Terra e... (TV)

When humanity realized that the Earth, or Terra, had been polluted beyond fixing, the planet's governments united under a unique authoritarian system named Superior Domination (SD) and started to colonize space. Centuries later, mankind has given up its freedom in favor of the AI Grand Mother; when someone reaches the age of 14, their memories are wiped and they are automatically assigned a new role in society.

Jomy Marquis Shin, a sensitive young man raised by loving parents, is saved from this grim fate by Soldier Blue, the current leader of the Mu race—a new species of human beings blessed with psychic abilities. However, in the eyes of SD, the existence of people like Jomy threatens the new paradigm of humanity. Hunted down by the hounds of the government, Jomy finds solace in the welcoming arms of the Mu, who hide aboard the spaceship Shangri-La.

Now the leader of the Mu resistance years later, Jomy embarks on a journey toward Terra to escape from SD's manhunt led by Keith Anyan, an ambitious and ruthless rising star of humanity. Will Jomy and his people manage to reach the cradle of humanity before Keith destroys their last hope?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Soldier Blue Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Shin, Jomy Marquis Main

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Anyan, Keith Main

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Physis Main

Kobayashi, Sanae Japanese

Matsuka, Jonah Supporting

Takagi, Motoki Japanese

Shiroe, Seki Ray Supporting

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Tony Supporting

Sugiyama, Noriaki Japanese

Leo Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Karina Supporting

Kubo, Sayuri Japanese

Rain Supporting

Komori, Manami Japanese

Morotomi, Hirofumi Producer

Abe, Ai Producer

Aoki, Kiyomitsu Producer

Hayashida, Norihiro Producer

Reviews

Jul 5, 2023

Zanryu1337

Recommended

Story: 5
Animation: 7
Sound: 8
Characters: 7
Enjoyment: 7

Total: 7

Terra e has some interesting bits here and there, which is especially extraordinary given the source materials time of 1974, a few years before the very first Star Wars. I mention it, because it is often mentioned as a prime example of how to write a hero's journey. And the first 4 episodes are very clearly that outline. However after that the basic story structure divulges as another main character becomes the focus. And with that modern conventions do no longer apply here.

But to row back a bit. Terra e (2007) is a serialized version of the Terra e ... (1980) film. I haven't watched that film so it is hard for me to say how well it was translated, but since it is more extensive, it probably improves upon many things. But that is mainly on how the story is structured. Where we instantly come to my biggest gripe with this anime: time skips. The story is told about many years in various intervals and time frames. Additionally not all characters are evolved equally after a single skip and the focus flip-flops between both protagonists. This has minor and major consequences. Most notably: character deaths. While some characters grow up to become characters of shifting importance, some do not survive certain episodes, mostly to encourage the grow of other characters or to have lasting impacts on decisions.

This is a central concept as the general story is about the relationship between the generic humans and the psychic Mu, who are mostly born from Humans. All the while being observed by a dystopian Big Brother system which is encouraged by the generic public. And while in all this, a central theme pops up, which I have trouble to wrap my head around. This is something I observed in many Japanese media by now: "Those damned adults."
This is a phrase the early part of Terra e is full of. Mostly because of the dystopian system behind it. But it has also come to my attention via Persona 5, which I played a few months ago. It is a weird phrase to throw around since most adults where kids once. And it becomes even more weird when the non-adults who throw around this phrase get, or even actively seek, help from other adults. Especially when they still live with their parents.
This is mostly notable through the central theme of the first episodes: the adult examination; a process to determine the place of young adults and where to send them. This is obviously part of the dystopia and quickly escalates into a full-blown war against the system.

Speaking of war, the last third of the anime basically revolves around the escalation between the Mu and the Humans. And this is where the time skips most notably hurts the story. As the war escalates more and more, war crimes of various scales are the daily norm. Sadly, most of this stuff gets easily cleared under the rug by the fanatic stoicism and zeal of the two faction leaders. But I would attribute that decision to the runtime as those happen fairly late.

Terra e is a weird and unique experience in terms of story structure and characterization. New characters are introduced constantly, ripped away or reintroduced as new important characters after time skips, after being unimportant side characters beforehand. And while the story features a very predictable outcome, it sadly still is full of plot holes. But the story isn't the focus of this anime but the characters and how they fulfill their roles. The solid animation and very nice soundtrack underline this a good way. This anime can be remembered by its decision for story progress alone. Multiple time skips within a single season alone is a bold move. But it is necessary for this kind of story and I'm glad it stuck with it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jan 3, 2021

Recynon

Mixed Feelings

I really wanted to hate Towards the Terra. Something about its dull color palette rubbed me the wrong way. I've since come to a neutral stance on it, though it took nearly all of its 24 episodes for me to judge that its heart was in the right place.

