With Terminator Zero, the Terminator franchise leaves its American territory for Japan, but fails (again) to impress.

Just when you think it’s finally buried, the Terminator saga always finds a way to return to our screens. Five years after the failure of Dark Fate, the franchise is switching to streaming with this Reboot/Anime adaptation in Terminator Zero.

The series is set in two timelines: on the one hand, 1997, where we follow Malcolm Lee and his children as the father prepares to unleash a powerful AI machine (Kokoro) to restore peace to Earth. Then there’s 2024, where chaos and war between Skynet and humans reigns, reducing humans to the underground to protect themselves from the machines. Sent into the past to stop Malcolm from freeing Kokoro, Eiko soon finds herself up against the Terminator in her race.

For all the criticisms that may be levelled at it later on, it’s best to start with the good points. It’s a pleasure to see the saga finally move out of its American territory and into another culture, Japan. Even if we might have liked more integration of Japanese society, seeing the stakes of a war on a landscape other than the American continent is always positive. Also, the franchise finally breaks out of its never-ending cycle with John Connor by introducing new characters. Nevertheless, Terminator Zero doesn’t give us much to sink our teeth into. Characteristically workaholic, Malcolm Lee seems far more concerned with his invention than his children, whom he entrusts to Misaki. For most of the series, he remains locked in his bubble with Kokoro. Locking Maclolm – the main character and center of the story – in a room without letting him out, while the others fight the Terminator without understanding, creates a sometimes disturbing gap. As the episodes unfold and the children, Misaki and Eiko, narrowly escape death, Malcolm discusses the meaning of life and takes naps.

In fact, Terminator Zero seems to stumble along in this cat-and-mouse game, and struggles to find its footing to fully launch by episode 5. So it’s not until halfway through the series that information, reflections and decisions have any real direct impact on the world. Characters finally talk to each other and stop running, they discover each other – sometimes themselves, in the case of Misaki – and the world around them begins to be turned upside down by the actions of Kokoro and Skynet. Initially positioned as a secondary character, Misaki gradually becomes one of the series’ central characters when [SPOILER] she discovers she is a cyborg after an encounter with the Terminator. From then on, her character becomes much more introspective, touching on interesting themes such as the nature of her existence, her personality and her emotions. As mentioned earlier, this second half of the series captures our interest and attention as the noose tightens between the children, Misaki, Eiko and Malcolm. Each character gets his or her own little piece of the story – obviously linked to the whole shebang – culminating in an overall satisfying finale that nevertheless indulges too much in revealing flashbacks.

Visually, Terminator Zero is not in its best form, and the opening scene shows us this directly. Although our characters’ faces and the Terminator’s textures are correct, the environment around them often seems flat or rather bland. It has to be said that the visuals aren’t helped by a sound design that lacks intensity, with gunfire and crashes lacking emphasis, while many scenes are just silence and footsteps. A sound design that works, when applied to the Terminator, but not for all the other characters. The series’ visual difficulties come to the fore in major sequences such as the first interaction between Malcolm, Misaki, Eiko and the Terminator. Without having to add a lot of stylistic effects, it’s clear that the animation lacks momentum. Later, the Terminator slaughters an entire police station in search of the children, and we’re left unimpressed. Yet Terminator Zero doesn’t skimp on gore and violence to show the power of the machine. Arms are ripped off, torsos punctured and heads torn off. But it seems that what the series couldn’t find in energy, it made up for in violence. But this only results in a routine violence that fails to convince. There’s no sense of urgency in the sequence of chases between the Terminator and Malcolm’s children. A feeling that tends to dissipate halfway through the series, but hey…, you have to wait until halfway through.

Terminator Zero has some good ideas on its hands, but struggles to express them fully and quickly. And you have to overlook a number of shortcomings to be convinced by its story, dull visuals and writing that have only have a few episodes of glory.

Terminator Zero Official Teaser Trailer