Aldnoah.Zero Part 2

[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)

{Contains Spoliers}

Damn the ending really pi**ed me off, clearly rushed, was forced on the viewers and to be honest makes all the fighting between the 2 main characters pointless.

Story - The second series carries on after ending of the first. Inaho is still alive and was revealed to be shot in the eye and has had it replaced with a bionic eye capable of predicting algorithims. Slaine has risen through the ranks and has gained the trust of several Orbital Knights, and continues thier plan to invade earth from the moonbase. Now onto the most annoying MC, Asseylum who spends much of the season ... in a comatised state within the moonbase, she wakes up at the ending of the season but has lost her memories. She eventually regains them and during an attack on the moonbase by Terran (Earth) forces, she tries to escape from earth soldiers firing on her. She then bumps into Inaho who falls unconcious before her but his bionic eye takes control telling Asseylum that Inaho had infiltrated the base to get the, she states her feelings towards Inaho and asks him something which isn't seen to the viewer until the last episode.

As we get to the last episode, Asseylum takes over from the grandfather's position upon his death, announces her intention for the war to end and that she is to marry Count Klancain (nothing but a character that is used as a plot device). Slaine and Inaho upon hearing that decide to have a final battle, it is also revealed that Asseylum had asked Inaho to save Slaine. Slaine ends up in imprisoned, Asseylum ends up with Klancain and Inaho ends.. well to be honest I don't know.

Art - Nicely designed environments and mechas and the battles are nice as well. Character designs aren't too bad either, nothing really worth noting.

Sound - The soundtrack is definitely the best thing to do with AZ, brings epicness to the battles as well.

Character - I enjoyed the sense of rivalry between Slaine and Inaho but because of the ending all of it seemed rather pointless. I do end up feeling sorry for the both of them and to be honest, after all the two have done for Asseylum, she really does let them down, I can't help but consider her a bi**h.

Enjoyment - The battles are enjoyable and the music is brilliant, the art is good but as I have already stated, the ending would most likely let many down.

Overall - good but unfortunately stopped from becoming great by a poorly written and rushed ending to the anime

Welcome to my review of Aldnoah.Zero 2nd Season. At the time of writing this review, I have compelted watching the series. This review might be a little late, but do take a look and see what I think about it and give me some pointers as well on my Afterthoughts blog post on my profile so we can discuss and at the same time, let me improve on writing reviews so I can come up with better ones next time.

I'll put this section here early in case you guys miss it. Do visit my blog section on my profile after reading my review for ... an Afterthoughts pertaining to this particular Anime for some healthy discussion. Thanks!

Here goes:

1) Story (3/10)

- At this point, you would probably have finished watching the first season of this Anime. You wouldn't understand what was going on if you delved straight into the second season without watching the first. Read between the lines here. What I actually meant is that the story is kinda complicated and twisted in the fact that you have a war between Terrans and Martians and yet the one leading the Martians later on in the series is actually a Terran. Like I've said before, if you didn't watch the first season before starting on the second, you wouldn't understand what was going on.

Having loopholes in the story doesn't help as well. First season aside, the second one is another one where unless you are set up to intentionally be killed, you will never die. Not specifically mentioning scenes, there are points in the Anime where characters get shot in seemingly vital areas, yet live.

2) Art (7/10)

- In all honesty, this area of the Anime is one of its saving graces. In a Mecha Anime, you'd expect the fighting scenes to be well illustrated, with the machinery, gunshots and whatnot to be well depicted.

Take what I said with a pinch of salt, though. Even though I mentioned that the art was pretty decent, there were also some Kataphrakt designs that were ridiculously not in-line with their ability. If you didn't know before, every Count has a Kataphrakt that is associated with a special ability that is unique from the others. How they are not in-line, I will leave that up to your imagination as you watch the series.

3) Sound (8/10)

- Another one of the areas in which I would watch the Anime for. Sound choices pertaining to whenever fighting was about to start was pretty apt and generic music choices were good too. One point to note is that the overuse of the same music whenever the two main characters, Kaizuka Inaho and Slaine Troyard, were about to go into an epic 1v1 battle will sound boring to those who have heard it multiple times.

