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
