Leiji Matsumoto was inspired by Kenji Miyazawa's novel "Night on the Galactic Railroad," about a steam train flying through space.
Maetel has a certain resemblance to Cynthia of anime Pokémon (1997) and the video games of Pokémon Version Diamant (2006), Pokémon Version Perle (2006), Pokémon Version Platine (2008), Pokémon: Diamant Étincelant (2021) and Pokémon: Perle Scintillante (2021).