Aldnoah.Zero

[Buffalobiian]

Genres: science fiction
Themes: mecha

Plot Summary: In 1972, the Apollo 17 mission discovered a hypergate to Mars on the surface of the moon. Soon a war breaks out between Earth and Mars, and Martian soldiers begin to descend from the sky, riding steel giants, intent on exterminating humanity. -ANN

Links: ANN, AniDB, MAL

DL: HS - Episode 01

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Well that was decent enough a start. I'll be in on this to see what it can deliver. Best thing so far is that Sawano Hiroyuki (Attack on Titan, Kill la Kill) is doing the score.

Urobuchi Gen is the creator, but given how normal some of his endings have been I'm not holding my breath here. Expect a twist somewhere.

[David75]

I guess the Princess had at least 2 "immortal" flags... Her power she herited from her lineage and the talisman she got from Slaine, the terran scum. I guess that thing is a key to a technology that will reunite all human beings.
I do not think that show has that much potential.

One thing I wondered, those ships have a meteor like landing. Given their mass and speed, it's only natural the cinetic energy explodes like a Nuke. I just wonder why if they got acceleration dampeners that can absorb those levels of deceleration for such large ships, they can't use it for a smooth landing. But I guess that kind of landing is efficient as a prelude to a full scale attack.

[MFauli]

Ah, just read the OP, so it really was a Sawano-song at the end. Sounded so much like Attack on Titan

However, the actual anime is rather medicore as of now. Generic artstyle and slow setup. The aliens, while powerful, don´t look very threatening. Guess because they´re just humans, too.

Will give it another episode.

[KrayZ33]

MFauli, what the hell?

the actual anime is rather medicore as of now. Generic artstyle and slow setup

don't know what to make out of "generic artstyle", feels like an empty comment, since this doesn't look like most shows and both animation and visuals were *very* well done, but a slow setup? why?

he aliens, while powerful, don´t look very threatening. Guess because they´re just humans, too.

Tha-... B-... Huuuuh...
Ya, you are right, its perfectly reasonable and unimpressive to crash a space battleship in the middle of a heavily-populated urban area to trigger an explosion that would label the "Zar" as a mere firecracker, what am I thinking!
however, since the military guys were like "yeah, well war it is then..." I guess you are right. They must have something that is able to fight them on equal ground after all, it would explain why there was a "cease-fire".


as for my thoughts on this show so far
I don't really understand why there was a "cease-fire" and why they attacked Earth in the first place.
"they've been fighting a war up there in the wreckage of the moon, a war to live"
It sounds as if something happened to Mars when the Hypergate exploded.
Did anyone notice that the "war" didn't even last a whole year before they agreed on a cease-fire?
And why did they fight on the Moon? It certainly doesn't look like Earth has the ability to produce Spaceships that are able to compete with the invaders.



the Mecha/Pilot introductions @ 20:15 were freaking epic btw

[MasterOfMoogles]

The only problem I have with this show is the exposition overload.
Like, they had radio/tv on in the background numerous times trying to get in the various plot elements and setup, and I still honestly have no idea what is going on.
So, after we landed on the moon we got a portal to Mars or something? Then 30 years later the people who colonized Mars decided to revolt? Who the heck are these people anyways?
So confused... but I liked the first episode regardless.

[animus]

Episode was cool and all, but I hate this way of telling story. Instead of telling this backstory right smack at the beginning of the series by some dude simply sitting there talking to someone and just straight up saying it, it would've better to have been demonstrated and shown throughout. Show not tell.

[lelouch]

I think my thoughts are in line with a lot of other peoples' here. Even though the show seems well designed and has a decent enough plot, idk there's just something about it that doesn't get me hooked and makes me think it will be disappointing. Maybe it's the way the story was told, or the lack of a clear protagonist. I expect to drop it by episode 3 if things don't pick up.

[shinta|hikari]

This is created by Urobutcher, so I am keeping my hopes up. His stories usually only get better as they go along.

[Archangel]

Lol, Urobochi always hires the same people for the music.

Anyway i'm getting Guilty Crown flashbacks from this, will probably be bad.

[Ryllharu]

Anyway i'm getting Guilty Crown flashbacks from this, will probably be bad.

Eh?

