Terra Formars

Terra Formars is a Japanese manga by writer Yū Sasuga and artist Kenichi Tachibana. It first appeared in Shueisha’s seinen magazine Miracle Jump from January to December 2011, then moved to Weekly Young Jump in April 2012.

As of 2024, 23 collected volumes have been released. The plot centers on humanity’s fight against giant, mutated humanoid cockroaches on Mars, which leads to deadly missions and a struggle to protect Earth from both an unknown virus and the invading bugs. Viz Media holds the English-language license for North America.

Plot

The story begins with 21st-century scientists trying to make Mars habitable. They seed the planet with modified algae to clean the atmosphere and release cockroaches, whose feeding spreads the algae. Five hundred years later, the first crewed ship arrives, and its six members are killed by enormous, super-strong cockroach-like creatures, later called “Terraformars.” A warning is sent back to Earth. Two years after that, the BUGS II expedition—a multinational team of genetically altered humans—is sent to collect ten roach samples of each sex and exterminate the mutants.

Only two survivors return; both swear to go back and avenge the fallen. As a third expedition is organized, questions arise about the Terraformars’ true origins and their link to a human disease called the Alien Engine Virus. To match the roaches’ strength and speed, expedition members undergo genetic modification, which requires implanting a special organ—a surgery with only a 36% survival rate.

The third expedition also ends in disaster, with most crew members dying in battles against the Terraformars or in internal conflicts among factions with conflicting goals. The few survivors do manage to collect enough samples to research a cure for the A.E. Virus and return to Earth. But a new fight begins when it’s revealed the Terraformars have already reached Earth via the first expedition's warning capsule. They multiply rapidly, adapt better than on Mars, and start their takeover plan.

Key characters from the BUGS II mission include Shokichi Komachi, a survivor with a strong sense of justice who once killed an abuser as a youth. He undergoes the M.O. operation to follow his childhood friend Nanao to Mars. After she dies, he returns twenty years later to lead the Japanese squad on the Annex I mission.