Terror in Resonance Anime Review
In today’s anime review, we will be talking about Zankyou No Terror ( Terror in Resonance).
This 11 episode anime series aired in 2014 and was produced by MAPPA in its early days which is now an extremely well-known production company in the anime industry. This anime is “hidden” among the many other mainstream animes that more or less have the same storyline. The storyline of this show was unique at its time of release and became the inspiration of much popular manga and anime series in the future. The plot keeps the viewer on edge until the very last episode where the plot takes a sudden twist and everything submerges into chaos.
In an alternative iteration of Japan, two genius teenage boys who go by the names Nine and Twelve steal a prototype atomic bomb in an apparent terrorist attack. They go into hiding and resurface after six months where they randomly encounter a girl by the name of Lisa Mishima at their school being bullied by her classmates and the two teens help her to enrol back in school. Soon after, a mysterious video is posted on social media by the teenagers in which they make a masked appearance and call themselves Sphinx 1 and Sphinx 2. They threaten a blackout and explosion in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo on the following day unless a cryptic riddle can be solved. A demoted detective named Shibazaki sees the video, but he does not take it seriously. The next day, while Lisa is in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the greater Tokyo prefecture loses power as mentioned in the video and the police immediately evacuate the building. With the cameras in the building taken out, Nine and Twelve place stuffed animals containing incendiary explosives beneath the sprinkler systems. When Twelve is seen by Lisa in the stairwell whilst evacuation, he gives her one of their stuffed animals and flees the building. He then asks Nine to decide whether they should kill her or let her live since she is now a witness to the crime. His response is to let her decide whether to die or become an accomplice. Lisa chooses to live and become an accomplice, so Twelve extracts her as the building crumbles and takes her back to their hideout unharmed.
A police investigation initiated following the explosion reveals that it left several people with minor injuries but no fatalities, despite the large scale destruction. Meanwhile, Nine and Twelve start working on a cellphone bomb and release a second video with a riddle from Oedipus Rex hinting at the location of their next bombsite. The police deduce the riddle to be the next site of the bomb attack and then move to secure the suspected location, a DNA laboratory. Shibazaki phones the chief of police, Kurahashi, with an alternative interpretation of the riddle suggesting that the bomb will be at the Roppongi police district office. As expected by Shibazaki, the bomb sets off in the district office instead of the lab and Kurahashi asks Shibazaki to return to the detective division from archives and lead the investigation. Kurahashi then reveals the theft of the atomic bomb to Shibazaki and the fact that the letters “VON” were found at both locations. Lisa finds out what Nine and Twelve were up to, but they threaten to kill her if she reveals their secret.
In the following days, Nine constructs another bomb. He deduces from the presence of counter-nuclear terrorism special forces that police are aware of his and Twelve’s theft of the plutonium from the Aomori nuclear facility. Shibazaki learns that one of the men who stole the plutonium worked at the nuclear facility for a short time, but his identity has since been erased. Shibazaki was a native of Hiroshima and he tells that he hated summer due to the fears held by the older townspeople who experienced the atomic bombing during World War II. Nine and Twelve upload the third video with another riddle related to Oedipus Rex. Shibazaki solves the riddle and the police stream a live recording of Shibazaki, in which he announces the location of the newest bomb, ending with a direct challenge to Sphinx before the police cut off the live stream. Viewing news and surveillance footage of the police, Nine realizes the police have connected them to the stolen plutonium.
Nine hacks into the Metropolitan Police Department database searching for data after which he sends a fourth video, titled “Time Shock Bomb”, where he and Twelve present another riddle related to Oedipus Rex to find a hidden bomb timed to explode. Shibazaki finds a website created by Nine and Twelve using the riddle, which asks for a password related to three maxims inscribed at the temple at Delphi. As time almost runs out, the police raid an apartment building where Nine was seen dropping off a suspicious package, although Shibazaki is still intent on solving the riddle. Police officers breach the apartment, only to find no bomb and a laptop instead. Time runs out, and police investigation reports of the attacks are leaked online, creating panic and havoc amongst the people. Meanwhile, we learn that Lisa was unable to tolerate her mentally unstable mother and runs away from home and was apprehended by two police officers in a petty incident. Twelve, who was following Lisa for the past few days saves her from the two police officers and takes her to their apartment. However, Nine disapproves of Lisa staying with them.
