Aldnoah.Zero Review
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
With the Mars One mission being everywhere in the news lately the colonization of Mars has been an interest for various countries to set fourth on this unique frontier. Aldnoah Zero gives us a fictitious representation of what it’s like once the colonization of Mars becomes a reality. Of course this is a sci-fi anime and things are represented in forms that are anything but reality-based, but hey there’s nothing wrong with a little imagination (or a lot).
The first season of Aldnoah Zero follows the story of earthling, Inaho Kaizuka as he embarks on war with Earth against the Martians. The people of Earth are inferior to the people of Mars in terms of technology. It’s clear from watching the first episode that the people of Mars are far more advanced in technology than the people of Earth. The people of Mars have access to war machines, and human-automated transformers, so to say, for battle. These machines are fuelled by the bloodline of the people from the royal family of the Vers/Mars Empire- two of which are known to exist are the current Emperor Rayregalia Vers Rayvers and his granddaughter princess Asseylum Vers Allusia.
The animation of Aldnoah Zero is very close to perfection, one of the best animations I’ve seen in a while in the anime world - comparable to the Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Words animation, if not a lot better. Simply marvellous and is pure eye-candy. The music on the other hand holds up not to shabby against the animation, the OST was quite remarkable in itself. My favourite track is Keep on Keeping On, every time I hear his track I just think of Inaho kicking ass.
Now that being said, yes the story sounds interesting and yes the animation and sound is great but that’s about it for the positives for this anime. The execution of the plot was not done well and the war against Mars and Earth didn’t make much sense to me as well. To begin with this anime is about war, it would have been nice to see the plot talking about the economics, motivations, war-prep and things as such in the anime but sadly little to none of this was done. From the first episode it was laid out that Mars was envious of Earth, and princess Asseylum Vers Allusia had plans to make relations better with Earth, if so why would the martials of Mars continue with trying to start a war? That was one of the biggest problems I had, and was confused about.
The cast itself was not the brightest bunch as well. There are only a few worth talking about:
Now that being said, yes the story sounds interesting and yes the animation and sound is great but that’s about it for the positives for this anime. The execution of the plot was not done well and the war against Mars and Earth didn’t make much sense to me as well. To begin with this anime is about war, it would have been nice to see the plot talking about the economics, motivations, war-prep and things as such in the anime but sadly little to none of this was done. From the first episode it was laid out that Mars was envious of Earth, and princess Asseylum Vers Allusia had plans to make relations better with Earth, if so why would the martials of Mars continue with trying to start a war? That was one of the biggest problems I had, and was confused about.
The cast itself was not the brightest bunch as well. There are only a few worth talking about:
Inaho Kaizuka: Probably my favourite character throughout the series. He’s the iron fist that leads Earth to many victories even though they’re at a disadvantage with Mars in terms of technology. However, he’s very boring - no personality at all.
Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia: Great character design, she’s one of the few with common sense in the whole anime. Very kind and gentle, and has no malicious goals against Earth.
Slaine Troyard: This guy was the one that had my blood boiling with every episode and was probably the reason why most people continued watching this anime. He’s from Earth but he fights for Mars (for a specific reason). His intent and goals were not the brightest, slightly confusing and I enjoyed every time when Inaho and this guy fought that it never turned out great for him, not even once.
Overall I really enjoyed this anime, funny since I just trashed it during half of this review. When I first watched this anime I thought to myself, “wow this is very good.” However after some critical thinking, I thought that Aldnoah Zero could have put some more thought into it. And to be honest, I would recommend this to anyone quite frankly, the animation is just purely beautiful but if you don’t think about analyzing the plot in too much depth, the story is very interesting to follow. Just a heads up, I didn’t get hooked to this anime until episode 8 or 9; so it might take a while to really get into it.
Anyways, thanks for reading if you make it up to this far. Please leave a comment in the comment section below to tell me your thoughts about this anime! Thanks again.
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