The Terminator franchise is one that has already conquered the world of live action through the use of both films and TV shows. Well it now sets it's sights on it's very animated projected with an anime TV show that has just dropped all eight of it's episodes and well you all just knew that I had to check this show the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I give you my SPOILER FREE review that see The Terminator franchise head into a country for the first time ever with the show in question being called simply just "Terminator Zero" enjoy.
The plot of this show is when an scientist from the year 1997 comes close to unleashing an AI to compete with Skynet Skynet itself sends a Terminator back from the year 2022 to stop him once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot thats actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty the worst aspect of the show just because of the fact that the plot just wasn't all that knew or interesting as it's the same kind of Terminator plot that we've seen done better in the other movies heck even Terminator Genisys had a much more interesting plot as it at the very least tried to do something new and different with it's plot it failed to do so but it was at the very least trying to do something new and different here it felt like that the show was just going through the motions and while yes it had the Terminator IP attached to it and had all of the iconography it failed to understand what it was that made those things so iconic in the first place and the plot of this show does suffer because of it with the plot of this show also just feeling really weak as well with the plot of this show not even being really rather entertaining nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this show is André Holland as Malcolm Lee , Sonoya Mizuno as Eiko and Timothy Olyphant as The Terminator. Also starring in this show is Ann Dowd as The Prophet , Armani Jackson as Kenta , Carter Rockwood as Hiro , Gideon Adlon as Reika , Rosario Dawson as Kokoro , Sumalee Montano as Misaki and Ver. 2 , Fred Tatasciore as Captain Fujino , James Mathis III as Commander , Julie Nathanson as Annie , Nicolas Roye as Captain Shiraki , Tom Bromhead as 1nno and Ver. 1 and Vanessa Marshall as Natsuko.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about thew actual acting that;s actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that;s actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good. Which is both not that surprising but also really surprising it's not all that surprising given that alot of this shows actors are a bunch of really good actors who have turned in really good performances in other projects both animated and live action but it's also really surprising as this show actors are also some really unknown actors and as a result of that is the fact that it would have been unwise to expect a good performance from all of this shows young actors and yet that's exactly what we got with all of this shows actors turning soe really solid performances with the acting that's in this hoe very not really being helped by the fact that the scripts for this show is just so bad as it doesn't really give this shows actors alot to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in this very first place which is something that really does effect the overall quality of the acting that's in this very show.
Doing the animation for this show is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Production I.G. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good which given who is animating this show really isn't anything thats all that new as Production I.G nearly always produce really high quality animation for all pf there projects with the same thing also being true for this as well as the animation that's in this show looks like that it really does belong in a feature length film and not in a TV series as that's just good the animation that's in this show really is with the show making good use of blending 3D CGI animation with the more traditional 2D hand drawn animation with the show using the 3D CGI animation to pull of the types of shots that you just couldn't do in 2D animation with the shows 3D animation looking just as good as the shows 2D's animation as well with all of the shows characters having some really nice fluid movements to all of them as well.
This show does introduce us to new bunch of resistance fighters with the main one being Eiko who is alot better then Grace. As Eiko at least is a somewhat likable character and you can at least understand where he hatred of all things machine is coming from where as with Grace while she did start of as a likable character by the end of Terminator: Dark Fate she was just an annoying character who had no reason to hate machines out side of the fact that she's from the future and that's really it where as here with Eiko her hatred is a little bit more justified as we see just how much the terminators put her through prior to her going back in time and while that is indeed a small thing it is also something that adds to her character as it then becomes something that she has to try and overcome over the course of the shows eight episodes with this being helped by the fact that she does come across as being a really likable character as she is forms a bond with those that she's there to protect and sort of becomes a motherly figure to some of the characters eventually forming sort of a found family with those characters something that Grace would never be able to do as she's not that good of a characters where as with Eiko while yes it does take her some time to do all of that when she does reach thar point it feels right for here character to do so.
