Let me ask you some questions. Do you like to be on the edge of your seat? Do you appreciate when a show can send chills down your spine? And, perhaps most of all, are you comfortable with a series that can hit you where it hurts?
If you've answered yes or no to any of these questions, then you are ready to experience a developing masterpiece. This is Studio MAPPA's newest creation: Zankou no Terror. And if you don't speak Nihongo:
This show was actually released earlier this year, back in July. There was a lot of hype surrounding it considering two things: its premise (which I'll get to in a sec) and the director. Shinichiro Watanabe is a pretty big name in the anime world, earning his reputation for being a phenomenal director. He's worked on some of my most favourite series, Cowboy Bebop being arguably his most famous. But does this first episode live up to these grand expectations?
In a word: yes. Episode 1, titled FALLING, is a pretty great crash course for those that want an example of pure Watanabe.
Picture this. A snowy day in Aomori, Japan. Two teenagers addressing themselves as 9 and 12 execute a plan to steal an explosive from a nuclear testing plant of sorts. Leaving behind a spray - painted message in red, VON, the two escape via snowmobile. It's a really thrilling action sequence full of crazy camera techniques and expressive movements. Now you could just look at those first few minutes and accurately claim that Watanabe had his hands all over this...but there's so much more to his style that comes alive in this episode.
We have a six month time skip, this time on a hot summer day in Tokyo. 9, the stern and focused boy tells the more happy go lucky 12 to keep his cover as a normal student. The two are posing as transfer students under the names Arata Kokonoe and Toji Hisami respectively, and need to keep a low profile. Unfortunately for the concerned Arata, Toji is the subject of gossip in the school. I don't know about you guys, but I'd mention a hyperactive transfer student to my friends if he came to school soaking wet. But why is he soaking wet? Before their cover names are actually revealed when they go to school, 9 & 12 encounter a girl being bullied for her fear of jumping off a pool's diving board. This girl, Lisa Mishima, is comforted by 12 brazenly deciding to jump in. So much for low profiling, right?
Meanwhile, we have a pair of policemen that play witness to a YouTube warning. Headed by "Sphinx Weather Forecast" members Sphinx #1 and #2, it's a vague warning by 9 and 12 of a darkness covering Shinjuku at 3pm tomorrow. The two don't make much of it at first, but don't worry. It'll all make sense in a minute. Later that night, 9 has a pretty freaky flashback / dream sequence. It's a wash of neutral colours as what appears to be younger versions of the two run towards a large fence. Ending with an explosion of all consuming fire, its a recurring dream that will no doubt come up later on in this series. But enough of that for now. Time for the big moment!
9 & 12 are in a mall and speak of a plan...move in three minutes, as power will be restored after twenty - six. Be ready. At that moment, a ship passes through some power cables a fair distance away. It may be daytime, but the whole city loses its light. Back at the Police HQ, the two former detectives connect the dots. Shibazaki and Mukasa both know the generator will restore power in twenty six minutes, but anything goes in that time. The entire mall is evacuated. All except for Lisa. That's right! Earlier on, Lisa had runt to the bathroom to read a mysterious set of texts from her Mom. Lisa was in the mall and ran to the bathroom for a second time, but the power cut right when she was in the bathroom. Attempting to find a way out, she finds 12 instead. He and 9 had finished taking plushies from the store and placing them all over the building. In an eerily cheerful demeanor, he tosses Lisa a plushie and leaves her behind.
So the power's back, and the duo have gotten away. 9 dials a code on his iPhone, setting every plushie to simultaneously explode. Well...not every one of them. 12 lays a guilt based gambit on him to save Lisa to which he reluctantly agrees. They call Lisa and give her a choice: either stay behind and die in the explosion, or escape and live as an accomplice. Lisa obviously choices live over death, and 9 directs her steps out the mall...using the resonance of her voice in the stairway she was in. Using the plushie 12 gave her, Lisa makes her own exit with 9's instructions. Speaking of 12, he shows up this time on a motorcycle, and meets her at the ground floor. She has to jump to him this time, or it's all over. And as she makes that critical leap, Watanabe's thematic writing shines through. The left tower crumbles in the explosion, with the right still smoking. Prepare for some serious 9/11 symbolism here, as there is absolutely no subtlety with its context.
We close on a pretty heavy note, as the now regrouped duo engage Lisa. 9 tells her that it was her choice to come along...and that she can't go back now. The episode ends with the description she gave them at the beginning: "A smile like the sun on a hot summer day, with eyes cold as ice." These two are clearly two halves of one whole.
I'm really excited to be watching this series now. This calm and eerie vibe that's bubbling forth intrigues me. Everything down from the modernized setting, Yoko Kanno's soundtrack, the 'bleached' colour scheme, and the still opening and ending animations really set up this world well. So far, this is a refreshing thriller, full of suspense, action and that classic Watanabe feel.
And I can't wait for the next one.
Later, people!
