jsimonis - 2014-09-26 13:29:29

Even though I have only watched Psycho-Pass and Gargantia on the Verdant Planet, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, I have also heard about the success and quality of Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero. What do these shows all have in common? Gen Urobuchi.

Aldnoah.Zero is another series to add to the list of anime with Gen Urobuchi attached. In this case, he is listed as the original creator, so perhaps that is why I find that Aldnoah.Zero is simply not as good as the other, aforementioned works.

Aldnoah.Zero is a story about the shattering of a fragile peace between Terrans and Martians. Both are of human origin, and like so many humans do, they inevitably come to conflict.

In 1974, humans discovered ancient, advanced technology on the Moon that allowed them to live on Mars, effectively splitting humanity into the two groups above. In 1999, there was a battle on the Moon between Terrans and Martians which resulted in its destruction, forever scarring Earth and all who live on it.

15 years later, we follow a group of people, some high-school students, others teachers, doctors or military personnel, who are caught up with the rest of humanity in the war that quickly erupts when something unthinkable is done.

This group's only goal is to survive the Martian attack and seek safety at the United Earth Headquarters in Russia. But it won't be easy, because the secrets of Mars have allowed the Vers Empire to create technology far beyond the level of Earth's. This is where the mecha tag comes in, and also where my first qualm with the series will be brought up.

I haven't seen a lot of mecha, but I found some plot holes came along with these. Both sides have "Kataphrakts", but the Martians have advanced technology that makes theirs far more superior. Yet when our heroes face off against them they are far less practical and effective than they could be.

If the Martians can make disintegrator fields, plasma katanas and all these other crazy weapons, I'm sure they could create guns powerful enough to annihilate the comparatively primitive mechs of Terra. In fact in the opening we even see a Kataphrakt get lasered and destroyed. So why didn't any of the villains just use these lasers? Well, because then we wouldn't have a story. Or, at least, a main cast. Not a living main cast, anyway.

At the core of this cast is our main male lead, Inaho Kaizuka, a cold and emotionless boy who finds himself as the only competent soldier on Earth (or Japan, at least - but this is anime, so only Japan matters...and Russia, I suppose); he is the only one capable of not being slaughtered by the Martian mechas. With plot armour thick enough to weather the impractical but still deadly weapons of Mars, this boy is the only hope that our main female character has of reaching the UE HQ.

At the opposite end of this spectrum is Slaine Troyard, an interesting but unfortunate boy who lives among the enemy; he is the only Terran to ever live alongside Martians, and is a friend of the young Princess of Vers, Asseylum.

The only other character that I feel is worth mentioning is Lieutenant Marito; one of our older characters who suffers from post-traumatic-stress disorder supposedly brought on as a result of the Martian's first attack on Earth, just before Heaven's Fall (the shattering of the Moon). I say supposedly because he appears to be the only survivor, and his word is the only evidence to be had of this mysterious attack.

I only really cared about Slaine, Marito, and Count Cruhteo (Slaine's host aboard the landing castle he lives upon) to be honest. The rest of the cast is boring, or the things that happen to them are boring, or predictable. Or they were walking plot devices.

And at the mention of predictability, I must say this anime was heavily clichéd and, well, predictable. I knew certain things were going to happen. There were a couple of times where Aldnoah bucked the trend, but they weren't major twists or deviations from the formula, which was kind of disappointing.

I think what disappoints me the most is that Aldnoah.Zero could have been something different. If they had taken certain bold moves and stuck with them, we could have had a far more interesting story. If they had given more thought to the setting and plot, the story would have a lot less holes in it (some of which I can't go into because of spoilers).

I don't often find myself disliking the main character, but I just really didn't care for Inaho. We don't really learn anything about him except that he is basically a genius when it comes to fighting Martians and we get no explanation as to why. He's intelligent, clearly, but also robotic and lifeless. Very rarely do we see emotion from him, and this makes him a difficult character to stand behind, especially when you have someone else in the cast like Slaine who I found much more interesting in every way.

On the plus side, Aldnoah.Zero has some pretty good visuals and sound, but let's get the bad out of the way first so we can end on a good note.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; I don't like CGI in anime. I understand why it's used, and it's not bad, but on most occasions it just doesn't mesh that well with me. It's a personal preference, mainly, but something to keep in mind if you share similar views. It is used fairly heavily, with all of the Kataphrakts, vehicles and space ships, which appear in every episode.