4) Character (5/10)

- Passable in the sense that I was worried about how Inaho would develop as a character in the second season after getting shot in the head in the first. The same goes for Slaine, as well as Count Saazbaum. Saazbaum was a bit of a disappointment as [START OF SPOILER] he was killed off early by Slaine [END OF SPOILER] so he didn't have much time to develop. Inaho and Slain, on the other hand, were given the entire season to develop as I must say that I am somewhat disappointed as well. Sure, both of them have had big advances in their area as to the things they are able to do and their individual skill in controlling their respective Kataphrakts, but what they were able to do with them is disappointing.

5) Enjoyment (6/10)

-Despite the low score on the Story section, I actually enjoyed the Anime series as a whole. Action was good; the fight scenes were nothing too incredible but not bad at the same time. Interaction among the characters, not just the main ones, were pretty decent as well. There were some, but not too much, of those cheesy scenes whereby "All right guys, we're at a disadvantage here. We need to band together through our strong feelings and we'll be able win."

6) Overall (5/10)

-Overall, I find the second season mediocre at best. If you've come to watch it because of the first season, then why not just go all the way and watch the second one as well. I personally wouldn't recommend the second season of an Anime to a person who hasn't watched the first, but if you're simply jsut a big fan of mecha Anime, why not?

Stunning first season,original production, amazing Music by Hiroyuki Sawano, boring second season and terrible ending. I could be talking about Guilty Crown, but unfortunately is Aldnoah Zero.
After the end of season one, i thought "This can't be another guilty crown, right?" I was so wrong.

The season two started really well, but don't be fooled, the story will progress to a point that you will finding yourself hating the characters you used to love and forgetting some of them because it only focus on the trio Inaho, Aseylum and Slaine. The end is weird, rushed and does not make any sense to me.

After so much hype from season 1, I was so keen jumping into season two of Aldnoah Zero. Lo and behold, I was on an express train to disappointment central. I didn't realise that it was possible for Inaho to be such a zero calorie cardboard like character even in this season. There is no character growth or development (unless you count surgical ones). This counts for most of the main characters who all seem to lack any credible depth in their personalities. You just don't really care for any of them, and the ones that are slightly interesting just get sidelined. Slaine on the ... other hand, gets written to be some poor man's Lelouch, trying to gain power with his brilliant keikaku. He is probably the only character with some development but he just becomes so unlikable because he just acts like an illogical dick most of the time. Death is cheap in this series, and it really brought it down for me. I am not sure if there was some studio meddling that happened between the seasons, but there just seemed to be no real climax after a good plot build up in season 1. I am going to say the saving grace for this show was the art style and music. You're unlikely to get too invested in the story or the characters. In summary, it's basically a show that is okay to watch while in between seasons or episodes of better shows.

Aldnoah.Zero, also known as A/Z or whatever it is, wants to be a great anime. And it really does try to. You have everything you'd want to see in a mecha anime: action, cool effects, and maybe, and just maybe, even nice characters.
So, you may say, if Aldnoah.Zero has all of those things, why does it fails bad, so bad (in the second season even more) at shining like the jewel it wanted to be?
There's a lot to say about this anime, and I perfectly know that if they just tried, Aldnoah could have turned out even better than the train-wreck that actually is.
When you ... watch an anime, and of that anime, even after one year, you can't even remember the plot or the most important scenes, man, that's not a good sign.
You didn't succeed in making something that people would remember. I clearly remember plots, stories and wonderful moments of anime that I've seen before Aldnoah, and I feel something when I remember them.
But with this anime is impossible. And it pains me, 'cause the first season got my hopes up and gave me lots of feels.
Enough with this, let's get to the core of the review.


Story: 5

Okay, I'm not making a summary because it's boring for you who read it, and me to write it, and it's unneeded.
To put it frankly... You never know how sequels will turn out.
They can ruin the entire anime to the point you hope they never existed (Kuroshitsuji II), they can be freakin' awesome (...still have to find an example) or they can be horribly plain.
That's the plain case.
If the story ended with the last episode of the first series, it would have been better. The plot is static, they want you to believe it's dynamic, they want to give you action and character development but you never see any of them.
The pattern is always the same: mighty enemy (that is always the same enemy), Mars people fighting Inaho's squad and the always and casually useless people of Earth that need Inaho's intellect to save the day.
Whoa. How convenient.
No, seriously, you arrive at the end of the story and you already know that every fight will end the same, that at some point Inaho will do something that will turn the tables and the enemy will be defeated. Or even if he doesn't do that, he still goes on on living, he never really puts his life at stake, though they want you to believe so.
And again, it's useless to talk about the flaws of the plot, that are the same of the first season; the Martians, that in less than 70 years develop an unnatural hate towards people of Earth, and about all the moments the plot goes nowhere.
Want me to sum it up? Two twinks fighting over one woman.
And how does it end? It's a shitty ending, I guarantee you that much.


