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Episode Review: Aldnoah.Zero


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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:53 pm Reply with quote
jojothepunisher wrote:
I finally understood the reason why the writers made Inaho such an emotional character until the end.


You mean "emotionLESS", right?
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the_windcaster



Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 47
PostPosted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 10:29 pm Reply with quote
Absolutely spot-on. Unfortunately, this is yet another parallel to draw between this show and Valvrave. Waffles toward the end of s1, but finishes its first half strong. Hopefully it won't dawdle about in s2 like Valvrave did.

spoiler[SO GLAD to see interesting characters survive, and see Inko stepping up under pressure. I'm also looking forward to what will happen with Slaine, because his losses are SO deep and his loyalties SO uncertain that he's a real dangerous wild card. Not to mention finding out how that Kataphrakt activated...]
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Cyclone1993



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 947
PostPosted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:04 pm Reply with quote
Now this is how you do a conclusion! The series has been rather okay, but nothing really blew me away except maybe in episode 9. But now I'm really looking forward to what the second season is going to bring.

spoiler[Slaine has always been the most interesting of the main characters, and it will be nice to see him go solo now, as long as the others are truly dead, which I doubt at this point.]

You draw comparisons to Valvrave, and I don't think you're entirely wrong. But there was something about Valvrave that drew me to it, that Aldnoah doesn't have. Heck Valvrave was my favorite anime last year, and one of my all time top 3 mecha series. But Aldnoah is just kind of there...
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Noah's and Colson's aunt



Joined: 20 Sep 2014
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:17 pm Reply with quote
Saline is the only person I liked, when Inaho was on I would just fast forward. I kind of hope he does not come back in the second season
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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 2:52 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Many (including yours truly) have complained about Inaho's emotionless behavior, and while this episode does not do much to change that, glimmers of him actually emotionally reacting to things do finally start to show, including one telling scene where he actually smiles...


The moment i had to witness Inaho's...um..."smile", i instantly started to regret every time i ever complained about him being expressionless. Poor Slaine was probably so creeped out that he just spoiler[shot him] reflexively...so if Inaho should spoiler[survive] this (and i've got little doubt that he will...), i hope and pray that he's going to remain emotioness for the rest of the show. Shocked
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Pipoko



Joined: 13 Jun 2014
Posts: 165
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 6:16 am Reply with quote
What a trainwreck. Amazing.

It's kind of hard to care because I give no shit about any of the cast except for maybe Slaine at this point. In the end none of them developed, the series had no meaning to convey throught it's twists and deaths, at least, none that worked, and the "development" some of them got felt really unnatural, or there was none at all. Like Inaho growing to love the princess, Rayet's character "fixed" by the power of friendship and Saazbaum's whole character. It just feels really empty.

Part of me wants to see trainwreck unfold in season 2, but outside of this episode's ending, in these final episodes, the series has just been boring.
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Lynx Amali





PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 10:57 am Reply with quote
And people complain about Valvrave being terrible. This topped that by a mile.

Rolling Eyes

This was easily one of the worst stories I have ever sat through. I was really hoping it would get better but it didn't. I really don't see the second half improving on it whatsoever.

Slaine was incredibly stupid to begin with but I never imagined someone being that stupid. Inaho had the personality of a rock and the princess embodied everything I hate about modern pacifist characters.

It was an utter mess.
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jojothepunisher



Joined: 04 Sep 2007
Posts: 799
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 12:01 pm Reply with quote
HitokiriShadow wrote:
jojothepunisher wrote:
I finally understood the reason why the writers made Inaho such an emotional character until the end.


You mean "emotionLESS", right?


Yes, sorry, that's what I meant. Will change it.
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endallchaos



Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 213
Location: Sin City
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:03 pm Reply with quote
The ending is probably what saved this anime, for me. Overall, I thought it was a okay anime. I was gonna give it a 6/10, but because of that ending I have to give it a 7/10. I see a lot of people getting mad that spoiler[Slaine shot Inaho], but Inaho shouldn't have called Slaine his enemy, in an earlier episode. It's ultimately his fault.
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endallchaos



Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 213
Location: Sin City
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:06 pm Reply with quote
Lynx Amali wrote:
And people complain about Valvrave being terrible. This topped that by a mile.

Rolling Eyes

This was easily one of the worst stories I have ever sat through. I was really hoping it would get better but it didn't. I really don't see the second half improving on it whatsoever.

Slaine was incredibly stupid to begin with but I never imagined someone being that stupid. Inaho had the personality of a rock and the princess embodied everything I hate about modern pacifist characters.

It was an utter mess.


Yes, it was sorta of a mess. Do you know that spoiler[Slaine shot Inaho, because Inaho declared Slaine his enemy, before shooting him into the ocean? Well yea, that's basically the reason. If Inaho wouldn't have said that, I'm pretty sure Slaine wouldn't have shot him. Plus, you don't point a gun at someone who is mentally unstable, is pointing a gun at you, and when they have told you to back off.]
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Shippoyasha



Joined: 28 Aug 2007
Posts: 459
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 2:26 pm Reply with quote
And people thought Suzaku and Shinn Asuka were rage-worthy, eh?

Slaine EASILY outdid both on how hateable a character can be.

Say what people about Suzaku and Shinn, but at leas they were actually proficient at piloting/fighting.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:26 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Slaine EASILY outdid both on how hateable a character can be.

