Alright, I’m going to level with everyone here. I haven’t even started up the episode yet, I have not been this scared for the last episode of an anime since the first time I watched Psycho-Pass and I was praying with all my heart that Kogami wouldn’t become a murderer…well we all know how that one turned out. I’ve LOVED this anime so far and if it can nail this last episode perfectly, it might be the first 10 out of 10 rating I’ve given in a long time. Can this last episode hold up to everything else or no pun intended, will it all blow up in the shows face? we’ll find out.
Zankyou no Terror episode 11
In the first part of the episode we see exactly what you’d expect out of a country just told that an atomic bomb is about to go off, people panicking and evacuating. The police and military in a panicked rush. Shibazaki knows though that this can’t be as simple as it seems, how many people has Sphinx killed up until now?
Zero, yeah, that’s right. They’ve killed zero people so far, in fact they’ve gone out of their way to save people from false attacks under their names. They are not ordinary terrorist. So Shibazaki calls his daughter to ask her if there is a way to set off an atomic bomb without killing anyone.
In the air, or more precisely up in space. Hamura pipes in that perhaps it had been sent up in a balloon and the search for said balloon is on. Twelve and Lisa reunite and she’s just so worried for him with how injured he is.
A long story short, the bomb reaches up into space and explodes right on time. sending out a electromagnetic pulse that knocks out all of the electricity in the area. Then the mid episode title card comes up and the entire tone of the episode changes like someone flipped a coin.
Nine,Twelve and Lisa reunite and hang out at the ruins of the place they were raised. They play ball, play with the water, Lisa gets to listen to the music that Nine was always listening to. Then Shibazaki approaches them, he’s come to arrest them but they’re alright with that because they’ve done what they set out to accomplish.
I am literally typing this part of the review through tears, the memory of this stings so badly. They not only wanted to be caught all along, they wanted to be caught by someone who understood them. Someone who knew their goals, Shibazaki was Odiepus…as he goes to arrest them. The US government comes in with a bunch of helicopters and snipers.
Nine threatens to set off another bomb if they do anything, telling them to leave. Cold, uncaring, saying they couldn’t leave behind anyone who knew what happened at the airport or the train incident…they shoot Twelve.
THEY FUCKING, SHOOT TWELVE. HE DID FUCKING NOTHING TO ANYONE, NINE I SORT OF UNDERSTAND BUT TWELVE DID NOT FUCKING DESERVE THAT. THOSE FUCKING ASSHOLES. I CAN’T EXPRESS, I AM CAUGHT BETWEEN RAGE AND UTTER DESPAIR. If i wasn’t sobbing openly at this point already, when Nine falls by his body and begins to sob it ripped me in half.
He gets up and is about to push the button as Shibazaki runs in to stop him. He talks Nine down, Nine knows he’s going to die. One way or another, he’s going to die. He grips his head, the same side effects that were taking down Five were coming after him next. He hadn’t been looking so good for the last few episodes so I sort of knew but….
As he falls, he tells Shibazaki to remember him…remember them, remember that hey were alive. Oh god, I’m crying in the middle of typing again. A year later, everything that they wanted out in the open is laying out for the world to see…the wrongs that had been done to them.
Lisa visits their grave and on the way back she runs into Shibazaki…She mentions to him, that on that day that Twelve and Nine died…she asked Nine about the music that he was always listening to.
“Music from a cold land.” That land, was Iceland and the meaning of the word V.O.N. was…Hope…
FUCKING, I CAN’T WITH THE ENDING OF THIS ANIME. I loved this show, from start to finish everything about it was amazing, the animation, the music, the storytelling, the characters. Everything was amazing, as for how I feel about this ending? It’s almost hard to say, I feel like if I tried to rate it now I’d dock it points for making me sob my eyes out, but in the end. I feel like that’s a good thing, this was a show I came into knowing that nothing good could come out of it. I knew that end the end everything would not be sunshine and rainbows, I expected them to die from the very beginning. So shouldn’t I be happy that they accomplished what they wanted first? That they managed to reveal the wrongs that had been done to them and that in a way, not only as people by Shibazaki and Lisa but as an organization to the whole world they would never be forgotten like the other children in the Athena program? I think in the end of it all, all they wanted was to be something more then numbers…they wanted to be people who would be remembered and they got that.
I can imagine a lot of people might be displeased with this ending and I can’t fault them for it but in the end…I guess this was the happiest ending we could ask for…except maybe if Twelve had lived and married Lisa…but for Nine, this was sort of the best he could ask for.
Zankyou no Terror gets a solid 10/10, I have no doubt that Funimation will license this for home video release so you can be sure I’ll be on top of reviewing the dub if only just the first episode.
~Midnight
I didn’t cry, but I nearly did when Twelve was shot. This is a freaking beautiful series.
You’re stronger then me, I sobbed openly during the episode and again while writing the review.
Hi! I just want to add (since they did the big reveal of the Iceland thing) if you have ZnT’s OST, you’ll find that the titles are mostly in the icelandic language and that one particular song, titled “bless” means “goodbye” in Icelandic.
;o;
Basically, go get the OST. And cry. Maybe. For a few hours. Like me.
so it’s sigur ros’s song aclled von!
The direction for this series was excellent, as was the sound design. Can’t say the same about the writing, which is a damn shame because I really wanted to like this series 🙁
Although, the plot of ZnT was based on Unit 731 which was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war. This series was bound to end in tragedy, of course.
I heard someone else say they didn’t like the writing and I must respectfully disagree, I thought the writing was very clever and every moment was well thought out and fantastic. Thus the rating I gave it.
I totally agree with your ratings and all!!! I really loved this brilliant series. T_T
Oh shit, just remembering Nine and Twelve makes me tear up again.
Somehow I didn’t cry during this episode, but I was definitely devastesad when Twelve died!! (I guess I’m numb from the other deaths this season..) On the same token, I kind of expected it. I knew it couldn’t end with Lisa and Twelve and Nine just hanging out; that wouldn’t work. While ths anime is shown from Twelve and Nine’s POV (which is why we respect them), they really would be considered the ‘bad guys’ of the show. It’s understandable that they both died. That’s why even though this ending was so bittersweet, I’m actually very satisfied with it. 🙂