In my experience with Japanese space operas, they love to use the setting to talk about war, peace, and the general direction of mankind and Towards the Terra is no different. And like its brethren, Towards the Terra steps forward with its heart first and mind second, leading to a message that can feel overly sentimental ... and simplistic.

At the core of the show is the persecution of the telekinetic Mu by the AI-governed humans, a conflict which formed a rocky foundation for the rest of the show.
It's way too exaggerated; the humans and the evil AI that controls them are cartoonishly evil because their reasons for such harsh persecution of the Mu are ill justified and one sided. Even in the X-Men universe the mutants have some space to live even if they do suffer persecution. Though there is discrimination and persecution from humanity, it's a real debate among the humans as to what measures should be taken against the mutants. It's only in alternate realities or future realities that they have mutants being wiped out by the rest of humanity or Sentinels. Furthermore, there's at least better reasons for humanity to fear the mutants because of the various mutant villains and their sometimes monstrous appearances. On the mutant side, Charles Xavier and Magneto present two sides of the debate as to how the mutants should approach dealing with humanity. Of course, the whole thing is still flawed because it's based on the assumption that those with power will automatically be harmful to society and that the best approach is to persecute them rather than to educate them, but at least there's some level of logic there. With Towards the Terra, there are no scenes of the Mu being a threat to society and the humans kill any Mu once they reach adolescence. They don't even try to contain them. Nope, they just wipe their memories and kill them right away. They also continuously initiate attacks on the Mu mothership even though the Mu have never gone on the offensive against them. While doing so, the soldiers and generals are shown delighting in slaughtering the Mu like they were exterminating a pest rather than doing so out of fear, which just makes it look like the humans are evil just to provide a villain for the plot.

Which is fine if this show was just a space adventure about fighting an evil genocidal enemy and you can say my qualms are explained by the humans being brainwashed, but the show actually tries to make a thematic point with this conflict as the foundation. Ultimately, the show is trying to use the Mu as a representation of human feeling while the humans represent logic and control. The reasoning is that the original humans on Earth destroyed themselves and the planet because of their evil human nature and thus needed to be controlled by a supercomputer that would tightly regiment human lives to weed out anything imperfections. And the Mu, descendants of the original humans, are considered imperfections because their feelings are so strong, and feelings make people fallible. It's the old security vs freedom debate, along with the notion that humans are inherently self destructive. Would it be better to be controlled and be safe by homogenizing the population, or is it better to have more freedom, allowing for both greater happiness and greater tragedy? But like its premise, this thematic exploration doesn't work because it provides radical viewpoints that simplify the issues at hand. If there were normal teenagers that suddenly developed dangerous superpowers, it would obviously be too extreme to immediately cull them from the population, especially since the Mu are never shown having any societal problems arising from their powers on a day to day basis. Operating with pure logic while stomping out all emotion is such an extreme, oversimplified reaction to war and a blanket solution to humanity's problems. Anarchy is bad but so is total state control. The question isn't whether or not we should be governed by a super computer but how much we should rely on AI to make decisions because such a future where AI is involved in but not dictating politics is much more realistic. So when the obvious answers to these positions are given--- the Mu shouldn't be persecuted and humanity should leave room for feeling while breaking free of an authoritarian system---the thematic thrust feels insipid.

With this premise and thematic endpoint as the basis, the show is executed more or less decently. Yes, there are time skips that cause disjointed character development, primarily for Jomy. The time skips also detracts from our sympathy for the Mu, because 8 years of suffering and longing for Terra are conveyed in two sentences and we're dropped at a point when things are finally looking up for them. For as much praise as this show gets for portraying the issues of the Mu, only one or two issues is really addressed and even then, they're addressed partially, and it's the debate between settling on a new planet or continuing to search for Terra. While the time skips are definitely a major flaw, they're also all within the first 10 episodes, so it is possible to ease yourself back into the rest of the narrative after a while. The show also likes to amp up the drama for characters that it barely paid any attention to. There's this one death scene where they pull flashbacks to eek out your tears but all the flashbacks are from 2 minutes of the last episode and half of the flashback consists of the deceased serving coffee. Another one features the deceased picking tomatoes.

