In full disclosure, I have seen almost every Terminator movie, except for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Terminator 1 and Terminator 2 are some of the best sci-fi movies I have ever seen. Terminator Salvation, Terminator Genisys and Terminator Dark Fate are some of the worst sci-fi movies I ever seen (it’s my understanding “Rise of the Machines” has more in common with the later films, not the first two films). The first two Terminator movies are movies I revisit from time to time and introduce new people to them. I have never bothered re-watching any of the other Terminator films.
When I saw the trailer for Terminator Zero, I was mildly optimistic. Perhaps a sci-fi franchise that failed to produce an interesting film since 1991 would fare better in the world of animation. This series rewarded me by exceeding my expectations. Set in Japan in an alternate 1997, one day before Judgment Day (the day the evil AI Skynet destroys most of humanity in a nuclear apocalypse) it features a different setting and characters than the films. So, no John Connor, no Sarah Connor, no Arnie T-800 and no California and frankly I am glad. The Terminator films focused so much on the Arnie version of the T-800 and the Connors family, that the Terminator universe felt small, focusing on a limited number of characters. Changing the setting and the characters helped a lot.
The main characters in this series are Malcolm Lee, his assistant and housekeeper Misaki and his 3 children: Kenta, Hiro and Reika. Malcolm has developed his own AI, Kokoro to counter Skynet. Malcolm and Kokoro spend several episodes debating the nature of humanity and whether Kokoro should save humanity from Skynet or not. Some people may find these conservations dull, however, I found that they lent this series some intellectual substance, making it something other than an action-filled slugfest.
Skynet sends a new T-800 Terminator into the past, to either destroy or reprogram Kokoro, with Skynet believing that Kokoro is a threat to itself. The Terminator cannot overcome the security defences at Malcolm’s office tower, so it decides to kidnap Malcom’s children in order to force Malcolm to surrender control of Kokoro. The Resistance from the future sends one of its members, Eiko to destroy Kokoro, with the Resistance believing that if Skynet and Kokoro join forces, humanity will be doomed. The majority of the series is a giant cat-and-mouse game, with the Terminator and Eiko fighting with each other to see who will control or destroy Kokoro and Eiko would attempt to protect Malcolm’s children from the Terminator.
This series makes good use of its different setting. In the live-action Terminator movies set in the US, a Terminator or anyone who opposes a Terminator, can go to the local gun shop and obtain a variety of guns. With gun restrictions being much stricter in Japan than in the US, the Terminator and his opponents have to get creative when they face off against each other. Terminator creates a crossbow and builds it into its arm so that it has a weapon when it is not armed with a gun. In one scene, Eiko attacks the Terminator with chemicals, attempting to use acids to weaken the Terminator’s structure. This makes for an interesting change of pace from the usual gun fights we see in Terminator media, though there is plenty of gunplay in this series.
The animation from Production I.G. is gorgeous, not only during the fight scenes but also during the quieter, dialogue-driven scenes. I watched the series in English and found the voice performances were pretty good in this dub. The series’ English dub features some famous celebrities, like Rosario Dawson as Kokoro and Timothy Olyphant as the Terminator. I find that most of the English voices fit and though the Terminator is a machine of few words, is pretty creepy when it speaks. Actors Rosario Dawson and Andre Holland do a pretty good job of making the conversations between Kokoro and Malcolm interesting when these conversations could have become flat. This series also fits with the R-rated tone of the movies, which is very violent.
Speaking of Kokoro, she is my favorite character in this series. Skynet is pure evil, as usual, but he is more of a force of malevolence rather than a character here. Kokoro seems more morally ambiguous than evil, she saves Japan from Skynet but tries to take over Japan and uses its local manual labor robots to start a violent coup. Kokoro seems to want to use humanity as a weapon against Skynet and while she is ruthless, she is ultimately the lesser of two evils compared to Skynet. Kokoro represents a different sort of AI than Skynet. She is ruthless for sure, but more reasonable than the monstrous Skynet. My second favorite character is Misaki, the housekeeper with a dark secret. The other characters are fine, the children are a little annoying, but that is done in a somewhat realistic manner – sometimes kids can be annoying. Malcolm is a good general moral center, but he can be ruthless when he needs to be. Eiko is a bit of a generic Resistance hero.
There are some plot holes, Skynet nukes most of the planet and I can’t imagine Japan being able to survive on its own for long if the rest of the world is a radioactive hellscape. The time travel is confusing as usual, with there being a long scene between Eiko and a wise old sage explaining that they can’t really change the past, only create new timelines, which makes you wonder why the Resistance bothers with time travel if it cannot affect their present. However, these are minor complaints and do not detract from the overall quality of this series. Overall, this series is a needed breath of fresh air for a franchise that has failed to be interesting at the box office for over 30 years.
The post Review: Terminator Zero: An Anime Twist On A Tired Old Franchise appeared first on Anime Superhero News.
