Aldnoah.Zero - Character Discussion - Inaho Kaizuka

[Sixth]

Originally Posted by Dr. Dahm

To me the only interesting path they could possibly go with this character is to demonstrate how his lack of empathy and ability to relate with pretty much any other character besides maybe his sister who basically does all the emoting for him somehow presents the biggest challenge the character faces. I'm sure they could contrive some sort of scenario for this to happen in the second season where he'll almost certainly be shown to be alive and well. It'd certainly be more interesting than just seeing him own more gimmicky super robot mechs in a trainer unit for the nth time which pretty much felt like his sole contribution to ongoing events. Well that and the emergency CPR that nobody else on the ship apparently knew how to perform properly.

It'd just be nice to see your main character exhibit something resembling a struggle in a narrative that the promotional material billed as being about rising up against oppression and trying to survive against impossible odds and situations. Like pretty much every other character is shown to struggle with some personal crisis in all of this no matter how small, contrived or trivial except for the main male character. It's really just quite baffling in all honesty, like I've legitimately never seen anything like this and I don't mean that in a good thing so much as it just strikes me as ill-conceived.

In other word, you want Inaho to acts like Slaine? Wow.....

[Lhklan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Dahm

To me the only interesting path they could possibly go with this character is to demonstrate how his lack of empathy and ability to relate with pretty much any other character besides maybe his sister who basically does all the emoting for him somehow presents the biggest challenge the character faces. I'm sure they could contrive some sort of scenario for this to happen in the second season where he'll almost certainly be shown to be alive and well. It'd certainly be more interesting than just seeing him own more gimmicky super robot mechs in a trainer unit for the nth time which pretty much felt like his sole contribution to ongoing events. Well that and the emergency CPR that nobody else on the ship apparently knew how to perform properly.

Uh, no. I'm pretty sure that Inaho does have empathy and can relate to other. What he lack is the proper way to express it. His face is almost carved from stone - there are differences, but you'll have to notice it

And to me he already sort of have a personal crisis, it's just not apparent: What's more important to him, The Princess or Earth. Right now the two of them compliment one another - he can do both - but there's a time that it might becomes contradictory - Focus on the Princess may lead to Earth in more danger or vice versa.

[DevilHighDxD]

Inaho is still on the Newtype poll ranking, currently at 9 after UBW aired.

[HtwoN]

Originally Posted by DevilHighDxD

Inaho is still on the Newtype poll ranking, currently at 9 after UBW aired.

Yep, after so many claims that Slaine is more popular...

[DevilHighDxD]

Originally Posted by HtwoN

Yep, after so many claims that Slaine is more popular...

Asseylum has it worst, she was dropped from the list though not surprising with the addition of Rin and Saber as well as adding in the old veterans of SAO.

[Sixth]

Originally Posted by DevilHighDxD

Inaho is still on the Newtype poll ranking, currently at 9 after UBW aired.

Slaine: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! *shot Inaho again and again and again and again*

[Ultraviolet X]

Originally Posted by Lhklan

They're in a war, with Inaho knowing that one of the biggest target is with them. It's paranoia fuel right there: There is always a chance that they get attack the moment they let their guard down, which is why Inaho focused on other things instead of doubts and worries - two things that could be fatal in battle.

He never experienced before, but everyone was training for it. Inaho just adapted to it faster than the other. Beside,

On the ship is in battle? And how can he "keep himself busy" he would have had some free moments to himself. If the Lt. managed to find himself some time to spare, why couldn’t he? He’s a kind of normal teenager, with no first-hand experience in this area, not a child super soldier; I expect it or something along those lines to be there. In any case, if he isn't remotely bothered by his situation, I won't be. If he was paranoid because of the Princess, it should have been shown in some form, but it wasn’t. Inaho was calm and composed.

Originally Posted by Lhklan

But the "big close up of this face with terrified expression" would break his character. He's supposed to be a relatively expressionless character, so having him outright terrified like that is not in Inaho's character. Besides, there are clues to his mood and feelings - not much, but still there.

