Queen Millennia (Japanese: Shin Taketori Monogatari: Sen-nen Jôo - The New Tale of the Bamboo Cutter: The Queen of a Thousand Years) is a science fiction manga by Leiji Matsumoto set in the Leijiverse, which was serialized in the Sankei Shimbun and Nishinippon Sports newspapers from 1980 to 1983. It is (very roughly) based on the Japanese folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter which tells of a girl coming down from the stars to rule Earth for 1000 years.
The young Hajime Amamori makes friends with a new girl at school (and assistant to his uncle, an astronomer), Yayoi Yukino. It later turns out that she is in fact an alien sent to Earth to supervise the undercover preparations for the day that the solar system's tenth planet, Lar Metal, will collide with Earth and wipe out all life on September 9, 1999, at 9:09:09. After a while, she starts plotting against her destined fate and tries to find a way to save humanity from destruction against the will of her mother, the queen of Lar Metal.
The manga was adapted to two series of Light Novels by Matsumoto himself, and an anime series that aired for 42 episodes from 1981 to 1982. The series was popular in Europe and Latin America in the end of the '80s/beginning of the '90s, but has never been published on video/DVD. In the US, the series was cut together with Captain Harlock by Carl Macek/Harmony Gold and published under the name Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years. There is also a full-length movie which changes the original story somewhat.
Queen Millennia provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The manga takes place in 1999 while being published in 1980. Aside Flying Saucer-like vehicles and space travel within the system, human technology is not very far advanced from the '80.
- Actually a Doombot: Both Yayoi and Millennium Thieves use android copies of themselves as body doubles, which come in handy if they're captured. Selene's even carries an explosive and manages to damage Larela's ship.
- Ancient Conspiracy: La-Metal has been in periodic contacts with Earth since at least the Cambrian Period. At some point they have started to send Queens Millenia every 1000 years as a Shadow Dictator, and all of Earth's culture is said to be the product of La-Metal. There is a clone of Yayoi in every major city who pushes the development of infrastucture in a certain direction, but only she is the true Queen Millennia.
- Anti-Hero: The Millenium Thieves are technically on Hajime and Yayoi's side, but aren't above holding them at gunpoint or attacking other people they know to get things done faster.
- Arc Number: There's a notable amount of nines in the estimated collision date: 9/9/1999 00:09:09. 9 meteor fragments land on Earth in the first chapter. Hajime's uncle has a family of nine. One of the Millennial Thieves' helicopters is labeled 99. La-Metal's diameter is 9 times of Earth's. La-Metal has been on its current orbit for 99999 years, and it's orbiting period is 999 years and 9 months.
- The Ark: To preserve mankind, Yayoi has managed to rebuild terrain behind major cities into Noah "caveships", so they'd detach from Earth, turning Tokyo, New-York, Moscow and other major cities into space colonies and to immigrate to La-Metal. When first shown, it turns out to me bass hypnosis to see how humans would react before launching for real.
- Arranged Marriage: Before coming to Earth, Yayoi was set to marry Doctor Fara, Leopardo's brother, when she returns. She makes some hesitations when he's on her way, but otherwise doesn't care about him.
- Asleep in Class: Hajime is shown to be catching Z's in class with nobody paying attention, and he calls the end of the day refreshing.
- The Bait: Yayoi figures that his uncle knew Hajime would be targeted, but left him be, expecting the Millennial Thieves would kidnap him and Hajime would point them to the Observatory where they can be caught. How to rescue Hajime afterward was barely considered.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Yayoi appears naked a few times, but each time her body is drawn completely white.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Cleopatra VII is shown to be one of the past Queens Millennia and one of Yayoi's predecessors.
- Big Bad: The Great Leader of La-Metal is Holy Queen Larela introduced earlier as Larla, the mother of all Queens Millennia who claims the right on all life in space. It turns out the incoming collision with Earth wasn't a cosmic coincidence, but a long-running plot of hers.
