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Terminator Zero had an uphill battle right from its start. It takes a series that has had some of the most iconic movies in all of cinema and some interesting additions and gives it a totally new setting, characters, and presentation. It was the victim of one of the biggest anime leaks in history. It has to fit into a story filled with time paradoxes and somehow make sense of all of it while also not messing with the films. it has to make a great product that competes with a series that influenced the sci-fi genre and just American film history.
Ultimately, it has to uphold what made the series so iconic over the years while also trying to find its own identity and on the surface, it fails to do the latter but if we pay close attention, it explores an interesting take on what it means to be human, even if you aren't an actual human.
The Terminator series goes way back to 1984 and at the time this movie was really unique. In the 80s, all of this was a huge deal. You have a time travel plot, crazy gunfights, special effects that were amazing for the time period, and one of the largest men in existence to play the villain. This would push Arnold Schwarzenegger to new acting heights, and it launched director James Cameron’s career with this horror sci fi action blend. There was a lot of magic that made this a cult classic film that still holds up to this day and then James Cameron and Arnold returned for Terminator 2 Judgement Day and just…did it all again
This movie made the already unique concept of 1 even more unique adding in another terminator while Arnold takes the role of a good terminator. This allowed for even crazier fights, cool car chases, and enriched the lore of the terminator universe. It also adds a family dynamic. While the first terminator had a bit of a love story, John Conor’s addition to the story makes it a bit more emotional as he not only reconnects with his mother but finds a father figure in this terminator who is weirdly a perfect parent. He obviously saves and protects John but also just listens to him and engages with John’s generational slang without judgment.
You can see the direct influences of these two films on terminator zero. Some concepts are ripped right from them like the police station shootout or the terminator truck chase but the family dynamic that Zero focuses so heavily on takes what made the second film so special and amplifies it.
It wears its influences on its sleeve with pride and if you’re going to be influenced by any of the Terminator movies, the first two are the ones to take from. Without James Cameron at the helm, The rest of the series loses that magic the first films created and the uniqueness of the terminator becomes its weakness as it goes along.
They get crazier with the time paradoxes, judgment day keeps changing dates, the series really focuses more on the action than storytelling. This doesn’t mean these movies aren’t fun to watch by any means, but they all fail to live up to the glory of the first two. Terminator Zero has a decent enough explanation for all these time paradoxes. Malcom even references the flaws of Skynet’s and the resistance's plans using time travel. It uses it to its advantage at times because it gives us several crazy and exciting twists that, yeah it creates its own paradoxes but that’s part of the charm of the series at this point. But a key concept that this series has always focused on is fate.
Terminator zero says the word fate a lot. Like I mean a lot of times. It really tries to drive home that this is a core part of the series. We’ve known this since Sarah Conor carves no fate in that picnic table and even the 2019 movie has it right in the title. Malcom regularly asks himself if humans are destined for judgement day or states that fate isn’t real. The old prophet in the future discusses it while giving time travel exposition. Malcom’s wife’s existence is a topic of fate. When the terminator finally confronts him, he even states “Nothing you do will change our fate.”
It’s pretty on the nose. Terminator zero isn’t making viewers think too hard. That’s totally fine because the action scenes are a blast in this movie. Eiko doesn’t get a lot of character development, but she is bad ass. I love how foul mouthed and rugged she is. She regularly just curses at children but is still a good babysitter given the circumstances. Her scenes from the very beginning to the final fight are fast, creative and brutal. The anime style really fits the vibe of the series and allows for some disgusting moments.
The fact that the terminator doesn’t require a live action actor allows it to be much creepier. His pupils are always dilated as he stares ahead. His movement is very jerky as he forebodingly walks through anything. Comparing this to when Misaki goes wild and kills a gang as if she was doing some gloriously violent dance. Car chases and gunfights play out with a big body count, and we are always rewarded to some flashy scene after Malcom and Kokoro debate about humanity and give us exposition.
The anime really focuses on the family dynamic of Malcom and his children. The kids being at wits end with their father's constant work and his failing to honor their mother on her death’s anniversary fuels their distrust to go out and get in danger. Malcom tells Kokoro how important they are to not just him but his research yet when they are in danger, he doesn’t leave to help which only furthers Kokoro’s point that humans are a cancer on the world. And even though some of the twists may explain why Malcom isn’t worried about his children, it’s really hard to root for him when his son has a shotgun pointed at him and Malcom refuses to help even after giving some big heartfelt speech to him. So, on the surface terminator zero checks its boxes of exploring the concept of fate and doing so with murderous robots and family drama. It’s easy to just say the anime is pretty cut and dry but still delivers a terminator experience that’s fun and exciting but there was one thing I noticed in the anime that really stood out to me and if we get a season 2, it really should explore it much deeper.
When Skynet finally goes online and attacks humanity, Kokoro stops their attack but says that Skynet is the human's enemy and not hers. She is constantly debating with Malcom if humans are worth saving and Malcolm defense is the emotional capacity of humanity. Malcolm's big argument is the love he has for his family, even stating that when his wife died, it was his own judgment day. The selfless love for his family that Malcom displays at the end is what Kokoro views as the best part of humanity. But there are a lot of parts of humanity shown throughout the anime that are not displayed by humans at all.
