So I still don't get why anyone is doing anything on this show.
Why are Nine and Twelve trying to blow a nuke over Japan?
Why is Twelve following Nine at all when his personality doesn't seem like the type to mastermind something like this himself.
Why is Five doing what she's doing at all? Why working with the Americans? Why go after Nine and Twelve? Why just chase them to kill herself?
Why is Lisa doing anything? Is she bored with her life? We don't know her history.
Why is Shibazaki just walking around like the cool cop doing nothing?
Like, I don't understand anyone's motivation for anything?
I'm probably one of the biggest 24 fans you'll know...so when I hear "Like 24, like 24" when the creators talk about this show, it makes no sense. It's very calm and slow paced, there's no sense of urgency. Nothing makes sense. No twists, no action, nothing like 24.
While the show had normally done a pretty good job of hiding a slimmer budget than you'd expect, this episode really feels rushed. As a result, on top of the already-shaky writing coming apart at the seams, it's a very poorly-constructed episode. The frequent use of low-detail long shots (most significantly in all the scenes with Lisa and Twelve) would be evidence enough, but the almost incoherent storyboard of the final chase confirms it. It's clumsy in a way that isn't at all typical of the show to this point.
I know a lot of people in the thread say it seems like the show is being written backwards, but with how it's failed pretty significantly to set up most of the payoff twists in this episode, it feels more to me like they're making things up as they go at this point, which is pretty deeply disappointing. I'll be watching the final episode, but I can't imagine anything really revelatory happening in the end that'd redeem the writing.
When I say it is being written backwards, I don't mean the entire show. I mean that it feels like a lot of the episodes are written with the "pay off" being the idea they had first, then they lazily tried to connect them together and fill stuff inbetween to make a series. Like, they probably had these ideas for the second half of the series: "dramatic plane bomb rescue scene at the airport", "high tension bomb defusing emotion character scene at ferris wheel", "dramatic car chase", and so on. They're not bad ideas on their own, but there's just nothing which really makes the show really cohesive or satisfying leading up to these scenes.
Like I said, it feels to me like a rushed script that's basically in rough draft form. They didn't take the time to flesh out the basic ideas until they were solid and coherent, and could be interconnected in logical ways. Give this script to a better writer and they could probably rework it into something that's a least a good roller coaster, but as it is it's just too flighty and incoherent.
Just watched.. Episode 10.... Did we ever understand what Five's Motives were? Like it felt she had no motive. This whole show is all over the place. The show has some good scenes but nothing really fits together, It's really incoherent. I guess I'll watch the ending.. I'm not expecting anything spectacular though.
So let's talk about TiR. Watanabe needs to get a writer, preferably a good one. There are many ideas in here and none of them mesh to create a story with a singular tone. The idea of the Athena project being a reflection of a group of old mens' ideas about what Japan should be is fine. I think the Shibazaki component of the story is actually fairly decent and the way that Shibazaki not only having a personal stake in the matter but a different opinion, despite seeing first hand the effects from WW2, compared to some of the antagonists, is a good start.
That's the extent of the good writing in the show. The rest is so trope-laden that even for a genre piece, this falls really short.
Let's start with Five. Five is a shitty character that almost single-handedly ruined the show. Watanabe described the series like 24 but there are two problems with that. Even in 24 there are limits to what people in certain organizations can do, while Five seemingly just overrode everybody. There is some sense of the organizations actually existing even if Jack broke a number of rules. Why are people following her? There is no clear reason why especially when it became clear episodes ago that she was flat out insane. The second is that the better seasons of 24 tried to characterize the villains in some interesting way. Season 4 in particular stands out with how the show depicted the Muslim family. With
the death of Five, she goes out in the lamest way possible. She turns out she loved him, or something I don't fucking know, and wanted to beat him to show her superiority I guess. She then decided to end her life on her own terms. Wow what a deep story. What a deep goddamn fucking story.
This is the shittiest characterization I have seen for a villain in awhile. What's even worse is that Five's antics took time away from actually developing characters who needed screentime.
