Zankyou no Terror Review

Terrorism is what I guess high schoolers are into these days…

Well this anime was very very hyped in the summer of 2014 and and many people were putting amazing reviews on this show and giving it more than what it deserved attention-wise all in all it was a pretty good anime I give it that but it did not at all live up to all the hype tat it was given. So shall we get started?

Plot: 4/10: The plot or basically the beginning of it really intrigued me I mean an anime about terrorists with an amazing past? Sounds like a bestseller to me am I right? kinda the beginning was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed it up until it got all boring and annoyingly repetitive. So it’s about these two boys Nine and Twelve who were orphans and taking away from their orphan home as kids for an experiment run by the government. They were the only ones to escape and then they grew up. They moved to Japan and after stealing a really valuable piece of their plan they started large scale operations in bombing Japan while calling themselves Sphinx (hey that’s me). And then the officials obviously step in and they call their ace Kenjiro Shibaki. Although they kept their continence clean by not actually killing someone they basically just destroyed a couple buildings in Japan where they met some girl named Lisa Mishima which Twelve got the hots for and forced her into their team. Well everything was going as planned until they found out someone else had also lived through the experimentation and that they are now against them now foiling their plots what does she have to accomplish? And at what point will she stop? And what are her motives? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z. Just kidding. So that was the basic plot without any spoilers.

Now let me just give a little piece of mind to the tiny little details that pissed me off. OK first these guys would announce their plots on YouTube along with a tiny riddle HOW  THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO DO THAT?! All they did was basically wear Power Ranger masks and called it a day they used their voices for God’s sake they had no special green screen background and they were wearing their regular clothes. Is it me or is Japan slacking? Then there was this one scene in like the third episode were Nine just walks in a POLICE HEADQUARTERS with just a hat on plants a bomb without being I.D.’ed and just strolls out like it was nothing. Also how all the investigations just went smoothly like it was nothing and there was no sense of tension in it and  because of how easy it was all figured out like Shibaki just knows all about Greek mythology and his friend’s video game which was wack as shit helped him out I felt like it was some kind of bad Hollywood movie from the 80’s. And about when I completely lost it was when they introduced their childhood friend Five as their nemesis who was just doing what she was told by the U.S. and who goes overboard with the job almost killing countless lives in foreign soil come on thats enough to start  a damn war. And one of those occasions was just to finish a game of chess with her boy, Nine. Goddammit man. Kids, don’t play with bombs.

All in all the plot was great in the beginning in terms of action and the way that they just engulfed you into the story and it got a lot of good feedback from me but then the story died down a lot and got me bored by how it was going on and on like math class and annoyed with all those dumb pieces that I mentioned. But in terms of story I give it like a 4 for being well thought out and original but good enough to hit anything above that.

Characters: 4/10: First off they gave us like 5 characters that actually mattered and the rest could’ve just died for all I care so that was not great also the fact that Shibaki just randomly came up with some of the riddles from his daughter whatever her name is and her random knowledge about bombs and his fat friend who was playing that stupid game. Then the last episode when his daughter gives the most obvious explanation as to were the bomb would be was so wack and cheap I felt like they got this one from a 15 year old. also as to the solving of the riddles there was like no thought put into it was like he knew the answers before the riddle was given. They could have made it an awesome cat and mouse chase but they didn’t and that’s where they messed up. You cant really say much about the main characters except the line that Lisa kept repeating that pissed me off: His smile is like the sun on a hot day, but those eyes are like ice. Bitch no one cares can’t you give me more I don’t give a shit about smiles and eyes I want some juicy stuff like maybe one killed his parents or something. But all I could gather from watching this anime is that Nine was a cold quiet guy and Twelve is a goofy kinda dude. I hit this with a 4 because of the lack of development and anything rather not very memorable I didn’t really care for them no personality its’s like they didn’t have one. All they did was add a flashback here and there and called it a day. And the there’s Lisa the sidekick chick of the anime basically a waste of a character she manages to not do anything and still mess up her only actually story was with her mother because of all that weird shit going on between them then she runs away and never comes back forgetting about her whole past life she was basically just used to drag the story along and make the guys get somehow into trouble.

Visuals: 8/10: At least this anime hadn’t messed up in every single thing like the art with was amazing the characters were drawn out nice and given a brilliant color to them with the backgrounds also being awesome from episode one and the water drawing was amazing just beautiful and radiant.

I just want to drink that water tbh…

I’m not going to lie I was sad at this part but look at that color

I mean look at that

Sounds: 8/10: They also did amazing on the sound aspect with the amazing soundtrack perfect for this type of anime I’m not one to love soundtracks but this one was amazing. Here’s the complete one for those who want to listen to it:  https://soundcloud.com/zankyou-no-terror

All in all I give this anime what I think it deserves the story was well thought out and original but got very, very cheesy at some points and the characters were not at all good except Shibaki and he was still cheesy and they didn’t give anything on the remaining characters. The visuals were amazing and I loved the drawings and the soundtrack was on point I loved listening to it. In the end it was a good 5/10 in my book I know some of you guys liked it but I honestly did not.

Well the end and Zankyou for reading

Sphinx