The Planet of Music

## **Synopsis**

**Graphic Novel -** The warrior Utians are a little confused by the strange behaviour of Euphony, the diva whose singing sets the rhythm of all their planet’s days. Recently, Euphony seems so sad, and she’s singing less and less. When the Little Prince and Fox discover that she’s singing the blues over a foreign prince named Ivory, things get too complicated even for them — because Ivory is from the land of the Flower Growers, the sworn enemies of the Utians...

## **Summary**

The Little Prince arrives on this planet to find a wonderful harmonious city, filled with music, inhabited by the peaceful instrumentalists known as the Utians. They may merely seem like music lovers, but they’re more than that — for the Utians, music is essential for their mental wellbeing. Their diva, Euphony, gives rhythm to their lives with every melody she sings. Her voice determines the state of the instruments produced in the magnificent music factory. But lately, everything is turning disastrous for the Utians, as Euphony’s voice is becoming more and more out of tune, resulting in horribly sounding, ‘faulty’ instruments being produced. These instruments are called the Dissonance (or, as Semitone sometimes calls them out of frustration, ‘Instruments of Chaos’).

The Little Prince dives deeper into the situation to find out that Euphony is hiding a dark secret; she has a great heartache, and finds herself deeply in love with a man named Ivory, the son of Queen Anemone, and Prince of the Pistilaries — the sworn enemies of the Utians. The Pistilaries possess a love of flowers, and these two peoples despise one another, due to a war between them that erupted a long time ago in the past. Because of this, Euphony is unable to confide in her own people about how she is feeling.

A Romeo and Juliet plot, added with the threat of war.

## **Plot**

(Unfinished)

The episode begins with the Rose receiving another letter from the Little Prince, filled with the details of his latest adventure, only to find some white rose petals slotted in said letter, which concerns her. She begins reading (slightly reluctantly).

The scene cuts to the Little Prince and Fox travelling the galaxy on their iconic golden plane, in search of planets that the Snake has poisoned. Sure enough, they soon come across one, consumed in his dark shadow. Once they land, the Little Prince discovers, to his amusement, that a musical chime plays with every step he takes. He uses this to help him in order to find the magical door that leads into the planet itself. He and Fox soon find the door, its golden plaque engraved with ‘B678’, along with some musical notes.

They step through the door to find themselves in a magnificent city, where every house and building is designed to look like a musical instrument, and exchange a quick hello with one of the inhabitants, who is strumming contentedly on his guitar. The Little Prince points out a river that looks like a musical score, remarking how beautiful it is, before wondering why the Snake would be interested in this planet.

Suddenly, a horrible cacophony of sound erupts through the city, sonic sound waves rapidly racing their way. As quickly as they came, they disappeared. However, the force knocked Fox over a bridge above the river, leaving him hanging on for dear life. As the Little Prince magically dons his blue coat, armed with his sword, he notices a boat speeding towards them (designed to look like multiple instruments together), the driver unable to control the brakes due to the effect of the sound waves. In a flash, the Prince grabs Fox just in time as he loses his grip and jumps onto the berserk boat of the stranger, grabbing him and dramatically leaping to safety. They both take a rough fall to the ground, but are not injured. However, the boat continues to speed down the river until it crashes, much to the stranger’s dismay, leaving instruments scattered across the water, ruined.

The stranger’s name is Otto. He is a short, balding man, wearing a blue tailcoat and a tuning fork on his head. He appears to be in a very angry mood. Fox takes an immediate dislike to him after being called a ‘grubby tomcat’. The Little Prince generously offers to help fish his instruments out of the river, but Otto rudely refuses, mumbling ‘you’ve done enough already’ in reply. He retrieves a trumpet from said river and chucks it furiously onto the ground — it appears to be so clogged up with water that barely any sound comes out — and storms away, grumbling to himself. The Little Prince remarks how magnificent the trumpet is, wiping some water off with his sleeve before deciding to follow Otto, dashing after the grumpy little man, instrument in hand. Fox follows suit, not too keen on the idea.

They follow him down an alley, keeping a safe distance behind him, and into another area in the city, where they pass a Utian sitting on the edge of a circular windowsill, strumming on a harp, and another one playing a melody on the tuba. The Little Prince deeply admires how magnificent and musical the city is. They follow Otto around a corner and see an extraordinary building towering over them made entirely out of organ pipes — the Music Factory.

## **Character Debut**

The main 5 supporting characters of this arc (Euphony, Semitone, Otto, Ivory and Anemone) first appear in the graphic novel in the comic series of the same name. They later on make an appearance in the TV adaptation.

## **Characters in Order of Appearance**

-The Rose

-The Little Prince

-Fox

-Otto

-Semitone

-Euphony

-Ivory

-The Gloomies

-Anemone

-The Snake

## **Quotes**

- **“*Wow...look at all this! I have a feeling we might’ve landed on a cool planet this time around!”*** -Fox, upon seeing the City of Music for the first time after walking through the magical door that leads into the planet.

- **“*There you have it, my Rose. From now on, Utians and the Pistilaries will live in harmony. I’m sure you would’ve loved Ivory and Euphony if you’d met them. See you soon, and until then, be happy.”*** -The Little Prince at the very end of the episode as he flies away from the planet, now free from the Snake’s evil shadow.

- ***“Hm. And who are you, exactly, you...big tomcat?!”*** -Otto angrily to Fox in the City of Music (this is their first encounter with one another).

- **“*You see, in our city, music has always been essential. We need it to live in harmony*.”** -Semitone explaining to the Little Prince and Fox about how music has a beneficial effect on his people.

- ***“Forgive me, Euphony...I immediately suspected the worst. I suppose I let resentment get the better of me. But it’s obvious to me now...your love is true.”*** -Otto apologising to Euphony.

- ***“Otto, you know how much I love the Utians, but I decided to leave the city on my own. The Pistilaries weren’t involved — I had to find Ivory. From now on, my heart belongs to him.”*** -Euphony to Otto, explaining to him that she was not kidnapped by their enemies, and convincing him not to fight with the Pistilaries.

- ***“Music and flowers both inspire feelings so very close to love. No rivalry between us will ever erase that.”*** - Ivory to Semitone (comics).

- ***“Your love is so sincere that is shines and illuminates our people. I don’t even know why I was opposed to this union...”*** - Anemone apologising to Euphony.

## **Trivia**

- It is possible that the Utians were originally supposed to be called the ‘Doites’.

- In the graphic novel version, the Pistilaries are commonly referred to as the ‘Flower Growers’.

- The name for the Utian people could possibly have been inspired by the word ‘Utopian’. This is the idea that everything is modelled in a perfect and idealistic way — this is represented strongly in their musical city where everything used to be peaceful and perfect until everything became off-kilter. The name could also come from the word ‘utau’, which means ‘to sing’ in Japanese, which links to how the voice of Euphony gives rhythm to the Utians’ lives.

- The name for the Pistilaries comes from the word ‘pistil’, which is a part of the flower.

- In the German and Italian dub of the episode, the supporting characters’ names are changed completely, despite ‘Otto’ being a German name.

- Euphony’s name literally means ‘the quality of being pleasing to the ear’, which fits very well to her character — her songs are very beautiful and pleasing.

- The DVD version of the episode comes with some bonus features — a photo gallery and some animatics used in early development (the arrival into the City of Music, the Little Prince and Fox trying to find Euphony in the Rose Labyrinth and the moment when the Utians and the Pistilaries finally reconcile).