsumoto’s vast worldview. In 'Galaxy Express 999,' it is symbolized by the mechanical body. It stimulates the hidden desires and curiosity of humans who must accept limited life. However, many people Tetsuro meets during his journey are skeptical of endless life. Some, like Artemis, return to their home to die. "This star is my mother. She gave birth to me. When I die, please let me down on this star. I came back here to die... to sleep forever."

Artemis slowly sinks underground. The Galaxy Express Administration fires vibration waves to destroy the star that embraced its child because it is hindering the emergency landing of the Galaxy Express 999. The star deactivates its defense shield for the Galaxy Express 999 and Tetsuro and accepts the vibration waves with its whole body. Tetsuro recalls his mother in the star’s sacrifice. The moment she died protecting him. "Parting with people is a sad thing... So, unless I become a mechanical body and gain eternal life, this sadness will continue forever, Maetel."

Tetsuro believes that a mechanical body saves humans from the pain of death. But eternal life means continuously facing the deaths of many others. The Galaxy Express 999 heads to the planet of mechanical bodies fueled by such sorrow. Literary figure Lee Myung-seok and columnist Park Sa interpret this paradoxical situation in their book 'Galaxy Express 999, I Will Take You to Your Star' as follows: "It is a resolution to endure seeing all finite lives leave before one’s eyes. Ultimately, the determination to gain eternal life because one does not want to suffer the sorrow of parting with loved ones is contradictory. Unless everyone lives forever, or one only loves beings who live forever, it is barely possible."

Matsumoto also said in an interview during his lifetime, "I do not want eternal life." "If I lived forever, I would live carelessly. Being alive means living a limited time." The reason Maetel insists on wearing black clothes reminiscent of mourning is here. Running eternally, he led many young people to death and witnessed it. He will meet many deaths in the future and prays for their repose every moment. It was no different for Tetsuro. "Tetsuro, if you get a mechanical body, if you become a mechanical body... you won’t need to sleep. You will lose the joy of sleeping and dreaming. And that’s how you live forever."

Tetsuro’s journey to abandon his frail humanity and obtain a mechanical body is ultimately a collection of moments that magnificently highlight human frailty. For each of us who repeatedly board trains, arrive, stay, and depart, he becomes another Maetel. He guides the path of hope in the vast, seemingly endless space. At that terminal, Matsumoto might greet us like Maetel: "Goodbye, Tetsuro. I will never forget that I was with you on your journey of youth. I am a ghost of youth, and it is enough that I remain in Tetsuro’s memories under the name Maetel."