Manga, Movie, Anime: Toward the Terra (known as Terra E in Japan) was originally a manga created by Keiko Takemiya (famous for her work on Andromeda Stories), and originally ran in Asahi Sonorama's Gekkan Manga Shoen from the January 1977 issue to the May 1980 issue. The manga was licensed Stateside by Vertical (who also licensed Tezuka's Ode to Kirihito and Buddha), and the third and final volume was released on June 26th, 2007. Toward the Terra won the Seiun Award (a Japanese sci-fi award) in 1978, and won the Kodansha Manga Award in 1979. Fumino Hayashi did a spinoff called Terra E... ~Aoki Kobo no Kiss~ that centers around one of the main characters, began running on September 27th, 2007, and is ongoing in Square-Enix's GFantasy magazine.
Toward the Terra was adapted into an animated movie in 1980 that was produced by Toei Animation (famous for their work on all seasons of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball) and directed by Hideo Onchi. The Right Stuff International licensed it Statesdie, and released a subbed version in 1994. This will not be covered in this review.
Toward the Terra is a twenty-four episode anime that was produced by Minamimachi Bugyoushou (famous for their animation assistance on Jyu-Oh-Sei and Mushishi) and Tokyo Kids (famous for their work on the Sayuki OAV and Gakuen Heaven), and directed by Osamu Yamazaki (famous for... y'know, I can't really find anything). It ran on Japanese TV from April 7th to September 22nd of 2007. Bandai has licensed it Stateside, and has yet to announce a release date.
Story: Toward the Terra takes place a few thousand years or so from the present, in a time where humanity's screwed up Earth and has colonized other planets, and is more or less controlled by supercomputers. Psychics called the Mu are being born, and humanity, as is always the case with these sorts of series, fears them and attempts to destroy them at every turn, and the Mu attempt to rescue children when they awaken, at risk of their otherwise being destroyed. All the Mu want to do is go back to Earth. And into all of this steps Jomy Marquis Shin, a dormant Mu who is rescued by their leader, Soldier Blue.
This sounds like your standard sci-fi story, no? Well, here's the thing -- it's not. And the main reason for this lies in how they choose to tell the story.
The story is undeniably centered around young Jomy, and driven around his development and experiences. But at the same time, there's an extremely extensive cast that all gets some degree of development, and actually ends up playing a major role in how events play out. Characters who you think are only going to be involved in minor ways end up playing major roles in the show later on.
And the sheer range of the story can be best summed up as freaking EPIC. Not only does the story cover the happenings surrounding individual characters, it also focuses on the Mu and human races as a whole, AND the interactions between the two races. As if this wasn't enough, this entire series covers about two or three decades of all of this; you get to watch character from when they are kids up till they're adults, and watch them through the whole span of their life.
And the story itself starts out light, but steadily gets darker and darker throughout the series, with lots and lots of death and conspiracy and all sorts of lovely things.
All in all, several kinds of amazing.
Art: The animation for this series is pretty high-quality. The 2D animation is fairly smooth; however, the CG tends to stand out some when it's used (but, then again, it's only used on its own, and never blended, so that works out pretty well).
Music: There are two OPs and EDs each for this series, and none of them particularly stands out; the OPs and second ED are your standard upbeat pop numbers, and the first ED is the standard female ballad.
The background music for this series, though, is some of the first that I've actively noticed for a while. Ethnic instruments are thrown in with the standard Western orchestra, and the music is just awesome in general.
Seiyuu: This show has a lot of talent that I recognize and love -- Sanae Kobayashi (Lucy/Nyuu of Elfen Lied and Daedalus of Ergo Proxy), Tomokazu Sugita (Mayama in Honey and Clover) and Takehito Koyasu (Hotohori of Fushigi Yuugi and Touga of Revolutionary Girl Utena), most notably. All the other performances in this show are pretty good, as well.
Length: Perfect. There's no filler whatsoever, and the story moves along at a good pace. The only thing I would want would be an OVA to explain what happens between the end of the last episode and the bit that's shown after the credits, because it just begs for explanation, how things went from the way they were to that, to be vague at risk of spoilers.
Overall: An excellent, epic sci-fi story with an excellent focus on characters, beautiful background music, and good animation and seiyuu.
Another one of my top picks. Watch this. NOW.
Story: 10/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Seiyuu: 9/10
Length: 9/10
Overall: 46/50; 92% (A)
