Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance): Season 1/ Episode 5 "Hide & Seek" – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

Kokonoe’s (Nine) past comes to haunt him and brings some new intrigue into the show

Review (with Spoilers)

One constant complaint I usually have for shows is that they don’t seem to find ways to either up or maintain, the ante. They start with interesting characters, and premises, but then rely on first impressions too heavy and as your expectations dwindle, they wait till damn near mid-season, or the season finale, to renew your faith. That isn’t the case for Zankyou no Terror though. No, with each episode we are tickled by the mystery Kokonoe & Hisami’s past and goals; the troublesome life of Lisa; as well as a cat and mouse game which, admittedly, didn’t make for a good episode 3, but largely has made the show quite entertaining for it is hard to say which bombs were made to go off and which weren’t. Though what makes this episode particularly praise worthy is the introduction of an old friend. One which we have seen before.

Topic 1: Limited Stay – Lisa

Kokonoe is not at all for Lisa staying with him and Hisami. In fact, his sympathy only extends to her due to her high fever. But once she is better he wants her gone, and she overhears that. So, to make herself seem useful, she tries to cook for them and fails. And it doesn’t go over neither Kokonoe nor Hisami’s head what she is trying to do. But with a new enemy having just arrived in Japan, maybe a place for Lisa in Sphinx may finally open.

Topic 2: A Simple Riddle, Yet Complicated Bomb – Shibaski & Kokonoe

Despite the difficulty of pass bomb riddles, which usually took half the episode to get, this one is so simple it is solved within a few minutes, of watching the episode that is. Leading to even Hisami to wonder if Kokonoe is going easy on the police now. Which he says he isn’t but a part of me thinks he is just to rebuild Shibaski’s reputation. As for the reason? Well, the only reason I could think of is that either he simply admires Shibaski for having the ability to fight for what he believes in, or maybe the man who was thrown out the window is one of Kokonoe’s relatives. The one who took care of him before he ended up at The Rising Peace Academy, the place where I believe we flash back to often in the episode.

Though what is really interesting about this episode is that despite figuring out the riddle, the bomb isn’t disarmed at all. This is despite Kurahashi saying it would, and a special task force supposedly being on it. So, with Sphinx seemingly only creating bombs for motivation and not to kill, it is decided that they must disarm the bomb.

Topic 3: “I Found You” – Kokonoe

The issue is: the old fashion way of using cell phones isn’t available since there is such a huge amount of electromagnetic interference, from what isn’t said, that no one’s cell phone works. So everything has to be done in person and originally Hisami, bless his heart, goes out to get the bomb. Thing is, as Kokonoe works on hacking the transit system, he gets shut out. Something quite perplexing for not only does he get shut out, but then his computer is attacked.

This somehow triggers him to remember the silver haired girl we often saw Kokonoe and Hisami leaving behind. A girl known as “Five” and the one who is interfering with all of Kokonoe’s attempts to stop the bomb. But luckily Kokonoe has a 2^nd laptop to get the information he needs and while he doesn’t stop the explosion, he does seem to minimize casualties. But with Five coming in from America, and seemingly ready to catch up with her old friend, it seems whatever Sphinx’s goal was will either get postponed or stopped altogether, for now the cat in the cat and mouse game now has to worry about a coyote baring its fangs.

Things To Note

Hisami really tries to advocate for Lisa staying. He talks about keeping her around for observation, and so the cops can’t get her, and while her cooking isn’t great, it seems he likes the idea of someone cooking for them.

Not much is told about Five, nor her American handler, but they seem to have enough power and prestige for no one to really say hardly anything to them. In fact, Five sits in the bosses chair and no one really mentions her disrespect at all.

Shibaski has come up with a theory that all the bombings deal with various politicians, and big business figures, involved with The Rising Peace Academy. Making it seem the goal of Sphinx is to draw attention to these men, by using Shibaski’s gift for connecting the dots. And Shibaski even predicts that eventually The Rising Peace Academy will be a target, bringing to question, just for verification sakes, is the place of Kokonoe and Hisami’s childhood the academy, or am I mistaken?

The academy, we are told, was made to foster relations between the government and public, but seemed to evolve into a seminar between big business and government figures.

At wherever Kokonoe, Five, and Hisami grew up, it seemed their lives were tasked based. What were said tasks? It isn’t said.

It seems the whole “I Found You” thing represents that maybe when Kokonoe and Hisami left, they were playing hide and seek with Five. Hence the episode title.