The better written character spoiler[karma kills the guy that shot his jet down, left him for dead, and stole his lady, Inaho didn't ask for mercy or understanding he "acted logically" and pulled a gun on Slaine.]

Through his methodical actions Inaho "earned" the ire of Slaine,spoiler[ and the only person capable of making a bridge between the two was lying dead a few feet away]
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JacobC
ANN Contributor


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 4:33 pm Reply with quote
So just wanted to drop in and say that after a lot of back-and-forth and clue-sussing on Twitter, I think some other fans and I arrived at the answer of how they're going to spoiler[bring back Inaho.] Warning: it's really really really ridiculous. But I'm pretty 100% positive we've figured out the "twist" they're saving for winter.

Right before he gets spoiler[bullet'd between the eyeballs, Inaho remembers giving CPR to the princess and gets this little shit-eating grin on his face. We assume it's because he's begrudgingly accepting his death/sad that he's lost the woman he loves/frankly we don't know what to assume. But he dies weirdly confident about something when Slaine finally pulls the trigger. We can infer from the narration afterwards that Slaine has now run away with the wounded princess. We know she's not dead-dead because the bullet glanced her helmet and frankly that's too many close calls too close to one another.]

spoiler[But we know from the show's approach to his character that Inaho is basically the most perfect perfect-head that ever lived, so he was probably confident in his last moment for good reason. What if that reason was that he knew he wasn't going to die? What if the reason he remembered giving the princess CPR specifically wasn't out of some romantic yearning (although that was part of it, hence all the bloom,) but because he was basically reflecting on having received immortality? No, really. Remember this scene?]

spoiler[We never really knew why the Princess immediately started making out with Slaine when he crashed on Mars. All we know is that it "saved his life." In fact, since then, Slaine has seemed pretty damn impervious to any real harm despite all the danger that gets slung his direction. Saazbaum blew up Cruhteo's entire fortress all helter-skelter in order to kidnap Slaine. Why would he do that? Wouldn't that endanger Slaine's life? Not if he thought Slaine was immortal. Because, he is. And so is Inaho now! That's why he was so confident before getting shot between the eyes! All because the princess has magic queen bee Aldnoah spit of some kind.]

spoiler[It's the only explanation. Why did the dead mech's drive power up when Slaine of all people, a Terran, got into the machine? Why have the writers kept Slaine out of the mechs up to this point, sticking him only in aeroplanes and the like before only recently letting him borrow Saazbaum's machine? (And then he gets into a dead machine and it...comes to life anyway? For a Terran?) His princess-kiss gave him the TRUE power of Aldnoah, undistilled, unlimited in power. Inaho is now the same way because CPR. (Which is the entire reason they gave her that fakeout-death, and probably 99% of the reason that Rayet even exists, great character writing there, ugh...) Narratively, it doesn't make any sense to kill off Inaho at this point. We know there still has to be more for him to do in the story, and the circumstances behind his death were just too weird. The smile? The last words? It's odd. Frankly, there's still no evidence that the princess HAD a real body double that was executed. That's just what she says, but the more likely answer is that she and her child-retainer are, in fact, immortal, and that's why Saazbaum was so dead set on making a show of killing her but still spoke of "using her as a tool for war" in more grand terms. He wanted irrefutable proof of her "death" BEFORE hijacking her corpse back to Mars to use her to make immortal soldiers.]

So yeah. If you didn't like Inaho before, just guess how much you're going to be annoyed with him when he's spoiler[basically unkillable.] This could all just be a bunch of horse-bunk theory of course, but...it makes too much sense, doesn't it?
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Twilightmaster



Joined: 24 Aug 2008
Posts: 129
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 4:50 pm Reply with quote
I'm not one to go along with crazy theories, but your crazy theory has my belief after the evidence provided. Though spoiler[let's say you do become immortal after such events, why is the emperor of the Vers seemingly dying in his bed? Or the fact the choking of Seylum worked at all. It seems weird that she can bestow immortality, but wouldn't be immortal herself.] But who knows, I'm sure they'll have conjured up some crazy reason.
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Penguin_Factory



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 732
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 4:51 pm Reply with quote
But hang on, spoiler[if Aldnoah makes you literally immortal then how did all of the Orbital Knights, who have Aldnoah, get killed in battle? And why would the emperor ever believe she was dead, if he knows full well she can't be killed? For that matter, why would Saazbaum's entire call to arms be "the princess is dead" when surely at least some people on Mars would be aware that that's impossible? Hell, why wouldn't the princess herself ever mention this?]

spoiler[Slaine's dad was researching Aldnoah, which was brought up enough that it must be important. It's far more likely he got it that way.]

If all of this is somehow accurate, I guess I don't really see why it would be bad. But then, I don't get the massive backlash against this show to begin with- I agree that it didn't live up to the promise of the first three episodes, but it seems more like a potential A-tier show that slipped down to B, as opposed to this awful trainwreck. I've been reading the howls of derision that have greeted the last few episodes wondering if people are have been watching a different show or something.

Off topic, but a lot of people don't like Inaho. I agree he's kind of a boring protagonist (if he actually is the protagonist, which I'm not really convinced of), but my interpretation of him is that he's a product of the culture on Earth- they started training teenagers for war after Heaven's Fall, and in Inaho they got exactly what they wanted: someone who is extremely capable at fighting but more or less non-functional in every other regard. He's basically a living weapon.
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