Terror in Resonance | Episode 10 | TFP Review (Episode 11 Follows)
Buckeye: I wasn’t expecting 5 to suddenly help out 9 like that, but it was pretty obvious that she didn’t have much longer to live. It seems to me that 9 has totally lost his mind setting the atomic bomb to destroy Tokyo, but of course he knows something that hasn’t been explained. It could be that the bomb is defective since it is just a prototype, or that he modified the bomb so that it is merely a scare tactic. But whatever the case may be, that sets the stage for what should be a thrilling conclusion.
GingaDaiuchuu: Nine is never at a loss for more tricks up his sleeve, and Five is never at a loss for ways to mess his plans up. Even after what happened it seems like it would’ve been in the best interest of the plan to try to reconnect with Twelve, but I guess time was of the essence and it wasn’t worth the risk of what might happen with Lisa involved and Five presumably still wielding nearly unstoppable power.
But Five can never beat Nine after all, and with both her body and those she’s been working with giving out on her (the latter of which for very understandable reasons that probably should’ve caused this to happen much earlier), she has one brief moment of acceptance and camaraderie before going out in a way that fits her character better than anything.
Shibazaki finally has all the information from the man who shaped them into what they are now, and he’s ready to come back into the fray as Twelve has reentered the Sphinx team and Nine has one more plan…
Sensuifu: Huh, that was rather an anticlimatic death. Was 5 supposed to embody something of importance? Because the way she leaves with a bang, really turns out to be a whimper to my eyes. All the build-up, all the insanity, all the obsession to locate the bomb, turns out to be nothing but a farewell kiss in the end. Okay…
I don’t know, but if the creators were trying to evoke some passionate feels between 9 and 5, it was unnecessary. An attempt to spice things up with a little romance just seems to fill a void that was never supposed to be there in the first place. Basically, 5 was never characterized as being ‘forgiving’ or ‘accepting’. But because she’s on the brink of death, she now saves face and kills herself so 9 can essentially pity her. How very uncharacteristic and inconsistent to what we’ve seen of her all along.
So now 9 wants to take out Japan on the basis of what again? I thought genocide was never Sphinx’s real goal since they were saving lives not too long ago. Is this atomic bomb now meant as revenge against Japan itself and what it stands for, and is it revenge against the government that conceived and allowed the Athena plan that destroyed innocent children’s lives? Or is it because 9 changed his outlook after seeing 5 leave in a blaze of glory?
And then there’s Lisa.
EyeOfPain: I was certain that 9 had set up the bomb before turning himself in, so I’m not sure how 5’s sacrifice could have influenced that.
I really did want to continue to like this show, but that’s not as easy a task as I had hoped.
Sensuifu: He did set it up to automatically deploy, though that was based on the condition he couldn’t get to do a press conference. The press conference was never cancelled. Running late, perhaps, but never cancelled. According to 9’s terms, it probably was; but it technically wasn’t. Sure, semantics, schemantics..but the thing is, 5 told him to live on ‘for her’. Since she and Clarence are no longer alive to act as living proof to his claims, his plans may not have panned out. If he had the chance to deactivate the bomb, he likely would’ve. This would oddly complement the already forced attempt at romance during 5’s final moment. From the timing of the events onscreen, it seemed like he was only a few minutes away for making that decision before it was cut loose. Maybe the writers didn’t want it to be that hammy.
Simply put, I was thinking that if he did have the capability to deactivate the deployment, he decided not to on the basis of some faux love he suddenly felt for 5 (and the fact he wasn’t going to live too long thereafter) and just decided to blame all of Japan for such transgressions against him.
What about 12 and Lisa? If that actually is an atomic bomb, he really doesn’t give a damn about the two.. If he really cared, he wouldn’t have wanted them to be obliterated in the first place.
So yeah, the show is disappointing in a lot of respects; with 5’s awkward moment being one of the main detractors. I’m guessing 9 is going to once again, frantically find a way to pursue and try to prevent the worse scenario. He saves Japan and lives, hoping to expose the truth behind the matter, even if that requires Shibazaki to back him up. Then everyone can live happily ever after.
Sly05: To agree with others, Five’s death was a let down. Though they’ve been trying to build her up since her introduction, her sudden decision to blow herself up came across as bizarre rather than carry much emotionally punch.
