Aldnoah.Zero - generic discussion thread

[Irenesharda]

Originally Posted by Moe Connection

What do you mean by she doesn't look like her father?We haven't even had a look at what her father appears like.Besides, parents look different to their children.Apart from that, don't you mean grandfather? Her father died fifteen years ago and her grandfather returned from retirement afterwards.

I think she was refering to Rayet, not the princess. Whose father we have seen in the past two episode. We were questioning if Rayet is Martian, Terran, or was she adopted. And as you say, she could just physically take after one parent more than the other.

Originally Posted by Arya

All that scene had too many hints and the princess was way too circumstantial about herself fate too make me thinks that Inaho didn't picked up what was going on there. Still he said " that's a novel hypothesis" like implying that he took her words like just an hypothesis. Sure if he got it he had to know she is the princess because she made clear that the princess is alive so where would she be if not with them?
In any case it would be more interesting if he got it, but know I'm starting to have some doubts, even considering we don't know yet what kind of logic Nao uses to compute the info he gets.

Inaho gives me the impression that he's book smart, but he's kind of clueless everywhere else. Such as when his sister asked why he didn't go out with the evacuation, and his answer is, "oh yeah, I guess I could have done that.". Or when everyone is talking about the princess and he's at the most important diplomat's visitation that their town has even had, and he's busy looking at the grocery ads.
We'll have to see as the show goes on though, whether or not he figured out the princess' identity, or all the clues flew right past him.

[Ziziphus]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I disagree. Some anime shows do manage to have fresh premises, intriguing concepts, and some originality to them.

And, in fact, Gen himself wrote such a fresh and intriguing character in Madoka Magica's Kyubey.

Some of my disappointment in this show is that Gen is said to be writing the first three episodes. Disappointment is a reflection on expectation levels, and I expect a lot of Gen, based on his excellent resume of anime works. He's definitely not delivering so far in Aldnoah.Zero, in my opinion. At this point, I'd honestly like to think he's not doing much actual writing for this, and he's just doing the bare minimum necessary to have his popular name attached to the project.

IIRC, Madoka Magica doesn't get interesting until ep 3. And we don't find our little furry ball fascinating until much later too. And that's a one-cour show. Aldnoah is split two-cour with only 2 episodes in, it has plenty of room to improve later. I think you should give the old man a slack.

On another note, I'm loving that OP, so much! Can't stop replaying it over and over again.

[Sheba]

The more worrying part is that he apparently wrote just the three first episodes. So I can speculate that he was mostly commisioned to write the pitch to grab people's attention with his name brand. In a "Your reputation precede you, so work your magic for the beginning and leave the rest to us" way.

If it is true, it would be a shame, because Saya no Uta, Madoka and Fate Zero showed us what he could do when he writes from A to Z.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Has the full of Heavenly Blue been released?

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Sheba

he was mostly commisioned to write the pitch to grab people's attention with his name brand. In a "Your reputation precede you, so work your magic for the beginning and leave the rest to us" way.

I'm pretty sure this is the case. And it's a good marketing strategy too. Just see how over-hyped this series has been just because his name is attached to the project.

[DevilHighDxD]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Has the full of Heavenly Blue been released?

Yes and it was pretty awesome.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

What's the single's name?
(it's a single right)

Heavenly Blue

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Martians, with the exception of the princess and her servant, are characterized as so hellbent on warmongering that even having something like the President of the UN farting loudly during a handshake of the princess would have made them go to war. With glee.

That's just how unsubtle they are portrayed.

Well....there's Rayet....

But yeah, unsubtle is understatement. They are all effectively caricatures or plain nuts

Originally Posted by DevilHighDxD

Yes and it was pretty awesome.

What's the single's name?

(it's a single right)

[Galacticichi]

Originally Posted by renuac

Except that Earth is a united federation in AZ (UFE - United Forces of Earth or something like that) so it does count as a single entity. What you suggest would be like declaring war on just Texas or Minnesota instead of on the US as a whole

(Not that the Martians would probably care either way.)

Okay so they are united. That changes everything .

[MeggieMay]

Real quick, no one noticed the Martian assassins either, so it's likely Rayet and the others are Martians of Japanese origin. It's also possible that if they were there for years, that Rayet's mom was with them or maybe her dad really didn't have anyone to leave her with and brought her with him when they went undercover. However, I'm with Irenesharda in thinking that if she was adopted/of Terran origin, that they'd not have had anything to do with her to begin with. It does leave a option that she's half Martian open but I have a feeling she's really a Martian.