Aside from this gripe, Aldnoah.Zero looked pretty great. There is an especially stunning scene early on, as the Martian "landing castles" come down upon Earth as part of the first wave of the attack, and absolutely obliterate everything around them as they land.

The character models lean closer to the realistic side, with no crazy hairstyles or colours. It was certainly fitting for the series' tone, although the Martians did have a slightly different look to them which helped to divide the two groups.

The animation itself is pretty smooth and consistent. There is a varied colour palette mostly utilising muted tones for humans and slightly more vibrant but still dulled ones for the Martians, save the flashy, shiny parts on the mechas and landing castles.

Soundwise, Hiroyuki Sawano delivers again, with a solid soundtrack. Although I found myself predicting the major story beats and feeling a little bored at times, his music always pulled me back in, and nowhere is this more effective than in the second ED, "aLIEz" mostly played in the latter half of the series. It feels like something I've heard before, although I don't quite know where, but I like it the most of all the music in the series. None of the background tracks really stuck with me, but at the time of hearing them they never failed to send a shiver down my spine.

The OP is similarly good, but only for the first half. It actually draws a pretty good parallel to the show itself, in that it shows potential but then becomes kind of standard. To put it clearly, I like the first half of the OP more than the entire ED, but the second half shifts into something I feel like I've heard time and time again (and not in a good way).

The first ED hasn't stuck with me at all. I can only really remember what it looked like, and that it kind of spoiled something early on (although if we're being honest, I was pretty confident what it revealed was the case before seeing it anyway).

All in all, Aldnoah.Zero was a bit of a disappointment. The ending was something I was half-expecting, half-hoping for, but the way it was executed was a bit poor and painted one character in a light I didn't completely understand. Nevertheless, it's done for now, at least until season 2.

cassidy.donnelly - 2014-09-26 04:40:12

If we were to analyse the show critically, with each aspect carefully examined and rated, then no, we would not have a good anime. That being said, yeah, it is really fun to watch. I enjoyed the OP and EP, I thought the musical score, while suspiciously similar to Attack on Titan and Ao No Exorcist, is still really, really good.

The voice acting was somewhat under par, along with the story and character development and stuff along those lines could have been improved, before we got to episode 12 I would have been fine with it. Like, absolutely fine.

The animation was gorgeous. In episode one, where we see the city being bombed - I thought it was fantastic. They paid attention to the art style and animation and the mood of the scenes, I really enjoyed it.

And then we get the ending.

Up until the last 5 minutes of the show, I was fine. I thought, 'Okay, we'll just end it on a cliffie and wait until Janurary'. Uh . . . no. That is not what happened. Sometimes, we like to believe that the MC is dead, and then they come back super badass and stuff, but this ending. Just . . . what even? The anime and story had been strong until that point, and then it was like the writer had just rage-quit. As a watcher, this was super irritating. All I can do now is just pray that I got the wrong impression, but all I can assume at this point in time is that yeah, Inahao is dead. 

This is not good. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The ending spoiled a lot of the good views I had of some of the characters such as Slaine and even Asseylum. 

While I would still recommend the anime, I would tell people not to get super invested. Sure, it's enjoyable and it's nice to look at and stuff, but the story can be a real let-down. Hoping Season 2 can fix it up.

carol08 - 2014-09-23 21:48:53

There was something here, and they messed it up with teenage melodrama.  The characters were so bland. God it felt like I was watching puppets. Also the ending was kinda fun. I liked that twist the did at the end. I was hooked on the sound track. Dam, I say cry! Cause this anime could have been somthing like Gundam 00, instead we got a 6/10

tterry - 2014-09-22 14:19:38

Aldnoah.Zero is an amazing anime in several ways. It has fantastic characters,action,story and its written by Gen Urobuchi, (Fate/zero LN,madoka etc.) directed by Ei Aoki (Kara No Kyoukai movies 1 & 3 and Fate/Zero) and has music by Hiroyuki Sawano (Attack on Titan,Guilty Crown) so going in I was extremely excited, with my favourite writer and the director of 2 Movies in my favourite series of all time (I like Kara No Kyoukai a lot) and knowing the soundtrack would be fantastic the series on paper sounds like the perfect anime to me.
 However I was disappointed.

