Forum - View topicEpisode Review: Aldnoah.Zero
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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MC talks alot, people complain. MC cries alot, people complain.
MC is calm and collective, people complain. MC is weak, people complain. MC is OP, people complain. basically, writers shouldn't even care about what people think. Just write what you want. Other people's opinions are just opinions, they don't matter unless they have money to give you. |
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ChibiKangaroo
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Or, they could just write good MCs, like Tatsumi from Akame ga Kill! or Rinka from Tokyo ESP. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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When a lead is written properly, the audience has a grasp of what they are thinking and what "they would likely do" in a situation and the character follows through. Inaho has been far too silent and almost no backstory has been made to give the audience an idea of what his motivation is other than to survive the current encounter. Slaine is a much better established as a character, the issue for him being that he keeps getting put in time out and gets berated by nobles while he is locked up somewhere. |
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Kaioshin_Sama
Posts: 1215 |
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Brain Powerd and Guilty Crown come to mind as two mecha series where a lot of big names worked on them and the result was largely disappointing to say the least. It happens. There's just a whole lot more too making a memorable show then throwing currently popular names into a room together and hoping a mega-hit pops out, particularly when one of them seemingly wants nothing to do with the idea beyond it's most early concept stages and first 3 episodes. For starters the key people involved really have to have their heart in the project and so far the only person I get the impression from that seems genuinely enthusiastic about the show at this moment is Director Ei Aoki. Hiroyuki Sawano was not inspired on this show with his soundtrack which just sounds like a pastiche of his past efforts and clocks in at a miserably short 20 tracks many of which are just vocal inserts, Yuki Kajiura's intro isn't going to go down in history as one of the all time greats in the genre's history let alone one of her better ones and Takako Shimura who did the character designs really has little say beyond that and mainly seems to be there because she's worked with Aoki in the past, same as the current script writer Katsuhiko Takayama. Basically what you have Aldnoah.Zero is a whole bunch of really popular, dare I say a little currently overexposed industry names for how long they've been around and what they've actually accomplished in their careers that have never worked on a grand scale mecha space opera type series before with one guy in Aoki trying to tie it all together somehow. I see little reason to be surprised that it's turning out to be entertaining but largely a mixed bag concept and execution wise. |
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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I am shocked at the number of people down on this show. SHOCKED.
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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Why? Most people watching anime I've watched quite a few mech show, so it shouldn't come as a surprise. The writer have been relying almost entirely on coincidence and character making extremely questionable and out of character decision to make the story move forward, event are surprising because nothing is properly setup. Up to now there's been literally 0 character development, everyone is exactly the same as they started the series. The show wasn't particularly smart, but it's been getting dumber and dumber since episode 7. Trying to do things different is cool, but the story still has to make sense, plus there not really keeping up with that, I really liked that the protagonist had to make due with vastly inferior tech, but now they've just acquired a super ship, just like every mech anime ever. Now I wouldn't say it's the most disappointing anime series with big name in recent history, like someone pointed out guilty crown come to mind (although I'd describe guilty crown as "amazingly bad" rather than disappointing, they've really set a new bar for how bad a show can be despite money and talent). Gargantia is also a show that was even more disappointing although that's mostly due to the stellar 2 first episode and the sever drop in all around quality starting episode 3, with the infamous spoiler["you can't kill people, so stand back while we shoot at them with cannon"]) |
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Kaioshin_Sama
Posts: 1215 |
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Ultimately I think it's the fact that it's basically at this point in time a Hype "Water Cooler" type show (basically a show designed to entertain, bedazzle, shock and thus give viewers things to talk about each week as it's driving force rather than to function as a concise, coherent and ongoing narrative with clear cut arcs, thematic and character climaxes that really allow people to just dig in definitively and truly analyze them as they are ongoing) and that works as a double edged sword as they have a tendency to end rather abruptly as the realization comes that there's no more time for cliffhangers and twists and that they actually have to do an ending. I kind of saw it coming just by how it was being advertised (as in like a Hype Show) so I'm not as affected by it (aside from being really annoyed at some of the boasting and pure nonsense the producers were talking up early in it's concept phase), but I mean the show does have some legitimate problems that have already been talked about in both the review and the thread. Personally I don't really see it as particularly smart like you do, though it's not as obnoxious as some recent attempts at mecha series that skew more towards entirely different genres and brands of wackiness at the end of the day like Infinite Stratos, Captain Earth, Star Driver, Rinne no Lagrange, Daimidaler, Dai-Shogun etc. I think it gets some technical things right and benefits tremendously from the popularity of it's staff in terms of reception (truthfully I think if it weren't for the name Gen Urobuchi