[Irenesharda]

Originally Posted by MeggieMay

Real quick, no one noticed the Martian assassins either, so it's likely Rayet and the others are Martians of Japanese origin. It's also possible that if they were there for years, that Rayet's mom was with them or maybe her dad really didn't have anyone to leave her with and brought her with him when they went undercover. However, I'm with Irenesharda in thinking that if she was adopted/of Terran origin, that they'd not have had anything to do with her to begin with. It does leave a option that she's half Martian open but I have a feeling she's really a Martian.

I'll say, she's either half-Martian or full. The only reason that I'm thinking maybe half is because she's very respectful of her father, giving him the honorific of -sama, and that might indicate that she's been brought up to think of herself as slightly inferior because she's only half-Martian. But that's only a guess.

[Triple_R]

I have to give credit to Irenesharda, MeggieMay, and other people discussing the Martians over the last few pages... Your discussion on them certainly makes them seem more interesting to me than the anime content itself did.

Perhaps the key is the Princess. If she was to somehow make her presence known to everybody (Martian and terran alike), and reveal the dark truth behind her double's assassination, then that could create a great schism within the Martian ranks. It could add some good depth and diversity to the Martians as a whole.

It wouldn't excuse them for what they've done, but if, say, Cruhteo was to side with the Princess and go against the other Knights, that would make his character more interesting to me, and it could help lead to some nice character development and greater cast/plot complexity down the line (I can already imagine a smoothtalking Trillram pretending to go along with Cruhteo, with the thought of playing Starscream to Cruhteo's Megatron, if you catch my drift ). And I honestly could see Cruhteo siding with the Princess and against his fellow Knights, since he did seem pretty aghast at Saazbaum's hinting, back in Episode 1, that the Princess getting assassinated might be for the best.

One other thing is that I agree with Irenesharda on how it was good to see the Princess willing to get a bit physical in the hopes of ensuring her own safety. That may or may not have been the smartest course of action for her in this one specific instance, but either way, it shows a character with some degree of courage and agency. Those are two elements I like a lot in anime characters, as my sig should make clear.

[DMurphy]

I strongly suspect Inaho did figure out who the princess was. She wasn't exactly being subtle about it, and - okay, you don't say 'That's a novel hypothesis' if you don't believe someone, you just disagree, or say you don't believe them. It's a very evasive, and moreover very neutral, way of saying something, that suggests less 'not believing someone' and more 'having figured out what's going on and is playing along with this charade of pretending-that-the-lass-talking-about-the-princess-in-the-third-person-isn't-the-princess.'

Then again, it's Inaho. As other people have pointed out, he's not - gigantically smart in a lot of ways, and he is a bit weird.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

it shows a character with some degree of courage and agency. Those are two elements I like a lot in anime characters, as my sig should make clear.

Agency is what I long the most from female characters, because they usually have none at all in anime, especially mecha anime. As for the princess, going to Earth out of her own volition shows agency, but the true test for her character begins now. If she just follows Inaho (and/or Slaine) from now own then that's the end for her. It's up to the writer to give her a path of her own to follow. We'll see. I really wanted to drop this series now but I think I'll stay for a few more episodes just to see what happens after the three episodes mark.

[Gundam888]

It is likely earth forces secondary communication,s grid it is likely that USSR or Soviet union and American and EU and Chinese forces have it and other advance nations still have it so don,t count out earth federation out just yet and USSR or Soviet union is because this is alternate history.

[Shyni]

This is a minor thing, but Yuki somehow reminds me of Yuzuki from Wixoss.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Shyni

This is a minor thing, but Yuki somehow reminds me of Yuzuki from Wixoss.

That's a good pickup. I'll remember your post if Yuki ends up acting like a big brocon later on.

[Key Board]

The age of little sisters are over!

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Agency is what I long the most from female characters, because they usually have none at all in anime, especially mecha anime. As for the princess, going to Earth out of her own volition shows agency, but the true test for her character begins now. If she just follows Inaho (and/or Slaine) from now own then that's the end for her. It's up to the writer to give her a path of her own to follow. We'll see. I really wanted to drop this series now but I think I'll stay for a few more episodes just to see what happens after the three episodes mark.