Art: 8

While the plot (and the characters as well) are really deplorable, the art is pretty good. Actually, what I really loved were the mecha fighting scenes and all the effects that were added. More plain and flat is instead the character design. Nobody is particularly outstanding. Though the animation is fluid and dynamic.
Hm. Yeah, that's all.


Sound: 10

If hearing Hiroyuki Sawano's name doesn't ring a bell, let me make your sense tingling. Hiroyuki Sawano is the composer of lots of anime OST. Guilty Crown, Ao no Exorcist, Shingeki no Kyojin, Owari no Seraph and many others. I don't know many names of composers but I can tell that his music is something else.
His soundtrack is what made me give to this anime a full 6. Sawano's music is what it takes to an anime to take a step and get in another rating –in my opinion, of course.
There's something really awesome and stunning in the ost he makes. If you're thinking the anime is a shipwreck (well, I think it's a train-wreck, but please, ignore me in this point), please, take at least an hour, or even half an hour of your time, to listen on Youtube to the songs of the ost. "Harmonious", but even the other titles.
Then, if you still feel the hatred for Aldnoah, I won't blame you.
But if you feel the feels, you're on the right track, pal.


Character: 3

No. Just no. Don't give me this s**t that characters are original, that there's development and all, 'cause there's nothing.
The side characters are there just to be some filler, and most of them are useless to the plot/nuisances to the core. You see some Inaho's friends, and yet you have to understand what's the meaning of them being there. They're pretty good, okay, but they're nothing compared to the almighty Inaho.
And maybe it's normal in some anime, that a bunch of friends gather around an overly strong MC, but this is not the case.
In this case every side character is useless, their being on board doesn't really make a difference. And what about Inaho's sister? Yes, quite forgettable.
She doesn't really shine.
Where's the character development? In the martian girl?, that starts caring for terrestrials? But please.
The ending is the stunning evidence that all they went through was useless to the means of their internal growth. The princess in particular, was the biggest delusion ever.
Obviously is no needed me to tell you that this anime tries to be so original by recurring to absolutely-not plain personality models like the tsundere one.
Hail for originality.


Enjoyment: 4

And then we get to the enjoyment part. Watching Aldnnoah.Zero was a pain. But not watching the first season, that was rather enjoyable. No. It was watching THIS season. My excitement for the new episodes decreased and decreased even more and for the end of the anime, it all went downhill.


Overall: 6

Watch it when you have time to kill. When you want to watch a mecha anime but you don't want to weight yourself with a deep plot or with questions about the meaning of life. When you want to see a totally predictable fight. Or if you watched the first season and you thought you'd give it a try despite all of this.
Do it. You may even like it.

My review is about the entire anime. I didn't plan to watch it at first because I'm not a great fan of mechas. But since its debuts it received good critiques, and I wanted to know why.

Story : 6/10
There were good ideas. A conflict between the Earth and the Vers Empire, the power of Aldnoah, etc... but sometimes I really felt like watching Code Geass. There were some similitudes between the main characters of both series, but also by the way that season 2 could have been better, instead of being really bad and poorly written. Moreover, I think it would have been better without ... the emphasizing of the relationship between Inaho, Slaine and Asseylum. The anime should have been more centered on war, politics and action instead of a ridiculous triangle between the main characters.

Characters : 3/10
As I started watching episode one, I felt disappointed. They started to present one of the main character : Asseylum Vers Allusia, the princess, and immediately I disliked her because she's the typical naive girl that doesn't know what's going on outside. And during the show, I felt like she wants to achieve peace without taking care of the ideals of the two sides, while she is supposed to be kind and gentle. For me she was empty. Her character doesn't evolve, neither for Inaho. Indeed he's smart, his actions were sometimes really good, but he doesn't show any emotions... My favorite one is Slaine, because although he did bad things, he's the only one to have evolved and to have been well-written. I think he doesn't deserve this kind of end. Asseylum receives all the merits although she did nothing since the start.
The other characters could have been great but they weren't well-developped (such as Inko, Yuki...) and I wanted to see Marito in action more often, instead of Inaho. As the story progresses, different protagonists appear but I didn't find them interesting. Lemrina could have been a better character but for me it just looked like the writters created her to put someone on Slaine's side and to say "Her sister Asseylum is better because she's nice". Moreover, her design is not very pretty... I felt sorry for her.

