Aldnoah.Zero - Character Discussion - Inaho Kaizuka

[Irenesharda]

Originally Posted by Hollownerox

Well as far as we know the kid has always been that way, from his interactions with his childhood friend and his sister it appears they are used to his behavior. So whatever is up with him has been at least since he was very young.

On a side note, it appears that his birthday happens to be August 7th, in other words the day Pearl Harbor happened. I don't know if that is of any significance to his character but it is interesting to have his birthday be the anniversary of the day that lives on in infamy.

When did his birthday change to August? I thought it was in February according to his high school id picture?

[Death Usagi]

I nominate Inaho for a squadron commander.

[Haak]

Moving this discussion here:

Spoiler for Triple_R:

Originally Posted by Triple_R

No, my point isn't inherently fallacious. A key word in my point there was "seems".

Inaho might not be completely without emotion, but we're certainly not getting much evidence of emotion from him.

What evidence are you seeing of doubts, fear, worries about his friends, and cares about his sister?

A person can fake mere words, you know. If a person sounds deadpan all the time, and speaks in calm tones all the time, with no color whatsoever to his dialogue, then it's very easy to get the impression that this person just doesn't care about much of anything.

I doubt he doesn't care at all, but I really do find it hard to rouse myself to care about a character that continually shows extremely little emotion about himself or those around him in the midst of a freaking war that is killing millions of people, and has even cost him one of his friends.

The evidence is ample:

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 friends 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.

There is plenty of emotion to his actions and plenty of narrative hints to suggest we're supposed to interpret it that way as well. If it seems to you that he doesn't care about anything...well it shouldn't.

And I'm saying that I greatly dislike the decision to make him that way because that makes him very dull and boring to me. Is it really that hard for you to understand why some of us find him dull and boring?

Then just say that then.

Just say you don't like it. There no need to pick a fight like this:

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Honestly, to you and all of the other Inaho defenders - Do you guys have something against human emotion? Do you think human emotion is a bad thing? Do you think it's good for a lead character to have all the charisma of a wet doormat?

Why are you making it sound like I'm the one being an reasonable a-hole when you're asking me to explain why I like Inaho?

My point is that the differences you're bringing up aren't that significant. He's a typical genius male lead with a slight tweak to it ("he just is what he is"), for which the only real appreciation of that tweak is purely meta level.

Knowing why he's dull doesn't make his actual scenes any better, in my view. In fact, since the seeming reason for his dullness is "he just is what he is", knowing why he's dull has, at best, a little bit of meta novelty value. A more dramatic reason for his dullness might actually be interesting because it's something that could give his character a greater sense of drive and purpose and intrigue. It's something that could have given the narrative a greater sense of internal weight.

And I still disagree. A much more down to earth reasoning for his eccentricity gives much more internal weight and will be more more easy to relate to than something dramatic and fantastical.

So what? Steins;Gate is a slow-paced show. Okabe was portrayed as extremely competent, and very good at science, in the 2nd half of the show.

So your assertion against Okabe is totally false. Okabe is a perfectly good example of a character that gives you the best of both worlds.

He wasn't extremely competent. He was reasonably competent and very lucky. Again, he not the best of both worlds.

His dullness isn't what makes him a highly rational genius. A person can be a highly rational genius and still have a very colorful personality. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Superhero comic books, cartoons, and movies have plenty of characters that are highly rational geniuses with colorful personalities. Lex Luthor, Tony Stark, Victor Von Doom, Thanos.

I disagree. He is totally open to self-insertion.

In this case it is.

Which is precisely my point there.

I don't have to prove a negative either...

Just because a super-ability goes unexplained doesn't make it feel any less like a super-ability.

There's no special reason given for Lex Luthor's or Victor Von Doom's or Reed Richard's intelligence either, at least last I checked. They seem to be extremely smart due to a mixture of genetics and education/scientific training. Yet, for all of them, their super-intelligence is often presented as a super-power itself.

So I think you're pretty off-base with your argument. I don't think it makes the difference that you seem to think it makes.

