Recap

Unbeknownst to the police, Five sends out a fake Sphinx message to the public in order to lure in Nine and Twelve.

Aqua’s Thoughts

I’ve seen multiple voices calling Terror in Resonance ‘stupid’, ‘total shit’, ‘cancer’ and worst of all, ‘a light novel’, yet while I wholeheartedly disagree, I can at least see where they are coming from. While the first episode excelled in its complete disregard for established anime tropes, past the halfway point the show is a lot more comfortable in its genre than it initially seemed, with more clumsy girls, pompous mind games and obsessive ex-girlfriends you can shake a stick at. For said reason, the chess game — still somehow the only metaphor for a battle of wits Japan can come up with — is more than a bit silly, but then again, what could you expect from a show about teenage terrorists? What matters isn’t necessarily the credibility of the content, but the way in which it is presented, and Terror in Resonance boasts sound logic, characterization and production far superior to your run-of-the-mill anime thriller. It’s more of a high-tier blockbuster than a piece of anime artistique, yet there is more than enough creative merit in this popcorn fun for your intellect to never feel insulted.

That said, the cheesy elements in Terror in Resonance are indeed becoming more prevalent. From Nine shrugging off the injuries he sustained last week to Five’s hilariously terrible English, most of the laughs you’ll be getting out of this show are completely unintentional. Though Nine and Twelve continue to be humanized with every subsequent episode, the laughs are definitely over for them now, as Five’s actions have rendered Sphinx almost entirely dependent on her making the first move. As a testament to Terror in Resonance‘s fast pacing, Sphinx have pretty much been defeated already. Last week, they were forced to save people in stead of putting them at risk and now, even the joy of screwing over the police has been appropriated by their long-lost nemesis. In just one episode, Five has demoted both Sphinx and Shibazaki’s unit to puppets in her dangerous game, and what plans she has in store for them will most certainly be the main instigator of the remaining plot. With Lisa finally getting involved, further cementing her status as lynchpin of the entire plot, I can’t help but think it’s already far too late for her to get what she’s so hoping for. To her, Sphinx embodies an escape from her horrible life and a means of fighting back even a passive person like her can contribute to. She’s so dedicated to ‘destroying the world’ and being useful to Sphinx’ cause, the fact that they are effectively no longer ‘leading’ the dance could break her more than any bully ever will.

Meanwhile, Five’s allegiances are becoming a lot clearer. By intentionally holding back info from the police, she has made Shibazaki and co. redundant to pursue a personal vendetta with the help of some particularly bomb-scared FBI suits. Admittedly, the explanation Captain America gave for the FBI sticking their noses into a domestic case all the way in Japan reeks of nonsense, but it’s likely that Washington has their hands much deeper in this case than they might give away. Who else to blame for a eugenics facility than the good old ‘Mericans, right? Regardless, Five seems to care very little for her employers, let alone her employees, as Shibazaki quickly goes rogue and forms a task force to continue their own investigation. It works, because Five hasn’t taken over from them so much as effectively ejected them in order to continue a ‘game’ they have apparently been playing all their lives. The nightmarish flashbacks indicate that Five was already at Nine’s throat even back at the facility, but then why was she running away alongside them? As I mentioned before, Five personifies the fact that terrorism is not a game. She’s so thoroughly beaten Sphinx at their own game she’s effectively lead them to reconsider their values and motivations, which is essentially the first time I’ve seen Terror in Resonance using its protagonists’ ages to its advantage. Nine may boast to Lisa all he wants, in the end he doesn’t even want to kill anyone — and his very own childhood frenemy making him realize he’s talking out of his proverbial ass is tearing him apart.

With the whole chess analogy this episode has going on, it’s hard to ignore the possible foreshadowing in Nine and Twelve’s game last week. You might remember a throwaway ‘You should have sacrificed your queen’ line from Nine, which seems to imply that, not entirely surprisingly, Lisa might get caught during the airport challenge. For Shibazaki to find out that his estranged daughter — come on now, this can’t not be true, right? — is working alongside the terrorists he so despises would make for some excellent drama, and I don’t doubt in the slightest that Terror in Resonance will be able to handle it well, given how surprisingly quickly the show has managed to credibly turn itself around completely. It’s a new direction as exciting as the show’s initial setup, but now that we’re past the halfway point already, I wonder if Terror in Resonance will be able to reach a satisfying conclusion with so many more mysteries left to solve. A movie continuation à la Eden of the East is something I’d like to avoid at all cost. Like that show, though, Terror in Resonance is far from perfect, but very much deserving of respect. It’s becoming a bit of a noitaminA staple at this point, but I’d rather have 11 episodes of untapped potential than 24 episodes of utter tripe.

Random Observations

• Good to see Lisa has ditched that hopelessly out of fashion housewife dress she wore up until this point.
• I’m still not sold on the idea of Twelve and Lisa becoming a romantic subplot. While he obviously cares a lot about her, and it’s nice to hear her get a compliment for once, the rather creepy death treat he gave her in episode 2 pretty much “sunk this ship” for me, if you will. Then again, Their little scene this week was infinitely better than 90% of anime romances already, so who knows? Maybe they’ll be able to completely redeem that romance, if they do so insist on it.
• Some smartasses on Tumblr have noticed that Five incorrectly announced her first move in the chess game. That whole thing raises a ton of questions (Do Nine and Twelve just know the airport’s layout by heart? Is no one noticing these two suspicious looking kids running around frantically while a third crazy person loudly announces some insane battle of wits via the departures board?), but this particular screwup is definitely the most grating one.
• Megumi Han’s hilariously out-of-place intonation in what is supposed to be a serious scene provides Five with some interestingly unintentional characterization.
• After Lisa last week, now it’s Nine’s turn to dish out some fanservice, I have zero problems with that.