Aldnoah.Zero - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[Kairin]

This thread is to be used for discussing the entire episodes of Aldnoah.Zero ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive footage etc.

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:

• General impression of the series.
• Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
• Thoughts about the animation quality.
• Characters/Character Design
• Voice Acting
• Which kind of footage (Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive) you feel you'd really like to see.
• What the show meant to you.
• What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Soundtrack: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Enjoyment: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun

[MartianMage]

I was debating with myself if the show was a 8 or 9 for me but in the end I decided to give it an 8 for very good. Overall the whole show was a great package for me that gave me lots of entertainment each week but admittedly there are some minor issues that I did find that kept me from giving it a 9.

[lubczyk]

Felt like a lot happened, but at the same time nothing happened.

Season 1 felt like a bunch of filler bookended by meaningful episodes.

Season 2 felt like a retread of the 1st, where the middle part of the show is just filler so to delay the inevitable Inaho vs. Slaine confrontation. Really, the whole Mars Palace Intrigue subplot just dragged for half of the 2nd season. Keeping Asseylum in a coma and then the audacity of giving her amnesia. I knew at that point show wouldn't go anywhere and was limping until the end.

What was Slaine's objective? I don't know. Not even the writers knew. He switched personalities depending on where the plot needed to go. Same with Asseylum and Klancain.

It's like the writers took the plot outline, wrote a series of twists and just filled in the blanks inbetween.

[zalem]

Gave it a three. Though maybe I am being harsh and should give it a 4. It doesn't deserve anything higher than that though. Horrible characters all around. Seriously, if the entire cast died I wouldn't have given a damn. The plot definitely could have been much better. Music wasn't bad though. I'll give it that at least.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

After watching the entirety of the second season, I can say that the main fault of this series is taking itself (and begging the audience to take it) seriously. It actually backfired on them by highlighting the weaknesses in the narrative and characters even more. Had this show didn’t take itself seriously and just go gung-ho with the craziness and stupidity like Valvrave or Aquarion, it will be a lot more enjoyable. Instead, they insist on applying the “realism” as much as they can while throwing some over-the-top elements which will sit nicely in a Super-robot shows. I do admire their effort to make an anime about "Real-Robot vs. Super Robot", but unfortunately they didn’t manage to reach that elusive balance between the two subgenres just like how Captain Earth fell flat on its face some seasons ago.

I’m gonna ago ahead and say this, M3 is even better written than Aldnoah. The story is not convoluted just for the sake of it, 95% of the problems and questions presented are answered and resolved well in the final episode, the majority of character’s actions makes more sense given their background, no saturday-morning-cartoon villains who are evil just for being evil. Yes, it’s gloomy and drab (which is not too far off from Shin Sekai Yori) but I’d take that any day over a mecha series that is confused in its approach method between silly and “real”. Gundam AGE made the similar mistake by making itself confused between being “gritty” and “kiddy” and I hate it for that.

Also, when your MC is even more detached than Heero Yuy, Sosuke Sagara, or L-Elf without him going through a hellish training as a killing-machine nor any “special” experience or illness mentioned whatsoever just the “cool factor”, you know you have a writing problem. Also, I frikkin love Inaho's strategies & tactics against the Mars Kats, but I don't appreciate it when it achieved by dumbing down the more-experienced soldiers and reduced them into brainless drones. I mean, some of those soldiers even forgot (or worse, didn't know how) to use smoke grenades to cover themselves before Inaho did it for them (using the same rifle they had) against the three Mars Kats. How stupid could they be?

[Craxuan]

Animation Quality: 9
Voice Actors: 9
Script: 6
Soundtrack: 8
Editing: 9
Enjoyment: 7
Emotional Involvement: 2

Overall rating: 6/10.

This is a strange anime. On one hand, it has some of the best visuals, editing and animations I've ever seen. Even the music and soundtracks are top notch, the voice acting is great and never off, and as an odd experience I enjoyed Rayet far more than I should have given her lack of any real involvement or screen time.