I don't really know about any of those examples and of course, I'm not taking your word for it either. But as it stands, Inaho's intelligence strikes me as very grounded and based on creativity, resourcefulness and the ability to remain calm that is even rooted quite strongly in his eccentric personality. And it's not just me either. I'm fairly confident that's what the narrative wants us to think as well. Bear in mind this kind of "anomaly in the system" concept has been introduced to us by Urobuchi before. Inaho bears some similarity to Tsunemori Akane in Psychopass who had the unique ability of having a crystal clear Pscyhopass 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 the whole point: they were there to emphasis that there will always be individuals in the system that don't fit pre-conceived standards. Similarly neither of them where treated like superheroes or supervillains but chance anomalies like a single bacteria surviving a course of antibiotics that wiped out it's colony because it happened to mutate a resistance by chance.

I don't know why you're hell bent on interpreting Inaho's intelligence as some sort of superpower. It's not like he's doing anything that extraordinary really. He's not doing a a billion calculations in his head, he's not single-handedly beating stronger opponents than him and still relies a lot on outside help to get the job done. The real problem is that the other characters are unfortunately being made to look like chumps which undermines the point their trying to make with Inaho. But I still think the point is effective, unique and generally well told in a way that makes you appreciate the real world.

Again, there is a difference between calm and expressionless. I'm not saying he has to be a hot-blooded character. But, for example, he could easily have been a deadpan snarker instead of just plain deadpan. That wouldn't have taken anything at all away from his character, or his genius, and in fact it would have made him much more fun and entertaining, in my view.

Well he generally was snarky when everything was nice and dandy in episode 1 but hasn't had much of a chance when everyone is doing their best just to survive. He does occasionally manage a few moments (such as the slow mo salute to Marito in Episode 5), bear in mind that despite being the main character he hasn't actually commanded a lot of screentime and because the story is so fast paced, it means what screentime he does have will be devoted to the plot and there will be little time for comedy.

But I do agree a bit more snark would help make him more likeable.

I disagree. It's common sense to want to keep Asseylum safe precisely because of her great relevance.

It's only common sense to want to be very cautious about who you reveal her to and at what time. Rayet is making much the same warning for much the same reason. If Asseylum is not very careful at when she reveals her true identity to the people around her, it could easily backfire and cost everybody an invaluable "ace up the sleeve". You might only get to play that ace once, so it's very important to make sure it counts (and it isn't lost, say, to a crazy Martian Knight who decides it's better to just gun down the Martian Princess and pretend that he never did it).

Conversely, revealing her identity as soon as possible could potentially end the war and save millions of lives. Even if he's confident that it won't, he also doesn't have any idea who else might be after her and might need more help in protecting her, so the decision to leave his friends out of the loop could be just as much risky. And the fact that he's keeping such secrets from his friends however reasonable might be interpreted the wrong way if they were ever to find out and tensions had escalated since then.

In any case the common sense approach, if there is one, would be to immediately inform the highest in command and let the authorities handle it. But this high schooler has taken it upon himself to keep a secret that could very literally decide the fate of the whole world. That's not common sense.

No, that's not the whole point. Initially, you were responding to my point, which was itself a response to Orion's point. My point is that the pros that his defenders were bringing up about him (before you made your points) were not that uncommon anyway. Now you're raising a different angle, which is fine, but it's not the whole of the discussion that was surrounding him.

I did ask you to forget about Orion's point. That why I said "the whole point we were originally talking about".

[yulinard]

Conversely, revealing her identity as soon as possible could potentially end the war and save millions of lives. Even if he's confident that it won't, he also doesn't have any idea who else might be after her and might need more help in protecting her, so the decision to leave his friends out of the loop could be just as much risky. And the fact that he's keeping such secrets from his friends however reasonable might be interpreted the wrong way if they were ever to find out and tensions had escalated since then.

In any case the common sense approach, if there is one, would be to immediately inform the highest in command and let the authorities handle it. But this high schooler has taken it upon himself to keep a secret that could very literally decide the fate of the whole world. That's not common sense.

Disagree with this one. When she was revealed as Martian princess the MC already know that every martian knight want her dead to justify their casus belli. But if she was reveal herself earlier its wise to contact Terran command to demand Martian to stop the war since they cant justify their action.

Since this studio are famous with beautiful bad writing anime like SAO, I can predict that on ep 13-24 Martian princess will summon Martian Mech for MC to use. But it must be pilloted by both of them since no Terran can use AdNoah reactor. Ep 1-12 ofc is all about Gundam vs Zaku but this time MC are using Zaku.

