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Toward the Terra
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Animation - 7.5 |
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Sound - 6.3 |
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Story - 7.5 |
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Character - 7.0 |
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Value - 6.8 |
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Enjoyment - 7.0 |
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Average - 7.1 |
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| Average |
5.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| Toward the Terra, with its 25-year vintage, will probably strike most people as campy and affected at first. It starts with a rather difficult prologue: the viewer is treated to some extremely dense plot exposition delivered by two characters we learn nothing about, and then immediately thrust into a futuristic Earth. Our guide for this portion of the anime, Jomy Marcus Shin, is unbelievably annoying. I seriously couldn't believe that this movie was feeding me a character as revolting as him. I wished upon Jomy a slow and painful death. Accompanying this excruciating character was what seemed to be a rather ordinary plot about a young boy in a hyper-modern school setting.
Toward the Terra, however, quickly absolves all these disadvantages. We learn of a rather sinister process called the Waking Day, where all children at the age of 14 are subjected to a test in order to prove whether or not they are ready to advance to adulthood. Those who fail are labeled Mu, mutants of humanity, and immediately killed. Those who pass are washed of their memories, conscripted into the army for some random amount of time and then God only knows what happens. By the way, the society is controlled by a computer that keeps all of their minds in check so as not to "endanger Earth". Jomy of course fails his test, is seen as a Mu and only manages to escape to the Mu planet with some freakish deus ex machina. Upon arrival he whines some more about his newfound responsibilities as the next leader of the Mu. The previous leader grows sick of his bitching and transplants his mind into Jomy's, ridding us of the annoying brat once and for all.
See, the Mu want to go back to their previous home, Earth (referred to also as Terra). Of course humans have seized this from them because they're greedy bastards, so the Mu are trying to...well, I really don't know what they're trying to do. It's never clear: they obviously want their native planet back, but they constantly bill themselves as "peace-loving" and "violence free". So how are you going to get it back? Friendly talking doesn't seem to work because the humans nuke your ass any time you try to get close to them. Ah, alas. Weak plot thread ahoy.
Here's what bugs me, though. All throughout the movie, the narrative constantly stresses to us how evil this brain-sucking computer is, and how much we must retain our memories and mental freedom and happiness. Then how the hell does Toward the Terra justify Soldier Blue, leader of the Mu, taking over the mind of innocent Jomy and using him as an expedient for the Mu's goals? Freedom of the mind my ass.
The movie's sheer plottiness never ends. So much happens in Toward the Terra that it grows a little overwhelming; this anime is incredibly fast-paced. There's barely any time to pontificate, reflect on the characters or what just happened, or even to slow down and develop things a little. This anime adapts the 80s mindset that something must be happening on screen at all times or the viewer will get bored. And trust me, you'll never get too bored
while watching Toward the Terra. Murder, dogfights, explosions up the wazoo, psychic coat smotherings, spontaneous combustion, cafeteria brawls, at least two cataclysmic planetary disasters (both of which are actually really depressing what with all the grand-scale death), and THE best pick-up line in anime history. No, seriously. To say any more would spoil it, but let it be known that Jomy's got all the right moves.
Toward the Terra's unexpected strength is that it can become very depressing on short notice. I should have expected as much from the author of the Song of Wind and Trees manga, but there are some really trying subplots and story events to be seen. This movie does "mass destruction" very well, believe me. Unfortunately, everything else is basically par for the course. The story occasionally becomes jumbled, with some things happening for no discernible reason to characters we don't really care much about. This alternates between action pulp and thoughtful sci-fi just enough to make it special.
Pound for pound, Toward the Terra is certainly worth two hours. It isn't outright amazing, but it's different, that's for sure. Part introspective social commentary and part laserriffic space war romp, this movie is sure to entertain just about any crowd. I just wish I had interplanetary futuristic pimp skillz like Jomy does.
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| Average |
4.3 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
4 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
3 |
| Started off like Logan’s Run, or any other movies that focuses on a future totalitarian regime, criminalising questioning of certain nature, controlling its citizens completely.
What then resulted was similar to X-men, the outcasts of humanity battles with the pure humans for Earth (Terra). As you might have guessed, this has been seen on screen in many different forms. Given that Towards the Terra is actually a very early version of it, you have to give it some credit for it. Although looking back at it now, it’s not much of an entertainment.
Apart from the what now seems blend voice acting and animation, there’s most importantly the blend story. There was not really much motivation for the audience to really engage themselves in what’s going on, or formulate what will happen next. I felt my brain was acting lazy whilst watching the film.
Given the length, it doesn’t really help either, almost 2 hours long. Should you put yourself through the 2 hours? I’m not sure you should, apart from the great ending theme, there’s not much of interest here. Don’t get fooled by any artwork of the movie, since they all seem very tempting, but the real quality lacks behind by quite a margin.
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|
|
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| Average |
9.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| I love this story to death. When I think classic anime I think of this. The only thing is that I wish there were more to it.
The animation is old, aside from that it's good. I love the music to it. The story is one of the best and the characters are all so good.
Definitely if you haven't seen it you should.
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|
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Now, this anime is good, the only problem is that i really cant comment on the sound since i saw it in swedish, but even so it was very good and i have a feeling you will get alot of fun out of it.
It has a good story, good animation, appealing characters and definetly worth a watch.
That is all I'm going to say, since that is the only thing needed really, so if you find it on the rental shelves, give it a try.
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