An anime about terrorism is something you don't see everyday. We live in a world very sensible to the idea of blowing up buildings for the sake of ideology, so seeing a story committed to actually presenting this kind of thing is rare and it feels strangely exciting. I have this morbid curiosity for how criminals think, what motivates them to do what they do and how they react when their plans are opposed. So yeah, I was sure this anime was going to be a blast. Sadly, I was very disappointed.

Nine and Twelve are the dynamic duo here. The classic "pinky and the brain" of sorts. "One is a genius, the other is insane". To be fair, both are kinda smart, and both are kinda insane, but to different degrees. Their relationship is nice, not anything special, but decent enough I guess. Still, for criminals going out of their way to do what they do, they are surprisingly boring.

I mean, the riddles they send aren't fun at all to solve. The sphinx one even requires knowledge the viewer probably didn't even have. It's really just the detective coming up with solutions out of the blue. In a way that's how many Sherlock Holmes's stories used to be written, with twists and turns that can't be predicted because they are based on information the viewer simply doesn't have access to. It makes for a cheap plot twist, but it really doesn't excite me at all.

Aside from that, what is this bullshit about "not killing anyone"? You are causing millions of dollars in damages for every explosion, ruining many lives, making people lose jobs and memories, but taking lives is where you draw the line? It's a very weird way to make us able to look at them as the "good guys" despite what they do. It doesn't seem to serve any other purpose, really. And if the writer needed to come up with such a stupid plot point to make me feel attached to these characters, that's a pretty bad sign. Not to mention many people probably died due to the blackout at the ending, but this never gets brought up at all anyways. The creator wants to have their cake and eat it too. They want edgy terrorists as the main characters, but they also want them to never hurt anyone.

Lisa... Do I have to say anything about her? What a nothing character. Next to no character development. No introspection. No big moments, Just a bunch of whining and bitching and being annoying. Despite being a victim of bullying I couldn't care for her at all. She wasn't witty, she wasn't funny, she didn't have any interesting hobbies. She didn't have anything to her besides being a victim and being a crush for Twelve.

Overall, I think this show just feels hollow. You would expect to feel passion and grandiose speeches from people doing terrorism, but all I see are two bored teenagers who have nothing better to do. "Don't forget us", huh?I get that the show is trying to talk about government corruption and such. But really, it feels so simple. So many different directions you could take, and it's just "government bad"?

What a waste of time...