Reviews

Although this anime seems like a typical high school setting, don't just it by the first episode. Mature tones, well-rounded character cast, and intelligent script quickly move in. The genre tag of "Thriller" is highly appropriate. There are several quite thrilling moments where the characters are all juxtaposed in tense situations and not necessarily predictable outcomes. There is also a real philosophical/moral aspect to the anime, so viewers who appreciate this might enjoy finding ways to relate Zankyou no Terror to real-life dilemmas. The script and characters are extremely well done and make such philosophical conjecturing plausible. In spite of the action one might expect of a "terrorist" anime, this anime has no action to offer. It's more of a philosophical, thrilling anime.

The biggest con for the anime is the series length. The first 3-4 episodes begin quite ambitiously; if you laid all the pieces on the board after episode 3-5, it's quite exciting how much potential this dynamic story could achieve. The problem is there isn't really enough time to develop a story of such complexity to do the complexity of all the characters justice. The result is an anime that has moments of thrilling suspense, but also equal or more moments of standard anime plot moving forward in order to draw all the complicated pieces to a conclusion in timely fashion.

8/10 because the highs are nice to appreciate, and the "average" parts pass quickly in such a short anime. If you can appreciate a modest philosophical anime, or are easily thrilled, you'll probably enjoy Zankyou no Terror. My score is based on this kind of viewer. If you're looking for an ambitiously complex anime, you'll be disappointed; this anime is not long enough for that. Otherwise you'll probably find it fairly average.

PS: Moments of English occur in the anime. The voice acting has a noticeable accent. I've heard much worse in anime, but the flawed accents do detract from the ambiance of the anime (subtitles are still present though). Personally, I didn't knock points because I appreciated they attempted to be authentic, which is what an anime should aim for, but fair warning to the rest of you.