If society talks about “terrorism” it’s a rather unpleasant subject. Terrorism is defined as an attitude and behavior, which aims to achieve (political, religious or ideological) goals by creating fear/terror. This can be done through bombing buildings or cyber hacking and often targets people who have nothing to do with it: civilians. But is the (from Watanabe Shinichiro directed) “Zankyou no Terror” the same?
Story: “Zankyou no Terror” or “Terror in Resonance” is about two young boys called Nine and Twelve who are determined to carry out their mysterious plan to wake up the society they live in. To achieve that goal, they are not afraid
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to use bombs (while still trying not to hurt anyone). However in their first bombing, a shy girl named Mishima Lisa -who already knew these boys as Arata Kokonoe and Touji Hisami from school- sees them after they planted the bomb. Twelve now gives her a decision: Either she dies, or she joins them as an accomplice and never has the chance to turn back.
Then we have the other side of the coin: The police force. They obviously try to catch those terrorist, because they are a great threat to Tokyo or even to entire Japan. Nine and Twelve actually legitimately give them hints through difficult riddles they broadcast via live streams. In those live streams they call themselves Sphinx #1 and Sphinx #2 which is a reference to their mythology based enigmas.
I personally enjoy this story idea and that it slowly builds on itself with every episode. But at first it doesn’t really feel like it’s going anywhere… Still, the perspective of both the side of the police and the side of the terrorists is great. 8.5/10
Characters: Zankyou no Terror likes to play with a warm-cold theme. You can hear that in the opening and even Mishima Lisa herself says in the first episode: “That was a smile like the sun on a hot summer day with eyes like ice“ referencing both Twelve and Nine. These two are decent characters, for reasons I will explain soon. But sadly, almost (if not every) other character is the huge weak part of the Anime.
Nine: Nine or Arata Kokonoe is the mind of Sphinx. He is a calm and composed character who is very clever. He seems to see Twelve as his brother but dislikes the uselessness of Mishima Lisa. However, it looks like he just doesn’t want her to get involved and thus hurt. He is restrained, definitely smart and extremely good at computing and hacking. He was in the same Institution as Twelve and Five and has a post-traumatic stress disorder because of it. Memories or nightmares about the facility and/or Five give him panic attacks - mainly because he feels guilty about not being able to save Five.
Twelve: Twelve or Touji Hisami is the heart of Sphinx. He is a playful and energetic character who likes to mess around sometimes. Twelve likes to be around other people, but until he met Mishima it was mainly Nine he could be with. Even though he acts very friendly, you can see his violent sides in the beginning. That, however, doesn’t seem to continue on in the later story progression. Twelve is extraordinarily good at remembering things and has a sickness called “synesthesia”. This makes him able to see sound as colors.
Mishima Lisa: She is an introverted, quiet and clumsy young girl who first meets Nine and Twelve while getting bullied in school. Mishima also has home problems and thus nobody to talk to. For that she despises the world. Even though Mishima is afraid of Sphinx in the beginning, she soon understands that this will maybe give her a wanted change in life. Twelve is actually threatening her life and says, that if she makes one mistake he will kill her (which is actually against Sphinx’s resolve). Sadly Mishima does nothing but making mistakes and gets away with it. Her entire character seems pretty unnecessary and is only there to give the duo accompany. Further, Twelve describes her voice as a rare pale yellow.
Shibazaki Kenjirou: Shibazaki, the Japanese detective started out as an interesting character who was the only one able to understand and solve Sphinx’s riddles. He seems fairly lazy but when confronted with danger he quickly switches to a smart minded und well experienced detective with a great sense of justice. We learn something about his past and that he is afraid of Sphinx planting the Plutonium Bomb. Even though it kind of annoyed me that nobody else was able to solve the riddles (except for that always-eating archive guy, who unknowingly helped) I think that Shibazaki had great potential until Five showed up and let him stand in the dust. He was always there but absolutely powerless against anyone else. This brings us to the next Problem:
Five: Five is a psychotic and sadistic girl that was in the same facility as Nine and Twelve. She has no problem killing everything and everyone to catch Sphinx for pathetic playing reasons. I found it very unrealistic that she had no problem getting on top of the Japanese Government and do all the stuff she wanted –unwatched by any high-up’s. She often speaks Engrish when working, which makes sense because she works for America, but it still was pretty weird. I have no problem with Engrish in Anime; however I can definitely see people being extremely annoyed by it.
I think that Zanykou no Terror’s characters were fairly acceptable but not great in a whole. On the other side, every character had absolutely fitting voice actors (But I don't count the voice actors into "Characters"). 6.5/10
Art/Animation: The art in Zankyou no Terror is very fitting and the realism of the Animation pretty much resembles the realism of terrorism. The character designs were right on and portrayed every personality well. The dark and greyish colors also did an impressive job of setting the mood. 10/10
Sound/OST: The opening “Trigger” by Galileo Galilei was absolutely amazing. It didn’t really make you particularly happy or sad, it was just kind of neutral; which I think fits the Anime well. The mood Watanabe wants you to be in will be delivered through the Anime itself. It had fitting text and (like I said somewhere above) even the warm-cold theme in it.
The OST was created by Kanno Yoko who has worked with Watanabe before. The songs were extremely right on! Every tune was very beautifully composed and made scenes way better than they would’ve been without. It was truly impressive work.
As the OST, the ending “Dare ka, Umi wo” was also done by Kanno Yoko and sung by Aimer. On the contrary to the opening, this was rather on the sad side and concluded every episode very well. It sounds kind of elegant and unique.
This magnificent Sound definitely gets 10/10 from me.
Spoiler free thoughts about the last episode: The mystery box finally opened. Every last piece is now in place and the show can begin - or rather, end. I’ve read a ton of hate for this ending but I actually like it. While I had some doubt about this Anime in the middle I think it definitely concluded in a pleasant way. The complete episode was written very well, but it almost seems that the episodes 2-10 were only fillers to get to this epic end.
Overall thoughts and score: Overall I think that Zankyou no Terror should definitely be an Anime on your list. It has beautiful art, unique music, an interesting plot but lacks a bit in characters (-development) and story progression. Altogether it is genuinely enjoyable! (:
Story: 8.5/10
Character: 6.5/10
Art/Animation: 10.0/10
Sound/OST: 10.0/10
Personal Enjoyment: 8.5/10
End Score: 8.7/10
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Nov 2, 2014
Zankyou no Terror
(Anime)
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If society talks about “terrorism” it’s a rather unpleasant subject. Terrorism is defined as an attitude and behavior, which aims to achieve (political, religious or ideological) goals by creating fear/terror. This can be done through bombing buildings or cyber hacking and often targets people who have nothing to do with it: civilians. But is the (from Watanabe Shinichiro directed) “Zankyou no Terror” the same?
Story: “Zankyou no Terror” or “Terror in Resonance” is about two young boys called Nine and Twelve who are determined to carry out their mysterious plan to wake up the society they live in. To achieve that goal, they are not afraid ... |
