Aldnoah.Zero

The discovery of a hypergate on the Moon once allowed the human race to teleport to Mars. Those who chose to settle there unearthed a technology far more advanced than that of their home planet, which they named "Aldnoah." This discovery led to the founding of the Vers Empire of Mars and a declaration of war against the "Terrans," those who stayed behind on Earth. However, a battle on the moon—later called "Heaven's Fall"—caused the hypergate to explode, destroying the moon and leading the two planets to establish an uneasy ceasefire.

Their peace was a fragile one, however. Fifteen years later, high school student Inaho Kaizuka witnesses the plotted assassination of the Vers Empire's Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia, who had come to Earth in hopes of repairing the relationship between the empire and its homeland. The ceasefire is shattered, and the Martians declare war on the Terrans once again. In the face of this insurmountable enemy, Inaho and his friends must now fight against the Vers Empire to settle the war once and for all.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kaizuka, Inaho Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Troyard, Slaine Main

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Vers Allusia, Asseylum Main

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Amifumi, Inko Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Kaizuka, Yuki Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Areash, Rayet Supporting

Misawa, Sachika Japanese

Marito, Kouichirou Supporting

Nakai, Kazuya Japanese

Magbaredge, Darzana Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Saazbaum Supporting

Ookawa, Tooru Japanese

Eddelrittuo Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Producer

Kurosaki, Shizuka Producer

Reviews

Jan 4, 2025

FrancoQ4inRed

Recommended

I liked the anime. It's well-crafted. The background story is told well, sometimes very condensed, but I think it's enough and interesting in just a few minutes.

It has good action, the battles are based on ingenuity and logic rather than pure power, which I like. It has good scenes, good designs of robots and machines. It has a good rhythm. I really liked the music, especially the ending that ends episode 4, "AlieZ." The anime moves you and keeps you hooked.

If I had to give it something irregular, it would perhaps be a little more emotional connection with Inaho, because although he is a character ... with a phlegmatic character, in my opinion, I feel that he lacked some way or element to connect with the viewer at the level of his motivation or his relationship with the rest of the characters.

In addition, it has some suggestive shots that don't quite make ecchi (and that's why it doesn't make me too much noise), but, personally, it's not something I look for in an anime. It's a bit unnecessary and that exposition time could be used in other aspects and tell something more or round out some scene with better details.

Overall, highly recommended and looking forward to seeing season 2.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 10, 2022

Caroline_Hamel

Mixed Feelings

Aldnoah.Zero is an anime with a lot of potential for a morally gray plot and characters that goes beyond simple action. It has an exhilarating, tense, and gripping premise from the first episode and the second and third continue this premise with seemingly high stakes and a war that looks complex, misguided, and morally gray.

After those three episodes though, it becomes increasingly apparent that there are no stakes and hardly any complex characters. The anime sets up an interesting plot and high tension, only to show mostly shallow characters and a more black-and-white conflict than it seems to want to portray, all with action that's ... meant to be tragic, but that comes off as mindless fanfare. That's not to say this anime has strengths and I'll get to that, but let me just say that Slaine completely carries this anime and the themes of the show. This honestly is a show I normally wouldn't have watched and would have dropped it if not for Slaine (I'm not really into war/action heavy shows and mechs).

As I said earlier, Aldnoah.Zero relies on the stakes of the first three episodes, as well as its morally gray war plot, but fails in the execution, when nearly all of one of the two sides are portrayed as clearly evil, cartoonish villains. Pretty much all the characters are bland and lacking depth. Any plotlines and characters with more complex and morally gray intentions are dropped about a quarter of the way through the show, with the exception of Slaine, who honestly carried this show.

The themes of the show are personified in Inaho vs. Slaine - its central rivalry and creates a very clear contrast between them: fighting for different things, but ultimately similar reasons, setting up an interesting enough distinction. They're more alike than not, but what separates them is their choices, a meaningless war, misunderstanding, and continuously taking action against each other. Personally, I think Inaho is boring, monotone, and too perfect. This somewhat works to set up a contrast between the very emotional Slaine to the more controlled Inaho. That said, I've heard arguments that Inaho could be autistic, which would make me like him better, because in that case, I think that would make me understand (or try to understand) his characterization more (though I can't claim to know whether or not it was intentional or executed well, since I'm not autistic myself).

I'm going to focus a section on Slaine because he's the only character with any consistent depth and in my opinion, the only salvageable part of this anime.

Slaine is an amazingly active protagonist from the first few episodes, despite all the odds (on both sides) literally being against him (and he does fail a lot). He's sympathetic and morally gray, but he's trying his best to do what's right against basically everyone in the show. Slaine carried this show (at least for me) and was the most developed, one of the few complex and morally gray characters, and an incredibly tragic, sympathetic character and an underdog. He makes his decisions and decides where he stands and what's right very early in the show. He makes several impulsive decisions in the heat of the moment and you'll either love him or hate him for it. He's emotionally expressive and driven largely by his emotions. Granted, he could easily be seen as obsessive and you could argue his intentions (and the consistency of his character in season 2, which honestly, I can see both sides). It's definitely interpretable whether he was a good person or not. I don't think he's a completely healthy person in some ways, but I don't think he's a bad person. I think he's an empathetic person with good intentions, trying to do the right thing, even if his choices are questionable sometimes.

I want to bring it back to stakes, tension, and threat of loss and failure. Again, they're only present in the first three episodes. The end of season one was to me a peak moment in the show and part of me really hoped they ran with that and did something that would have been so unpredictable, interesting, and new.

I did cry a bunch on this series, but for me, it was only emotional because of Slaine.

While I'm not the biggest fan of Hiroyuki Sawano, his music really fits to large, war-heavy action shows that are grand in their scope. Despite personal preference, he's a great composer. The score was heavy, tense, epic, and adrenaline-heavy for much of the anime and he excels in an epic sound that suited the anime. I don't think I've figured out how to critique him yet, but I can clearly see why people love his style. What I loved were the tragic, emotional pieces, which really hit me hard in the emotional scenes, especially the two versions of Harmonious associated with Slain and Assailum and Lemrina's theme. I think he's underapreciated for that really.

I also loved the first opening (Heavenly Blue), sung by Kalafina and composed by Yuki Kajiura. It's a very interesting mix of beautiful vocals and a more thumping, lower, pronounced, almost gritty feel - like the ideals and tragedy of the war and the beauty of what could and should have been, alongside it's warped reality. It's a really creative piece and I always love Kalafina's vocals.

I found the production and animation to be high. This anime does look nice.

Season 1 Rating: 5
Season 2 Rating: 4

Review by Caroline Sophia Hamel (she/her)

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 10, 2024

CBMiura

Not Recommended

Aldnoah.Zero it's just bad.

I personally don't enjoy mecha that much, so if you are just like me, you'll probably gonna dislike this anime.

The characters seems kinda off, totally underdeveloped. The story doesn't lead to anywhere. The only solid thing about this anime it's the animation.

The characters lack a lot of things and they can be really annoying and nonlogical(?), the anime fails to built anything that will back up the characters actions. Looks like a brainstorm that didn't filter anything and produced this anime. It's just appailling.

As I already said, the only "good" thing about this, it's the animation, and even with this, it's ... not worth watching. I wouldn't recommend this even if it's the only thing left in the world.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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