On the other hand, the plot progressed too quickly. There are too many thing happening serially that no one theme was ever explored deep enough to be relevant. Season 2 especially lacked in productive pacing, because although the pacing itself is good and it does some good exploration, there's just... nothing to be explored. There's no effective exploration, so to speak. Personally I find it ironic - between a happy family and a sad family, which exploration do you think will yield a more 'interesting' story? It usually is the sad one. You can do the same amount of exploration for both, but unless there's something specially unique with the happy family, seeing people suffer always makes for a more entertaining experience, because even their lack of uniqueness can turn into a singularity itself.

Which comes to emotional involvement. I gave it a 2 because I seriously felt more in say, Akatsuki's development episode (Log Horizon Season 2) or the Raid Boss ones (also LH S2) than, well, ever in Aldnoah Zero. E1S1 and its ending is the ONLY episodes that scored some kind of emotional experience for me, and they are not Season 2 and thus not included in this evaluation.

They should've killed either the Seylum, Inaho, or both during Season 1. Then they'd have an excuse to focus on the remaining crew like Rayet as the new protagonist and go from there, which is at least in my opinion sounds absolutely entertaining to explore. One thing many people got right about Aldnoah Zero is that the main characters (all 3 of them) are too perfect, and in Season 2 literally none of them could do no wrong or make a lapse in judgement.

[serenade_beta]

Goes to show that great animation doesn't mean much if everything else sucks.
I didn't expect that much after they pulled the "We are actually alive!" thing, but seriously, that ending was seriously bad.

First of all, it wasn't great in the first place when Inaho STILL solves EVERY single problem. What's more, now he has this magical super-hi-tech AI-eye (pun?) to help him be even more all-solving.
On top of that, he says he isn't special. Seriously? Humble became humble.

Marito... That useless guy from season 1? Practically no follow-up on his trauma nor did he play that great of a role (because of INAHO), but then again, better than seeing him go through another flashback for the nth time.

Introducing a new character with only a few episodes left? And for some reason, he marries the heroine of the story?
The guys fighting each other despite no longer any reason? No real ending to the Princess' relationship with the guys?
Saving Slain by putting him in jail forever?
WWWWWWWWWHAT?!

5/10
It was interesting sometimes... If you take out pieces by pieces and forget about the ending

[zalem]

That's exactly my huge issue with Inaho. He is too perfect. And everyone is just plain dumb compared to him. I'm supposed to really believe that this random kid is this elite person and that not one damn person comes close to him and his strategies? Not one? Really? He didn't have ANY real challenge this entire series. Tharsis was the closest thing and even that wasn't much of a challenge. It makes the series really anti-climactic when you have this super hero with the perfect strategies and then he gets an eyeball upgrade and becomes even more OP. I mean come on, they could have thrown in a few instances where his strategies failed miserably or gave him a real opponent at his level to give him a challenge. On top of that add the fact that a paper bag has more personality than him. He's just very boring to me.

The princess was a literal damsel in distress, so I don't think much of her. And Slaine....god Slaine. Suddenly goes from goody, goody soldier in love with princess to "omg must kill everyone for PEACE...for hime of course". It's a dumb plan and he's a terrible villain and a huge reason why the second half was awful. You need an engaging and interesting villain and he is just not that.

[justinstrife]

Inaho was about the only character who truly kept me interested in this series. I gave up on the rest to be honest. I just wanted to see what he would do to each situation that came up. I dont need to see a main character struggle all the time, or have to grow. Sometimes I like to see them simply kick ass from start to finish.

[zalem]

Originally Posted by justinstrife

Inaho was about the only character who truly kept me interested in this series. I gave up on the rest to be honest. I just wanted to see what he would do to each situation that came up. I dont need to see a main character struggle all the time, or have to grow. Sometimes I like to see them simply kick ass from start to finish.

I could possibly forgive him for being Mr. Perfect if at the very least he had an interesting background and personality. But he doesn't, so he just never appealed to me.

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by zalem

I could possibly forgive him for being Mr. Perfect if at the very least he had an interesting background and personality. But he doesn't, so he just never appealed to me.

But he liked egg and shit.