- Big Fancy Castle: Larela shows Hajime rooms in every Earth's style and a 25-km wide garden. She then corrects Hajime that it's technically not a garden, it's all a decoration for just a single room in her palace.
- The Blank: A Millennial Thief who kidnaps Hajime has a solid round black head which turns out to be a mask Selene wears. In later appearances the face at least has a shape.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Doctor Fara monologues to Hajime how Yayoi's mind will be altered once he activates the machine she's attached to, and starts gloating about being the greatest doctor in the universe. Hajime picks up Yayoi and runs away, and Fara is in disbelief with Hajime's lack of chivalry.
- Bookcase Passage: There's an elevator behind the closet in Yayoi's room to the alien underground jungle, with her parents none the wiser until the present.
- Breathable Liquid: The Insecta-type ships feature cockpits filled with liquid used for synchronization. Hajime opting to not pilot completely naked makes the ship lose control. He still goes off-source even when naked.
- But Now I Must Go: In the end, Yayoi and Larela make up and decide to leave with La-Metal, with humanity resettling on the new Earth.
- Call-Forward: Yayoi mentions she's taking an exam to become a Space Stewardess. In the earlier work Galaxy Express 999, she gave that role to her daughter Maetel.
- Cats Are Magic: Yayoi repeatedly describes her pet cat as "very versatile". It somehow intimidates a low-ranking Millennial Thief from sniping Hajime, sending doing so would somehow be too dangerous.
- The Comically Serious: Yayoi replies to Hajime that the hunt for the meteorites would cause a "hullabaloo" if they weren't important without changing her expression. Later she tells Hajime she's "dead serious" about being Queen Millenia.
- Continuity Nod: The same long-necked birds as Captain Harlocks Tori-san can be seen in the Underground City.
- Control Freak: Larela considers everyone as her subjects by default and can't take no for an answer. If she gives an offer, she'll act as if it's already accepted. When Hajime ignores her orders, she uses telekinesis on him to force him to "be best friends forever" with her.
- Cool Ship: Queen Millennia's private ship is a large space cruiser with a female portrait sculpted over the entirety of the ship's front.
- Cosmic Deadline: By the final chapter, the Millenial Thieves are still yet to confront Leader Larela, and the population of both worlds still need to be return where they came from. Selene gets killed off-screen, all the villains as one decide to give up on their motives and leave unpunished, Yayoi leaves with them, and all problems get solved off-screen before the final page.
- Creepy Child: Larla looks like a tiny Yayoi with shiny black eyes and knows a lot about what's been happening on Earth, with many initially mistaking her for a ghost because she uses holographic projection. She cheerfully expositions to Hajime how many humans are going to be left behind to die while practically flirting with him. Her being the Holy Queen Larela with inhuman mentality and little regard for life only makes her creepier.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: The first thing Yayoi does upon hearing that the Millennial Thieves' ship Two Stars got destroyed is to call Selene and ask how many people were aboard and if she was close to any of them. The boss is saddened and also feels very insulted.
- The Dragon: Leopardo is the commander of Larela's fleet and her to-go man to do anything she can't herself.
- Duel to the Death: Yayoi challenges the next Queen Millennia sent to replace her to a duel on Venus, the one whose energy shield is scratched would get evaporated by the atmosphere. Yayoi wins and not happy she had to resort to this. This has no plot significance and La-Metal doesn't see Yayoi's treachery until much later.
- Endless Winter: Becuase of its long orbit, La-Metal is in a state of a permanent Ice Age except for a short window every 1000 years when it's close to the Solar System.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Sankei University Tsukuba Observatory discovers the Tenth Planet is on collision course with Earth and will arrive shortly 9/9/1999 00:09:09. The planet entering Uranus's orbit is enough to start devastating earthquakes on Earth. La-Metal can control its own speed, but Yayoi has made preparations assuming it won't stop. Which turns out to be a huge Batman Gambit on Larela's part, and as soon as Yayoi makes humans immigrate to La-Metal, Larela tries to send her people to now unoccupied and much more comfortable Earth.
