TERMINATOR ZERO – Season One

It’s official. We’ve tried to deny Asia’s dominance of cinematic creativity, ingenuity, and excellence for years. Even after the success of anime, Squid Game, Parasite (2019), and then Godzilla Minus One (2023), critics and fans alike were still convinced there was at least an ounce of creativity left in the Euro-American mind that could revive the glory days of 1980s and 1990s cinema. But now, with the debut of Terminator Zero from Romanian-American Mattson Tomlin and Japanese animator Masashi Kudo, it’s become much too clear to ignore. If you want depth, beauty, and a good continuation of a great franchise without unnecessary nostalgia bait, don’t look to Hollywood. Look to Tokyo and Seoul.

This series, which takes place in James Cameron’s Terminator universe, follows a Japanese scientist, Malcolm Lee (Yuuya Uchida / André Holland), who, after having seemingly prophetic dreams about “Judgment Day”, is attempting to create a new A.I. system called Kokoro (Atsumi Tanezaki / Rosario Dawson) that has the capability of competing with and, perhaps, stopping the advance of Skynet.

What follows is familiar territory to Terminator fans but with twists that keep the adaptation fresh. A Terminator (Yashuri Mamiya / Timothy Olyphant) is sent back in time to stop Kokoro from coming online, and a resistance fighter, Eiko (Toa Yukinari / Sonoya Mizuno), is sent to stop it. Equally familiar are the high-stakes, fast-paced chase scenes and unrepentant gore that is just as terrifying in animation as on a theatrical big screen. But this time, the thrills of the ’80s and ’90s are joined by a more complex, philosophical, and even spiritual element hinted at in the first two Terminator films and attempted in the poorly executed sequels and prequels but never fully realised until now.

The problem with the films that followed The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) is the mistaken belief that a good sequel or prequel must include the Connor family and Arnold Schwarzenegger. American filmmakers have failed to realise that audiences didn’t just fall in love with a set of characters in 1984, they fell in love with a fascinating and fully realised world. We don’t just want to rehash “greatest hits” from previous movies, we want to know more about how this fascinating world operates. Who are the other players? Are conditions the same everywhere in the world? Are other resistance leaders using time travel as well? Terminator Zero finally seeks to tell us the stories we haven’t yet explored.

By setting Terminator Zero in the same world but in a different country from the previous films, Tomlin and Kudo allow the mind and imagination of the audience to expand beyond ’84. Without Sarah Connor, John Connor, and Arnold, comparisons to the previous films become almost moot. We allow ourselves to meet new characters and become immersed in a new story. This series is an oddly gentle, spiritual, and philosophical tale about family, grief, free will, and humanity.

Between car chases, skull-crushing, and machine dominance, there is a much quieter and more philosophical, beautifully animated dynamic between Malcolm Lee and his creation, Kokoro. The conversations between the two characters explore not only revelations and twists about the backgrounds of key characters but also the philosophy that underpins humanity and intelligence leading to one question that will decide the fate of the world: is humanity worth saving?

The fluid animation and changing imagery of these dialogue-heavy scenes keep them dynamic and engaging. It’s helped along by beautiful voice acting from André Holland and Rosario Dawson. Speaking of voice acting, I must say, even if you, like me, are a die-hard subs-not-dubs fan, I urge you to go with the English dub version for this series.

In the spirit of fairness, I tried both versions and, to my surprise, the English voice actors, particularly Holland, won me over. It also helps that Malcolm Lee’s young children are voiced in Japanese by voice actors in their thirties and in English by child voice actors who are roughly the same age as the characters they portray. This leads to the children in the English version having much more natural-sounding interactions with the adults and one another than they can accomplish in the Japanese.

The Japanese setting also gives weight to the true cost of atomic power. The country remains the only place on Earth to have truly felt the destruction atomic weapons can bring. So, as we saw in Godzilla Minus One, any time their artists pick up the subject of nuclear war, there’s a more profound weight to it. To Americans and others in the West, nuclear weapons are an obscure threat, a boogeyman plot device. In Japan, they are a devastating reality.

You don’t have to be an anime fan to enjoy this series. You don’t even have to be a Terminator fan (though there are some Easter eggs you’ll appreciate more if you’ve seen the first two blockbusters). If you’re a fan of strong storytelling, complex characters, beautiful animation, and pulse-pounding action, you will enjoy Terminator Zero.

Reviving a franchise that had all but been left for dead is a challenging task. Hollywood proved that it was not up to the challenge. Tokyo took up the mantle and successfully ran with it. Where Western filmmakers took a beloved story and ground it to dust, a Romanian-American screenwriter and Japanese artist took the ashes of the Terminator franchise and fashioned something exquisite out of them. Hollywood should follow their example or be crushed under the boot of Japanese creativity.

USA • JAPAN | 2024 | 8 EPISODES | 16:9 HD | COLOUR | JAPANESE • ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

writer: Mattson Tomlin (based on ‘The Terminator’ by James Cameron & Gale Ann Hurd).
directors: Mineo Ōe, Haruka Tanaka, Shigeki Hatakeyama, Tomomi Takeuchi, Masashi Kudō & Yuta Maruyuma
voices: Yashurio Mamiya, Toa Yukinari, Yuuya Uchida, Saori Hayami, Miyuki Sato, Shizuka Ishigmai, Mari Yokoo, Ayaka Shimoyamada, Chō & Yōhei Azakami (Japanese) • Timothy Olyphant, Sonoya Mizuno, André Holland, Sumalee Montano, Armani Jackson, Gideon Adlon, Carter Rockwood, Rosario Dawson, Ann Dowd, Julie Nathanson, Fred Tatasciore & Nicolas Roye (English).