In their next attack, Nine and Twelve place a bomb on a passenger train. Nine and Twelve post another video with a riddle, saying that an explosion will occur unless it solved before the deadline. Shibazaki concludes the newest bomb is on board a train on the Shuto Shinjuku Line using clues from the riddle. He realises the connection between all of the bombings: the locations are linked to people connected to a seminar run by the Rising Peace Academy, a secretive non-profit organization. When there are no police reports of the bomb being recovered, Nine and Twelve attempt to deactivate the bomb, but cellphone reception fails throughout the area. Nine rushes to the station to remove it manually, throwing a smoke bomb into the carriage to force commuters off the train. However, one woman remains and as he enters the train to save her, the bomb explodes. As Nine drags the commuter out of the wreckage, he receives a text message saying, “I found you”. They then spot a mysterious woman sitting nearby, whom Nine identifies as Five. Now the viewers know that the aim and motive of these terror attacks is something different as not harming people is one of the sphinx’s priorities.
The police chief announces to a meeting of his task force that a unit of the FBI will join the investigation, surprising the other officers. Nine has a nightmare involving Five, and he and Twelve conclude that Five is continuing a game of chess the three played years ago. Kurahashi tells Shibazaki about his meeting with the FBI agents, which included Five, described as a researcher from an American organization called the Nuclear Energy Support Team (NEST). Posing as Sphinx, Five sends a public text message containing a riddle that can only be decoded via Caesar cypher. The answer is a set of coordinates leading to Haneda Airport’s International Terminal. All this is done by five to trap Nine and Twelve as she knows that taking human lives was not a part of their ideals. This would destroy the sphinx’s true goals and Nine and Twelve have no other choice than to go and defuse the bomb. The police are told to stand by on orders from the superintendent general, but Shibazaki and some others ignore the order and head towards the terminal. Knowing that a trap is being set by Five, Nine takes Lisa to the terminal with Twelve in an attempt to avoid detection. Twelve realizes that Five was using the terminal building as a chessboard and if all the clues were solved it would point to the location of the bomb.
Nine and Twelve decide to play Five’s chess game. Arriving at the terminal, Shibazaki and the officers see messages being given to Nine and Twelve from Five on the terminal screens. Twelve gets Lisa to create a distraction by setting off flares that trigger a fire alarm in the airport. Twelve then hacks into the camera system and enables Nine to use the clues and find Five’s location without being detected by Shibazaki’s team. When he confronts Five at gunpoint and demands to know why she is interfering in their plans, she responds by saying that she wants to settle things with him and reveals that Lisa has been caught and is being held captive at the bomb’s location. Airport police arrive at the scene and fire at Nine, forcing him to flee where he briefly passes Shibazaki. Nine finds Twelve, who receives a phone call from Lisa who is aboard an aeroplane that has a bomb on board and is on autopilot heading towards a terminal filled with commuters. Nine makes a last-ditch effort and contacts Shibazaki to convince him that the latest bomb is not theirs, and instructs him to infiltrate the control tower and take control of the autopilot system. Nine and Twelve then rescue Lisa from the plane while Shibazaki enters the control room and forces one of the operators to divert the plane away from the terminal at gunpoint. The plane explodes without injuring anyone, and Shibazaki spots a masked Nine, who signals him in thanks before leaving. Her true identity now being revealed, Five, the person responsible for the bomb, manages to escape but has Lisa’s identity card with her.
The media broadcasts that the foiled airport attack is the work of Sphinx. The officers who accompanied Shibazaki to Haneda Airport against orders are temporarily suspended by their boss while Shibazaki is given a permanent suspension. Meanwhile, Five tracks down Lisa at the Sphinx hideout and sends a bomb, but Lisa escapes before it detonates. Nine, Twelve, and Lisa flee to an abandoned video arcade where Nine states that Lisa is a liability. Shibazaki continues to try and figure out the motive of the attackers and he discovers that a decade ago, the Rising Peace Academy implemented an operation called the Athena Project. He visits Ichiro Fujiwara, a politician who was involved in the Athena project and threatens to expose his son’s illegal activities if he does not reveal the secrets behind this project. Fujiwara then reveals that orphaned children were gathered and tested, and the gifted ones with Savant’s Syndrome were selected for the Athena Project. The main goal of this project was to make these orphans into human weapons loyal to the army using whatever means necessary. They were denied freedom and lived in inhumane conditions and underwent extreme training drills. Shibazaki realises that Nine Twelve and Five must be survivors of this secret project. Lisa feels guilty for everything that happens and leaves Nine and Twelve, only to be captured by Five’s FBI allies. Later, Twelve receives a threatening text message from Five, revealing that Lisa has been taken, hostage. Rejecting Nine’s order to focus on their mission, Twelve sets off to rescue Lisa.
