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Terminator is back, in a striking but flawed anime version

We're trying to avert Judgment Day yet again – this time in an anime series for Netflix. But striking visuals can't make up for shortcomings in narrative and character development

By Josh Bell

18 September 2024

Terminator Zero. Timothy Olyphant as The Terminator in Terminator Zero Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX ?? 2024

The Terminator (voiced by Timothy Olyphant) has only a few lines in this anime series

Netflix

Terminator Zero
Mattson Tomlin
Netflix

How many times can Judgment Day arrive and/or be averted before it loses all meaning? That question has plagued every instalment in the Terminator franchise later than James Cameron’s brilliant first two movies. It is something that the new Netflix animated series Terminator Zero attempts to address – perhaps in order to justify its own existence.

Cameron has no involvement in Terminator Zero, which was created and written by Mattson Tomlin and animated by Japanese studio Production I.G.…

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