Category: Toward the Terra

It’s strange. Jomie is a brat. And I still like him. I don’t know exactly what it is, but he doesn’t feel as annoying as all those hundreds of other teenage heroes. It’s probably because he actually has a set of responsibilities. As the leader of the Myu, he’s going to be responsible for their safety. I may be mistaken, but this is an element that most of these shows fail to represent well. This episode also gives a bit more insight about the powers of the Myu and Blue himself, when Jomie finds himself able to do the same thing we’ve seen Blue doing for the past few episodes, when he finds another kid with rather large powers. The different soldiers on the ship also still haven’t really accepted him as their leader, since he’s the reason Blue has been in an even worse state than he already was. The kids love him, though. ^^ This episode also shows that he may be a leader, he’s also inexperienced. And he shows this when he tries to save the kid (Shiroi) as well, who is surprisingly similar to his own ten-year old version: large dreams, loves his parents, etc. Jomie, however, fails to see this, and tries to force him to go along with him, when he doesn’t even have a reason to leave his parents anyway. Shiroi then releases a huge wave of energy, so that even Jomie gets pushed back. If he wasn’t so young, you’d think that he’d be the antagonist we’ve been seeing in the OP. There’s also a nice Peter Pan reference, the boy who wouldn’t grow up. It does fit Jomie perfectly, as he too didn’t grow up, and he can fly as well. The people from the military (one being Shiroi’s father), meanwhile have found a way to detect the Myu-ship, after the previous episode, and attack it with a satellite. Because of this, the Myu are forced to leave the planet, even if this means leaving Shiroi behind. I really keep thinking that he’s going to be the antagonist for this series, but he’s just way too young. In any case, this marks the start of Jomie’s journey to guide the Myu to Terra.]]>

Short Synopsis: In order to calm down the rampaging Jomie, Blue shows him memories of his own past. Good: Omg @ those memories. Bad: What was the meaning of that death-card, shown at the beginning of the episode? Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 Holy god, that was good. This time it’s really Toward the Terra’s turn to shine, as this episode was amazing, with as height Blue’s history. I knew that the Myu had a sad past, but I never knew that their past was this extreme. It all started when Blue went rampant, just like Jomie. After that, he got locked up, alongside other Myu. At one point, he couldn’t take it anymore, and blew up the planet, trying to escape along with the other Myu. Physis also seems to be a childhood friend of his, as we see the two together in their younger years. Jomie will no become quite interesting, now that he seems to understand why he’s needed to guide the other Myu to earth. I’m not yet sure whether he has fully accepted this, though I believe the next episode will solve this. I also do wonder, who was the one who couldn’t manage to hold on to that final person who fell off the ship, back in Blue’s memories? I don’t recall I’ve seen the guy, and he seems a bit too old to be the antagonist for this series. The rest of the episode also was quite a treat to see, that battle between the human forces and the Myu ship was really intense, and add that to Blue, nearly collapsing to his death, and the ever-awesome music, and you’ve got yourself a great episode. If this can continue for the rest of the anime, we’re in for something really special. :)]]>

Short Synopsis: Jomie returns to his house, only to find that it’s been emptied. He can’t return to his former home. Good: It’s been a long time since I saw an anime play with its characters’ mind like this. Bad: The question, of course, remains: will this anime give a reason why Jomie is a Myu? Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 In situations where a main character has to join a certain group, or fight in a specific way out of the blue, there are roughly two ways an anime can go: accept, or decline at first, get second thoughts and accept later. The first can either be done well (Bokura no), or bad (insert shounen title X). The second also doesn’t have many options, as there wouldn’t be much of an anime if the main character doesn’t even get involved in the anime. Mai in Mai Hime, for example, first is very reluctant, but then she realizes she has to protect her brother so she fights. Mai in Ghost Hunt complains because she’s been rather forced in helping Naru, but she stays because she’s attracted to Naru. These reasons all look like each other, and Toward the Terra also had to deal with it, and I have to say that it could have gone a lot worse. One thing I dislike about usual anime is how it displays Japanese as the good guys. Overall, most Japanese are extremely xenophobic, and in some anime it shows. Code Geass, Gigantic Formula are the best examples of this, and let’s not forget the countless number of anime situated in some kind of Japanese school. That’s why I love the more international anime (although some samurai stories are also appreciated), and the kind of anime who try to break the stereotypes around xenophobia, as Toward the Terra demonstrated in this episode. At first sight, you can consider Jomie an arrogant brat, but on the other hand, what would you do if people tell you over and over that the Myo are bad, and that there’s nothing good about them. Especially when these very Myu ruin the entire future you had planned for yourself, obviously you’d be mad, and not open to suggestions. This episode really wanted to go into the mind of Jomie. I only noticed this now, but this episode has probably the first time I’ve seen mind games in anime since Ergo Proxy. I quite liked this, to be honest. And if we already get to see scenes like these in the third episode, I really wonder what the rest of this anime will be about. Well, for starters, by looking at the OP, there’s a lot that still has to happen. Jomie’s friends don’t have a detailed character-design for no reason, as it seems that they’ll play some kind of role in the rest of this anime as well. If I had to guess, then they do end up growing up, and get enlisted for the military. There’s also another guy who appears in the OP that we haven’t seen yet, I suspect that he’ll be the major antagonist. Two final things I liked about this episode: Leo and the music. Even though Jomie said horrible things at him, he still supports the guy. And holy god… he’d better not have died at only episode three!]]>

Short Synopsis: Myu are those, gifted with special powers. They’re shunned by society, and Jomi happens to be one of them. Good: Despite his brattiness, I like Jomi. Bad: He does have annoying points, though. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10 For Saturdays, I also planned to blog Shining Tears X Wind, but the second episode just lapsed painfully into clichés and fanservice. I’m not sure if another show is going to take its place, I’ll decide after watching the third episode of the shows with potential. Towards the Terra, on the other hand, is proving to be quite interesting. This was another one of those episodes which served as explaining the current situation. So, with the help of Wrex’s summaries (he doesn’t seem to like the show that much, though), I managed to find out the following. The Myu are a special kind of human being. I’m not yet sure if it just appears on random humans, but the fact remains that Jomi is one of them. His parents looked like perfectly normal people, so I guess this is true. In the current society, the Myu are shunned. Probably out of fear for their powers, and they hide in a large space-ship in the clouds. If I had to guess, then they’re planning to return to earth. The powers of the Myu are quite diverse. Most involve telepathy, though. Leo, for example, can’t talk, and has to use his thoughts to speak to others. Blue can travel through machines and virtual reality at will (or so it seems), and I suspect that Jomi has a power that will greatly work in the advantage of the Myu, we just haven’t seen it yet. The Myu also have really weak bodies, as a fight between Jomi and one of them showed. The guy was out-cold after just one punch. Speaking of Jomi, he spends the entire episode rather causing havoc and yelling at every Myu he meets. While it was annoying, I do admit that it’s better than him agreeing with their plans immediately, after having been taken against his will, with his whole future he had in mind ruined. It’s probably a very natural reaction for him. I did like how Blue attempted to solve the problem of Jomi’s behaviour, as it’ll be very interesting to see Jomi see his parents again. After all, he’s probably got no future whatsoever, and I think that everyone in his former surroundings now knows that the guy is one of the Myu.]]>