At the very beginning, the nanny Misaki brings home a robotic cat for the children, it ultimately leads to the confrontation between the family and the terminator but even before that I couldn't help but think that this is an awful toy. Aside from needing to be groomed or go to the bathroom, it acts like an actual cat. It gets happy with affection, defensive when confronted with danger, and when it is scared it even runs away.
It nails the feeling of owning a real cat but that is a dumb toy. Why would you want a toy that can run away from you? It’s this thing running away that leads to the children chasing after it which is dangerous even if a terminator wasn’t coming after them.
Kenta immediately wants to dismantle the toy and see how it works while the others Reika and Hiro fight him to protect it because they view it as real. It raises the question of how real is this thing? It isn’t made of flesh and bone, taking out its batteries would shut it down, and it’s programmed to have cat tendencies. But as far as actually owning that toy, it’s a cat. It shows all the emotions a pet has, and it connects with Reika as her owner. We see this with another robot, Misaki.
When the terminator rips off her arm, it is revealed that she is a cyborg. The entire time before this everyone has been referencing her as a normal human person, the Lee’s, the viewers, and even herself. Once this is revealed however, everything changes.
The terminator scans her and identifies her as a high threat, Eiko rudely refers to her as cyborg, and Kenta is angry and distrusts her. As Kokoro’s robots are taking over Tokyo and Misaki is hiding with the children trying to keep them safe, she is also dealing with her big reveal because even she didn’t know this. Until this moment, she just assumed she was a human being.
Kenta begins referring to her as an “it” and dehumanizing her, but Misaki lashes out and says to not talk to her like she is a thing. She is literally having an existential crisis and all she cares about is the children, but Kenta argues that she is just programmed to feel that way. She begins to cry and still shows how emotionally connected she is to them.
We even see this when she is struggling with all the different emotions about her discovery, but Hiro grabs her hands. It humanizes her. It reminds her of what she values, and it comforts her. Later on, she displays even more of what she is capable of which hurts her human credibility.
She absolutely massacres a gang of humans when she sees a robot hung with the words resist painted on it. She feels empathy for the hanging robot and after she survives the trap that was set, the gang realizes she is a cyborg. They try to kill her, and her eyes turn red, and it is all over. She eviscerates these guys with a lot of finesse, but she only snaps out of it when Hiro is held hostage. Instead of doing some crazy move that kills the man precisely and saves Hiro, she breaks down crying and pleads with the man saying Hiro is just a child.
After the fight, Kenta threatens to kill Misaki. She pleads with him stating that she can feel pain, fear and love. Since we have met her, she has seemed to fill that motherly role and has an undying love for the kids. Hiro stops Kenta and he yells that their own father doesn't care about them, but Misak does. She wants to save the people she cares about, and this same concern is shared by Eiko as she speaks to the prophet about time travel. Eiko asks that if she can’t save anyone in her own time, then what’s the point but the prophet interestingly responds that the answer to that question is what sets us apart from the machines. But Misaki is a machine and asks those same questions.
Similarly, Malcolm kills humans to defend the newly created Misaki and though he is shocked at what he has done, Misaki asks him why he killed those men, and he responds that he did it for her. So not only does she care greatly for the Lee’s, but she is greatly cared for by them.
The humans are praised for the care for those close to them and the emotional bond they share, but Misaki does the same thing. Malcolm programs her with free will and at her creation she chooses a feminine role and wants to be a nurturer. We literally witness her robotic abilities. She could easily be a destructive force and be a bodyguard instead of a nanny, but Misaki chooses to take care of Malcolm’s children. She chooses to connect with them but the only thing we don’t know is if she chose to love them or like humans, did she fall in love with them.
Misaki feels emotions, pain, bleeds, and even has an immense love for the family. Comparing her to a terminator, they never react to anything. They have no emotions and focus on one mission. At what point do you consider Misaki to be more human than machine? Do you need to be made of flesh and bone? Well, Misaki is made of flesh, just not bone. She makes bodily fluids like tears. How do you even program that? Do you get a certain percent sad and then you cry? Was she ever programmed at all to do that, or did she decide on her own what is worth tears?
The anime doesn’t dive into this as much as it can but that’s ok because it needs a season 2. Season 1 was a solid foundation that checks all the boxes to keep terminator fans happy but now can explore this world further and ask deeper philosophical questions.
Terminator Zero had a lot to handle and does so in a fun and interesting way and anime proves to be a great way to portray this series. It’s easy to get the basic themes of the entire franchise and walk away satisfied but Terminator Zero is striving to have its own identity and be deeper than previous incarnations and with more episodes, they have the opportunity to do that. You really can’t go wrong with exploring existentialism in your anime, and we learned that when a book about a man turning into a bug gave us a thrilling and thought-provoking anime, and to hear more about that you can check out this video right here.
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