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[WARNING: Slightly long review ahead. You can get by by reading the "In short" sections]

I was not interested in this show. The manga was the epitome of "Generic Harem." I don't think there isn't one cliche that hasn't happened in the series yet. From the characters' reactions to the actual settings of events, everything gave me a sense of Deja vu on the scale of the Endless Eight (only 2000s kids would get this reference!). So I anticipated this adaptation to bring exactly nothing new. It would be another bland series to add to every season's list of bland Harem Anime.

But then something happened. If ... you head over to the Nisekoi Anime announcement news article (you can find it here on MAL), you would discover that it began with soft squeals of excitement and nearly uniform cheers by manga fans. As you scrolled along, you would find a chorus-like echo of horror at the studio choice: Shaft. Looking at the thread might even feel like discovering the death of a civilization. IT felt almost as if I were looking at an ancient species discovering a cure to some disease, only to find that very cure would end their entire race.

But even then, I wasn't interested in this series. After chapter 60 of the manga (when my marathon ended), it felt like a slowly eroding cluster of repetition of cliches and never progressing plot. It wasn't until a whole year after it began did I start watching it. I finished it in two, no, three days after downloading from Nyaa.

Nisekoi, despite all of its cliches, is probably the best Harem series in recent years. It is also probably the purest example of the Harem genre. Should harem series ever go out of fashion and end in production, this should be the one harem series to show your grand kids what a "Harem" Anime was (I'm sure by then Japan's population will explode to overtake China's).

The show is a paradox. Its strength is the sheer attention the creators paid to subtle details. Even if you didn't like the manga, you might still find this series enjoyable. And if you haven't been keen on Harem series before, this could be your gateway series.

let's examine the aspects of the series and whether you will enjoy it.


Characters:
Undoubtedly the most important aspect of a Harem Anime is its cast. And you know the show has done it well when it's know as "Battle of the Best Girls" among the online community.
The character of this series are generic in a sense of the word. All of them are "Tsunderes" in various doses of "Tsun."
However, there's clear character progression and backstory giving. This is most prominently seen in Chitoge, whose changes in behavior is most apparent. From her discovery of her connection to the main character to her treatment of the main character, all are subtly altered as events unfold.
While they can all be labeled with a name from TvTropes, the other characters are no slouches either.
Marika, Tsugumi, and Onodera each have their own respective charm and characterizations.
Unlike most harem series, the characters were clearly not a mash of cliches and actually felt like they EXISTED.
Even the main character, who can be wrote off as the typical "indecisive and dense male tsundere," has his own characterization. His motivations and actions are consistent with his initial personality, and he has enough "tsun" to not come off as a bitch (granted, some views might still experience frustrations with him).
Perhaps the greatest touch in characterizing the cast is the addition of monologues when they think about something. When their hands touch, when the MC gets horny, they're all given reasons and detailed descriptions on why the character feels that way (which is strengthened by the visuals).
Also, the girls are often depicted as Moe. The Studio avoided flaunting their bodies and turning show into another Harem-ecchi show where "characters" are poor excuses to show off the body designs (they know their audience!).

In short: the attention to detail, as well as balance of screen time between the girls give the cast vivid characterization(and not to mention more significant side characters compared to the spiritual predecessors).


Plot/Story/Whatever:
Having a mandatory "story" rating is probably the rating system's greatest flaw. The story of Nisekoi is not epic. It's not something that you'd expect to find on Gurren Lagann's level. However, not emphasizing on the "plot" is its exact strength.
With modern Anime often taking the form of 1 cour short series (to lower cost), time is often squeezed. Sometimes, this is worsened by the existence of other sub-plots that don't necessarily help characterize.
Even worse is when producers choose to forgo characterization and instead stuff a bundle of cliches into character, taking up more time and reducing the quality of characterization.
Thankfully, Nisekoi has no such problem.
It's story is simple: Raku Ichijou, the protagonist, made a vague promise with a girl 10 years ago in which they promise to fulfill when the meet. They would verify each other's identities with a locket that Raku keeps, and a key the the girl keeps.
As a subplot, powerful family members (mobs, police, etc) of the girls are kept in check by Raku having a precarious balance of relationship with all of the girls.