The best part of the show continues to be Shibazaki as I frequently find myself more interested in his investigations than the goals of Sphinx which still remain vague.
bctaris: I’ve been (halfheartedly) trying to figure out the last several days if there’s anything to figure out about 5’s character, and what her end means. Beyond thinking that interpretations of her intentions towards 9 being romantic are overplaying things (she was a suspended child, thinking only in the terms of a lonely child who once had camaraderie with 9 and 12; her kiss was that of a child’s crush and yearning for the “simpler” past, nothing more).
But the thought I ended up with is that Terror in Resonance has instead simply, and very disappointingly, shown an enormous amount of disrespect for its–token–female characters. Almost like they had written the story and realized they had neglected to include any female characters at all, and so shoehorned in Lisa and 5 in as weak attempts at “balance” (and poster-girl scraps for the audience demographic) without any intent, or allotted time at least, to develop them anywhere near as much as even the supporting male characters. (Lisa had some, early on, with her school and home life, but it seems now it was only for exploitative reasons, to only make her character pitiable to the audience.) Lisa and 5 have been or were only props. Take them out of the show and it wouldn’t really make a difference.
Shameful, Watanabe.
Sly05: Lisa and 5 are props to drive the male characters forward. Lisa provides a weak point for 12 by making him question Sphinx’s actions when they put Lisa in danger. She provides a means to create conflict between 9 and 12. 5, for her part, shakes up 9’s resolve by highlighting his guilt for leaving her behind during the escape and making him adjust his plans. As you said, there was some attempt to flesh out Lisa, but her story arc has kind of fizzled out so at this point, she may have just as well not have been in the series. Maybe the creative staff weren’t able to accomplish what they were hoping in the cour they had as Lisa is obviously intended to be the audience stand in, but she’s been entirely uninteresting and reduced to a tired bad cooking joke.
stardf29: And Five’s storyline pretty much just ends. Looking back over her time on the show, it seems that she was intended to represent the disastrous (and tragic) result of the Athena plan, while also highlighting the dangers of American involvement in Japanese affairs. That said, she ultimately just came off as a disturbed girl who strung along an entire government and threatened many lives over some kind of childish history with Nine. All in all, a weak end to a very weak part of the show.
Again, the aspects related to Shibazaki and his research over Sphinx is by far the more interesting part of this show. In particular, we see the other message that this show seems to be going for: a warning against extreme Japanese nationalism that is still not “over” WW2, to the point that they might develop atomic bombs or experiment on children in secret.
I guess now, Lisa has a bit more of a “human connection” role in the story, convincing Twelve to reconnect with Nine. That’s… something, I guess.
Hitsugi Amachi: [T]his sums up much of what I would say about this episode and one of the major flaws of the show at this point. Five’s story comes across as just a token accessory which could be removed and not really change the story greatly (you could insert any kind of generic nemesis for Nine to foil his initial plans). It gets to what bctaris said above: the show as a whole has done a very poor job of having actual female participants in the story. Five and Lisa are largely accessories, token females.
And part of the reason why is something stardf29 touches upon (“disturbed girl…childish history”): while Nine gets to be the mature teenaged genius and Shibazaki represents the real “adults” in the room, Five and Lisa are never allowed to advance beyond early childhood (Twelve is at least allowed to act close to his chronological age). Five is stuck in the world of toys and games and playground crushes. Lisa is the helpless child who needs those more capable than she is to take care of her. Though their seeming developmental delays can be explained (Five is not all there, thanks to the drugs used in the Athena Plan; Lisa’s abusive mother could very well have stunted her emotional growth and intellectual maturation), it’s still notable that it’s the two important female characters who are the most incapable of acting like adults in this show. Even Twelve, “carefree” adolescent that he is, steps up and makes adult decisions (such as telling Five where the bomb was in order to save Lisa’s life). It’s pretty disappointing for a show that can in other respects be quite sophisticated in its characterization.
Episode 11 (Finale) | TFP Review
Sensuifu: Maybe I’m trying too hard to convince myself that had this been 6 episodes without the extraneous Five material, the series would’ve left a more appealing impression. It’s too bad it was half-decent due to 5’s shenanigans.