Meh, I agreed to that since at the time I wasn’t much interested into going into detail there and that was roughly the gist of things, even if I didn't agree with some of the example given. What I was getting at and was more or less covered is that I wanted to see some clear moments when his composure was broken, where you can see some emotion. So he doesn't come off as a blank self-insert. Unless they wanted a blank self-insert. In which case no wonder I don't give a damn. And on that matter, I want to know the reason why he’s expressionless, I don’t mind that he’s not a super soldier or something, but I do expect there to have some kind of a reason for his blank expression. That missile incident was weird.

Facial expressions aren’t the only things that convey emotion; pauses, stammering, clenched fist, shaking hand, raised voice, gasps, storming around, pacing, nightmares, being speechless etc etc can be used as well. Dialogues between characters and inner monologues to let the audience know what’s going on in there mind. I don’t recall seeing much of that.

Call it nit-picking if you want, I wanted to see him grieve. It would be nice to see him being an actual person, and seeing how he deals with his grief gives me insight into his character. Instead, after Trillram was dealt with, he dropped the subject from his mind. He literally watched his friend die, I would expect that to have some kind of a lasting impact on anyone, Inaho however........just forgot not even 2 days later, and it didn't have any kind of a lasting impact. That tells me that he doesn't care about anyone but Yuki which I suspect was not what was in mind given how badly the story was going out of its way to make Inaho look good. By the time the first cour ended, I couldn’t think of him as anything but a robot, even though I can see the some of these minute things. Optimus Prime in transformers is far more engaging to watch, and he’s an actual robot.

Originally Posted by Lhklan

And besides, just because it didn't feel like it was outside his comfort zone doesn't mean that it is. Inaho outright said that he's terrified before the fight with Trilliam, yet his face remains the same.

I got the feeling that he was outside his comfort zone there because it showed him unable to sleep, something I’d extend to Calm and Inko. And there’s the plus that he actually said what’s on his mind to Inko. Reason I don’t kick up a big fuss that that scene was subdued, was because he chose to take action against Trillram, and he has a plan. Basically, he has some degree of control and choice in that situation.

Originally Posted by karice67

When have they been relatively safe? After Okisuke's death, they had to deal with Trilliam (and they apparently planned that for a day or two). The first fight against Vlad took place just a few hours after they'd defeated Trillram, and by then he had the princess's secret to worry about as well, especially since his own friends were saying that they wanted to avenge Okisuke and all the other people who'd been killed. Furthermore, since then, the threat of another battle has always been hanging over their head, and that's why we always see Inaho studying or thinking about how he can protect everyone he cares about (episode 8, episode 10), because he doesn't want to "sit around and do nothing" and end up dying with regrets (episode 3). So I don't really buy that side of your argument.

On the landing craft and the base. On the Wadatsumi. Deucalion. He didn’t know Mecha of the week would appear, did he. Funny how the Lt had time to fixate on his issues, but Inaho couldn’t find the time to do the same. And it’s because of all the things building up that I expect to see something. Or to toss in scenarios that clearly push him past what he can bear.

Him not wanting to “sit around and do nothing” and end up dying with regrets means nothing since the only reason he took action in ep 4 was because of the Princess. If that death had any kind of a lasting impact he would have immediately got into that mech instead of just watching until he saw the Princess and the Maid arguing. Ep 4 really annoyed me in that regard; I expected something due to watching his friend die, grief, anger, regret, something. Got nothing.

Originally Posted by karice67

As for the other side of it: 'when has emotion ever been rational'. As people have pointed out before, Inaho's not emotionless, he's just relatively expressionless. So if you're looking for what you think he should be like, I really don't see how you're going to find it.

I wanted to see moments where you can see some emotion or something going on other than watching Inaho defeating Mecha of the week that will help me to give a damn. Cause really, that’s the only purpose Inaho’s served so far. He’s not interesting; he’s either poorly thought out, horribly executed, or a deliberately created Marty Stu for people to self-insert onto.