- Everything Sensor: Tsukuba Observatory's computer not only can analyze fingerprints, but can tell the "life energy" of their owner, and deduces that despite it being her fingerprints and her not having no alibi, the culprit behind the Amamori Electric Ironworks lab's explosion can't be "this Yayoi". Shortly it turns out the present Yayoi is her android double.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- Larela just doesn't understand that being a space tyrant and treating others like animals doesn't make her likable. She keeps offering Hajime things he'd like in exchange for his freedom and is confused why he'd rather starve in protest.
- Similarly, Larela hasn't considered that sending Queens Millennia to live on Earth for 1000 years and then taking them away has a risk of making them disloyal.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: When a La-Metalian is close to death, the darkness in their hearts is said to start appearing on their face. Daisuke's face gets half-black but becomes normal in the end, while Selene's is normal to begin with.
- Expendable Clone: One room on La-Metal contains many future Queens Millennia who are identical to Yayoi, with her being the 1000th dispatched. Turns out La-Metal isn't concerned if the current or a future Queen dies, as they all are replaceable. Yayoi's fiancé Doctor Fara feels there's something different about her and tries to either brainwash or fully replicate her instead.
- Face Death with Dignity: Some humans have decided to stay on Earth even if it cracks up because it's their home. Some, along with Millenium Thieves, also believe the predictions are exaggerated and Yayoi is being misled which turn out to be true and Earth remains unharmed, now under a thread of full invasion.
- Fantastic Racism: La-Metalians in general don't consider humans to be different from monkeys and mistake Hajime for a pet.
- Foregone Conclusion: Being on the same timeline as Galaxy Express 999, it's natural that Earth will somehow avoid annihilation by La-Metal.
- Friendly Enemy: Selene calls Yayoi her sworn enemy because of their polar opposite methods, yet either of them have never showed any hostility to each other and often cooperate.
- Giant Flyer: Nunas are dinosaur-looking creatures who take Hajime from the caveship back to Earth.
- Hand Wave:
- Hajime's uncle tells there is a study that La-Metal along with another planet has passed through the Solar System, but the twin planet got shattered by Earth's Gravity and currently makes up La-Metal's asteroid belt. Hajime asks why such detailed records were never publicized, and the uncle just ignores him.
- The data unit shows Hajime a hologram of how the Tokyo underground cavern was made by an asteroid a million years ago. Hajime asks where did it get the orbital video recording from, and it ignores the question.
- When Dela Mars Frontiara asks Yayoi why doesn't black hole-like Lar affect planets other than La-Metal, she says she doesn't know, but it's a fact.
- With La-Metal's grand plan being to migrate to Earth, no explanation is given why haven't they done so sooner when there were less humans to deal with.
- Height Insult: The Director of Education Daisuke Yamori, is training Hajime for a future cause, and regularly insults him because of his short height. Over time he stops this.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Aladdin receives a command from Leopardo to send its current location (where Hajime and Millenium Thieves are), it responds with self-detonation to preserve Hajime's friendship. He is rebuilt on Earth.
- History Repeats: Just like Maetel and Emeraldas, the twins try to take down La-Metal's tyranny, with Yayoi using a young Earthling to sabotage it from the inside while Selene forms a ruthless band of rogues and opposes it openly. They share similarities in the designs as well.
- Humanity Is Infectious: Yayoi Yukino and Daisuke Yamori (real name is Lar Ells Miyoux) are Human Aliens who've been watching Earth for 1000 years. Due to witnessing humanity's growth first-hand, they've eventually decided to oppose La-Metal's secret control over it, who still consider humans animals.
- Identical Stranger: Hajime notes that the Eternal Manager looks exactly like Yayoi, but she's just another member of Queen Millennia's team.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: When Hajime goes to the hangar, he finds Yayoi bathing. For sanitary reasons, she makes him bathe with her and the two continue naked with her not finding it weird, as the ship they're using requires the pilot be submerged in Breathable Liquid.
- In the Hood: Hannibal is an android builder from La-Metal who wears a cloak that covers his face and assists the Queen Millennia cycle. Despite declaring neutrality, he helps the Millennium Thieves a lot. On Earth he's said to be Timerhead Franklin, the mayor of New York.
