Aldnoah.Zero Part 2

The war between the Terrans and the Vers Empire of Mars has ended, allowing humanity to blissfully enjoy their lives in a time of peace. Nineteen months later, however, the Vers princess makes a shocking public declaration: "the Terrans are a foolish race that covets resources, destroys nature, and are devoted to the pursuit of pleasure." And so, to protect their precious Earth, she calls upon her knights to take up arms, and the raging battle between the two civilizations reignites.

Slaine Troyard has found a place among the Martians, giving Earth a short respite from the war against the Vers Empire. However, a peaceful resolution seems inconceivable. The various people who fought desperately for survival in the past now find themselves in the midst of yet another bloody and chaotic conflict, one that will forever alter the fate of humankind.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kaizuka, Inaho Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Troyard, Slaine Main

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Vers Allusia, Asseylum Main

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Amifumi, Inko Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Kaizuka, Yuki Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Areash, Rayet Supporting

Misawa, Sachika Japanese

Marito, Kouichirou Supporting

Nakai, Kazuya Japanese

Saazbaum Supporting

Ookawa, Tooru Japanese

Magbaredge, Darzana Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Eddelrittuo Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Producer

Kurosaki, Shizuka Producer

Kitazawa, Shinichirou Producer

Aoki, Ei Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Apr 7, 2015

Skrid-Crevasse

Recommended

Witnessed a lot of bad reviews so it's high time to introduce something different - positive review to this show.


==============================================
~PLOT SYNOPSIS~
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Season 1
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Story revolves around the difficulty of what happens when humanity, hypothetically in the future,
is split up into two categories:
... - humans who inhabited the Earth, known as Terrans
- humans who migrated to Mars and settled at the barren planet (Mars), known as Martians

The humans who migrated to Mars, known as Martians, settled in the barren planet for a long span of time and eventually, the inhabitants established their own government system that portrays their independence from those governing bodies that control the Earth. As the generation that migrated to Mars perished and the forthcoming Martian generations soon gained a wrong notion that they're solely different from their Terran counterparts just because they've inhabited a different planet, the notion that they're ancestors used to inhabit Earth fades, as time passed by.

Fast forward to the future, Martians soon faced scarce resources as the barren planet gets populated. Due to the lack of bounty and infertility of the land of Mars, the Martians decided to perform a coup d'etat (intentionally used this term since the Martians' ancestors used to inhabit Earth) in order to obtain Earth resources. Not before long, due to the Martians' ulterior motive, the hostilities started in order to gain what they've been longing for.
But in order to do that, the Martians need a stronger war trigger, a trigger that will supplement the reason as to why they need to invade the Terran's inhabited planet and loot. And so, an assassination attempt to the Martian Princess was framed/conspired by a Martian knight (not going to be named to prevent spoilers) in order to do just that.
By making it look as if the Terrans planned to assassinate the Martian emperor's daughter, the Martian knight managed to persuade the nation of Mars migrants to ensue an all-out war.
(This is all done just for the sake of the intent of garnering Earth resources as well as expanding their dominion.)

The war breakout caused many casualties on the Terran force's side as they're overpowered by Martians through the means of higher spec mechas that makes use of a powerful energy source that can solely be derived on Mars - Aldnoah. (hence the origin of the anime's name is deduced)
When all hope seems lost and Terrans seems to be on the brink of absolute annihilation due to the unfathomable difference in military power, whether it'd be mecha (known in the show as Kataphrakts) or warhead strength,
hope sheds light as a Terran prodigy spearheaded a movement in order to prevent the Martians' goal from taking into full swing.
The Terran prodigy, named Inaho, prevented the colonization not by brute force, but by sheer intellect; this is achieved through the means of strategic and tactical style of warfare - exploiting the enemies' flaws, flaws that are somewhat unperceivable to a regular human's analysis and plans that are inconceivable.
----------------------------------------------------
Season 2
----------------------------------------------------
Following the war ignited by the Martian knight, the Terran prodigy, Inaho, after a near-death experience in Season 1, managed to survive the conflicts and became stronger than ever, intellectually speaking, in Season 2
via cybernetic implant which was brought forth by war repercussions. On top of that, Inaho gained Martian accomplices,who just like him and other Terrans, wanted to make peace and form a pact/treaty.
Generally speaking however, most Martians, including the emperor of the Martians himself, opposed this idea and hence, war continued to resonate.
Due to the Martians' immense military powers, conceit-driven, they have no intention of giving in. The same goes for the Terrans, whose trump card is Inaho who comes up with ridiculous plans with his strategic/tactical prowess.

