Terminator 0

Decades after the sentient artificial intelligence Skynet took control of the planet in 2022, the resistance is still fighting against the machines. Following a fierce battle, Eiko, a guerilla soldier in Japan, manages to corner a Terminator—Skynet's elite killing cyborg. Eiko extracts crucial details of its plan, allowing the resistance to send her back in time and secure a different future.

In August 1997, days before Skynet's looming nuclear attack known as Judgment Day, Malcolm Lee works on launching Kokoro, a new AI model designed to fight for humanity. As Judgement Day approaches, a Terminator arrives in Japan to hunt Malcolm and his children before Kokoro becomes self-aware. Malcolm must prevent his creation from getting misaligned and coming to the same conclusion as Skynet: the extinction of humans.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Terminator Main

Mamiya, Yasuhiro Japanese

Eiko Main

Yukinari, Toa Japanese

Lee, Malcolm Main

Uchida, Yuuya Japanese

Misaki Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Lee, Reika Supporting

Satou, Miyuki Japanese

Kokoro Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Fujino Supporting

Cho Japanese

Annie Supporting

Shimoyamada, Ayaka Japanese

Shiraki Supporting

Azakami, Youhei Japanese

Natsuko Supporting

Keichou, Yuka Japanese

Banshou, Kouichi Producer

Kudou, Masashi Director, Sound Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Maruyama, Yuuta Episode Director

Oe, Mineo Episode Director

Reviews

Aug 29, 2024

Marinate1016

Recommended

As a massive fan of the terminator franchise who’s watched all the movies dozens of times growing up with my dad, I can say this was the best instalment since T2 Judgement Day. It’s thrilling, engaging, thought provoking and a great evolution of the franchise. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

Terminator Zero starts off clearly reminiscent of earlier instalments of the series, borrowing concepts from the first two films, the spin off tv series and more, but by the halfway point it establishes itself as something unique. While yes it has cool fights and action scenes, the character drama and philosophical questions ... the series poses are much more important. Rather than focus on Arnold Schwarzenegger beating up another terminator to save humanity, we get asked the question of whether or not humanity is even worth being saved. The other entries have always treated this as a given. As if humans have some divine right to the planet, as if we can take whatever we want with no consequences. If you left that judgement to one of our own, the answer would always be “yes, we deserve to live” but in reality this is a simple self preservation instinct rather than objective truth. Throughout the course of its 8 episode run, Terminator Zero has humanity judged by a non biased third party with the core objective being convincing this third party that it should aid humanity in the struggle against skynet. I loved this so much and found it very refreshing.

This is very much a character driven story. I quickly grew attached to the kids and Misaki especially. I think the one downside I’d have here is that Eiko felt a little flat, I wonder if that’s intentional because they want to flesh her out in future media given some circumstances in the end of the series. Other than that, I was on the edge of my seat every episode hoping everyone would make it out of this alive. I’d encourage you to really pay attention to the characters’ subtle behaviours and idiosyncrasies as well. There’s some cool twists at the end that are foreshadowed throughout and it was so cool when we got there and I was able to look back and be like “ah, that’s why__” for 8 episodes, there’s quite a bit of good stuff in this one.

Production IG are no strangers to sci fi and they brought their A games here. Visuals and soundtrack are incredible, character designs as well. The few big fight scenes we have looked awesome too. Show is well paced and pulls you in from the get go.

Highly recommend this as a must watch for any terminator fan or sci fi fan in general. Honestly for younger people who haven’t seen the OG films(you need to ASAP since they’re legendary), this could serve as a good entry point for the franchise. Very happy with what we got.

Terminator Zero gets 9, out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 20, 2025

Ba-Cii10

Mixed Feelings

Funny

🟡Summer 2024(I think)
I admit that I have never watched the original Terminator trilogy with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the only film from this universe that I watched as a child was Terminator Salvation (2009) and I remember that I liked it, that's why I couldn't miss the premiere of this anime and after watching the whole thing I can say that it is quite enjoyable but it has too many flaws for me to recommend it......



This anime is an alternative version of the Terminator story from the perspective of Japan, MC who is a scientist, created his AI to stop Skynet from annihilating humanity, at the same ... time Eiko (resistance fighter) and Terminator (killing machine in the service of AI) come from the future, whose targets for various reasons are MC and his AI.