 The first episode is mainly exposition and lays down a really interesting world you want to see more of. Yet the next 2-3 episodes follows high school kids with little mech training taking down super advanched mechs without even breaking a sweat, which was quite disappointing from a story stand point however the enjoyment is top notch. And after the initial 4 episodes trust me the story becomes intense and absolutely amazing. It focuses on the characters more than the mechs but the mechs are always present and still a main focus. The balance of amazing plot twists and story with fun and awesome looking mech battles is truly appreciated because in and out of mechs you know your going to enjoy the episode.

 Which brings up the issue of characters at the start of the anime, they are all pretty generic but still likeable apart from the Main Character. Inaho is the most unlike able character because he shows no emotions like seriously, none it makes you just want to slap him its like if Lelouch was just a robot with great strategies but with no charisma. However the series switches perspective to Slaine, he is extremely easy to understand and very likeable character who you will root for him to achieve his goals and generally love his development. Inaho does develop a little I can't put my finger on where but you generally start to like him then hate him for reasons but like him again I thought this was poor writing...I was wrong.

 The characters are written how they are for a reason and with what happens through the series you fully appreciate them, yes even Inaho.  The animation is also top notch however I am not a fan of the 3D rendered mechs but they do blend in with the other animation after a while however the last Martian mech gave me trouble, I felt like I went cross eyed when watching it fight.
The soundtrack...the soundtrack,listen to a song you will fall in love with it immediately its phenomenal.

Overall Aldnoah.Zero is a superb anime with little faults, the start is generic and might turn a few people off but if you stick with it you will be pleased that you did and trust me I cannot wait till January this is potentially in my top 5 anime I loved it so much and I can't recommend it enough.

vladimir.olson - 2014-09-21 06:41:39

In this review I discuss mainly the two principal elements for me: characters and plot. I don’t sum up neither of those in relation to the story and I try to focus in the “objective” elements (i.e: This are the his/her characteristics and this are the things that, in my opinion, makes him/her good/bad). I only recur to spoilers (which are warned before) to back a point. 

I.CHARACTERS: This is probably the weakest point. The show presents some cool characters but then forgets about them and in result they feel kind of shallow or unimportant. I will take a look at the main three and then the rest:

- Inaho, The MC: On paper a very interesting character, mainly because in a genre filled with some pretty flawed mc in the decision making department seeing one that is logical and able to remain calm is kind of refreshing. The problem is that if you are going for a character with such levels of stoicism and logical reasoning you have to provide a good backstory that serves as a justification to their actions. Inaho is what, 15 years old? Not more than 16 for sure. So if you have a teen that can come, in clearly disadvantage, with some high-level strategies for military engagements and hardly giving a noticeable fuck about it, you MUST explore the character in a compelling level. Aldnoah.Zero establish a very interesting mc, but it isn’t capable of develop him into a good one. *SPOILER BEGINS* Examples of Inaho being ridiculous are the scene in the shower when he offers the gun to Rayer again and no one even says that it could be a bad idea or when they are planing the assault to the flying castle and is him explaining all the procedure and not any of the other guys with more military experience *SPOILER ENDS*. 

- Slaine, Our other MC: Probably not as attractive as Inaho at the start, but surely he does get more development as the show advances. I think he is a pretty solid character because we know what he wants, what are his sentiments and his acts reflects them and enable us to understand him better. Sadly he is overshadowed by Inaho because while the last is capable of change the course and the results of certain actions and thus advance the story, Slaine is pretty much restricted to do something important in one episode but that will not let him advance towards his goals, even if he is now in a different situation. What I’m trying to say is that while it feels that Inaho and the rest of characters move with the plot, Slaine is stalled. So even if he is a fine character he feels pretty unimportant in comparison to the rest, and not only “unimportant to the plot” (which can be ok) but also “unimportant as a character”. Only until the final episode Slaine starts to feel relevant and that, in my opinion, doesn't redeem all of the above.

- Asseylum, The female MC: She is a nice character. We get to know her but never to a really deep level and, to be honest, while I liked her I didn’t really care for her. While at times she does says some stupid and naïve stuff she is also pretty competent and it does feel relevant. At the end I think I have to call her a good characters, even if I think that it could be better written and more developed.

