[Anime Review] Aldnoah.Zero

“War is what happens when language fails.” 

                                                     ― Margaret Atwood

Expectation, for anything really, is a really dangerous thing to have when going to any anime. I may have made this point before, but that's because it's true, starting an anime with the mindset that it will either be amazing or crap can influence your opinion on it when it ends. The problem with this of course is that you may lose sight of how good the show actually is; this is a common problem with the landmark anime like Cowboy Bebop or Neon Genesis Evangelion, it's because they are so hyped up that some people may watch them and think they weren't all that great. This may be a trap I have fallen into myself with my viewing of Aldnoah.Zero, the latest brainchild of Gen Urobuchi that aired this past 2014 Summer anime season, and was possibly one of my most hyped anime of the entire year. And why not? This is a show that had absolutely everything going for it; an interesting premise, awesome animation, a top-notch writer, and music that features easily some of the most pulse-pounding awesome songs this year. But after I finished Aldnoah.Zero last week, I leaned back from my monitor, pondered for a moment, and thought, "where'd did it all go wrong?" Hopefully today, I can answer because that question. It just might be a little hard, since I can't deny the little things the anime does right.
     Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, I hope you're doing awesome, and I'm sorry about the month anime review hiatus I've been on. Hopefully you've enjoyed the other posts in that time, but I swear it won't be long before the next review: which may or may not have something to Kyoto Animation again. Today I'm going to be tacking the sci-fi mecha quandary that seems to have split opinions with a lot of people: Aldnoah.Zero. Here we go.

Let's talk technical for a couple minutes shall we? Aldnoah.Zero was brought to life by a partnership of both the heavily celebrated A-1 Pictures, those gentleman whose works include Sword Art Online, Anohana and Shinsekai yori, as well as the newly formed Studio TROYCA, meaning that Aldnoah.Zero stands right now as their only full-scale work. It was directed by the one and only Ei Aoki, that awesome person who directed Kara no Kyoukai: Overlooking View and Fate/Zero, as well as a couple others that I don't care to mention due to their unimportant nature. And yes, that's not a good thing. The series creator is of course Gen Urobuchi, the writer who brought us Madoka Magica, Psycho-Pass and Fate/Zero as well, so you can see why I have a lot of expectation for this guy. However, while Urobuchi did write episodes 1-3 of the anime, the actual script for Aldnoah.Zero was handled by Katsuhiko Takayama, who has written scripts such as ef: A Tale of Memories, the original Fullmetal Alchemist, Toyko ESP...and Boku no Pico...which is interesting to say the least. And once again, the anime aired this summer through July 6 to September 21, and was a mere 12 episodes. Now, onto the plot.

In an alternate present day Japan, Earth holds an uneasy truce with the Vers Empire, humans who migrated to Mars in 1972 to claim an ancient and powerful technology known only as "Aldonah", which allows their technology to forward at an impossibly quick rate, granting things such as mechas. The princess of Vers is intent on rekindling peace between the two planets, now 15 years after a war broke out between Mars and Earth, resulting in thousands dead and the moon being destroyed in a near-apocalyptic event known as Heaven's Fall. However, peace negotiations break down quite quickly as the Vers princess is assassinated, causing the Vers Empire in fury to launch a full scale attack on Earth, this time to destroy all inhabitants and claim the planet with their vastly superior technology granted by Aldnoah. In the chaos we are introduced to our main protagonist: Inaho Kaizuka, a top grade high-school student who, with his friends, misses the first evacuation wave and is caught up along in the chaos of war, but at the same time discoveres a secret that reveals that the war might not be all that it seems. At the same time on Mars, a close friend of the princess named Slaine Troyard is uncovering the same secrets, secrets which could topple the Vers Empire, and get himself killed.
     And yeah, for the first 3 or so episodes the plot is rather effective. The sequence of when the Vars Empire start to descend on Earth and take out all the major cities Independence Day style, paired with the awesome music easily gets my vote for one of the most epic string of scenes for the year, all brought to life by the high quality animation A-1 and TROYCA have provided. We also are introduced to a conspiracy that  a trigger-happy Vers Empire may have killed their own princess as an excuse for a vendetta against Earth, mostly established from Slaine's point of view on the other side of the battlefield. It's also hard not to be intrigued by Inaho's character right off the bat, because even if he seems to have the personality of hand-rag,  he takes down a seemingly invincible enemy mech using pure brain power, and that's kind of cool, at least it is at first. However, after Aldnoah.Zero sets up all these intriguing threads, with mysterious character motivation, conspiracies, and a few plot-twists, it then proceeds to play it safe, and in doing so, quite spectacular loses the most traction and kinetic energy I've ever seen in an anime in such a short amount of time since Mirai Nikki......and we all know how Mirai Nikki turned out. Though to be fair, I'm pretty sure the ending of Aldnoah.Zero is even worse.

