Customer Reviews

Toward the Terra [VHS]

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TOWARD THE TERRA (aka TO TERRA) was produced in 1981 by Office Academy, the same studio that brought forth the watershed (and never equaled) SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO (aka STAR BLAZERS) films and TV shows so dear to many American hearts. TOWARD THE TERRA presents a staggering view of the unimaginably distant future, wherein humankind has been split into two camps: those ruled by powerful Computers, and those on the outside, the feared and hated "Mu," for MUTANTS. Outsiders, rebels. A peaceful minority seeking a new home, the ancestral homeworld, Terra. Stongly influenced by the classic SF novel SLAN by AE Van Vogt, TOWARD THE TERRA commands cinematic sophistacation and wonderful animation. A must for any sensible collector. And the price is right!

An ambitious full-length feature, Toward the Terra is intelligent, well-animated, and rather boring. Don't misunderstand me - I like cranial anime, but the plot here fails to keep one's attention, and meanders too much to be effective. And I never thought I'd say this about anime, but Toward the Terra is just too long. 112 minutes to tell a story that could have been over in 75. Character development is inadequate, and the extremely shojo (girls' manga) character design is tiresome, and the music is awful - even though I like J-pop. Then again, this could just be 19-year old animation showing its age. On the plus side, the animation is fluid if drab, the revelation of the psychics' purpose is interesting, and TRSI is selling this for $5 now. If you like melodramatic space opera, and especially if you like classic anime, give this a shot, but I personally reccomend Gall Force in that category.