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[SOLDIER]

What Is It?

Aldnoah Zero is an upcoming anime premiering on July 5th centered around an interplanetary war between Earth and Mars. The Martians in this story are not your typical alien invaders, but humans who left Earth to form their own colony. With separate ideologies and no hope of a peaceful coexistence, the two governments have begun an unavoidable war that will bring many innocent people into the conflict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-7XIIR8f-Y

What's so special about this one?

On the outset, the story sounds like a typical Gundam scenario, where neither side is outright good or evil, with a bloody war that draws in different factions of people ranging from middle class to nobility.

However, there are quite a few big names attached to this project. Chief among them is writer Gen Urobuchi, whose previous works have brought about wholesome stories that were filled with heartwarming fun for the whole family.

The story is described at featuring heavy tones, with Man of Steel cited as a main source of inspiration....because of course Urobuchi would unironically love that movie. Though his role in this series seems to be that of story planner (as ambiguous as that sounds), the concept of warring ideologies and the bloody road to justice has long been an Urobutcher trademark. On that alone, Aldnoah Zero is my most anticipated anime this season, which is why I've made a discussion thread about it.

Here's a copy/paste of the main cast (the original source also features several more minor characters):

Natsuki Hanae as Inaho Kaizuka
He is anything but passionate, and he operates on logic, rather than emotions.

Kensho Ono as Slaine Troyard
His family were relative newcomers among those who migrated from Earth to Mars.

Sora Amamiya as Asseylum Vers Allushia
She is a pacifist who carries the aura of a princess.

Gen Urobuchi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet) is writing the series with Fate/Zero director Ei Aoki at A-1 Pictures and TROYCA. Katsuhiko Takayama is in charge of the series scripts. Manga artist Takako Shimura (Wandering Son, Sweet Blue Flowers) provided the original character designs, which Atsuko Matsumoto is adapting for the anime. I-IV and Kenji Teraoka are designing the mecha, and Hiroyuki Sawano is scoring the music.

Pop trio Kalafina will perform the opening theme song "Heavenly blue."

The series will premiere on July 5 on the Tokyo MX TV, BS11, Tochigi TV, Gunma TV stations, as well as on the niconico streaming service in Japan.

Everybody get their Butcher Bingo cards ready!

 

[scytheavatar]

I am going to say now that this is going to suck:

- Aniplex tried an all star original mecha series with Guilty Crown and look at how it turned out.

- Gen Urobuchi is just original creator and not scriptwriter. And his last mecha series didn't turn out well

- Looks generic as hell and mecha design is ugly

Knights of Sidonai proved that you can make good mecha at this day of age if you are original and rely on things other than robot porn. Unfortunately this doesn't look like something that can be good.

 

[Dynedom]

Hype!

 

[SOLDIER]

I am going to say now that this is going to suck:

- Aniplex tried an all star original mecha series with Guilty Crown and look at how it turned out.

- Gen Urobuchi is just original creator and not scriptwriter. And his last mecha series didn't turn out well

- Looks generic as hell and mecha design is ugly

Knights of Sidonai proved that you can make good mecha at this day of age if you are original and rely on things other than robot porn. Unfortunately this doesn't look like something that can be good.

It sounds like Urobuchi is more heavily involved with the story in this series than he was with Gargantia (of which he only wrote a couple of episodes and it doesn't sound like it was his idea to begin with). I'm still hoping he oversees/writes a lot of the main plot points here, but at the very least it looks like he set up the framework for the story. The subtitle "Let Justice Be Done, Though The Heavens Fall" is precisely the kind of thing he would come up with.

Also, Gargantia was fine for what it was, as a semi slice of life story meant to ask the question "What does the alien-killing mecha war hero do after the battle is over?".

 

[StormKing]

This show seems very ambitious. Especially with the producer hoping to "surpass Gundam". I feel that it will be examined more critically than other series due to this. Hopefully, it doesn't prove to be lacking.

That said, I'm still expecting a solid mecha show with good fights, character deaths, love triangles and suffering.

 

[Awrans]

i hated suisei no gargantia, hope this show is going to be totally different.

 

[SOLDIER]

Just saw the first episode. So far the hype I had has been fully justified.

I still don't know how much of the writing was handled by Urobuchi himself, but you can clearly see the Butcher influence all over.

