Best anime of this summer?You got it horribly wrong. (judge this review after watching at least 7 episodes)
I am a HARDCORE detective/mystery genre fan that is why I had very high expectations of this show when I started it but it was a downhill slope starting from episode one. I am not the type of person that likes to write entirely UNCONVENTIONAL reviews but my mind forced me on this one Some people might be bragging about its ORIGINALITY but guess what?*Spoiler*Ever heard of the anime "MONSTER"?The characters background is entirely COPIED from that masterpiece anime. I wanted to wait till the show is complete before writing this review but I could not hold myself back anymore.
Overwhelming positive reviews of ZnT are only because of hasty people judging it by first two episodes.
Story 3/10
*Spoilers*
Two teenagers( with mysterious background) attempting terrorist attacks while preventing casualties and a smart-ass detective trying to stop them. Actually I have NO problem with it whatsoever. The use of Greek mythology as puzzles is a little awkward but one can live with it because it is done cleverly. It even focuses on small details of those terrorist attacks. Which should make it an above average anime. So what is wrong with the story then? The problem is that this show presents itself as a serious and REAL crime/detective anime. Then all of a sudden a foreign teenage GIRL '5' appears and sits on the arses of the whole police department of Japan, lets bombs blast (and even makes police plant the bombs *facepalm* ) in public places just in order to catch two wanna-be terrorists. On the top of that starts playing chess with the terrorists on the Airport screens and no one gives a f***, no the absurdness is not over, she plants bomb in a passenger plane and tries to hit it on the airport,risking lives of hundreds, just to kill 2 to 3 terrorists and the Japanese authorities are sleeping? Is this a goddamned REAL CRIME DETECTIVE show? Moreover so when she herself orders to "dont shoot" the terrorist('9') like 3 minutes ago!! Poor writing must not be ignored in such genres.
Art
9/10
The art was pretty suitable for a serious and realistic show and was most of the time OUTSTANDING. Although the anime itself turned out to be mediocre but the art was clearly meant to give ZnT a realistic touch.
Sound
8/10
The opening and ending are pretty decent, the BGM is usually drum music which is unconventional but certainly pleasant to the ears.
Characters
7/10
As already mentioned, the background story of 9 and 12 is literally pulled out of 'Monster' anime, but even then the show reveals this story so late in the show when it does not really matter anymore. 12 is a happy go lucky kind of character and remains the same throughout the show while 9 is your usual serious badass protagonist with a soft corner in his heart somewhere. The girl Lisa has a screwed up Mom who is over-obsessed with her daughter. Lisa herself is a cliche character who cannot do anything and is extremely fragile and emotionally unstable, her purpose and reason is yet to be explored, maybe a hostage/handicap character. The famed antagonist '5' which I've been taking about for quite a long time(who is an old 'pal' of our protagonists) is also completely unexplored, but she wants some kind of revenge on the main characters, due to her hot-air-ballon-ego at the expense of whole Japanese citizens, her personality can be summed up in one word i.e. bitch.*Spoiler-ends*
Enjoyment and Overall
6/10
ZnT started rather brightly, but a lot of flaws in its "REALISTIC" story which is flushed down the gutter after 5 episodes, negligible character development till late in the anime makes it a mediocre anime as it progresses.
Being a huge fan of crime, terrorist and detective shows, it is safe to say that ZnT had a lot of potential but it is utterly wasted when the show deviates from reality, a bit of deviation is digestible(Detective Conan), but when such an anime completely ignores reality just to heat up the rivalry between protagonists and antagonist...... it ends up choking the mystery fans like us.
Though judging it by the eye of an ordinary viewer, the anime is above average(that is,if you ignore all the bullshit and plot holes).
