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!]]>
Toward the Terra – 03
Terra e strikes me as a really interesting show–I wish someone would start subbing it! The raws only take me so far. Thanks for the summary and commentary!
About the fansubs: Saizen and Anime-empire just released the first episode. You can find it on tokyo toshokan.
I’m glad people actually read my summaries. My own japanese already is horrible, so I’m glad that people are actually finding them useful. 🙂
May I ask where did you find the raw?
Thanks for your help in advance.
I used the program Share to get it.You need to wait a bit before it’ll turn up on sites like tokyo toshokan, though I do admit that I’m surprised that the raws for Toward the Terra take this long to appear.
Ha, I saw the sub on baka-updates right after I posted my comment ^^;;
I saw all three raw episodes on the Tube. Interesting series so far. I also hope Leo’s okay from that explosion. ;_; Poor Jomie. Seeing his memories of his parents makes me sad too. I guess their memories are erased now?
Looking forward to seeing Jomie grow into a fine MU leader as he was destined to be. (Once he accepts his fate, of course.)
“Bad: The question, of course, remains: will this anime give a reason why Jomie is a Myu?”
I think this episode showed why he’s a Myu… his telepathic and telekenetic powers awakened. Everyone on board the Shangri-la felt his psychic wave and Physis declared it was like a bomb going off.
I wonder what happened to his parents…
Wrex: no, I meant something else. I haven’t picked up how Myu orignally came to be, so it may be something spontaneous, but I wonder what makes certain humans Myu, while others aren’t?
I think they said in the second episode that they don’t really know themselves. It may be just genetic mutation that happened after they left Earth/Terra.
Whoa, not a bad episode. Leo better not die, he was such a nice character… Well, considering how the preview was, do you think Soldier Blue will die in the next episode? What with the “SOLDIER BLUEEEEEE!” and all?
It seems like the animators are getting used to drawing characters in this style…the first episode was pretty awful. I may be alone in this but I watch Terra mostly for the retro style… I just have a thing for 70s shoujo. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside xD And no I’m not old >_>
The preview for ep 4 looks promising. I’m not sure if they’ll kill off Soldier Blue so soon…though I suspect they might do it eventually.
Greenishio: I like the art style myself as well. It’s quite different from usual, but it looks very interesting. And like you said, if the animators keep getting better, we’ll be in for something very interesting. 🙂
;__; Finally someone with POSITIVE comments about Terra E. I’ve been waiting over a decade (I first learned about Terra e back in the 90s) for any available copies of it (the movie was impossible to find by the time I got on the internet) and the anime is making me positively happy! You can also find copies of the manga out in English now. Volume 2 got released not long ago (I have to hunt for it now) and volume 3’s coming out in June.
“Overall, most Japanese are extremely xenophobic, and in some anime it shows. Code Geass, Gigantic Formula are the best examples of this”
Wow, I finally found someone who agrees with me! All these otaku mecha fanboys gush about Geass, and I’m like “Hello, is nobody else extremely disturbed by the fact that the anime is totally nationalist?” But thanks for realizing that.
I don’t watch that much anime, and I shunned this at first b/c of the art style. But it’s like Fan.Children with the retro/odd art style and the very deep, thought-provoking plot. Oh well!
Yeah, shows like Code Geass and Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula are both horrible examples of Japanese Nationalism. I can’t either see why Code Geass is so popular either, as it’s SO giving out a wrong example. That’s why I love anime like these, who address this aspect in a good way, Popolocrois 2003 also does this pretty well.