Final Thoughts - Toward the Terra
I’ve been trying to write up my thoughts on Toward the Terra for at least half a month now, and every time I start writing I hit a block. It’s really hard to describe quite why it’s as good as it is, and this comes after finding the first five or six episodes to be a bit of a chore to sit through.
I think the show turns into “my kind” of space opera. I think that “space opera” isn’t really a very good term for a lot of shows it’s applied to; I think it’s started to become a catch-all term for any show set in the future with lots of interstellar travel. I mean, Wikipedia lists Gankutsuou as being a space opera - a soap opera, maybe, but certainly not what I think of as space opera. I tend to think of things like Star Trek or, to use an anime example, the Seikai series - lots of technobabble, big wars, that kind of thing.
To me, Toward the Terra never turned out like that. For one, it has virtually no technobabble - for another, it is almost totally character-focused. Unlike the complete failure of Heroic Age to develop any of the cast beyond their initial characterisations in the space of 13 episodes, Toward the Terra manages to follow several characters over decades of their lives whilst still remaining believable and developing them successfully. Characters that seem almost like throwaways in the first episode play important roles later on, and Jomy’s progress from intolerable brat to weary leader is particularly impressive.
Sure, it’s hardly the flashiest show in the world (despite the psychic powers all over the place), and it occasionally veers into sensationalism (the main antagonist’s characterisation is a little sketchy at times - the series lead me to expect him to react to certain things in different ways than he did, which was a little odd), but I would urge anyone who’s stuck on the slightly tedious whiny-Jomy episodes at the beginning to power on through to the good stuff; the series gets exponentially better once Keith is introduced in episode 7 or so, and builds to a satisfying conclusion. For what was presumably a slightly rushed replacement for the snore-tastic Ayakashi Ayashi, Toward the Terra turns out magnificently.
November 5th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Not many people have seen this and it’s a shame, since it was my favorite show of 2007. I know the term EPIC gets thrown around a lot, but I think this type of show really portrays that well. They fought for decades for the future of the world.
Keith is an interesting character, but suffered because they took out a lot of what made him interesting in the manga. In the manga, Swena (or whatever her name was) was a basically throw away character and all the questions she asked where actually asked by Keith. So, basically that is why he was doing what he was doing…since he wanted to know why. I think they did redeem him in the end, but still I guess the need for a lead female kind of ruined his character a bit.
Jomy was one of the best characters in term of growth that I have ever seen in anime.
November 5th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Thanks for the info about Keith. That precisely explains why I found Keith a little odd. The Shiroe arc seemed to build him up to question Mother, and indeed Shiroe did make him question his actions at times, but I couldn’t understand why he was still so single-minded about his purpose for so long. If Swena took a lot of that away from him that would explain it (I did, however, really like what the writers did with Swena precisely because I thought she would be a throwaway character and she turned out to be more interesting than that!).
November 8th, 2007 at 5:41 am
Glad you enjoyed this so much. It was a damn fine show, especially through its hard-hitting middle stretch, and certainly one of the better shows of 2007. It’s a pity 2007 is so crowded, or else in a sparse year, Terra e could have easily been among my top few shows.
November 15th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Wow….. after reading this I started watching Toward the Terra again. You’re right- it really started getting good around episode 4.
November 28th, 2007 at 5:25 am
I loved this show. The character development was some of the best I have been exposed to in any anime I’ve seen so far. In as short as one episode, I fell completely or a character that was then killed off. May of the characters on this show bare the same affection.
The plot was good, not great, but the emotional influence it has is much stronger and keeps you wanting to continue watching one episode right after another.
Keith Anyan was a little annoying at times though. I was also confused by his constant self-denial. It was just in his character though to act the way he did and I’m glad the writers didn’t turn him into just another cookie-cutter character.
December 13th, 2007 at 6:45 am
[…] blindsided by this, mainly because of such strong character development and connections, as others have stated. I believe this is partly in lieu of the story layout, which tends to jump time gaps […]