This brings us to Lisa. Lisa's role was to be an audience insert which is fine in concept, the problem is the execution is beyond shitty. We don't see any progress or development of Lisa as a character and Lisa's earlier issues are seemingly thrown on the backburner. I'm just imagining the mother in the apartment still trying to call Lisa's cellphone. She plays the damsel in distress multiple times and doesn't really show any initiative on her own part. Instead she exists either for a dramatic moment or in the last episode to drive the plot forward. The show would have been infinitely better if both Five and her would completely cut out of the show. Five's existence is detrimental while Lisa's existence is just such a non-factor that it's bloat.
The show wants to be a thriller but it's so illogical that the audience is left questioning character actions instead of being involved in the moment. I want to say it all was well directed but I can't. The final set of scenes in episode 10 are really piss-poor on a directorial level.
So Five is in charge of the field ops and instead of sending a team to hijack the car(like she did just a few seconds before), she does so in person. What? If she's in charge of operations, then why is she going in person?
Why does Twelve crash his bike? The scene before when he drops his grenade, his bike is in a normal stable position. The cut to the next bit has his bike sliding? Don't tell me the explosion as the car that the grenade was literally dropped on, is fine. The other question is how close were Five and Twelve to each other as the car goes sliding for a bit. The distance between the two in the chase was fairly close.
Why did the US officer finally decide this was to time to detain her or relieve her of command? Why did he not do this right as she came out of the hospital or when she tried to fucking blow up an airport? Why the fuck did you decide it at that particular moment?
How about this bit:
He gets shot, and is hunched over in pain but the next cut has him slightly bent over. His back should be much more arched.
I understand her disappearing into the fire for dramatic effect. The problem is that someone fucked up either editing or animating the scene as she just disappears. She doesn't disappear into the fireball but just flat out disappears.
You're putting too much effort into trying to "analyse" what are basically just animation errors. The production is super rushed. They finished the last two scripts only in late July or early August, and ep10 was only storyboarded in mid August. Since they had to screen the episode last weekend at the noitaminA cafe, there was only about a month of production for the entire episode before they delivered it.
Mihara storyboarded the entire episode in like 2 weeks iirc, and unlike Ping Pong, there was nothing to reference here. At this point I don't think anyone making the show even cares about doing anything high quality anymore rather than just finishing it so there's a product to deliver.
You're putting too much effort into trying to "analyse" what are basically just animation errors. The production is super rushed. They finished the last two scripts only in late July or early August, and ep10 was only storyboarded in mid August. Since they had to screen the episode last weekend at the noitaminA cafe, there was only about a month of production for the entire episode before they delivered it.
Mihara storyboarded the entire episode in like 2 weeks iirc, and unlike Ping Pong, there was nothing to reference here. At this point I don't think anyone making the show even cares about doing anything high quality anymore rather than just finishing it so there's a product to deliver.
Oh I know it's just animation errors. It still detracts from the viewing experience and really hurts the directorial quality of the scenes.
That said, the whole chase was really much lower on an animation standpoint than I expected. Even stuff like the crashes had no life to them and felt flat.
Oh I know it's just animation errors. It still detracts from the viewing experience and really hurts the directorial quality of the scenes.
That said, the whole chase was really much lower on an animation standpoint than I expected. Even stuff like the crashes had no life to them and felt flat.
I think this is a good episode to use in future examples when discussing why in animation especially, time is far more important to quality than just talent. This definitely wasn't a low effort episode in terms of staff. It had tons of Space Dandy and BONES staff working on it. In the end if you don't give people enough time to do good work, you're just going to get a mess.
Yep, this show can't bother with female characters, can it. Lisa is a non-character and Five was an evil non-character. Actually, never mind, besides Shibazaki no one is a well-defined character. There's nothing deep about anyone.
This episode basically shows that Five should have never existed. There are still a number of writing problems, but it's a much stronger episode than previous ones. The
nuke
scene in particular with the angelic harmonies in the OST and the intercutting between all the principal characters was very well done. It's just not enough to save the overall show, in the end. The script really needed a few more rewrites.