To summarize Season 2 in a nutshell, the continuation of the war and the conclusion of the hostilities is portrayed in the 2nd Season.
==============================================

==============================================
~MORALE OF STORY~
Ever heard of the terms Rayleigh's Scattering, Leidenfrost Effect, Meissner Effect or Quantum Teleportation?
Obviously, those who have physics background would know pretty much some, if not, all of these. But for a regular person, that won't be the case.
And so, here comes the anime called 'Aldnoah' which incorporates these scientific jargons and exposes viewers to the realm of science.
Not only are you watching anime, but as the anime progresses, the creators of Aldnoah explains to you why that's happening, why that didn't happen, what's the scientific explanation behind it and whatnots.
Thereby, by the end of the show, the viewers gains more knowledge in the aspect of science.

The real life scientific terminologies aforementioned are embedded and is used as basis in the creation of this show.
Magnificently, if you think of all the animes one has watched over the course of his/her lifetime, there's only a handful, if not none, has encountered an anime which adheres to technicalities as in-depth as Aldnoah.
Also, general knowledge is taught there indirectly via the mecha battles and conversations amongst the characters.
(ex: negating smoke screens via electricity as part of the plan to counter the enemy forces' smoke screen. Scientific reasoning behind it?
The phenomenon occurs as colloids are absorbed by ions which in turn...ah forget it.
Watch the anime and you'll learn more of such things.)
==============================================

==============================================
~ART~
It's safe to assume, or declare to be more precise, that Aldnoah has reached the pinnacle when it comes to
graphics. When one might ask me, "How does modern anime graphics look like?" I'll simply answer,
"Watch Aldnoah and you'll know."
==============================================

==============================================
~CRITICISMS~
All in all, it was definitely a worthwhile show to watch. I'm bothered though, about the amount of negative reviews the show's
receiving.

Nevertheless, frankly speaking, I was expecting this since I know for a fact that Aldnoah goes in-depth; not a lot of animes have that approach and hence, viewers are not used to it and tend to get annoyed by it to the extent
that they started hating the show and instead of being straightforward and confess that they don't understand much of the show due to the adherence of the show to scientific technicalities,viewers have the tendency make
unnecessary excuses (unnecesary whining, to be more precise), specifically, stating that the plot's cliche, apparently.

There's a lot more complaints but I'm too dismayed to read them, all the more, list those things in my review.
==============================================

==============================================
~COMPLIMENTS~
Up next, I'll discuss my 'compliments' to this show after briefly discussing about the cause of criticisms.

Unlike some shows that includes unnecessary fillers, flashbacks, etc. Aldnoah doesn't have that trait.
Aldnoah utilizes every episode well, carefully selecting appropriate moments at which a particular flashback
is necessary. Furthermore, the pace is wonderfully decided, upon realizing that every episode ends at a well-timed
cliffhanger. And finally, Aldnoah doesn't need a deus ex machina to make the protagonist prevail over the antagonists. (unless being a genius tactician is not considered a deus ex machina, my argument crumbles apart)
==============================================

==============================================
~MUSIC~
One of the key triggers for me to give this anime a try is because of the 1st season's catchy opening song.
Judging by the melody of the opening and closing songs of both season 1 and 2, they're highly fancy. On the aspect of OST (background music), one thing that must be made known is that OSTs are incorporated to enhance a particular mood portrayed in a scene, whether it'd be action, depressing, joyful scene, etc.

However, I was too immersed on the technicalities embedded in the anime which resulted for me to become unaware of the OSTs, all in all; not to mention, OSTs are mood enhancers, so they're not meant to be noticed in the
first place. PS: Opening songs of both seasons are so melodically attractive, to the extent that the songs still constantly reverberate in my mind approximately a week after I finished watching the series.
==============================================

==============================================
~CONCLUSION~
If you take the fact aside that Mars cannot be inhabited due to its lack of bounty of oxygen in its atmosphere, then the show will be worth watching.