In a rather strange and bizarre move it was confirmed by this show show runner Mattson Tomlin has said that all of the prior films are indeed canon. This is something that really doesn't make sense when you take Terminator Genisys into account as that film created a whole new timeline of events one in which Sarah Connor meets the terminator in the seventies before it agrees to protect and she meets up with that films version of Kyle Reece in the eighties and yet now this show is saying that that film is now canon to the main timeline when it really isn't as all you'd have to do is watch that film and see that it's not canon as all it would do is mess up the already pretty messed up Terminator timeline as it is if anything this show should have been treated as being in it's own timeline one that's separate from the main timeline but close enough to where it can pull in certain characters and themes as and when it needs to and yet because it's now saying that everything is now canon to the show that creates a whole mess of things that will need to be addressed as going off of that statement that Mattson Tomlin said John Connor is now both the franchises biggest hero and it's biggest villain both at the exact same time and that's something that just doesn't work at all.
The Terminator in this show is a solid character but at the same time for a show that's named after him he really doesn't play that nig of a role in the plot of the show. While yes the main purpose of Eiko going back in time is because of him once they both get to Japan he does very little to advance the actual plot of the show but to be fair given how this show ends that does make sense with the show even including another machine which is an interesting aspect and the show does take the time to fully develop that storyline and the character that's involved with it but at the same time tho it also takes away from the character that we've come to see that being The Terminator and while yes The Terminator in the first movie do all that much to advance the plot of that film either they did make up for that in the sequel where as or his first anime outing the character is just there alot of time to remind us that this is a Terminator show and that's really it with this not really being helped by the fact that the character himself really isn't all that interesting either with the character showing next to no personality which again does work with the fact that he's a robot but at the same time he's robot that's able to blend in with other people and yet the makers of this show don't really give this character much of an actual personality.
Now then this show has / has an exact grand total running time of really no longer then exactly thirty minuets. With all of this shows first eight episodes being roughly around twenty nine minuets in length which is a rally solid running time for all of these episodes to have as the show really doesn't have all that much there interms of plot and as a result of that is the fact that this show really doesn't require really long running times in order to tell it's story in good way with alot of this show being made up of filler scenes that add nothing to the overall plot of the episode with the worst example of this being most of episode seven which mostly takes place in the year 2040 and has nothing to do with the main storyline of the show and is the very definition of filler as it's something that could have been left on the cutting room floor or spread out over the course of the show with those far future scenes being used more as flashforwards as this would then allow the show to focus more on it's main story and the scenes set in 2040 could then be used to create a mystery as to who these characters and when the reveal happens it would then be even more shocking then what they ended up being but I really will admit this show really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that;s actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that;s actually featured / resented to us in his very show was in all honesty not that bad. With this show having alot of really gory action in it as you do get to see people cut in half thanks to being gunned down by The Terminator and people do get quite brutally stabbed with this show being an adult anime but outside of those gory moments a few swear words and some very brief nudity the show really doesn't feel all that mature as it doesn't have any of the very heavy mature themes that were present in both the first and second film and yet even tho anime can do very adult anime shows and movies with mature themes and still have some really good action in them this show doesn't do that which makes the shows action feel more kid friendly as there only mature in the most basic of senses and while this show does have some good action in it it's not as good as it really could have been either as there was nothing all that interesting happening in them in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this show does have all of the potential to be a really good show as there is alot of potential there for it to be a good show as all of the shows faults can very easily be fixed by the time that the next batch of episodes do release but at the same time it also doesn't do all that much to help with the sorry state that The Terminator franchise has been in since the release of Terminator: Dark Fate in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very show in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very show really does ern itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Terminator fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to really use to get the images from these very episodes that I really used in this very review being the really great the official Terminator fandom wiki page simply just because of the fact that really due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are in this review really are all really from this very show and are really of course up and really on the really great the official Terminator fandom wiki page are really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.