That was the synopsis, but how did they handle the story? The show never takes its subplot too seriously. The story focuses on Raku and the mystery from 10 years ago with the family problems occasionally pushing the characters to interact. The subplot, however, is never taken "on a bus." It's always there, never too neglected nor too concentrated on. The side characters are given screen time to a certain extent, never to the point where we forget that they exist. They add a wonderful touch.

In short: The handling of the story is pretty much spot on. It is used to advance the character interaction and never too central as to detract character growth, but also never taken for granted. Events flew smoothly and felt as if they were REAL.


Audio:
Probably the weakest department, yet still well matched to the series. There's no specific style that can be heard from the BGM. Everything felt like they fit the scene and made them better experiences.
The OPs are sang by ClariS. I didn't feel too moved by them. The tunes and themes sounded about the same as many other Anime OPs.
Very cheerful, harmonious sounds that borders boring (each to his own, you might like them).
However, I have to add that is an ending theme song for each of the girls, so that's something to enjoy.
The voice acting was perfect, spot on. Every character sounded exactly as I imagined them to sound. Chitoge with her bossy, slightly cheerful voice. Onodera voiced by KanaHana. Claude's authoritative, maniacal voice, and so on.


Visuals:
Probably the greatest concern for many manga fans. Famous from their Monogatari and Madoka Magicias series’, Shaft is known for their unique depictions of the series' world. Many feared (especially with the train wreck of Mekakucity Actors) that Shaft would render Nisekoi's world into unrecognizable Pseudo-spaces.
Boy were they wrong.
While the now-iconic Shaft “Spin around to do an action” and head tilt are still there, Nisekoi is a far cry from Nisekoi-monogatari. I would say this is probably the greatest improvement the manga has had (the manga’s backgrounds, from what I remember, might as well as have been drawn by Tite Kubo).
The characters are animated fluidly. The motions sprinkled in by Shaft do nothing to detract the series. Far from it, the exaggerated nature of the source’s plotline (gangsters stop fighting thanks to teenage dating) actually made Shaft’s liberal interpretations appropriate. Tsugumi’s chase scenes are animated with multitudes of guns, a feat that melts into the world of Nisekoi’s surreal world of spins and tilts. Zoom-ins are appropriate, with barely any ecchi (or so it felt) and a lot of focus on character expression. The irrelevant background characters, deservedly, are at times animated as gray blocks similar to Durarara and Mawaru Penguindrum. And the backgrounds are EXTRAVAGANT. I’m talking about 1920s Gatsby-style parties extravagance here. Though this is oddly appropriate due to the nature of the girls (Ojou-samas and generally influential girls). If not extravagant, the backgrounds are detailed and suit the theme. Everythign was beautiful, essentially, and much better compared to the manga.
Characters are sometimes animated in chibi style, amplifying their moe-ness and comical relief factor.
Many of the backgrounds (such as the forest) are drawn with detail. Shaft certainly didn't cheap out on their background.

In short: All of these touches made Nisekoi’s world (as much as I hate this word) unforgettable. it stands far and above many other Harem series in atmosphere due to the willingness to be exaggerate the world boldly.


Last Words:
With a consistent and well characterized cast, as well as vivid yet realistic depiction of the world, good enough sound (great voice acting), and a story that recognizes its strengths and but never mistreated, Shaft’s Nisekoi adaptation paints a surreal world that’s grounded in reality by character interaction. It is surely the standard bearer for Harem Anime to come. If they come at all (hint, look at next season’s list).

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think it’s time for me to hit the bookshelves and download some chapters of Nisekoi.

Edit: After I started to read the manga, I remembered that after the 50 chapters or so, the manga regresses and turns into something close to a CSI TV show: plotless, digestable, short, weekly chapters. For a WHILE. Just saying, the first portion of the manga IS the Anime, but the successive portions are very different. Hopefully it gets better.

