The Terminator series is one of the most legendary film franchises and deals with the war between Artificial Intelligence and humanity. So far, all films and series after Terminator 2 have failed to match the success of the earlier entries. Ironically, an anime could change that.
What kind of anime is this? Yesterday, Terminator Zero premiered on Netflix. This is an anime series that will consist of eight episodes. Mattson Tomlin serves as showrunner and writer, while Masashi Kudo is directing.
The anime series is set in 1997 Tokyo. Malcom Lee has developed an Artificial Intelligence named Kokoro that is supposed to compete with the AI of Skynet, which we already know from the original Terminator films.
However, it seems that someone is not happy with what Malcom Lee is working on. He and his three children are being hunted by a robotic assassin. But they receive help from a mysterious soldier who claims to be from the year 2022.
Here you can watch a trailer for Terminator Zero:
The first two Terminator films remain unmatched
Why could it reconnect with past successes? In the first reviews, the anime is well received by the audience. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a recommendation rate of 100 percent from critics, while other viewers give it 89 percent. On IMDb, it scores 7.2/10 points.
- The Terminator and Terminator 2 score 8.1/10 and 8.6/10 points on IMDb, respectively. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger likely contributed to some of the success, as he defined the Terminator with his iconic quotes. All subsequent films released from 2003 to 2019 only achieved ratings between 6.2 and 6.5 points.
- The two web series that Terminator Zero follows only score 5.3 and 4.7 points on IMDb.
- Terminator: S.C.C. is the only series that has been a ray of hope in the meantime. It achieved a better score of 7.6 points.
However, there is “only” an 85 percent recommendation rate on Rotten Tomatoes, or 86 percent when combining both seasons. This puts the series behind the current anime with a comparable number of votes.
It is likely that the anime will not quite reach the 8-point ratings of the first two films when more votes come in. However, the series is heading in the right direction and could be the best Terminator material fans have received in a long time.
Where can I watch the anime? Terminator Zero is now available with all eight episodes on Netflix. Each episode is approximately 28 minutes long. So if you have an active Netflix subscription, you shouldn’t miss the anime if you’re a fan of Terminator!
To help you decide which anime provider is right for you, MeinMMO has compiled an overview of all the major streaming services in Germany. This way, you can more easily think about which subscriptions you want to pay for: Anime streaming in Germany: Which provider is right for me?
