Hey, sorry this came out so late and by a bit late I mean a week late, that’s why I’ll include episode 2 in this as well! Zankyou no Terror, I can already sense all of the…how to I say this? The people feeling awkward about this series already. I’ll tell you, despite liking it immensely I also feel rather odd about it. Anyway, that aside why don’t we actually go into the series, what it’s about and what happens in the first two episodes before we get too deep about our feelings on it.
We start out in Aomori, Japan in the middle of winter at a Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing plant. In which we see what seems like two young boys breaking into the facility, one of them is already inside posing as a worker and the other one is driving in, in a police car. The one posing as a worker gets off his crane and starts spray painting some letters on the ground.
The letters V.O.N. which as it seems to pop up in episode 2 as well I assume is going to be very important later on in the series but as of right now it means absolutely nothing to us. So let’s just go with it for now.
Retrospect, when you realize that the guy pulling the inside job is holding a gun to weapon grade plutonium. They sort of fail to mention that this episode, but they bring it up in episode two so when you go back and look you’re kinda like “Well DAMN. That’s ballsy as all hell.” So anyway, he runs the weapon grade plutonium out to his accomplice on the snowmobile. They make the great snowmobile escape, even running over a few guards in the process.
That’s when we cut to the opening, the opening is…interesting, it’s not exactly engaging but it’s that sort that’s very artsy. It sort of reminds me of Ghost in the Shell maybe? The clock work images drum up memories of the Steins;Gate opening. I wouldn’t say it’d a bad opening, just not one I’d put in my top 10 anime openings of the year. After the opening we skip to Tokyo, six months later from the initial raiding of the facility.
Hey, Zankyou no Terror. Free: Eternal Summer called, they REALLY want their swimming pool back.
In all seriousness, we cut to a large pool where a group of girls are. This is what we call bullying, so says Twelve or the guy who is constantly smiling and it sort of scares me despite the fact I think he’s really cute. Twelve catches them bullying her by trying to get her to jump into the pool in her clothing, she says she’s gonna do it because she’s hot. He figures, well so is he, so he jumps the wall runs over and dives in the pool. Totally nulling the point of trying to keep a low profile that Nine just kept telling him to do.
The girl notes the two boys, one with a smile as bright as a summer day and one with eyes as cold as ice. So, we introduce them as transfer students at the school of the girl who was getting bullied. Nine introduces himself Arata Kokone. Twelve introduces himself as Toji Hisami, with his dorky smile, covered in pool water. WHY DO I FIND HIM SO CUTE!? I’ll bring this up later on why this feels so amazingly awkward to me.
We move to the cops, one of which is playing Shogi and the other one watching videos on youtube. While surfing youtube he comes across a video with two people wearing masks, Sphinx Weather Forecast. We recognize them as Twelve and Nine, however the cops have no idea. The forecast darkness for the Tokyo area at 3:00, large sparks will fly in the Shinjuku area. They warn you to use caution when leaving the house. The police pretty much brush it off as a prank, commenting that it’s not even summer vacation yet.
Moving on to lunch time, Twelve and Nine are talking on the roof when they see the girl from earlier running off to have her lunch in the outside bathroom. Her name is Lisa Mishima, she seems to be being harassed from text messages from her mother, seemingly ill she flushes her entire lunch down the toilet.
I’m not sure what to make of the next scene at all, a black and white dream of two boys who we can assume to be Twelve and Nine running out of a burning compound. Another kid was with them but they burned up in the fire, this dream has been bothering Nine for some time now. I’m aware it’s part of their back story but as of episode two we have no real context of how they grew up and how it fits into what they’re doing now. Is is honestly bad enough to support whatever grudge they seem to have against the Japanese government? only time will tell us I guess. Twelve seems to think that Nine had the dream because Lisa has eyes similar to those of the kids at the institution.
