Lets get started
The story of Alderamin on the sky revolves around the character of Ikta Solok as he is thrust into the role of a soldier as the kingdom that he lives in fights a war against a neighboring kingdom. As stories go this one is pretty genetic with some differences with the advent of magic and firearms in addition to the normal swords.
The setting for this story is mostly centered on the kingdom that they live in but the second half of the season has them heading to one of the kingdoms border provinces.
Ikta Solok is the main male protagonist of the series and despite his ordinary
appearance is actually a really intelligent and capable strategist.
Personality wise Ikta is lazy, slothful and often not serious about his duties preferring to chase after girls or knowledge. However Ikta does get serious when in combat situations and when unleashed the tactics that he comes up with though unorthodox by conventional military standards is often
surprisingly effective as he demonstrated on countless occasions in the series.
Ikta has the rare talent of being able to put himself in the enemies shoes and from there determine what they are thinking and how they would react to events. Something that only high level strategists can do.
Watching Ikta use his strategies is like watching a chess game as while he is a capable soldier Ikta prefers to use his brain and his intelligence to win battles rather than brawn. Interestingly he fights not to protect the empire that he is part of but rather to protect his friends.
Ikta is one of my fav characters on the series because he prefers to fight using his brain while at the same time not tolerating bullies and injustices.
Yatori serves as the main female protagonist of the series and acts as the main heroine.
Yatori comes from a famous military family that has served the empire for centuries. Yatori and Ikta have known each other since they were children and Yatori have always stuck by him to both support and assist him. While certainly not as capable as Ikta is at strategy Yatori is very adapt at the martial aspect of a soldier being a superlative swordsman and an adapt rider.
Personality wise Yatori is kind and caring to her friends and allies while merciless towards her enemies but she does know when to give the enemy a chance to end their battles. Yatori's dominant trait is her loyalty
as she is very loyal to the kingdom and will often punish Ikta should he do something foolish.
Yatori and Ikta have an interesting relationship in that both care about his other while knowing that if Ikta oversteps his bounds then Yatori however reluctant would come for him as part of her duty.
Haroma who i call Haru is one of the main characters of the series and a fellow officer cadet that they meet at the academy that they later befriend.
Haru is kind and caring nature being the eldest daughter of her family.
Due to her beauty Haru is often hit on by Ikta who think that she is beautiful.
Unlike Ikta and the others Haru doesn't aspire to be a combat soldier and instead wants to be a nurse and later on commands a medical team that is deployed to the frontlines.
As the series progresses Haru though still meek becomes braver as she has
to treat the increasing amount of casualties that the war produces as it wages.
Torway is a fellow cadet and later friend that Ikta and co met as they traveled to the school in the first episode. Torway comes from a military family like Yatori but is viewed with disdain by other members of his house due to his usage of a air rifle over conventional weapons like swords.
Torway's character changes a lot over the series becoming braver, smarter and able to think on his feet mostly in part due to the trust that Ikta puts in him for his plans. And more importantly manage to get out of the family shadow that has been weighting him down.
Torways character i actually enjoyed being developed as he was able to get past his baggage with his family and become a capable soldier in his own right and a able marksmen as well.
Matthew is a fellow cadet and later a friend of Ikta and co as they travel to the school early on.
Like Yatori and Torway Matthew comes from a military family.
Reliable and skilled but not quite as intelligent as either Ikta or Torway and not as skilled in combat as Yatori Matthew nonetheless tries to do the best he can to succeed.
At first Matthew was a relatively unremarkable character but he did not let his inferiority get to him and trained and continuously refined his skills. This is something that everyone can see that soon rewards him as Ikta starts giving him important parts in his plans.
Matthew was a great character that knew that he was not as good as Ikta or Yatori but nonetheless still tried to improve himself and be useful to his friends and comrades.
Princess Chamille is the third princess of the imperial family that rules the kingdom that Ikta and co currently live in. Despite being only 11 at the time of the series Chamille were classmates of Solok and co at the academy mostly due to her attraction with Solok.
Despite her young age she is rather deceptive
as she is willing to destroy the royal bloodline that she is part off in order to change the empire.
Despite this she isn't inherently evil as she cares about its people and the soldiers that fight for the kingdom and wears her heart on her sleeve when helping her friends and solok in particular.
Chamille's character was an interesting one as unlike others she cares little for the nobility and the empire but cares about its people and her friends more. Her interactions with Solok was also interesting as its clear that she has feelings for him.
Nana whose full name is Nanaqu Dal is the chieftan of the Sinack which are the people that inhabit the northern province of the empire. A fierce, passionate and fiery person Nana leads her people as their chieftan
in a war against the empire that wages as part of the second arc in the anime. Interestingly Nana was actually an old friend of Solok that met when they were little.
In the beginning she was a fierce warrior and a charismatic one that believed in her cause and fought with great skill against Ikta and co even managing to fight on even terms with Yatori for a time. However this soon changed as they were overwhelmed by a combo of smart tactics on Ikta's part and numbers.
In the second part of the show due to a desperate and game changing situation Nana was forced to support the empire's forces after she found out that Ikta her best friend from her childhood was part of them.
Here her personality slightly changes. Though still loyal to her people she now protected Solok as fiercely as she protects her people.
Nana i thought was a great character in that she simply fought for what she though was right and that was for her people and the injustices that the empire has deal them. Circumstances however forced her to ally with her former enemies and at the same time allow her to reunite with
her childhood friend. Rie Takahashi as ever did a fantastic job voicing her.
Cana is a side character that Solok and co encountered when they are deployed to the northern garrison.
Cana like Solok loves science and knowledge and loves to read books. Cana and Solok bond over a book that Solok's mentor wrote which i found to be cute.
However sadly when the war with the sinack broke out Cana was among the soldiers that were sent to the frontlines and sadly she and Solok never got to met again.
Her loss had a profound impact on solok and motivated him to end this war as soon as possible.
Cana's death to me was particularly sad as i had liked their interactions and how they treated each other. And i had hoped that they would meet up again after the war and discuss science again.
Senba was the officer that commanded Solok and company when they were deployed to the northern garrison.
Senba was a capable officer and a adapt tactician but he was outclassed when he met Ikta and Yatori. Nonetheless he tries to provide advice to Ikta and co as they fight the war.
The art style in the series i found was pretty good and the environments that were shown were beautiful and clear. The animation was also top notch and the combat scenes were especially detailed and brutal in equal measure.
Character designs were pretty clear and detailed.
The music for the series was pretty good especially the opening and ending themes. The scene music was also appropriate for the scenes that it was used in.
The show i felt dealt with the subject of war and its effect on people whether they are civilians or soldier rather well. Going into combat for the first time can be scary when one false move can be fatal.
The violence in this show was especially surprising as i had thought it would be toned down somewhat but im glad that was kept there. Seeing the characters react to the different aspects of the war like looting, relocation of
civilians and rape was interesting as i never expected the studio to go that far.
Voice acting for the series was pretty strong especially Risa Taneda's portrayal of Yatori and Rin Takahashi's
portrayal of Nana. Ikta's voice actor also deserves praise as well for his portrayal of Ikta. Inori Minase's portrayal of Chamille was also pretty good as well.
Overall Alderamin of the sky was a great anime that had a great story, excellent setting, interesting characters and excellent voice acting. Its portrayal of the realities of war and the violence associated with it was accurate and brought to us just how brutal, violent and inhumane war actually is and that it is anything but noble. Something that we don't see often in animes. The studio deserves no small amount of praise by showing us this.
