As long as I live, I'll probably never understand those people who rave about Terra e as if it were a great piece of literature, or indeed, good enough to be considered a piece of literature at all. For something that whose source material won the Seiun Award, and whose manga won the Kodansha Award, Terra e manages to be.... I'll be honest here. It's really, really bad.
Setting
Terra e is a sci-fi piece. That is about all one can describe, because the setting is indeed quite plain. Although earlier episodes would have you believe that it takes place in some sort of... Orwellian nightmarish environment,
...
for all intents and purposes, Terra e has a vanilla sci-fi setting.
Humanity has polluted the Earth to a state in which it is uninhabitable. Humanity has taken to the stars, colonizing and terraforming planets to live on, all the while trying to terraform the Earth back into a liveable state. As a result of the crisis situation, a fascist government has managed to seize power, and their administration seeks to cement their control over humanity, through, for example, destroying rogue elements such as the mutant "Mu", and engaging in a vaguely 1984-like system of population control.
Taking inspiration from 1984 would, generally, inform one that the show would have dystopian elements, but strangely enough, all effects of the fascist actions of the government be waived as convenient for the plot. The psychological effects of having a heavily controlled and totalitarian populace never strike the main characters, while the main characters will also never lose any information relevant to the plot, mind-wipes to ensure obedience be damned. As a result, any serious message the show tries to convey is simultaneously undermined and made into a laughing stock. I do not know if the director seeks to destroy his own show, but this is a disturbing trend that permeates this show in general.
Humanity is supposedly controlled by supercomputers, yet humans are still shown to make the relevant decisions when necessary. Everyone is brainwashed to follow the SD government, but there are characters who still elect to dislike the government, and rebel, and they are not dealt with until they commit serious crimes, and expose state secrets. People are raised like sheep, yet the cast seems to undergo a normal schooling environment, and even military academies bear more similarities to modern day education than differences.
I could go on, but I fear that I am belabouring the point. Other instances of this undermining (for it is far too common) will no doubt show up as I go on.
Plot
The main plot of Terra e concerns the "Mu", a race of psychically endowed mutants exiled from humanity, who seek to find, and recolonize Earth. They do this all the while evading attack from the dictatorian "SD" government, who seek to destroy rogue elements that threaten their control over humanity. The main character, Jomy, is one such (young) Mu.
While the Mu are initially peaceable, after some time, the frustration of the new generation of Mu born in exile boils over, and under the leadership of Jomy, they elect to wage a war against the SD government and the humans under its jurisdiction, to claim Earth as a homeland for themselves. They do so by obliterating SD ships with overwhelming firepower, taking entire planets hostage, and being every bit as cruel as the humans which they supposedly despise.
If I didn't sound very sympathetic to the cause of the Mu, I do not apologize. While the director undoubtedly wants us to side with the Mu, I must find that his message often works in reverse. Terra e shows us the cruel side of humanity, espoused in its finest agent Keith Anyan, a cold, callous man captured by the Mu who has no qualms taking hostages to ensure his escape, and killing them when he has no further use for them. The Mu call him a monster, but yet just days later they indulge in monstrous behaviour on a much larger scale, destroying entire fleets while accepting no surrenders, and taking an entire planet of civilians hostage. The new generation of Mu, especially Jomy, do this without batting an eyelid, and indeed, they even revel in the bloodshed. The new generation are revealed, in the end, to be power-crazed, psychotic, and ruthless to those who they perceive to be beneath them, even other Mu who are less powerful psionically. Yet, the viewpoint is constantly with the Mu; we see how the Mu struggle to survive and build a homeland for themselves in an abandoned colony in deep space, we see the conflicts and disputes between different Mulian factions firsthand, we are shown how humanity tries to destroy the adopted homeland of the Mu through orbital bombardment, all the while in a sympathetic light to the Mu. We are left in doubt just what the director wants us to feel. Are we to pity the Mu for their depraved state of affairs, brought about by persecution? Are we to hate the Mu, for their cruelty and inhumanity? Niehter interpretation can be supported, due to the conflicting messages that the director sends us, that undermine either intepretation.
