One summer day, a terrorist attack strikes Tokyo. The only hint to the identity of the culprit is a bizarre video uploaded to the internet by a pair that call themselves "Sphinx". Unbeknownst to the authorities is that these terrorist masterminds are two teenaged boys, who should not even exist, that go by the names Nine and Twelve.

The attack was just the beginning of the grandiose game they are playing that will envelop all of Japan.

Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. Soundtrack by Yoko Kanno. It's going to be 11 episodes long.

I can't really say I find the story so far very gripping, because I've seen similar things before, but overall it looks promising. With the names attached it's impossible not expect something at least above average though so fingers crossed!

I'm liking it so far.

Waiting a while before I get to this one but the Watanabe/Kanno duo can do no wrong. I have trust it will be one of the best series this year.

>>3 Hm isn't Space Dandy pretty average? I haven't watched it (yet) though, I don't want to risk making myself sad.

Ah yeah, the soundtrack is already out, you can find it on youtube if you want. I've been listening to it all day. I've never done that with a soundtrack before watching a show. It's probably going to be weird when I watch it now.

>soundtrack by Yoko Kanno
I'll be watching this soon.

>>5 Was that OST by Kanno?

>>5
Space Dandy is an oddity. A space oddity. In space.

with David Bowi- /shot

and it's an oddity because episodes aren't linear. In fact, the characters die at the end of a few of them just to show up again a week later. In that regard, it's even less continuous than Bebop. With no continuity, the show only really survives on situational comedy and makes it hard to invest in the characters whenever something crazy isn't happening.

Now I trust in these two because they can nail drama. Bebop did, Sakamichi no Apollon did, and perhaps most importantly in Dandy's best moments (eps 2, 5, 10) they did. Dandy isn't bad and I think the only reason it's average is because it doesn't strive to be more than an occasionally silly show to fill up on when you're bored. It doesn't try to be a masterpiece and frankly I don't think it was up the duo's alley. Terror seems much more their kind of show from a writing standpoint.

sorry if that made no sense, I'm rambling, lel

the OST for this looks awesome, gonna listen later

>>8 It made some amount of sense!

>>7 I'm not sure if it was entirely by her, but she was involved.

I'm really liking this series so far, because it's so mysterious

>>8 I agree with this. I was a bit let down by Space Dandy, for pretty much the same reasons you said. It was silly, which is fine, but it was just silly most of the time, and not a lot of it was extremely funny. Still, it's worth it to watch, because it is funny and entertaining, and has a good OST, as well as good voice acting, but it's not the show I thought it was going to be.

welp

caught up now

mfw

this is gonna be a 10/10. there's just no way they'll ruin it. no way.

also the penultimate episode of this is set to be released in America on 9/11.

coincidence? I think fucking not.

>>12 Sounds like one of those shows I won't be able to wait a week in-between.

It may be best to wait.

>>12 Oh come on it's really not that good yet :T

The animation, direction, sound etc are A+, but the story and characters not so much. The characters are mostly archetypes and haven't been developed much past that yet, and the story hasn't moved in any interesting direction yet either. Maybe it's just that I'm really not into the 'mysterious genius teens do evil things' premise idk. At the moment I find it very average.

I'm sure as this series progresses it COULD become great, or not. It does has potential and the ending is still a ways off. but i am enjoying it so far

damn good soundtrack, reminded me a lot of Sigur Ros, though that's definitely helped by the Icelandic. Speaking of which, "von" means "hope" in Icelandic. Possible show tie-in.

and I see where you're coming from bang, cause it's true, very little information about these protagonists has been stated outright, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a grand reveal. We can infer that they're not your typical terrorists in the sense that they (presumably) weren't after human casualties. They were smart enough to know the fire alarms would evacuate the building before the bombs detonated and that the police would head to the wrong station after misinterpreting the riddle (though that was a damn gutsy writing move). They obviously made the third riddle easy enough to solve in order to judge the police's preparation as well, so we can infer this was not a spur of the moment idea but rather many ideas carefully planned. What their goal ultimately is we don't know, but it will likely become clearer the more they show flashbacks - a feature which they've sowed in beautifully with the current events without seeming forced thus far. Lisa's bullied at school, physically harassed at home by her psychotic mother and now knows the identities of the bombers. Her self-esteem is so low and she's so afraid that she can't act for now. Whether or not her ball of understandable depression and anxiety breaks is the show's wild card - she could ruin the rest of 9 and 12's plans so easily, but the signs are she won't anytime soon. Whatshisface back-from-the-archives police guy has character motivation stemming from his former case issues and an emotional grudge with the bombers seeing as he's a second-generation atomic bomb victim. That's already enough development to satisfy after a mere three episodes for me.

tldr: If this will go where I think it'll go, we'll be all good. The characters are fine for the time being and Terror has plenty of time left to incrementally fill the audience in.

