This riddle felt vastly more personal, as the hint involved a case in which a group of high school students were punished unfairly. Yes, 9 and 12 didn’t go to high school themselves, but the series is undoubtedly trying to draw parallels between the institute and real life high schools. That scene where the students at the institute were told they needed to abandon their names had such a dream-like quality to it that I was convinced it had to be a metaphor. When I consider that Lisa and Sphinx both felt the same way about their life, I’m led to believe that it was a metaphor for Japan’s education system. Even the fact that they have numbers for names could be a riff on Japan’s brilliant idea to publicize their students’ ranks on tests.
Is Sphinx aware of this parallel, or was this just the show developing its message? I don’t particularly care, because either way, Zankyou no Terror gets across its point. We can all agree that if an organization were to kidnap children, rob them of their name, and force them to undergo cruel punishments, such an organization would be evil. Merely drawing the parallel is enough.
So not only was this riddle better, but the show revealed that there actually was a point to all those previous riddles. Allegedly, every building that was bombed was somehow connected to a person behind the shadowy institute.
Which doesn’t make me forgive the fact that those riddles were boring to begin with. You can’t expect the viewers to go into a show assuming you’re a good writer. You’ve got to convince them of that fact early on. The show waited until episode four to do that, and episode five to explain why it was dragging its feet. Yes, I’m enjoying it now, but condensing the first three episodes into two would have done wonders for Terror.
Thankfully, it seems like Lisa has forever been relegated to the realm of “actual character.” She didn’t do much in this episode, but she had some cute bonding scenes with Sphinx. None of it was particularly original, but the contrast between the lonely emo self she showed in the first 3.5 episodes and the bubbly overeager Lisa she seems to be now made it interesting. Merely by taking herself out of the toxic environment we call high school and placing herself in a healthy terrorist-heavy environment, she was able to become a much happier and more energetic being.
I’m also fond of that moment where 12 compared Lisa’s cooking to the cooking at the institute. While Lisa’s cooking is bad, the institute’s cooking has no memorable taste to it. That’s why 12 prefers Lisa’s cooking. Again, the parallels to high school are significant. The problem isn’t just the corporal punishment and the stripping of names, it’s that you’re put into an environment where nothing means anything to you. Nothing is actually worth remembering, and food has served as a metaphor for that.
It seems like the plot’s going to be heating up now that 5’s been introduced. I’ve gotta say, Zankyou no Terror has made quite a comeback after those first three episodes. It’s gone from a show I was mildly indifferent about to the show I’m looking forward to the most this season.
Mo[r]e Anime 