Zankyou no Terror

Painted in red, the word "VON" is all that is left behind after a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility in Japan. The government is shattered by their inability to act, and the police are left frantically searching for ways to crack down the perpetrators. The public are clueless—until, six months later, a strange video makes its way onto the internet. In it, two teenage boys who identify themselves only as "Sphinx" directly challenge the police, threatening to cause destruction and mayhem across Tokyo. Unable to stop the mass panic quickly spreading through the city and desperate for any leads in their investigation, the police struggle to act effectively against these terrorists, with Detective Kenjirou Shibazaki caught in the middle of it all.

Zankyou no Terror tells the story of Nine and Twelve, the two boys behind the masked figures of Sphinx. They should not exist, yet they stand strong in a world of deception and secrets while they make the city fall around them, all in the hopes of burying their own tragic truth.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Twelve Main

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Nine Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Shibazaki, Kenjirou Main

Sakuya, Shunsuke Japanese

Mishima, Lisa Main

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Five Supporting

Han, Megumi Japanese

Mob-ko Supporting

Satake, Uki Japanese

Mukasa Supporting

Kanuka, Mitsuaki Japanese

Hamura Supporting

Aigasa, Keisuke Japanese

Kurahashi Supporting

Tezuka, Hideaki Japanese

Clarence Supporting

Takahashi, Daisuke Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Kimura, Makoto Producer

Ootsuka, Manabu Producer

Inoue, Takamitsu Producer

Reviews

Jan 5, 2026

jlzap

Recommended

The main story of this was pretty great. There wasn't a lot of time to get across the whole story, but I think they managed. I do think this would have been better if we had more episodes to really get to know the characters' backgrounds more. We understand all of their backgrounds fully, but just getting more clips from their past to develop stronger emotional stakes within the viewer would make certain things hit harder — the show did still hit real hard though, especially the ending. Also, you're not left with any questions by the end, which is another ... added bonus.

The animation was good, and the music was CHEF'S KISS. The sound design for this was an absolute banger. They knew exactly what to play and when to play it.

Now, the women in this were eh. Lisa and Five were kinda mid and we see Lisa's mom for like 0.2 seconds. Lisa being the classic helpless, clumsy girl the whole time with like no improvement was a bit annoying but what can you do. And Five's whole plot was, eh. On one hand I get it but on the other hand like, it wasn't really needed; and especially not the lengths she went through and damage she did to get what she wanted.

I also feel bad saying this, but Five's English was terrible. She'd speak English when she was with the other Americans, but she unfortunately had the worst accent of everyone despite being the most important. I obviously don't expect a Japanese voice actor to have perfect English pronunciation or anything, but it made lines that were meant to be hard-hitting into a joke. If the voice actor couldn't get the lines across with the intended power, they should not have had her use English, she doesn't use it half the time anyways. If this paragraph shoos you away from watching it, I'd say don't let that happen; it's only a couple minutes of English throughout the whole series, you can get over it for that short period of time and enjoy everything else.

This sounds like a really complainy review, but these are my *only* complaints. The rest of the show was truly fantastic, I do highly recommend it; it's just hard to tell you good things about it without spoiling anything.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Nov 30, 2025

MrGuillotine

Mixed Feelings

Man, this was a struggle to get through - despite the pretty animations and genuinely beautiful music. The story keeps threatening to live up to them, but it never gets anywhere close. Roughly once every 3 episodes or so there's a moment of genuine intrigue and suspense but that's it.

9 and 12 are... Fine characters but I didn't really care too much about them. I kept rooting for Lisa and 5 to get proper development, to become less obnoxious but it never happened. The only character I genuinely really like is Shibazaki. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the middle aged wash ... up detective type.

There are various completely abandoned plot points such as Lisa's unstable mother and absent father, Shibazaki's relationship to his family, Lisa's connection to 9 and 12's backstory - really, it's mostly Lisa related stuff which just makes her character even more disappointing since there was actually room for genuine improvement there.

4/10, I recommend you waste your precious time with these 11 episodes over wasting it with 12 episodes of some shitty rom-com, Isekai or harem but that's the highest praise I can give it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Feb 4, 2025

AniNexus_Reviews

Not Recommended

It seems as though, in America, there is a cult-like obsession with Shinichiro Watanabe. This can be attributed largely to the immense stateside success of "Cowboy Bebop" and "Samurai Champloo." Because of their heavy presence on the Adult Swim programming block, during the early days when anime was still becoming mainstream in the states, they have a lot of nostalgia factor for many people. Unfortunately, many self-proclaimed 'anime fans' in this country are in the business of mistaking their own nostalgia for another man's genius. Although I am a fan of "Champloo," I am under no such delusion. For a long time, I have felt ... that Watanabe is a hack writer. In the first place, he has never produced a single thing of value outside of these two works-- and even then, I find "Bebop" to be classic, but very overrated. I remember, over a decade ago now (as of the time of writing this review,) when all the girls were so excited to watch the disaster called "Sakamichi no Apollon," specifically because it was made by the creator of Bebop. It was something new and exciting for all the then twenty-something millennial girls to check out. I wasn't that interested in watching it myself, but I forced myself to endure it at that time, and it was a complete disaster. After that viewing experience, I swore never to take anybody seriously if they said their favorite anime was Bebop, or that their favorite creator was Watanabe.

Some ten-odd years later, and here we are, looking at another of his works. I had been interesting watching "Zankyou no Terror" for a long time, both for its subject matter and because the people on this site have rated it very highly. In retrospect, I see that I was completely wrong to give Watanabe another chance. This guy just cannot write a believable story, or a romance that isn't complete dogs^^^t. At best, he can give you a mildly entertaining, well-researched, and very-well animated story. That's really what this story is... It is dripping with rule-of-cool spy gadgets and bombs, but there is no substance here. The characters and their actions are also completely unbelievable. This would not be such a sin-- it's anime, after all-- except for the fact that the viewer is often asked to empathize with these unbelievable characters. At the time, their motives are completely unknown to the viewer, so it all looks completely ridiculous. Call this poor planning, but that's not acceptable considering as this anime takes itself deadly seriously.

I could go on, and complain more at length here, but I would be spoiling major plot points. What I will say is that, according to my current girlfriend, part of the plot appears to be roughly plagiarized, or otherwise templated from Resident Evil. I know this will rub many people the wrong way, but far be it from me to base the entirety of my opinion around this being a case of "The Simpsons did it." Rather, I would leave it at this: At best, Zankyou no Terror is the anime equivalent of a Michael Bay movie... Far from the least entertaining thing you'll ever watch, and I'd even say well-produced. But it's not at all good, not even for what it is. At worst, it is yet another pretentious and completely unbelievable teen-complex story about "omg so handsome" school-aged terrorist boys spiriting away a girl who just wants to be loved by someone on her own terms. In other words, insufferable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Zankyou no Terror Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Sep 25, 2014	897 replies	by WiredChip »» Jan 2, 1:17 AM
	Boring Jk_m - Aug 30, 2023	27 replies	by DiznyOrdiz »» Dec 19, 2025 2:32 PM
	Poll: Zankyou no Terror Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Naruleach - Jul 5, 2014	424 replies	by DiznyOrdiz »» Dec 4, 2025 1:04 PM
	Poll: Zankyou no Terror Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Sep 11, 2014	415 replies	by rararabbit »» Nov 18, 2025 9:18 PM
	Poll: Zankyou no Terror Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Sep 18, 2014	379 replies	by Cain_Virethorn »» Sep 17, 2025 8:56 PM

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