>>17 Yeah... I'm just refusing to give it kudos for things that haven't happened yet. I think there's a reason I usually start shows when they're already 4-5 episodes in. If things go well I'm gonna come to this thread and post something with many exclamation marks probably.

And yeah where the story is heading and how interesting it'll be depends a lot on Nine and Twelve's motivation, so I'm eagerly awaiting for it to be revealed. And since the two are so hard to read so far, the one I'm most interested in right now is probably Lisa. I like characters that are coming from a bad place but then take the initiative and try to change things, so she might be interesting. The boys have had a pretty shitty life so far too, but her situation is just a lot more down to earth.

/shrug

>>18
Yeah! motivation... and what is their goal from doing these things.

Nine and Twelve's eyes and the way they look and their face... it really is different, and it's really sad and tragic.

[spoiler alert] and When the detective in E3 said, it might be for attention.. and it's because of loneliness. i think the motivation is to take attention on something small that people forgot how important it is. and the loneliness is true too. and the fact that they couldn't say anything and give any opinion on anything before doing it, and couldn't get any attention on them unless doing this. [spoiled]

and i think the back story is going to be great.

[spoiling again] from their eyes, i can find that their motivation is not a good thing. but if really feel the characters... it seems like they forgot about their own lives and just trying to say something important to this world. [spoiled again]

these are just my opinions till now... i'm really interested in this anime, first i thought i wouldn't be, but the characters seem too damn Good!

>>19
My whole ideas were wrong.
i watched the anime again.
There are no motivations at all!

I've noticed that in the last two episodes my favorite scenes have been those with Lisa in them. Her scenes with Twelve in ep 4 were really really good, and the ones in ep 5 were really endearing. The way Nine was all 'what is she doing in our house? why is she taking a bath? is she gonna move in now? i need space for my terrorist activities JEEZ TWELVE' lol

And it seems that it's getting established that they don't in fact want to hurt people and are actually willing to go out of their way to make sure that doesn't happen which is nice.

Also I haven't really read what people think about thins show, but I'm like 90%sure a lot of them actually hate Lisa. She just feels like that kind of character people like throwing vitriol at.

>>22
From what I've seen, a lot of them actually like her as well.

I'm really curious to see how Five will shake things up. Connections, a grudge match, and little concern for the general public makes her the true moral "villain" here already and it's a great contrast to our two primary terrorist protagonists who clearly don't want to kill people.

Nine's reactions to Lisa all episode oh man so good

Five looks like she will be a real challenge for 9 and 12 so curious to see how things turn out. I doubt they will team up
seems like some rough history between the three this anime is
just so good. Hacker vs Hacker things are about to get out
of control.

This will probally be the best anime of 2014!

I'm intrested how they will wrap things up since the anime will only have 11 ep.

>>25 Yeah I was definitely a little disappointed when I heard it was ending with eleven episodes, but... it's really ramping up. It almost feels like a combination of Death Note and Code Geass, which >>23 needs to watch still.

For me this is one of the only 3 interesting anime this season. I wish it was getting more episode though :(

I'd say it's a combination of death Note and Eden of the East, the latter of which did the kids and terrorism premise in a much more interesting way.

more than likely just a coincidence but
12*9 = 108
since we dont even know the full extent of their motives its hard to say what they would see as a 'completion'.

I don't see where 108 comes into play here but I did look up general numerology meanings about the numbers five, nine, and twelve, and I've gotta say, these match up quite close to their corresponding characters.

Not to say that these "meanings" are necessarily accurate or applicable to everyday life but they certainly fit here. If the anime's writers or the institution leaders we've seen in flashbacks in show took this into consideration, we might indeed have a neat example of theme naming in this.

My shallow ZnT thoughts of the week:

-To my shock and awe Nine is not my favorite character and is actually my least favorite of the three kids so far. He is still unequivocally the most attractive.
-Lisa is SO endearing. Follow your terrorist accomplice dreams Lisa.
-I continue to like Twelve a bunch. Though he seemed like the cute psycho kid he actually turned out to be the more emphatic and outwardly kind of the two.
-The police side makes me snooze.

Episode 6 was easily the weakest so far. Odd pacing. The end felt really rushed and I liked the probable foreshadowing during the chess match earlier in the series but I don't like that they're shoving the chess motif in our faces now. The sudden Engrish was offputting, especially after Clarence's VA sounded pretty good in episode 5. The police side was something I've really loved up until now too- this episode not so much. Now that Five is making moves the Japanese government shouldn't be allowing, it's not enough to have a few officers break their orders and head over to the scene. It should be obvious to them soon (and it could've been already) what was going on here. Shibazaki already had a clue that somebody was impersonating the terrorists and he's not a dumb man. This show's main cast is quick on the uptake and if they broke that trend now, that would be a serious writing flaw I couldn't overlook.