Spoiler

Character shows signs of optimism and general love for humanity: dead (though I'd say odds are good that it was a body double ala Padme)

Cynical alcoholic/smoker (in this show's case, it's alcoholic) with prior history of the main threat

Speeches about how the opposing side has their own ideals and how they shouldn't be taken lightly

Cool-headed, possibly emotionally broken main character

The bullied character (Slaine...I can already tell he's going to be Urobuchi's punching bag in this series, as I already found him more sympathetic than Inaho

The soundtrack is also incredible so far.

 

[RoeBear]

I generally liked this first episode. I'll continue to watch until something really irks me.

Spoiler

The whole slip of the princess dying would be good for war economy or whatever was a bit too much obviousness imo.

 

[Defuser]

They should seriously stop name touting urobuchi, he didn't write majority of Gargantia and for this one too. The only show he is writing full time is Kamen Rider Gaim.

 

[zulux21]

first episode was alright, decent paint by numbers set up episode (aka you knew exactly what would happen as the episode progressed if you have seen anything of this genre before) but nothing special.... seems like a pretty generic mech battle set up to me.

hoping the cast and plot will get more interesting as we go on and manage to distinguish itself a bit. At the very least there doesn't seem to be a ton of action shows this season so as long as the mech battles are well done it should at least be worth watching.

 

[Parallax]

No gaim mention in the op?

 

[ColossalLazy]

Alright first episode, it was a set up for the background of the world.

About the princess

Spoiler

I think she is not dead. It is probably that girl that was accompanying her. I will be damned if she is lol

 

[Awrans]

i hated suisei no gargantia, hope this show is going to be totally different.

Okay, this show was totally different.

I generally liked this first episode. I'll continue to watch until something really irks me.

Spoiler

The whole slip of the princess dying would be good for war economy or whatever was a bit too much obviousness imo.

Spoiler

Well, that was obvious since that man in red and his fellows were hoping and planning to get to such a result. From the moment i saw the princess i knew that Gen would kill her lol. Who knows she may still be alive.

 

[Anko]

An okay episode so far, nothing too exciting. I think it has potential. Nitroplus staff urging everyone to at least watch till ep 03. Now why does that sound so familiar? Charlotte, is that you?

I don't think the

Spoiler

princess is dead, due to the choice of not showing us the princess's face and only the back of her head, with her not making a single sound.

. Camera placement tends to give everything away.

And man, Sawano is obnoxiously loud. And there's a track that does nothing but remind me of SnK, his only other show that I watched. His vocal BGM tracks also does nothing for me. I say this as a hardcore Kajiura fan, so I do not dislike vocal tracks in general.

 

[Xamdou]

Out of all the new summer animes this is the one I enjoyed the most. Got some Gundam Wing vibes from this anime, Inaho having no personality like Heero and Asseylum like Relena Darlian being the pacifist princess.

 

[Awrans]

Delete this post plz.

 

[Defuser]

Sneak preview on what happen to the

Spoiler

Princess.

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

Just mentioning this, this series will be 2 seasons with a break between them. So it will start back up in winter after the summer course ends.

I think I remember reading up Urobuchi will be writing only the first three episodes. Maybe I am wrong lol but yeah.

 

[duckroll]

Didn't even know there was an OT for this, lol. We've been posting most of the discussion and impressions in the Anime thread. Anyway I'll just quote my impressions of ep1, from the thread.

Aldnoah.Zero - Episode 1

Fucking loved this. It's definitely Fate/Zero with mechs. I'm kinda surprised it's an alternate reality timeline. I thought it was just set in the future. I really like the way the composite looks on this show. I guess Ei Aoki learned a thing or two while directing stuff at Ufotable. There's a really nice clean look to the scenes and the lighting looks very pleasant, especially in daylight. Good premise, cool robots, decent set of characters, and even the Sawano music didn't sound awful! <3

 

[Ruuppa]

40 years and they have a monarchy and are openly discriminating against the people of the earth as lower caste. They've also had a war in between sometime. Time flies.

Fun start, gonna watch.

 

[LMN]

Was hoping for a thread for this one =), I really dig the design, the story, and DAT tagline ever since I saw the PV, let's hope it's live up to its hype, next week can't come soon enough

 

[todd360]

I liek justice.

First episode was good.

 

[Ninjimbo]

I thought it was really good. It felt Fate/Zero-ish which is a good thing in my mind. The ending kind of shocked me with how macabre it was, but then again, I don't usually watch mecha shows. That kind of destruction is new to me.

 

[SOLDIER]

I thought it was really good. It felt Fate/Zero-ish which is a good thing in my mind. The ending kind of shocked me with how macabre it was, but then again, I don't usually watch mecha shows. That kind of destruction is new to me.

