So, I had gone to the Anime Store intending to buy Gurren Lagann. But it was sold out, so instead of going home with a series of manliness, exhibiting Giant Robot drills, I instead found myself with the anime adaptation of a 70’s Shoujo series by Keiko Takemiya. Keiko Takemiya is somewhat of an Mangaka from what I’ve seen. I don’t think I’ve read anything by her which didn’t involve Boy Love, incest or worse. The last thing I saw from her, unfortunately, was the OAV Kaze to Ki no Uta, which involves the most disturbing rape scene EVER!
Oh damn, I’m off topic again, where was I? Oh yeah pretty boys in space. Toward the Terra is a pretty straightforward remake of the original manga. The story is as follows. The earth , or terra, has become polluted and human life is no longer sustainable. Humanity has left for the stars and is ruled by a supercomputer called Mother. There are rebellions towards the supercomputer, mainly a group of physics who have been persecuted by humans. By today’s standards this is the kind of Sci-Fi we’ve seen done before, so the real question is – is it done well?
This anime is a fairly straightforward adaptation of the manga. But basing a 26 episode series of a three volume manga demands some that some things must be stretched out. In these 8 episodes I watched there were some liberties taken. New characters have been added, relationships have been fleshed out and some new events have been added. Compared to the earlier anime adaptation this version is far less rushed .If I had to criticise it, at points it does feel kinda slow, which makes me all the more glad Bandai is releasing this series in 8 episode sets. The animation also drops in quality considerably around episode 6 with some very jerky movements and off model shots.
To Terra is often accused of being Shounen-Ai. This isn’t exactly right. For the most part To Terra is straightforward Science Fiction. It’s easy to forgive people for thinking this, though. Keiko Takemiya is one of the pioneers of the BL genre and the implications are obviously there. Along with the pretty boy character designs, the BL implications are probably one of the main reasons this series is as popular as it is. But if you’re willing to look deeper this is a Sci-Fi series with some great drama and character designs. No it’s not manly, and it might be little slow for some, but if your looking for some hard sci-fi, this may be for you.
Whew, can’t wait to see how tissuekins reacts to this.
