WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Terminator Zero.
Terminator Zero, the latest entry in the Terminator franchise, included a storyline that I’ve always wanted to see ever since I watched The Terminator. While James Cameron’s Terminator movies included incredible action and groundbreaking visual effects, they were also fascinating sci-fi stories. Despite their confusing and often inconsistent time travel rules, both The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day set the bar high for sci-fi movies and continue to inspire filmmakers decades later. Netflix’s Terminator anime is a great example of how those movies remain a source of inspiration for storytellers and artists all over the world.
While Terminator Zero included a lot of recognizable Terminator elements – including but not limited to portions of the Terminator theme – it also featured some interesting new ideas. The basis of the story was not that different from the movies – both Skynet and the resistance had sent agents to the past – but the inclusion of a new A.I. that was powerful as Skynet offered a new dynamic. Malcolm Lee’s Kokoro was arguably the most important of the Terminator Zero characters, and its origin story was only revealed midway through the show.
Terminator Zero’s Misaki Is A Robot Who Thought They Were Human
Misaki’s Memory Was Erased Shortly After They Arrived In The Past
Kokoro was not Malcolm Lee’s first creation in Terminator Zero. Born in 2024, Malcolm was raised in a time of war and realized that Skynet and humanity were trapped in an endless loop of time-travel missions that always led to the same outcome. Eager to break that cycle, Malcom theorized that the only thing that could stop Skynet was another artificial intelligence. However, to avoid this new A.I. going rogue like Skynet did, Malcom decided not to give it any original programming. This artificial intelligence was going to be free to choose its name, purpose, and everything else.
One of the biggest problems with newer
Terminator
movies is how they keep recycling characters and concepts from the original films.
That is how Misaki was born. She and Malcolm continued to work together and eventually went back in time, going against the resistance’s orders. However, for the next step of his plan, Malcom had to remove Misaki’s memories and use them as the basis for the Kokoro system. Now without any memories, Misaki became Malcom’s housekeeper, never knowing who really she was. I’ve always wanted to see a Terminator, or at least a robot, who didn’t know they weren’t human. Terminator Zero’s Misaki story delivers just that, with Misaki only realizing she is synthetic after encountering the Terminator.
The Terminator Anime Proves The Movies Can Still Have New Ideas
Terminator Zero Is Nostalgic But Full Of New Ideas
One of the biggest problems with newer Terminator movies is how they keep recycling characters and concepts from the original films. While referencing or acknowledging what came before isn’t an issue, the Terminator movie franchise has arguably become a parody of itself. Between the T-800’s consecutive returns and now knowing what to do with John Connor, it’s clear that Terminator needs fresh ideas.Terminator Zero proves it can be done, even though the anime is also very nostalgic.
Malcolm Lee is the son of Eiko, although the version of Eiko traveled back in time in 2022, two years before she gave birth to a child in a previous timeline.
Terminator Zero does not include any characters from the movies and makes us care about the new heroes and villains. This is something the most recent Terminator films struggled to do, namely because they could never fully move on from the likes of the T-800 or the Connor family. As one of the most famous movie franchises of all time, Terminator has an interesting enough sandbox in which new stories can be told without the necessity to recycle old ideas.
