The Terminator franchise consists of scifi-slash-contemporary stories that involves killing machines, rogue AIs, and the humans who defy their fates and sacrificing themselves for the future of an AI-free mankind. Parts of that are relatable given the current trend of AI tools being a substitute rather than a tool (just do a quick search on your favourite social media platform for that nonsense). So it’s a bit shocking to not hear the film series being brought up that much in pop culture save for parts 1 and 2/Judgment Day.

Then again, the subsequent movies from part 3 to Dark Fate fail to live up to the tone and spirit of the first two films, and aren’t really good shows to watch as a whole. Leave it to top dog animation studio Production IG, Mattson Tomlin the showrunner & writer, and Masashi Kud?, the director of Sanrio Boys and that one Chain Chronicle anime adaptation that doesn’t look like it’s on a shoestring budget to tell another Terminator tale in anime form. And do a good job at that!

This Is The World Now. Logged On, Plugged In, All The Time

Terminator Zero is focused on a couple of perspectives: one is on Malcolm Lee who is a scientist who is building an Artificial Intelligence named Kokoro who may be key in staving off an impending machine takeover of Earth via SkyNet. The other is on his neglected family -Kenta, Hiro, and Reika- alongside their helper & family friend Misaki. The other key character is Eiko, a warrior from the future who has to stop the Terminator from doing its thing -killing off Malcolm and keeping the machine war of the future going.

All of these plot threads may seem like it’s leading astray, but the 8-episode series is paced really well and takes its time showcasing a modern-day Japan that is reliant on machines, biting the populace in the proverbial behind when trouble hits the fan. Standout moments include Malcolm debating with the AI Kokoro on the nature of man and whether they deserve to live through the impending Judgment Day, and Misaki’s tribulations as she reluctantly teams up with Eiko and find the kids.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s heart lies within the 10-year old John Connor. To up the ante, Terminator Zero took that concept to another level by giving us three young children to root for. Each of them have their own quirks and baggage along with a recent tragedy that affects them as a whole; they’re portrayed in the most realistic of ways without being too annoying about it. After all, if you’re 10-year olds being chased down by an unkillable machine, you’d probably behave and act out the same way. Whether it’s the tech prodigy Kenta or the optimistic Hiro, or even the precocious Reina, they’re likeable enough to make you not want machine death on them. The fact that their dad isn’t exactly the best at taking care of them is also fleshed out in the later episodes as we find out more revelations about him and Misaki, as well as how Eiko fits in all this.

As for the titular character, the Terminator? Yes, this version is just as scary and imposing as the ones played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick. He can take a beating, has a sick crossbow arm attachment, and just doesn’t know when to give up. He does speak once in a while, but just does the job well and really causes a hard time for our heroes. The perfect killing machine, as advertised.

Come With Me If You Want To Live

Of course, we can’t have a Terminator film with just drama and revelations. The violence and action is really well put-together here, but we expect nothing less from the studio that brought us the best Ghost in the Shell adaptations and the Psycho-Pass anime series. Nothing is spared, be it immolating humans or Terminators living up to their namesake by crushing heads, necks, and other body parts like a hammer on watermelons in a Gallagher show. Those robots and machines we brought up earlier in the first episode or two? You’ll get to see them turn into killing machines, and the results on hapless law enforcers and citizens do deliver on the animation front. Terminator Zero doesn’t shy away from realistically-portrayed anime violence, and we are all the more enriched to seeing it happen in the show’s eight-episode run. We even get some nods to past Terminator shows with some glimpses of a machine-ruling future, and the time-traveling methods used by the future resistance. If anything, Production I.G has shown us time and again why they’re the cream of the crop in the animation business.

That said, the show isn’t perfect. The last two episodes do introduce a few head-scratching elements in the plot that feel pretty hastily put-in. I’m not sure to make heads or tail whether we are getting a Season 2, but I do wish some questions imposed by the last episode’s plot twists do get addressed in the far future. Still, the episode does show the goods in the animation department, so I can’t complain too much.

Terminator Zero is perhaps one of the better entries in the franchise, and all it needed was time and a bigger episode count to breathe and take its time. The awesome visuals and animation in key moments do help accentuate the human vs AI storyline, albeit in a different and much-needed new light. It isn’t going to top the first two James Cameron scifi films, but it comes damn near close, especially in a series with scrap metal-level movie entries.

Final Score: 80/100

Should You Watch It Sub Or Dub?

Japanese with subtitles. Definitely sub. The English voice acting isn’t exactly the best and does come off as dour and flat for the most part. That said however, the standout character is the Terminator voiced by Timothy Olyphant. He is known for playing sinister roles in live-action films, so to have him use his soft but menacing voice for the titular killing machine is genius casting. I guess Rosario Dawson as Kokoro works fine, but Timothy Olyphant is the MVP of the English dub.

You can judge the Japanese VO and English VO for yourselves on the video below (slight spoiler warning).