Forum - View topicEpisode Review: Aldnoah.Zero
|
Goto page Previous Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Izanagi009
 Posts: 464 Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
|
|||||||||
|
Well, that finale felt empty for me
The fights were good but I didn't feel invested despite the characterization that occurred previously That is probably the issue, the characters feel underwhelming with Inaho feeling over powered and Slaine seeming to me as just another conquerer rather than someone sympathetic after the heel turn in season 1 when the dynamic changed from the underdog to the leader People were apt to used Gundam as a comparison when it first came out so I shall do the same: Aldnoah Zero feels like a budget Gundam that doesn't know how to engage with characters and can only use action and music to amuse us only on a superficial level. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
ichii_1
 Posts: 151 |
|
|||||||||
|
The only good thing was the music and Slaine/action.
The way nobody in the good guys spoiler[died when fired with a barrage of lasers from every angle form more skilled soldiers is disgusting.] |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Souther
 Posts: 602 |
|
|||||||||
I agree with what you said, the only difference is I don't see it as a negative. Aldnoah Zero felt like an action movie to me, pretty standard stuff, light a lot of flash, etc. It kept my attention throughout and I was entertained. The ending wasn't amazing, but it was conclusive and it drove home the point that the wars (both past and present) never needed to occur. Asseylum had the right idea by trying to negotiate with Earth and trade for mutual benefit. The rest of Vers’s problem (like the aristocracy) are a matter of introspection. The one loose end that needs tying up, like Key said, are the Knights still occupying territory on Earth. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
|||||||||
|
I think that it is a fair score, but I probably enjoyed it more than others. I think people got out of it depending on what they expected, whether they wanted a show about characterisation or about the war coming to an end.
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
|
|||||||||
|
The final battle reminded me of how many people got sidelined in the end. How many people's stories just weren't satisfying. Everyone in the show gave up all their good moments to devote more and more screentime to the two flawless masterminds try to outwit one another, and in the very climax they both lose the same exact ability at the same time. I think at most Inaho talked to his eye and that was about as flustered as he got.
That's an eye he requested. Meaning they can build those. Eyes that give you th predictive magic foresight that an Aldnoah powered machine does. Also the point of Inaho using his Orange Trainer was it was more mobile and less heavily armored - because armor if often a hinderence when fighting something that's Superpowered. So every subsequent fight that light Trainer is loaded up with so much gear they might've doubled, or tripled its weight....and it gets faster. I enjoyed the show overall, but it is nothing to recommend to friends outside the starting episodes. It just countered it's own show logic with nonsense far too many times to be taken too seriously. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
|
|||||||||
|
Episode #24:
I remember the hype that was going on before the series started airing its 1st cour. It didn't live to the expectations (and judging by the posts here, you're already aware of that). The series as a whole, in retrospect, was mostly flashy fights that were meant to keep the viewers interested when the plot and characterization were too thinly-laced or almost non-existent (seriously, beyond creating the scenario causing the fluid-exchange between Kaizuka Inaho and Asseylum Vers Allusia, what was Rayet Areash's purpose/role for the rest of the show?) As I watched the show, with every new episode it felt to me like I watched something similar before and that it was done better. Somewhere down the line, it clicked for me - I was watching rehashed versions of both of Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch's seasons (with the themes, execution of viewpoints and even each season's finale almost overlap). And once I saw the similarities, it became clearer that this show was following Code Geass in an almost 1:1 path (but in a more rushed way). In fact, once my suspicion about the final obstacle was removed (Klancain Cruhteo's allegiance and inter-personal relationship with Asseylum), I knew that Slaine Troyard will be the "final boss" and that he'll lose, and that Inaho will act as ambassador of-sorts of the New World Order. Code Geass comparisons -> spoiler[Lelouch Lamperouge took onto himself the Old World Order's crimes, sins and wrongdoings, so that the transition to the New World Order will be smooth and accepted by the population of both sides of the conflict. Kururugi Suzaku was the Knight in Shining Armor that once fell (was thought to have been killed in the end of R1), only to return as the one who ends the tyrannical rule (and role) of Lelouch, and accompanying Nunnally Lamperouge - who was both the reason of Lelouch's actions to create a better world for her, and the last standing member of royalty/authority from the Old World Order. She's also the commander and the highest authority in the New World Order, directing the people towards a peaceful future, and (coincidentally or not) personally overseers the rebuilding of the transportation lines while meeting with high-ranking political figures from formerly-enemy countries.] Now, let us play the Guessing Game and guess which Aldnoah.Zero character matches the characters I mentioned in the above paragraph from Code Geass. Can you guess? Answers -> spoiler[Lelouch = Slaine, Suzaku = Inaho, Nunnally = Asseylum] At the end of the day, if someone is already an anime fan (being a Mecha fan isn't a prerequisite) and just wants to watch some nicely-animated fights and hear some decent (and at times good) BGM, this series will offer an OK experience. If someone is new to anime in general, they might enjoy it as well. But for the Mecha fans (especially the diehard ones) will probably find this series somewhere between "it's meh" to "give me back the time I wasted on this show instead of investing it on [anime name]". Edits due to typos and syntax & grammar. Last edited by Hameyadea on Sun Mar 29, 2015 4:59 pm; edited 4 times in total |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