While Twelve goes to rescue Lisa, Nine leaves to retrieve the plutonium. Meanwhile, Shibazaki visits Souta Aoki, the former welfare minister, to question him about the Athena Project. Surprisingly, Aoki tells them everything about it; its connection to the members of the Rising Peace Academy; the experiments on the gifted children within the “Settlement”; and using drugs to artificially produce Savant’s Syndrome in the children. Aoki says that Five was the only child to have survived the experiment which involved hundreds of orphans, however, two other children, Nine and Twelve, managed to escape. He tells Shibazaki that the mastermind behind the project was Dr Shunzo Mamiya, the politician who was behind Shibazaki’s demotion a couple of years back. While Nine constructs the final bomb, Twelve follows Five’s instructions and reaches the amusement park to find Lisa handcuffed on a Ferris wheel. Her body is laced with several bombs and a timer activates when the ride begins to move. Twelve comforts her and begins disarming the bombs one by one although they both realize that he cannot defuse them all in time. Twelve refuses to leave Lisa, and reluctantly tells Five the location of the plutonium in exchange for stopping the timer. Five cuts the power to the Ferris wheel, trapping Twelve and Lisa midair. The Metropolitan Police Department raids the school where Nine had just retrieved the bomb and he narrowly escapes. Five orders him captured before she suddenly collapses.
Nine unexpectedly turns himself in but refuses to speak to anyone but Shibazaki. He demands a press conference at a specific location and time or the atomic bomb prototype will be activated. Shibazaki visits Dr Shunzo Mamiya, who confesses that he created the Athena Project as part of a plan to revitalize the Japanese national army following the nation’s defeat at the end of World War II. Five is hospitalized due to her deteriorating health which was one of the consequences of drugs they gave her in the Athena Project experiments. She learns of Nine’s surrender and desperately drives off to reach him. Five’s accomplices pursue the police convoy carrying Nine to the press conference, only to find that the truck is a decoy. Enraged and desperate, Five pursues Nine herself. Twelve catches up to the truck carrying nine on his motorbike, but Five causes him to crash and stops the truck. Five confesses to Nine that she always wanted to beat him but never could. Knowing that she is dying, Five gives him a brief kiss before committing suicide. The Japanese airwaves are then hijacked by a prerecorded message from Nine stating that the countdown for the atomic bomb’s detonation has begun. Declaring that this is the final message from Sphinx, Nine unmasks himself and bids the people of Japan farewell in the recording.
Following Nine’s announcement of the atomic bomb, Tokyo’s population begins to evacuate. Lisa helps a severely injured Twelve to escape from the dramatic scene of Twelve’s suicide. Shibazaki reminds Hamura that Sphinx has killed no one in all these subsequent attacks and learns from his daughter Haruka, a physicist, that the bomb could explode in the stratosphere without causing fatalities. However, an electromagnetic pulse from the explosion would essentially blackout the country and disable any aeroplanes still flying. All flights are immediately ordered to land, and fighter jets are dispatched to intercept the bomb placed in a weather balloon. Twelve regains consciousness and tells Lisa that he and Nine were always alone. The atomic bomb detonates in the sky the city plunges into darkness. It is followed by an aurora illuminating the sky formed by the radiation from the blast. The following day, passing Tokyo’s abandoned buildings and streets, Nine sets up makeshift grave markers for the Athena Project children at the Settlement. He is joined by Twelve and Lisa, and the three then spend an enjoyable day together. As night falls, they are approached by Shibazaki, who promises that Project Athena will be exposed and tries to convince them that they had to be arrested for their crimes.
Minutes later, U.S. helicopters arrive and Nine fears that they would shoot and kill Twelve and Lisa. In a desperate attempt, he bluffs by pulling out a detonator from his pocket and threatens to explode another atomic bomb. Under orders from their superiors to keep the American government’s involvement in the investigation a secret, the soldiers open fire and kill Twelve. Shibazaki shields Nine and promises that Sphinx will be remembered. Nine surrenders the detonator then abruptly dies from the same affliction which killed Five. One year later, Project Athena is exposed, leaving the entire Japanese government under media scrutiny. Lisa encounters Shibazaki at the graves of Nine, Twelve, Five, and the other project children. In the closing scene, Lisa reveals that Nine used to listen to an Icelandic band and that “VON” was Icelandic for “hope”.