Zankyou no Terror 11
I'm pretty sure everyone in Tokyo has cancer now. Nice job not killing anyone Sphinx. Other stuff here just seems incredibly naive. What are the actual repercussions of shutting down all electric powered objects in a city? Think of the thousands that would die in hospitals, car accidents, etc. Then take into account the aftermath of how people would eat or drink in this scenario, and the looting that would occur with limited resources. This is before taking broader issues into account like incredible economic strain something like this would inflict, or the intense fear that would weave itself into a country that literally has nukes exploding over millions of people. And all of this accomplished...what exactly? Exposing that a few kids were stolen from their parents to a public that no longer has anyone to hold accountable for the incident.
Even breaking down basic scenes reveals a complete lack of basic logic being applied to what is occurring. Maybe shoot the guy with the detonator first so he can't just blow everything up, or snipe multiple people at the same time with the ten helicopters you have there. Killing these targets leaves potential armed nukes out in the wild though, so why they wouldn't just capture those involved here is beyond me. Lisa and cop man being allowed to live on means the information the United States was trying to cover up could always be out in the open as well.
Is Shibazaki even a police officer anymore? What is supposed to be stopping the Japanese government from silencing the truth here?
Wow did they skip a lot of mayhem and destruction in the wake of what he did. You don't just cut the power to (in the words of the scientist on the show) the entire country and not have thousands of people die. Instead of showing that, they do the cut to a year later and everything is peachy again (and Shibazaki isn't pissed at them so...I guess I'm to believe that society didn't have any troubles after the power went out). The English dialogue and the implications of it.... "Don't shoot him, he'll place the blame on the Japanese government and that'll deflect it away from us" ....what? He knows exactly who was to blame for the things Five did and there's no reason to suspect that he wouldn't reveal everything. Eh whatever.
I'm bummed at the wasted potential that this show has but it was enjoyable enough. The music and the art direction were batting way above the story so at least that aspect is memorable.
Of course Lisa outlived them; How do you kill that which isn't even alive?
Zankyou no Terror 11
I'm pretty sure everyone in Tokyo has cancer now. Nice job not killing anyone Sphinx. Other stuff here just seems incredibly naive. What are the actual repercussions of shutting down all electric powered objects in a city? Think of the thousands that would die in hospitals, car accidents, etc. Then take into account the aftermath of how people would eat or drink in this scenario, and the looting that would occur with limited resources. This is before taking broader issues into account like incredible economic strain something like this would inflict, or the intense fear that would weave itself into a country that literally has nukes exploding over millions of people. And all of this accomplished...what exactly? Exposing that a few kids were stolen from their parents to a public that no longer has anyone to hold accountable for the incident.
Even breaking down basic scenes reveals a complete lack of basic logic being applied to what is occurring. Maybe shoot the guy with the detonator first so he can't just blow everything up, or snipe multiple people at the same time with the ten helicopters you have there. Killing these targets leaves potential armed nukes out in the wild though, so why they wouldn't just capture those involved here is beyond me. Lisa and cop man being allowed to live on means the information the United States was trying to cover up could always be out in the open as well.
Is Shibazaki even a police officer anymore? What is supposed to be stopping the Japanese government from silencing the truth here?
I thought it was a good ending....assuming I understand correctly? Everything they did was basically just to expose the corruption in Japan, right? They never actually wanted to hurt anyone, they just wanted an elaborate plot so big that it would have to get attention, right?
Yea, didn't really care about this ending, which pretty much sums up my feelings on this batch of supreme disappointment, they never bothered to get me to care about most of these alleged characters. Right now, this is by far my let down of the year.
Zankyou no Terror 11
I'm pretty sure everyone in Tokyo has cancer now. Nice job not killing anyone Sphinx. Other stuff here just seems incredibly naive. What are the actual repercussions of shutting down all electric powered objects in a city? Think of the thousands that would die in hospitals, car accidents, etc.