I guess I'm also just not convinced about the enigmatic rivalry(?)/grudge(?) we've got going between Five and the boys. There's no weight to their interactions if all we have to go by are Nine's admittedly atmospheric but plot-impractical flashbacks. We still don't have even an outline of a past and this is the first time where I feel that's actively detracting from the series' potential. I'm just hoping they clarify things soon.

Lisa is adorable. If this had a spin-off sitcom-style OVA or something, I think it'd be great.

Okay... about the Name thing...
there was a scene from where they were raised.
and the person said you don't need names, and something about love and no one loves them... so obviously they numbered them.
and that is all! (probably)
they didn't name themselves 9 and 12.
so it has nothing to do with the story.

>>34
The writers of the show gave them names. In-show, they may have been arbitrary, but that doesn't mean the show's writing team didn't use theme naming. Goof.

Reading commentary on this show and people seem to constantly forget that it's not in fact written by Watanabe.

I wonder if their number's were attributed according to their intelligence...

I luv this anime!! It like shows the anime from the point of view of terrorists which is very original! I wish this anime will last a while.

I fucking hate the OP.

>>39
OP fuckin' rules, you stoned, bro?
lel

>>42
Pretty sure he means the OP for the anime.

Having double-meanings for that term can get confusing, I'll admit.

(deleted post 42)
Hm. Ive never seen it used like that. Guess we learn something every day. Thanks for the clarification. It actually seemed pretty odd that someone would hate Bang. lmao

I think Five is a little bit high

This week on Zankyou no Terror:

My Little Terrorist Can't Be This Cute gets sidelined by an attempt at re-enacting Die Hard 2 and Shibazaki physically does something!

I'm really worried at how this show will conclude now as more and more of the realistic elements are slowly being thrown out the window, but that leaves us with a somewhat cliche action thriller that's still fun but somewhat disappointing. Five's Engrish still irks me. A lot.

I like where Zankyou is hinting it's heading - it's just that the set-up for these past two weeks has been iffy. Time will tell but this isn't a masterpiece anymore. Still quite a ride regardless.

>>46 I....wouldn't call the beginning particularly realistic, but yeah it's been getting more and more out there.

I really dislike Five's type of villain :T And 'let's play a ~game~ with people's lives /cute psychotic smile' scenarios in general.

Just bumping this, so more people can learn about this awesome anime ^^

Side notes of my own:

1. All of the riddles were easy to solve for me, but it's very interesting to watch how the police work it out.

2. Shibazaki is amazing! I love his character!
He has a dramatic past, but it's not used for a soapy flashback, rather, it's the simply the fuel that makes him strive forward. He's realistic, because he has his pros and his cons.

3. I love how realistic Lisa is. Although she's clumsy and helpless, she's not your everyday Princess Peach. She reacts just like a normal girl would in mostly all situations and gives a breath of fresh air, reminding us that this is supposed to be reality.

4. Twelve has colour-sound synesthesia. Nuff said X3

5. I love the villain, because so far I hate Five with all I have.

6. The director is Watanabe Shinichiro and character design artist is Nakazawa Kazuto, both of which worked in the same positions on "Samurai Champloo" and "Cowboy Bebop". That just spells awesome on its own XD

Just in case someone is wondering. No new episode today the next episode will air in a week.
I really like Shibazaki, he seems so realistic, like every character in the show (except five of course), and I like how he is kinda odd but in a believable way.
I dislike five though. When I saw her for the first time I just thought "Please try to be like L (from death note) and ruin everything because you aren´t". She isn´t copying L but still manages to pull the anime down. In other words she is Near (also Death note).

I love this anime, They have amazing writing and impeccable attention to detail. Lisa is extremly realistic and I love her.

The most recent episode gave me chills. Five is so creepy. 0_0

Venundreb ,do you know why the next episode will on air just next week ?

>>49 >>52
Both this and Psycho-Pass New Edit are skipping new episodes this week and seeing as they're the two shows currently airing on noitaminA, there's almost certainly some one-time special program or broadcasted event on instead.

I tried to watch the first episode with my friend. The animation and effects are really good. But...the writing so far and just how things are being done are turning me off a tiny bit? But I'll probably try episode 2 and just see if my mind changes/

I actually like it

>>52 no sorry, probably what >>53 said

"A long time ago, when I was young, there were teenagers who threw rocks at the riot police and fought against the government. Even though Sphinx are called terrorists now, in a different time...they might have been called something else."

Did he just equate rioters with people who blow up buildings? What kind of message is it that it's ok to blow up shit to prove a point oh my fucking god.

And Lisa got kidnapped, what a shocking and novel development. My disappointment is palpable.

