AKA Terror in Resonance AKA Terror In Tokyo AKA Echo's Terror AKA Oh my God, THIS SHIT IS HYYYYYYYYPE.

 

*Ahem* Sorry, that got away from me for a second.

 

Anyways, the summer anime season rolls on with this brand new show directed by my boy Shincero Watanbe, director of Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Space Dandy.

 

WATCH IT. RIGHT NOW. DO IT. GOOOOOOOOO!!

 

*Ahem* Okay, I gotta stop that. Sorry. Anyways, onto the premiere episode.

 

So basically this is a show about two kids: NIne, a bubbly and super eccentric dude, and Twelve, your typical by-the-book quiet guy, complete with glasses and an icy stare. By the way, yes that's their names, Nine and Twelve. For real. They apparently made up some new names for themselves but it doesn't really matter. From what I've gathered, these two boys form this group called Spinx and they're basically terrorists. Yeah. Freaking terrorists. This is already some dark shit going on, huh? It gets even darker when you look at their backstory, which we only get, like, five to twelve seconds on. My guess is that they used to be part of some government science project or something.

 

So we see Nine and Twelve attend high school. They pose as transfer students because, well, I guess they're new in town and need to keep on the low down, as Twelve explains it. They come into contact with a girl named Lisa Mishima, who she meets and sort of becomes enamored by after Nine and Twelve get involved in an incident with her where a group of bitches were trying to make her dive into the school pool. Also, not only is she quiet and somewhat lacking self-confidence, but I think she has family issues. I'm only saying because of the scenes where she's hiding herself in the bathroom and looking at the piles of text messages her mom is sending her. Either that, or she just has a habit of secluding herself. I don't know.

 

Oh yeah did I forget the mention that the opening segment of this show is Nine and Twelve blowing up a research facility? Yeah.

 

Anyways, we're also introduced to Shibasaki, former detective and current records keeper who stumbles upon a video on the interwebs involving Nine and Twelve. (Before I go on, let me say I love Shibasaki's design for some reason. Maybe its the beard lol) Anyways, the video contains Nine and Twelve wearing Power Ranger-looking masks and casting an omen of sorts that Japan will be eclipsed into darkness at 3 PM the next day. And when the next day comes, we see Nine and Twelve succeed in pulling off a bomb job on some mall building, blowing it up using explosives hidden in little plush toys and causing steam, smoke, and fire to erupt, scaring the shit out of the Japanese population... I'm not really sure if Nine and Twelve are the "good guys" to be honest.

 

The episode ends as Lisa, who was in the building, is helped by Nine and Twelve to escape as Nine wanted to help Twelve get other a dream he had the earlier night about their backstory I mentioned (where apparently one of their friends were burned alive). However, Twelve tells Lisa that now she has to become an accomplice of Spinx. And the episode ends there.

 

I gotta say: the animation in this show is WONDERFUL. Everything moves with such fluidity and the little effects here and there just make it all the more better. The characters designs I have to admit are really good, and that's saying something considering how realistic the style is: any other show I think I would mix up the main cast with background characters, but not this. Also, the opening and ending animations are also WONDERFUL. This is gonna be some good shit, I tell ya what. That is, if you're into WONDERFUL animation and a grounded/realistic/dark setting. To be honest, if I simply read about this show and saw some of the posters or images shown before release, I probably would have thought this show was going to be boring as hell. But you know what they say: seeing is believing. Besides, how could I ever doubt my boy Watanbe?  

The opening is so good. I can't wait for more. Sad that it's only 11 episodes :sad:

Edited July 11, 201411 yr by Bearanort

The opening is so good. I can't wait for more. Sad that it's only 11 episodes :sad:

Who knows? It might get a season 2. Space Dandy did.

When I heard it was by the same guy as Space Dandy... I was NOT expecting this ._.

I have a theory of what's going on with Nine and Twelve's backstory.

 

All I can say is that they were probably kid genius's or something like that raised in some closed off military science lab and being observed under a microscope by the government. Judging by the last episode's expansion on their backstory, it seems they were conditioned not to fee love or anything like that; my guess is that they were trying to desensitize them so they could do their jobs better. Then one day, there was an uprising where somebody (most likely Nine and Twelve themselves) devised an escape plan and it went to shit, thus causing the firestorm that erupted as Nine and Twelve escaped the base and killed their friend with the white hair, who is still nameless and also is very enigmatic to us at this point, much like Nine and Twelve themselves. My guess is that he was like one of their closest friends besides themselves and was like the third to some kind of Three Amigos thing going on with them, which makes sense considering how Twelve is always having nightmares about him.

 

So yeah, not much going on here, but at least its something right?

Next week, or whenever it comes because we've taken breaks before, is the final of Zankyou No Terror.

 

We've gone through a lot in only ten episodes, and eleventh will the be-all, end-all. And there are so many questions and so many things going on in the story right now, i can't even bring myself to EXPLAIN what's going on. You just... you gotta watch it for yourself, if you haven't already. Maybe after the finale, I'll be able to put it into words. lol  And hopefully it'll end better than Tokyo Ghoul did.

 

Mesmerizing. That's how I describe the ending and overall feeling of Zankyou No Terror.

 

To think that both Nine and Twelve would die in the last episode is a big twist. I'm not gonna lie, I expected Lisa to be the one to die, not those two. But I guess not. But anyways: the reasonings behind Spinx were something I didn't expect to be honest, but it makes a lot of sense: Spinx is basically a warning towards the Japanese public about the dangers of technology and, again, it makes sense considering technology is the reason they were selected into the Athena Program and what made them go through the grief they had in their lives. I'm also glad that Lisa is alive actually, because in a way, she's like the person that can help spread Nine and Twelve's message to the people around her, and Shibazaki too.

 

So after eleven episodes, ZnT draws to a beautiful and dramatic close. Yeah, there are still some things up in the air, but hey, not every question has an answer. Its up to us to fill in the blanks sometimes. And also: the ending credits roll was pretty much the best shot of the series IMO, with all the feathers floating up in the air while the camera pans up into the sky. It was really nice. This series is near-perfect, no doubt about it.