#Immie93
Posts: 54 |
|
|||||||||
|
I agree #Hameyadea
I thought it was following a lot of Code Geass's plot line and characterisations. I initially placed Lelouch as being similar to Inaho but then soon realised it is actually the other way around with Lelouch being Slaine and Suzaku being Inaho. I remained optimistic throughout the whole of this anime and still enjoyed it regardless of its flaws, most likely because I'm not into the mecha genre as heavily but I would agree the ending was rushed. I wanted to see more of a battle between Inaho and Slaine instead of a small scuffle as it felt from the beginning their would be some epic battle to be waged between the two lead males so I was slightly disappointed on that front. The inverse of Episode 12's ending was also too quick especially when the original confrontation was longer and allowed more breathing room. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
|
|||||||||
|
The animation in the finale was great, but the music was a little overdone. I laughed when one of the characters even cut off her dialog like she realized the singer was coming back in to step on her lines. I did appreciate the callback to Saazbaum's "between the eyes" motion though. Nice touch.
Btw, I might be giving them too much credit, but I think the wheelchair patient the Dr. was seeing in the hospital was likely Lemrina. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Wrangler
 Posts: 1346 |
|
|||||||||
|
Thou the story felt little rushed, i just see this as one 24 episode series, not two seasons. First season's last episode to me was just mid-season cliff hanger as far I'm concerned.
However, this episode really didn't feel like it ended right. Princess's fate was political, which made alot sense. If she had gotten together with Inaho would ended possibly badly because of built up bigotry in Ver society on Mars. Earth's population was on the verge of possible extinction with heavy handling of orbital knight's and their Sociopathic mentality. There possible alot of hatred for people of Ver Empire out there There could been sequel set further ahead. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
|
|||||||||
|
One 'praise' I've heard for Aldnoah was that Inaho was unique among mecha pilots, that he was seemingly emotionless and able to do a lot with a basic, grunt military suit. Except there's no reasoning for why a 'regular' guy would be this dead inside, and even by the end of the first cour he was solving all the enemy fights with some really unbelievable handwaves. Not to mention his Magic Eye that eventually could predict the future because he had somehow improved upon military grade occular implants to double as a predictive processing computer? What high school class did he learn that in!?
Compare to Chirico Cuvie of Armored Trooper Votoms, same archetype, but far better. Serving for years in the military he has been part of squads that have been entirely wiped out, a former member of one of the most dangerous fighting teams in the galaxy, the Red Shoulders. A no-nonsense Veteran with a knack for surviving. This is doubled up by the fact he doesn't get a special robot. The machines he drives are patched up, destroyed, and exchanged for new ones several times an arc, and they don't get upgunned. He doesn't get some benevolent superior outfit his machine with equipment others can't get. Almost importantly he doesn't go around painting his mecha bright orange. A Red Shoulder? That's symbolic, and it doesn't happen that often unless it was to psych someone else out. Almost everything Aldnoah was to be prized on (Real Robot style grunts taking on Supers in creative fashions) was thrown aside for some arms race of psychic predictive power between just two boys. --- Compare this to Star Wars, prequels vs Original trilogy. In the Original trilogy, Darth Vader existed as jsut one special dude in a much larger system, and the early Aldnoah episodes, Inaho and Slaine existed as parts of much larger systems as well. If either of them died, the systems would continue on. Now the Prequel Trilogy and Aldnoah, imagine the Prequels if they didn't structure their very fiber around the Origin of Darth Vader. Likewise Aldnoah quickly required Inaho to be their Everything. No operation was completed that wasn't centered around this ace. Vers, would have been entirely boring if not for Slaine being the only person there making stuff happen. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
grooven
Posts: 1424 Location: Canada |
|
|||||||||
|
I think the series really faltered the most in the second cour. It really crashed in both writing and character motives. Slaine's reasoning was tacked on and forced. His motives really didn't make any sense at all. The explanation was very lackluster. Characters like Raynet were thrown to the side and had no purpose. Inaho was so boring and robot like, he had no back story to flesh out his "character", which had me rolling my eyes 90% of time he came on screen with his perfect precision attacks. Then new characters from nowhere were brought in and the writers tried to squeeze them in the already failing story. Such a mess!
