Toward The Terra

It has been a while since the last timer I write about anime review here. It also has been a while since the last time I have a favorite anime.

The story of Toward The Terra (Terra-e/Terra-he) takes place at human colonies at extrasolar planetary systems on the time the Earth has been abandoned for a few hundred years due to over-pollution which has resulted severe ecological and environmental damages on the planet.

Since the establishment of those colonies, human life has been controlled by an advanced super computer system that manages and administrates every aspect of human life, as if they are mentally enslaved by it unknowingly. During this time, human has evolved and give birth to the Mu people who are gifted with extraordinary features and psionic power.

The anime character design is a great blend between retro and present day style. The retro feature is quite noticeable on the character’s eye and hairstyle. We can see the uniquely rounded big eyes and full-big hair which is derived from the retro style.

Somehow, it is relatively hard to believe that this serious-plotted anime is adapted from the 70’s idea (from the same title manga series of the 70’s). The death of some important characters shows how heavy the storyline is.

One of the main characters that catch my eyes is the blind yet beautiful Lady Physis. She has the ability to see the 'real' future using tarot cards. Her ability may have been given by Soldier Blue, which means she might be just a normal human. However throughout the story she appears to possess Mu characteristics such as having longer lasting youth (slow aging process) and in the hostage situation she uses psionic shield to nullify Soldier Blue’s psionic attack to protect Keith Anyan. Her blindness may also the sign that she is a Mu because physical impairments are norm on Mu, as if it is some form of ‘compensation’ for their psionic abilities. Usually, the worse impairment they have the stronger psionic power they possess, although this is not necessarily true especially with the case of Jomy Marcus Shin (Soldier Shin) and the Mu babies like Tony who was born from Mu parents. However all Mu seems to have physical abnormalities such as extraordinary fast growth rate and longer lifetime that makes them really distinguishable from normal human. This becomes more significant on Mu descendants.

One distinctive trait of Mu is each person has different growth and aging pace which some even spans up to several hundred years. This can be seen where some Mu who were born at different time appear to be of the same age or in other cases, some Mu appear younger than those who were born later than them. Truth to be told, Soldier Blue himself is more than 200 year old. Of all Mu, Type Blue Mu is considered as the strongest Mu, categorized after the Mu’s first leader, Soldier Blue.

Throughout the story, other than his (late) parents, Jomy seems to be the only person Tony have respect on. Tony addresses Jomy as ‘Grandpa’ despite they look not so different in age, although in reality Jomy is roughly fit the title, considering how much older he is than Tony.

Romance also do present significantly in this anime albeit not really emphasized. This is to retain the plot focus on the struggle of the Mu to seek peaceful life. The real enemy of the Mu is not the human but the ultimate super computer system, The Grandmother which was originally designed for birth control through the implementation of the SD program (by replacing the ‘normal’ way of human reproduction). However, over time, the system has evolved ‘smarter’ to control humanity to the extent that it is able to erase human memories. It is assisted by other subordinate super computers like Mother Eliza and Terraz No. 5.

Jomy who is the successor of Soldier Blue’s leadership is now holding the responsibilities to guide all Mu back to the birthplace of humanity, Earth (Terra), in hope that they would live in peace there. However it is not an easy task for they are constantly being pursued by an ‘innocent’ villain, Keith Anyan.

Image credits to Anime News Network