Product Details

• Format: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Bandai
• DVD Release Date: December 1, 2009
• Run Time: 600 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002KLALBU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,985 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

TOWARD THE TERRA PART 1 - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mutants in Space, April 26, 2010

By 

Kellyannl (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toward the Terra: Anime Legends (DVD)

Toward the Terra is a space opera capable of netting a much broader audience than it sadly seems to have so far - a shounen series with a shoujo sensibility, with a tearjerk factor that almost gives Les Miserables a run for it's money, a political tone not unlike Orwell's 1984, and with it's anti-mutant hysteria a perfect entrance to anime for fans of the X-Men franchise.

Jomy Shin is a young man completing his childhood in a world where children are taken from their parents at birth and fostered out so as not to form family ties, the process further enforced at adulthood by a memory wipe courtesy of the Big-Brother like supercomputer "Grandmother" so that the brain can focus on one's career to better serve the system. This, Jomy knows. What he doesn't know is that he is a Mu - a member of a group of humans with telekenetic powers and an abnormally long lifespan who are killed upon detection. The statistics are grim: in the entire course of the series only one Mu is revealed to have avoided detection past the critical adulthood examination.

Fortunately for Jomy, he is rescued by the Mu leader, who goes by the rather cheesy name of Soldier Blue. The cheesiness ends with Blue's name, however, as he goes into a coma having reached his limit after asking Jomy - who in spite of his inexperience is the most powerful Mu in existence - to be his successor. Thus Jomy begins his long decades of trying to tie together three generations of Mu as they travel by spaceship trying to carve a life out for themselves: the original genocide witnesses who want to covertly continue Blue's judicious returns for rescue missions, the second generation who just want to avoid persecution, and eventually a third generation who don't understand why they can't just wipe humanity out with their superior capabilities so that they don't have to live in fear anymore. Meanwhile, "Grandmother" has a young man named Keith Anyan, who is roughly Jomy's contemporary, groomed to lead the "final solution" to the Mu "problem"...

Both sides have some valid points. With the Mu capable of killing - not only in malice but more tragically by accident when in extreme pain or mental anguish - humans are right to be afraid to some extent. The Mu's occasional desire to lash out is equally understandable, as the series holds no punches regarding showing the holocaust they have to live with. It is Jomy, who grew up with loving foster parents, who spearheads the vision that things don't have to be this way. But he will need both humans and his own people to meet him halfway.

As for weaknesses, the manga upon which it was based ran from 1977-80, and the art style may not appeal to those partial to the art of the 00s. Those who are only willing to watch dubs should be aware that the packaging is incorrect and this set is only subbed. A brief epilogue may be a bit too cloying for some viewers and not sit well considering what had come before.

In spite of those nitpicks, this is ultimately a very strong series about the best and worst in people with some heartwrenching individual scenes and a grand overarching theme which deserves to be watched when you have time to let it's impact sink in.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly an anime classic!, November 22, 2010

By 

Redcrest (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toward the Terra: Anime Legends (DVD)

This beautifully animated 2007 adaptation of Keiko Takemiya's revered 1979 manga "To Terra..." really does the original work justice. It keeps the original beauty and flavor of Takemiya's classical shoujo manga character designs but updates it (along with spiffy fight scenes and mechanical animation by Production I.G., the studio who brought us Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Moribito) to appeal to a modern-day audience, and follows the complex, powerful original story much closer than the 1980's film adaptation.

The series follows the separate but interwoven life stories of two young men whose lives will span the length of the universe and change the very destiny of humankind for good. One of these two is our hero, a 14-year-old boy named Jomy Marquis Shin, who lives in an utopian/dystopian society on an earth-like planet far in the distant future, when humans have been forced to abandon earth (called "Terra" here) after it becomes too polluted and toxic to sustain life. To prevent humans from indulging their greed and repeating their mistakes, a computer AI-run system called the Superior Domination System, has been tasked with ruling human society, and has set down laws that will prevent humans from straying from the machine-like sentiments of SD System's rule.

