Aldnoah.Zero

The discovery of a hypergate on the Moon once allowed the human race to teleport to Mars. Those who chose to settle there unearthed a technology far more advanced than that of their home planet, which they named "Aldnoah." This discovery led to the founding of the Vers Empire of Mars and a declaration of war against the "Terrans," those who stayed behind on Earth. However, a battle on the moon—later called "Heaven's Fall"—caused the hypergate to explode, destroying the moon and leading the two planets to establish an uneasy ceasefire.

Their peace was a fragile one, however. Fifteen years later, high school student Inaho Kaizuka witnesses the plotted assassination of the Vers Empire's Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia, who had come to Earth in hopes of repairing the relationship between the empire and its homeland. The ceasefire is shattered, and the Martians declare war on the Terrans once again. In the face of this insurmountable enemy, Inaho and his friends must now fight against the Vers Empire to settle the war once and for all.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Aldnoah.Zero was streamed in Australia by Hanabee, in the UK by Anime Limited and in the USA by Aniplex of America. The manga adaptation of the anime was published in 2014, written by Olympus Knights and illustrated by Pinakes. The manga was licensed by Yen Press in the USA in 2015. The creator and director had previously collaborated on Fate/Zero.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Aldnoah.Zero
Sequel:	Aldnoah.Zero Part 2
Summary:	Aldnoah.Zero Extra Archives

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Characters & Voice Actors

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

Magbaredge, Darzana

Supporting

Kayano, Ai
Japanese

Saazbaum

Supporting

Ookawa, Tooru
Japanese

Cruhteo

Supporting

Hayami, Show
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Oowada, Tomoyuki

Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue

Producer

Kurosaki, Shizuka

Producer

Kobayashi, Hiroyuki

Producer

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Opening Theme

"heavenly blue" by Kalafina (eps 2-12)

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Ending Theme

	1: "heavenly blue" by Kalafina (eps 1)
	2: "A/Z" by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:mizuki (eps 2-3, 5-6, 9)
	3: "aLIEz" by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:mizuki (eps 4, 7-8, 10-11)

Reviews

Apr 11, 2023

FAKECROSS97

Recommended

Part 1 English
Part 2 Bahasa Indonesia

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Well, well, well, it seems we have ourselves an anime with a title that sounds like it was created by throwing darts at a board filled with random words. Aldnoah.Zero, what does that even mean? But fear not, my dear reviewer reader, for despite its ridiculous name, this anime is actually quite thrilling.

Set in a distant future, Aldnoah.Zero tells the story of a war between Earth and Mars, and the battle for control of a powerful technology called Aldnoah. Our protagonist, Inaho, finds himself caught in the middle of this conflict, as he and his fellow soldiers fight to save ...

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Jan 10, 2022

Caroline_Hamel

Mixed Feelings

Aldnoah.Zero is an anime with a lot of potential for a morally gray plot and characters that goes beyond simple action. It has an exhilarating, tense, and gripping premise from the first episode and the second and third continue this premise with seemingly high stakes and a war that looks complex, misguided, and morally gray.

After those three episodes though, it becomes increasingly apparent that there are no stakes and hardly any complex characters. The anime sets up an interesting plot and high tension, only to show mostly shallow characters and a more black-and-white conflict than it seems to want to portray, all with action that's ... meant to be tragic, but that comes off as mindless fanfare. That's not to say this anime has strengths and I'll get to that, but let me just say that Slaine completely carries this anime and the themes of the show. This honestly is a show I normally wouldn't have watched and would have dropped it if not for Slaine (I'm not really into war/action heavy shows and mechs).

As I said earlier, Aldnoah.Zero relies on the stakes of the first three episodes, as well as its morally gray war plot, but fails in the execution, when nearly all of one of the two sides are portrayed as clearly evil, cartoonish villains. Pretty much all the characters are bland and lacking depth. Any plotlines and characters with more complex and morally gray intentions are dropped about a quarter of the way through the show, with the exception of Slaine, who honestly carried this show.

The themes of the show are personified in Inaho vs. Slaine - its central rivalry and creates a very clear contrast between them: fighting for different things, but ultimately similar reasons, setting up an interesting enough distinction. They're more alike than not, but what separates them is their choices, a meaningless war, misunderstanding, and continuously taking action against each other. Personally, I think Inaho is boring, monotone, and too perfect. This somewhat works to set up a contrast between the very emotional Slaine to the more controlled Inaho. That said, I've heard arguments that Inaho could be autistic, which would make me like him better, because in that case, I think that would make me understand (or try to understand) his characterization more (though I can't claim to know whether or not it was intentional or executed well, since I'm not autistic myself).

I'm going to focus a section on Slaine because he's the only character with any consistent depth and in my opinion, the only salvageable part of this anime.

Slaine is an amazingly active protagonist from the first few episodes, despite all the odds (on both sides) literally being against him (and he does fail a lot). He's sympathetic and morally gray, but he's trying his best to do what's right against basically everyone in the show. Slaine carried this show (at least for me) and was the most developed, one of the few complex and morally gray characters, and an incredibly tragic, sympathetic character and an underdog. He makes his decisions and decides where he stands and what's right very early in the show. He makes several impulsive decisions in the heat of the moment and you'll either love him or hate him for it. He's emotionally expressive and driven largely by his emotions. Granted, he could easily be seen as obsessive and you could argue his intentions (and the consistency of his character in season 2, which honestly, I can see both sides). It's definitely interpretable whether he was a good person or not. I don't think he's a completely healthy person in some ways, but I don't think he's a bad person. I think he's an empathetic person with good intentions, trying to do the right thing, even if his choices are questionable sometimes.

I want to bring it back to stakes, tension, and threat of loss and failure. Again, they're only present in the first three episodes. The end of season one was to me a peak moment in the show and part of me really hoped they ran with that and did something that would have been so unpredictable, interesting, and new.

I did cry a bunch on this series, but for me, it was only emotional because of Slaine.

While I'm not the biggest fan of Hiroyuki Sawano, his music really fits to large, war-heavy action shows that are grand in their scope. Despite personal preference, he's a great composer. The score was heavy, tense, epic, and adrenaline-heavy for much of the anime and he excels in an epic sound that suited the anime. I don't think I've figured out how to critique him yet, but I can clearly see why people love his style. What I loved were the tragic, emotional pieces, which really hit me hard in the emotional scenes, especially the two versions of Harmonious associated with Slain and Assailum and Lemrina's theme. I think he's underapreciated for that really.

I also loved the first opening (Heavenly Blue), sung by Kalafina and composed by Yuki Kajiura. It's a very interesting mix of beautiful vocals and a more thumping, lower, pronounced, almost gritty feel - like the ideals and tragedy of the war and the beauty of what could and should have been, alongside it's warped reality. It's a really creative piece and I always love Kalafina's vocals.

I found the production and animation to be high. This anime does look nice.

Season 1 Rating: 5
Season 2 Rating: 4

Review by Caroline Sophia Hamel (she/her)

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Aug 4, 2023

ValorViper

Not Recommended

was Decent till the last episode. Can't even get through 3 minutes of the 2nd season without being pissed off. Just one of those anime that starts good but ends up crap. Also the CGI was meh at best and horrible at worst. I never really liked CGI in anime in the first place though so take that with a grain of salt. Also the MC is the least memorable person of the entire cast. He was so dull and boring and just would Ex Machina out of ever situation. If you wanna watch a ...

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Troyard, Slaine

Vers Allusia, Asseylum

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