Terra Formars, Manga Recommendation of the Week!

Key takeaways from Manga Recommendation – Terra Formars:
Terra Formars stands out with its outlandish yet captivating premise of battling humanoid cockroaches on Mars, driving readers to experience a mix of despair and dread.
Despite fitting into typical stereotypes, the manga successfully connects readers to its characters, enhancing the emotional impact of their struggle against overwhelming odds.
The manga’s 90s-inspired art style adds to the sense of desperation in the battles, complementing the engaging plot, making Terra Formars a must-read for its intriguing storyline, intense fights, and distinct visual appeal.

I am pretty sure a lot of you already know about this series. It is quite old and is famous for its Japanese Nationalism sentiment. I swear some of those scenes are infinitely meme-able. Terra Formars has a seemingly ridiculous plot on the surface but it has been executed so well that you can’t help but enjoy it.

I swear the plot sounds so outlandish when you describe it to someone else but when you watch it, it can actually make you feel despair and even dread at times. I am not joking, that is actually how this manga works.

So welcome back to another edition of our manga recommendation series. This week we are talking about Terra Formars. Let’s get started,

Introduction

Terra Formars is written by Sasuga Yu and illustrated by Tachibana Kenichi. It was serialized in the Young Jump magazine from January 2011 to November 2018. No, it is not over yet though, it has been on hiatus since 2018. I am not sure about the reason behind this hiatus though. The series does have an anime adaptation but that does not cover the entirety of the manga, From what I’ve seen the anime is decent too so you can check it out if you want.

Plot

So in a nutshell, the plot of this manga is recovering Mars from giant humanoid cockroaches. Yeah, so some scientists had the brilliant idea to send mold and cockroaches to Mars to terraform it. The idea was that the mold would grow on the corpses of the insects and make the surface warmer. Things didn’t go to plan, the first humans to step on the planet were killed by the roaches barely managing to send a message back to Earth.

That sounds insane, right? But the thing is, the series puts us into the perspective of the soldiers sent to reclaim Mars from the roaches. It forces us to accept how dire their situation is and how grossly outnumbered they are. That is when the dread of the series starts to settle in as each soldier tries to take out as many roaches as they can before dying. Couple this with the healthy dose of Japanese nationalism and it makes for a very engaging story. It is not very logical but it is really fun to read.

Characters

This plot only works because you connect with the characters. See, we are given plenty of time to understand and form our connection with the soldiers. Yes, the characters do fall into your usual stereotypes but that is fine. I wish the series did a little more character development for the main cast but that doesn’t really distract from the main attraction of the series. So I guess that is fine.

Art

I love the art style. The art style of Terra Formars is very retro-inspired. It looks like a 90s manga despite coming out in the 2010s. And I think this art style really works for the plot of this anime as it makes every fight feel more desperate and real.