OVA
Description
Makimura is a central figure in The Phoenix -Space-, a crewmember aboard a spaceship traveling from the third planet Zaltz of the Betelgeuse system to Earth in the year 2577. At the start of the story, the ship collides with cosmic dust, and the crew awakens from hibernation to find Makimura seemingly dead and mummified in the cockpit, with a dying message that reads I’m going to be killed. This apparent death sets the plot in motion, as the four surviving crewmembers evacuate in individual escape pods and soon discover that Makimura’s pod is following them, refusing to respond to communication.
Makimura’s background is gradually revealed through the accounts of the survivors and the testimony of a bird-woman from the planet Furemiru. He was a highly skilled engineer, but his past is marked by profound cruelty. He was once stranded among the bird-like inhabitants of Furemiru, initially harboring bigotry against them. Over time he married one of them, a woman named Rada, who cared for him devotedly. When a rescue mission made contact, his latent racism resurged, and he slaughtered the aliens, devouring his wife as well. For these atrocities, the Phoenix cursed him to endlessly endure the cycle of birth and death, aging forward and backward in an eternal loop, and exiled him to a desolate planet where space criminals are banished. To conceal his condition, Makimura built an android duplicate, and it was this empty shell that the crewmistook for his corpse.
Makimura’s personality is driven by deep-seated desires and internal conflict. He is intelligent and capable, but also possessive and jealous. He forms a romantic attachment to fellow crewmember Nana Ichinomiya, which puts him in rivalry with another crewmember, Kizaki. This love triangle contributes to the tension among the crew. His motivations shift from seeking connection to a desperate pursuit of immortality after he encounters the Phoenix and drinks its blood, a decision born from his fear of death and his desire to escape punishment. Yet this very act binds him to an endless punishment.
In the story, Makimura functions as both a ghostly presence and a living mystery. His apparent death creates an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia, and his pod becomes a symbol of unresolved guilt. When Nana eventually opens the pod, she finds Makimura has regressed to an infant, having cycled backward through age. Despite knowing his terrible history, Nana chooses to remain with him, tending to him as a child on the exile planet. Another survivor, Saruta, attempts to kill the baby Makimura out of jealousy for Nana’s devotion, an act that earns him his own curse from the Phoenix.
Makimura’s notable abilities are tied directly to his curse. After drinking the Phoenix’s blood, he gains a form of immortality that causes him to alternately age and grow younger without end. He also demonstrates considerable technical skill, as seen in his construction of a lifelike android to hide his affliction. However, his most defining characteristic is not a superhuman power but the irreversible cycle of suffering and punishment that defines his existence. His role highlights the themes of love, prejudice, guilt, and the inescapable consequences of cruelty that run through the narrative.
Makimura’s background is gradually revealed through the accounts of the survivors and the testimony of a bird-woman from the planet Furemiru. He was a highly skilled engineer, but his past is marked by profound cruelty. He was once stranded among the bird-like inhabitants of Furemiru, initially harboring bigotry against them. Over time he married one of them, a woman named Rada, who cared for him devotedly. When a rescue mission made contact, his latent racism resurged, and he slaughtered the aliens, devouring his wife as well. For these atrocities, the Phoenix cursed him to endlessly endure the cycle of birth and death, aging forward and backward in an eternal loop, and exiled him to a desolate planet where space criminals are banished. To conceal his condition, Makimura built an android duplicate, and it was this empty shell that the crewmistook for his corpse.
Makimura’s personality is driven by deep-seated desires and internal conflict. He is intelligent and capable, but also possessive and jealous. He forms a romantic attachment to fellow crewmember Nana Ichinomiya, which puts him in rivalry with another crewmember, Kizaki. This love triangle contributes to the tension among the crew. His motivations shift from seeking connection to a desperate pursuit of immortality after he encounters the Phoenix and drinks its blood, a decision born from his fear of death and his desire to escape punishment. Yet this very act binds him to an endless punishment.
In the story, Makimura functions as both a ghostly presence and a living mystery. His apparent death creates an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia, and his pod becomes a symbol of unresolved guilt. When Nana eventually opens the pod, she finds Makimura has regressed to an infant, having cycled backward through age. Despite knowing his terrible history, Nana chooses to remain with him, tending to him as a child on the exile planet. Another survivor, Saruta, attempts to kill the baby Makimura out of jealousy for Nana’s devotion, an act that earns him his own curse from the Phoenix.
Makimura’s notable abilities are tied directly to his curse. After drinking the Phoenix’s blood, he gains a form of immortality that causes him to alternately age and grow younger without end. He also demonstrates considerable technical skill, as seen in his construction of a lifelike android to hide his affliction. However, his most defining characteristic is not a superhuman power but the irreversible cycle of suffering and punishment that defines his existence. His role highlights the themes of love, prejudice, guilt, and the inescapable consequences of cruelty that run through the narrative.