Terra Formars

Terra Formars is your typical apocalyptic kind of manga.There is a constant sense of danger,death and despair in this manga however to achieve this character development is often sacrificed.While i don't like the ever present killing of characters that didn't have sufficient time to develop i however still enjoy reading this mostly because of the detail it always goes into about the different types of animal powers the characters possess and the amazing detailed art which is often gory.Don't expect an amazing story or complex characters because you wont find them here but do expect to be entertained.

Story:7 If you know what the definition of terra forming is then you can probably guess what terra formars is about.The story of terra formars goes like this,500 years ago humans sent cockroaches and mold to mars in an attempt to warm up the planet basically terra form it into a planet that's warm enough for humans to live in.And what happens next you ask well lets just say it didn't go exactly as planned,evolution is a bitch.They indeed achieved their objective of terra forming the planet but they also got unwanted inhabitants.The cockroaches they sent to mars evolved and are now intelligent proving to be be quite an adversary to mankind.

Art:9 The art in this manga is probably the best thing about it.The art is so detailed when people are being killed.Yea its that kind of manga if you don't like gore don't read this.

Characters:7 The characters are good but kinda weak.The author tends to only give massive development to characters when or before they dies.Their backstories are laid out along with what the power they gained from animals allow them to do.None of the characters on the mission to mars had a good life.Most of them went on the mission for the money so they can start new lives.I honestly don't really care for a lot of the characters that much expect for those we follow the most throughout the story.What i do like a lot are the cockroaches ,yea they are disgusting creatures but their level of intellect and ingenuity is shocking.These guys just never stop evolving.

Enjoyment:8 Despite its flaws i still enjoy reading this.I mostly enjoy the details that are given about the insects the characters use.I learned a lot about insects that i didn't know before.Did you know there is an animal that inhabits the japanese archipelago called the planaria that if cut in half will become two because of its regenerative abilities?You may have or may not know this but this is just one of the many things i learned about because of this manga.

Overall:8 While not having the best story or characters terra formars still piques my interest because of the detail of its art and the powers used by the characters.This is a pretty enjoyable series just don't think too hard about it.If you want a manga with apocalyptic setting and interesting powers then you should check this out.

omg this manga. this manga is just... wow... talk about despair-inducing.

in a nutshell, the manga is about human-sized cockroaches who were sent to live on mars so that humans could colonize it in 500 years but the humans definitely didn't plan for them to be human-sized and... evolve to be intelligent as well. so, if you dislike cockroaches, insects, bugs, anything like that in general -- AND THE GORE -- well, i recommend that you should not read the manga because lord, there's so many references to bugs.

the suspense is so great and i love how the art is so action-oriented -- it just keeps you reading and reading, and there's never a moment to stop for a rest (except in flashbacks) so it really highlights the action drama of this manga. since i'm reading just four volumes (about thirty-six chapters out so far), i really want the manga to delve more deeply into the story rather than just action.

there IS some story, mainly characterization and the secret behind the project. there are definitely women in this manga, which is great, but also not so great because they're usually the ones to be killed first (save for a few). however, there's not much character development that extend beyond just a few chapters because (almost) EVERYONE DIES. it's a type of human survival manga, except it's in an environment that is not the earth.

art is pretty good, extremely macho if i do say myself (maybe it's inspired by rob liefeld's artworks?) and the drawings of the cockroaches are very uniform yet unique, at least distinguished from the humans. character design is done really well.

tbqh i just want this manga to reveal the answers to the mysteries and to maybe slow down with a respite from the violence that's going on and I WANT EVERYONE TO HAVE HAPPY ENDINGS (except cockroaches) but most of all i just want this manga to go at least /somewhere/ that's not just fighting.

This manga is one of the worst I have ever read.

Ok, let's start with characters. You get detailed information and background stories to every f*cking single one. The story is usually the same. Some drama in their childhood and some pathos about being a 'survivor'. They're all terribly generic.

In all instances, that backstory is told during a action-packed fight in a misplaced flashback which is in no way necessary for the plot or the action happening. There are a bunch of characters who LITERALLY have less screen time than their back story. They appear for the first time, life for like 5 minutes before behind violently torn apart, but between those 8 pages on which they actually do something, there'll be 14 pages telling your their life's story. After they are then FINALLY dead, you are expected to remember their names for the rest of whole frickin manga.