Art : 4/10
Many people says that the art in this anime is great, and I don't agree because I actually disliked it. The chara-design is too simple and looks like those on "moe animes". It doesn't match with the serious aspects of the series, and because of its simplicity, I wasn't caught by the different emotions shawn by the characters. Background and mecha designs were correct but I really disliked the chara-design.

Sound : 9/10
The best part of the anime. It's one of the main points that made me watch Aldnoah.Zero. I really like the first opening by Kalafina, but mainly the original soundtrack composed by master Hiroyuki Sawano. "BRE@TH//LESS" and the ending "aLIEz" are my favorites. The problem is that I found the music too great for this kind of anime. They were epic, but the actions were not.

In the end, I didn't really enjoy the show. It isn't one of the worst anime I've seen, but it could have been better, especially if Asseylum was not there, or if she wasn' too naive, and also if the story was better, and more interesting.

Such a problem child...that goes for both this anime and its love-him-or-hate-him anti-hero. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.

The plot has more howlers than a werewolves convention. The Martian war effort is enfeebled by the demands of the plot from start to finish. Putting the female lead on ice for a third of the series is not the way to develop character. Inaho's character is somewhat strikingly presented, but developed so little from season 1 that he really should have died back then. Even getting a portion of his brain removed doesn't slow him down! Supporting character might as well be ... dead, or very nearly, for the role they take in overcoming problems.

The resolution of the war is maddeningly unsatisfying. If a war in which millions have died could ever be ended by a speech and a marriage, such things should not be, for the sake of human dignity. While convincing explanations can be contrived for most of the plot developments, as for Inaho's repeated victories, such things lean unsatisfyingly on the outlandish situations contrived by the writers. But as Kazuo Koike might have said, characters, characters, characters can still make such a frustrating story loved.

Grand scale, of events, battles, and emotions, is the major draw of Aldnoah Zero, apart from the very decent score, and the unforgettable Byronic hero Slaine Troyard. Seriously. Making dreadful mistakes with noble but hopelessly flawed intentions is his tragedy; never giving up is his heroism; tragic anti-hero 101. Lelouch or Light Yagami never enthralled me like Slaine does, because his motives are nobler, his beginnings humbler, and he feels real pain and frustration as they never did. The thoughts behind his actions in season 2 are often quite an enigma, but discovery and retrospection are part of the story. The way events mould Slaine's character completely contrasts with Inaho's dead immobility. If only the writers had developed the grand events they conceived, rather than reducing an interplanetary war to a squabble between two boys. Slaine was such a human character and so gave the impression that he could accomplish anything, I could never think of him as a bad character, only badly used.

Lemrina deserves some credit as a strong, well-constructed character as well. Her ending, with no place for her on either Vers or Terra, was rather sad. Slaine's ending...I saw as a painful kind of redemption. But fans still talk about A/Z hell; despite the abysmal plot, the characters don't let go.

After a mediocre at best Season 1, the makers of Aldnoah were given a chance to start over fresh off a dark and gritty ending. Or they can just say "Screw it!", take a mulligan, and turn this into an okay space drama for Season 2. Sorry, gotta include some spoilers...

The story takes place about a year or so after the events of Season 1. Inaho didn't let that gunshot to the head slow him down one bit as he has gone from emotionless and robotic to a full blown cyborg, Princess Asseylum is now the universe's prettiest pickle, and Slaine is now Frank Underwood-ing ... his way up the Imperial ranks. All while we get the one-note themed bad guy mechs from Season 1. There's ice guy, sandstorm guy, invisible guy, lightning guy, laser guy, multi-form guy, collect them all! Each provides a moment of sweet, sweet, 'splosion porn amidst a plot that is now assembled of pieces of other, superior, mech shows.

