Terminator Zero Review: Thoughtful Netflix Anime Is The Best Terminator Installment We've Gotten In Years

Ever since James Cameron launched the Terminator franchise in 1984, it has been on a steady decline in quality as it fails to justify why further follow-ups should be made to his critically acclaimed 1991 sequel, Judgment Day. With Terminator Zero, not only does the franchise explore a new medium in the form of an anime after the short-lived Sarah Connor Chronicles and tie-in CGI web show Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series, but it also finally offers a story worthy of Cameron’s beloved original titles.

Developed and showrun by The Batman — Part II‘s Mattson Tomlin, Terminator Zero is set in a slightly altered timeline of the franchise — both in the past and future — and centers on two characters, Eiko and Malcolm Lee. Eiko is a resistance fighter from post-apocalyptic 2022 who has been sent to 1997 Japan to protect Lee in the hopes of preventing Judgment Day. Lee, meanwhile, is a scientist racing to perfect a new artificial intelligence system intended to protect humanity from Skynet, which inadvertently makes him the target of a Terminator sent to kill him and his children.

Terminator Zero Forges A New Path Forward For The Franchise

Without being bogged down by prior lore, the show stands apart

One of the biggest problems prior installments of the Terminator franchise have run into is how to best sell the movies to longtime fans by bringing back Arnold Schwarzenegger or recognizable characters like John and Sarah Connor. This has, unfortunately, led to far too many convoluted plotlines and retcons of prior movies. With Terminator Zero, however, Tomlin smartly does away with the need to feature any major ties beyond name-drops of Judgment Day and Skynet, allowing for a fresh approach to the franchise’s formula.

The basic crux of the show still plays true to the familiar structure of prior Terminator movies, showcasing a resistance fighter from the future being sent to the past in the hopes of protecting humanity from the titular cyborg assassin. The anime quickly veers off into original territory from here, though, with one of the more compelling story arcs being that of Malcolm’s creation of the new AI, Kokoro, and his race to perfect it before Skynet can become active.

Rather than feel like a replication of Miles Bennett Dyson’s Judgment Day story of an ambitious scientist unaware of how he’ll bring about the end of the world, Malcolm has a seemingly clairvoyant vision of the future and knows humanity is on the verge of destruction. Through Malcolm’s creation of Kokoro, Tomlin takes the opportunity to actually explore why a system like Skynet would elect to terminate mankind upon activation, as Malcolm tries to convince Kokoro to stop Skynet. It raises the stakes higher as the question of what would happen if Kokoro and Skynet elected to partner up arises.

The Show’s Mix Of Old-Fashioned & 3D Animation Makes For Some Stunning Visuals

While still retaining some iconic imagery, Terminator Zero creates its own visual palette

Hailing from the iconic Production I.G., one of the other major standout elements of Terminator Zero is the actual animation. Across their 36-year history, the studio has been behind everything from Ghost in the Shell to Star Wars: Visions‘ “The Ninth Jedi”. They have explored a wide variety of animation styles with their projects. With the Terminator anime, they find an expert mix of 3D computer animation and hand-drawn 2D art to create a visually stunning show from start to finish.

One of the most impressive setpieces of the show comes in Terminator Zero‘s first episode, in which Eiko confronts a Terminator and fights it while suspended from a rope. It’s reminiscent of Attack on Titan but is still firmly in the dystopian world of the Terminator franchise. Another standout moment comes about halfway through the show, when a character revealed to be a cyborg fights a group of humans in an effort to protect itself. The animation stylishly captures the action and highlights the grace a cyborg would have in such a situation.

Where the 3D animation excels is through Kokoro, already a unique depiction of an AI system because it’s split into three beings that present themselves as spirits to Malcolm in the room he’s developing it. The animation is appropriately flowy as Kokoro floats through the room in its conversation with Malcolm, and though it presents itself with human-like characteristics, Production I.G. smartly pull back from showing Kokoro taking a full human form to tie into the incomplete nature of the system.

The English Voice Cast Are Too Low Energy & The Ending Leaves A Lot Unresolved

In a franchise strewn with incomplete endings, the lack of resolution is a disappointment

Ultimately, while the show is a promising new direction for the franchise as a whole, there are a few downsides, including the performances of the anime’s English voice cast. This is not to say the roster isn’t full of talented performers, including Timothy Olyphant as The Terminator, André Holland as Malcolm, Sonoya Mizuno as Eiko and Rosario Dawson as Kokoro. The problem lies in the overall direction they’ve been given for their performances, particularly that of Holland and Mizuno, who rarely feel like they’re delivering the appropriate energy level for the situations their characters are involved in.

Then there’s Terminator Zero‘s ending, which leaves a number of questions unanswered, as well as a few dropped in the finale itself. As studios have sought to revive the franchise with various reboots, the Terminator franchise has seen far too many plot threads go unresolved, with Genisys being one of the more infamous for the fact it was meant to launch a trilogy before it was scrapped after underperforming. Given this trend of unanswered questions, it would’ve been nice to see Tomlin craft a more conclusive story.

That said, it doesn’t entirely ruin the entertaining ride that Terminator Zero is. Its finale is a nice ode to the original movie’s ending, in which the future may be unclear, but there’s enough of a resolution that I was mostly satisfied. Should the show become a hit and Netflix reteams with Tomlin to better flesh out the story, there’s certainly a wealth of material to explore, and hopefully he takes the same thought-provoking approach to a second season as he did with the first.

Terminator Zero is now streaming on Netflix.