It felt like someone else took over the second half and tried to make up a story, but it didn't work. The result was a really flat, lifeless end that was so flawed and forgettable. I feel if Gen actually wrote this from beginning to end it would've been a much better result. I'm dying to know what he really had planned or would've done. as everyone is saying it's like a wannabe of Code Geass that really couldn't do it. Finale Grade: D Series: C- |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
|
|||||||||
There was a year and half gap, so if the series was actually clever with its writing they could have implied that before the war the Military was coming up with a "super micro computer", and the issue of course being that tests were at best "mentally fatiguing to the user(ie not suitable for combat)" and at worst they turned the early testees comatose. Hell, if they want to make it go full circle have Slaine's supposed scientist Father be the person that pioneered the technology, then you could have a much more meta connection between Slaine and Inaho beyond there "circumstantial connection to the princess". And that is ANOTHER thing that got thrown to the winds is Slaine's father supposedly being an important researcher on Aldnoah Tech. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
_Cyphon_
 Posts: 996 |
|
|||||||||
Yes, THANK YOU. I have been making this point since the middle of the show! Absolutely nobody ever dies on the "good guys" side! Load of BS if you ask me.
Plot holes. Only explanation. Or stupidity on the Terrans side.
I got the feeling of Aldnoah.Zero trying to become the next Code Geass a while ago too. You can tell from how it attempted to leave all its episodes on cliffhangers. spoiler[I found Slaine's end to be related too, as the reporter lady said something similar to, "It was because of Slaine's death that Earth and Vers are able to reach peace." ] But, what a shame, Aldnoah, you will never rise up to the level of the #1 mecha show of all time.
More plot holes. 
Dude, they were fighting a war where if they lost they would have a chance of being enslaved by Vers. No matter how underdeveloped it was, the logical thing would have been to give it to volunteer soldiers who were willing to go through the surgery. This is no time to be worrying about the side effects, because if you can't last longer than a high school student then you should quit the army. In regards to the last episode, I was a little surprised to be honest. Just when I thought Slaine had some way of retaliating after Asseylum's declaration, he surrendered and tried to kill himself. I have the say that this is probably the best animated episode in this whole series. The battle scenes were awesome. I was a little bit unsatisfied with Slaine's treatment, but then again, I didn't like spoiler[Lelouche's ending either], so you win some you lose some. Overall, Aldnoah.Zero wasn't too terrible of a series. B would be my opinion. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18182 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
|
|||||||||
You must be joking. (On which show you're referring to as #1, I mean.) Frankly, I don't see the overwhelming CG allusions that several others have commented on (and I have seen all of CG). AZ has some of the sensationalistic spirit of CG, but that's about it, and that's hardly exclusive to CG. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
|
|||||||||
|
I think the CG allusions are in the same vein that we had in the 90s. RahXephon felt like an Eva copy, Fafner felt like a RahXephon copy. CG allusions make sense in the same way that CG was a Gundam Wing copy. A lot of the mecha shows in the past year or two (Valvrave, Buddy Complex) seem to really want the two male leads to angst all over one another in that same sense.
To me the show was a bunch of people sitting around recounting things they liked, and everyone got a turn to introduce ideas but never finish them. The ship's cool catapult arm...oh well. That's a nice use of Aldnoah. I guess. One use of Aldnoah sees the future, one deflects all attacks by altering reality, or whatever the first enemy had form the first episodes. One machine clones itself at the quantum level. The ship get's to power an arm. The Deucalion is not going down in anime history as a well liked famous ship. The crew and capabilities will not put it on anyone's collector shelf. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group