(warning: this is slightly long. If you wanna read something grab to munch on or drink while reading)

If you either watch Anime regularly, or at least dappled into its online world; chance are, you have heard of Vocaloid or seen its icon, Hatsune Miku. One of the biggest confusions that I faced when first entering the online world was that whether Vocaloid was a show or not.
And it turns out, it isn't; and instead, it is a popular program used to create artificial voice to sing and much more. With a devoted fanbase promoting its artworks all over the web, it is one of ... the most recognizable icons of the Anime online culture.
Naturally, I was consistently interested in what would happen if a show were made out "Vocaloid," or any of the alike franchises; even though I was not a regular listener of any of the artists that use the program.
In 2013, when it was announced that "Kagerou Project," a series of songs created by Jin(Musician) will be animated by Studio SHAFT - a studio known for its unique style - it was an exciting thing. Although I knew nothing about it aside from its success, I was hyped to see just what kind of a show a Song series could produce.

But the result, was also one of the most disappointing. In this review I will review several aspect of the show, and suggest whether you should watch it based on the criterial.

Cohesion/Pacing: 4/10

One of the more important things of Anime with a story to tell is how it handles its pacing.
The allocation of its episodes and what happens in them, and the handling of the pacing was probably the most disastrous aspect of the series.

The story starts with an ambiguous tone of playful interactions between the cyber-girl Ene and her "master" Shintaro, then it quickly delved into a hostage situation, which brought about the Mekakushi-dan, a group of supernatural ability users. Then, the story uses an arc pattern to advance each episode, with each character given about 1 episode of time for their background story.

Several placements of important story aspects resulted in ineffective communication. For example, Ayano's appearance in the beginning of a few episodes was brief and abstract, followed by the story shifting ina radically different direction, making it hard to remember that she was even there. Then there is the "story of the monster," a segment placed in the end of each episode telling a story in a abstract, fairy-tale slideshow manner. That story was one of the most important aspect of the series, but it was placed AFTER the ending theme, resulting in it easily being skipped. Another problem came along the monster story seems to be the abilities themselves. They were never fully explained in the early stages of the series, and thus had to be fastly explained near the ending.

Secondly, much of the character arcs were taken up by humorous interactions. Which is in most cases, fine and important for developing believable relations between characters. But due to the slow pace of the series, the humorous interaction defocused the story from the plot and resulted in a large infodump around the end of the series, showing its poor allocation. Some inappropriate interactions, such as the battle between Ene and Kano did more to detract the mood rather than anything else. Though it is noted, some of the light hearted moments were truly entertaining to watch.

Third, some of the more important characters were ignored/not given an arc/had a counterproductive airtime. Marry, an important character to the "monster story" was virtually not given any background information until near the end of the story. Seto also came off as boring and rather forced into relevancy due to him hardly given any memorable lines in the show, and the nature of his meeting with Marry. And Shintaro just spends his time roaming around most of the series, hardly interacting with the rest of the Mekakushi-dan. More important, Hiyori, whose character displayed a fowl mouth towards Hibiya that would make one less sympathetic towards her and puzzling to those that wonder why in the world did Hibiya like her.

The conclusion: the Cohesion is a jumbled mess that does not focus on the story that the series ends up centering around, and added with poorly placed foreshadowing and detracting character interaction makes the series hard to comprehend, and resulted in a condensed ending that shows poor pacing.


Visuals: 7/10
Coming from Studio Shaft, the series is animated with a focus on the main characters in a simplified, Metro style artwork(Just as the popular Monogatari series has). Most of the world is simplified into single colors filling a shape, such as the background characters. But that doesn't stop it from having complex artwork, such as the ink-drawn detailed animation that Ayano's mother's diary received, and the video game world with the complex colors.

The animation isn't very fluid - that is not to say it is clunky - but it follows the Shaft style. Examples such as slowly zooming up to a character's face as he/she talks, sudden cut-scenes within seconds. Some poor choices were made such as using CGI to animate the infamous episode 8 opening, but all in all, it was mostly stylistic.

