Super Official Anime Discussion Thread

[sundin13]

Aldnoah.Zero S1 Complete Thoughts (spoilers):

I've been quite vocal about my thoughts on Aldnoah.Zero, but each time, I included that the season wasn't over and there was still time for change. Well, now the season is over, so do I think think that the last few episodes made up for the failing of the first few? Short answer: no. Unfortunately, AZ never really elevated itself past being just another forgettable mech anime.

The Characters: The characters are both the strongest and weakest aspect of AZ. To me, it seems that this is a character based show, focusing strongly on character actions, motives and relationships. While some characters manage to make themselves interesting (mainly Inaho and Slaine (until the end...there is no personal conflict, why is the story pretending there is?)), the rest sort of just blubber along, not really developing in the way they should.

None of the villains manage to work themselves up to anything interesting, all motivated by inane goals which are not logically sound. The main villain is even given a shallow "I need to get revenge" motivation, yet his revenge is entirely misplaced. They are not relate-able, they are not interesting, they are just there to push along the conflicts on the ground.

So are the conflicts on the ground any better? Well, a little bit. The actions of a certain character in episodes 9-10 are interesting enough, and some of the characters manage to be mildly interesting. I have heard both good things and bad about the main character Inaho and I think I fall somewhere in the middle. He is an interesting character for the fact that he is different, but unfortunately, that also makes him difficult to relate to. His placidity should be disturbed more violently, so we can see that there is at least a little bit of human under that shell to make him interesting.

I also want to briefly talk about Marito who could have been an interesting character. Unfortunately, any subtlety to his character was thrown out the window, making him feel like more of a teen angst character than a genuine PTSD character. In better hands, Marito may have been interesting, but I now find myself sighing whenever he appears on screen, as he is one of the most predicable characters on the show.

Story: The plot of AZ is dominated by expectations. While the writer is Gen Urobuchi who often attempts to subvert expectations, this time he plays directly into them. The main character with next to no training somehow has the super mind powers to defeat these giant near invincible weapons in a crappy mech? Yeah, seems pretty played out. As previously stated, the villains motivations are quite weak and seem like a vehicle for progressing the plot on earth, which just isn't strong enough.

While I don't want to go too deep into spoiler territory, I just need to say that the ending was worse than the ending of Death Note. What an absolutely garbage way to end the season...

Conclusion: AZ is a generic mech anime and really nothing more. The characters are weak and the plot is weak, so surprisingly the best part are the mech battles, where you can just sit back and turn your brain off. Unfortunately, the show doesn't even succeed as mindless blockbuster fun, because it expects the audience to be emotionally engaged without giving them a reason to be. AZ fumbles along every turn and I really cannot recommend it to anyone.

3.5/10