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Aldnoah.Zero (TV) (both seasons).


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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:35 pm Reply with quote
Well there's originality and there's originality. You can do something that's never been done before, but those usually just end up being extremely random and by definition there's fewer and fewer of them.

But there's original in the sense that's it's something that's rarely done. Case in point, this is a show were the main character is a high school boy, like the vast majority of mech show (this one kinda break the mold in that he actually has training in handling the mech), so if one came out were the MC wasn't a boy/young adult (say a trained mech pilot, or GASP! a women not there solely for fan service), it would be original for lack of a better word (is there a word that mean "has been done before but pretty rarely"?).

The more we watch something the less interesting it is, I freaking love the second patabor movie but after 20+ watch I'm getting bored of it. Similarly the more we see of a premise/character the less interesting it is (doubly more so when we get the same character in the same premise situation).

Ultimately it's true that all that matter is whether or not a show is good, but making something good out of an overused setting and character is really hard and quite simply outsize the reach of most people working in the industry, both for talent and budget reason. This show is doing quite a tour de force by making me interested in it (it really help that it does try to stand out here and there, with the aforementioned reversal of situation with one powerful mech versus many weak one, plus the fact that we still haven't heard the MC complain about his parents, please never do that) Cool
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:30 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
(is there a word that mean "has been done before but pretty rarely"?).


Different, uncommon, or refreshing are the words I'd use.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 12:46 pm Reply with quote
Episode 4:

Pretty good action this episode. However, I hope we learn more about the main protagonists soon spoiler[especially Slaine and Inaho. Actually, I think I want to know more about Slaine now since he is going into combat next time.]

The ED song was glorious. I think it comes out in September.
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RestLessone



Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Posts: 1426
Location: New York
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 1:39 pm Reply with quote
^
I want to learn more about Slaine, too! I find him more interesting than Inaho, who has thankfully continued to show touches of emotion.

I liked episode 4, though I'm a tiny bit nervous they'll go for a 'soldier of the week' format while Slaine explores the background. I'm ready to get this show on the road! I sort of hope spoiler[they propel Cruhteo beyond a one note racist count as well.]
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ookamigirl



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 2274
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:16 pm Reply with quote
So the spoiler[Princess likes Inaho.
It was brave of her to expose herself like that.]

Looks like her life isn't an easy one either.
It's nice to see Inaho kept his cool even with that surprise.
spoiler[Slaine] wasn't having a nice time, but his investigation could be useful.
Guess nowhere is safe now.
The Martians sure are a persistent bunch.
I like this version of their spoiler[mecha's] more than the previous ones.
Humans sure could use at least one of those..
I like the fact thespoiler[ Princess isn't a clumsy airhead, but brave and responsible.]
Another great episode with no dull moments!
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LordByron227



Joined: 12 Feb 2011
Posts: 158
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 3:47 pm Reply with quote
Tuor_of_Gondolin wrote:
LordByron227 wrote:
On a side note, it seems as if the CR sub is using Naval Commisioned ranks, but Army enlisted. Kaizuka calls him Marito - 大尉 (which is the equivalent of an O-3, Captain in the Army/Marines, Naval Lieutenant for the Navy). Then you have Kaizuka being a Warrant Officer which is pretty much an army only rank.

Are you talking US military or Japanese military (JSDF)? Because the US Navy certainly does have Warrant Officers.


The US navy discontinued warrant officer rank in the 70s. They're pretty much been replaced by Petty Officers. The only warrant officers left in the navy are CWOs.
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Jacquipuff



Joined: 02 Jul 2014
Posts: 274
Location: Silver Spring, MD
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:04 pm Reply with quote
Hmm, a different ending song this time round. I assume it's just a one-time thing, or at least I hope so, since while it was a really good song, I still like the regular one better, as an ending theme (all the music in this show is great, though).

Onto the episode itself, I'm so glad this show is able to make me like Inaho more now, since he's the main character and all. Although that being said, I'm still much more interested in everyone else, especially Slaine spoiler[and the princess.]. I wonder what Slaine's planning...

Quite satisfying to see spoiler[the new enemy mech get smashed in the head like that, even if it didn't do much damage all in all], I just liked watching it happen.

This new Martian Kataphrakt seems very different from Trillram's. Looking forward to seeing what kind of plans the Terrans (or more likely, Inaho) make to combat it.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:31 pm Reply with quote
Episode 4, I don't care anymore, the stupidity of this show has become too much for me. Yes, it is important to tell the Vers Empire about their princess. Yes, there is a war going on so direct communication would be difficult.

"That would be hard." No, it wouldn't as there is this thing called "News" and what you have is what I'm sure would be termed a "pretty big scoop". You may have giant robots named after ancient cavalry units {is 90 percent of the work in formulating new mecha series coming up with a name to call them other than what they are?} but if you had something called the "Interweb", you could end this war in a matter of hours. Or at the very least, make it into a Vers civil war. {and that hologram tech is more than enough proof to boot. Are they even trying to end the war or do they just want to kill "Martians"? And who do I mean by "they"?}

"There is a Vers Spy." No, there are 37 factions and you don't know who you can trust. To say that there is one spy is meaningless as in the 15 years time gap between wars, there should be a lot more than one. Someone show a little insight somewhere. Either it's "we were separated for 15 years so let us learn as much as we can" or "we have had 15 years of peace. Meanwhile, let's prepare..."; In short, starting the war should have been the final step after a lot of preparation, not the first after getting some guys ready.

Also, what is with the non-Inaho male students in this series? "That one is mine." Your city just got flattened by a falling rock and you're calling dibs?

