Zankyou no Terror Ep 11 Review: END

 
    The physiological thriller, Zankyou No Terror, has met its fate after 11 episodes. Over those eleven episodes I truly did fall in-love with the series. Zankyou No Terror stuck to a flawless formula as each episode never lacked something that stimulated our minds. There was always a new riddle, target or twist. Leaving the viewers to figure out what was going on inside the minds Five, Nine and Twelve.

My Thoughts on Episode 11

  When the episode started I was in disbelief that Nine was really going to blow up the city. However, Shibazaki Kenjirou revealed Spinx's true intention which was to safely detonate the bomb in the stratosphere and use the EMP produced by the bomb to fry all electronics in range. The Japanese Self Defense Force scrambled fighter jets to shoot the bomb but they couldn't climb to high enough altitude. Some of you may be wondering why they would try to shoot the bomb. Wouldn't it detonate anyway? No, if a nuclear warhead is shot down, it wouldn't detonate especially if it wasn't armed.  So the tactic they tried makes sense. I love the scene where Nine then Twelve and Lisa are looking at the sky...then BANG!

  

    This episode had my emotions all over the place. I hadn't realized it until they held hands but Twelve and Lisa seemed to be falling in-love. It also turned out that Nine had no hard feeling for Twelve and Lisa's previous actions. So, everything seemed to be going great and as they were hanging out at the old test facility I felt like I was happy with the direction it was going.

    However, I should have known that nothing involving Spinx is that simple. Shibazaki finds them which is apart of their plan and the final stage to to be arrested and publicly questioned. The U.S government wanted to cover up their involvement in the ordeal and ordered Nine and Twelves assassination. 

    It was cool how Nine revealed he had a bomb in a nuclear power plant.  We grew so close to these characters we probably forgot how absolutely serious and dangerous they can be. However, the US government threw Japan under the bus with this one. They shot Twelve and were willing to let Nine blow up the plant before killing him as well. Shibazaki asks Nine to trust him then Nine dies not of a gunshot but from the after effects of the experiment. 

Final Thoughts.

    When Shibazaki was investigating he met Aoki who said all of the children died from the effects of the experiment. He also said that "Those children aren't long for this world". So it was always in the back of my mind that Nine and Twelve would die one way or another. It was pretty much written in stone when Five began getting sick. I guess I hoped it wouldn't turn out that way or at-least Twelve could have lived on with Lisa. 

    Overall, I enjoyed the journey. Zankyou No Terror was somewhat different then your typical anime. It was sharp, clever and controversial. It touched on allot of sensitive subjects and its easy to relate the things that happened in the anime to real events in the past 20 years. It really gets you thinking about society and politics. Though I don't think there's a well defined message and it makes sense why. The series encouraged the viewers to constantly contemplate everything and figure out what was going to happen. So wanting the viewers to reflect on the series and find their own meaning whether it be cultural, social, political or anything else makes sense. Sort of like the characters did, after having their lives ripped away from them, they found their own meaning. Five's was to be with Nine. Nine and Twelve's was to expose the truth and make people pay for their crimes. Lisa's was to find somewhere she belonged and Shibazaki's was to make amends for past events.

    Create your own meaning of the series, just the like characters did with their lives. Perfect. a little too perfect so maybe Spinx planned this all along.

    Like I said, I enjoyed the journey but the destination could have been different. Ultimately I have no regrets and it was time well spent. I can honestly say Zankyou No Terror will be missed in my Thursday time slot. I VON that another anime as mentally stimulating as this series will surface soon. Overall I give the series a solid B or 85 out of 100. What did you think of the final episode and the overall series? Comment below and check out my Facebook, Twitter and Youtube for more content.

~Anime Reign

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Last Episode of Space Dandy Tonight! 9/27

    Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. The last episode of Space Dandy will air 9/27/14 at 12:30AM Saturday night / Sunday Morning . In other words tonight, just after midnight.

    If you're a Space Dandy fan you definitely won't want to miss the finale because this may be the very last episode of the series. As I'm writing this post there's no word on whether Space Dandy will return for season 3.

    Although, Adult Swim may have hinted that the series isn't over in their Thursday afternoon post. "Last Dandy of the season this Saturday", the last of the season not entire series. There's no telling what will happen until the end of this weeks episode. Let's just hope it isn't his time yet, baby.

~Anime Reign

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Thought's on Aldnoah.Zero 12 Ending

    After 12 episodes of twists and turns season 1 has finally come to an end. Up until this episode I couldn't decide if I liked Alnoah.Zero or not. I find it hard to become a fan of the main character Inaho Kaizuka. He's unbelievably skilled at piloting his trainer mech, unbelievably as in it doesn't make sense that hes so much better than everyone else. His personality isn't charming either, because he doesn't seem to have one. He's completely emotionless throughout 99.99% of season 1. His character development is essentially non-existent, which for a main character is kind-of a problem.

    However, the story of Count Saazbaum and Slaine Troyard, combined with the overall plot of the anime kept my interest. Slaine in-particular is the most interesting character to me. He's in a very strange position. He's both Terran and Martian but at the same time he's neither. Nor friend nor foe, nor hostile nor neutral.

Episode 12

    I absolutely loved everything about the episode and I rather be straight forward about that. The sense of fear, danger and desperation began to sink in when the battleship Deucalion crashed on the landing castle. Count Saazbaums kataphrakt was quite impressive, combining the power of other kataphrakt that had been previously encountered into one package....but that's exactly what led to his downfall.

    Inaho almost killed Saazbaum but Slaine saved him using Cruhteo's katapharkt. I didn't expect that decision to come back to haunt him so quickly as Saazbaum shot the Princess, seemingly killing her. Slain fired on Saazbaum but if you noticed his gun jammed, a shell didn't completely eject. He didn't seem to hit Saazbaum with a killing shot at all so I suppose we'll see him again soon.

    I was surprised to see Inaho showing emotion has he crawled towards the lifeless princess. The short stand off between Slaine and Inaho was the best part. I thought nothing was going to happen but Slaine really shot Inaho. THAT MOMENT as Inaho lays in a pool of blood and Slaine is the last man standing brought it all full circle. It faded to credits with no music, just the arctic wind sounds and it left me staring at my screen, wide eyed and speechless. POWERFUL ENDING!!!!

I love how Slaine was the last man standing. The one who was on both sides and neither side fired the final bullet.

Questions on Episode 12

    I wonder why and how Count Cruhteo's kataphrakt aldnoah drive was still active. He died so shouldn't it have shut off? It was shut down until Slaine entered the cockpit......Does this mean that Slaine can also activate and deactivate aldnoah drives?  

By the end there's no telling who is alive and who is dead. The Princess may be dead because I can't see what use there is for her besides taking over the thrown of Vers and making peace at the end but I can see this war come to and end in other ways as well. Inaho is the main character but it seems like Slaine has a good chance of taking center stage. 

Death/Alive Prediction

Inaho - 60/40

Princess - 40/60

Saazbaum - 21/79

What are your thoughts?

Aldnoah.Zero returns for season 2 in January of 2015, read more about it on Anime News Network!

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