[Death Usagi]

It's true that there is a limit to how much Inaho can perform with just a training unit, that I do feel he will have to receive a top mech sooner or later. But for him I don't know if it is pilot skills or if it is just tactics similar to Lelouch. However he did perform pretty well in his Trainer unit.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by yulinard

Disagree with this one. When she was revealed as Martian princess the MC already know that every martian knight want her dead to justify their casus belli.

He does? I don't recall there being any indication of this. Could you elaborate on that?

[Death Usagi]

I don't remember him thinking like that either...

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Haak

He does?

He doesn't. He was about to tell Yuki everything but the maid stopped him because they don't know if they can't trust her. It seemed odd to me that Inaho didn't try to vouch for his sister but Inaho is Inaho so...

Anyway, the writers probably just want her to be a token character rather than an active one, at least for now, so they'll uses any excuse to keep the status quo.

[yulinard]

Originally Posted by Haak

He does? I don't recall there being any indication of this. Could you elaborate on that?

He agree to keep her hidden for now. At least untill they reach somewhere save. revealing her now might be dangerous since the knights want her dead and communication still jammed.

[Arya]

Originally Posted by yulinard

He agree to keep her hidden for now. At least untill they reach somewhere save. revealing her now might be dangerous since the knights want her dead and communication still jammed.

He agreed to that to keep her safe, but not from the Mars knights, but from the earthlings that, they had knew about Seylum being a Martian and even the princess no less, could have armed her or killed her out of retaliation or frustration or hate. Inaho made a clear and spot on remark about human behaviors. Rayet somehow implicitly confirmed it first hand stating how she would have used that information if that would have been useful. Statement we should or should not (should not obviously ) believe she took back when offered her help/hand to him.

[Death Usagi]

Pretty much saying, Seylum would become a hostage if everyone knew about her :/

At desperate times, it can happen.

[willyvereb]

Well, at first, like many people, I thought Inaho has a case of high-functioning autism.
And I still beleive he has minor symptoms of it.
But it seems to be more like something to do with his personality now.
Inaho is highly rational and practices a lot of self-restraint.
He consciously suppresses his emotions but this also results in him being somewhat awkward when he actually shows them.

[DMurphy]

Originally Posted by willyvereb

Well, at first, like many people, I thought Inaho has a case of high-functioning autism.
And I still beleive he has minor symptoms of it.
But it seems to be more like something to do with his personality now.
Inaho is highly rational and practices a lot of self-restraint.
He consciously suppresses his emotions but this also results in him being somewhat awkward when he actually shows them.

Weirdly, I've been going the other way on this.

I thought at first he was just highly rational and practices a lot of self-restraint.

And now I think he's on the autistic spectrum.

[Archon_Wing]

I always joked that he seems like a perfect role for Keeanu Reeves. I mean I like stoic characters a bit but he just gives no shits and is so wooden. It's pretty hard to take him seriously especially when it seems he's so plot armored. We did get some insight on his methodical attitude towards things though but it's going to take a lot more to really pull the show through.

[Thess]

Name: Inaho Kaizuka.
Height: 164 cm.
Age: 15 years old.
Birthrate: February 7th.
Blood Type: AB.

[juve]

So he is AB, kinda fitting

[jordantenney56]

Im really sick of the inaho has autism because personally i dont think its that....i personally think its due to his parents dying and one thing that bothers me is the whole inaho is op and the earth soldiers are bad debate....theres a good explanation to this it was already established that the soldiers were given false infomation so they thought they could win. Inaho isnt a emotionless robot its already been establised that he does care about other people especially his sister and his friends. The whole inaho is op is not valdid because its already been shown even when he does come up with a plan he makes mistakes. He went to school and prepared himself and he seems to took his piloting skills unlike his friends who saw it as a game. But the most likable trait about him is that he doesnt see every martian as evil and this makes him more mature than his friend calm.

[DevilHighDxD]

Originally Posted by Thess

Name: Inaho Kaizuka.
Height: 164 cm.
Age: 15 years old.
Birthrate: February 7th.
Blood Type: AB.

You get his birthday wrong, Inaho born on December 7th.

[Sheba]

7th of December? Damn that handwriting.

[jpwong]

Wow, except for that 1999, all his "1"s look massive compared to the number next to them