Hello everyone! For my first post on my Geekly Review blog, I will be reviewing Shinichiro Watanabe’s biggest creation of this year Zankyou No Terror or as it is known in English, Terror in Resonance. My name is Joslyn. Let’s begin!
{WARNING: SPOILERS ARE AHEAD. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE SHOW…PLEASE TURN BACK NOW! THANKS!}
Summary
Zankyou No Terror or Terror in Resonance starts off at a nuclear power plant where a group called Sphinx breaks in and steals a powerful substance called plutonium. Years later we come upon a normal day in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo experiences a major awakening by undergoing a life-changing terrorist attack. This attack is done by none other than Sphinx; a group of two boys named by their “assigned numbers” 9 and 12. In comes the third main character Lisa Mishima; a student in high school who undergoes bullying by her classmates and deals with her terrible home lifestyle from her mother. Moments later Lisa witnesses Twelve placing the last bomb inside the Tokyo Government building and is then later trapped inside. She receives a call from Sphinx and they tell her that she can either decide to become an accomplice of their plans or die. She then decides to join the group and Sphinx allows her to live. From then on out Sphinx sets up multiple riddles via online video and bombs throughout the city in order for the country to discover a dark secret that has been hidden from them for many years.
Zankyou No Terror was officially released in the US under the license of FUNImation. Music composed by Yoko Kanno, known works to be from Cowboy Beebop, Space Dandy, Cardcaptor Sakura, etc. and characters designed by Kazuto Nakazawa; known designs from Samurai Champloo, Giovanni’s Island, Digimon the Movie, etc.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_in_Resonance]
Plot
Zankyou No Terror as a whole brings a new kind of story to anime. Zankyou No Terror follows two teenage boys named 9 and 12; named so because they were a part of an experiment for the Japanese Health and Welfare. This organization was trying to create, [information according to the plan's wiki page]; a plan in which the government would take in children from around the country, more specifically, orphans. They would raise them to be highly functional assets to the government. These children possessed great knowledge and abilities; which came from a syndrome known as “Savant Syndrome”. Then the facility tried to create a drug that entailed the same syndrome into many other children that were hand picked by the government group involved. Unfortunately, the drug only worked on children five years or younger. Since many children were used for this experiment and were not at the required age; many passed away from failed experiments. Because there were many deaths involved for these experiments, the facility was shut down and the whole plan was scrapped.
Zankyou No Terror as a whole does succeed in wanting to provide an emotional adventure for it’s viewers. It starts out in the beginning giving us information about the group Sphinx; who are the protagonists throughout the show. Then they later spill out riddles in order for Japan to come to terms for it’s government’s secret work. Zankyou No Terror was created I feel; especially through the plot, to give us a new perspective on what it is like to be children and be used by their own government to create a new substance to make profit. It also tugs at our hearts because even though every anime will create characters that have a rough past no matter the age; they still are human. Zankyou No Terror does a great job in expressing that the reason for their terrible past was because of their own government and it wasn’t a choice that they wanted to make. As it is shown through the show, the main characters 9 and 12 remember specific moments from those years and it haunts them. It shows that even though the main characters’ actions were not the best choice; they were set on a mission for a reason. The main goal for Sphinx was to gain revenge on the Japanese government for how they were treated all those years ago. This purpose I feel was one strong asset to the show because it gave the main characters momentum to grow; even if their methods of gaining this attention were extreme.
The plot for Zankyou No Terror I feel is structured in a way that makes us rooting for 9 and 12 at the end of the show. What is nice about the plot for this show is that the biggest growth is through the characters. We only see 9 and 12 as being terrorists in the beginning. In the end, we learn that 9 and 12 ARE human beings and are only trying to give out justice. Another nice tie that is added to this series’ plot is that the riddles that are given to the police via video are linked to a Greek myth that was told. In Zankyou No Terror, these riddle were taken from the legend of Oedipus. In the end though, we are told that the true Oedipus in this series was Shibazaki, who is our fourth main character. Shibazaki use to work as a cop at the Japanese Metropolitan Police Station but was demoted to the archives section. Then the attacks started to occur and they promoted him back to his former rank in order to help them solve the riddles given by Sphinx.
Zankyou No Terror is a story that in the beginning we are given a map of what we need to find out along the way. We are given these clues in order for us to figure out what exactly is going on. One downside though for this show’s plot is that we end up finding out that 9 and 12 were a part of the “Athena Plan”, which is also a nice touch in tying back to ancient Greek mythology, until the last 3-4 episodes. For me in the beginning, I felt that the show was basically about these two boys and their attacks. It wasn’t until we find out about their disturbing past that I was able to make the connection. I feel that if they announced this secret a little bit earlier in the show, it would have made the plot stronger.
