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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Rent | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 8 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2923#1552] |
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Terror in Resonance focuses on a duo of teen terrorists responsible for a string of bombings throughout Tokyo that have the police baffled over who the culprits are. Mostly focused on our young male leads Nine and Twelve, Terror in Resonance involves the duo using the codename Sphinx to give riddles out to the police in a challenge to have them figure out the location of their bombs before they detonate, leading detective Kenjiro Shibazaki to be involved in the case as only he has the wits and intellect among the police force to connect the dots on the actions and motives involving the bombings with Sphinx. As the series progresses, a girl around Nine and Twelve's age named Lisa becomes entangled in their plans, more about their dark past is revealed and someone from their past arrives in Japan to attempt sabotaging their efforts. On paper, the premise of Terror in Resonance seems like a typical one for a suspense title as elements to its storytelling such as the bombers playing a cat and mouse game with police, the so-called villains not being as evil as you think and government secrets are nothing new within anime. However, the somewhat realistic and dark mood that the series gives off in the exploration of Nine and Twelve's bombings give it something of a chilling feel as the events can hit close to home with American anime viewers of the series, especially in light of the events of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The first four episodes are focused around Nine and Twelve's cat and mouse game with the police trying to figure out the whereabouts of their planted bombs via the video riddles that our two leads supply them. The episodes help to establish the characters of the duo and Shibazaki, as we learn of their backgrounds and what issues they are implied to have with their national government. Not to mention the suspense of seeing if either side will prevail in their goal in each episode is genuinely thrilling. Later episodes introduce us to a past acquaintance of Sphinx in the form of Five, accompanied by American agents, who complicates things for Sphinx as she is just as smart and crafty as the duo when she exploits their modus operandi to her advantage by turning the tables on them by playing her own cat and mouse games with the duo for the second third of the series. The final third of the series reveals everything going on with Sphinx, Five and the government secrets connected to them; as well as what plans Sphinx had with the plutonium they had stolen prior to the start of the series that build up to a rather bittersweet, yet satisfying, ending. For the most part, Terror in Resonance is effective at making use of the story elements it is rehashing by applying a more darker and realistic edge them and creating genuine suspense and intrigue out of what you think is going to happen next in the series. While I praise the show of its execution of its plot, it does carry some issues that hurt its quality to an extent involving some among its cast. Lisa's character is mostly worthless in the series as she mostly exists as a damsel-in-distress for Twelve to rescue and has no real relevance to the major events that take place throughout the series, which lead me to question why she exists in the first place. Five's character is a bit of a double-edged sword for her role in the series. While her presence in the series helps to create a solid adversary against Sphinx, the psychotic and childish fits she gives in to at points in the series do usually make it hard to take her as a serious threat and there are clear lapses in logic from the agents accompanying her as they don't try stopping her destructive and life-threatening actions. Unlike Nine and Twelve, Five doesn't get enough dimension and background to her character to make her sympathetic, especially when later episodes attempt to do so despite the earlier acts she shown where she had no regard for the lives she would put at risk in her cat and mouse game. Presentation-wise, Terror in Resonance is easily one of the best TV titles this year in what it implements for its visuals and soundtrack. The visuals make use of subdued color tones and plenty of detail for designing its lifelike, vast settings and have character designs that don't have the conventional anime style of rainbow-color hair and big eyes, having bodily features drawn as believably as possible. The animation is easily among the best I've seen for the year for a TV anime thus far, with plenty of onscreen fluid movement that shows people and vehicles moving naturally without degradation of animated detail or noticeable animation shortcuts. Highlights to the animation in the series include groups of people moving about in the streets of Tokyo, the collateral damage resulting from bomb attacks and the impressive looking events that take place in the finale of the series. For the show's music, Yoko Kanno lends her music composure talents to the series creating tense and haunting dramatic pieces that are excellent fits to the dark and chilling mood regularly portrayed throughout Terror in Resonance's run. The opening and closing songs to the series (Trigger and Dare Ka, Umi o) are easily the best lyrical tracks for an anime series that I've heard for the year thus far as they are fitting for the mood of the series and immediately stick out to those viewing it. Overall, Terror in Resonance makes for a solid 11-episode run of suspense, mystery and intrigue concerning Sphinx's bombings and their origins, making effective use of rehashed story elements through giving them a more darker and realistic edge. It has its shortcomings with some elements to its storytelling and characterization, but it was still a thrilling watch for me to check out throughout its 11-episode run. Last updated Friday, September 26 2014. Created Thursday, September 25 2014. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:2923#628] | ||||||