- The rest: Welp, here is where I think that the series fails badly. Almost all of the other characters feel irrelevant with a few exceptions (Mainly Crutheo and Saazbaum). The problem is that the show introduce a character that fulfills a particular task and doesn’t do much after that, thus we are packed with characters that at some point did something kind of relevant but now they are just there to make it feel world more dynamic and alive that what it seems. For example Inaho classmates at the start of the series are relevant, but then they are set in some role and you don’t get to know or see anything more about them. Yuki is more constant during the show, but we don’t know anything about her besides that she cares about her brother. Marito is in fact more deep that the others, but still you actually can summarize rather briefly what he does during the show: *SPOILER BEGINS* Tries to do something significant but he is struck with a PTSD episode. Then he drinks some alcohol and talks with the doc *SPOILER ENDS*. Darzana is pretty awful to be honest, we know two things about her: She is a Coronel of the United Forces of Earth and *SPOILER BEGINS* her brother died on Heaven’s Fall *SPOILER ENDS*. Even with the fact that she is almost always the highest in the military hierarchy around she is less relevant than fucking Eddelrittuo. Rayet is ok. 

II.THE PLOT: In think Aldnoah.Zero establish a very appealing world trough the mention of events that have definitely formed what we see and therefore we feel like the world is active. Sadly I think that mention of events doesn’t make it for a good plot. There is in the series a lot of potential because there are so many good elements that can be expanded but never are. The series could have focused on how the militarization of schools affects the kids, what geopolitical consequences brings the creation of the United Forces of the Earth, the social aspects of Vers and many more. All this themes are mentioned but never truly expanded, and that could have been ok if the actual story that we follow had been stronger. It starts off well, mainly because we can’t judge anything yet and the first impressions we are getting are good… But before you notice we are met with a series of episodes very formulaic. Now I will admit that the action during those episodes it’s indeed pretty entertaining, but I never felt that the battles supplemented the faults of the plot. 

The other major flaw in the story is that it felts like the only thing actually important is to reach point B from point A: Story and characters are set and nothing really matters until the end. Don’t get me wrong, thing do happen between point A and B but very few have an impact in the plot or characters. It’s like a game where you are introduced with certain elements at the beginning and you know you have to reach the end because that’s what matters. You have check points where something is presented but still doesn’t change the path you are taking towards the final. Of course there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that because the gameplay can be fun as fuck and you don’t really care that much about the plot. You could easily call all of that fun and good but it would probably be harder to call the plot good. The episodes between the beginning and the end are not necessarily “dead space” because I did have fun at times and some things happened, but I do think that it could have been far more interesting see the characters in deeper perspectives, while building stronger bonds among them or make a commentary on the social aspects of what is happening.

III.MUSIC AND ANIMATION: We all know that this is the most praised aspect of Aldnoah.Zero and I think that it’s deserved. While I was never blown away by neither of those I was pretty satisfied with it. We rarely get masterpieces and I’m happy with just good and the OST of the series is more than good. The animation is also good but that is all I can say because I’m simply not knowledgeable enough in the matter to make an in-deep analysis. 

IV.CONCLUSION: While I think that characters and plot are kind of weak in Aldnoah.Zero I also was pretty entertained in some moments. I was always more expectant than indifferent for the next episode. The action, music and animation are pretty good and if any of those aspects are important to you, you should definitely watch the series.

Do I recommend Aldonah.Zero to anyone? Yeah, sure. You don’t need a special taste to like it, mostly because is rather a common series that is closer to the spectrum of good shows. I enjoyed it.

FINAL NOTE: This is my first review so I’m most certain that it has some flaws, also because I’m not a native English speaker. If you have any criticism or advice PLEASE message me, I will more than happy to discuss and hear what you have to tell.

ebba43 - 2014-09-21 01:41:18

Here is my first review. Let's begin then, shall we?

Story:

In the year 1999, the moon is destroyed and something knows as Heaven's Feel (not to be confused with one of the 3 routes from the Fate/Stay Night Visual novel) where it is a war between the Martians and Earth. But a ceasefire occurs.

15 years later, the princess of the Vers Empire (aka the Martians) arrives on Earth to have a peace treaty and is "assassinated" and the Martians once again declare war on Earth.

I am just somewhat confused with its story. Oh, I do like it. I meant the freaking backstory to it! I had no idea of the backstory unless you look it up (I had to the reliable wikipedia; it might not be helpful all the time, but when you really need it).