Characters
There were a few things that I feel were the biggest successes in this show. The first being the characters themselves. The main characters involved in this show are 9, 12, 5, Shibazaki, and Lisa. All of them have their own personalities and are all set to change their lives and make them better. The one character I feel that grew the most in this show was 12.
Twelve
In the beginning, 12 was more focused on being a part of Sphinx and wanting the same retribution as 9. He provided much humor in the show as well. As the show progresses, he becomes more idealistic in what is going on because he realizes what they are doing is wrong. One way in which he does this is that he ends up falling in love with Lisa. In how this is tied in with Lisa is that she was put under multiple threats by the show’s villain, 5.
Five
5 is introduced into the show about halfway. 5 is a girl who was one of the children who survived the experiments. She is set out in finding 9 and wanting to have him all to herself.
In getting back to how 12 becomes more mature is that he witnesses Lisa always being in harms way because of what they were doing. In the 3rd to last episode, he talks with 9. He feels that they should stop what they are doing. In having 12 realize what they were doing is not the best solution, I think 12 really does end up maturing by the end of the series. Another way in which he changes is in the beginning. He would go from being sweet and kind to scary and manipulative. One quote that shows his darker side is from episode 02, when he is talking with Lisa. He says to her, “If you make one false step, I will kill you.”
Then later on in episode 10, this is when we see 12 finally becoming a better person. The quote that shows this is, when he and Lisa are watching the atomic bomb going off in the sky. He takes hold of Lisa’s hand and says, “I am glad I met you.” This quote right here shows how much he has grown as a character because we know now that despite what he did in the past; he knows what he did was wrong.
The other characters in the show didn’t have as much character development as 12 did. 9 as a whole I feel stayed the same throughout the series.
Nine
His main goal was to show Japan what their government is really made of. He couldn’t shake his past because it destroyed him. He would always have nightmares of what happened to him and 12 at the laboratory and one in particular was the night of their escape. His ideals never really changed. The biggest evidence we are given is in the last episode. The scene is where 12 is shot and killed. After this has happened, 9 pulls out a remote and says that he has hidden more bombs throughout the country and that if the American agents don’t back off, that he will press the button and kill everyone. I am not defending their actions as far as the terrorism goes but 9 never really changes because he always wants to seek his payback for his own past.
Lisa as a character doesn’t change either because she still saw herself as a useless person.
Lisa
One factor though that did not help was her home lifestyle. Her mother was a character that was so mentally unstable that it became quite scary. Her mother would want to know where Lisa was at every second and would call her multiple times and text her a lot. Thankfully Lisa realizes just how terrible everything is and leaves. One strong point though for her character is that she ends up caring very much for both 9 and 12 despite their actions.
5 as a character I feel didn’t really develop at all.
Five
Her one main goal throughout the time she was in the show was to seek out 9. All she ever wanted to do was find 9 and destroy him. She ends up though killing herself which I find kinda sad and pathetic.
Honestly 5 wasn’t my favorite character. She did scare me though in the beginning.
Lastly Shibazaki as a character does have some character growth.
Shibazaki
In the beginning he is shown only to be a lazy guy working in the archives. He later on though becomes more involved in the show. He is given this because Shibazaki as a character is determined to solve each riddle before the bombs go off. In the end he truly does understand what Sphinx went through. His character does definitely grow within the series because he goes from being a lazy ass character who doesn’t even care to a character who becomes more involved with his family, works hard to obtain justice, and wants things to be solved.
[OMG AND WHEN 12 WAS SHOT!! THAT MADE ME SO SAD! :(]
At any rate, I feel the biggest character development that occurred in this show was through 12.
Animation & Sound
In all honestly, these two things I feel are what stood out the most for Zankyou No Terror. In starting with animation; the character designs were done in such a way that they made the characters so life like. The animation is so fluid when it cuts from one scene to the next. Color pallet was the biggest succession for this series. It gave us a sense that the characters were real and created a new world. Animation is definitely one of my favorite aspects of this show.
As far as sound goes, my favorite is the intro. Music composed by Yoko Kanno and sung by Yuuki Ozaki; the song is a beautiful piece to add to my favorites as far as OPs go. I would add this OP into one of my top favorites I think; alongside Free! Eternal Summer’s OP, Black Butler OP, Attack on Titan OP, etc.
Anyways this show as a whole I feel is worth watching. There are some ups and downs. The biggest criticism I can give to the show is that there could be more character growth with all of the characters and not just two. It also would have been nice if we had more scenes with the laboratory and we would get more background information at the time of when these experiments were going on. There would also need to be more actual dialogue scenes I think of the experiment years. I feel it would definitely help us learn more about the character’s past besides with what we are given. At any rate this is my review for Zankyou No Terror. Please give this post a like if possible and subscribe to my Youtube review channel for more reviews and first impressions, which I will link down below! Also comment on what your feelings are for this show. My name is Joslyn and I will see you in my next post!
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