The show reminds me of Guilty Crown. Many make parallels with Code Geass as well, although comparing it to Code Geass is an insult to the latter. The similarities to Guilty Crown are a lot more apparent, though. Aldnoah.Zero is pretty much Guilty Crown without the overly complicated plot and the awesome animation. The animation is good, don't get me wrong, but it's not up to par with GC. The CGI use for Kats (mechas) depends on your taste.
Plot 5/10
A.Z should be called Swiss cheese the Anime. The plot is riddled with plot holes. Most of the laws of physics are completely ignored, which is more annoying when they decide to invoke them first. The best example would be the piece of armor that supposedly absorbs all light but somehow is visible in all its purpleness, rather than being pitch black. Oh, it also goes: "The law of conservation of energy? Never heard of it!"
The entire reason for the invasion of Earth is stupid as well. "The Call To Arms" song details the motivation of Saazbaum and the Orbital Knights. While those motivations are understandable in their given situation, their given situation is absurd. Had they not decided to put in practice their brilliant idea to declare independence from Earth when they weren't autonomous from it at all they wouldn't be in the situation in the first place. But I guess not everyone is as smart as the American colonies.
The Earth armies are nothing more than the Mecha equivalent of WH40K Imperial Guardsman bayonet charging a bunker. Earth never seems to evolve from the tactic of throwing conscripts at tanks hoping their mangled bodies will eventual clog up the threads. The fact that a bunch of highschoolers are more capable at destroying the enemy than the actually army is hilarious, and gets even more so when you realize that they MC is not necessarily a genius, he's just surrounded by idiots.
And the ending? I don't want to spoil it… but it reminded me of School Days.
And all of the above wouldn't be so bad if not for the character development, or better said, lack thereof.
Characters 5/10
By the end of the show I realized I barely knew most of the recurring characters. Not even the MC gets that much development. Frankly, we get more development and interaction from the antagonists. Most of the backgrounds of the secondary characters are left unexplored. I waited for some development of the relationship between Lt. Marito and the Captain, but it remained unexplored. I fail to understand why it was started in the first place. The so-called reveal of the Captains identity was utterly pointless other than to create a twist. It all fells like an introduction and I can only hope that it all gets fixed and explained in the second season.
Sound 9/10
The music was pretty good. Opening and endings were enjoyable and the OST has quite a few epic tracks. Again, reminds me of Guilty Crown.
Personal Enjoyment 6/10
Between the plot holes, missed opportunities and lost potential, the show quite disappointed me. But it was mostly because I went in with too high expectations. Don't make the same mistake.
Overall 6/10
All in all, A.Z has a lot of good ideas, but aims too high and fails miserably. Can still be quite enjoyable and I'd recommend you watch it. You'll probably like it more than me.