If you like a show that has a protagonist who takes advantage of the antagonists by outdoing the antagonists strategically, like Lelouch and Blank from the renowned animes 'Code Geass' and' No Game No Life' respectively, then I hereby announce that Aldnoah is a kind of show that you'll enjoy, inasmuch as I did.
==============================================

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 2, 2015

Quan_

Mixed Feelings

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]

It's a shame it all had to end up like this. If you were to flashback to about a year ago, the first season of Aldnoah.Zero was the most anticipated anime of 2014 for many(including me): the latest brain-child of Gen Urobuchi, directed by Ei Aoki, with music by esteemed composer Hiroyuki Sawano. It was a super-star of the 2014 summer anime season, but by the time it had finished airing it had fallen quite roughly from the spot-light. Problems plagued it: a lackluster cast, odd pacing, as well as mediocre writing, as it soon became the butt of the anime ... communities jokes. But even so, it wasn't a terrible anime; at least in my opinion. It had problems, but it was still enjoyable, and even showed an occasional spark that it could be something more then it was, that it could maybe meet those hefty expectations that the community had set for it before it had begun airing. This was my mind-set as we headed into the second, and concluding season of Aldnoah.Zero. It wasn't the right one.

Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, and today, we take a look at the second season of Aldnoah.Zero, and maybe we can figure out where it all went wrong. I won't be boring you with the studio who animated it or the writers involved, all that information is already available in my review of the first season. What I will tell you is that Aldnoah.Zero 2 is a 12 episode anime TV series that aired between January 10th to March 28th of 2015, airing in that year's winter season. Now, let's jump right into where we left off in the plot.

So, as a slight refresher, where did we leave off? Well, if you recall, everyone was dead. Princess Asseylum had been shot in the head, Slaine had shot Inaho in the face, and now it is 19 months later. The war between Earth and the Vars Empire has continued, though after the events of the finale of the first season, the core pieces have been shuffled, and now everyone stands in different places. Slaine is now a well-respected knight for the Vers Empire, as he has the backing of Count Saazbaum, a penance for Slaine saving the count's life at the end of the first season. Slaine, with the help of Count Saazbaum has rescued Asseylum from her certain death on Earth, and now they hold her in permanent status within Ver's military base on the moon, unsure whether she will ever wake up from her coma. With the Princess now out of commission and the last chance for peace between Earth and Vers completely gone, Slaine has devised a new way to rally troops against Earth: as now Asseylum's half-sister Lemrina impersonates Asseylum, using the princess' influence to ignite the hatred between Earth and Mars to drive the war effort onward. Slaine in the meantime, works his way up Ver's military, with a final goal in mind that only he knows, as he leads the charge against Earth's military and gains the support of various counts and knights around Vers. The situation is made even more complicated as Slaine must work through his own personal stigma of being "a terran", a fact which places various barriers in the way of his path into a commanding position, and now, Princess Lemrina has started to develop feeling for Slaine, and she could potentially reveal herself as an impostor at any moment out of jealousy of Slaine's feelings for Asseylum or if he reject her advances, effectively putting an end to his plans before he even has time to instigate them.

On the Earth side of the war, Inaho has miraculously survived as well, due to some, let's be fair, bullsh*t involving Aldnoah.Zero that allowed him get medical attention. Inaho lives on as a soldier, now equipped with a new robotic eye that allows him to perform all kinds of life-hacks(including being able to tell if somebody is lying, scanning distance between targets and make predictions, scan for coordinates(and really this thing is just completely over-powered)). Inaho is the only one who suspects that the current Princess Asseylum is an impostor, and is determined to find where the real princess is and rescue her, even if that means he will be putting himself directly in the way of Slaine Troyard, setting the stage for an inevitable showdown between the two that may determine the fate of the entire war.

I suppose I'll talk about positives first. As a the plot for a "second cour" of a series goes, it could be worse. It has pust both main characters into more commanding roles that allow more radical plot-points to occur, and it does well to recognize that these things must always have a sense of escalation as now most of the battle scenes take place in space, which, let's be honest, is pretty awesome no matter what context. But that's really all the good I have to say about it. The idea for this second season might have worked, and worked very well, but ultimately, the execution is so lack-luster that all positives it had just sort of steadily seep out as the anime buries itself deeper under its own stupidness.