being in there somewhere despite how little he's actually contributed to the project this show fares significantly worse with viewing audiences and is a lot more heavily criticized for it's shortcomings) which I'm sure was the intention of the producers, but really a lot of this show right down to the core of it's concept feels kind of smoke and mirrors. Like once you look past the whole descriptive dialogue of how the battles are fought and how tactical it tries to make things there's actually a lot of fridge logic too it all. I feel like if it just carried itself more casually in the battles and let the viewer figure out how the day is won instead of having Inaho spell it all out step by step in ex-positional dialogue which seems to be the only time he ever really seems to have extended lines and a role in the show it's actually fare better in that regard. Other than that it feels like it's only just as of the latest episode starting to round out a little as far as characterization goes into something a little more interesting, but that's where this shows other double edged sword comes in which is it's attempting to be unpredictable. This means that even though it appears to have found some footing, by it's very nature as a summer blockbuster Hype type show it could easily squander it in nothing more than an attempt to mislead the viewer with red herrings and surprise them with unexpected developments that ultimately just end up working against it. Basically there's lots to be wary about and lots of evidence to suspect that the series isn't as smart as it seems to want to bill itself as at times. Really have to wait until all is said and done to talk at length about those sorts of things anyway. For now it's just kind of one of those take the ride and see where it leads kind of shows. |
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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I always thought Tatsumi just seemed like a re-skin of Kirito from Sword Art Online. I like this show. I also like Terror in Resonance. Those are the only shows I like this season (Akeme ga Kill's alright I guess). Which is a lot considering how picky and critical I can be. |
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Kaioshin_Sama
Posts: 1215 |
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Yeah about that, see the thing is: Early Concept stuff and Staff Interviewspoiler[ For starters according to Ei Aoki the director in a recent interview originally the Vers were supposed to actually just be aliens early on in the concept stage instead of humans that went to Mars and had all that generational stuff happen people have attested to in the thread as not making much sense with regard to the timeline. Really if you think about it the Vers being aliens in the original draft makes so much more sense when you think about the timeline and how they are characterized as supposedly alien like and inhuman despite only a couple generations separating the whole Aldnoah genetic bonding incident. That's because originally they were aliens. I'm almost willing to bet that the timeline, back story and some aspects of their culture survived the initial draft, but that it was hard to make it really match up with what was changed afterward. The other thing is some staff and cast confirmed on twitter that they'd just finished finalizing and recording the last episode of the series yesterday which matches up with a recent magazine interview this month where Ei Aoki talks about the final episode being finished and that it'll feature a big climatic cliffhanger battle that should have some unexpected turns of event. Also he said that he and the staff were currently working on a concept for the second season but that the plan is for it to focus on what the Zero in the title of the show means. All of this basically seems to confirm that not too much about this series overall concept has been decided in advance and that the staff is very much open to changing and restructuring things so the way I see it the series is impossible to watch and predict in advance anywhere beyond a couple of weeks max. Also given the candidness of the staff about how tight the production schedule is and how much focus there is on two core ideas in the show, the real robot vs. super robot battles and surprise developments that can be perceived as unconventional for the genre I have no reason to suspect that the staff isn't just following audience reaction on the internet and tailoring things to take turns away from that expectation so as to appear smarter. I'm not saying that's exactly the case, but to me it would be a simple and logical way to achieve the goals they appear to have set out for themselves with Aldnoah.Zero.] |
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Brizent
Posts: 7 |
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I absolutely hated the first two episodes, in fact they made me angry they were so predictable, I only watched it becasue Ep. 3 was much better, and if it hadn't been I would have dropped it havign no qualms about it. Also I didn't come into this show with as high expectations as most other people as I have been pretty meh on the other urobochi work I have seen. That being said the show as of now is nowhere near a masterpiece and though ep. 9 did help this show seriously need to work on its characters especially Inaho for it to break free of mediocratity Also when they first introduced slaine, I was like wow they are going to have non Highschool character be the lead(albeit High school age) and break from the norm, aaannnddd then they introduce Inaho and I'm like Ofc it was High school students, not that I particularyl mind H.S students but it really set the tone of the first 2 episodes being so predicatable |
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jeffinitelyjeff
 Posts: 12 |
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Ep 1-8
=== Am I the only one here more interested in providing feedback about the review than discussing the show itself for some reason? >_> I'm new to the forums, so I apologize if that kind of discussion isn't wanted here.
I think it would've been worthwhile to point out an example or two here. I think the timeline is so implausible and so infrequently mentioned that I wouldn't be surprised if most viewers aren't aware—or forget—the Martians left earth no earlier than 1972 and that the show is set in 2014. Maybe the typical fan pays attention to and remembers a lot more detail than I expect, though.