At least the animation is pretty.

The most frustrating part is that the plot isn't even that bad. The bigger picture of what's actually going on with the war is fairly interesting, but the biggest problem Aldnoah.Zero has is that the cast of characters it has simply aren't likable or well-developed enough to carry the narrative onward, because for me, there wasn't any particular reason why I should care about any of them, especially the main protagonist Inaho who I'm pretty sure has the same blank expression on his face for almost the entire series, even if an angry Martian is about to smash his face in with a mech. Now I know I'm getting ahead of myself here, we'll get to the character section of this review in a minute, but really it's the character's fault that the plot fails. Aldnoah.Zero did half the work if you like, setting a decent story up, but not giving us characters who we want to see it through with. Don't get me wrong, a cast of unlikable characters can sort of, kind of work, but the fact that they're so underdeveloped gives them no saving grace, and just leaves us with a group of thoroughly nasty people.

     Getting back on topic with the plot however, the anime just seems to lose all of its passion after that 3 episode run. As the show progresses, it starts becoming fairly formulaic for a couple of episodes, where a new solider of Vars comes in to attack Inaho and his friends, and then Inaho comes up with some plan to stop said solider, which he does, and rinse and repeat for about 5 episodes or so. And no matter how much the music is trying to tell me whatever is going on is absolutely amazing, I just can't get hyped about whatever is happening when I've seen it happen already, and explained by a protagonist who doesn't really seem to care about it. Granted, I will admit, the first battle sequence in episode 3 is awesome and clever, and even prompts that Inaho might be some kind of unassuming bad-ass, but again, it just happens over and over after that. Not only this, but clichés and fanservice start creeping in the mid-to-late stages of the anime, which basically just killed any optimism I had left for the show. I mean come on guys, you made Fate/Zero, you don't need to rely on this crap! Things do start to pick up once the final goal of the story has been established and faith for humanity is restored, because it's here when the action really starts picking up for the show, and for the first time, the show actually begins to gain some structure as the last few episodes start building and building towards this final point. We do also get a kind of lame "surprise" villain at this point(I say surprise in quotations because the anime really doesn't make any effort to hide who the bad guy is), but I didn't mind too much because the show was finally starting to peak my interest for the first time since the opening episodes...and then the ending happened. Now, let me get something clear. Yes, I have been known to blow certain things out of proportion in the past, but seriously, I don't exaggerate when I say that the show quite completely falls apart in the final episode, and then pulls a completely out of nowhere ending that just feels like it's there for the shock alone. And yeah it's shocking, but that really doesn't make it any more stupid or just plain lazy writing.

     And you know, it's kind of easy here just to let Urobuchi off the hook here and blame it all on Takayama. After all, the first 3 episodes, the only ones Urobuchi is actually credited with writing, are by far the best of the anime, but he's not completely without blame here. True, it was actually Ei Aoki who came up with a lot of these weak characters, and it was Takayama who is responsible for the poor writing later on in the series, but Urobuchi is, after all, the "original creator". He must have had some say in how the plot progressed from those initial episodes, so congratulations guys, Aldnoah.Zero failed, and it's everyone's fault. Well, maybe fail is a strong word. Before I bash on the show too much, particularly in this section coming up, I just wanted to get out there that the plot really isn't all that terrible, and there are a couple good moments in between the beginning and the lead up to the end that are very well done. They just aren't nearly as common as I would hope for. 