The ending is okay and actually works well against the main trio’s (9,12, and Shibazaki’s) narrative, but it also seems a bit too ‘hopeful’. Had the series stayed true to its name, terror would be perpetually resonating despite attempts to reveal all secrets that had festered throughout the story. In other words, people like Shibazaki would be shot dead before he had the chance to face the media. Had the ending shown him murdered before disclosing the truth, that act of covering-up the secrets would be considered a form of terror. It would certainly resonate to the world that there’s no escaping the unknown, regardless how meaningful or insignificant an issue it is to an individual.
That haunting feeling people might have when realizing something’s amiss, where they actually see that the truth is kept hidden from them, only to fear the eventual, unknown, is genuine terror. The press conference showing Shibazaki exposing ‘the system’ was an antithesis of what this entire story tried to illustrate from the beginning. So it leaves with a conclusive, happy ending, suggesting all is well according to 9’s plan. That might seem all fine and dandy, but leaves me feeling like it’s a perfect ending for a rather open-ended matter.
As for the technical aspects, I know I’ve picked out and criticized some things in the previous episodes regarding the plausibility and realism of them all, but considering how significant this bomb threat was, I couldn’t really ignore some of the rather interesting, if amusing, approaches to dealing with the high altitude explosion. We were made to believe that the explosion would cause EMPs and other electrical/electronic failures. That part does have some sound believability to it. Grounding planes and other airborne aircraft is also understandable. But, what about those dependent on life-support systems, such as pacemakers and respiratory devices? Wouldn’t those be affected in same way? Would 9 have been a murderer where he didn’t know he’d inadvertently kill off those citizens dependent on such assistive devices?
Sly05: This is my feeling as well. 5 did not add much in the end, so I think the core narrative would have probably been better served by just focusing on Sphinx and Shibazaki. Her and Lisa were mid-season filler. As you say, a shorter episode count or even making it into a movie may have worked better.
In the end, I still mostly enjoyed the series, but it wasn’t been as memorable as I would have hoped.
Buckeye: [T]his show just blows me away with the top-notch direction of Shinichiro Watanabe and a well-crafted story that makes a strong impact. It starts out with the story that initially introduces the characters as kids who are blowing up buildings and other stuff, but it was to make a point that Japan’s government has a hidden agenda. The one thing that makes this show really go is Shibazaki digging up the dirt and going against his superiors after seeing things more clearly after encountering these terrorists, and that made this show so great. About the only thing that I have problems with in this show are the way Lisa gets portrayed, but at least she isn’t the main focus of this show. So in the end, this is a strong candidate for best show of the year.
GingaDaiuchuu: That was a bit of a simpler finale than I would’ve expected I suppose, but at the same time I’m not sure what else would’ve really been appropriate such that that wouldn’t be the case. I was still curious how it would ultimately end up for Sphinx, so while the Americans popping up to take them down seemed a bit jarringly abrupt, it did mix it up a little beyond the likely outcome of them simply succumbing to the fate that was closing in on Five before her explosion show.
I really wish Lisa ended up being more than a damsel for more than a few seconds in the show, but at least the fact that she can sound a little peaceful at the end means something positive came from all of this in the end. Not so sure about that atomic bomb plan both for the people who really need that power and the radiation issues (Maybe this realistically avoided that? I’ll admit I don’t know a whole lot on the matter.), but it wrapped up the series as conclusively as I had hoped for.
stardf29: Well now… for all of the show’s missteps, and the poison to the show that Five was, it put together a very nice finale.
The high-altitude nuclear explosion was a really nice scene, especially with how the countdown timed down to the city going lights-out, and then the aurora that appears afterwards. It shows how, if nothing else, Watanabe is still a top-notch director, even if the writing doesn’t always give him the best material to direct.
And then, Nine, Twelve, and Lisa spend some time just playing like the normal kids they never got to be… until Shibazaki comes for them. Nine and Twelve have prepared for that… but none of them are prepared for the sudden appearance of the US government, who, even in the face of another potential atomic bombing, go and kill Twelve. It’s a rather vicious scene, and I’m not sure it really works that well–trying to hammer in too much the problem of American interference, I guess–but then again, as Nine demonstrated, they were pretty much about to die soon anyway, so I guess I can live with that.
In the end, the show ends on an overall positive note, with the country learning to come to terms with the dark happenings involving Sphinx, showing they ultimately succeeded in what they set out to do. Shibazaki and Lisa visiting the graves of the orphans was a nice touch. And Lisa seems to be overall happier, though there’s no sign that any of her issues have actually been resolved… then again, I guess no one really wants to bully someone who was willing to hang out with terrorists.