I'd be remiss if I didn't admit, on at least 2 or 3 occasions, I said out loud, "That's from this Gundam series!" or "Borrowing from Code Geass, are we?" The whole show just feels old hat. The art suffers from blandness due to the boring use of CG for all the mechs that appear, no once do I remember a shot of them being hand-drawn. They have no beauty. They're just... there. They're not even original anymore! The "Herschel" suit is just Char Aznable's Sazabi from "Char's Counterattack" with some odds and ends changed! If you're gonna bring that suit in, at least bring Char with it, his presence would have greatly helped this series!

Sorry, I was ranting... So, why after all that do I give it a 6? Because, honestly, it kept me watching. I wasn't excited for each episode, but I was curious. Sub vs. Dub is a win for Sub, but I will note improvement for the English cast. To wrap this up, if you're in the mood for a mech drama in space, give "Aldnoah.Zero" a shot. It's everything you've seen before, done over again. And for some fans that's enough. Hope you enjoy it more than I did. 6/10 and I'm being generous. Check it out. Cheers!

I really like season 1, it's an really good show. But like other said, just don't waste time and don't watch season 2, because Aldnoah Zero should stop at the end of season 1. If you want to look for something way more good but like AZ, look at Suisei No Gargantia.

I can't explain without spoilers, so my review will be in two parts, second with spoilers.


Story :
Well, it's quite the same thing as season 1, it's interesting but not very original, i don't have much to say about it except that season 1 is likely identical and it's a fair enjoyment, but not ... great because of the main character, more on that later.


Art :

I'm not a huge fan of CGI, but i'm not totally against it, AZ have a great animation, with some very dynamic mecha fights. But it can be too unreadable sometimes. backgrounds are good and overrall it's looking great.

Sound :

AZ have those incredibly beautiful songs that fulfill perfectly their job at making scenes epic af.
I don't have much to say about it. It's great and identical to season 1.

Character :

Let's face it... Slaine and Inaho are the worst characters of all time.

Inaho first, he's a young man, very calm, obstinate, too intelligent AND skilled in fights. I seriously hate him, because he's just too strong compared to the others, goddamnit it's just the brother of the most normal soldier of all time, except that his sister does have a better background than him, and a better chara-design too, and everything !

Slaine is... Uh just a reason to have season 2, that's all, he is just hateful.

Rayet and Inoko are better characters than those two guys, even if Rayet and Inoko are that kind of classic characters ! But they fill the story perfectly.


Enjoyment :

It's good to watch, but when you don't have something more interesting to see.


Conclusion : So, AZ Season should not exist, it's good when you just want to see some giant robots fighting each other, but that's all, and there are a lot of shows that are significantly better.



If you read after this, you'll see spoiler, take care.

====================SPOILER==SPOILER==SPOILER==================






Let's talk about some characters that i pointed out the issues previously.

Inaho, this "best genius of all time", he should not be in this season. Why ?

Because in the end of season one, he's been killed, like Asseylum. Season 2 could have been way better with him dead, following the war in the eyes of Inoko, or Rayet for example, to see how they manage Inaho's death. Inaho were already a genius, but they had to him a computer in his eyes, because "WE HAVE TRANSHUMANISM GO CHECK THIS OUT WE ARE SO ORIGINAL", hell no. It's just more annoying to follow him.


That's the main reason that AZ is a mess, and you should not watch it.After we have all of this :

-Lemrina hime is a good character but completely messed up because of Asseylum Hime, she should be dead for this season too. Lemrina Hime is a girl that really loves Slaine, and that's a good story, but Asseylum should be a ghost that avoids Slaine to fall in love with her, not a girl falling asleep waiting her episode to wake up.
-Fights are just Inaho beating some guys with his skills that are incredible, and it's boring, when there's a fight you just wait to see how he will save others even if he's not there. It's okay it's the main character, but here he can just fight them alone with his excessive skills and intelligence.


Don't watch this, don't waste your time.

I feel blue-balled. 12 episodes sitting through with Inaho for the ultimate ship. Pretend this season doesn't exist. Unless you wanted a story of how to obtain world peace. But, I'm sure if anyone is watching season 2, it's because they wanted their ship to be sailed.

I'm depressed now. So blue-balled. Why. What the hell.

Story: 6/10 [Fair]
On a serious note, I think the story was fair. It wasn't the best ending, but they got world peace at least. I'd call it a bad ending in gaming terms. Wish we had a "True Ending". Sooooooooooooooooooooo blue-balled.

