‘Terminator Zero’ turns to a striking anime aesthetic that breathes fresh life into the flailing sci-fi franchise and helps it break exciting, new ground.
Why are we still telling Terminator stories?
What started as a fascinating and frightening horror/science fiction calling card for a scrappy James Cameron has increasingly faced diminishing returns. Terminator told the perfect story across its first two feature films, but the four subsequent sequels and reboots have struggled to justify their existence. There’s a natural compulsion to return to the world of Skynet, the human Resistance, and nigh-invulnerable cyborg assassins, but the series has failed to find battery life as it’s added more RAM to its hard drive. At a certain point, one just needs to accept that Terminator works best as a one-two punch instead of a sprawling cinematic universe. All the Arnold Schwarzenegger cameos in the world can’t fix something that’s creatively bankrupt.
However, a beacon of hope has come to save this post-apocalyptic wasteland and prove that Terminator isn’t just the skull of some IP that’s destined to be repeatedly crushed by an army of robots. Terminator Zero, an eight-episode anime from the visionary studio Production I.G. and masterminded by Mattson Tomlin (The Batman) and Masashi Kudo, is a passionate, daring, and dynamic expansion to James Cameron’s celebrated cyborg dystopia that’s the most exciting that the series has been in decades. Terminator Zero is exactly what the franchise needs to remain relevant and push boundaries just like Cameron’s classics.
So, why are we still telling Terminator stories? Groundbreaking, challenging, and contemplative series like Terminator Zero are the reason why.
Terminator Zero is very careful to not fall into the lazy trap of just being “Terminator, but anime.” Terminator Zero is an anime version of Terminator, but it’s also far more than just an animated makeover of a celebrated sci-fi touchstone. This is a series that’s deliberate with how it reinvents a cinematic universe that so strongly resonates with audiences. Terminator Zero features familiar iconography and callbacks to the films – all of which are canon to this series – but it’s never just hollow fan service. Terminator Zero chisels out its own space in this universe that doesn’t disrupt or invalidate any preexisting content.
It’d be easy to do a Terminator anime that features heightened versions of the T-800, T-1000, Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese. One of the main reasons that Terminator Zero succeeds where other projects have failed is that it tells an original story that’s set in 1990s Japan and explores the franchise’s themes and threats through a unique lens. For instance, guns weren’t nearly as present in ‘90s Japan as they were in the United States, which forces Terminator Zero’s cyborg assassins to resort to very different means of execution. The series also creates tension through the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and nuclear warfare, all of which hang over the series and inform society’s decisions. These cultural pivots help expand upon the Terminator franchise in enlightening ways and it’s really the perfect avenue for a new story,
Terminator Zero focuses on Malcolm Lee (André Holland), a prolific scientist whose AI system, Kokoro (Rosario Dawson), has the potential to takedown Skynet, but is arguably just as dangerous of an algorithm. A Terminator (Timothy Olyphant) is sent back in time from 2022 to take out Lee and his three children, all while a time-displaced Resistance fighter, Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno), is determined to protect Lee, his family, and his life’s work in order to guarantee that Judgement Day doesn’t come to pass. All these characters come into their own and experience complex moral quandaries and character development so that they don’t just come across as variations on past themes. Three children can be a challenge to juggle and is new territory for Terminator. The series finds the right balance and each of these frightened kids blossom and grow by the season’s end. They all bring something different to the table.
Terminator Zero is also brave enough to ask provoking questions that argue whether humanity’s eradication might actually be a blessing in disguise and necessary for society’s evolution. The anime is full of foreboding shots of killer machines and antagonistic AI, but it also benefits from modern hindsight that humankind may not, in fact, be the lesser of two evils in this situation. Some of the series’ most powerful moments are when Kokoro earnestly asks Malcolm to defend the utility of humans and their flawed propensity for war and destruction, while he’s unable to come up with answers.
It’s comforting to see Terminator Zero embrace the familiar template of children in peril who must trust a warrior from the future, but this anime also helps bring the franchise back to its horror roots. Terminator Zero effectively cultivates the original film’s serial killer energy and there are some genuinely frightening, tense sequences across these eight episodes. This is the scariest that Terminator has been in a long time and Terminator Zero never forgets that these cyborg assassins are unstoppable killing machines. Terminator Zero excels with terror and tension, but Production I.G also absolutely crushes it with its action sequences.
Production I.G has made a name for itself through iconic cyberpunk dystopian texts like Ghost in the Shell, PSYCHO-PASS, and Jin-Roh: THe Wolf Brigade. Terminator Zero confidently holds its own with these past works and it feels like Production I.G’s 35+ years in the industry have perfectly prepared themselves to make the best Terminator anime possible. This is a gorgeous series that’s full of inventive action sequences, chaotic chases, and visceral violence, all of which can really go for broke and take advantage of animation’s limitless nature. There’s also a captivating, pulse-pounding score that might be Terminator Zero’s secret weapon. The music, just like in the original films, amplifies the series’ action and horror.
Terminator Zero is one of the franchise’s most satisfying stories and far more than some animated oddity. It presents a version of Terminator that’s both familiar and full of big surprises, many of which pull from other satisfying corners of James Cameron’s filmography. It’s as much a love letter to Cameron as a visual storyteller as it is to the Terminator franchise alone. Terminator Zero will satisfy the franchise’s long-time fans, while it also draws in completely new audiences. These eight episodes are well-paced and confidently culminate into something really special. Terminator Zero tells a complete story across these eight episodes, but it sets the series up for more adventures, too. This is absolutely not some one-off idea that’s finished by the season finale. It feels like a second Terminator Zero season will hit even greater heights, just like how Terminator 2: Judgement Day builds and improves upon its predecessor.
Terminator feature films may have become a lost cause, but Terminator Zero is just getting started. Humanity’s battle against AI super-soldiers hasn’t been this fun in years.
‘Terminator Zero’ is now streaming on Netflix.
The post ‘Terminator Zero’ Is a Radical Anime Reinvention That Brings the Series Back to Its Slasher Roots [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
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