All children are conceived and genetically perfected in labs, then given to married couples to raise until the child turns 14, at which time they are put through an "adult examination" that (unbeknownst to society) erases/dulls the child's memories of his parents in order to make him easier to mold into the sort of perfect soldier/cog-in-the-wheel who will blindly serve the SD System. There is no more perfect a model human than Keith Anyan (our other main character, whom we are introduced to on disc 2), a young, unemotional genius of a boy who serves the system devotedly. As you can probably guess, Keith (despite starting out rather sympathetically) will become the powerful opposing destiny who will stand against Jomy and try to destroy all he holds dear, for the sake of his own belief system.

But back to Jomy--on the eve of his adult exam, he dreams of a mysterious blind woman and a silver-haired warrior named Soldier Blue who mentions that his time grows short and his search to find the successor who can lead his people to Terra and to freedom is becoming desperate. Physis (the blind prophetess) responds that she senses a great new power will soon come to them and Jomy suddenly "hears" Soldier Blue calling out to him psychically--he is his chosen one. Waking in a cold sweat, Jomy attends his last day of children's school, causes a last bit of mischief for his beleaguered teacher, bids his dear friends Sam and Suena good-bye, then heads home. There, he is accosted by mysterious government agents who claim they have detected dangerous psychic anomalies in Jomy and must put him through a painful psychic test to ensure he is not, in fact, a "Mu"--a mutant race of humans who are born with or develop immense psychic powers. Unbeknownst to Jomy and the majority of the public, any child who tests out as a Mu during the adult exam is quietly taken away for immediate extermination.

Luckily, Jomy passes the test and is returned to his parents for their final night together. (Random side note: the realism and quiet heartbreak in this scene between Jomy and his mother, as they talk about Jomy's impending "leaving of the nest" the following day, feels so emotionally authentic it actually moved me to tears despite how short a time I'd known Jomy and his parents at that point. That's one of the unique things about Toward the Terra I really liked--there's a very strong sense of familial bonds and community within it, especially amidst the Mu. Soldier Blue, and later, Jomy, his successor, really occupies an almost paternal/maternal place amongst them and are regarded with true affection as well as respect and reverence, rather than simply being the top of a chain of command the way it is for the machine-ruled humans. This really highlights the difference between the Mu and humanity with its cold, impersonal, tightly controlled society, and further helps us understand why Jomy would go so far to fight for his people as he does.)

Anyway, to wrap up this long introduction, Jomy may have eluded detection once, but he is not so lucky a second time at the adult exam. Luckily, Soldier Blue appears just in time to save Jomy and sweep him off on the adventure of his life--one that will take him far from the only home and life he has ever known, to become the savior of a desperate, persecuted race and the trailblazer whose voyage across the stars in search of the elusive blue planet eventually restores both the Mu and humankind to their true mother, Terra.

Last word: This series honestly has one of the greatest anime endings I've ever seen--one that not only delivers the epic battles and world-changing revolutions one expects to see in final episode, but also the kind of deeply moving and emotionally satisfying (though also heartbreaking) character resolution that is a rare treat to find. If you loved and were moved by the story of Code Geass, Toward the Terra is a series you absolutely must see.

SUPERB acting by a very strong cast (there's no dub, but believe me, you WANT to hear these amazing performances in the Japanese), beautiful animation, a few really standout/memorable pieces of music, and a universe-spanning story that will linger long after the last, memorable image fades from the screen. Give this show a proper watch--HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

2 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Japanese audio only, December 9, 2009

By 

Brian H. Ramsey "kitsinu" (Port Hueneme, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toward the Terra: Anime Legends (DVD)

The box for this claims Japanese and English Stereo audio. The actual disks have only a Japanese audio track with English subtitles.

I purchased this locally instead of through Amazon, and plan to return it unwatched. I do watch Japanese audio anime with subtitles, but not when they make such a major mistake in packaging.