Originally Posted by desrtsku

Then it's your problem if trying to figure him out isn't exactly your thing. Inaho is badly characterized overall, maybe on purpose, so you have to fill the missing parts by yourself using your own imagination. The Inaho profile I personally put together in my head is far from being an objective depiction of him, it's just how I wanted him to be based on the little we have. And the closer he appeared to be what I imagined the more I get attached to him. It's as simple as that.

If what you get doesn't feel human to you, then just imagine something that makes him to be more human ; then look at the screen and see if it still makes sense. It's not even difficult, if I try copypasting a "quiet perverted douchebag" element into Inaho's character profile, it would still make sense for more than half of his appearance the series (too bad it didn't happen). I had a lot more trouble (and less fun) getting something out of Texhnolyze's MC than this guy.

This I imagine is the central issue. Inaho failed to really engage me, and I loathe filling in bits and pieces, I expect it to be in the story in some fashion. Yea, I could see minute smiles and whatever else, but it’s not nearly enough.

Anyways, all that and what I’ve said scattered over the last 3(?) pages of this thread should make my position of the matter clear in regards to what I think about Inaho, I won’t harp anymore on this topic.

[Haak]

I’ve never understood why people think Inaho is supposed to be a self insert when the narrative is clearly suggesting the opposite. Inaho is obviously meant to be a foil for Slaine who is the real self insert – or rather a deconstruction of a self insert. Slaine is a childhood friend to a princess that’s enamoured with him and he has the single-minded love driven conviction that is grand, poetic and admirable. And the story spares no effort to ruin him for it, instead preferring the uncharismatic, pragmatic expressionless weirdo, in an ugly dirty mech that looks like it belongs on a construction site. Furthermore, the reason Inaho is expressionless is because he's supposed to be difficult for anyone to self insert themselves. He manages to defeat villians using his own wit none of us would be able to emulate, rather than having some sort of unique power bestowed upon him or having a lot of “guts” or conviction in general or having destiny on his side. The other thing is the wonderfully refreshing lack of any dramatic circumstances surrounding his expressionless personality that would usually be a source of drama in any other anime. He just is who he is because that's just his personality. He just happens to have the ability to think quick on his feet and plan ahead far better than the average person because that's his unique talent (rooted in his eccentric personality) and he's been placed under an extraordinary situation where his talents start shining. There really doesn't have to be any more reason than that. Sometimes it just happens. Out of the millions of soldiers getting killed someone will manage to survive and excel because they're able to. Like a single bacteria that survives a course of antibiotics because it happened mutated a resistance beforehand by pure chance, Inaho's talents are free from the sort of dramatised backgrounds apparent in other expressionless and smart male leads. Inaho is just an example of brutal natural selection at work who succeeds because he’s a unique eccentric.

And I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be interpreted that way. Now it’s unclear just how much Urobuchi was involved in Inaho’s character but this kind of thing has been done by Urobuchi before. Inaho bears some similarity to Tsunemori Akane in Psychopass who had the unique ability of having a crystal clear Psychopass regardless of whatever shit was thrown her way. Of course in that case it came across as more of an informed ability than here but Psychopass also had Makishima Shogo who was also quite explicitly treated as an anomaly that the system couldn't account for. That was of course the whole point of their characters: they were there to emphasise that there will always be individuals in the system that don't fit pre-conceived standards. Similarly neither of them where treated like self insert superheroes or supervillains but chance anomalies. That is essentially the main point the writers are making with Inaho.