Which brings us to art. In addition to having no depth, no development, no 'character', a great many of the characters look alike. The author draws like 5 hairstyles for men and 3 for women. The cast of characters is somewhere around 50 btw.
Apart from that, the characters are drawn anatomically correct, which is nice. The landscape is really boring (mars, duh).

The story. The story is mostly non-existent. It serves as a stage to showcase the different powers of all the characters, which is usually done by the narrator and much like typically shonen style. "Beaten to a pulp - but hey wait my insect has an even crazier superpower so haha, jokes on you!".
That would be somewhat interesting, if the ratio of narrating and actual dialogue wasn't like 9:1. SERIOUSLY! If anything is said in dialogue, it WILL EVEN BE REPEATED BY THE NARRATOR. It makes me wanna kill myself!

And those powers. In one hand, the narrator explains painfully dry and technical how all those powers work, everything in this manga is based on biology or science or evolution - EXCEPT ITS NOT.
It's so incredibly stupid. After leaving some cockroaches alone for 500 years they're black humans. They also have a magical organ which can morph you into a giant hornet.
But all that stuff doesn't really matter. Because if anyone would actually give a sh't about the plausibility of the story.. well, after three testruns, they already accomplished immortality, mass-murder-capabilities, and cloning. Which essentially renders the whole operation obsolete. But no, send them to fricking mars against 200 million cockroaches with a single frickin ship which has no weapons, even though you have dozens of warships with crazy lasers and shit which.. well, you send there one week later after everything went to shit.

So this is my first ever review for MAL, so boundless error's are probably going to appear. But without further a due lets get dug in. My first major issue is the review's and there dates, the 4 highest rated are around 2 years ago and not a single one has been updated. These continue to be some of the more popular opinions and I feel that isn't right, but lets get onto the main topic the review of Terra formars, first off the Story.

The story of Terra formars at the beginning was weak, it lacked any real depth and actual knowledge of what was going on in the universe as a whole and was just confusing to me. But as everything started revealing itself such as tensions between nations, back stories of characters and as well those effected by the mission in itself not just on mars but back on earth. It really can catch you on the edge of your seat and while I won't discuss any particular arc or event, the sacrifices that our made seem out of desperate human emotion and it really drives the story to be just as good.

Now onto the Artwork, particularly not one of the greatest feats of Terra formars espically during the Chinese arc (from my memory) and it can be hard to understand what is actually happening, but these where very rare and I had to dock at least 1 point for it, except for that it has some great artistic direction. Recent chapters that have subtitled have looked great, and some of favourite pages are from Terra formars such as Adolf's character design. His broken, shattered and re-modified body look's on point for him.

(For the sake of this section it's again a general look at the characters and not an in-depth look at each one, otherwise you will be sitting here for days)

Let's have a look at the characters and there powers that accompany them. So personally for me I can't find a character that I hate. Even though there might a be few that are on the mediocre line the main cast have proven themselves to be some of my most favourite characters. Although they have the stereotypical Russian names and some have some very Japanese "Foreigners = Blonde's" it still doesn't make me really care, there interactions are really cut and clean and there personalities drive the series to be even better.

Additionally a few more point's

The characters powers, one of the coolest aspects of this series as a whole and gives it that amazing SCI-FI element to me and I have had a number of discussions with friend's on what creature they would want. (Pistol shrimp) Some people question the reality of it all and I tend to disregard it. People who usually tend to question it won't like the series just out right either because questioning everything is in there nature or having to nit pick till it's the size of a black hole. These people won't enjoy the series and there people like that out there.

Secondly on this never ending review has to be a short review of Johj. There one of the coolest villain's, filled with absolute mystery and leaves the reader in suspense every time a new Johj approaches. For example in the latest chapter of 146 it was amazing, "a new challenger appeared" and just leaves destruction in his path, an immense and an awesome character.

Lastly, sexism and xenophobia by the author, fuck off.

Except for that thanks to the following subbers;

Pearse Hillock
Imperial Subs

You guys keep the dream alive.

"I bury those cock-a-roaches"- Tony Montana

Terra Formars is a halfway decent Gantz knockoff that is interlaced with Japanese nationalism and general xenophobia as rabid as it is unsubtle, pushed to such a ridiculous extent that it's not even offensive anymore. Okay, it can get a bit offensive. Most of the time it's just eye-roll-worthy though. I won't even get into it...

