robotboy | keith anyan; history

I can only find one online source of information about Toward the Terra and it is riddled with typos and incomplete, so I fear I may have to summarize the four episodes I'm pulling Keith from myself.

Keith Anyan wasn't born in the way a normal child is, not even as a child would normally be born in his world, where children are born in test tubes from combinations of human DNA and placed with non-blood-related parents pre-screened by the computer system that controls human society as a whole after a rampant lack of control led to Earth being rendered inhospitable for life.

Children in the world of Toward the Terra are raised on any number of planets that produce what is needed by the human race to survive, raised by parents and given early education. At the age of 14, they are taken to undergo the 'Adult Examination,' a process that wipes away and/or greatly subdues most memories of childhood and screens them for the presence of a particular mutation allowing various psychic abilities, the possessors of which are called Mu. Most children who have already exhibited traits of a Mu or who exhibit these traits during the Adult Examination are targeted to be killed, though many Mu have escaped and taken to rescuing children either before or during this Adult Examination, resulting in a separate race of people existing in secret, risking death whenever they show themselves.

Unlike most children, however, Keith was created from scratch, his DNA completely unique, as a perfect human made to be capable of leading humanity without being swayed by emotion - intended to understand and reject emotion for the best interests of the human race. He was not the first, with several failed versions of him being kept as samples in storage, but he was the first successful enough to be 'born' with the physical age of 14, with no memories aside from what he would have gained from earlier education.

Keith, having not been raised by a human couple, possesses no memories at all of life before his 'arrival' on Educational Station E-1077. His first experiences were at the orientation for all new students, where he met Sam Houston, a good-natured boy who was best friends with the Mu leader, Jomy Marcus Shin, and who he ends up becoming life-long friends with himself. Almost completely passive and silent at first, Keith was taking in new sensations and adapting to his new existence, having been told by Mother Eliza, the manifestation of the computer system on E-1077, that he'd simply passed out during the orientation. Despite his newness, he integrated quite quickly into school life, having been created to adapt well and excel in human society. He quickly became a strong performer in class and a leader admired among his peers.

Shortly after his arrival, Keith was called upon to take the lead when an educational transport carrying new arrivals to the station collided with a military ship, and the computer systems opted to purge the damaged section of the station while rescue crews were out of touch. Keith and Sam courageously staged a rescue mission, evacuating the newly arrived students from the transport and safely leading them to an undamaged section of the station - during this mission, Keith's spacesuit was damaged and he free-fell into space, a death sentence in zero gravity - but Sam came to his rescue, cementing their friendship. After arriving back on the ship, Sam discovered his childhood friend, Suena, among the new arrivals they had rescued, and she joined Keith's circle of friends.

After this incident, there's a four year timeskip during which Keith, Sam, and Suena continued to attend school. Keith had continued to excel in his studies, aiming for a position in the Members Elite, a high-powered military unit that accepted only the best. His school life was disrupted with the arrival of Seki Ray Shiroe, an incredibly bright boy, who took it upon himself to make a rival of Keith. Almost immediately, he latched onto the idea of Keith being a robot, an automaton, the child of a computer, and made it his goal to antagonize Keith into behaving like a human. For the most part, Keith ignored him, disengaged with a clever retort, or simply walked away - but that was not to last. After taunting Keith enough to garner at least some of his attention, Shiroe got his way when Keith joined him for a match of digital archery, which Keith won, and afterwards, when thoroughly taunted by Shiroe, Keith lost his cool and hit the boy.

Shortly after this, Suena, who had developed feelings for Keith that everyone seemed aware of except Keith himself, finally decided to give up on both Keith and a career in the military in order to settle down, marry, and raise children after a particularly brutal series of accidental rejections from Keith. After Sam made it clear to Keith that he'd misunderstood how Suena felt for him, that realization combined with Shiroe's taunts made Keith more aware of how different he was from his fellow students, who all joked about him being a machine or the child of a computer. Despite encouragement from Mother Eliza, Keith continued to feel painfully unsettled and alienated from his fellow students. During this time, on a test flight, after a conversation with Sam about the fact that Keith was different from himself, the station was contacted by Jomy, the leader of the Mu, as an attempt at diplomacy - Keith's doubts only deepened after Sam told him that Jomy was a childhood friend of his and the next day he discovered that all memories of the encounter, which had left all his classmates involved unconscious, were completely erased for every student involved but him.

During this time, Shiroe had been attempting to figure out Keith's origins, after finding that no one who had supposedly arrived on the same transport ship could remember him arriving with them, leading to him being absent for some time after he was captured in the attempt. Keith found Shiroe again after the boy, who had been tested for psionics and found to be a Mu, had escaped and was trying to flee, in need of medical attention. Keith sheltered the boy despite knowing he should turn him in, curious about what Shiroe had discovered about him. He gave Shiroe medical help and allowed him to sleep in his room until he'd recovered somewhat. After a short conversation, however, and before Shiroe could tell him anything more than to seek his past on Floor 001, the boy was taken back into custody. Keith was surprised to discover the next day that memories of Shiroe had been erased from every student on the station except himself.

Very shortly thereafter, Jomy made another attempt to contact the station diplomatically, encouraging the students to remember their childhoods, and the psionic onslaught resulted in the students mentally regressing to childhood, experiencing their favorite things - except Keith, who had no childhood. Alone, he wrestled control of the station back by shutting down the systems and disconnecting Jomy's contact with the ship, then turning the system back online. Meanwhile, during the station blackout, Shiroe managed to escape, though his mind was quite damaged, and got onto a small ship in an attempt to go out and meet with 'Peter Pan' - what he called Jomy. After a short conversation with Mother Eliza, Keith was commanded by her to go after Shiroe, a traitor and Mu.

While in his ship, Keith could hear the delusional babblings of Shiroe as the boy quoted from Peter Pan, longing to go back to his childhood, his parents who had loved him, and cried for the memories and parts of himself he'd lost in the Adult Examination. He came to the realization then that he had neglected the boy, that he should have paid him more attention. After resolving to get Shiroe back, Mother Eliza commanded him to shoot the boy down, and, with a great amount of regret, Keith obeyed. He shot down the ship Shiroe was in, and afterward shed the only tears he is ever shown to shed in the length of the series.

It is in this troubled state of confusion and regret, before he can rationalize to himself what he had done, that he will be brought to Haven.