The inherent problem is probably that the writing really isn't that good, rendering all ideas the anime had pretty much pointless. Characters often make stupid or unrealistic decisions that only serve to drive the plot onward, and certain plot-points only occur because of amazing coincidences or logic that fails to hold any sort of weight. I mean guys, are you really telling me that Slaine missed Inaho's head from literally point blank range when he shot him at the end of the first season? We all know the only reason Slaine missed is so this "second cour" could happen, and so Inaho could get his stupid robotic eye. And another thing, that robotic eye is complete bullsh*t. I don't care how smart the show tells us Inaho is, that eye is pretty equivalent to a Geass in terms of unfairness(though to be fair, they do add consequences later on for that plot-point, though it never really goes anywhere). It's things like this that make the whole thing hard to take seriously, though Aldnoah.Zero does undoubtedly want you to take it seriously. You can really tell it's trying to be an epic space adventure, filled with interesting politics and awesome characters, but... it just isn't. It's not like, say Valvrave, that pretty much just insulted your intelligence and credibility as an anime fan by just watching it; Aldnoah.Zero legitimately wants you to be pulled into this world, to care about these characters, and to really be on the edge of your seat as events play out. But the writing just can't support these good intentions; no matter how good it wants to be, just the act of treating itself like a good anime when it really isn't only adds to the stupid factor, and makes the show easier to insult. I don't want to insult Aldnoah.Zero. Hell, I still rather like the first season at the end of the day. But it's really not doing itself any favors by behaving the way it does, because by doing so, it's only going to sink lower and lower down people's "good lists", when arguably it doesn't belong there, at least not as much as some other shows I could mention.

But here's the last, and maybe even the biggest problem that this second season has: it's just sort of boring, and I think I can offer two possible reasons about why it's like this. First, if you were to rewind to the pacing of the first season, what you might recall is that it was a little weird. There were two very specific "highs" of the series that were exciting and adrenaline pumping, those two moments being the very beginning(or to be more specific, those first three episodes), and of course the very end, where, you know, everyone dies. The space in between was where the first season lost nearly all of its momentum and promise; a space where Inaho just sort of inexplicably beat whatever soldiers the Vers Empire would throw at him, and nothing really happened besides some half-asked attempts to throw in drama(like when Rayet chokes Asseylum in the show, only for Inaho to revive her five minutes later). That's what season 2 largely consists of. I don't think the reason per say is that it actually is as boring as that mid-section of the first season, but because we've already jumped the shark in terms of dramatic tension. I mean, when you "kill" everyone as the finale of your first season, you can't really top that can you? Also(and I've mentioned this before in other reviews but whatever), when you sacrifice your narrative integrity, or in this case, "killing" all your characters and then bringing them all back literally the next episode, it sort of just renders everything pointless after that. What's the point of caring about what happens in this war between Earth and Mars when you feel that anything that you're told can be taken right back if the creators feel that is would increase the drama, or have a target audience return for your crappy second season just so they can see what happened. Pair this with, as I've already said, how seriously the show takes itself, which means there are plenty of politically driven scenes that really aren't interesting, and yeah, it's all sort of boring.

What this season largely consists of is Inaho and Slaine circling each-other like sharks, breezing through whatever challenge is in their way because both of them are extremely overpowered, until it is time for the final showdown 12 episodes later. Sure, some interesting stuff happens in that time that could have potentially lead to something intriguing: Lemrina's mental state, Slaine's own doubts about his attack against Earth and Inaho's slowly emerging humanity, but nothing really goes anywhere. There's only one sub-plot that really dramatically effects how events play out, but I can't mention it because, you know, spoilers. What I will give the anime credit for is the ending, which while a lot of people seem to find problems with, I thought it was just fine. It's dramatic, there's a certain bitter-sweet aura that I really liked, and hell, even a emotional moment for Slaine at the very end that I thought actually worked. Well, more so than much of anything else in the anime at least.

Before I talk about how this second season has changed our two main characters: Slaine and Inaho, I'll about the only significant addition to Aldnoah.Zero's cast in this season: Princess Lemrina. At first, when she was introduced, I thought she had potential. Her relationship with Asseylum was sort of interesting, as she was jealous of her sister's beauty and how she was loved by her people, something that Lemrina would never be able to achieve due to her legs being bound in a wheel-chair and her status as a princess born illegitimately from her father, who was Vers royalty, and an unnamed woman. This leaves her a sort of bitter and manipulative person, fully aware of how she is despised, and taking that hatred to use for her own advantages, which makes her position as currently impersonating her sister to inflame tensions between both sides of the war sort of unique. However, what really annoys me about her is her nearly blinding devotion to Slaine, which drives her motivation for pretty much everything. And here's the fact of the matter: she really has no reason at all to like him so much; he treats her pretty crappy all things considered. She even offers to be a "replacement for her sister", if that is what he wants, and none of it just doesn't make any sense, because you will always have this burning question of "why?" in your head. The anime doesn't really have an answer. It has the decency to question this devotion later on, leading to a couple interesting scenes which I won't talk about because spoilers, but like most things in the anime, it doesn't go much of anywhere.