From left to right: Inaho, Slaine, Asseylum

This is where Aldnoah.Zero truly fails I'm afraid: the characters, and this is the most obvious with our main character Inaho. You may have noticed I've been taking shots at him already through this review, so it's time to say why I just don't like this guy, and the reason is the most obvious one, a detail you'll pick up quickly after watching him for a couple minutes. No matter what is happening and no matter who is attacking him, Inaho shows practically no emotion at all. He always has this bored look on his face, even when he sees his friends die in front of him in the early episodes. Sure he might grit his teeth for a second when in battle or something, but mostly, he just delivers his lines with no emotion at all, and this just makes him boring in the end. His only defining feature his intelligence, which he uses along with his calm demeanor in battle to take down the enemy, usually with actually smart tactics that you can appreciate. Now, emotionless characters can work, for example Yuki Nagato in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, as long as their behavior is justified, but with Inaho, we never really learn why he acts like this. Seriously, is this a childhood trauma effecting him? Why is he so emotionally distanced to everything? I never found out. Sure, Inaho might have the occasionally spark of personality when talking to his sister Yuki Kaizuki, but in the end, I spent all of the anime waiting for some kind of emotional outburst from him which never came. I just don't know what the creators are thinking with this character, his only redemption at this point could be a more detailed back-story in the second season of Aldnoah.Zero which will be airing this winter, though judging how the anime ended, that seems a little unlikely.
     As for Slaine Troyard...well I almost hesitate to call him a character rather than a plot device. Why do I say this? Well, as far as I can tell, he only exists in the series for one purpose at the very, very end, I'm talking the last few seconds here, but I'll won't elaborate due to spoilers. I suppose if you take him at face value though, he's a OK character. He's defined by his unyielding loyalty(and possible romantic affection) to the princess of Vers: Asseylum, who he owes everything to due to an event in the past, and yeah, that's basically all his character. Don't get me wrong, I like him to an extent, he's brave and headstrong at the very least, and one of the few people who actually tries to uncover the truth behind the princesses' murder, but yeah, that's all he has going for him. It wouldn't even be so bad if he actually did something throughout the anime, but he's kind of held in limbo for the entire time until the end, where he really has nothing else to do besides question the morality of the war. There is one point in episode 6 where you think he's actually going to meet up with the rest of the plot, but like a dog on a leash he's yanked almost instantaneously to where he was before,  as if the creators are saying: "no, you're not important until the end, go away." Again though, we'll see where his character goes in the sequel.
     I'm a little hesitant to talk about this last character since it is technicality a spoiler for episode 2 of the anime, but she's arguably the best character in the show, and besides, the anime makes no effort to keep this a secret(both the OP and ED especially), but if you really don't want to know anything, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph. Basically though, the twist at the end of episode 2 is that the Vers princess: Asseylum is still alive, a copy being sent in her place on the day of the assassination. As you can imagine, this opens a whole new side to the plot, as the princess goes undercover with Inaho and the rest of the United Earth forces in an attempt to contact her grandfather and stop the war. At first, I thought her a little generic, just a typical perfect princess archetype that only disguising feature was her want for peace between Earth and Vers, but I later found out she's a lot more complex than she first appears. She harbors a strong guilt; blaming herself for the war because it never would have occurred if she had never gone down to Earth for peace talks, and her entire ark is basically her confronting that everything isn't going to work out and not everyone particularity wants peace between the two planets. We see her get increasingly frustrated by the lack diplomatic discussion or effort of both Earth and Vers, which eventually reaches a breaking point near the end of the anime, which I thought was probably the most subtle and best character moment of the show. And hey, she's also pretty awesome with hand-to-hand combat. If there's one thing that doesn't work with her character, it's the implied romance between her and Inaho, which really dies. After all, it's kind of hard to have chemistry between two characters when one of them is basically a robot, and it just doesn't work. It's clear that Slane deserves her if anybody, considering all he goes through throughout the course of the anime just to protect her, including being tortured... though even that's kind of hard to buy since the two only have about two scenes together in the anime. But I digress.
     The rest of the supporting cast is fairly unremarkable, not even having any real standouts. As I said, the villain who enters later isn't really anything to talk about, and the rest of the cast like the rest of the United Earth officers and Inaho's classmates really don't contribute much of anything to the story either. If I had to choose a standout, a sub-plot of sorts involving a retired Earth officer named Koichiro Marito whose struggling with PTSD from the first Vers-Earth war. And yes, while that is fairly interesting, it really doesn't seem to relate to the main story at all besides from giving us some exposition on the events revolving around Heaven's Fall.

Inaho's personal "kataphrakts", the KG-6 Sleipnir, sporting the signature orange color. 

