My answer would have to be, “not really.” In short, Zankyou no Terror is worthy of its praise for its impressive visuals and a phenomenal soundtrack, but those alone are not enough to cover up the lack of character development and the slightly problematic story.
Story & Exposition
Zankyou no Terror is about two mysterious teenagers, Nine and Twelve, who plan a series of terrorist bombings in Tokyo under the alias of “Sphinx.” Much like the Sphinx from Greek Mythology, Nine and Twelve give out a riddle to the public before detonating each bomb. An ex-detective named Kenjiro Shibazaki is the only one in the Japanese police force that figures out the answers to the riddles, and he vows to bring “Sphinx” to justice. Shibazaki, however, eventually realizes that Nine and Twelve have ulterior motives behind their terrorist bombings and figures out a disturbing truth. But before Shibazaki can process the truth, the Sphinx bombings come to a sudden stop as the FBI, led by an old friend of Nine and Twelve, intervenes and starts a wild cat-and-mouse chase to capture “Sphinx.” A three-way battle between the Japanese police force, “Sphinx,” and the FBI unfolds as they all try to carry out their own purposes.
Since you are sort of thrown into the middle of this whole situation, watching Zankyou no Terror initially feels like playing a videogame without in-game tutorials: You have to learn everything there is to know about the anime as it goes on. The show will leave you plenty of hints throughout the series through flashbacks, cinematographic details, and dialogue, but in the end it is up to you to analyze those hints and figure out what is going on. Since most anime rely on “info dumps” to spoon-feed background information to the audience, Zankyou no Terror really stood out in the beginning for its engaging style of exposition.
The problem with this style of exposition, however, is that there is a limit as to how much the show can tell the viewers without directly telling them. The more information the show holds from the audience, the harder it will be to explain everything towards the end. Unfortunately, this was the case for Zankyou no Terror, so even if the show tried to explain everything towards the end, it answered only the bare essentials of the questions raised by the show. Zankyou no Terror should have struck a balance between what they should tell the audience and what they should hold from the audience, but they decided to hold too much from the audience and paid the price of glossing over several questions that needed to be addressed. Although the show wraps up its story relatively well, there was a sense of incompleteness that left me dissatisfied in the end.
Style Over Substance?
When it comes to Watanabe, it’s hard not to talk about his style. Without a doubt, Zankyou no Terror is Watanabe’s directing at its finest, especially in terms of cinematography: Watanabe uses a lot of low-key lighting in order to convey a sense of despair and isolation, or in other cases a sense of mystery and suspense; he uses different camera panning techniques to give scenes 3D depth that makes them look dynamic; and of course, his love for the visual spectacle resulted in some of the most beautifully animated scenes to be seen in anime history.
However, Zankyou no Terror is the typical case of a show that emphasizes "style over substance," in which the captivating style overwhelms the comparatively weak substance. There definitely was a deeper message and a darker story behind Zankyou no Terror, but the show just didn't do a good job of conveying that message and story. Most of the story’s shortcomings and shallowness can be blamed on the length of the show, because a 1-cour was not enough to tell the story that Zankyou no Terror was trying to tell. The writers could definitely have planned it better, but what started out as a seemingly profound show about exploring the mindset of terrorists and discussing the corruption and degradation of a Japanese nation quickly became a blockbuster action thriller filled with clichés and empty characters. The writers tried too hard to combine a dark social commentary with action thriller sequences that the show ended up as a confused mishmash that lost the original focus of the story. Zankyou no Terror should have focused more on being either a dark human drama or a pulse-pounding suspense drama, but not both.
Characters & Developments
With the story trying to be two things at once and Watanabe focusing too much on his own style, the weakest aspect of Zankyou no Terror would undoubtedly be its characters. There just is not much to say about the characters because viewers never get an in-depth look into each character. At one point, viewers have to accept the fact that some characters are just plot devices in order for the story to meet a certain end. The characters definitely had the potential to drive the story in a better direction, but the characters are instead sacrificed in order for the story to finish strong.
However, it is not like the characters get no development at all. The show actually makes subtle attempts to try and develop its characters, and so if the viewers are willing to invest themselves enough to the show, they will indeed be able to find redeeming qualities within the characters. However, for most viewers the characters do not get developed enough for them to care. And without the emotional connection between the viewers and the characters, viewers cannot look beyond the dull and stereotypical personas to find the characters likable or relatable.
This is a real shame considering that the characters were actually interesting. Looking at it strictly from the characters’ perspectives, the story revolves around five social outcasts who each want to make something of their aimless lives and do something right for themselves. Seeing each of them struggle in his or her own way to carry out individual goals is actually both heartbreaking and heartwarming to watch. However, the show, again, never capitalizes on the emotional development of these characters, and thus the inner conflicts of the protagonists become largely overlooked.
Art & Realism
A rather unique aspect about this show is its sense of realism. Since the setting is in an alternative version of modern Japan, it is difficult for viewers to suspend their disbelief because the show makes everything seem so realistic and believable. For example, it is clear that the writers did their research in terms of how bombs are made, how hackers invade the system, and how the police would react to terrorist attacks. Not only that, the show throws in all these real life references, like YouTube videos, Puzzles & Dragons, Twitter tweets, and Bitcoins to further emphasize the show’s realism.
The realism can be seen in the character designs as well. For example, the show contains a lot of close-ups on the characters’ faces, so the facial features are detailed and well proportioned. The characters as a whole are given normal human appearances, but are still distinct from one another because of their facial and bodily features.
In terms of the animation, the show stomps its competition by a long shot. Although there was a quality drop towards the end of the show, the animation overall was smooth, detailed, and beautifully done. Briefly mentioned above, Watanabe’s choices in cinematography is really what made the animation stand out even more and resulted in visually stunning scenes that are hard to come by in anime.
Kanno & Soundtrack
Usually, the soundtrack is my least favorite part to review because there are only so many ways of saying that the soundtrack “enhances the mood or atmosphere of certain scenes in the anime.” I mean, which soundtrack doesn’t? Zankyou no Terror’s soundtrack, however, gives me something to write about. For one thing, the soundtrack is categorically indie, filled with several experimental songs that combine electronic, classical, and ambient sounds together with (or without) vocals in Japanese, English, or Icelandic. Yoko Kanno shows off her musical prowess once more and proves that she is not afraid to experiment with different styles of music in order to make a soundtrack appropriate for Zankyou no Terror. The soundtrack, therefore, is terrific. What makes it more than just an excellent soundtrack, however, is that it becomes better when complemented by the anime. Partly due to the cinematic quality of Zankyou no Terror, every scene in which a song is playing in the background looks and feels like a music video. In other words, the emotions evoked from the scenes mesh beautifully with the melody of the songs, thus making Zankyou no Terror’s soundtrack an essential part in enjoying this anime to its fullest.
Final Verdict
Watch Zankyou no Terror at your own risk. The realistic art and the remarkable music are enough to blow you away, but the problematic story and dull characters will reasonably disappoint you. Watch this show as you would any other show by lowering your expectations, and only then will you find that Zankyou no Terror is one of the better ones, especially among original anime, to come out in awhile.
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Story: 6/10
Character: 6/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
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Overall: 7.5/10
(Edit: I decided to weigh the "story and character" more (60%) and "art, music, and enjoyment" less (40%). That way I would be giving a more accurate score that reflects my review. Score is rounded up to 8 since MAL has no "in-between" score)