Seriously, they really try to tell us nothing bad really happened? It may have been nigh impossible with the first building destruction but in this case it's certain fact that many thousands will die if large parts of the country lose electricity at once.
That reminds me of Summer Wars were either all of Japan or even the entire world gets 'hacked' and turned upside down, yet, even though the digital world is so strongly integrated into the real world there and affects almost everything (traffic etc.), not a single casualty.
I cannot possible suspend my disbelief far enough for shit this badly thought through.
I thought it was a good ending....assuming I understand correctly? Everything they did was basically just to expose the corruption in Japan, right? They never actually wanted to hurt anyone, they just wanted an elaborate plot so big that it would have to get attention, right?
Yeah, they wanted to expose the whole conspiracy before dying of the treatment. A nuke going on in Japan could gather enough global attention, a few terror attacks with no casualties could be buried like everything else.
Pretty terrible ending, the penultimate episode implied the writer had finally found themself in the world and was hitting their stride but apparently it was just a red herring, a fluke of sorts, that enabled them to get too relaxed and resort to some of the most rotten writing techniques only seen in amateur drabbles. [C] will forever remain the only anime that does the destruction and terrorism of sorts plot well. It is too bad that even when the key figure behind terrible anime like Bebop is handed amazingly designed characters on a silver platter, with all the toppings and multiple courses even, that he just fails to deliver a coherent, immersive, and entertaining story in even just 11 episodes. What went wrong is easily identifiable when they tried to expand the detectives role to some predictable route and then introduce Five for some unknown reason who was just a character of completely wasted potential like the stereotypical annoying damsel in distress character, Lisa. With so many mistakes, I should have easily seen that the ending would be embarrassing and atrocious.
If they had only kept the Terror in Tokyo then it could have been an amazing anime. It promised to be a no holds barred visceral experience in sound and drama. , really
a country without electricity is quite a dull use for a weapon of mass destruction, there was like no destruction in this anime except by the Americans, which is offensive :/ Worst, who even kills off the best character after everyone had a fun time making up and just living it up. Its just not right
Thought the show was good, but Five was so unnecessary honestly and really hurt it from being the masterpiece it could have been as well as a few plot issues.
7/10
+Incredible animation
+Solid character design
-Engrish sections
-Five
-Lisa didn't reach potential and was just a burden
-Five
-Five
-Did I mention Five?
Man, this show was such a disappointment. There was so much potential here, but the execution is so awful with it's terrible characterization, unbelievable motivations, and plot holes.
The direction and music were really fantastic all the way through, even if the scripts were miserably uninspired and boring. It was a cute spin on the "OMG THERE'S A FACILITY WHERE THEY PROGRAM KIDS FROM A YOUNG AGE TO BE SOMETHING!" that they've done in so many other things like 999, Monster, etc.
The ending definitely made the show better, but it was still hindered by 4-6 of the episodes being duds.
While there was never going to be a really satisfactory way to escape from the hole the writing had dug over the course of 10 episodes, I was happy to see that the skillful direction and production was back in full force, able to work around limitations to build some very powerful scenes.
The sequence that closes the first half of the episode was a powerful expression of something that I think had been lost since episode one or two: the power of a destructive spectacle to drive people out of the everyday and grab hold of their attention. In that half you can see the seeds of the show that vanished for good during episode six, with the emphasis on the technological milieu surrounding these acts, on a realistic police response, on a real sense of possible impending danger. It's as powerful and urgent as the show has been in quite a while. The second half of the episode is weaker due to its focus on elements of the series that never really got developed well, but even during its somewhat nonsensical climax, Nine's primal scream of loss hits home hard on the strength of the visual and musical direction.
This could have been a really special series, but instead it's merely good: spectacular in some respects, poor in others. It's too bad.
I kind of want to get back to the political aspect of the writing. Thematically, it reminded me a lot of some other 80s stories I've encountered, the most well-known to anime fans being Akira. Akira is a story of two boys orphaned by society that hold incredible potential, and ultimately destroy the world that had abandoned them and marginalized them. There's a clear thematic conflict between the forces of the establishment and the children who they exploit.