Well...the plot starts slowly, at first it may seem too straightforward and sometimes a bit boring, the rather bloody action didn't help either, because it was filled with a lot of nonsense and was lazily written, which I will mention at the end. But from a certain point the plot is much more intricate, surprising and focused, we get really few "unnecessary scenes" at the beginning everything seemed very predictable and it was, but towards the end we got some really interesting plot twists that made more or less sense, as for all this nonsense about time travel which I personally hate because in this type of plots there is always a lot of stupidity and paradoxes, but this anime seems to be aware of it and explains quite well how all this stuff about going back in time really works, that it is impossible to change the future, despite this the whole plot is based on the fact that Skynet sends the Terminator for this purpose, although it will not affect the time from which it was sent, additionally some facts that will be explained at the end make me feel that there is a lack of any consequence in all this. Most of the time we observe two main plots, namely how the characters chase each other with the terminator (it is done in a more or less satisfying way) and how the MC lies/sits/stands and talks to his AI trying to convince it to help humanity and stop Skynet but the cold calculation of the AI that sees no reason for humans to survive, apart from their selfish survival instinct, is a tough opponent haha
We get a lot of interesting moral dilemmas, although all these moral and philosophical considerations are just long monologues from the characters who speak directly, the anime does not present it in a particularly interesting way, the AI will simply give you a whole argument about how "humans are evil, they are a cancer to the Earth and must be eliminated" blah blah.

Sometimes it seems that the series has too much pathos during the MC's conversations with the AI ​​and tries to be smarter than it really is, which can give way towards the end because I think that this plot ultimately turned out to be a bit too naive and too easily resolved, but still this whole plot is interesting, it can provoke thought and we get some pretty interesting concepts.

But getting back to the plot in general, almost all the plots develop nicely (although the Skynet plot seemed a bit ignored) and connect with each other, characters that at first glance might seem uninteresting get some nice development, characters have to make really difficult decisions, everyone has the right amount of time, mainly because we don't really have too many characters here.
Of course, not all of them are particularly interesting and the interesting ones aren't outstanding, but everyone gets "something", has their own task and doesn't seem like a complete filler.
Mr. Terminator, who at first seems bland and makes no impression at all with his bulging eyes, becomes really cool and generally expressive throughout the anime, I like how often she changed clothes, once we had a slicked-down man in a suit and once we had some I don't know... shaman or something haha
Another plus is that the world reacts to everything that's happening and the police/military are interested, although it wasn't on such a scale (especially when it comes to the military) that I would have expected but still, the world is alive, but due to the limited budget, the cities seem deserted.

Unfortunately, we also get a few plot simplifications and quite a lot of stupidity, for example, the resistance movement, which in the post-apocalyptic future barely makes ends meet, is able to steal ultra-important data on time travel from Skynet, which was protected (from what we saw) by only one Terminator, additionally they are able to build a damn time machine... not very credible.
Terminator slaughters randoms who have no self-preservation instinct and attack him, sacrificing their lives for our main characters (randoms from their perspective) and our heroes don't even mention it and the plot forgets about their "glorious deeds" XDD

Action scenes:
The accuracy of the character depends on the scenario, the character runs straight and the machine specialized in killing cannot hit him, really, I don't know who came up with this, how on earth these bullets don't hit.

We also have a lot of plot armor where the characters survive impossible situations, the antagonist, although previously presented as ruthless and finishing off his victims, suddenly after defeating the main character, they leave him just like that without killing him, just because the scenario tells them to.
Eiko seems like a human terminator and her endurance and skills/strength are simply poorly written, which made it hard to feel respect for the Terminator at the beginning, because he gets his ass kicked by a "regular woman" yes, he keeps getting up and may seem like an unstoppable force but after the 10th time you manage to knock him down, it doesn't make such an impression anymore, at least that's how it was at the beginning, then it seems better, the action scenes also seem more logical in general, which means they are finally satisfying, brutality and a lot of blood definitely help with all of this.

Animation:
Mmm...it's not bad, although it's not good either, you could say it's average.

We get a lot of, often not very good CGI and a bit of recycled animation.

2D is pretty decent but could have been better, the animation is often quite wooden but of course we also get a few really good sequences so despite everything there's something to look forward to.
We also have a censorship that I hate, where instead of setting the "camera" at such an angle that you can't see intimate places, you just draw boobs without nipples, it looks so weird that..yeah.
Overall, if I were to rate the animation itself, a 6/10 would be a reasonable rating.

The soundtrack also deserves special mention, as it was able to turn up the excitement of a given scene.




Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐❌❌❌❌

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 16, 2025

perseii

Not Recommended

Terminator Zero is typical "Netflix content," seemingly created for a single purpose: to fill a hole in the streaming platform's line-up, labeled "sci-fi," "anime" and "violent." Underneath its Terminator-brand skin and a nice coat of paint, there is a "product" that is simply going through the motions with unexciting action, incoherent and unsatisfying story, flat characters and only vaguely interesting ideas.