So, let's talk about Inaho first. He was a character that I thought could potentially develop into something interesting when the first season ended, because I still had no idea why he was so emotionally repressed, and as a matter of fact, I still don't. What could have been interesting is completely ignored, the most we get in terms of development is that he smiles a little more than he used to, and occasionally tells us profound emotional statements with the same blank look on his face. And I appreciate that I guess, but we still have absolutely no reason why he was like this in the first place. Was it because of his parents deaths? Because he tries to be the perfect soldier? We have no idea. And that's not good enough.

And here's the character I've been saving for last, because undoubtedly, Slaine is the star of this second season, as he makes his transition from narrative limbo into a primary antagonist. In hindsight, that's something that the anime had been building up to, and rather well at that, there's a clear progression in the ruthlessness of his actions, going all the way back to season one. I rather liked it. But the problem with his character is that his motivation as "the big bad guy" is practically non-existent. At first, you think it's just because he's doing everything for Princess Asseylum like always, but in light of events that happen later on, that theory doesn't seem to hold much water. I honestly don't think Slaine himself or the writers knew what he was trying to accomplish by the end of the series, sure he throws around cliche lines like "trying to make a better world", but I don't think that really makes sense either. Like many things in this anime, I like the idea of it. You could see what they were trying to go for, a good man following his heart as he tries to do the right thing for the girl he loves, but eventually everything falls apart as he digs himself deeper and deeper into his sins, and in the end isn't even sure what he's trying to accomplish as now everyone he cared about has turned against him. However, his reasons for ending up how he does by the end don't seem justified and logical, and he's ultimately flat and uninteresting as a character. Again though, I do like the moment of self-reflection at the end of his arc, even if I can't talk about without spoiling the ending of the anime.

As for everyone else, well they don't really matter. Yeah. All those side characters that the first season built up: Rayet, Inko, Lt. Marito, they don't really do crap in this season, so much to the point that I question why they're all here in the first place, or why we spent so much time with them in the first season. Another waste. And if you recall, my favorite character of the first season was Princess Asseylum herself: I found her interesting as well as pretty bad-ass when she wanted to be, but again, she's in a comatose state for pretty much the entire time so... yeah. Those three characters above are really the only ones you need to worry or care about.

Turning to animation, while I never went as far to compare side-by-side, I'd say the animation is just as high-quality or better than it was in the first season, and that's nice to see, when some shows with great animation will cut corners in their second seasons, like Sword Art Online 2. But no, everything looks great, from background, to character designs, to the aesthetics of this futuristic world. The deal-breaker for a lot of people is undoubtedly going to be the mechs rendered in CG. Yes, it doesn't look particularly nice, but after two seasons of watching these things, I can say you just get used to them after awhile, it's a not a legitimate reason not to watch the show(there's plenty of other better reasons not to watch it), because it's simply a matter of getting used to them. The fight scenes are rather good too, as now they've moved largely from Earth into space. I've already stated the benefits of space battles(they're awesome), but Aldnoah.Zero really uses them to enhance the fight scenes, with the battles seeming to take full advantage of the three-dimensional nature of space, and the various factors of it which come into play during fights.

Hiroyuki Sawano has returned to do the music for this second season, and as most sound-tracks he does are, it's fantastic. Some might find problems with how often certain tracks are repeated, but those tracks in question are so good that I really didn't mind in the slightest. Nothing more to say about the OST: it's great. However, special mention must be called to the OP of this season: "&Z". You might remember that I altogether wasn't too fond of the first season's opening: "Heavenly Blue", but "&Z" is a truly magnificent song, especially the full version, which is exhilarating, exciting, yet somewhat melancholy at times, like it's a reflection of all that was lost in the Vers/Earth war. If you close your eyes while listening to it at the start of every episode, you could almost trick yourself into thinking that you're watching some epic space opera, but unfortunately when you open them, it's always going to be Aldnoah.Zero. I wouldn't go as far to say it's the biggest reason for watching Aldnoah.Zero 2, but... yeah it is actually.

So, here we are, standing at the end of this unfortunate franchise. It's all over; undoubtedly, a third season is(hopefully) not in the works; this is what Aldnoah.Zero is at the end of the day, the kind of show that we will look back on years from now. And despite all the promise, despite all the ways it could have succeeded, Aldnoah.Zero's second half is equivalent to a slow, sinking decent in mediocrity. Various life-lines appeared during its run: possibly interesting plot-lines and characters, but it failed to grab anything significant, as it sank too fast under its own expectation and incompetence. What is Aldnoah.Zero at the end of the day? A very typical, very mediocre mecha. And that, is a damn shame.