I guess you're new to Urobuchi shows too.

This is just the start. He's pursing his hands and smiling wryly over what's to come.

Spoiler

I'll have to go back and check, but did the "princess" have Slaine's pendant during the attack?

 

[LMN]

I guess you're new to Urobuchi shows too.

This is just the start. He's pursing his hands and smiling wryly over what's to come.

Spoiler

I'll have to go back and check, but did the "princess" have Slaine's pendant during the attack?

I think

Spoiler

the main question would be whether the "princess" is the real one or not , but no, I did not see any pendant during the attack scene

 

[SOLDIER]

No gaim mention in the op?

No, but I'll mention it now. Gaim is great! Go watch it!

Also, regarding Slaine (and also a Gaim spoiler):

Spoiler

I can see his character go one of two ways.

Either he'll be the idealist who tries to stay loyal to his views of justice, and will thus consistently suffer for it (he was already bullied in the first episode just for being by the princess' side)

Or he'll pull a Micchy and slowly rise to power amidst all the chaos, abandoning his morals for the sake of obtaining everything he wanted.

Either way I can see Slaine being the main outlet for tragedy in this series.

 

[ambientmystic]

Very nice OT, OP.

I'm in the mood for an anime like this, it's been awhile since I've seen one and it was the absolutely brilliant Yamato 2199, so naturally I don't think I can go wrong with this.

Will watch when I can.

 

[Dragonborn]

No, but I'll mention it now. Gaim is great! Go watch it!

Also, regarding Slaine (and also a Gaim spoiler):

Spoiler

I can see his character go one of two ways.

Either he'll be the idealist who tries to stay loyal to his views of justice, and will thus consistently suffer for it (he was already bullied in the first episode just for being by the princess' side)

Or he'll pull a Micchy and slowly rise to power amidst all the chaos, abandoning his morals for the sake of obtaining everything he wanted.

Either way I can see Slaine being the main outlet for tragedy in this series.

I really hope it's the latter.

 

[SOLDIER]

Re-watched the first episode's climax.

Spoiler

We never get a view of the princess' front during the attack, so we never get confirmation if she was wearing Slaine's pendant. However, I'm certain the pendant will turn up as the ultimate clue that she had survived the attack. I place bets that the person who was killed was a decoy.

Which leads to the real question: was she aware of the attack ahead of time? Did she plot to fake her own death for some other, possibly sinister purpose? Were all those claims about peace between the two governments a ruse?

 

[ambientmystic]

Okay, I've just seen it.

Really, really good stuff, and they've somehow managed to cram everything that we needed to know about the background of the worlds and the prior conflicts in just 20 odd minutes.

Unfortunately, that left precious little time for the characters themselves. Hopefully it'll be rectified in the next few episodes, although we can already see the potential myth-arcs that are to come. Can't make a judgement call in that department yet, but I think it's about time anime had a capable leading man with ice in his veins once again, just like Heero Yuy from Wing. God knows I've seen too many pussyfied/simping male protagonists in these mecha shows that have had to start from rock bottom and only get semi=decent in the last 2 episodes of the series lol.

I really like the design of the Earth mechas which seem to be more industrial in nature as compared to the Martians, which are more organic looking and curvier (from the brief glimpses that we caught of them).

 

[SOLDIER]

Unfortunately, that left precious little time for the characters themselves.

It seems to also be a staple of Urobuchi's to develop his characters during the main crisis, not before. Expect to learn about the characters through osmosis as they move forward in the story.

Psycho-Pass is a prime example of this, as it slowly gave you information about each character through their dialog, quirks, and even random clutter on their desks. Heck, they even casually unveiled

Spoiler

how two characters were directly related

despite it not being a major twist or anything.

 

[sonicmj1]

Reposting from the anime community thread:

Aldnoah Zero 1

There's a lot more good than bad here.

Reading impressions [in the anime community thread] about Urobuchi exposition let me know what to expect, but it was still about as bad as I'd been led to believe. Maybe this is just a necessary evil of trying to cram the start of a huge story into a 23-minute episode, but I know at least some of the people involved can do better. Perhaps it's not fair to compare it to the 75-minute Leftovers pilot, but that manages to communicate pretty much everything the viewer needs to know about a cult while barely using words, while this show thinks so little of me that it needs to say that the kids who were shown with robots doing military drills are piloting a "manned humanoid weapon". A lot of the light characterization stuff is a necessary evil, but at least use the time you have on things that matter. Instead of on ironic shooting star stuff.