- Just a Machine: Hajime rejects Aladdin's offer to be friends, or to communicate period, not only because may be Leopardo's spy, but because robots can't have real feelings. He changes his mind when Aladdin proves to care about Hajime's wellbeing more than his own duties.
- Karma Houdini: At the very end, and minutes after killing Daisuke and Selene, besides countless other recent victims and eons of tyranny, all La-Metalians agree to stop fighting and return to their home planet, hoping they can endure the winter until La-Metal somehow manages to lock to another star.
- King Incognito: Yayoi Yukino comes from an old line of Human Aliens who have direct control over Earth's development, but to most, including her supposed parents, she's just an observatory's assistant living in a Sanshoku Ramen shop until it turns out her registry is fake.
- Leave the Camera Running: Quite common in the movie, where the opening scene is a pan over a star field that runs very long with almost nothing happening.
- Living Battery: La-Metal's ships are powered by giant cell-looking organisms who are also sentient. The punishment for disobeying Larela is being attached to one of them and being drained completely.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Yayoi's Earth parents only know that she's not their actual daughter, Yayoi herself prefers to not make them worry. Even after witnessing her as Queen Millennia and all the cosmic stuff happening in the story, when she gives them a farewell, the only thing on their mind is if professor Amamori has told her she's adopted.
- Long-Lived: La-Metalians are said to normally age relatively to an Earthling's year 100:1, with ages above thousands being common.
- Love Triangle: Near the end, it turns out Daisuke Yamori has killed Caveman Soff (Hajime's ancestor) to be with Yayoi and somehow failed. Mirai believes he still has feelings for her, but it's barely followed on.
- Made of Explodium: Tsukuba Observatory tries to analyze one of the meteorites by drilling it with a laser. Shortly, everyone has to evacuate before it explodes with nuclear power.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Hajime's parents were killed in an explosion at their home lab, but his uncle believes that an accident is unlikely and Hajime should tell to any suspicious person that they're simply hospitalized. A Millennial Thief trying to shoot Hajime shortly after that before being chased out by Yayoi gives them an idea who may be responsible. In the end it turns out the explosion was an accident and Selene is really sorry for it.
- Meaningful Name: In Lametalian, "La-Metal" means "Eternal Traveler", fitting for a Rogue Planet.
- Mechanical Lifeforms:
- Yayoi uses an android as a body double to have a regular life, who is the same as her mentally and biologically until an exam discovers there are circuits inside her cells.
- Mirai is the guardian of the Sacred Base with a strong sense of duty and has a golden skin, yet Hajime calling her an android drives her to tears.
- Me's a Crowd:
- All Queens Millennia look like exact copies of Yayoi, except the early ones who were mummified. Their tomb is a 4 kilometer long hallway that hosts all of them, and they assist Yayoi during the final battle.
- Yayoi has a lot of copies of herself, organic and android, to help her with her duties.
- Mind over Matter: La-Metal has mastered control over gravity, but only Larela can lift herself and others at will.
- Mind Probe: Leopardo abducts Hajime and using a machine learns from his memories that The leader of Millenium Thieves is Yayoi's sister, but he fails to get Yayoi's motives since she hasn't mentioned them yet.
- Modest Royalty: Yayoi usually walks around in normal Earth clothes in order to keep up the Masquerade and generally prefers it, but even her royal clothes are subdued. The Queen uses a cool light show in her first reveal, but afterwards she is wearing only a simple black robe and a tiara.
- Nerves of Steel: Overnight, Hajime got into two explosions and has lost his parents, all of which he brushes off rather quickly. He is generally prone to getting into trouble and to only express confusion.
- Nice Guy: Hajime can't help but worry when others around him are injured, even if it's someone he's said to detest.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Despite being a victim of Leopardo's Mind Probe once, and knowing that Carmilla base drifts in space to avoid being detected, Hajime confirms that he's seen Hannibal, prompting Leopardo to Mind Probe him again and discover exactly where Millennium Thieves were.