This was an extraordinarily hard show to give a personal score to. If any show fit the definition of “mixed bag”, it’d be this show. I cannot deny that the show was quite exciting to watch at many points, and as far as being a straight-up, entertaining thriller, it succeeded in that quite well. Watanabe’s directing and Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack were excellent as usual. And wherever detective Shibazaki was concerned, the story was really good. Unfortunately, the show was plagued with some major writing problems, especially as far as its main villain, Five, was concerned. She was developed nowhere near well enough to carry her part of the show, and came off as the most annoying sort of stereotypical villain as a result. And Lisa’s role never did quite rise above that of a simple morality pet/damsel in distress. Had the girls been written better, I could imagine giving this show a much higher score and considering it among one of the many greats of the season, but as it is, I can only really call it a good show that had enough moments of brilliance for me to just barely consider it quite good of a show.
bctaris: I don’t think I had any interest in anything in that final episode. The tonal shift came off as cloying, contrite, and even pretentious, following on the darker and more consistently thrilling feel and pace of the show before it. The sudden appearance of pretty backgrounds, the tired theme of trying to supplant the haunting beauty of destruction at the beginning with the beauty of nature and innocent childish play and even, at the finale with Lisa and Shibazaki, of “moving on”, felt far too manipulative. That kind of style shift at the end can work perfectly well, when the latter beauty is demonstrated to be false (as this was temporarily, with 12 being shot, but by then I’d lost interest in what the characters were doing), or it’s a more true new start to things after total loss. Here, if felt hollow, even silly. (It did not help that the character design and animation seemed to have changed, too, away from the sharper and grittier look it had before.) The anti-modernity “return to nature” theme often plays badly with me, anyway, and I didn’t see what purpose it had being thrown into this story, except to imply that modernity and electricity inevitably leads to experimenting on orphaned children–because children are never taken advantage of in a pastoral environment, of course.
Right, this overarching theme of hope was only another disappointment with what sadly turned out to be the most disappointing show of the season, or the year so far. Not because it was bad, but because it was so good, or at least exciting, for its first seven episodes. Even with 5 in her first couple episodes the show held some promise to do something more clever with her character, and what she could do to the story. But it was downhill from there, and I’m not entirely convinced Watanabe and crew knew what to do with this story for its third act, or even for the ending of its second. The plot and many scenes certainly became at that point more contrite, predictable, lifted whole from similar stories. It simply did not feel convincing–putting aside the technical merits of the nuclear bomb–that 9/12 enacted this whole plan, bomb after bomb after big bomb, just to get to a press conference. The conceit that the public would never forget, in years to come, that the exposure of the Athena Plan and its members (a moral tragedy, but pragmatically of a small group of citizens, with little to no impact on the rest of society) happened when the whole nation felt terrorized, fearful for their lives because a couple maniacs got their hands on an atomic bomb, does not now at the end of this story feel plausible. Would a society, even a very progressive one, give a damn?
There’s something uncomfortably exploitative about this show, beyond but also informing its awful treatment of women, where it uses the loaded concept of terrorism as if it’s an adaptable narrative tool to drive just any kind of plot. This was, in the end, terror used for the purpose of nothing more than not wanting to be forgotten. That’s all 9 really wanted. It wasn’t to get attention for a current problem, or to express the desperation of a social, religious, political, or economic situation. It was to enact a memorial. It turns terrorism on its head, implying that it itself is the struggle to be memorialized, not the struggle against it; that doesn’t go so far as to condone the practice, but it does go some way in excusing it. If 9/12 were anti-heroes to the end, instead of being remembered happily by the surviving characters, this might have been a more convincing and intriguing experiment. There are plenty of well made stories about understanding the mind and heart of a terrorist and the roots of terrorism, in humane and even compassionate ways, but I can’t even tell if that’s what this was trying to do.
Sensuifu: Actually, I agree with your entire assessment. It’s the reason why 12’s death came out as more eye-roll inducing to me, than evoking any core emotional impact, which was likely the intent. Everything wrapped up so conveniently, which makes it less believable given the realistic devices that were used to move the narrative. I just didn’t feel engaged as I could’ve been once 5 entered the picture.
btw, “Jupiter Jazz” is still the reference for eliciting any emotional impact as far as Watanabe’s works are concerned. I think they tried to do the same with 5 and 9, but it failed. Failed hard.