The next day moves into a school field trip where the plan laid out in the youtube video is set to go into action.We see Lisa being harassed more by her mother she comments that she wishes that everyone would just disappear. As the power is taken away from the city, they begin placing bombs hidden inside of cute mascot dolls around the building. Lisa discovers Twelve holding one of the mascot doll bombs. He tosses it up to her to keep her company because it’s lonely hiding by yourself or so he says and walks of. Of course, it’s more to keep her hostage, it’s either, she dies when they set it off or she becomes an accomplice to what they’re doing. Pretty cruel, but oddly effective way to keep someone quiet. Honestly at this point in the series I’m rather confused about Lisa’s role in the overall scheme of things, are the way her eyes look important? Is she from the same place they are? Is her role going to be bigger then the girl they keep hostage by threats? I’m rather interested in seeing where her story arc is going. Long story short about the end of episode one, they blow up the building but not until after it’s been entirely cleared of people, nobody dies and there are very few injuries. Lisa gets saved after agreeing to be their accomplice and the episode ends there. Now let’s move on to examining episode two.
In episode 2 we find out a little more about Lisa’s home life and her mothers obsessive texting, the best i can assume is her mother is a drunk or at least completely unhinged and is convinced Lisa is trying to leave her like her father did. There is a large police meeting that once again reminds me of Death Note, similar to the seminar in which L first stepped into the case. Though this series shows no signs of having anyone like that, there is the cop we saw playing Shogi, (name Shibazaki) in last episode who seems to be more intelligent then he is letting on. On the remnants of one of the bombs found at the site they once again find the letters V.O.N. printed on it. I’m still curious as to the meaning of these letters, or if they have any meaning at all past just being a calling card for Twelve and Nine.
We cut briefly to Twelve and Nine making their next bomb, set up to look like a delivery box from a ramen shop. They talk about Lisa and why Nina chose to call her an accomplice, he claims it was just to keep her quiet but I’m not entirely sure that’s the case. Dressed as a delivery boy, Nine sneaks into the police station and places the bomb in the lunch room. Now it’s time for another wacky youtube video in which they give the police a riddle.
“What walks on two legs, then on four legs, then finally on three.”
Everyone is familiar with this riddle, or at least the more commonly known variation of it. The riddle is normally phrased, “What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?” know the answer? Obviously, it’s man. Not a hard riddle at all, though you might notice that they phrased it differently they the riddle we all know and love. It takes Shibazaki to realize this and get the correct answer to the riddle given by the boys. I’ll admit, it’s actually really clever.
However, since everyone else in the show gets it wrong. They clear the police station to go looking at a DNA center. Once the police station is clear of people, our boys blow the building up. Once again avoiding any causalities. Shibazaki who we’ve known since the start is more then the lazy archive worker he poses as seems like he’s getting ready to enter the fray and somehow…I feel like Nine is almost expecting it.
overall impressions of this series: I feel very strange about this show so far, it touches upon a very sensitive subject while still trying not to step on too many toes. The fact that both buildings have been cleared of people before the bombings has made it a lot easier to stomach but how much longer will this continue? How long until someone dies? I’m not even entirely sure who I’m supposed to be supporting in this series. Is it Twelve and Nine? Was what was done to them as children bad enough to constitute what they are doing against the Japanese Government? Is it even okay for me to like them, as I stated earlier I find them interesting and to a point they’re both very cute (damn me and my magane fetish). Is it Lisa, what’s her story and how does she fit into the grand scheme of things? Am I supposed to be rooting for Shibazaki who I know next to nothing about at the end of episode 2? As characters, Nine and Twelve are sort of interesting, how did they end up so different in personality? This show leaves you with a lot of questions that you know you want answered, at the same time it’s like staring down into a dark pit. How long until it swallows you whole? I am somehow reminded of some quotes from Psycho-Pass as I watch this show. There is nothing morally correct about what they’re doing, regardless of the fact that nobody has died it’s still not a victimless crime. It’s been a lot of thinking for me as I’ve written this and even as I’ve just been thinking about the show, the real question that hit me like a train as I was coming to the end of this review was, “Would this show of bothered me as much before 9/11?”‘. Who knows, well anyway Ive always loved Cowboy Bebop and I’m hoping that Shinichiro Watanabe can pull through and bring me another amazing series, now if I can just stop worrying about the US Anti-Terrorism group flagging me for watching this show I’ll be fine.
~Midnight