The concept of Terra Formars is that cockroaches were used in the terraformation of Mars (bad-title origin hint) and within five hundred years they have evolved into savage and violent black humanoids who wear no clothes and use primitive weapons like some kind of African tribesmen. They sometimes are referred to as "those black shitstains," and they have nappy hair plus exaggeratedly broad facial features, but hey guys, hey, no racial. Squads of good bug people are sent to exterminate these filthy bad bug people once and for all. What's that? You think this premise sounds like that of a comedy? Mayhaps that of an old "so bad it's good" campy sci fi horror flick? Preposterous. Terra Formars is serious business, guys. Real serious. Or at the very least, it completely ignores the fact that it is fundamentally absurd in its scientific inaccuracy and physical impossibilities, squandering any potential it ever had along the way, and it then uselessly attempts to force the audience to take it seriously anyways. The plot would be better if the author didn't try to explain anything scientifically, but he unfortunately seems to be under the delusion that he is an intelligent and distinguished evolutionary biologist, or at least that he has the first clue what he is talking about. Just in case you were wondering, he actually does not have a single clue what he is talking about. A simple "just because" or "aliens" explanation like in Gantz would have served the plot far better.

The characters are all cliché and none of them are significant in the slightest. Terra Formars attempts to create tension by killing the vast majority of the characters off, but this tactic is rendered entirely ineffective when the audience simply does not have any reason to give a flying fuck about those characters in the first place. The dynamics between these characters are consistently recycled and this, among other things having to do with the manga's general lack of variety, makes Terra Formars feel incredibly repetitive, a problem that its oft proclaimed spiritual predecessor, Gantz, only came close to suffering from in the very end, and that was for far more forgivable reasons.

The artwork is laughable, in a literal sense. Character designs are repetitive along with being anatomically inaccurate; female characters are only there to provide poorly drawn fanservice and ryona. That said, the real issue with the art is the cockroaches, the "scary" antagonists. The facts that the antagonists are all identical and all possess the same recycled faces and expressions could be partially overlooked were they not so ridiculous in appearance. I have a large album of pictures of them saved on my computer, because they are just that hilarious. This manga would be far superior in quality and infinitely enjoyable was it a slice of life about the cockroach people forming a club at school, drinking tea, running in the street with toast in their mouth, and perhaps even engaging in a steamy and moderately comedic romance with the cutest misunderstood bad boy in school. That concept would properly play to the, admitted few, strengths of the artwork, which clearly do not include terrifying imagery or fluid action. Unfortunately, we instead get stuck with a half-assed plot and pointless fanservice.

This manga is filled with psuedo-depth and characters (plus the irritating word of god narrator who also spiels on about nets and insects and pretentiously quotes barely-relevant scripture) who muse, redundantly and at great length, about the fascinating (except not actually) relationship between cockroaches and humans. You see guys, it is simply so genius and profound that you probably completely missed the complexity and intricacies of it; the roles of the two species have been reversed. We used to kill them just because, and now they kill us......just because!!!! Dun dun dun. Right? Get it? Got it? If this concept is too difficult for you to understand then, don't worry your pretty little head over it, the cast of flat and often identical characters will spell it out for you over and over again, in the same exact way every single time, of course. Sound deep? Sound interesting? Insightful, perhaps? No? Good, because it actually isn't.

Gantz may have had a bad ending, and you might want more, but, for the love of god almighty, do not be tricked for one moment into thinking that Terra Formars ever comes anywhere close to being as good as Gantz was in its prime. It lacks the self-awareness, quality art, satirical nature, characterization, immediate general appeal, pervasive camp, creativity, variety, and sense of humor that made Gantz good. All of that being said, even if the humorous nature of the manga was completely unintentional, and the antagonists were lame, they did offer a bit of entertainment. Terra Formars does have something about it that moderately entertained me and kept me reading despite, or maybe even because of, it being extraordinarily bad in an objective sense; just for that, I will go ahead and slap on two extra points like the generous and forgiving critic that I am. I give this manga four offensive racial underto- points, I meant to say points, out of ten. Read chapter one of Death Face if you want a more enjoyable, touching, and profound story about cockroaches.

Additional comments:
Germans do not name their kids "Adolf" anymore. Just saying. I have a distinct feeling that “Nazis” is all the author knows of Germany and “Communists” is all they know of Russia.

Also, I have a hard time believing that geopolitical relations have barely changed over the course of five hundred years. The battle between Capitalism and Communism in real life progressed more in a decade than it did in five hundred years in this manga. In fact, nothing about the atmosphere of the series is futuristic in the slightest; that kind of advancement in time will have massive changes in culture, not just technology. The “futuristic” technology does not go much past space travel and gene splicing either. This all shows a huge lack of imagination, depth, and vision.

