Source of above image: "Terminator" by gaudiramone is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. https://www.flickr.com/photos/31112252@N00/5331463993
On the 29th of August Netflix released an anime based on the famous Terminator franchise called "Terminator Zero". The year is 2022 and we see a ruthless terminator killing human beings at the start of the anime and is trying to hunt the humans resistance leader Eiko. The fight scene in the first six minutes of this Anime between Eiko and the terminator are breathtaking to watch as we see the terminator using a Gatling gun to fire multiple rounds of bullets on Eiko and then Eiko injecting some sort of virus to the terminator to somehow disable it's functionality.
Sadly after these six minutes the whole anime takes a turn towards being extremely slow paced and we dive into the past to the year 1997 where we find Malcolm Lee who is a professor that is working on an AI system that will be able to compete with Skynet. Professor Malcolm Lee has three children in the form of two sons and a daughter and Skynet decides to send one of their Terminators to destroy this new AI system which Malcolm has worked so hard on. The human resistance also send their leader in the form of Eiko in the present time line in order to protect Malcolm and his children.
This anime has a decent story but there are too many story arcs inside the main story line. I wish this anime would be more simple with a simple story to tell but bringing in a Skynet competitor Artificial Intelligence system with sentience was not a good idea for me which makes it really confusing for me to understand. In Terminator Zero Skynet launches nuclear warheads on the world and the whole world is destroyed but that is why professor Malcolm Lee has created his own version of an artificial intelligence sentient system which is designed to combat Skynet so nuclear Armageddon cannot be unleashed on humanity. In the later episodes we find the fact that Professor Malcolm Lee is actually the son of the human resistance leader Eiko and who also travelled back from the future to develop his Artificial Intelligence system to stop from the bad that will happen in the future.
This anime has a very confusing story to tell like mentioned before and we are jumping from 1997 to 2022 and also sometimes in 2040's even where we see Terminators dominating the human race and they have forced humanity to live in underground basements to stay far away from the terminators because they are hell bent on finishing off the human race.
To make things simpler if you decide to watch this anime you must focus on the story arc of terminator sent from the future to 1997 in order to murder Professor Malcolm Lee and his three children to make sure the professor never fully activates the artificial intelligence system which is there to counter Skynet and the fight of Eiko the human resistance leader to fight off this threatening Terminator and stop him from achieving his objectives. If you focus just on this plot point you will be able to enjoy this Japanese anime because otherwise you will really feel confused and will not enjoy it what so ever.
The animation quality is of excellent quality and the action scenes are brilliantly portrayed in this anime. If you are a fan of the Terminator franchise which has spanned five movies you will really enjoy this anime and will understand a lot of details put into the terminator world. Terminator Zero is a decent attempt from Netflix studios, Production I.G and Skydance Media and really sets up anticipation of the new upcoming releases of movies in the Terminator franchise in the future. Sadly for me though I did not enjoy it that much because of the confusing story and that is why I would rate it a 5 out of 10 but this is just my opinion and you might go on to enjoy it more perhaps because it is a Japanese anime and if you are into that then this might be a great viewing experience for you.