It's very clearly more of a Gundam/CodeGeass vibe to it, but with a bit more of the Gunbuster/MuvLuv-style "Let's Teach High School Students to Pilot Mecha so They'll Meet an Untimely Death When Forced to Fight." With maybe a bit of Valvrave mixed in just because itrecent. It seems to be a fairly open secret that Earth trains students to pilot mechs in preparation for breaking the armistice. The flamboyant authoritative behavior of the enemy "nobility" is flat-out Gundam.

I'm not really getting the Guilty Crown vibes except for realistically fleshed out characters (we'll see if they are squandered through terrible clichés) and the initial interactions between the girls and the main character. I only think about it because you bring it up.

---

The Princess is very plainly a Deianeira-type. That makes her very dull as far as I'm concerned. Having some sort of special powers (being able to activate the Aldnoah) combined with being so kind-hearted, selfless, and naïve that she basically has no personality. Ugh. I really hate that character archetype. She obviously survived by summoning the Aldnoah itself that was alluded to multiple times this episode.

In general, I'm very annoyed by the talk of "even though we're descended from Earthlings, no matter how long it may seem..."
- Apollo 17: 1972
- Moon gets blown up: 1999
- Series takes place in: 2014
40 years is not a long time. That's two, maybe three generations. Are you fucking kidding me? For a little perspective, Korean families are still participating in the reunions the North and South occasionally allows. It's been 60 years since the Korean War ended.

Honestly, I'm getting more of a Mars Daybreak vibe from it than anything, and that doesn't fit this story introduction even remotely. That is, does some neat things but is generally forgettable.


Things I very much liked:
- Sayaka Ohara ♥ playing the sister.
- Nina's (the blonde school friend) hairstyle, normal as it may be.
- I guess false flag attacks are at least interesting, due to rarity in anime.
- The fact that the MC was like, "Let's get out of here, I just saw a missile," while being completely calm about it. That was pretty badass. He's a nonchalant dude in general, but he went all icy-veined when he saw the missile.
- Kinetic orbital bombardment weapons are pretty cool, castles with super special techno-magic inertial dampers or not.


edit:
That was a stunningly bad Kalafina song. It's even worse than the horrifically generic and bland Kuroshitsuji II ED. It sounded like both Kajiura Yuki and the three vocalists completely phoned it in.

[KrayZ33]

MC reached maximum autism in ep2.

In general, I'm very annoyed by the talk of "even though we're descended from Earthlings, no matter how long it may seem..."

I totally agree, its quite possible that most of their *fathers* were, or even are, terrans.

The "defense" of the Earthforces was even weaker than expected, how did they manage to fight them on the moon? What kind of brainwashing made them believe they could stand against them.

I expect Gundams to show up next episode, otherwise.. I don't know, nothing would make sense
they could've done some "reverse engineering" to create them...meh

[David75]

Yes, Marsians are way to advanced technologically for the Terrans to even hope of opposing them.
It might be that Marsians found all of those toys after the war.

An armor that desintegrates anything that touches it... thought about it long ago, I wonder if that one can convert the matter directly into usable energy tough. For some reason, it seems that power is limited to a maximum volume per second of matter disintegration, explaining why he didn't want to use it to follow the vehicule into the underground tunnel.

Of course, that weapon was used on people. It should deal some psychological damage to people witnessing someone dying that way. But it seems that teenager kept his stoïc face for some reason.

[Ryllharu]

The "defense" of the Earthforces was even weaker than expected, how did they manage to fight them on the moon? What kind of brainwashing made them believe they could stand against them.

This they did cover, through the alcoholic guy. Everyone on Earth was lied to. The Martians curbstompped Earth's military with probably just a single Cataphract. It was likely over in an instant. Then the Earth governments covered it up, and the alcoholic was made to look like a cowardly idiot who ran from battle rather than one of the very few survivors.

Not knowing how ridiculously badly they were defeated, the remaining forces deluded themselves into thinking they were being sneaky about rebuilding their military. In all likelihood, the Martians have known the entire time they were rebuilding and training and didn't give a shit.

It's not like infiltrating is particularly hard...

[lelouch]

Eh?
It's very clearly more of a Gundam/CodeGeass vibe to it

I gave this series another chance solely because you said that, and now I hate you forever because it certainly doesn't have a Code Geass vibe to it and you got my hopes up. Definitely agree with the Gundam/Valvrave twist though. I'll give it a few more episodes, I think it will pick up.

