Toward the Terra
Entry updated 15 December 2025. Tagged: TV.
Japanese animated tv series (2007); original title Chikyū e ... ["To Terra"]. Based on the Manga by Keiko Takemiya. Produced by Minamimachi Bugyōsho and Tokyo Kids. Directed by Osamu Yamazaki. Voice cast includes Mitsuki Saiga and Takehito Koyasu. 24 25-minute episodes. Colour
This Space Opera series covers several decades of events, jumping back and forth multiple times. The setting is the Far Future, where Earth has been abandoned due to the near-collapse of its environment (see Ecology). The human diaspora is ruled by a Dystopian Galactic Empire of the Superior Domination system, an authoritarian order governed by an AI known as "Grand Mother". Children are engineered in vitro and raised by foster parents to ensure stability, then at age 14 have their memories wiped (see Memory Edit) to enforce conformity. Meanwhile, an evolved minority of psychic humans called the Mu has emerged, only to be persecuted and hunted to near-extinction as a threat to the regime (see Eugenics; Pariah Elite; Posthuman; Psi Powers). The young protagonist, Jomy Marcus Shin (Saiga), grows up unaware of his latent Telepathic abilities until his adulthood examination triggers them, revealing him as Mu and forcing him to flee for his life.
Jomy is rescued by a band of Mu survivors and brought to their hidden Starship, where he learns about the Mu resistance, whose goal is to locate and rescue as many Mu children as possible before they are discovered and eliminated by the system. Struggling with shock and denial, he initially rejects the idea of being one of the Mu, but under the mentorship of Soldier Blue – the wise, dying leader of the Mu – Jomy gradually accepts his new identity, eventually maturing from a frightened boy into a resolute champion of his people, eventually succeeding Blue as their leader ("Soldier Shin") and vowing to guide the Mu back to their rumoured homeworld, Terra (Earth).
Midway through the saga, the perspective shifts to Keith Anyan (Koyasu), a top student groomed by the Superior Domination system. A prodigy of cool intellect and single-minded purpose, viewed by his peers as emotionless (one even calls him an "android"), Keith rises swiftly through the ranks to become the youngest commander of humanity's central forces, tasked with eliminating the Mu. His storyline eventually converges with Jomy's as war erupts between the Mu and the humans, bringing their clashing ideals into direct conflict.
The two men embody opposing philosophies: Jomy fights for freedom, empathy, and the evolution of humanity's potential, while Keith adheres to Grand Mother's ethos of order and rationalism at any cost. The series repeatedly contrasts the rationalism of the AI-run society with the emotional, chaotic vitality of the Mu. It poses a central ethical quandary: is humanity's essence found in its messy free will and diversity, even at the risk of repeating past mistakes, or in the suppression of those qualities to achieve a perfectly managed existence? Takemiya obviously sides with the Mu, prioritizing traditional freedoms and decentralized human (or post-human) autonomy over technocratic, centralized directives. In the final confrontation, witnessing the Mu's humanity leads Keith to waver; he ultimately turns against Grand Mother's totalitarian government. Both Jomy and Keith are mortally wounded in the ensuing final war. The final time skip ends on an uplifting note: Earth is repopulated, with humans and Mu living side by side, and the main characters are implied to have been Reincarnated.
The premise strongly echoes A E van Vogt's novel Slan (September-December 1940 Astounding; 1946; rev 1951) in its portrayal of telepathic mutants hunted by normal humans (indeed, Jomy's name nods to Slan's hero Jommy). Like Slan – and like Marvel Comics' X-Men (1963-current), to which Toward the Terra has also been compared – it asks whether a distrusted homo superior can coexist with baseline humanity. The series twists this trope by making the Mu both powerful and vulnerable, as their psi powers come at the cost of physical weakness and emotional sensitivity. The show's mix of space-opera action and AI-themed existential stakes has also drawn comparisons to Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979).
The story was initially published as a 5 volume manga (January 1977-May 1980 Manga Shōnen; trans Dawn Laabs as To Terra graph 2007 3vols). The manga, targeting the shojo demographic (teenage girls), won the very first Seiun Award for manga in 1978 and subsequently, in 1979, also won the Shogakukan Manga Award. A radio drama was released in 1979. An earlier Anime film adaptation was released in 1980, directed by Hideo Onchi (released in English in 1994). All versions except the English 2007 manga release have identical titles in Japanese and English. There are minor plot divergences between them. The movie severely condensed the narrative while also adding extra battle scenes and romantic subplots. A short two-volume spin-off manga Terra e... ~Keith of the Blue Light~ about Keith's youth was published in 2007-2008.
Though it aired in a prominent timeslot, Toward the Terra did not achieve broad commercial success. It was, however, warmly received by critics and fans. It can be seen as a modern classic of post-2000s space-themed Anime, and a sincere revival of old-school Space Opera sensibilities, without the irony or genre deconstruction common in early twenty-first-century sf media. The anime has an ambitious narrative scope (spanning generations and multiple viewpoints) and the emotional intensity with which it explores themes of Evolution, Memory, and Identity – framing an ultimate choice between human empathy and authoritarian control – that remains compelling to this day. The anime can be seen as both a tribute to and a revival of the "great wave" of 1970s Japanese sf manga/anime: Takemiya was part of the Year 24 Group of female creators who revolutionized manga (in particular, shojo manga) with sf themes, and the anime adaptation of her award-winning manga demonstrates that even decades-old stories can find new life and relevance when animated with creativity and conviction. [PKo]
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