Art: 8/10
The serie's art is great and that's just a continuation ... from s1.

Sound: 8/10
Hiroyuki Sawano, always great.

Character: 4/10
This season was annoying. No development with the main cast other than Inaho's eye. Everyone suddenly became a background char. Slaine goes through a lot of phases, but really wasn't great. What they had done amazingly in season 1, became just a focus on this single char and didn't have any exciting scenes.

Enjoyment: 2/10
You're kidding right. We followed our main character 12 episodes fighting for the love of his life. Only to get NTR'd out of nowhere for world peace and politics? Get me out of here. While I understand they wanted to try a unique ending, they have to consider why the audience was even captivated to watch in the first place. It was the drama romance, not world peace LMAO...

Overall: 5/10
I'm only giving a fair rating because they did achieve what they originally had sought out to do. World peace and ending the war. But that's all it was, no one died, nothing tear-jerking happened, and all the ships sank faster than the titanic with a single final episode that everyone was hoping for. Perhaps they wanted to pull a last second twist? Well they fucked up.

Not gonna lie I enjoyed season 2 but... I feel like it wasn't needed. Like... Everyone literally almost died and I felt like it was unnecessary...

Season 1 was excellent, like... I found it very enjoyable and I thought it was well planned out. The plot was good and even though I was upset a bit at how it ended I felt like springing up a season 2 felt like it wasn't needed.... I tried watching it too but I felt like it was trying to hard in a way?? yeah... that's it. :^

Though I still appreciate that they tried.

This has to be one of the most disappointing anime I have seen. I really enjoyed the first season because of Slaine's character and the plot twist I didn't expect. Also, it was a new story that I could get into. But in this second season, it took everything I loved about this character, threw it in my face, and gave it a happy ending to Inaho, which happens to be one of the blandest characters in most anime I've seen. If anything, I recommend watching the first season for its music, well animated scenes, and the development of Slaine and other side characters such ... as Rayet and Cruhteo. I'm so disappointed; I wanted a lot more of this season. I gave it a 6 because I love Slaine as a character.

I'm going to sum up pt 1 here too. The ending of part 1 was good and I overall liked part 1 more than part 2. Part 1 showed more charcater with Inaho and everyone, while part 2 showed more mars development and the reasoning (I just explained everything bad rn) what i mean is i liked part 1 a lot more because it was a bit more enjoyable and emotional. In part 1 we learned about the characters and there were more deaths that mattered. Meanwhile in part 2 we learn more about Slaines progression through the rankings and his goal and how he ... wanted to demolish war, so he had to get rid of Earth. Slaine did few good things in this part (he was shown being human, but he fucked up massively) He tried to get rid of Earth (honestly idk what I would do in his situation because he didn't think Asseylum would wake up during his conquer but its fucked up because if she never woke up than everyone on earth would be dead, but Slaine and Asseylum would be together on Earth during the endless peaceful era) Slaine just ended down the wrong path by saving Sazzbaum, but without that Asseylum would die. Speaking of Saazbaum his death is kind of sad tbh. I thought Saazbaum would hate Slaine for saving Asseylum but its the opposite Slaine betrayed Saazbaum right after he adopted Slaine. Saazbaum wasn't a good person, but I liked it whenever they talked about taking earths resources and Saazbaum said that it would only help out the high class people. Basically meaning its only to benefit the rich. Saazbaum thought about how to help the lower classes, but it never developed. I also liked how Saazbaum isn't completely taking over earth for the resources or jealousy. Hes doing it for revenge against his wife's death. Cruhteo was a good character too in part 1. I like that he was truly loyal to Asseylum but when he found out that Slaine was loyal beyond torture it was too late and he was murdered. Once that happened i liked Cruhteo but he then died:( before we got to see his character shine he dies by Saazbaum:(. Apart from the loyal servant Slaine had there isn't too much for the Marzians. I like how Slaine was though before he wanted to conquer Earth. He went to Earth to save Asseylum he killed the traitors to Asseylum who tried to assassinate her, but then he tries to rescue her again but Hes too late and see's her get shot by Saazbaum. Than he saves her life in the end, but he tried to conquer Earth. All of this could've been avoided if Inaho didn't attack Slaine whenever they found the ship. Than Slaine would've met Asseylum and would've been on their side since the start. Now lets talk Inaho. Hes super smart and collected. My complaint in the first season is how we never see him scared or terrified when Hes about to die. Apart form the last episode of part 1. Inaho has said that he was scared, but personally its hard to see since he always looks calmed and collected, but in part 2 we get to see him in pain and frustrated. Since the end of part 1 he got a mechanical eye which works super well for him (honestly why don't more soldiers have mechanical bodies. It works perfectly for Inaho. Like Inaho said it only helps him 30% of the time which is still something) and he overworks himself with the eye which causes him massive amounts of pain. Good thing he doesn't rely too much on his eye, but I liked that. We finally got to see him in pain. Sure he was bloody and he was injured in part 1 but its more sad when u see him unable to process things. My biggest complaint with Inaho in part 2 is that Hes literally impossible to defeat with his new eye. His eye calculates things such as position, height, location, depth, gravity all under 30 seconds. He can easily shoot in space by calculating the mass of asteroids and adding other asteroids and finding out the movement of the enemies and he always hits. Holy shit this makes him impossible to beat (except whenever Hes out of his Mecha or his eye hurts) In part 1 we got to see him getting wrecked or losing battles but since he has a mechanical eye his perfect at so many things. I didn't like that. Its like he was a A+ student in all physic classes and Hes good at using mechas and he can use strategies mid battle beating enemies. A good thing about this anime are the strategies . They're pretty far and really logical too.
Heres an example Lasers shoot forward; however, missiles have gravity and since the earth is a global circle the lasers wont hit a target if they're super far in the ocean; however the missiles can thanks to gravity. Thats a great strategy to use. and others too with protected areas not covering the whole body. Like how u can have pads everywhere or else your movement will be impaired severely.
Now lets talk side characters.
Inko is horrible why does she like Inaho Hes not very considerate, but he does seem cool and why do they even try with a romance subplot? The best thing about her is her friend group in the 2nd part which is Rayet and the other girl.