Additionally, the mere assumption that an insect's strength and abilities in proportion to its size would be retained were they scaled up to humanoid dimensions ranks among the dumbest things I've ever heard. A bit smarter than "people die if they are killed" and "I will be hokage ninja master believe it," and yet a little bit dumber than "fun things are fun."

a story of evolved roach. (and a wasted moss)

Story -6/10
The story is, ahh... how i must put it. it's not that bad, but it's not good either, why? i mean, how can, a roach evolve in only 500 years? and also, why the politics situation still the same after 500 years? that's illogical, isn't it? for me, the story is what terra formars lack of. (and, did you know? that the moss doesn't make any affect in the story? )

Art -9/10
The art, is really good, the detail when someone torn apart by a roach, is really detailed.

Character -7/10
Nah, Character is also what terra formars lack of. There are so many character that only make a short appearance in the manga. and as you already know, it seems japan character are the most powerful here instead of other countrys.

Enjoyment -8/10
This manga is really fun if you only read for the gore, action, and humanity.

Overall -7/10
If you need a manga, that only shows gore, action and humanity (like AoT as example) i think you'll like this manga.

This manga is simply... amazing.

10/10
The story is really good, it has depth and complexity.
For you that read and liked Gantz , you are going to love Terra Formars.
Just wish the info about bugs would be getting a little less attention in the story telling, but well its important to understand the powers characters have so i guess it's fine.

10/10
The artwork in this manga is outstanding, it might be the best drawn manga i have read up to now.

9/10
Character development is also pretty good, but its to bad characters that you get to like keeps dying...

10/10
Overall, definitely worth reading. Give it a shot, i promise you that you wont regret it.

An interesting idea for sure, but the execution... amateurish. It has a decent enough art with recognisable style, but with so much characters I tend to mix them up, because there is not a lot of variation. The story is all over the place, with some stupid and forced plot twist every now and then and when they returned back to earth, I stopped caring entirely. And when it comes to characters, I didn't care for them from beginning, given that most of them have 10 pages long backstory and then they are killed in two panels. And there is so much narration, I started to skip pages that had no dialog in it because I just couldn't be bothered with reading useless garbage. And it even fails at the horror aspect, there is some gore, but it fails to be gory, and when you don't care about people on the mars, even the psychological part fails apart. I has some enjoyable chapters so there were enough stuff to keep me reading for something, but given how many complains I have with it, I think that even givinh it 4 is too much.

This manga could have been better. Aside from the pretty good art, it's bugged down by the story and characters.

I find it quite hard to keep track of the characters. Maybe it's because of the pace of how fast characters are introduced and killed off, or perhaps it's got something to do with the similar looking characters. It's like a new character is introduced every few pages who you'll think is cool and important, but get killed off after a few pages (but not before showing a melodramatic flashback). This is like Gantz, albeit in much much faster pace.

As my esteemed colleague Vegeta20 has said there are some racial "miscues" that are sprinkled in here, but to be honest Japan doesn't care, I don't care. I may be white as frosty the snowman but this is the first i heard of it being racist. Not only that there was only one time during an end of a chapter well into ch.150+ that it was even there. But like I mentioned until right now i didn't connect the two and who cares it's a great story with pretty brutal(good) fights. Again as I've mentioned in other reviews i'm a fan of ranking systems and this has plenty of that.

I don't want to put down other reviewers but Vegeta20 is childish to think that not reading it or endorsing it will make all the wrongs right and he's punishing the publisher with his loss of sale. They don't care. Racist or not, honest or not they will continue until the story gets stale. I have not idea where Vegeta20 left off nor do i care if he can't see before his rose tinted glasses and read things that may clash with his morals or views. Not only that he didn't even rate it(nor any other manga), other than his biased review "I put the manga down and didn't pick it back up again out of disgust but apparently from what I've read online is goes even deeper," so not even your own opinion but those of others. There was an Adolf and Eva who were German but no mention of Hitler as far as i can recall. No there is no "savior" who blonde hair blue eyed, read the manga and you'll find who that is and what his purpose may be. Btw, there are a few blacks in the manga who show aptitude and skill, but let's overlook that and point at all the bad.

Overall: Racist-Maybe, Readable: Definitely, Better than most. I like it don't be swayed by Japan's xenophobia which permeates a lot of their stuff. You think this guy may be racist against blacks the creator of Bleach hates Hispanics, every Hollow has some Spanish thing going on with its name, even Chad.