I have never met Yu Sasuga. I have never read an interview with Yu Sasuga. I do not presume any knowledge about Yu Sasuga. And so, I will not accuse Yu Sasuga of being a racist.
In fact, it’s pretty difficult to levy a strong complaint against Terra Formars as being a racist work. I may be a little bit racist (maybe it’s a fact we all should face) in saying that there has, however, been a certain level of tone-deafness that arises in Japanese pop culture from time to time when it comes to appropriating imagery that doesn’t have the same connotations or history that they might in another country, and it’s hard to look at Terra Formars without looking at the existential threat its heroes face as another tone deaf appropriation. In short, the villains of the piece look awfully like African-American caricatures, and it makes me cringe on a nearly constant basis. If only there had been a different choice made in the design process (like, say, giving the characters large insect heads), it would be a lot easier to recommend Terra Formars for what it is.
Still, that’s the disclaimer. I don’t think, from what I’ve read, that the design is supposed to be provocative or making any sort of statement. It simply feels tone deaf in an unfortunate way. If you can move past that, Terra Formars makes for a pretty decent little science fiction, giant bug fighting Ten Little Indians riff.
Terra Formars postulates that in terraforming Mars, two things are required: a moss that can thrive on the surface of the planet and begin converting its atmosphere, and a teeming number of dark creatures who will absorb the heat of the sun and warm the planet through their very existence. (Which sounds even worse after that disclaimer, incidentally.) Since the chosen animals needed to be hearty and able to survive extreme conditions, they release cockroaches to live on Mars and eat the moss as it terraforms the planet. The only problem is that centuries later, when man goes back to mars, the cockroaches have now evolved into giant, violent neanderthals who see humanity with the same instant, violent disdain that causes most people to crush a bug as soon as they see it. The first manned mission is a failure, and a second mission follows in its wake. Using the powers of anime science, the crew manning BUGS 2 (itself a product of the powers of anime naming science) have all been grafted with the abilities of various insects that they can invoke to gain the proportional strength that Spider-man is so fond of and use their insecty gimmicks to fight against the giant cockroaches.
It is all very, very silly, in a very entertaining way. While I could list a great number of other disclaimers following the first, after a point, some things simply need to be expected when going into an over the top science fiction manga. The treatment of female characters is not good, to put it mildly. The worldbuilding surrounding the plot is utter nonsense that simply expects you to roll with the ludicrous premise. The violence is frequent and gratuitous as the crew members are picked off one by one by the titular Terraformars. It will never be a classic, even in its given genre and medium. What it does have going for it (questionable decisions aside) is solid art, a quick pace, and surprising for the first volume of a now fairly long-running manga series, a self-contained story. While subsequent volumes of Terra Formars do branch off the ending of the first, the first volume is solely set with the crew of the BUGS 2 for the entire length of their expedition to Mars and their return home at the end. While the crew that leaves is significantly smaller than the one that arrives, the in-between bits are full of fairly dynamic action sequences even while their characters never rise beyond their tropes.
Terra Formars does dabble in some well-worn science fiction tropes to go with its nonsense action. There are concerns raised of an overpopulated world, discussions had about people undergoing dangerous surgery to undergo even more dangerous missions belonging to lower classes of people than the rich and the safe, that sort of thing. Evolution into humanoid forms aside, the Terraformars that have risen from the cockroach society essentially allow for a manga-length take on Aliens. There are people back on Earth who have different success parameters for dealing with the Terraformars. None of it is particularly unique or surprising, but it is fun. The best part of the manga may in fact be the juxtaposition of reality versus fantasy where the crew of BUGS 2 precede their insect-powered super attacks with brief facts about the insect they’ve been bonded with and what makes them so formidable. It’s not the giant stinger coming out of a man’s wrist that destroys remorseless cockroaches; it’s facts. These brief biology lessons are thrown into the narration boxes in such a way that’s it’s impossible not to read them as being a nature documentary intruding upon your comic about a bug dude kicking another bug dude really, really hard.
In short, Terra Formars is like a lot of manga. It’s got questionable happenings, it’s quiche-light, and it’s predicated on a towering sandcastle of utter nonsense. But it also passes the cardinal rule of making nonsense entertaining, which is that it treats its nonsense with the utmost gravity. If it weren’t for the designs of the Terraformars themselves, I’d wholeheartedly recommend it to those who might have enjoyed something like Gantz or Attack on Titan in particular, dovetailing as it does with those other series about bands of individuals tasked with facing insurmountable odds getting violently picked off along the way to victory. As it is, I still might recommend it, but it’s going to be as I tug on my collar nervously.