Terror in Resonance is under no obligation to rehash those same themes or conflicts, but those it does build are pretty messy and confused. The conspiracy that Sphinx tries to expose is created not by the powers-that-be (the police, a benevolent force) by members of the right wing. The character that seems to personify them is old and dying. What power do they actually have today? Why does Sphinx choose to expose them now? And they, as well as the police, are opposed by Five and the USA. How does Five fit into this political tug-of-war, or into Sphinx's feeling of not-belonging? Where does the US stand at the end?
On a character level, the young being alienated and used by the old, and rebelling against those selfish crimes, is a universal theme that even Lisa plays a part in. But on a political level, it doesn't feel coherent.
Terror in Resonance 11
Terror in Resonance is under no obligation to rehash those same themes or conflicts, but those it does build are pretty messy and confused. The conspiracy that Sphinx tries to expose is created not by the powers-that-be (the police, a benevolent force) by members of the right wing. The character that seems to personify them is old and dying. What power do they actually have today? Why does Sphinx choose to expose them now? And they, as well as the police, are opposed by Five and the USA. How does Five fit into this political tug-of-war, or into Sphinx's feeling of not-belonging? Where does the US stand at the end?
On a character level, the young being alienated and used by the old, and rebelling against those selfish crimes, is a universal theme that even Lisa plays a part in. But on a political level, it doesn't feel coherent.
The old men were just those involved with the Athena Project, right? I thought the implication was that they were forced out somewhat when that project went sideways and that there was a new generation pulling the strings. That's almost conjecture on my part though, because they didn't have the time to build it up. That whole aspect of the show was definitely a mess and it never came together into anything worthwhile. It would have been better if there had been a more...current face of the conspiracy/group.
I was enjoying the show up until these last two episodes, which were rushed to the point of nonsense. The series was directed really well and had a nice soundtrack, but the writing just fell apart as it went on -- and it wasn't all that strong to begin with either. Maybe more episodes could have helped to flesh things out more, but maybe not; it seemed like the writers just lost interest or something. A pretty baffling and disappointing finish to what could and should have a far more interesting show.
Also, there needs to be a moratorium on Engrish in anime. Not only is it embarrassing to listen to, but the fact that it's delivered like complete gibberish really detracts from the actual story.
the Athena kids don't live long anyway; the drugs they were given left them physically unstable and with finite lifespans. Nine's time to drop dead just happened to be then.
the Athena kids don't live long anyway; the drugs they were given left them physically unstable and with finite lifespans. Nine's time to drop dead just happened to be then.
I guess that was was about as good an ending as you can get out of a poorly plotted series which tries to tackle a variety of themes without really being able to focus on any of them. Poor characterization, poor narrative structure, not much tension or excitement really. Just a pile of half-baked ideas with good production design, excellent direction, and a suberb soundtrack. Oh well.
I lol'd when Twelve and Lisa held hands watching that explosion, because it definitely reminded me of Fight Club, a far superior show which also tackled themes about anti-society motivations, people falling through the cracks, and terrorism used as a "wake up call".
true i wondered about that as well, but it would have been shown through autopsy that it were sniper rifle grade calibre bullets then? bullets have their own form of fingerprints, not that they would use this in the anime though, lol.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the cookie crumbles. 🍪
The show seemed promising enough, but once Five was introduced and the characters stopped being developed the series suffered from any kind of progression.
They spent too much trying to have that chess game with Five for there to be any time given to the stories of the children at the orphanage. The gravity of the situation wasn't as strong because all the back story was through Shibazaki's short investigation that took place in one or two episodes.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the cookie crumbles. ��
The show seemed promising enough, but once Five was introduced and the characters stopped being developed the series suffered from any kind of progression.
They spent too much trying to have that chess game with Five for there to be any time given to the stories of the children at the orphanage. The gravity of the situation wasn't as strong because all the back story was through Shibazaki's short investigation that took place in one or two episodes.