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(Six episodes watched): Well, the security at the nuclear fuel reprocessing site that was robbed in scene one was laughable and didn't leave me optimistic about how seriously I would be able to take this show. Beating up on the nuclear energy industry and central government seems fashionable in Japan since the Fukushima disaster. One of these two boys that were involved seems pretty unprofessional and it's hard to see how he could play a useful part in a significant terrorist attack. He kind of annoys me, too. Episode one left me with a lot of questions--like what are these guys fighting for/against? Something about an 'orphanage', apparently. Did the stolen radioactive stuff play a part in the 9/11-like attack? Why was Lisa so readily willing to befriend these guys (and how the hell did she instantly grasp the meaning behind their messages?)? Is she anorexic? Still, some sort of fairly in-depth story with more-or-less three dimensional characters seemed to be being told, and I was curious about how things would work out. I felt sorry for Lisa and hoped things would work out OK for her. I just hope the boy's cause doesn't turn out to be totally ludicrous, like mistreatment they got as children is driving them to kill and destroy wholesale. An explanation of their motives, and whether they make sense and I can sympathize with them, might well determine whether I would watch this show or not. I was looking forward to episode two in the expectation that it would crystalize what was going on here: what the boy's cause was, what part Lisa would play as an accomplice, etc. But it did very little of this. Afterwards we still have no more idea of what Nine and Twelve's grievance is than we did at the end of episode one, they haven't asked Lisa to do much of anything and it seems like maybe they never will. Why can't she 'go back'? She hasn't committed any major crime herself, and the police would welcome an informant like her with open arms. The boys haven't done anything to help her, so why should she sympathize with them? It doesn't make sense. The episode manages to not develop her personality any more either, which is frustrating. I was surprised to learn that the bombing at City Hall hadn't killed a single person; that suggests that while Nine and Twelve possess some Plutonium (why haven't they developed radiation sickness?) it seems unlikely that they will try to kill anyone with it. So, is there all that much of a reason for 'terror' at all? It certainly isn't 'resonating' yet. One thing which might be a problem is that I still don't particularly like either Nine or Twelve. Maybe I wasn't supposed to, but I sympathize far more with Lisa and the expert detective who is hunting them. The boys have threatened to kill Lisa if she even thinks about betraying them, after all. Apparently they got their odd names in the strange orphanage, but whatever treatment they got there doesn't justify trying to blow up buildings which had nothing to do with it. If their treatment was so abusive, how have they wound up as genius internet hackers? Twelve sometimes experiences bad dreams about what apparently happened while the two were escaping from the orphanage, but what exactly that was remains vague, which, again, is frustrating. Still, at this point the story was seeming to be fairly interesting and I got a fair amount of enjoyment out of it. Apparently Lisa has lived such a miserable life that even the slightest semblance of friendship from Twelve makes her ecstatic; but that doesn't exactly make her a character we can identify with. I hope to God that if I were caught in a similar situation I wouldn't befriend terrorists. So perhaps detective Shibazaki will be the only character I can root for. We still don't know if Nine and Twelve have a justifiable reason to be doing the things they have. They're supposedly terrorists, yet they take every possible measure to minimize the number of people who get hurt, which isn't exactly conducive to terror breaking out. It seems like the makers of this show were trying to have their cake and eat it too—make the boys frightening, powerful anti-heroes, but not hurt anybody, so that the viewer can still like them. It's unclear if that odd mix of traits can work or not. Two typically arrogant Americans arrive in Japan in episode five, at least one of which must have a tie to Nine and Twelve's past in the orphanage. I hope this show won't just reveal some heinous crime, which renders Nine and Twelve's actions insignificant and justifiable, and blame it all on a conspiracy by despicable, corrupt, but cardboard-thin politicians who are just plain evil for no apparent reason. That would be a cheap shortcut which would make me roll my eyes. But since we still have little idea what Nine and Twelve's grievance is, it's always possible that that might happen. It's frustrating that this show seems to have potential to be a sophisticated thriller, but does everything it possibly can to conceal the boy's motivations. Whose side should I take? Eh, I think I will abandon this show. Since no explanation for their actions has been offered, I still don't particularly like either Nine or Twelve, and I'm getting a bad feeling that ultimately they'll be the good guys in this story, since 'Five' is such an arrogant bitch. The story doesn't make all that much sense either; how is Lisa supposed to find a bomb that has been hidden by a genius? Nine and Twelve don't want to hurt anybody, yet they blow stuff up--why? I have no idea, and fear that I never will. I have fallen behind in watching Summer series, so it's time to dump the marginal ones in order to catch up. And 'marginal' is a good word to describe Zankyo no Terror. Last updated Wednesday, January 21 2015. Created Thursday, July 17 2014. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Official Japanese Series Web Site | http://terror-in-tokyo.com/ |
