Terra Formars: Bugs 2-hen

A pleasant surprise. I didn't appreciate that many of the characters were so disposable since I found most of them likeable and relatable. Each of the character backstories were rushed but nicely done for a two-episode OVA.

The story/premise was a bit cliché: It's your standard futuristic dystopian society with a socioeconomic class system and planetary level threat that results from genetic modifications to mankind.

I think the action sequences for the cockroaches establish their strength and intelligence pretty well; the potential danger they pose to humanity at large comes across clearly.

All things considered, I think 80% of the the show was fighting. If an ... Attack on Titan-Baki mix sounds like your cup of tea, you'll probably enjoy this.

Valiant heroes defend Mars from the deadliest species of invader pests. There are many losses on both sides. The heroes take their revenge and it is always satisfying to watch them tear the pest species apart. The overpopulated pest species abused the abilities of our heroes (against their will and best interests) and tasked them to terraforming a planet just so the selfish pest species could come back and take the planet for themselves and continue to spread their filth, diseases and eventually destroy yet another planet.

Nothing beats a series where blattodea, a species relentlessly massacred by humans, turn the tables to flatten the real ... pests: homo sapiens. In this case, the cockroaches come in anthropomorphized form and appear to be quite capable of employing basic strategy. The OVA seems to develop some back story for the scenarios in the Anime. Witnessing the human deaths is very satisfying. It gives happy feelings. I wouldn't call this horror, but I can see how it might be so for others. But revenge is so sweet. This anime brings to life fantasies of mine. The last time I pointed at the screen and laughed so much was when I watched the start of Elfen Lied and the first few episodes of Attack on Titan. It's satisfactory comedy to me. I want more! I score it a masterpiece because it is rare, entertaining, misanthropic and strays further from other generic plots and universes where humans tend to prevail even though they clearly don't deserve any victories. That's my focus here. The animation, sounds and voice acting were good. The dialogue and characters were standard for anime. I don't care much for human characters anyway so I can't get attached to them and unless they're paranoid, schizophrenic evil mad scientists (like in Steins;Gate), I can't relate to the characters either. I need to see more to piece the story together but it has me curious to see more about the virus and about the evolution of the Terra Formars. The Terra Formars and the cockroaches are pretty cute yet endearingly creepy. I'd trust them before I trust the slimy, filthy, narrow-sighed and killer human dictators.

If you enjoy watching that one selfish, pretentious species of ape violently get what they deserve because they've declared themselves special privileges which prevent you from giving them some of their own medicine, then I will recommend you watch this OVA (and the Terra Formars series) because you will enjoy it, too.

this OVA , independently of the manga wich i haven't read, and of the series that is said to come later,

the art is okay, the animation is fine, being aware that this OVA is an introduction to a whole franchise, i'll only mention the things that can not possibly be fixed :

the pace is stuttery, mixing moments of doubts with gratuitous reveals to try and explain plot elements or characters in a hurry, most of wich are incredibly cliché (hinting on a dystopian future with corrupted politics and perhaps even a caste system ) this might be only because of the OVA ... nature of this episode, but still could certainly have been more subtle.

The characters are apparently disposable, but not as brillantly done as in Attack on Titan wich makes sure the viewer gets familiar with them before doing horrible things to them, but more in the "that'l hopefullyl make people talk about it" sense of random guro, wich feels like some kind of cheat to me, covering up the lack of plot, wich seems to fit in a single sentence judging from this single OVA:
past the first encounter, there is no surprise, no cliffhanger, no new element introduced to the story, it all relies on it's own premice wich is " mars has been terraformed through the use of moss and cockroaches, people we send there disapear shortly" and all the episode is basically showing the many gruesome ways to make explorers disapear..



my main issue tho, is on the solution to the explorer death issue, seemingly the whole concept of the series, is the "surgery" undertaken by the protagonists, allowing them to instantly grow insect parts upon injecting themselves some kind of chemical product....... and that's just not Science Fiction, in any realistic sense ever, that is Ben-10 Fantasy ! not only the idea that such body enhancement could be done, but moreover the idea that it should be sufficient to face an unknown menace, implying that such unknown menace had to be fought through close-combat....


this is where it lost me, seeing year 2600 humans unable to think of anything else than this incredibly far-fetched solution is nothing but threatening my faith in humanity, present and future ..


as a parody of an old Z movie tho, that could work, so if that is what you're looking for, enjoy !