Final Verdict: 5/10

P.S: I didn't know Inaho was Solid Snake.


For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 1, 2015

ModeratelyHuman

Not Recommended

[THIS ENTIRE REVIEW WILL CONTAIN HEAVY SPOILERS FOR WHAT LITTLE PLOT THIS ANIME HAS]

PLOT 1/10

The ending of season 1 was quite unexpected. It was a great cliffhanger that made everyone speculate how the story would continue after 4 of the most pivotal characters of the show seemingly get killed. Disappointingly, nothing happens. None of them died. Welcome to my review of AldNoOne Dies Season 2. Did I mention that none of the main characters die? Season 1 ends on an unexpected and ominous note, only for none of them die. Seriously. The only thing that dies is the plot, and this review will be my ... morbid attempt at describing the dead carcass that is "the plot" as I poke it with a stick.

Basically, season 2 starts off with the princess stuck in a comatose state for a long period of time after Slaine forces Count Sassy-bum to keep her alive. Slaine becomes an angsty asshole and obtains a position of power within the Vers empire after murdering Count Sauce-bomb by 360 no-scoping him with timey wimey powers and succeeding him as count. Then he has where-the-fuck-did-she-come-from Princess Asseylum v2.0 marry him into royalty so he can unify the Vers empire and start a full scale war against earth for no clearly understandable or reasonable goal. From what I understand he does it to "protect the princess". Which makes absolutely no fucking sense because now that he is the fucking king of the fucking Vers Empire he already fucking has the needed political fucking power and support to fucking stop anyone else from fucking stealing his fucking girl. The fucking princess is already fucking fine, not to fucking mention everyone doesn't even fucking know that the fucking princess is actually in a fucking coma and that she is being fucking impersonated by her fucking sister. Meaning that any attempted assassination wouldn't fucking work because they would be fucking killing the fucking body double. YOU KNOW, LIKE IN THE VERY FIRST EPISODE OF THE FUCKING SHOW ALL THE FUCKING WAY BACK IN SEASON FUCKING ONE, FOR EXAMPLE. JESUS TAP DANCING CHRIST. Not to mention war goes against EVERYTHING THE PRINCESS STANDS FOR. WHAT THE FUCK SLAINE, THIS IS NOT HOW YOU GET A GIRL TO LIKE YOU. YOU ABSOLUTE RETARD.

I guess his actions can be rationalized a bit from the perspective of Slaine as the king of the Vers Empire, and not from the perspective of Slaine as the desperate, sex-starved virgin he is, since what he is doing could be seen as a political ploy to obtain more support amongst the other orbital knights and other members of nobility, who are unanimously pro-war. (Which he doesn't need.) And on top of that it will cause the Vers empire to become a better place free from an oppressive class system and widespread poverty among the working class that is caused by a lack of natural resources. (Which could be solved diplomatically through trading.) (Or stealing it without the genocide.) (Which would make him unanimously supported by the working class even if some of the nobles still don't like him, lessening the threat of their influence and cementing his legitimacy as king.) (Which again, doesn't matter because he already has all the political support he needs.) But really now... He doesn't care too much about any of that. He just in this for the PU$$Y. (SPOILER: HE DOESN'T GET ANY)

The real princess eventually wakes up, then plot hole after plot hole she finds out what Slaine is doing and manages to escape with Inaho's help. Princess Ass-pump marries some random dude named Count Cocaine and takes over rule of the Empire. Then Slaine gets wrecked. They use him as a scapegoat to blame the entire war on. The entirety of earth apparently completely forgives Princess Ass-plumber after her impostor shit talks everyone and their mother with obscene levels of hate and Aryan supremacy. Apparently decades of indoctrination, hatred, prejudice, racism, poverty, systematic classism, and human greed disappeared just like that. The war ends. Earth and Mars hold hands and circle jerk over each other in a new golden age of peace and prosperity. Happy happy fine and dandy. Wouldn't it be nice if actual conflicts in the real world could be solved so easily? Just blame every little problem on one person. Then kill him. Poof. Problems solved just like that. (Does this remind you of a certain other mecha anime? *cough cough*)

"Let justice be done, though the heavens fall." The motto of the show clearly represents Princess Asseylum's goal of peace no matter the cost. It really shows just how spoiled and unrealistic her standards are. Princess Ass-plum seriously used her love of birds as a valid reason to possibly jeopardize the long term unity and betterment of her entire empire. Don't get me wrong, war is bad. But a leader should realize when war is the best and most realistic option for her people. Good thing the shit writing this show has kicks in and everything somehow turns out alright anyways, no one suffers from the consequences of their actions except for Slaine.