The main flaw I have with the story is the script. When a scene works, it really works. While other times, makes me question. We don't know the main character's backstory (like what caused him to be this way) yet I had to be the one to conclude something (though the ending is one I would never be with though).

The Art (since it makes it easier this way):

This is A-1 Pictures we are talking about. The animation is really nice to look at. The CGI was not that terrible (I have seen worst!) and I liked the design of the mechs.

Though my main flaw of this are the Martians' designs. You can be creative with it (even the ones from Space Battleship Yamato 2199 look more like Martians than this!). The Emperor for the Martians's hair looks a little ridiculous. I am not sure (but it doesn't seem to fit for a man, though I get the hairstyle for the Emperor of Britannia). Some of the designs are questionable...

Sound:

The sound is amazing. The opening to this show is beautiful. I am the kind of person who really enjoys Kalafina's songs (though I get why if you don't). As for its two ending themes, I love them both the same. At first, I liked the first more but hearing the second ending a lot, I started to love both of them. 

Hiroyuki Sawano, you are becoming one of my favorite composers (nothing will beat Yuki Kaijura or Yoko Kanno).

Characters:

Inaho might be one of those cases where I am not sure what to do with him. Am I supposed to like him or hate him? He seemed to not have much of a personality though when he meets the princess, he slowly changes (wishing to help her). If you think I am overthinking this, then that's just what I think it is.

I actually like Slaine. He seems to be that one person in the opposing side who thinks differently. For what we got of his backstory, it made sense why he wishes to help the princess and why he acts like this (though he made a d*ck move at the end; I had to censor it).

The princess is a character who I loved from the beginning, especially her design. She is a nice person and yet, at least they didn't make her a damsel in distress.

The only other character who I could remember their name and really like is Lt. Marito. His backstory and what he had to go through is really sad. If you were in his shoes, would you be the same way as him or one who doesn't give a ****. Plus, I liked his voice in this.

The Martians are questionable themselves. Though I had a bad feeling on one of them voiced by Shou Hayami (I know he has done some great characters) but I never liked it when he voices the antagonist of the story. (At least his final moments made me somewhat care about him; he was misunderstood, though I questioned his actions from earlier!)

As for the main bad guy, I never cared about him. Until episode 8, I had no idea he was even there (true he showed up a few times before I can't remember those scenes). I guess loving a sweetheart in battle is sad, but still, why do I have to care about you?

My Enjoyment:

I have this weird motivation to never drop a show (no matter how bad it is; I guess it's in case I'm in a bet with someone I have to watch a show until the very end and I automatically lose if I drop it or something similar to that).

I don't despise. In fact, I enjoyed it (not episode 8 since I was able to tame it though I felt uncomfortable). I don't think this show is generic on the slightest.I marathoned this (except for the last episode since I watched it about an hour ago). 

Though I can't remember every little moment in this show though.

Overall:

The story seemed to be fine though some of the decisions were questionable.The animation is fine and it doesn't hurt the eyes though some of the character designs are questionable. Its music is really good (have no complaints there). The characters were fine but not freaking great.

Though the ending to the first season to this show was more a questionable ending. 

The overall score (after adding everything up, dividing it up to 5) and the average is: exactly an 8/10 (or in hummingbird stats, 4 stars out of 5). 

I hope you liked my review. Let's just hope the second season doesn't suck...

eleonore75 - 2014-09-21 00:00:22

Hype, hype, hype. If one show received a huge ton of it this season, it was A-1 Pictures' Aldnoah.Zero. But is it as great as all the big names and the hype make it out to be? Well... not really, but it certainly was a good watch. Thanks for reading my review on Aldnoah.Zero!

The show takes place in an alternate reality, in which the Apollo 17 mission discovered a hyper gate to Mars on the surface of the Moon in 1972. After these events, the astronauts discovered the legendary "Power of Aldnoah", which made technology beyond our imagination possible. With this power in their hands, a lot of people settled on Mars, created the Empire of Vers and declared their independency from Earth. After years of conflicts, in 1999, a fight between humanity and the Empire of Vers caused the hyper gate to get destroyed and it took a huge part of the Moon with it, thus "Heaven's Fall" began and lots of the debris from the Moon landed on Earth, destroying whole cities and landscapes. Both sides had to take in massive casualties. After 15 years and a long time of ceasefire, the Vers princess was sent to Earth for a peace mission, but it didn't turn out as expected and the princess got assassinated and right after this, the Martian soldiers began to descend from the sky, riding steel giants, intent on exterminating humanity, taking revenge and conquering Earth for themselves once and for all.

