Terror in Resonance is an 11 episode thriller anime directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, music done by Yoko Kanno, and produced by studio MAPPA. With Shinichio Watanabe and Yoko Kanno reuniting again, after their one of their previous works being the amazing Cowboy Bebop, we were all hyped. Does this anime manage to set the world on fire, or does it come crashing down?
Story: Right off the bat, the story is such that one might make one uncomfortable. This is a story about terrorism. It follows two youths, known only by "Nine" and "Twelve", and their acts of terror upon the city of Tokyo. However, as they blow up the building, they do so in a way that the fire alarms go off first, so everyone leaves the building before the bomb detonates. So, in their bombing, nobody dies. However, caught up in the mess is a high school girl named Lisa. She witnesses them placing the bombs, and she's forced to become an accomplice to survive. Meanwhile, the police are tracking down anything pertaining to the bombing, and it becomes a game of cat and mouse. The mind-games between the cops and Nine and Twelve is such a good time to watch. It's like Death Note all over again, but with terrorism. One thing it did that I really appreciate is how small of a role high school plays, and half the cast are adults, so it separates itself from most shows that come out these days. I'm sick of standard high school settings, so that was awesome. My favorite characters are Shibazaki, one of the detectives for the police, and Five, who shows up halfway through the series. All the characters are lovable in their own way, and by the end I cared about every single one. Although, Lisa was pretty unlikable until the final few episodes. The story is great, but I feel it's held back by the extremely small length of the series, only being 11. In that regard, the ending felt rushed, and that lowered the impact of the ending. That said, itwas still a good way to end it, and I'd watch it again. 8.5/10
Animation: The animation for the series is really stunning, with tons of great little details that you may not notice at first. The art style is a good mix of looking realistic and looking anime, it took a little bit to get used to in the way it did it, but boy it's great. There is a specific moment in the first episode where I thought the ending theme started because of how good it looks. It looks really great. Some of the better animation I've seen in a series, and my assumption is that it's like this because of the short length of the series, they can do more with it. Really great animation, 9/10
Sound: The voice cast is great, with standout performances all over. However, Five trying to speak English is so bad in such a good way, that her performance is easily the most memorable of all of them. Yoko Kanno has done it again. The OST is fantastic, tons of great tracks, and I never really feel inclined to skip songs when listening to the whole thing. My favorites are "lolol", "Von", and, "bless". 9/10
Overall: I really loved watching this series. There's some great enjoyment value here, with mind-games, morality struggles, awesome action, and even a little bit of romance. Unfortunately, it felt rushed at the very end, and I can't stop thinking how it'd be better if it were longer. All that said, for such a short series, it was SO good. I give Terror in Resonance 8.8/10.
Terror in Resonance has been licensed by Funimation, and is available on Hulu.