Netflix’s Well-Animated Terminator Zero Starts Strong Before Breaking Down

By Elijah Gonzalez | August 29, 2024 | 3:00am

Photo Courtesy of Netflix

Anime Reviews Netflix

Netflix’s Well-Animated Terminator Zero Starts Strong Before Breaking Down

While plenty of big franchises eventually get trapped in a Gordian knot of confusing storytelling as they release additional installments, the Terminator series has to be one of the most incomprehensible. After the lean action-horror excellence of the original 1984 film and the 1991 sequel’s more indulgent (but still deeply entertaining) blockbuster sensibilities, the Terminator movies have largely succumbed to the brain-frying complications of a narrative centered around time travel to the point where trying to explain the complete timeline may as well require a PhD in quantum physics. And more than these confusing details, the later films feel held back by the past, unable to craft the kind of groundbreaking imagery and tense circumstances that made the original feel ahead of its time.

Terminator Zero is a new chapter in this complicated mythos, a TV series from one of the most prolific anime studios around, Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass, Patlabor, and a whole bunch more), and showrunner Mattson Tomlin (Project Power, Mother/Android). It’s an eight-episode anime that starts off strong thanks to creeping mechanical horror that mirrors the first film, excellent animation, and interesting ideas that make it seem poised to break free from the temporal loops the franchise has been stuck in for decades. Unfortunately, though, it self-destructs in its last episode, unable to bring together its larger themes as it fails to deliver a satisfying climax and introduces confusing time paradoxes.

As for how it compares to previous entries in the series, on its face, many of Zero’s plot details are quite familiar: Skynet once again sends a Terminator into the past to kill someone who will defeat them in the future, in this case, Malcolm Lee (André Holland in the English-language dub and Yuuya Uchida in the Japanese dub), an engineer living in 1997 Japan. A member of the human resistance is sent back in time to stop this assassination, in this case, Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno/Toa Yukinari), a stoic fighter determined to accomplish her mission for the sake of those she’s lost.

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While you’ve seen these beats before, through the first few episodes, Production I.G. and director Masashi Kudou render these familiar sights with verve. Events begin with a statement of purpose, a brutal cold opening that reminds us of something we may have forgotten across countless sequels and spinoffs: Terminators are really goddamn scary. These death machines wrapped in human skin are nigh-unkillable embodiments of pure malice, their brutality conveyed here in how they butcher, stomp, and crush their frail human victims. As Eiko flees from a T-1000 that’s wiped out the rest of her unit, the after-effects of this grisly massacre are shown in uncomfortable detail.

Here, we also get a preview of something else Production I.G. brings throughout the series besides all the viscera: smooth action animation and punchy direction. From beginning to end, the show looks great from a technical perspective, with fluid animation that seamlessly captures big action movie moments, as well as more intimate displays of uncomfortable robot-on-human violence. In the beginning chase, Eiko swings around a corner as the Terminator’s bullets whiz past her, her movement captured with grace and power as the metallic soundtrack builds.

However, the Terminator is a tough foe, and one of the reasons the iconic robot is scary again here is because we can feel how overmatched our characters are in every shattered bone it nonchalantly inflicts. A nice novel touch compared to other takes on this material is that, because the story takes place in Japan where it’s hard to access firearms, everyone, including the killer bot, needs to get a bit more creative about how they fight.

Sharp storyboarding and editing further push things visually as Production I.G. delivers eyeball-searing apocalyptic sights that build on their experience crafting iconic sci-fi anime; the harsh purples of a Skynet-controlled future calls back to the original movie’s heavy metal intro, disquieting helper bots prowl streets, and a hallucinatory augmented-reality chamber sets the stage for a grand debate. Whether it’s the action sequences or anything else, the series snaps from scene to scene with clever match cuts and a good visual pace that maintains tension.

However, while the direction and animation capture much of what made the original movies so thrilling and the story begins in a similar place to previous iterations, this tale eventually diverges in compelling directions—at a certain point, instead of just parroting what the previous installments did, Zero begins to subvert their underlying ideas and assumptions.

