[First Impression] Zankyou no Terror

English Title: Terror of Resonance, Terror in Tokyo
Studio: MAPPA
Genre: psychological, thriller
Episodes: 11
Anime Director: Watanabe Shinichiro

In an alternate version of the present, Tokyo has been decimated by a shocking terrorist attack, and the only hint to the identity of the culprit is a bizarre video uploaded to the internet. The police, baffled by this cryptic clue, are powerless to stop the paranoia spreading across the population. 

While the world searches for a criminal mastermind to blame for this tragedy, two mysterious children—children who shouldn't even exist—masterfully carry out their heinous plan. Cursed to walk through this world with the names Nine and Twelve, the two combine to form "Sphinx," a clandestine entity determine to wake the people from their slumber—and pull the trigger on this world.

*             *             *

Zankyou no Terror is one of the two shows I’m looking forward to the most this season (the other one being Ao Haru Ride). Its synopsis just sounds so interesting and the PV shows some nice visuals for a terrorist-attack-like atmosphere.

This first episode just captured me. It’s fascinating. It’s mysterious. It’s thrilling. It’s crazy. It’s quite eerie. It’s questionable. It’s beautiful.

Zankyou no Terror’s (ZnT) first episode somehow reminded me of my first thoughts on Steins;Gate. I was watching I was like: WTF just happened? Seriously. Things are proceeding here and there but how are they connected?

Let’s talk about episode bits.

The nuclear power plant and weapon at the beginning was obviously the core of ZnT. But how will this be connected to our main characters – Hisami Touji aka ‘Twelve’ (Saito Soma), Kokonoe Arata aka ‘Nine’ (Ishikawa Kaito), and Mishima Lisa (Tanezaki Atsumi)? How is this incident connected to what they did to present day Tokyo (the bombing)?

Another question for me is that why Hisami and Arata blew up the building? And how the heck did they do that? The video was a very interesting ploy but it barely reached anyone. And why the heck would anyone care about some teenagers making some fancy terroristic video? It’s kind of interesting how the police was able to recall the video and they’ll most likely play their own roles later on in the series. But for now, I’d like to speculate about Hisami and Arata’s past. Arata’s dream was very interesting. I’m connecting the nuclear power plant idea to their background and it’s quite exciting.

Mishima Lisa is most likely similar to Hisami and Arata but how is she able to live a ‘somehow’ normal life? She’s this quiet girl who gets bullied. Hisami’s appearance shook her world and it’s as if Hisami realized that they’re the same… from the same past as shown in Arata’s dream. There’s obviously more of them since Hisami and Arata holds the numbers twelve and nine respectively. I’d like to believe they are experimented children. They survived. They were able to escape. And I’m guessing that they are doing this (the bombing) as some sort of revenge or fight back for what was done to them (but really, that was going overboard).

I have sooooo many questions for this series that it just makes me want to watch it more. It’s a great start for ZnT, in my opinion. I’m really glad they didn’t disappoint.

The first and last time I encountered MAPPA was in Sakamichi no Apollon and I absolutely LOVE how they worked on that series (minus the rushed ending). The team of Shinichiro Watanabe (director) and Kanno Yoko (music) is definitely a great plus for the me. The overall atmosphere of ZnT obviously show their teamwork in here. The BGMs are just so great and appropriate. It adds tension and creates a better atmosphere. The art style is also great. The texture reminds me of Sakamichi no Apollon but with a darker feel to it. I have no idea how they do it but it’s amazing. Two entirely different shows using almost the same style and it’s still working very well.

*             *             *

What I Like: (1) the fancy characters, (2) the great art style, (3) the overall atmosphere of the episode, (4) the mystery enveloping this series

What I Didn’t Like: (1) the occasional bad animation, (2) the CG at the beginning

*             *             *

Other First Impressions: Ao Haru Ride, Glasslip
Manga Post: Apocalypse Alice