[Buffalobiian]

He did say that the Martians were fighting for their lives on the moon though. Perhaps securing the warp gate on the moon (or rebuilding it?) was crucial to their survival somehow. It may be their only link with Mars (resource or otherwise).

As for the armour, it had two modes: walk through things and keep it intact or walk through things and disintegrate them. Inaho made a pretty good, albeit lucky call there based on what he saw.

[lelouch]

This they did cover, through the alcoholic guy. Everyone on Earth was lied to. The Martians curbstompped Earth's military with probably just a single Cataphract. It was likely over in an instant. Then the Earth governments covered it up, and the alcoholic was made to look like a cowardly idiot who ran from battle rather than one of the very few survivors.

Not knowing how ridiculously badly they were defeated, the remaining forces deluded themselves into thinking they were being sneaky about rebuilding their military. In all likelihood, the Martians have known the entire time they were rebuilding and training and didn't give a shit.

I have no idea how you caught this. I did not realize this AT ALL. Are other people in my shoes too or is it just because I watched both episodes high as shit.

[KrayZ33]

This they did cover, through the alcoholic guy. Everyone on Earth was lied to. The Martians curbstompped Earth's military with probably just a single Cataphract. It was likely over in an instant.

But then I can't explain what made them sign a peace treaty, sure, the hypergate exploded - but why? Earths technology isn't that advanced, the mechs were created after the first war if I'm not mistaken. So how did they even send military forces to the moon... on top of that, they must have managed to pass all the martian fortifications orbiting around earth (Knight-castles)

[Ryllharu]

I gave this series another chance solely because you said that, and now I hate you forever because it certainly doesn't have a Code Geass vibe to it and you got my hopes up.

Uhh...it absolutely does have many of the same elements in its setting.

Slaine = Suzaku
Cold and calculating protagonist (too soon to say) = cold and calculating protagonist who gets emotional
Princess = Euphemia (and probably CC as well)
Scheming corrupt nobles = scheming corrupt nobles
Martians = Brittania (and their corresponding overwhelming power by comparison)
Earth = Area 11
Cruhteo = [redacted!] (converting him to their side is the endgame, doesn't look like he's in on the conspiracy)
etc.

The general political setting shares the same with basically every Gundam series ever, which Geass copied as well. That's why I said Gundam/Geass.

[Xelbair]

Yes, Marsians are way to advanced technologically for the Terrans to even hope of opposing them.
It might be that Marsians found all of those toys after the war.

They've adapted the tech found on mars - i recall something like that being implied.

An armor that desintegrates anything that touches it... thought about it long ago, I wonder if that one can convert the matter directly into usable energy tough. For some reason, it seems that power is limited to a maximum volume per second of matter disintegration, explaining why he didn't want to use it to follow the vehicule into the underground tunnel.

I would rather say that even if he was disintegrating the tunnel, he wouldn't be able to visually track them.

Of course, that weapon was used on people. It should deal some psychological damage to people witnessing someone dying that way. But it seems that teenager kept his stoïc face for some reason.

He was clearly in shock, at least that's what i think.




Enemies are clearly based on Clans from Battletech.
Superior technology, better training, and only thing that can make them lose is their arrogance and esp 'do not retreat from lesser threats' mentality... where everyone else is a lesser threat.

This they did cover, through the alcoholic guy. Everyone on Earth was lied to. The Martians curbstompped Earth's military with probably just a single Cataphract. It was likely over in an instant. Then the Earth governments covered it up, and the alcoholic was made to look like a cowardly idiot who ran from battle rather than one of the very few survivors.

Not knowing how ridiculously badly they were defeated, the remaining forces deluded themselves into thinking they were being sneaky about rebuilding their military. In all likelihood, the Martians have known the entire time they were rebuilding and training and didn't give a shit.

It's not like infiltrating is particularly hard...

Well yeah, it was clearly shown in the flashbacks.

[KrayZ33]

They've adapted the tech found on mars - i recall something like that being implied.

But did they manage to adapt the technology before - or after the first war?

If before (which is what I believe happened):
Why didn't the Martians win the war?

It sounds and looks like all of the flying castles were in earth's orbit for the last 15 years, why exactly do they need a Casus Belli in the first place

If after:
Why did they even go to war against Earth back then? they are (most likely) a relatively small colony compared to Earth's population and depend on its ressources and manpower etc.