Sounds pretty epic, huh? Granted, for the most parts the presentation of the show IS really epic, just assisted and maximized by Hiroyuki Sawano's fantastic soundtrack. While the plot concept sounds quite interesting, the execution is rather meh. This starts off with some pretty obvious info and exposition dumps and a rather predictable story layout in the beginning; new Martian super robot shows up, kills a lot of people, protagonist beats super robot with a "clever" tactic, the end. The show offers some plot twists here and there to keep you engaged, but they somewhat lack depth and impact for the most part, which really was a shame. This is mostly the fault of the anime's characters, as these are obviously the show's biggest downside.

The main protagonist Inaho is your typical "2cool4u" smart hero a lá Lelouch, except that Lelouch actually has an understandable and relatable personality for the most part AND charisma. Inaho doesn't have that. A friend dies in front of his eyes; cool and straight face. He beats a bad guy's awesome robo; cool and straight face. He just saved someone's life and they are thanking him; cool and straight face. He is ice cold in whatever he does and this is what makes him distant and in my opinion completely unlikeable and unbearable as hell. I know he doesn't show his emotions from the outside and rather in his actions, but come on.

The rest of the cast was average to decent at best, with the best ones being Lieutenant Marito and Slaine Troyard. In the Lt.'s case his backstory of the war before the show started was really interesting to watch and how he had to deal with his PTSD, because he lost a precious friend to him back then. That's a more realistic depiction of PTSD compared to... other shows this season *cough* Sword Art Online II *cough*. Sometimes during the show, I wished he was the protagonist instead of Inaho, because he felt a bit more human. Slaine Troyard on the other hand was my favorite of the show and for good reasons. He had an understandable motivation for doing what he does, his backstory was interesting, plus he had a likeable personality for the most part. Compared to other shows he may still be decent at best, but together with the Lt. they made the otherwise average and forgettable cast of Aldnoah.Zero somewhat better and more memorable, but still just above average.

The villains were mostly one-dimensional, cartoony cardboards, with little screentime or focus put on them and the rest of the supporting cast was either not really worth mentioning or spoiler territory. Not much to talk about them.

But I could overlook some of the writing flaws and the characters for the sometimes godly action sequences. Yeah, the robots are made with 3DCG and tend to not blend in with the background well, but the action A-1 Pictures presented was mostly jaw dropping in my opinion, especially in episode 3 and the finale episode. And yes, I know that the "tactics" rival those from Code Geass, but if you turn your brain off and just embrace the action with Hiroyuki Sawano's masterful Original Score in the background, you can probably ignore those flaws as well and just enjoy the show. Of course the flaws wont disappear, but at least it makes it all the more enjoyable. Well, at least for me.

In terms of visuals, Aldnoah.Zero looks really good and for the most part solid as well. The backgrounds are very detailed, the action is smooth and the colors bright. It only took me a while to get used to the kind of blobby character designs and especially in episode 10 there was a huge noticeable drop in animation quality. But thank god it was just for this one episode and the final episodes looked as amazing as they should.

Personally, I had a good time with the show and I looked forward to it almost every week. Probably it was the hype getting me fired up every time the fantastic OP by Kalafina started playing, but Aldnoah.Zero was one of the few shows of the season I really wanted to watch. The start was quite dull, then it got better for a long period of time, then it slightly dropped and the fantastic final episode made up for it. I know, it was mostly SHOCK FACTOR and Urobutcher being Urobutcher, but the way the emotions of certain characters (Slaine best boy) came across, were really gripping and the ending made my blood boil. That's how you should end a series. It somehow reminded me of Code Geass... weird, a lot of Code Geass comparisons in this review.

Well, time for the verdict.

Did I like Aldnoah.Zero? Yeah, a bit. Do I think it's a great show and everyone should watch it? Nah, not really. While you can (and most likely will) enjoy it as a brainless watch for tons of good looking and sounding action scenes, it falls flat in terms of good, consistent writing and even basic characters. Just don't take this show too seriously and embrace it as the stupid fun it is. Exactly as it was with Code Geass. DON'T PRETEND IT'S SMART!

