Toward the Terra (1980 Theatrical Edition)

てらへ げきじょうばん

Aired: 1980

A theatrical anime produced by Toei Doga (now Toei Animation) and distributed through Toei, this large-scale SF feature adapts Keiko Takemiya's celebrated manga 'Toward the Terra' (serialised in Asahi Sonorama's 'Manga Shonen'). Far in the future, humanity has fled an exhausted Earth, established a tightly machine-managed society, and brands as heretical the psionic 'Mu' people who have evolved alongside them. The film weaves together three intertwined destinies: Soldier Blue, the dying Mu leader who dreams of returning his people to Terra; the boy Jomy Marquis Shin, who is forced to awaken to his Mu powers; and Keith Anyan, the gifted human youth groomed by the ruling system. Their collision drives a sweeping meditation on inter-species reconciliation, the longing for a lost Earth and the cost of total social control. The 1980 film stands as a separate work from the 2007 TV anime adaptation and is recognised as a milestone of Japanese science-fiction animation.