If you really simplify it. The entire plot of season 2 is basically a war caused by a mans quest to seduce a woman through the romantic gift of genocide; and predictably, hilariously, painfully, and stupidly enough- it completely backfires. He gets friend zoned and gets sent to prison for the rest of his life. She'd rather enter an arranged marriage with a man she has never met before than be with you. How does that feel, you fucking cuck? Holy shit, someone give this a man a medal for the worst rejection in history.

Seriously that's the entire plot. Yup. The end. Aren't you fucking glad you watched this show?


ARTWORK 7/10

The general art style is pretty good, and the characters are drawn very well with a distinctive style. One of the strongest points of this show is aesthetic originality, even though sometimes "originality" becomes synonymous with "bad writing", as in, it's original how bad the writing is. Martian kataphrakts are pretty cool looking, despite just how bad the CGI in this show is. Their designs are strange, exotic, and unique, but at the same time completely absurd. For some reason the orbital knights care more about making flashy and cool kataphrakts over actually effective weapons. You would think that a robot with access to seemingly unlimited energy would make use of all of the ridiculously overpowered technology they have, but every single kataphrakt has some gigantic weakness that is so obviously intentionally added. For some reason, a robot that has in indestructible force field has no weapons on it besides some over-sized fists, and despite the fact that it has an indestructible force field, it is covered in thick plates of armor that makes the thing look like the girl from Willy Wonka that turns into a giant blueberry. For some reason, a mech attacks by shooting hilariously ineffective, re-attachable, remote controlled ROCKET ARMS at the enemy when a while ago they showed this dude shooting rapid fire mega death lasers everywhere. It just simply makes no sense.

That's how it works kids. If you aren't good enough at writing to make a character look brilliantly smart, just make all the bad guys so incompetently stupid the hero look better in contrast.


SOUND 8/10

The music was composed by none other than Hiroyuki Sawano, so as expected, it is quite good. Too bad they keep on replaying the same fucking song over and over again for every single god damn fight scene that you begin to hate the song. Good music is important, but making sure the music is used in a timely and appropriate manner is also important. This show succeeds in the former part, but fails in the latter.


Here comes the juicy part. CHARACTER.

2/10 Inaho: Absolutely no character development. Though it wouldn't be fair to expect character development from him. Inaho is literally God. Perfection personified into a Japanese school boy. He cannot further develop because he is already perfect. Getting shot in the head doesn't change that. He is still perfect. He is still an emotionless machine. The fact that he is now partially a cyborg doesn't help with that analogy either. He saves the day every single god damn time like he always does except now he does literally everything to the point where basically 60% of the entire show just focuses on circlejerking over how awesome he is. The writers made this man an autistic savant because they simply aren't smart enough to write an intelligent character well, and clearly even with that the job was still difficult for them. Because in season 2 they had to up the ante and make him even more overpowered than he already was so they can shoehorn more shitty excuses as to how he completely defeats the Vers Empire yet again by blessing him with some unreasonably overpowered god eye that can see everything. That dumb little eye can do literally anything. Like check out Inko's BMI for example. Inaho uses his eye to calculate Inko's weight so he can make fun of her. What the fuck dude? Asshole. And he knows he can get away with it since Inko wants his D for some reason. Why ya got to play a girl like that man? And to top it all off, the writers also gave him Aldnoah powers all willy-nilly to act as a convenient plot device to reactivate the Deucalion. How? Through oral transfer of royal blood and saliva. HAHA WHAT THE FUCK. In other words. This all powerful source of unlimited energy is pretty much some alien STD Ass-plump gave to Inaho.

9/10 Inaho's robot eye: A new character. Yes. The eye has its own character. Yes. THE EYE GETS MORE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THAN INAHO HIMSELF. At first the eye is nothing but a tool, but then it starts taking over parts of Inaho's brain and becomes its own thinking entity. It even starts chatting up the princess while Inaho was unconscious. Look at that development. Oh yea. Such character. Inaho's eye x Asseylum is my OTP.

