Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

Imagine if the king of scavengers was two metres tall, bipedal, and had a bone to pick with humanity. It’s said you can’t judge a book by its cover, but I freely admit I picked up テラフォーマーズ (Terra Formars (“Terra for Mars” get it?)) based solely on the cover art — and I didn’t regret it. Terra Formars is an ongoing science fiction manga about the never-ending struggle for supremacy between humans and cockroaches, and it’s pretty awesome.

Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

What It’s About

Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

Nearly 600 years in the future, humanity has looked to its neighbour, Mars, to serve as a second home for the ever-increasing population. In order to make the red planet hospitable for humans, two specimens are sent for a long-term terraforming project — a special moss and cockroaches.

In the year 2557, a team of six astronauts are sent to Mars to survey and capture a cockroach sample to see how they have evolved over the years, and find out why every probe they have sent has ceased transmitting. There they find that the cockroaches — called “terraformers” — have undergone a dramatic evolution over the generations, becoming 6.5 feet tall, while retaining most of the qualities that make cockroaches so damn hard to kill — and they instinctively hate humans.

In the year 2599, after the massacre of the first Mars survey team, a second ship, the BUGS 2, is sent to Mars with a crew of 15 on a mission to eradicate the evolved cockroaches. Unlike the previous failed mission, the members of the BUGS 2 have undergone a special operation to give them the ability to fight the terraformers: The abilities of other bugs.

Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

Review

Straight up, Terra Formars is high-octane entertainment — lots of cool action and captivating plot twists out of nowhere. Right from the start, once the first cockroach is encountered, the manga picks up and doesn’t stop, and it’s a Hell of an entertaining ride.

That said, it’s also fairly formulaic. The events of a battle could probably be mapped with a flow chart. What makes Terra Formars interesting is the bug ability plot mechanic.

Terra Formars asks the reader to suspend their disbelief and imagine what the abilities of a bug would be like if they were blown up to human size — an ant can lift 100 times its weight, so a human with ant powers can lift 100 times his weight. Physics be damned, it’s actually a lot of fun. This scaling up of bug abilities is also what makes the adversary terraformers a genuinely threatening and scary foe.

Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

Rarely will I critique a manga based on its artwork, because that’s a highly subjective aspect. However, as previously mentioned, in the case of Terra Formars, the artwork is what made me pick it up in the first place so I feel it bears further mention.

For me, the character design and style of artist Kenichi Tachibana hit the mark right from the start. It felt the perfect balance of not too simplistic, yet not overly detailed, clean, yet real enough to be convincing. The character designs are excellent, too. All of the characters, even the minor ones, manage to look unique and yet attractive. But don’t get too attached. There’s a lot of death to spread around, even for the main characters — and some of it’s pretty gruesome.

Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

In my Akumetsu review , I mentioned something I call “Tenjou Tenge syndrome.” Terra Formars suffers from what I call “Baki syndrome” — where the author goes on long expositions talking about the many fascinating and freakish aspects of the bugs of the world. Most, if not all, of the in-battle plot twists come from these expository moments — where the tide will turn because of some previously unrevealed characteristic or ability that a character will pull out at the last moment, and the story comes to a screeching halt as the author takes a moment to explain. Basically, the outcome of battle generally is due to, well, facts.

Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

The Baki method of combat resolution is very effective, but it can get tired and overused. At the moment, Terra Formars hasn’t overstayed its welcome with its use, but it can only hold for so long.

Conclusion

Boiled down to the essentials, Terra Formars is like as though the author watched Red Planet and read a lot of articles like this one.

Terra Formars is very plot-driven. I often talk about plot-driven versus character-driven stories and I admit that I have a bias in believing that character driven stories are more engaging. Even so, plot-driven as it is, Terra Formars manages to be entertaining and generally a whole lot of fun.

Terra Formars‘ biggest flaw is most likely in its formulaic layout of battle events, but don’t let that deter you. If you like suspenseful science fiction action where no one — not even the main characters — is safe, and you enjoy a sprinkling of trivial knowledge throughout, this is well worth a read.

Terra Formars is currently licensed by Viz Media and volume 1 of the official English translation is available.

An original video anime adaptation has also been announced, so no doubt Richard and/or our friends at Ani-Tay will talk about it down the line.

Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

Additional Note

A friend of mine pointed out to me that they thought the depiction of the humanoid cockroaches in Terra Formars was racist against black people. While this does not lessen my overall impressions of the manga as I don’t feel it’s intentional, it may be worth mentioning for those who feel sensitive.

Info

Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You

Manga Title: Terra Formars
Author: Story: Yu Sasuga Art: Kenichi Tachibana
Publisher: Shueisha
Ongoing: Yes
Volumes: 8
Note: The prequel chapter that depicts the events of the first survey mission, the BUGS 1, can be read for free online here (Japanese only).


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


3 responses to “Cockroaches From Mars Are Out To Kill You”