Aldnoah.Zero is an original anime of the mecha genre. The first season is twelve episodes long, with its creation involving Gen Urobuchi (of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero fame) and animated by A-1 Pictures (Sword Art Online, Kaguya-sama etc). The anime takes place in a world where ancient ruins were found on the moon. There was ancient technology that allowed the transportation and terraforming of Mars into a habitable planet. Over the years, the Mars colony separated itself, with its own nobility, culture and technology. After the destruction of the moon and the transportation device, the Vers Empire of Mars who were left behind, continues to wage war against Earth.
Focusing on Inaho, a high school student in Tokyo, he goes to check out the parade where the Princess of Vers, Asseylum, is visiting for peace talks. As expected where tensions are high, she is assassinated and this is the excuse Mars needed to throw away the fragile truce and initiate a full assault. In the ensuing chaos, this is where we see the gigantic different in power. Whereas Earth has conventional weapons like guns and missiles, they also have giant mecha that wields these weapons. They’re nimble and look cool of course, but feels over-designed compared to tanks and the like.
However, Mars also has mecha and the technology known as Aldnoah. Aldnoah basically allows all the weaponry that Earth has to have no effect on Mars’ units. The difference in power is staggering, and Mars destroys whatever Earth throws at them in its defence with no issues. It’s to the point where it can be sickening to watch because there is no point. It doesn’t help that the Mars characters are portrayed as cruel and arrogant. All this happens within the first two episodes and it sets up the tone nicely, coupled with a strong soundtrack, it can lead to some epic moments in those early episodes.
It becomes all the more satisfying when Inaho gets shocked by the reality of the situation. He then calmly analyses the enemy’s strength and deduces its potential weaknesses. When he puts that into effect, utilizing great teamwork with his other schoolmates, you can’t help but grin at Earthern’s victory over the seemingly impossible Mars mechas. The best part is how it was all done logically, with limited last limit powers that were called upon “just because”.
Unfortunately though, in order to show off Inaho at his best, all the other characters, even the soldiers who are battle hardened and has years of experience, are useless. Those soldiers cower in fear and die without any sort of fight whenever the Mars’ mechas attack. Sure, Mars may seem invincible, but as Inaho has shown again and again, there are ways to exploit their weaknesses. It just doesn’t feel right when all of the soldiers are like this, and it’s up to Inaho to save the day with his (admittedly) impressive tactics. It would have been better to have several soldiers stand firm and provide backup instead.
The anime has a political undertone, as we see that Mars isn’t quite as united as they had first seem. The physical separation of the Emperor and the Knights near Earth creates a divide, which the Knights manipulate to their objectives. This dynamics makes the plot take on interesting twists and turns although you can’t help but also see it as a parallel to the racism and ambitions of people in reality.
There is another character who gets almost as much screentime as Inaho, and that is Slaine, who is someone from Earth who ended up living under the Vers Knights. He is close to the Princess and so undoubtful is very affected by her assassination. The problem is that his role in the plot is purely to show what the Vers Knights are doing and how they are reacting. It is through that viewpoint that we learn more about the assassination and where each Knight’s loyalty lies. Unfortunately, this does mean that you don’t actually feel like you know where the story with Slaine is going, and that makes him a blander character.
The second half of the season pushes things into full swing. It hits you with heavier events, designed to shock you. It does succeed as you would not have expected the events that occurred, especially the season finale. On the other hand, you kind of expect that the characters would manage to pull themselves out of that hopeless situation given… that there is another season and they are the protagonists after all. There is also the constant allusion to reality with the reason for the war in-universe, given that people in power drive up hate and jealously at another country / race in order to divert attention, which results in war.
Overall, the first season of Aldnoah.Zero is strong. It has an interesting premise, and while the mecha element feels underwhelming at times as it does not use it to its full advantage (probably due to the awkward 3D models that looks out of place against everything else), the story elements and direction is great. The music suits the tone the anime was going for, with some really good pieces. Instead of having a protagonist and pointing them to fight against the enemy, we get some heavier and more thought-provoking themes. It’s also much more satisfying when we get an underdog that beats their overpowered opponent via analysis and strategy, rather than luck or obtaining some crazy power out of nowhere.
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