However, a cost also came to the unique animation that Studio Shaft offered. Most of the dialogue exchanges were uncomplicated, unlike that of the Monogatari series'. In fact, there series dialogue was so uncomplicated, that at times it felt boring to watch the uniform landscape. Another problem was the character designs, they at times, felt too simplified as well, and lacked the finished touch of some of other Shaft's works.

In short, there is a wide variety of animation style in a generally flat design of the scenaries, but at times, it could feel boring, with the combination of its next aspect.

Sound: 7/10
Most of the episodes were named after the Songs themselves made by Jin, and were at times inserted into the episodes. However, in the first half of the series, a noticeable flaw was the lack of background music(BGM). This, combined with the simplified visuals, made a boring experience to watch as ill-developed characters interact with each other, while not exchanging anything particular interesting. The songs and OP/ED are all fine, especially if you are already a fan of the Kagerou Project. For the most part, the Sound does a suitable job.

Characters: 5/10
The character is composed of a relative large central cast(10), as did Baccano and Durarara. Where the latter 2 series handled their character development and interaction with mastery, Mekakucity Actors did not. Due to time restraints, some characters were left feeling dull such as Marry and Seto's, and others would likely confuse you as to whether you should feel sorry about or not(Hiyori).
While Shintaro and the Dan's interactions was handled fine, there was a sense of purposelessness at the end of the series to him being the central character; their interactions almost felt like they had no reason to exist, and calls in question whether he is the protagonist or not.
The villain is even weaker. Until episode 10, there wasn't even a clear villain.
Moreover, the villain's motivations were weak and cliched, weakening the story(and the poorly explained abilities).
Some characters' feelings did not resonate nearly as much as they would with the Kagerou Project songs, such as Haruka's feeling of loneliness. Most of the characters, all in all, came off as unmemorable and weak(possibly due to time constraints and allocation).

Analysis:
This was an interesting attempt to translate popular works of songs into animation. Some of the other successful franchises, such as Black Rocket Shooter, Vocaloid, Touhou franchise, and the Kantai Collection, in my postulation, mained garnered such a large fandom thanks to the non-linear nature of their franchises. Most of the characters were simply nice designs, with plenty of room for the viewer's personal interpretation of the character, resulting in the plethora of fanarts that can be found across Pixiv.

Mekakucity Project failed to live up to the expectations of fans mainly due to its poor explanation of abilities as well as the background for the finale of the story, the constrained timeline, the poorly presented characters and the lack of some, the combination of simplified animation and lack of engaging BGM during some of the isolated scenes across the series, resulting in a poorly produced, and apparently rushed anime.

But it is still watchable for those interested in the characters themselves mostly, and would like to see them interacting together, as well as the modern animation style of Studio Shaft along with some quality Kagerou Project songs. For the average viewer, this could be a fresh approach to Anime.

The Final score: 6/10

With the dawn of the second season, I think it's time to revisit an old friend. In this review, I will attempt to describe IS: Infinite Stratos and it's components, then give you it's worth as a series.

The basic premise of Infinite Stratos is set in a world where armored mecha suit, the Infinite Stratos is invented, thus rendering all other technology obsolete. One catch, this suit can only be worn by women.

While this was an interesting premise, the setting itself just attracts questions. Why can only women wear it? What has the effects of this technology had on society? What happened to the political ... relations of the world after this technology? What governments has used it?

Sadly, none of these questions are satisfyingly answered, because the next portion of the premise is going to make the TRUE premise apparent. While the original premise demanded world-exploration and examination, none of that is shown because the series basically only sets in one place: IS Academy. The place where Students aspiring to learn the techniques of IS from all over the world, where the armor/suit is used as an entertainment device(I will get to this later).

Our Main Character is Ichika Orimura, an average High School student and the only male on the planet so far to discovered to have had the capability to use Infinite Stratos. And because of circumstances, he has to head to IS Academy, a place where he will be the only man.