- Noah's Story Arc: Yayoi has built spaceships called Noah to shelter Earth's population when the calamity from La-Metal's approach comes.
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: The extinction of the dinosaurs and the formation of the Himalayas are attributed to La-Metal passing by at that time.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Mayu creatures look like babies with fur and are said to be the cutest and gentlest in the universe who represent Earth itself.
- Planet Looters: The real goal of La-Metal and the assignment of the current Queen Millennia is to immigrate humans to La-Metal while Earth allegedly gets shattered by its gravity. However, Earth's apparent destruction is a false calculation fed to Queen Millennia by the computer they've made. The population of La-Metal would immigrate to Earth at the same time and take it for themselves, while humans will be greeted by a frozen rock solid planet with its orbit changed to never reach Earth again. Yayoi didn't know all the details, but was planning to sabotage La-Metal at this only opportunity regardless.
- Playing Both Sides: It becomes quickly apparent that Yayoi does a lot of things in Earth's favor instead of La-Metal's while doing as ordered when she can. Turns out this was expected and Yayoi has to resort to a full rebellion.
- Power Floats: Larela is the supreme ruler of La-Metal and floats around her palace with her legs not visible.
- Prequel: Chronologically, this series takes place generations before Galaxy Express 999 and gives a bit of background context for that setting, followed by Maetel Legend.
- Reincarnation Romance: Mirai remembers Hajime as Caveman Soff who was very dear to Yayoi's predecessor. While he doesn't understand what that means, it's one of the reasons Yayoi is so attached to him.
- Rock Beats Laser: Leopardo's ship is chased away with... cannonballs and spears. La-Metal's spacecraft is designed with defenses against advanced weaponry, so physical projectiles put it at a risk of decompression.
- Rogue Planet: The Tenth Planet La-Metal has been cycling to and from Earth every 1000 years on a wide orbit since at least the era of trilobites. It's explained by a deified "Black Sun" Lar orbiting parallel to the Solar System and dragging La-Metal behind.
- Rousseau Was Right: It's said that humanity was once as pure as Mayu, but Queen Millennia's team have introduced conflicts to them to speed up their development, something Yayoi regrets.
- Samus Is a Girl: The male-looking leader of the Millennial Thieves turns out to be Selene, Yayoi's sister.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Yayoi's mom responds to an operator asking her to show respect to the Queen Millennia by giving him a Groin Attack for not respecting her as elderly. Shortly, everyone present has to switch between fighting the Millennial Thieves and feeding her and the professor.
- Shout-Out: Hajime notes that Yayoi's situation is similar to The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, after which she confirms Princess Kaguya is another Queen Millennia.
- Slave Liberation:
- While undoing the population exchange, Yayoi takes enslaved humans from La-Metal with her.
- La-Metal uses androids as security force. When Yayoi tells Dela Mars Frontiara (turns out to be Daisuke Yamori in a mind-controlling mask) that Larela plans to leave them behind, all androids decide to immigrate to Earth.
- Slave Race:
- Cell-looking creatures are considered to only exist as ship's power supply. Yayoi frees them near the end.
- Periodically in the past, Earthlings were taken to La-Metal. In present time, their descendants are considered the "machine operators", as in, countless people doing heavy labor in unison to keep everything operational while La-Metalians hibernate. Some cavemen also serve as an extra attack force.
- Strange Secret Entrance: One way of entry to Tsukuba Observatory looks like a giant boulder, while the shadow obscures the entrance tunnel.
- Solemn Ending Theme: The title theme isn't exactly Hard Rock either, but the ending
seems to be a bit more solemn. More pronounced in the film version where the ending theme (different from the TV series) is sung by Dara Sadaka. - The Reveal:
- Serene and Yayoi admit to accidentally killing Hajime's parents by independently ordering the same spaceship part, which combusts if there's a second one in proximity.
- La-Metal's collision with Earth is a ruse to make Queen Millennia panic and move Earthlings to La-Metal, while in turn La-Metal's population takes Earth for themselves unopposed.