For starters, it does a good job untangling much of the overly complicated time travel junk from the later flicks with a clear explanation of what’s going on here, one that’s sort of been offered in some of the movies, but rarely this clearly: each time someone travels into the past, this creates a new, separate timeline. And more importantly, this explanation comes with a thought-provoking dilemma for our time traveler, Eiko; if the world she’s traveling to is different from her own, one disconnected from the loved ones she’s trying to protect, then why should she care about this new continuity at all? We watch as she’s haunted by the traumatizing memories of her doomed timeline and struggles to understand why she should be invested in this new future she’s helping build, which gives us something to chew on beyond her displays of badassery (although those are pretty cool, too).

Beyond this, there are also some compelling emotional wrinkles to the people Eiko is tasked with saving. There’s Malcolm’s daughter Reika (Gideon Adlon/Miyuki Satou), who is grappling with the death of her mother, Reika’s older brother Kenta (Armani Jackson/Hiro Shimono), who has a contentious relationship with their work-obsessed father, and their middle sibling Hiro (Shizuka Ishigami/Carter Rockwood), who does his best to keep the peace. All three’s relationship with their dad is rocky due to Malcolm’s obsession with fixing a problem he refuses to explain. Meanwhile, there’s Misaki (Sumalee Montano/Soari Hayami), the family babysitter, who is eventually confronted with well-presented questions of identity and purpose as she’s sucked into these complicated circumstances alongside everyone else. The bonds between this group help make us emotionally invested when the T-1000 comes knocking at their door.

And then, of course, there’s the Terminator’s central target, Malcolm, who sees graphic visions of thermonuclear destruction (a reference to Sarah Connor’s visions in T2). His main recourse for stopping the future is conducting long-winded conversations with a potential machine ally he may or may not have created as a countermeasure. Here, the show breaks into a mode of sci-fi that feels a little more inspired by Asimov’s I, Robot and plenty of other tales with more complicated takes on interactions between humanity and AI than that of a skeletal metal demon crushing human skulls. While these talks are a bit of a mixed bag, sometimes coming across a bit too much like sophistry—it also doesn’t help that whenever Malcolm enters the room that houses this AI, the visuals jarringly switch to awkwardly presented 3D-CGI models—these discussions also tease out more contemplative threads, like how Skynet is essentially a militant extension of humankind’s worst warmongering impulses.

It’s during these scenes that the show gestures beyond what the Terminator franchise has largely been up until now and tries to do something different; at one point, there’s a meta-textual jab with massive implications, explaining that the ever-repeating game of cat and mouse between Skynet and humanity is fundamentally misguided. While much of this anime is quite good at what the series has always done, delivering scenes of people running away from a murder robot, it also alludes to more ambitious aims about what this tale can be.

Unfortunately, while Zero tees up some big ideas, it’s largely unable to follow through on them. The main issue is the last episode delivers a muddled climax with insufficient room to breathe instead of a rousing conclusion that ties together all its previous thematic points. After setting up weighty philosophical questions about AI personhood, whether humanity deserves to exist despite the suffering we cause, and more, it rushes through pivotal events around Malcolm and his family in a somewhat incoherent way. I think I mostly understand what Tomlin is trying to say about humanity and what could convince a higher power to help us, but it doesn’t land nearly as resoundingly as it should. On top of this, the finale introduces confusing last-minute twists tied to the time travel logic that cause headaches, all while undermining specific character arcs.

In trying to act as both a standalone finale and set up for a potential future season, it gets its wires crossed, undercutting the larger points it had been building to. Perhaps another episode or two could have messaged things, but as is, the story feels like scattered thoughts that don’t fully coalesce. Still, despite these failings, I would honestly prefer a big swing like this that doesn’t fully connect over another uninspired retelling with nothing new to say.

Despite its disappointing denouement, I largely enjoyed my time with Terminator Zero. From start to finish, it successfully channels the dread of having a merciless 2-ton killer on your trail, as Production I.G.’s consistent animation and tense shot compositions keep this several-episode-long chase engrossing. And beyond these moments you’ve largely seen before, this story also attempts to break out of the endless temporal loop the series has been stuck in for 40 years. It may not entirely succeed at those aims, but that’s better than many of its peers, which may as well be carbon copies spat out from a Skynet assembly line. I give the show one thumbs up (that’s slowly being lowered into a vat of lava).

Terminator Zero premieres Thursday, August 29th on Netflix.

Elijah Gonzalez writes about games and anime. In addition to playing the latest, he also loves anime, movies, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon series. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.