I'm done rooting for the humans, I'm rooting for humanity. Which would be the Vers in this case so I'm done with this show. I'm supposed to focus on the action? Don't care, I have Gurren Lagann! What I wanted was something more thoughtful and contemplative which is a lot harder than simply throwing money at animators.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 10:19 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I'm done with this show.

Good.

As for me, I enjoyed the first non multipart episode as it certainly felt that the first 3 seemed like they should be viewed in marathon.

Considering Rayet's dialogue, I am even more certain now she is Half Terran/Martian.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18137
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 11:32 pm Reply with quote
Animegomaniac, perhaps you missed the slight detail about the support structure which makes the Internet and long-range news feeds possible - underwater cables, satellites, transmission stations - being systematically destroyed? Or that signals were being jammed sufficiently that nothing beyond short-range communication is possible? Besides, they aren't really in a position at this point to get to whatever might be left for news broadcasters. And both the princess and Inaho are correct to be cautious about revealing her identity except under the right circumstances. If she winds up dead because of revealing herself in a situation where she has insufficient protection from vengeful Earthers or potential Vers traitors then it would entirely defeat the purpose of revealing herself.

As I said last after last episode, Princess Asseylum may be naive and idealistic, but she isn't stupid.

And as for the guys staking out their territory, so to speak? History has long proven that even the midst of life-or-death warfare, guys will still be guys, and there's no reason to think that shouldn't apply even moreso to teenagers. I saw no problem with it.

Dearly love this series after episode 4, and even Inaho is starting to grow on me. The stunt with spoiler[the shipping bin] had me laughing in delight. This one may even outstrip SAO II as my top-priority view of the week.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 11:45 pm Reply with quote
Was an okay episode, the mech seemed like a major step down, just like the previous one he only had melee weapon, but he didn't have the super defense to compensate, do the ver just not understand the concept range weapon or something? Sorta made sense for the first one to not carry any range, but this one doesn't, really no reason to only carry a sword. All they have to do to defeat him is to shoot from two different direction and he can only block one.

The princess not revealing herself make complete sense, in fact the one thing that make no sense is that she even revealed her selves to the MC, no reason to do that. If she tell the knight they might very well decide to kill her, if she tell the human, some of them might be with the assassin. Since she can't broadcast a message the only good way would be to go somewhere that can get the message across as many people as possible, with all comm down, earth HQ is pretty much there best bet. I'm all for calling out show on stupid stuff, but this isn't one of them. For an example, the fact that they didn't grab the remain of the destroyed mech with them, that really should have been there # 1 priority, realistically it's worth is pretty much infinite since it would allow human to bridge the tech gap, if they needed place they could have just left the regular mech behind (or even civilian, they could save far more people with the mech than with a couple more civilian).
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Cptn_Taylor



Joined: 08 Nov 2013
Posts: 925
PostPosted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 12:35 am Reply with quote
The princess didn't reveal herself to anybody just because. And she specifically didn't pick up Inaho. Good God just watch episode number 3. Only 3 people see the martian princess and those are the martian/earth girl that was besides her driving the truck, and Inaho who saw her on his monitor (and of course slaine but he's not with our heroes). That's it. No one else on the human side knows even who she is.
In episode 4 she talks to the 2 that have seen her in her true form, martian girl and Inaho and while the second agrees to not divulge the princess's secret and martian/earth girl is much more circumspect. So the actions of the princess do make sense. To do anything beyond this would be freeking stupid because she's in danger from the martian side (even Slaine is not sure who he can trust) and from vengeful earthmen.
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 3:13 am Reply with quote
While the show is certainly entertaining i gotta say that it doesn't do a very good job at making me care - in a positive or negative way - about any of the characters.

Inaho just happens to be a tactical genius who stays calm and collected in any situation because he's just that cool. I usually dislike that type but he's such a bland character that i can't muster the effort. Same goes for most of the other humans.

Sadly enough the Martians are just as boring in their cartoonish evilness, so there isn't even a fascinating antagonist. For now only Slaine and maybe the Princess have proved to be mildly interesting, so i'm hoping to see more of them (or for the others to magically develop personalities...).
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 3:19 am Reply with quote
Episode 4

That ending song, it sounds just like one of my favourite recent anime songs, and the Encyclopedia is not too clear on who is singing it. Okay, I managed to track the singer down to someone called Mika Kobayashi, who to my delight sung spoiler[Before My Body is Dry], which is indeed what I was thinking of when I was hearing the song. I half expected to go from the slow lyrics to suddenly sing out "Don't lose your way".

I kind of like the MC, he is able to keep a cool head when things go bad, and that seems to be what helps him. Hmm, spoiler[giant robots, and shipping containers smacked to the head], what does that make me think of? It is doing alright, at least much better than a certain other mecha anime at the moment.
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Galap
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Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 2354
PostPosted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 3:50 am Reply with quote
Key wrote:
both the princess and Inaho are correct to be cautious about revealing her identity except under the right circumstances. If she winds up dead because of revealing herself in a situation where she has insufficient protection from vengeful Earthers or potential Vers traitors then it would entirely defeat the purpose of revealing herself.

As I said last after last episode, Princess Asseylum may be naive and idealistic, but she isn't stupid.



I really liked this concern myself, especially how they're not just blindly saying she should or should not reveal herself, but understanding that the context is important to the decision, and also recognizing that it's still hard to know what is best to do in any given situation.

I'm perhaps even more interested in Slaine's dilemma about whether revealing that the princess is alive would improve the situation or worsen it. From what we know, I have no idea either.

Quote:

Dearly love this series after episode 4, and even Inaho is starting to grow on me. The stunt with spoiler[the shipping bin] had me laughing in delight. This one may even outstrip SAO II as my top-priority view of the week.


This is definitely my favorite of this season by a wide margin as well.
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