And because of this setup, the show faithfully follows the route to harem, where 90% of the girls wants the Main Character's D, otherwise is interested(and certainly the main protagonists). Since it sets itself up as a Harem series, what is should do is explore the characters who are complex and makes us care for them, let's see the components of this series:

Coherency/Continunity: While the series sets itself up as a series that begs exploration of the world's politics and what happened in the world after the invention of IS, this is merely a setup where the main character can have a school full of girls all to himself.
The idea that women started to dominate the world is hardly ever shown, since the show secludes itself in the IS Academy. Where contrary to common sense, depicts females just about every other Harem series does! I will get into the characters later. The main point is, the social/political changes is shown without any changes!
And the fact that IS is a weapon(more powerful than any, mind you) begs the question on why has it not been used militarily? A weapon this powerful would have the government SCRAMBLING for it, and certainly not only used as an entertainment device(LOLWUT?). The idea if that if it is women who controls it would lead to world peace is completely illogical and is given as a fact. Any person has the power to commit evil, and being a part of a gender does not exclude you.

Characters: The worst aspect of the series are the characters. Virtually all but one of the female cast is depicted as a Tsundere, and often violent too and nothing outside her stereotype. Rin the Chinese girl and Houki the Japanese girl are basically the same in terms of personality. While Cecilia the British girl have nothing really defines her other than "Ojou-sama" type of character. The only one that is not depicted as a Tsundere is Charlotte, whom is wonderful.
And the main character? About as generic as you get, and so dense that you can't even find it on the periodic table. Ichika is a self-insert character that has to deal with the woes of "GIRLS ALL AROUND ME! OH NOEZ!!" Difficult to achieve an level of empathy to and overall a dumbass to peoples' feelings to an unrealistic degree.

Production: The production of the series is relative above average. By no means is it bad. but the sound is rather generic and nothing I could remember to write home about, although the opening song was somewhat memorable. The character designs are generic by today's standards, again, nothing to write to home about. Although there are several prominent Seiyuus acting in the characters, such as Kana Hanazawa. But obvious incoherencies is show, such as one episode, a character fights the main character but is somehow stopped by Chifuyu's sword... Out of nowhere
Being a mecha anime, there are also fight-scenes featuring the Infinite Stratos'. Probably the best part of the series, unfortunately, are short, insignificant, and CGI-animated

Plot: Wait, what? Oh, the plot. Simply put, there isn't much other than a string of events that puts Ichika in various situations where the main characters fall in love with him. Infinite Stratos, as well as the expected consequences of it existing, is not a part of the plot. A random IS does show up and destroy stuff, but next episode, that is no longer a worry.

Verdict:
If you are here looking for a good plot that maps out the consequences of it's premise, turn around. If you are here looking for an above average harem story with quality characters, go elsewhere. Truthfully, without the ridiculously unnecessarily armored IS, this series is just a generic RomCom Harem series that is barely funny at all.
There are bunch of holes in the plot and story. If you are looking for fanservice and cute girls(relatively) or Charlotte Dunois with a splash of CGI-animated Mecha fighting, come right in.

ADDITIONALLY:
If there's one thing thats also great about this series, it's that the series does not pretend to be deep or anything that it is not, making it far less cringeworthy for some viewers to enjoy.

An unique idea isn't necessarily a well thought-out idea.

That seems to be an accurate description of the modern Anime/Manga Franchises. While each series may be unique in some instances, and perhaps more and more deviant and attempts to be unique. For example, a main character that turns into a dog in one of the more recent shows that's airing, or some of the more infamous titles, such as Sword Art Online.

But enough of that, let's get a good look at what Seikon no Qwaser is about.

Set in a Japanese Eastern Orthodox High School, Seikon no Qwaser takes an unique concept of using female lactation as ... a source of power. While this idea is pretty much unique to the series itself(unless some 18+ Series happen to use this plot device as well), that uniqueness pretty much ends there.