I had lot of problem with this show. Terrible and boring characters, forced relationship, bad plot, and etc. And cause I don't want to write long essay I am gonna just talk about one thing that really bugged me.

I hated the martian mech and Vers military. They have to be the dumbest and the most worthless military I have ever seen, alongside is the earth military. This war did not feel like a war. I do understand they tried to go a super robot on the martian mech, but it just failed on all level.
Second thing, the earth forces mech were so boring. They all looked like rip off of Arbalest, so boring. No special mech aside from Inaho, which was orange, whoop de doo.

Again, a really bad show with wasted potential.
At least the music is good.

[MartianMage]

Personally I don't really get the complaints about Inaho being better than everyone... so you have a main character that's better than everyone... is that really so bad?

He didn't get any challenge? Vlad almost killed him. Femianne almost killed him. Dioscuria certainly challenged him the first time around and would have died the 2nd time if Inko didn't follow him. The trio was certainly challenging. There are very few fights where Inaho did all the job by himself. Heck even against that laser kat all he did was spot...

And complaining about no one else coming up with his unorthodox strategies that usually involves uncommon science? They are unorthodox for a reason... did anyone here honestly came up with the same ideas as Inaho? Did anyone complain when Lelouch saved the black knights submarine with his knowledge of science when they have scientists on board the sub?

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by MartianMage

Personally I don't really get the complaints about Inaho being better than everyone...

Well, if you genuinely want to understand the reasons of our criticism on Inaho, and not just looking for arguments, I'll help you understand.

Originally Posted by MartianMage

so you have a main character that's better than everyone... is that really so bad?

Not bad if he has a proper background that supported him being such a genius soldier in war and tactics (see L-Elf, Sosuke Sagara, Heero Yuy, etc). But what we get so far is that he’s just a normal student raised normally which makes it really hard to get behind for many people who watch the show.

Originally Posted by MartianMage

He didn't get any challenge? Vlad almost killed him. Femianne almost killed him. Dioscuria certainly challenged him the first time around and would have died the 2nd time if Inko didn't follow him. The trio was certainly challenging. There are very few fights where Inaho did all the job by himself. Heck even against that laser kat all he did was spot...

Those are one-off threats and challenges. Every hero in action anime has those moments, but doesn’t mean they have equal nemesis. There’s no one on the opposite side to quite match Inaho’s wit (see Yagami Light vs L, Sai & Hikaru vs Toya Akira, Lelouch vs Schneizel, Sosuke vs Gauron, Heero Yuy vs Zechs, L-Elf vs Cain, heck even Sherlock Holmes’ story got really good when he’s against an equally-genius James Moriarty). And please don’t say that Inaho’s equal enemy is Slaine. He is obviously not.

Originally Posted by MartianMage

And complaining about no one else coming up with his unorthodox strategies that usually involves uncommon science? They are unorthodox for a reason... did anyone here honestly came up with the same ideas as Inaho?

Him being the sole genius in the entire Earth miltary is one thing (which is already hard to believe) but other senior soldiers being dumb is just insulting our intelligence. Below is one example out of many:

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

some of those soldiers even forgot (or worse, didn't know how) to use smoke grenades to cover themselves before Inaho did it for them (using the same rifle they had) against the three Mars Kats. How stupid could they be?

[MartianMage]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Not bad if he has a proper background that supported him being such a genius soldier in war and tactics (see L-Elf, Sosuke Sagara, Heero Yuy, etc). But what we get so far is that he’s just a normal student raised normally which makes it really hard to get behind for many people who watch the show.

I don't see why it is needed at all. Or are you saying we can't have natural geniuses for MCs now.

Those are one-off threats and challenges. Every hero in action anime has those moments, but doesn’t mean they have equal nemesis. There’s no one on the opposite side to quite match Inaho’s wit (see Yagami Light vs L, Sai & Hikaru vs Toya Akira, Lelouch vs Schneizel, Sosuke vs Gauron, Heero Yuy vs Zechs, L-Elf vs Cain, heck even Sherlock Holmes’ story got really good when he’s against an equally-genius James Moriarty). And please don’t say that Inaho’s equal enemy is Slaine. He is obviously not.