And I don’t see why people believe he doesn't have emotions. By episode 3 we came to understand that he has the same emotions as everyone else but just doesn't express them. He also has worries and doubts and cares about his friends but just doesn't express it very well. Or rather, he expresses them but just in different ways. At the end of episode 2, you can see his body language how he couldn't tell Calm that their friend died and it spurred him into a resolve to fight against Marito's orders. This was emphasised when he was talking to his sister in the toilets as if he had come to some sort of resolve due to his friend’s death. You can also clearly see his fears and doubts when he's having his conversation with Inko the night before their operation. He's scared and desperately wants to do something instead of waiting for death. You could also see his satisfaction in defeating Trilliam for the sake of his dead friend when he landed the final blow. You could see in episode 4 how Inaho went into combat for the Princess's sake and how you could see it wasn't entirely due to any intellectual reasoning (The end of Episode 4 even confirmed that). You could tell how curt he was with Maggy when she reprimanded him for keeping the Princess’s identity a secret. You could tell that he attached a certain importance to the "dear friend" the princess kept telling him about in Episode 8. You could see him looking at a picture of his sister whilst she was arguing with him about the dangers of the final operation they were about to perform, in episode 11. And of course episode 12 was pretty much loaded with Inaho’s true emotions. The narrative even goes out of its why by using other characters to emphasise that he has emotions (Like how Inaho’s sister tell his friends how he’s “on cloud nine” whilst he was with the princess.). There is plenty of emotion to his actions and I've never had any trouble empathising with him because the narrative usually gives enough hints to tell us what he's thinking on the inside.

I also disagree that his expressionless personality inhibits tension in action scenes. It would do if it was just him on his own, but it never is. The story always makes effective use of secondary characters and makes them freak out around him in order to emphasise the danger Inaho is constantly facing, and since the story makes it clear early on that he holds the same turbulent emotions on the inside, there should be no difficulty in understanding that he’s going through the same thing inside his head despite seemingly making it look effortless.

In any case, I happen to think Inaho is very grounded, unconventional and overall a very well written character. Unfortunately he just happens to be in a crappy plot which also occasionally screws up his characterisation from time to time, but that's another issue.

[Cloudedmind]

Originally Posted by Haak

snip

All of this, so much. The change in Inaho's voice after his friend was killed and they decided to go after Trilliam. And then again his voice and overall demeanor as he was talking to Trilliam right before he took out his mech. And I really thought that him taking out his sister's picture to look at it right before their drop on Saazbaums castle and their overall conversation about the nature of war and why people fight, was really telling as to at least one of the reasons Inaho fights. He clearly cares about his sister and his friends, and they're a motivation for him. I've also never particular had a hard time understanding his mindset.

[Ophis]

Originally Posted by Haak

Huge wall of text

THIS, SO MUCH THIS!!

Finally someone who understands and share the same pov. There's no reason as to why Inaho is expressionless, it doesn't need a reason either. There are people who are like that, just accept it.

[karice67]

Originally Posted by Ultraviolet X

On the landing craft and the base. On the Wadatsumi. Deucalion. He didn’t know Mecha of the week would appear, did he. Funny how the Lt had time to fixate on his issues, but Inaho couldn’t find the time to do the same. And it’s because of all the things building up that I expect to see something. Or to toss in scenarios that clearly push him past what he can bear.

Simple: Marito can't get over his trauma, and that prevents him from thinking about anything else. Inaho didn't develop that trauma in the first place, so of course he's going to focus on the situation at hand. And I've already pointed out all the things that he had to think about.

Besides, you missed the few expressions of emotion that he made in response to Okisuke's death (see Haak's post).

The other things you want to see: that's simply not what Inaho is like.

Originally Posted by Ultraviolet X

He’s not interesting; he’s either poorly thought out, horribly executed, or a deliberately created Marty Stu for people to self-insert onto.

So no, Inaho's not "poorly thought out, horribly executed, or a deliberately created Marty Stu." By all accounts, everything you want to see is specifically what he's written not to be like. As for the Marty Stu bit, Haak said it all.

In other words, Inaho is just a character you don't like.

We get it: you don't like characters that don't let sadness, grief, despair etc affect them in a visible way. You, and several others on this forum, have made this point numerous times. Perhaps it'll be better for all of us if we all just accept this, rather than repeating the same circular discussion over and over again.

Originally Posted by Haak

In any case, I happen to think Inaho is very grounded, unconventional and overall a very well written character. Unfortunately he just happens to be in a crappy plot which also occasionally screws up his characterisation from time to time, but that's another issue.

You know, I disagree that his characterisation has been screwed up by the plot. It wasn't immediately obvious to me, but I did work out most of the controversial points (e.g. why he questioned Slaine straight after Asseylum revealed herself in episode 7) before some of the post series interviews confirmed them for me...