Seikon no Qwaser while having it's chance to turn itself to an interesting series, practically squanders every chance that it has gotten.
In essence, the plot is pretty much irrelevant. What matter is fanservice to boobs and guro fetishists. If it isn't clear enough by this point, the usage of boobs is nothing more to serve you with young and pretty girls.

While the boobs + hot girls + Fights formula is pretty much time-tested and is a sure success to some degrees in the Anime/Manga industry, it certainly is also a sure ticket to mediocrity when misused. The story starts off in a promising fashion, but is quickly deterioated by the dropping of multiple points that was previously relevant.

The coherency of the story is very low. Why a Qwaser would be located in a Japanese High School is poorly explained and seems like it's only there to induce melodrama. Why most of the Qwasers would be high school kids, or the fact the protagonist is 13 years old, is just there made for you to swallow down.

Now, having the "Kids save the world" theme is certainly nothing new, and is rather a cliche. The religion as a basis for magic is also nothing new, and is rather cool. But no explanation that's rational is ever give to explain it, while the author pretentiously gives scientific explanation on the properties of the matters, even if he seems to be unknowledgeable about girls not having breast milk until impregnated.(Their powers is to control an element, in case you did not read the synopsis)
If you are looking for a coherent plot, prepare to be confused! Characters literally jump out of nowhere in between transitions. For one chapter, a girl who's "genki" would start talking in the middle of nowhere, and another girl who's shown in a few pages back would jump out of no where and challenge that girl for no apparent reason! Everything in this series, the placements and coincidences all seem to be arranged for one thing: More boobs!

And that leads me to the next point, the characters. While not expected to have any excellent characters, the series is shockingly bad at portraying real people. The main character is the stereotypical ice-hearted revenge boy, another character is the airhead with big boobs, another is a protective main heroine, and a manipulative loli who dominates people, along with various psychotic individuals from the antagonistic side. But other than the main protagonist, not many characters made me care about them. From time to time, a "sad past" is used, but then the character is pretty much used up and then thrown away. Numerous characters accept the Dominatrix Loli's seduction(Keep in mind this girl is 11 years old), and other tactics, almost immediately accept themselves as her "Slave", and begins to call her "-sama". Realistic! And not only that, the main characters, such as one of the slave girls of the loli, are mostly normal humans before the events of the story. Yet the characters accept the supernatural occurances, such as the Qwasers manuiplation of elements with relative ease. And the slave girl even left her home for who knows how long, but none of her family members is shown to care...

The dialogue is also nothing special. The characters general have a catchphrase that is thrown out in a cheesy fashion, such as the main character "tremble in fear!" Every time he defeats a villain, or is about to. The characters engage in discussion in a stereotypical fashion, and most of the word bubbles are either babble, or filled with moans, or an idea of a moan, anyhow. The exchanges in general doesn't seem to be well thougt-out

And Finally, the art. The characters, except maybe sasha, are all drawn with average drawing skills. the background is mostly blank, and next to all the Russian characters are drawn with Blonde hair, typical of Japanese perception of Western people. The breast is the most well-drawn part of any of the characters, you might like the art style' simplisticness, though. Most of the characters' faces look similar, but the distinction is mostly in the eyes. Lots kf cliched expressions such as a character talking with one eye shut for no apparent reason. But again, that might be what you like.
Some of the designs, though, are relatively cool, even if they made no sense.

In conclusion, Seikon no Qwaser has an interesting idea, but fails to comprehensively deliver it's characters, story, or just events in general as something cohesive. You may like it, but this one if given thought, will fail you.
The breasts are rather well-drawn, and the amount of guro in the series is rather high when certain characters are introduced.
Try not to look for comedy or a coherent plot when watching this, if you still decide to do so.

I don't know what's going on here, but every other person that is reviewing this manga is full of bullsh*t(except Yakub).

Terra Formars is a gore-intense manga set in the distance future of year 2577. 500 years ago in the 21th century, scientists came up with the plan of mass-dumping cockroaches and moss onto Mars in order to increase the overall temperature of planet Mars, so that it would be suitable for human inhabitation.