That's why I hope she won't just be a motivation girl and/or a sacrifice just to develop one of the male characters

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

It wouldn't excuse them for what they've done, but if, say, Cruhteo was to side with the Princess and go against the other Knights, that would make his character more interesting to me, and it could help lead to some nice character development and greater cast/plot complexity down the line (I can already imagine a smoothtalking Trillram pretending to go along with Cruhteo, with the thought of playing Starscream to Cruhteo's Megatron, if you catch my drift ). And I honestly could see Cruhteo siding with the Princess and against his fellow Knights, since he did seem pretty aghast at Saazbaum's hinting, back in Episode 1, that the Princess getting assassinated might be for the best.

Like Orange in Lelouch, "my liege, right or wrong"? Though I wonder if he'd side with her against the Emperor, if it came to that?

Originally Posted by Irenesharda

He could have also been completely spineless and she took him by surprise. It's a risk, but she decided to play it safe.

So, next time I'm lost, I'll be "playing it safe" by slamming a passer-by into the ground to ask for directions?

And how do we know she can't out fight him? It's possible.

No, no, we now know she's a better fighter than he is. It's done. But before she attacked, she had no way to know, is my point.

And her pinning him could cause him to lie, but it could just as well cause him to tell the truth. Fear (from a normal person) can do both. Also, asking what an "evacuation" is, is like asking what the "sky" is. Most people would rarely lie for a question like that.

Being coerced is an excellent reason to be uncooperative. Especially if he makes the link between those lost foreigners and the genocidal madmen from Mars.

Sure she didn't have to pin him down, but in respect to the story and her character I'm glad they did. I showed she's no fragile flower, has no problem with getting physical, and she has a good head on her shoulders.

Or that she's a violent psychopath. I was going to say "like the rest of her people", but her not murdering him makes her look like a saint in comparison.

More seriously, it's a tired cliché. They want to show the heroin's a badass, so she kicks someone's ass. Usually, they have the decency of giving her at least half a reason (like someone being an asshole to her) and a halfway decent opponent. Here, they didn't even bother. So she just looks like needlessly violent.

[Dr. Dahm]

Originally Posted by Shyni

This is a minor thing, but Yuki somehow reminds me of Yuzuki from Wixoss.

A lot of things in Aldnoah.Zero remind me of things from other anime....mostly Gundam related.



For example did anyone know that "enemy" Princess characters in mecha anime have a habit of putting Male lead characters into surprise armbar submission holds from behind as a first introduction? Submission is a Princess way indeed....

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Like Orange in Lelouch, "my liege, right or wrong"?

Exactly. I get the impression that Cruhteo takes the Martian hierarchy/monarchy very seriously. For some of the Knights, it may simply be a means to a selfish ends, but I think for Cruhteo it means more to him than that.

Though I wonder if he'd side with her against the Emperor, if it came to that?

The Emperor is the one person who's voice carries more weight than the Princess'. So you do raise a good question here.

So, next time I'm lost, I'll be "playing it safe" by slamming a passer-by into the ground to ask for directions?

Well, to be fair, she's alone in a foreign city that's deserted due to ongoing warfare and chaos. Given the highly extenuating circumstances, I think she deserves some slack for her actions here. Now if this becomes her standard way of greeting passer-bys, then I'll agree with you. But for now, I'm Ok with the actions that she took.

Or that she's a violent psychopath. I was going to say "like the rest of her people", but her not murdering him makes her look like a saint in comparison.

It's hilarious because it's true.

More seriously, it's a tired cliché. They want to show the heroin's a badass, so she kicks someone's ass. Usually, they have the decency of giving her at least half a reason (like someone being an asshole to her) and a halfway decent opponent. Here, they didn't even bother. So she just looks like needlessly violent.

All she did was push him to the ground. It's not like she seriously beat him up or anything like that. I'm sure it wasn't pleasant for the guy, but it's not like taking several blows to the head. She used force very judiciously, as she clearly didn't leave him with any significant physical harm. Yes, I see the intellectual arguments against her decision, but I find it difficult to fault on a moral basis. Lone guy walking around, dressed normally, and unharmed in a deserted warzone. It's definitely suspicious, don't you think?