The war for the future will be waged in the past.
Prepare for the end of the world with TERMINATOR ZERO, the upcoming apocalyptic, and time-travel science-fiction action anime coming to Netflix this week. From the anime studio that brought you “Ghost in the Shell” and an exciting collaboration between Skydance Television and Japanese studio Production I.G under direction of Masashi Kudō, comes a brand new chapter in the Terminator saga.
On Saturday August 24th, the creative team behind the upcoming Netflix series debuted the global-premiere of Terminator Zero at Anime NYC to the first audience to watch the series outside of the staff. Ambassador Mikio Mori from Consulate General of Japan, New York was in attendance to deliver a special opening remarks for the panel. Actor/ Host Khleo Thomas moderated the highly anticipated panel seated with hundreds of eager fans ready to delve into the latest addition to the Terminator franchise.
The eight-episode anime series produced for Netflix and developed by Mattson Tomlin (The Batman II) is set in the terminator universe but centers on brand new characters that we haven’t met yet. Mattson Tomlin (Showrunner/Executive Producer/Writer), Masashi Kudō (Director) and Haruka Watanabe (Production Design Coordinator) discussed the US/Japan joint collaboration featuring the voices of Timothy Olyphant, Rosario Dawson, André Holland, Sonoya Mizuno, and Ann Dowd.
A warrior from a post-apocalyptic future travels to 1997 to protect an AI scientist being hunted by an unfeeling — and indestructible — cyborg.
TERMINATOR ZERO premieres on August 29th (Judgment Day) only on Netflix.
Ambassador Mikio Mori opened up the panel with a brief speech about the devotion of anime and conventions and the “Art form as a global phenomenon” as he thanked Anime NYC and Leftfield Media for working tirelessly night and day to set up this massive convention.
Japan is home to all things Anime and Manga, you can learn more about the world premiere and more about Japan at the Consulate Booth. (Booth 1928)
Khleo Thomas’ immense energy hyped the crowd as he announced that exclusive special things were planned for attendees including an exclusive poster, the first trailer and a first look behind the scenes as well as the first two episodes!
From Production I.G, the studio behind Ghost in the Shell & Psycho-Pass, Terminator Zero revives the iconic franchise created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd with a new horrifying Skynet Japanese AI and the first time Terminator is set in Japan.
Thomas asked the panelists about their top favorite animations. Mattson Tomlin (Showrunner/ Executive Producer) expressed his love for Ghost in the Shell and Akira, and talked about the 2003 American-Japanese anthology film The Animatrix being his first introduction to anime. He is also a huge fan of the Edo historical anime Samurai Champloo.
(Director) Masashi Kudō known for Bleach expressed his admiration for Disney Animation, and how he is a fan of Peter Pan, the beautiful scenery of Sleeping Beauty, and that Maleficent is the best villain introduced. On the Japanese side of animation he stated that Sailor Moon’s direction is sensational and the theme song is stunning. He is also a big fan of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack. Masashi also digested James Cameron’s work and artistic direction on Terminator quite a bit, and lastly stated “of course Terminator Zero.”
Haruka Watanabe (Production Design Coordinator) favorite animes included the 1980’s Hayao Miyazaki Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and 1995’s Whisper of the Heart directed by Yoshifumi Kondō and written by Hayao Miyazaki. Other favorites included Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Mushishi, and Planetes.
They revealed a brand new trailer charging up the excitement of the crowd. Mattson went into detail about the Netflix production taking four years of hard work and how excited they were to get to share this special moment with the audience “I’m very fired up.”
Masashi told the crowd “you’re really going to enjoy what you’re going to see next” as they then gave the crowd a choice – JAPANESE SUBBED or ENGLISH DUBBED. Of course we all screamed louder for Japanese subbed!!!
Mattson expressed how the series starts in 1997, the week of Judgement Day, and there are things that animation can do that a live-action film can’t. Some parts are in Japan and the amazing animation comes from a team of cross-continental production. The studios wanted to focus on making the characters personal qualities unique and emphasize the point of saving humanity.
2022: A future war has raged for decades between the few human survivors and an endless army of machines. 1997: The AI known as Skynet gained self-awareness and began its war against humanity.
They played a clip of Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka, Common Ground) who voices the English Voice of the (AI) Kokoro and also gave us a behind-the-scenes inside look at the creation. She exclaims her love for the series and being a huge fan of the terminator franchise. She was asked to join the project because of her distinct and very iconic voice. Dawson has voiced so many characters including multiple projects as Wonder Woman, Artemis, Barbara Gordon and dozens of video game characters amongst her impressive catalog of both voice work and live-action.
Rosario Dawson: “a whole new generation of viewers, it’s really engaging.”
Kokoro: An advanced AI and Japan’s answer to Skynet, if brought online, Kokoro will be endowed with the same power as Skynet. Kokoro must calculate for itself: Is humanity the plague Skynet believes it to be? Or are human beings worth saving?
The panelists described the science-fiction horror as having “More horror flavor.” From what we witnessed be prepared for face-melting, blood-spattering, horrifying screams and terrifying uncontrollable AI. The studio used RIM LIGHTING to add to the aesthetic and horror feel.
“Backlight” is a general term for any light that comes from behind the subject. “Rimlight” is a backlight that is placed specifically to cause highlights to form along an edge of the silhouette of the subject.
This is the first time The Terminator is actually set in Japan. It was very important for the studio to focus on what it would look like having a killer robot set in 1997 in Japan. They emphasized the lack of access to guns in Japan unlike the U.S, so they had to deep dive into looking at other weapons like crossbows and the different distinctive Asian style in the artwork of the series.
Caught between the future and this past is a soldier sent back in time to change the fate of humanity. She arrives in 1997 to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee who works to launch a new AI system designed to compete with Skynet’s impending attack on humanity. As Malcolm navigates the moral complexities of his creation, he’s hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future, which forever alters the fate of his three children.
This time we see time travel, a major plot-point is looking at how his children grew up in this world and what that would look like. Mattson described the scary parallels to our own real-life future and how AI is now putting comic artists out of work, and are we actually heading into in an apocalypse.
We have to ask are human beings worth saving? Come with me if you want to live and watch the incredibly dark, terrifying and bloody new animated series.
First look images from the anime series TERMINATOR ZERO
Gotham Geek Girl 