And the fact is, they're not actually proving a point against the government. At least with what we know so far, it doesn't seem like an act of defiance, it's not against the system itself or whatever, it's not V for Vendetta.

They're doing it draw attention to a particular department with the government, which was responsible for doing some really messed up thing to the and other kids like them. The whole thing seemed to have been a pretty top secret project, so it's unlikely that most of the government or parliament knew anything about it. It feels like they're after settling a personal score more than anything. But is this game they've been playing that could get people killed if they're not careful the only way to expose the people they want to expose? Really? I have no idea why they made it such a public spectacle and how that's supposed to be justified. If I'm supposed to root for them as fighters against the system or something then it's not working, because in the 8 episodes of the show so far they've never actually come across to me as that.

>>57 That just indicates that Shibasaki understands that they aren´t just some terrorists. They have something in mind and he knows that. They look like terrorists but the future will show there true motives and people will understand what they really are. After what happened at the airpot this thought doesn´t seem to irrational. I can´t remember if he said this before or after he learned about the whole "conspirancy" but if he said that after he knew about it it would make even more sense. If some random guy said this it would be stupid but from Shibazaki it makes sense. Though I don´t understand how some people are "fans" of Sphinx.

My prediction how this whole thing will end (kinda) everyone dies and we learn there true motives and people will love it for that, especially those who complained because they couldn´t "cheer" for the main characters.

>>59 LISA

Yeah, but there's a difference between "I don't think these guys are really terrorists" and "I think that these guys do shouldn't be seen as terrorism by people in general", and the way he said it sounded more like the latter than the former. Other than that, yeah it makes perfect sense for Shibazaki to have changed his view on Nine and Twelve's actions after finding out more about them.

And maybe some people will feel differently about the show if it ends like that, but for others, like me, it would probably be too little too late.

I just started watching it and I think this anime is a masterpiece, such a shame that it's only 11 episodes

Sound like a good anime. Maybe I'll watch this one next!

Sounds neat and promising...I'll have to check it out!

I've already started watching this and I'm not sure what to think. It's caught my attention but I'm not obsessed with it.

so the Ferris Wheel scene in episode 9 might be my favorite anime clip this year. So cinematic. "von" was implemented perfectly. The lighting of this show is fucking gorgeous, without exception.

Yeah, Terror's not perfect, but I still find myself in love with what it gives us every week, and this was probably its strongest effort (or at least its best in terms of answering a lot of the many elephants in the room) yet.

episode 9 answers many mysteries of the series like are there other people from the facilities aside from nine, twelve, and five.

Bump.

I want the time spent watching this show back.

Shibazaki is one awesome character.

Mixed thoughts on this ending.

Also I totally called out the meaning of "von" 2 months ago (>>17) so that last exchange was completely anticlimactic for me and anyone who remembered I had written that post.
welp

still one of my personal favorites of the year particularly because of the scene direction/lighting, themes, and soundtrack, but I'll likely never stop feeling like this show had more potential than it actually delivered.

Aaand they actually managed to screw it. Great plot holes you've got there.

>>72
What plot holes?

I mean, there could be some, but I didn't notice any. Some strange composition in the middle, sure, but I don't recall any actual retconning or lapses in continuity.

Honestly not that bad of a watch this season.
Great art style, good musical score to go with it, and a decent plot.
Although honestly the goal of the main character's can be somewhat misleading in the beginning, and is understandably frustrating that you only figure out what their goal was at the end. (That, and the fact that five was introduced to the plot only as a blockade, and a short lived one as that)
Past the 'Engrish', the semi-uselessness of the girl that accompanies the story, and the MURRICA moments (let's shoot the guy who doesn't have a detonator! Brilliant!) it really isn't that bad though. In fact, it was pretty enjoyable from episode to episode, minus those few mishaps. Still worth a watch for those who haven't seen it yet, if you have free time to spend (which, given you're reading this, you probably do).

oh hey so remember that beautiful soundtrack we all adore?

A second one is coming out in a couple weeks. No clue what will be on it since the tracklist wasn't revealed yet, but I'm excited regardless.

in the meantime, please go check out my cover of "von" (a.k.a. that one song from the ferris wheel scene). Hope you guys enjoy it. /o/

i wanted to watch this anime but i haven't had much time :3 interesting i'll watch it :v

Not sure if anyone has said this but people say that the anime was only 11 episodes because TWELVE (12) didn't make it. (A bit of a spoiler but whatever, people should still see what happened exactly)

^ that's just a common joke. Though it IS possible that the staff conciously made the anime just eleven episodes long or named one of the characters Twelve so that people would be able to make that joke.

Damn this anime just, it just really rip your heart into many pieces, one of the few anime that has left a deep scar on my heart

bump