Yuki Shes a pretty cool character, but she makes mistakes a lot and isnt very reliable, but she gets the job done. Shes Inahos older sister which is cool and she tries to protect Inaho a lot, but I wonder if she knows why Inahos like this? Has he always been calm and collected or just silent. I liked it whenever at the end of part 1 Inaho looked at his bookmark Yuki made for him it was pretty sad bc it was a 50/50 chance they could survive doing a suicidal mission, but luckily the main cast survived the descent onto a enemy ship. I really liked that. Yuki is probably one of my favorite side characters in the anime bc what she means to Inaho. I liked it whenever Inaho yelled at Yuki bc she messed up in battle. Because he was being real and not so affectionate then.

Rayet I dont really like her but her backstory's pretty sad, but she creeped me out whenever she choked out Asseylum. I understand why but that just freaked me out. I like how in part 2 she makes a firend group with Inko (which makes Inko a better character because she isn't dependent on Inaho all the time, I like how its shown in the opening) I also like how her and Inaho let Maazurek escape and how Inaho kept telling her that she's changed form the time she almost killed Asseylum. Apart from that idrc about her.

Marito was a cool character. I like how in part 1 he had trauma that couldn't let him fight but in part 2 he was able too thxs to the doctors prescription of reliving the trauma. Marito also has wits to him because he was able to help Inaho figure out the arrow techniques and other things, but his trauma allowed him to get the enemy in position for Inaho to destroy one of the Mecha's . He also has a friendship with the doctor and Yuki which is cool, but apart form that not much, but he is a rememberable character.

Calm hes probably Inahos coolest friend from school. I like how Calm was able to help Inaho in Inahos second battle where he distracted the Mecha and Inko used the crane. I really liked that battle because it showed everyone working together compared to the other fights. I wish Calm wasn't just a engineer but it kind of worked out because Hes decent at it and him and Inaho were school friend's. My biggest complaint which is horrible is that he forgave Asseylum for getting his friend killed in the first episode because she's pretty and a girl. Calm was so determined to avenge his friend and kill all Marzians but whenever he found out that the Marzian on board was a girl he forgave her. what the fuck. That ruined his character for me, but I still liked him more than Inko.