However, when the ship Bugs 1 lands, something unexpected happens. They discover that the supposed cockroaches were replaced by giant 2 meters(7 foot) tall muscular humanoid creatures with incredible strength, thus the ... communication from Earth and Bugs 1 were lost. Learning from this lesson, genetic engineers worked to increase the potential of human by implanting insect genes into the bodies of humans that were to aboard Bugs 2, the second attempt to colonize on Mars.

The overall manga is characterized by a complete, uncut, and explicit gore that the manga provides. With the massive cast it has, many of the characters die off ususally in violent and cruel ways.

With that being said, lets get to the reviewing of its elements.

Art: 8/10
The artwork is rather realistic in the shading and drawing of the characters. Though the faces of the characters can't be said to be 100% realistic, they are most certainly not exagerrated such as in many moe-based manga are.
The designs of the Cockroaches are very athletic bodies of human, as well as detailed drawings of the spaceships earns an "8" for this manga

Plot/Story: 5/10
This is where the scores starts to drop. While an overall premise exists, the plot and the characters that are piloting it are generally ignored throughout the course of the story as it turns into more of a battle manga than anything, the story can still be enjoyed, though it is to keep a note that the plot isn't as prominent as the seemingly mindless fighting.

Also, many plot points broughht up earlier in the manga are almost never touched.

Setting: 3/10
The setting is the worst part about the show. To enjoy this manga you would need A LOT of suspension of disbelief. As this show is set in 500 years in the future, how could Cockroaches evolve into gigantic sizes in such a short time? Is it even necessary? Since they are the only form of life on the planet, all they have to do is adapt to the environment and then feed off of the mosses. And what about the countries? Its hard to imagine that the political situation isn't much different from today. Hell, one of the characters even called the Russian guy(who got a bit of cameo) a "born communist", you are telling me that communism vs capitalism is still alive and well, 500 years in the future?
And what about monitoring? With such a huge project, surly the world is anticipating it, probably even more than we would have anticipated the moon landings, I mean, a premise of the series is that "Earth grew unhealthly overpopulated", so Mars is suppose to be our next hope right? Even now, we can see Mars from our Telescopes, its hard to imagine, FIVE HUNDRED YEARS INTO THE FUTURE, we are still not able to spot countless giant man-like creature on the closest planet to us.

Characters: 6/10
Most of the characters are given a back story, but that's it. Many characters do no survive into the story, so they are somewhat irrelevant. But what is bad is the modern-day stereotype in the series. The German is named Adolf, and the Chinese barely have any screen time, as well as the Russia being a "born communist". Many of them sound the same on manga, its almost difficult to distinguish between the characters.
And of course, a disproportional amount of the main cast are Japanese, which is somewhat unrealistic considering there were basically 1 character to represent each MAJOR country otherwise.
However, it is still interesting to watch the cliched speechs and the problems they overcome.

Style: 7/10
The style of telling the story is confusing to say at the least with multiple view in many different characters, the flow between them almost seem to not exist. The story is based on battle and battle, as well as genetic engineering. Early on in the manga, there would be info-dumps about some kind of insect, or some obscure animal that the main characters have underwent surgery for.
The style of art is brutal and realistic, making no qualms to show the inside of the human bodies, as well as a person's spine when his head is pulled out of his body.

Overall: 6/10
Should I read this Manga?(TL;DR)
If you enjoy gory depictions of humans facing against a seemingly superior being, as well as the premise of space travel, you should definitely pick this one up. Though if you are looking for deep character development, or a light-hearted romcom slice of life series, avoid this at all costs. Beware also if you do not enjoy oddly paced story telling.
You should also watchout for the info dump in the series on the various animals of our planet, that is one of the most interesting points in the stories and you may learn a lot more.

In essence, Terra Formars is a good manga, but not as much as the other reviewers praise it to be. it has obvious flaws but can be considered a rare series where intense battles can be seen with lots of gore, if you are willing to suspense your disbelief.