There may be a few spoilers here and there!
The story.
The premise.
As I was still kind of new to anime I half expected a social commentary on terrorism that would blow my mind. Well the truth was less glamorous, but more on that later. Bottom-line --- the premise is very good and I found it fresh.
The pacing at least in my opinion was also very good. I did not find it lagging to the end.
Now to the sick parts of the story section or Complexity and Plausibility. Here is the time to say that a show does not have to be complex in any way to be good. It's more of a nice touch that elevates the quality(for me that is). The problem with the complexity of Zankyou no Terror is more like that it felt lacking from what was expected. It's like nobody wants complexity from SAO, because it is not that kind of anime, but in the case of Terror in Resonance it was almost a must have. I am not saying the show is stupid in this instance only that it felt lacking. The plausibility is not the stuff the makes an anime great, but just like with the complexity, an anime of this sort would have benefited by it. That's not the case. Although the police is not retarded like most anime it still needs one genius in hiding to solve everything. I don't mind said cliche, but it felt like taking the safe route witch would be a recurring theme throughout the anime. And there is the other bane of the show. Our protagonist not killing anybody. Well it is you know impossible with them being terrorists and all, but that's not the point. Instead of making the characters thought provoking, again they choose the safe root in order to mark them clearly as the "good guys". This really hurt the anime for me as it wasted so much character promise. And lastly they are teenagers, but with other teenagers taking over the world while attending school, well I'll let it slide. And what's with them attending school that proved to be a really cheap plot device.
The conclusion. Again it felt a bit cheap. *Spoilers*. The end with them being killed felt pointless. They were going for the "feels" ending, but it ended up being anticlimactic. I don't mind the not so happy endings in fact I love them when done right..... this would have been better with a happy one.
Overall I liked the story. For all it's shortcomings it did have a lot of mature themes(again a must have for an anime like this) and I highly appreciate the lack of shonen elements.
The Characters.
Well.... I found them wanting more development, but for such a short anime I shall not hold it against it(too much). Let's go through them one by one. Protagonist number one: 9 is a blunt,cool and mature type that carries a s**t ton of grief and stuff. Development---basic and not much.
The other protagonist: 12 is the childish type that if need be goes in full MVP mode. Again very basic development. Now for the female lead Lisa also known as "Best plot device ever". That aside I liked her. Her story brought a needed contrast and she was just so confused through the hole thing. Again they could have done better here especially with the ending. Now for the all knowing Shibazaki. Expert on greek mythology and everything else the plot requires(except the things his daughter is an expert at). I like him, he is cool. Oh yes the riddles I forgot about them.Way sufficed to say is that they are just a sort cheap way to make the anime feel more clever.
Lastly Nine. She was going overboard so many times and was acting wrong. Again a missed opportunity for better development.
Overall I like the characters. They did have presence although lacking on the personality front. Their background was very good. And in the end I did find them memorable although there wasn't new entries to my vast pantheon of favorites.
Art and Sound.
The art and sound I loved. The art has this severity that makes contrast with the explosions and the music is beautiful. I am not really knowledgeable enough on these parts so I'll limit myself with that.
Enjoyment.
I loved it. It has beautiful animation and sound. Combine that with decent story and characters I watched it in one breath. The only disappointment was the fact that it could have been this awesome social commentary on terrorism, but again I shall not blame them for take the safe root, because it's easy for me to say that it would have been awesome, but then again could have been a terrible farce of a trainwreck.
Conclusion.
Finally I highly recommend it, although it may not be for everyone. I have rated it 9,5/10 but thats the score for me, a bit more realistic score would be 8/10.