The ending- Honestly everything that happened was thanks to Inaho and I wonder how many medals he won. Inaho is clearly respected and being honest. In part 1 Inahos goal was to survive and the best way to do so was to defend from the Mechas and help Asseylum stop the ship. In the second part Inaho did a lot to help Asseylum and that's because Asseylum tried helping INaho when he was about to die and I liked that change in character. Hes motives changed and you can see that with him freeing Mazuurek. I like the difference between first part him and second part (except his bionic eye)
With Slaine a lot changed. You could move with him and believe everything Hes doing is right, but then u think of everyone from earth (basically the whole first part) and you realize Hes in the wrong. If only Inaho let Slaine see Asseylum things would be different. I like how the ending is happy, but it's also sad too. Not everyone wins. Slaine put himself down the wrong path and can u really blame him? He though Asseylum would be asleep for more years, but im glad she woke up. everyone would've died and she would've died because of Lemrina.
I wish the main duo had something different. Instead of them hating each other I wish they talked more (just like the end of the last episode with Inaho and Slaine finally talking face to face)
It reminds me of a worse version of Lelouch and Suzaku. When they were still friends, they had arguments and more like that (Ik it would've been hard/impossible to replicate the same thing, but still this duo feels worse. Slaine and Inaho are not equal. I didn't even know that Slaine knew how to use a mecha. Slaines backstory is sad though, but its also fascinating a kid from earth going to mars and meets Asseylum who saves your life and now your on a different planet than u rise through the ranks. Its not like he lost loyalty towards Asseylum because even after 2 years he kept meeting with her and showing her stories while she was asleep. It sad because she was loyal to her but betrayed her beliefs. In the end everyone believes Hes dead except Hes in a prison wanting to die.

Phew... okay... time to start talking about the 2nd season of Aldnoah Zero. Please be aware that there may be MINOR spoilers (more-so for the first season), but I'll do my absolute best to minimize them.

Season 1 of Aldnoah Zero left so many things in the air that, to be quite frank made my jaw drop. It left an amazing cliffhanger and had SO much potential to change the direction of the narrative. This left me excited for what was going to happen in Season 2 and almost had me giddy to watch future episodes.

Season 2 let me down in regards to this. The overall ... story of this anime pales in comparison to the first season. There is some political intrigue, but it felt that the hugely increased stakes and potential direction of the narrative fizzled out and left us with a decent story, but one that can only be a shadow to what it could have been.

Another unfortunate thing this season suffered is a decrease in development for the supporting characters. I'm a big sucker for supporting characters to have some form of arc for their character, however minor. These characters were definitely portrayed in the anime to fulfill a certain role, but it feels like the writers pushed them aside for the grander narrative which again, paled in comparison to Season 1.

The action in this anime (both the first and second season) is always very good. Having a soundtrack playing through impactful battles just heightens the tension of the conflict even further. Seeing certain abilities of certain robots was also quite the highlight.

Overall this was a pretty meh continuation of the first season. The first season left so many things open with a great cliffhanger and this season feels like it didn't fully capitalize on it. It's the same with certain characters development as well.

Season 1 did a great job of setting up the ground work, and this season story-wise did a pretty average job of utilizing it. The action was great, much like the previous season, but the amount of investment I had suffered due to the lack of interesting plot. 6/10.

So with season 1 I gave it a very generous score and I am also doing that here because overall I'm not too critical and can enjoy most anime I watch.

So spoilers for episode 1 of this season nothing that happened in the last scene of season 1 mattered as even though Inaho definitely got shot in the head and died and the princess should have too they are both alive for this season. The season starts with some random ice mecha but no mecha like this shows up again which leaves unique mecha powers which could be interesting behind and instead they go ... for the all in on Slaine's character which leads to basically nothing happening all season, this season was needed and stretches about 5 episodes worth of content into 12. Nothing really happens until around episode 4 and then nothing else happen after that until about episode 10. The characters still aren't developed at all except Slaine really but the CGI is still good and so is the music so those 2 elements are the best things about the show. Inaho's new robot eye thing can basically do anything so the action gets very repetitive and uninteresting especially since most of the battles have no effect on the story and are just there to fill out the run time as the story only progresses when we are with Slaine and that's still at a snails pace.

Overall this season is garbage and probably not even bearable for most people unlike the first season which just felt a bit shallow in the character department but the music and animation is good this season so I will give it a 6 but honestly it could be a 5, Just watch season 1.