As I've stated before, the animation is awesome. The shows looks amazing, typical of A-1 pictures, and hey, maybe this is a standard we can expect from TROYCA as well in the coming years. The action of the show is fast-paced and exciting, which is good for a show with so much of it. Colors are relatively mellow, yet get more expressive on Mars, where purples and greens start making the world feel a little more surreal, though I feel like the design for the show, especially considering it is sci-fi, could have been a little better. Everything feels a little borrowed from other things, including the shattered moon in the sky which is really supposed to be the anime's identifiable setting center-piece, looks cool, but other more creative measures could have been taken to make the world feel a little more original. But now I'll stop dancing around the topic and address what was undoubtedly one of the biggest controversies animation-wise before this show started airing. Yes, the kataphrakts(which is just a fancy word for mechs) are rendered with CG, which some might view as devil's spawn when paired with typical animation. I will admit I'm not the biggest fan of CG myself, it always looks a little too clunky and out of place when placed in a 2-D environment, and it can break immersion just because of how noticeable it is most of the time. However, while it might take a little getting used to in Aldnoah.Zero, I can say that much for it, you do get used to it and accept it as a part of the show. It doesn't really add anything a typical drawn mech wouldn't have, but it does sort of solve that problem of the world feeling a little uninspired that I mentioned before. However, if you really aren't one who can stand CG, this is going to be a huge problem if you decide to watch the show, because unlike other times when CG has been integrated into anime sparingly, the kataphrakts are a huge part of the show and kind of hard to miss.

 Let's talk about Hiroyuki Sawano's music, which at this point, I consider to be some of my favorites of any composer. I mean, just look at this list of prestigious soundtracks he's done: Kill la Kill, Guilty Crown and Attack on Titan, which may I add, are all amazing soundtracks in their own right. And now, I'm delighted to say he hasn't run out of steam quite yet, because Aldnoah.Zero's OST, while it might not be the best he's ever done, is still probably going to be one of the best of the year. Sawano just knows how to make his music sound cool, whether that be by mixing different languages or just adding an epic beat so you love the song regardless. Personal favorites form this soundtrack include a song entitled "I Say Cry", which plays during that previously mentioned scene when Vers are first attacking Earth, which yes, I know is everyone's favorite song from this soundtrack, but hey, it's epic. Also, the first ED titled "A/Z" is a lovely little song, that was actually co-created by Sawano himself and Mitzuki. The OP for the anime: "heavenly blue" was done by Kalafina, and while I like it a lot, I'm just saying it sounds really similar to Fate/Zero's second OP "to the beginning". That may be because Yuki Kajiura, who is doing the "theme song arrangement" for "heavenly blue" worked on that OST as well. 

     Now this is extremely unfortunate, but I won't be able to post these songs below, since this is a fairly new anime, the OST hasn't been officially released, and a copyright anvil will fall on any videos with the music in general. So, just to give you guys a taste of what the soundtrack is like, I'll be posting some modified versions of the songs under here. When the OST does get an official release, and if I remember, I'll be sure to put the original songs under here instead, though I don't know how long that might take.

FYI, this one is heavily modified, but it's the only version of the song I could find.

Aldnoah.Zero is the perfect example of an anime which had too much hype surrounding it when it started, and now I don't think the public majority's opinion of it is that great, now that it has finished airing, which is a shame, because it doesn't deserve(all) the hate it has gotten. I mean, it has great music and animation, bundled with a decent plot, I just think that the characters may have pissed everyone off, not that I blame them. So I'm going to try to remember Aldnoah.Zero in a more positive light, and remember the good things rather than the bad, because there is good in it, and it needs to be acknowledged. You don't need to love it, I don't, but it a little slack. Though rage all you want about the ending, because that was literally the worst. 

Final Verdict: 6/10

P.S: So what, she's died three times now?

A review of Aldnoah.Zero 2 is here. 

Recommended Anime: 

Code Geass

If you're looking for a good mech show, look no further. Fantastic characters, amazing music, and on the contrary, one of the coolest protagonists ever make this a must-watch, whether you really enjoy Aldnoah or not. Yeah it might be two seasons, and that is a little long for some, but unlike Aldnoah, the ending is incredible. 

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planent

Hey, look, it's another mech show by Gen Urobuchi and though I haven't personally seen it yet, the similarities are there. For more when you're up to a light-hearted slice-of-life than anything, so don't expect too much epicness. 

Goodbye for now guys.

You enjoy the review? Click here for my review of Gatchaman Crowds.

My latest "Footnotes" is here.

And my Mekaku City Actors First Impressions are here. 

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