RATING: 

STORY SECTION: 3/10
Premise 1/2 (generic mecha premise)
Pacing 1/2 (kind of repetitive formular, but solid)
Complexity 0/2 (pretends to be)
Plausibility 0/2 (none)
Conclusion 1/2 (a really mixed bag)

CHARACTER SECTION: 2/10
Presence 0/2 (barely interesting or stand-out)
Personality 0/2 (flat as a rock or too impulsive and dumb)
Backdrop 1/2 (only tiny bits)
Development 0/2 (non existent)
Catharsis 1/2 (fucked up, but it's there)

ART SECTION: 7/10
General Artwork 2/2 (very detailed but static)
Character Figures 1/2 (kind of blobbish and samey)
Backgrounds 2/2 (highly detailed and far from generic)
Animation 1/2 (solid)
Visual Effects 1/2 (some ugly CG, otherwise solid)

SOUND SECTION: 7/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (basic)
Music Themes 3/4 (feels like a Frankenstein'd Sawano OST, still good)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok, I guess)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 5/10
Art 1/1 (looks good)
Sound 2/2 (sounds nice)
Story 1/3 (interesting start and fucked up ending, that's it)
Characters 1/4 (Slaine and the Lt. were okay at some points)

VERDICT: 4,8/10 (5/10)

johnston.maverick - 2014-09-20 18:34:11

Gen Urobuchi wat r u doing.

Terrible pacing, awful character development, unclear timeline, and that fucking transformation sequence in the last episode was the last fucking straw.

0/10 would recommend 

raynor.hoyt - 2014-08-20 09:21:36

*DISCLAIMER: This "review" is being written after Episode 7. There is still plenty of time for this show to go belly-up, although I don't expect that it will. *

On the surface, Aldnoah.Zero has all the markings of a typical shonen mecha series. Tyrannical space fascists with their sights set on Earth?  Check. United Federation of Good Guys from the aforementioned blue planet? Check. Mechs with big guns? Check. Young, male, teenaged protagonists who pilot stuff and save the day? Double check, there's two of them. 

However, where Aldnoah.Zero shines isn't in its premise, it's the execution and writing. Gen Urobuchi, the mastermind behind Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero, is at the wheel here, and even if he doesn't personally write the scripts for anything past Episode 3, the quality is still there. 

First of all, the two MCs. The first one is Inaho Kaizuka, a individual who can be best described as the "anti-Shinji". No whining, no second guessing. Inaho is a well-oiled machine with a gun, constantly adding up numbers in his head to best figure out when, where and what to shoot. It's actually kind of refreshing to have an MC who gets stuff done, no questions asked. It's not like Inaho is blatantly overpowered, Kirito-style, either - all of his master plans are the result of on-the-fly calculation, not some grand "ah-ha I knew you would do that all along" machination.  It's genuinely entertaining to watch him wreck flamboyant, plasma-sword-wielding Martian monstrosities in nothing but a bright orange training mech. 

Then there's Slaine Troyard, the Terran in the service of the Martians. He comes off as the Suzaku-type at first, trying to change Martian society from the inside, but I suspect that Urobuchi has plans for him. His undying loyalty for the Martian Princess probably won't end very happily. Either way, only time will tell. 

As for the rest of the boxes, most of them are pretty definitively ticked off. Fight scenes are fluid and well-animated. The plot itself is developing quite nicely. Hiroyuki Sawano for the soundtrack? Yes, please. I expect to get my time's worth out of this series. 

Urobuchi-san, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention. 

bashirian.theresia - 2014-07-13 03:10:08

After only watching the only two episodes I can thoroughly say that this show is going to be entertaining. This is Gen Urobuchi second attempt at a mecha anime. While Suisei no Gargantia was enjoyable, this seems more up his ally. The CGI of the mechs might put off some people as it did to me, but it does a pretty good job blending in. The soundtrack is probably the best part of the anime, followed by the animation as they both did a good job. The characters and the story are probably its weakest links so far. The characters with the most importance seems like they will stay the same for the show by their emotionless demeanor and seems a bit slow paced for it only to be 12 episodes. Again this is just the beginning and there is still a lot more to come. Regardless whether its a success or just another mecha anime, it definitely a show that needs to be watched at least once.