And this is supposed to be a problem? It's not a requirement at all that the difficulties a hero has to overcome has to be against a specific person. Why can't it be simply be the difference in terms of military strength?

Him being the sole genius in the entire Earth miltary is one thing (which is already hard to believe) but other senior soldiers being dumb is just insulting our intelligence. Below is one example out of many:

His genius comes from his superior knowledge of science. Something that most field grunts don't have a good grasp on. Not like Marito and the other soldiers can't keep with him when it comes to actual piloting. The takedown of the laser kat... Magbaredge was responsible mostly for that. Also as Marito have explained early on... pretty much very few soldiers have actual experience since they have mostly died from the last interplanetarry war. The new batch of soldiers have no experience at all that's why a lot of them don't even know the sheer difference in military strength.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by MartianMage

I don't see why it is needed at all. Or are you saying we can't have natural geniuses for MCs now.

Do you need proper background for genius MC to make your story? Obviously not. But you need it for better narrative. Whether or not you think the story already good without it is personal opinion.

Those other characters I mentioned are natural geniuses too. But they are able to top other soldiers’ skills due to rigorous training, not because other soldiers being incompetent. Remember that genius in theory (book smart) doesn’t equal real life skill (street smart). In this case, Inaho's military skills is not only equal to the more-experienced soldiers, he (far) surpassed it.

Originally Posted by MartianMage

And this is supposed to be a problem? It's not a requirement at all that the difficulties a hero has to overcome has to be against a specific person. Why can't it be simply be the difference in terms of military strength?

Same as my previous reply. Not really a problem if you want an average story (note that I vote for average in this thread). But if you want a better war story that focus on rivalry, having equal nemesis for your MC is one way to do it.

Originally Posted by MartianMage

His genius comes from his superior knowledge of science. Something that most field grunts don't have a good grasp on. Not like Marito and the other soldiers can't keep with him when it comes to actual piloting. The takedown of the laser kat... Magbaredge was responsible mostly for that. Also as Marito have explained early on... pretty much very few soldiers have actual experience since they have mostly died from the last interplanetarry war. The new batch of soldiers have no experience at all that's why a lot of them don't even know the sheer difference in military strength.

You don’t have to be a genius soldier (in fact, you don’t have to be a soldier at all) to know that the function of a smoke grenade is to cover yourself.

____________________________________
And I think I’m done explaining myself on the reasons many of us complaining about Inaho. If you argue further than this, I think you’re just looking for arguments instead of genuinely wanting to understand our reasons. And I had enough arguments for this show.

[MartianMage]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Do you need proper background for genius MC to make your story? Obviously not. But you need it for better narrative. Whether or not you think the story already good without it is personal opinion.

Those other characters I mentioned are natural geniuses too. But they are able to top other soldiers’ skills due to rigorous training, not because other soldiers being incompetent. Remember that genius in theory (book smart) doesn’t equal real life skill (street smart). In this case, Inaho's military skills is not only equal the more-experienced soldiers, he (far) surpassed it.

I honestly do not see how (far) he supposedly surpassed the others in terms of skill when a lot of his take downs revolves around uncommon science. This isn't a series where we see Inaho dodge an Itano circus.

Same as my previous reply. Not really a problem if you want an average story (note that I vote for average in this thread). But if you want a better war story that focus on rivalry, having equal nemesis for your MC is one way to do it.

And since when did having an equal nemesis = better story now?

You don’t have to be a genius soldier (in fact, you don’t have to be a soldier at all) to know that the function of a smoke grenade is to cover yourself.

So just 1 moment of panic... that just 1 single moment and they're all dumbasses now? Nevermind the instances where they destroy the Vers squadrons(which did happen a lot in the 2nd half)?

___________________________________
And I think I’m done explaining myself on the reasons many of us complaining about Inaho. If you argue further than this, I think you’re just looking for arguments intead of genuinely want to undertand our reasons. And I had enough arguments for this show.