Aesthetics
The most striking artistic decision about this show, I would think, would be the decision not to tell a chronologically smooth story, but rather to have the plot move in a series of jerky timeskips. While novel, this idea is nonetheless again undermined (yes, again) by the scriptwriter and art director. Little indication is given as to the length of time that has elapsed, leaving the viewer to pick up the pieces. As a result, many episodes, especially early on, feel rushed and disjointed, and a nagging feeling surfaces that there should have been additional episodes to fill in the gap, or at least, changes in the way characters and the backgrounds are drawn to reflect the time gap. When a 14-year old looks exactly the same as he does when 26, the audience is left pondering just what the art director was thinking.
Nonetheless, the rest of the art is drawn surprisingly well, from the beautiful clips of deep space, to still shots of nebulae and celestial objects, to wonderfully detailed and realistic spacecraft. The character designs may be dated somewhat, which may be quite jarring at first, but after a few episodes they grow on the viewer. Sound is nondescript. It's used when appropriate, but is nothing to rave about.
Characters
...
Just, ...
Half the cast are idiots, the other half of the cast are assholes, and all of them, in all honesty, had much room for improvement. While many characters do develop as the story progresses, it is usually to their moral detriment, and attracts the audience's disgust.
You have cold cruel hypocrites like Jomy and Physis, power-crazed berserkers like Tony, arrogant and beastly snots like Shiroe, disgusting psychopaths like Karina, naive and temperamental youths like Kim and Sam, and old men rooted in the past like Zel and Harley.
To be fair, some of these characters aren't as bad as I make out, Sam and Harley notably, but by and large, most of them are. Blue, Keith and Matsuka, the only main characters worth a damn, are not able to carry the show due to the amount of screentime they are given.The amount of sympathy the rest of the cast attracts is basically 0. When main characters die, complete with a death montage, flashbacks, and insert songs, I don't shed tears out of joy. I shed tears out of happiness, because I do not have to see that idiot again.
The voice acting is a mixed bag. While the main characters, especially Keith and Blue are voiced pretty competently, many side characters, Physis being a prime example, have horribly grating voices. But at the very least, they do not get enough screentime to get the viewer overly annoyed. It's still nothing to rave about, of course.
Overview
To be succint, Terra e is what I would term: wasted potential. Given its unique setting and novel storytelling method, if handled competently, it could have been a deep and cutting look into the human psyche. As it is, it is merely a glaring example of how not to do it: make a contradictory, meaningless, unenjoyable trainwreck of a show, with no coherent message.
I've heard some people describe it as en epic anime, and must respectfully disagree. While Terra e strives to be an epic anime, the total lack of sympathy that the audience feels for any character, as well as the lack of a coherent message gives it an extremely different, in fact almost entirely opposite kind of mood - Nihilistic.
Jan 5, 2009
Terra e... (TV)
(Anime)
add
As long as I live, I'll probably never understand those people who rave about Terra e as if it were a great piece of literature, or indeed, good enough to be considered a piece of literature at all. For something that whose source material won the Seiun Award, and whose manga won the Kodansha Award, Terra e manages to be.... I'll be honest here. It's really, really bad.
Setting Terra e is a sci-fi piece. That is about all one can describe, because the setting is indeed quite plain. Although earlier episodes would have you believe that it takes place in some sort of... Orwellian nightmarish environment, ... 
Dec 18, 2008
Ah... the phrase "Magical Girl". It makes you think of a Shoujo anime, doesn't it? Soppy little transformation sequences, annoying mascot animals, ridiculously cute lolis...
But make no mistake. Maybe people have the wrong impression from the title (which may account for the surprisingly low ratings), but StrikerS is, in fact, squarely in the Shonen denomination, and is a rambunctiously good Shonen to boot. Plot Lets have a quick summary. StrikerS is set 10 years after the previous iteration of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, in which the titular character has outgrown her loliness and become a full time Instructor, training the new generation of horribly underaged TSAB ... 
Jun 19, 2008
Fate/stay night
(Anime)
add
In an earlier review, Bluesnow talked about how despite being a good anime, F/SN has a tradition of being overrated. I pretty much agree with this sentiment. This is a good anime, but it definitely has plenty of areas that could be improved.
The plot of this series, is to be honest, pretty horrible. It's extremely linear, it's pretty boring, and there isn't really very much in terms of plot twists or suspense. And what little they had, which was more towards the end of the series, was executed rather badly with bad pacing and ass pulls galore. In mitigation, this was likely caused by ... |
