a Japanese manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 written by Ryu Mitsuse

Ryu Mitsuse

is a Japanese science fiction writer. In the West he might be best known for manga-related works and the story The Sunset, 2217 A.D. which appeared in Frederik Pohl's Best Science Fiction for 1972.- Biography :...

 and illustrated by Keiko Takemiya

Keiko Takemiya

is a Japanese manga artist. She is included in the Year 24 Group. She resides in Kamukura, Kanagawa Prefecture. Takemiya was one of the female authors who in the early 1970s pioneered a genre of girls' comics about love between young men; in December 1970 she published a short story, "In the...

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Plot

On the Planet of Astria in the Andromeda Galaxy the Cosmoralian Empire is about to marry Prince Ithaca to Ayodoya's Princess Lilia in the process crowning him King Astralta III. Unfortunately the happy couples honeymoon is interrupted when sinister machines from another planet land and invade Astria, intent on eradicating all life, controlling human minds and terraforming the once-green planet into a mechanical wasteland inhabited by only artificial life forms. After the King and his ministers get assimilated by the alien machines, the Queen Lilia and her newborn son Prince Jimsa must flee Astria. However the natives of Astria are not aware that exiles from the planet of Murat (the source of the enemy) have actually been selectively breeding the royal lines and Prince Jimsa is the ultimate fruit of their efforts. He is destined to lead their resistance against the alien machines.

Reception

"It's a complicated mix of ideas. After Terra

Toward the Terra

is a Japanese science fiction manga series by Keiko Takemiya. It was originally serialized in Asahi Sonorama's Gekkan Manga Shōnen magazine, between January 1977 and May 1980...

, though, nobody on this continent should be surprised by what Takemiya's capable of." — David F. Smith, Newtype USA.

Further reading