It's because I really don't understand. The way some people complains about Inaho you'd think this was the first time where the MC was better than everyone. You'd think this was the first time the main character had no "rival" in the opposing side.

[00 raizer]

if i may convey my opinion is how inaho defeat the enemy's katapract is like playing game with using cheats code...you see,inaho fighting strategies is based on his analysis on the enemy's katapract abilities and then find it weaknesses...just like play a game with cheats code or walkthrough...even unskill player could win a game with using cheats...for the senior soldier,they could have proper skill in piloting but it still not enough to overcome the enemy katapract abilities..well,they never escaped or survive from the battle which make they never have the data about the martian katapract abilities ...that why they cannot counter martian katapract(this fact implied for season 1 only)...

[nooneagain]

6/10 for me...I understand all the complaints about Inaho...I don't really mind, although I agree with them, but still he's my fave character in the show.

[azurestratos]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Do you need proper background for genius MC to make your story? Obviously not. But you need it for better narrative. Whether or not you think the story already good without it is personal opinion.

Those other characters I mentioned are natural geniuses too. But they are able to top other soldiers’ skills due to rigorous training, not because other soldiers being incompetent. Remember that genius in theory (book smart) doesn’t equal real life skill (street smart). In this case, Inaho's military skills is not only equal to the more-experienced soldiers, he (far) surpassed it.

The Earth military have no experience fighting Vers. This was covered by Marito in episode 5. Marito is the only known Terran survivor of last war. Everything else was lost in the war, and Earth's only real info of Vers fighting capability is from Tanegashima report, which they kept secret from all soldiers.

Some people are more adaptable and smarter than others. Inaho adapted better and faster to fighting Vers. He's younger, more open minded, and top of his class in both academic and military training. This was shown in episode 1.

Equal match for Inaho? Sure Inaho is smarter, but Vers side have other advantages to balance out. The Vers have unsurpassed technology. Saazbaum have influence and cunning planner, his influence on Slaine brought downfall of Inaho in Season1. Slaine also inherited Saazbaum's skill in Season 2. He manage to keep Inaho at bay with Tharsis, despite Inaho's cyborg eye. He blew up Trident Base with cunning planning and expert piloting of Tharsis, no one in Terran and even Inaho saw that coming, thus Slaine singlehandedly destroyed Earth's forward base which the combined forces of Vers could not do. Slaine played Inaho to kill Saazbaum for him, which allowed Slaine to usurp the title and rise up as Count. Slaine played the Princesses, that even after he got exposed as a liar, the 2 princesses still loved him, one asking Inaho to save the life of his nemesis, and the other princess willingly would follow Slaine to his death.

Let's face it, all anime villains are hateful characters while the hero is super likable. Tell me any mecha villain like Slaine who have advantage of being super likable, that even the hero Inaho in all his OPness could not kill Slaine, because Slaine got the sympathy from the main love interest. Inaho does not have that advantage. Even fans like Slaine, while most of the antagonist you listed above a hateful characters everyone don't mind seeing them fail.

Also your mistake was thinking Inaho was just a normal schoolboy. While since episode 1 they clearly showed there is nothing normal about him.

[Hidetoshi Nakata]

Originally Posted by azurestratos

Let's face it, all anime villains are hateful characters while the hero is super likable. Tell me any mecha villain like Slaine who have advantage of being super likable, that even the hero Inaho in all his OPness could not kill Slaine, because Slaine got the sympathy from the main love interest. Inaho does not have that advantage. Even fans like Slaine, while most of the antagonist you listed above a hateful characters everyone don't mind seeing them fail.

you're confusing things.
This antagonist, sympathetic villain that you describe, that is not focused on battles and on action, but is focused on the drama and slice of life, is the typical villain found in fairy tales and shoujo manga, this is the reason why you not find villains with these characteristics in anime mecha.
Villain in anime mecha have other characteristic.
You can find hundreds of villains with the characteristics of Slaine, in shojo manga and fairy tale.
But it's very rare you find an antagonist and villain within the mecha genre that has not its focus in the battles and in the action.
My favorite antagonist and villain within the Mecha genre is Char Aznable.