- Taken for Granite: A La-Metalian virus has slipped into the New York's caveship construction, petrifying the entire population shortly after the launch. Yayoi brings the virus to Tokyo before managing to identify it. It was eradicated from La-Metal 1000 years ago, so it was quickly cured.
- Technologically Advanced Foe: While Millennium Thieves have some La-Metal's technology, they weren't aware of its full military capabilities, like tanks that can repair themselves even if fried to atoms. Humans don't even bother to join the fight and assist the Thieves in any way they can.
- Thieves' Guild: Millennial Thieves, officially known as The Secret Society of Millennial Robbers and Bandits, according Yayoi do exactly as the title implies, though their real objective is to free Earth from La-Metal.
- Time Abyss: La-Metalians can live for over 1000 years with ease and Mirai is 360 million years old. She even recognizes Hajime because she's touched a hand of his prehistoric ancestor.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: While Hajime and his uncle are notably short, Yayoi tower over any shown man.
- Took a Level in Smartass: Hajime is implanted with knowledge about spacecraft, twice, which fades away if he gets dizzy. When he becomes the captain of Noah, he suddenly drops his goofy attitude and manages to tell many crew members what to do.
- Transferable Memory:
- In order to skip training, Yamori uploads into Hajime digital copies of all the books they have, turning him into an Ace Pilot next time he wakes up.
- Queens Millennia pass their memories to the next, which is how Yayoi knows what happened in prehistoric times and has embraced all of humanity's struggles.
- Underground City: The aliens infiltrating Earth set up underground cities with fake skies to survive the coming apocalypse, with one of the shelters taking the 1980 style and others similarly showing the time periods they are from. A lot of Tokyo's residential buildings are also designed to move underground and save "the better parts" of the human population, which turn out to be spaceships that nobody would notice.
- Undying Loyalty: Yayoi asks Mirai for half of her life force to reanimate previous Queens Millennia, and quickly had to talk her out of giving up all of it in gratitude. Later she gives up the other half.
- Unusual Halo: The "wisdom ring" of light stays above Larela's head and glows when she's deep in thought. Another one is visible beneath her when she's floating around.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Yayoi has a habit of saying that Hajime has to do important things for important reasons with no explanation until after they happen.
- Vicious Cycle: For every 1000-year period, a woman from the planet La-Metal is sent to secretly rule over the Earth with an underground organization.
- Villain Respect: Leopardo salutes a surviving Millennium Thief who've made a large circle in space to avoid getting tailed to its mothership.
- We Can Rule Together: Larela tries to bribe Hajime with replicas of his deceased parents along with anything he desires, for as long as he obeys her, which only offends him more.
- Wham Line: Yayoi Yukino is greeted on Leopardo's ship by her real name, Lar Andromeda Promethium II, the eventual Big Bad of Galaxy Express 999.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Yayoi's "versatile" cat only appears to escort Hajime and no explanation is provided of its origins or fate.
- On La-Metal, Yayoi is greeted by someone calling herself Queen Millennia Yago, who looks nothing like a Queen Millennia, and promises that Yayoi will regret killing her successor on Venus. She is never heard of again.
- When the Planets Align: According to Yayoi, the reason this passing of La-Metal would be disastrous for Earth after all this time is because of the coincidental planetary alignment in 1999 has shifted its orbit closer to Earth, previous times it wasn't as close. Later she clarifies that La-Metal may have deliberately arranged it to happen, which is proven with Larela's device affecting gravity of remote objects.
- Yandere: After Larela sees Hajime for the first time, she becomes obsessed with trying to figure out what Yayoi sees in him and tries to make him stay with her forever. She repeatedly tries and fails to make him like her despite the kidnappings. During the final battle she even Squees when her "best friend" Hajime confronts her. Several times she loses her advantage because she doesn't want him dead.
- Your Heart's Desire: Larela shows Hajime holographic replicas of his deceased parents and tells that her system can read his heart and recreate anything he thinks of.