[Velsy]

I liked Inaho very much in this series. While I was looking forward to the legend he'd make. I feel kinda devastated with that tragic ending. His legend to be cut short. Was nice to have a little emotion type character as the lead. He ability to keep calm under pressure was nice.

So after I been thinking and thinking... I thought of something!! what if.....

What if Inaho was a vampire!! What a twist!
He'd shake that off like nothing right!? right He'd be back for sure! No bullet will keep him down!

Too much wishful thinking <.< Just no way to survive that execution shot otherwise <.<

[Der Langrisser]

Originally Posted by Velsy

I liked Inaho very much in this series. While I was looking forward to the legend he'd make. I feel kinda devastated with that tragic ending. His legend to be cut short. Was nice to have a little emotion type character as the lead. He ability to keep calm under pressure was nice.

So after I been thinking and thinking... I thought of something!! what if.....

What if Inaho was a vampire!! What a twist!
He'd shake that off like nothing right!? right He'd be back for sure! No bullet will keep him down!

Too much wishful thinking <.< Just no way to survive that execution shot otherwise <.<

Did you know this month promo art pretty much confirm Inaho is alive ?

[Sixth]

Originally Posted by Der Langrisser

Did you know this month promo art pretty much confirm Inaho is alive ?

Nah. According to "Inaho's fans", the reveal is simply a symbolical. Not a definitive proof. We, the simpleton obviously cannot fathom the greatness of true "Inaho's fans" deducation ability.

[SineMora]

Alive and with a cyborg eye and Aldnoah powers to boot... the first thing he does when he wakes up? beats up all Vers in conflicted areas of the world map then making his glorious appearance by introducing our first villain to his rifle... point blank range.

Can't wait to see Saucebum and Slain shit their pants to the glorious return of Orange.

Wait, Code Geass anyone? I didn't notice until tvtropes pointed out the "other Orange"...

[Mikethemaster]

I can see this happen when Sazzbaum see Orange again, he will shit his pants and tell Slaine to get his ass down here and leave his asseylum doll and kill Orange. I like Asseylum by the way.

[Marsala]

Originally Posted by noobita

Nah. According to "Inaho's fans", the reveal is simply a symbolical. Not a definitive proof. We, the simpleton obviously cannot fathom the greatness of true "Inaho's fans" deducation ability.

Well, it was actually symbolism, wasn't it? Inaho could never have been standing by himself by the crashed Deucalion in those clothes.

The other two key art were also symbolic. Slaine probably wasn't in a landing castle with Tharsis and Harklight, and (fake) Asseylum made her broadcasts in front of a regular Vers seal, not a black-and-red one.

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by Marsala

Well, it was actually symbolism, wasn't it? Inaho could never have been standing by himself by the crashed Deucalion in those clothes.

The other two key art were also symbolic. Slaine probably wasn't in a landing castle with Tharsis and Harklight, and (fake) Asseylum made her broadcasts in front of a regular Vers seal, not a black-and-red one.

There is a bit of difference between "the picture is symbolism" and "the picture is symbolism representing Inaho's will to fight being taken up by others - Inaho is dead", if you ask me.

[blewin]

wow, Inaho got a mechanical eye? does it have an in built calculator? Inaho's gonna totally rock in this season now that he's also learning to show emotions.

I'm disappointed that Slaine has been set up as the villain here. He's soooo gonna get into trouble when the princess wakes up and finds out what he's done.

[SineMora]

Originally Posted by blewin

wow, Inaho got a mechanical eye? does it have an in built calculator? Inaho's gonna totally rock in this season now that he's also learning to show emotions.

I'm disappointed that Slaine has been set up as the villain here. He's soooo gonna get into trouble when the princess wakes up and finds out what he's done.

It has... he can calculate mass and gravity now... (which he uses in the latest episode)

Inaho2.0 now comes with small talk function. albeit still awkward when conversing with him. He still ignores the feelings of others.

Note: Inaho2.0 can now perform emotions... though only small ones.