1/10 Slaine: Is basically the only character that gets any "development", which means jack shit because he just continually makes the most retarded nonsensical decisions a sane individual wouldn't ever consider. Honestly, calling it "character development" is a little too generous in the first place since his character is completely off the charts inconsistent. He doesn't really do anything that can be considered normal human responses. His level of intelligence and decision making is all over the place. His goals incomprehensible, and the reason behind this is because the writers just continuously use him as a cheap plot device to add drama and conflict to the story instead of treating him like how a reasonable or sane human being would act. Inaho and Slaine are both foils to each other in this regard. Slaine advances the story by adding unnecessary conflict to it through irrational decision making. And Inaho advances the story by solving the stupid problems Slaine causes with his own stupidly written god-like abilities. In the end, Slaine fails horribly due to his ridiculous levels of incompetency. Then the writers pretentiously rip off Monster by making Slaine pull off some bullshit Johan Liebert crap.

1/10 Princess Ass-lump: She doesn't change character either. Still this overly happy and naive dumb bimbo that can barely act like a responsible leader. She forces her childish idealistic views on everyone regardless of the effect it might have on her people. She tried to man up once and points a gun at Slaine and threatens him. Then he casually walks over and just takes the gun. AHAHA. Seriously. She is so worthless. Did I mention she likes birds? She likes birds. Apparently more than the possible long term prosperity of not only her Empire, but the entirety of humanity as well. Amazing judgment of importance there.

4/10 Princess Ass-lump v2.0: Yea the second princess with the weird hair. I forgot her name. Where the fuck did she even come from? She just appears suddenly as a new character. Basically she pretends to be Asseylum and slanders earth with her space Nazi propaganda. She does it because she has some extremely creepy as fuck obsession with Slaine. She is just weird.

10/10 Count Crouton or something. IDK it's hard to spell. Best character in the entire show. Absolute chad. Some new guy that shows up for like 10 minutes of screen time. Manages to NTR the princess away from Inaho and Slaine like immediately. What a badass.

5/10 Harklight. Gets seduced by Slaine's bishounen powers. I forgot whether or not he dies trying to get senpai to notice him. I don't really care.

5/10 Inko. Arguably the most likable girl in the show. Acts all cutesy and compassionate with Inaho and worries about him. Daww so cute amirite? Kind of I guess... Gets pushed away and assigned as Inaho's side bitch. She gets shot at 10 more times than any of the other characters but she always survives. Absolutely bullshit levels of plot armor. For some reason, every single kataphrakt instantly explodes into a million pieces of shitty pixelated CGI the moment it gets touched but nothing like that ever happens with Inko. But I guess they have to keep her alive as a romantic interest for Inaho, because it's not a true mech anime without poorly integrated love triangles am I right?

4/10 Female Inaho. Yuki Kaizuka, the bastard love child prototype that made way for the masterpiece of perfection that is her brother Inaho Kaizuka. Knowing just how hopelessly inferior she is to her perfect brother she tries to mimic her brothers robot like persona by getting a robotic arm to assist her broken one. But fails miserably at acting utterly emotionless like her brother does. As well as being perfect in every way possible like him. Seriously Yuki its not that hard to be a completely flawless human being. Way to break character, you fucking poser. She acts all lovey dovey over Inaho but comes off a bit more bitchy and possessive than Inko does when she tries to stop him from saving the damn world out of fear for his safety. At least wanting your brother to live is a slightly better excuse than liking birds.

All of the other characters basically get sidelined and don't do anything or have anything worthwhile to say about them. 0/10.


ENJOYMENT 5/10

The action was enjoyable enough. The only saving grace was the okay action. (And seeing Slaine's beautiful face marred with his salty tears at the end.) It follows a pretty cookie cutter formula of: Scary new Martian bad guy with fancy unique kataphrakt appears. It rains pain down, destroying a bunch of faceless Terran mooks, as well as miraculously damaging but never killing any of the minor characters that happen to be fighting. Then Inaho comes and saves the day with his tactical and scientific brilliance as his signature battle theme plays for the umpteenth time. Rinse and repeat. Some of the battles have some interesting strategies and events, but it's all methodically predictable. So if for some reason you are reading this review without even starting the show I wouldn't recommend this if you aren't a huge fan of action and mech anime.

If you have already watched season 1, I wouldn't really recommend you to either continue or discontinue the show, that's up to whether or not you are one of those masochists that don't drop any shows they started.


Well that concludes my review. Now if you excuse me I'm going to see what kind of horrific yaoi fanfiction fujoshis are making between Inaho and Slaine.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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