So yeah, it's pretty rough in many places, but it also manages to do some things pretty well, at least given the handicapped premise. Most notably, Keith was given nuanced characterization that balanced his cold hearted, logical exterior with a buried soft spot for his friends. While he mostly follows his programming, his persecution of the Mu is also driven by his anger for what he thought the Mu did to his best friend and his decision to take a Mu under his wing is informed by a prior tragedy. In addition, initially, we get a little bit of resonance with his loneliness and existential crisis because of his background. The other lead, Jomy, had his growth cut off by a timeskip but he does grow into a better leader later on in the show. He's actually surprisingly likable as far as space opera/mecha leads are concerned because he's sympathetic and gentle without being preachy, and struggling with leadership without being too angsty. Everyone else's development is mostly rushed or plot-driven, but they're serviceable in their roles, with some being more annoying than others (Shiroe is a jerk and Matsuka is a wimp). No one's personality shines and you'll probably remember them for their angst.

To its credit, the plot can get pretty compelling, especially in the latter half, and the characters are inoffensive for the most part, so I can see a lot of people enjoying this show and getting an "epic" feeling about it. However, I felt that the story and characters were built upon a weak foundation of cartoonish conflicts and themes, undermining most of the merit in those categories. It's impossible for me to feel bad for the Mu because their persecution feels so arbitrary and it's impossible for me to admire the character development when it mostly go towards forming trite attitudes toward war and peace (Oh, maybe I was wrong about the Mu and humanity shouldn't be controlled by a questionable AI/ Oh, people die in war and this makes me want revenge but this turns me into the monster that I'm fighting... etc). My preferences aside, almost everyone can agree that the ending is rushed and sappy.

Now for the technical aspects, which were pretty decent but nondescript:

Music

The emotional pieces do their job well, evoking emotion even if the tragedy revolves around a character I barely knew. I thought some of the piano pieces were somewhat distinctive and I might listen to them on their own. The openings are forgettable. The endings are enticing at first but when the vocals come in they sink into mediocrity.

Visuals

The series is very well rendered and sports character designs that easily lend to emotional expression while remaining restrained. Though I didn't pay that much attention the animation and the battles, I think they were decently animated and had a good amount of tension. My issue with the show that kept me from watching it for so long was that the colors are too dull, but at the same time this fits its somber tone.

English Dub
It's mostly fine. I don't know if this is a problem in the sub but at times the voice actors couldn't pull off the dramatic scenes without sounding cheesy, and in particular Matsuka sounded laughable while they were trying to pull off a wimpy voice.

If I completely missed the nuance in Towards the Terra and its ideas actually make sense, then yeah this is a very good show. If I did, please let me hear about it. But otherwise, no matter how well it went it executed itself, its weak foundation ensures that it would always be skewed. Towards the Terra has many tragedies, but none of them are worth a tear from me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Nov 15, 2012

kabbinet

Not Recommended

As a space saga fan, I had good hopes for this anime (It was recomended from the Heroic age entry).

The story had potential but as with much else of this anime it is poorly executed and to be fair it would need atleast +70 episodes to cover all the aspects that I look for when reading a story. The story is too hastly executed and dosn't give justice to the potential and vision that the authors have had. A 7 for story 3 for execution.

The art is really good, although I personally dislike this style of drawing.
A 7 for art

Some music pices are irritating sometimes ... but unnoticable. Voice acting was ok.

Now I come to the part I really disliked so bear with me.
Character relations are among the worst I've seen in an anime, I guess it's because the episode limit the authors had, they characters arn't allowed to grow and their relations pop up from non existance. The one character that gave some room and grov were Swena Dalton. The characters dosn't have any space for development, they were limited to followers and leaders an atribute that isn't necessarily bad but in this magnitude it was annoying. Small-Kawai-Oni chan-girls/boys also recives a death sentece from me. And ghasping characters is something I can't stand.
2 for characters and their interaction.

I enjoyed watching this anime sometimes, great potential but the characters and how they are potraied really sank this anime down for me.
+3 for enjoyment

Overall a 4. It could be better, much better if they weren't confined to 24 episodes and better character development. A good story with good art and sound.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Terra e... Episode 13 Discussion gohdan - Oct 1, 2011	6 replies	by His0kaDevv »» Mar 19, 12:09 PM
	Poll: Terra e... Episode 1 Discussion Kayrhandros - May 29, 2007	29 replies	by zeroquinze »» Oct 28, 2023 10:39 AM
	Poll: Terra e... Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 ) removed-user - Sep 22, 2008	84 replies	by Lavi_kun »» Jun 13, 2023 3:03 AM
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	Poll: Terra e... Episode 15 Discussion d388 - Aug 24, 2007	27 replies	by Lavi_kun »» Jun 12, 2023 1:21 AM