I don't think I'm that sensitive to ableist language, but this struck me as judgmental/offensive (hopefully this isn't just crying wolf at the tiniest incident). I think "...wonder if he has a mental disability" or "...wonder if he is neuroatypical" would be less =/ inducing. Ep 9 === Nice review. I didn't quite agree with it initially (I didn't feel like I learned much about any of the characters), but changed my mind after reading your thoughts and some reflection. Although I think it's disappointing that an episode with so little Inaho featured so much discussion about him, which I find much more dull; at least by observing him we can potentially learn what makes him tick, but watching others' reactions to such an expressionless character felt a bit like reading thoughts about him on forums. |
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Mr Adventure
Posts: 1598 |
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There is almost no percent chance that Inaho isn't on the autistic spectrum somewhere.
Whether they actually address that at some point is the question. But this show does make a point of addressing a lot of very real issues. So I wouldn't put it past it. It certainly explains his genius level tactical know-how and his reserved personality. Calling it a 'metal defect' in the review is really kind of ignorant, yes. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Ugggggggggggggggh. Sorry, but...this weird "Inaho is autistic" thing that's been going around grosses me out, and I have no idea whatsoever where it came from. I do know I'm tired of seeing it because it's absolutely not true. Worse though, it's really really really unfair and inaccurate to people on the autism spectrum, as evidenced by the fact that every single person I have heard the "Inaho must be autistic" thing from is not ON the autism spectrum, and the friends of mine who are, and who watch this show, immediately respond to it with "What? Ew, no. I do not identify with that character at all. That is not what's going on there, at least I really hope it isn't, because that's wrong."
There has been literally nothing in the series to suggest that they are implying autism with Inaho. The most we've gotten to explain his brick-like personality is that characters say "That guy's really weird, he has like no emotions" and his sister says "That's just the way he is!" That's it. But it's okay because he's the best soldier and strategist ever for also unexplained reasons! That's it. I think people have higher expectations for Aldnoah because of its pedigree, so they're looking for deeper character exploration with him, but we haven't actually been given any. Right now, his character really is that undeveloped, along with most of the cast around him. I think what the writers are going for with him is real simple. You're supposed to think Inaho is a stone-cold badass. Period. They did this same characterization with Tatsuya in Mahouka, and a similar thing, except with the extremely emotional (but still hyper-competent) Kirito in Sword Art Online. It's a type of lead that's very in vogue right now in anime, and why wouldn't they copy it here? Unlike in those two cases, however, Aldnoah.Zero's Inaho is too unrelatable and his story too thematically nuanced to be a simple self-insert. (That's just comparing it to the simplest of black and white worldviews in SAO and Mahouka, mind you.) So the button they're aiming to press in audiences instead is the "mysterious hero, don't you want to know more about him?" thing. (For me, the answer is "no, where's Slaine?" but I know he is intriguing to some viewers, and I can understand that.) But autistic? Uh uh. If that's ever seriously implied to be the truth, I will eat my shoes. Or I'll eat something. I'll acknowledge I was wrong in some goofy manner, anyway. I'm sure they'll give him some tragic backstory or another like they did with Tatsuya to eventually flesh out his brick-ness, but if I could never hear "he's probably autistic!" again, it won't be soon enough. That's not what autism is. It is not hypercompetent emotionless stonecold badassness and I really don't understand where people are getting this. I wish it would stop. Mostly I'm just sick of saying "I'm not impressed by the detached mystique of this boring, badly-written badass," and being met with "THAT'S REALLY ABLEIST" in response. It blew my mind the first time I thought it was such a reach, and the more and more I see it, the more it occurs to me just how hard people are reaching for depth or commentary in a series that is flying by the seat of its pants and does not have a quarter the substance people are thirsting for out of it. Hey, it sucks, I had high hopes for it too. But please no more "Inaho is autistic" stuff weaponized against people who don't like the character, ggggaaaaah. |
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Mr Adventure
Posts: 1598 |
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Okay, fair enough. But I literally have never thought of the guy as 'a badass' at any point in the show. Brilliant maybe. But hardly a badass.
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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I don't know anything else about Inaho, and whether there could be some other explanation for his characterization, it doesn't matter much to me right now. This seems to be the only thing we can be certain of right now - badass, super stoic kid with ice in his veins is "cool," and thus they decided to take Inaho to the absolute extreme on that (such that he relaxingly cooks a meal while people are running for their lives from aliens attacking, and acts like nothing of import is happening, for example). Inaho's characterization is likely just another symptom of this show's larger problem, which as I've said before, is it's hodgepodge and directionless approach. Plot, characterization, scenes... they don't seem to be part of a larger vision, but instead are each created separately with the purpose to shock and awe us. It's why there have been so many plot twists... the Slaine torture porn... the blowing up of New Orleans... the tactical genius allowing Inaho to defeat invulnerable mechs with his simple training dummy robot... and those are just a few examples. This is what this show is about, shocking and awing us as much as possible, with no consistent narrative beyond the most basic thing required. |
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