Directed by Masashi Kudo, TERMINATOR ZERO is the latest anime to hit Netflix. It takes an animated stab at the Terminator story told years ago with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton.
In the original film, Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayed the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to eliminate Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton. The belief was that Connor’s unborn son would one day save humanity from extinction by Skynet, a malevolent artificial intelligence that viewed humans as the greatest threat to civilization. A soldier named Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn, was sent back in time to protect Sarah. Even though the film was a hit and created a devout following, a sequel wouldn’t be made until 1991.
In TERMINATOR ZERO, Malcolm Lee (André Holland), a widowed father of three children, Kenta, Hiro, and Reika, spends countless hours obsessing over his artificial intelligence creation Kokoro (Sonoya Mizuno). Battling apocalyptic nightmares and lack of sleep, he charges Misaki to take care of his children and handle his day-to-day affairs. His timeline is set in 1997. Meanwhile, in 2022, Eiko (Rosario Dawson) is one of the few human survivors who fight in a resistance against the machines. The Prophet (Ann Dowd) is an elder who leads her camp with wisdom and advice. In a dramatic change in events, her camp throws a Hail Mary and can hack into the machine’s system to copy their capability for a short window of time. This enables them to create a one-time use portal to send Eiko back to 1997 to prevent the fall of the human race and the apocalyptic nightmare they were living.
The series takes a pretty serious jump into AI and lightly dabbles with ethics. On one hand, we’re shown a Japan that has taken a modern approach to machinery; having them around to help, guide, and assist in the workplace. On the other, we’re shown a reality where AI has deemed humans too great a threat to Earth’s progress and were better off eradicated. It was a happy medium versus a gruesome apocalyptic end.
TERMINATOR ZERO tells a graphic, doomsday story fully equipped with a potential extinction-level event and a hero’s tale. The story and writing were solid and made the series that much better. Netflix continues to show their dedication to progress as this is yet another anime with a Black protagonist, following in the footsteps of great series like Dragon Prince and Canon Busters. The soundtrack was top-notch, setting the tone for each episode and invoking the right amount of suspense when needed.
TERMINATOR ZERO earns a 9 out of 10. The exciting, action-packed, eight episode series will be available globally on August 29. It’s rated TV-MA for gore, language, smoking, violence, and brief nudity.
Tune in on August 29, 2024 when the series will be available globally.
-Jon Jones
Photos: Courtesy of Netflix