The story is, like every Terminator movie, a straightforward action thriller with some philosophical musings sprinkled in. This time around, we follow a scientist, locked in a room ruminating and agonizing for most of the runtime, and some kids and their guardians, on a ... dreary trek through abandoned buildings and empty streets. The story here just stumbles from event to event with no real sense of flow or build-up, with things happening seemingly because they are supposed to happen in a Terminator story. Of course there has to be a sequence at a police station. There is some shocking development around the half-way point, but it has surprisingly little impact on the characters and the overall story, which ends with a whimper and a tease for a sequel that will likely never come.

On a more positive note, Terminator Zero toys with some interesting concepts (which is more than I can say about the last two movies). Can you debate and negotiate with AI? What will you sacrifice to prevent a future that may not even come to pass? Frustratingly, the show does not really follow up on any of them. The third-act "moment of truth" has no weight because the drawn-out debate goes out the window and the scene heavily relies on a character that has no good reason to be there and has little meaningful to say about the issue at hand. The show also tries to expand the world of Terminator, setting it in Tokyo and introducing rudimentary humanoid robots, but these quickly become irrelevant or reduced to simple plot devices. Basically every introduced idea is either discarded or poorly integrated with the characters and the story.

The action part of the overall package fares somewhat better. The action sequences are decently choreographed and thankfully do not lack for brutality. Some things do not make much sense (a human tackling a 400-pound hunk of metal cannot end well), but the bigger problem is that many of them feel strangely low-intensity. Good Terminator fights feel visceral, crunchy and unstoppable, but most fights in this show simply do not hit as hard; they feel awkward and floaty. There is one fight that feels a little different than usual, but it still feels derivative as it evokes Ghost in the Shell instead. It does not help that the action is bogged down by the constant questions of why this has to happen and why I should care about these people.

The characters we follow have no depth or personality. Scientist. Human from the future. Machine. Child. Everyone is at all times either stone-faced or distressed. Yes, Terminator has always been grim, but most of the movies remembered to crack a joke and add some character. The Terminator himself has no charisma, intimidating aura or an interesting gimmick here. Say what you will about Arnold (growing ever older), but there was a reason they kept wheeling him out in every movie; he has a distinct and likable presence. The human characters have unclear or uninteresting motivations, making odd and seemingly-random choices to move the plot forward. The children are the worst examples of this, as they constantly run off on a whim, make plot-critical discoveries by chance and act without understanding anything. It is difficult to care about them when I am not even sure if these people are human, in a way that I do not think was intentional.

The production quality is solid overall; this is Production I.G., after all. The visuals and sound are kept grounded to match the serious tone. The characters sometimes have stylistic, almost-neon colored outlines, which I like but some may find distracting. There is not much else notable that elevates the mediocre material, unfortunately.

Speaking of the technical aspects, the subtitles are a small point of irritation. The English subs often do not match the Japanese audio, to the point where subtitles appear when no one can be heard speaking. I assume the subs are matching the English dubs instead (which is probably how the original script was written by the American screenwriter), but the issue indicates a lack of care on Netflix’s part. Also, the English subs use far stronger language than is typical of an anime, so a timid Japanese babysitter dropping f-bombs frequently took me out of the show.

It is true that I am reviewing this as someone who has watched the Terminator movies and the TV series. I do love Terminator 2: Judgment Day (like a lot of people), but I would definitely not call myself a fan of the series. I still check them out because I believe that the core concept of Terminator still has some legs; fighting off and running away from a highly-advanced killing machine satisfies my action brain, while artificial intelligence and time travel tickle the sci-fi brain. The franchise is long overdue for expansion and re-interpretation, especially now as we are entering the age of AI. Even if the anime did none of these things, I would have at least appreciated an exciting, high-quality retread. The show tries to do a bit of both and manages neither of them particularly well. At the end of the day, I just cannot imagine that the creatives involved with this project, especially the writer, particularly cared.

The most charitable way to describe this would be an unremarkable sci-fi action anime that passes the time. However, there is very little excitement, cleverness or heart to be found here. As a Terminator show, it adds nothing to the franchise. If you want a sci-fi anime with robots, thought-provoking ideas, likable characters, an intriguing story and good production values, I would recommend Pluto instead (also on Netflix, incidentally). Terminator Zero is a plain waste of time and is destined to be forgotten in the vast Netflix trash heap.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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