I'm probably nitpicking, but I don't need all these details that the characters probably wouldn't say to get the important parts of this information.

But writing cynicism aside, the grand sweep of this episode was damn cool. We get a great sense of visual contrast between the glossy metal of the Martian ships and the Earth. Things blow up great. There's more lens flare than I think I've ever seen in an anime. And given the time constraints, the show moves really smoothly between about five completely disparate character perspectives without ever feeling the slightest bit incoherent. I love how the show built tension during the parade, using the visuals to create drama while anchoring us to the student group through audio. Ei Aoki has always excelled at that stuff, so he's the perfect man for the job on something as ambitious as this show.

It feels like we're one episode away from whatever the plot is actually kicking off, but I feel like all the production pieces besides the writing are absolutely there, and there's plenty to build an exciting story from. I'll definitely be watching this week to week.

 

[Ninjimbo]

I guess you're new to Urobuchi shows too.

This is just the start. He's pursing his hands and smiling wryly over what's to come.

Spoiler

I'll have to go back and check, but did the "princess" have Slaine's pendant during the attack?

I've only seen a few of his shows, but I know his reputation. I wasn't expecting the tragedy to start so soon. It's awesome though.

 

[Lord Ghirahim]

I liked ep1, I'm expecting good things.

 

[Kyuur]

The landing scene was so good. So good.

 

[SonicX_Zero]

So far so good I love everything they have shown so far and also I'm already hooked to heavenly blue. As for the princess

Spoiler

I think it was the loli acting as her body double since they have the same hair style. :3

 

[Dedication Through Light]

We had an OT all this time?

One of my favorite mecha in years, I check the pixiv tag all the time for that Slaine. He's quite a great character in the mecha genre and I have huge hopes for him and his aspirations, I just know he'll make the right decisions and help with whatever may come to confront him. I also hope he runs in with Inaho pretty soon.

The politics and war between those of mars and those of earth over whatever it is they found on Mars as well as their Heaven's Fall background makes it one of the more compelling concepts that just sticks with one while airing.

 

[EmpReb]

It seems to also be a staple of Urobuchi's to develop his characters during the main crisis, not before. Expect to learn about the characters through osmosis as they move forward in the story.

Psycho-Pass is a prime example of this, as it slowly gave you information about each character through their dialog, quirks, and even random clutter on their desks. Heck, they even casually unveiled

Spoiler

how two characters were directly related

despite it not being a major twist or anything.

About Psycho-Pass. the First Reairing of season was is crazy good. They added two mongol scenes that add A LOT for the rewatching of the show... heck I will say the make it all the better.

Aldnoah Zero. First episode was exactly how Urobutcher would act.

Spoiler

I bet the princess is dead. Just will shown in flash backs per how Blassreiter did similar things.

 

[zulux21]

another episode out, another paint by numbers expected outcome of the genre.... only thing that slightly surprised me was how absolutely one sided the tech is, but I am sure

Spoiler

Mr. Emotionless will find some sort of beta/ancient weapon that can compete against the martians to help save his friends. If he finds just normal training stuff and somehow takes down stuff I will likely just stop watching as it would be to stupid to bother continuing.

Anyways I am not minding the show, despite the plot going exactly as I would expect it to, it's still a decent watch with some decent action scenes thus I will continue watching.

edit: I also found it weird how much some scenes felt like attack on titan, even with the background music sounding similar lol

 

[LMN]

Good episode so far,

Spoiler

as many suspected, the princess is still alive.

Love the op and ed song, though imo I feel the op animation is a little bit underwhelming

 

[Frog-fu]

Really liking this thus far.

 

[Pooya]

aldnoah 2

I loved it

+good tension all the way, the whole episode had varied pieces, in the sky, on the ground, I liked the big scale it was showing.

+I like their CGI, because the framerate is not horribly low like elsewhere usually is, what they did with shading makes the objects gel well enough, it's not perfect but I like how surfaces don't have a glossy shiny look to them.

+I like Inaho, this is how mecha mc should be now not another baka Shinji clone. He doesn't scream his emotions out but doesn't look like he's a robot though, don't get the complaints.

o kill la kill soundtracks works well here...
o the ED artworks look very pretty, it's just that there is no animation so nothing special.

-OP is meh
-The extremely one sided battle was disappointing. I actually like real military units and earth mechas look cool too but what's the point when they're redundant and useless. hopefully they are not entirely replaced by Jesus mecha in future...
-the story is very by the books and predictable so far
-the bad guy behind the attack is so comical evil type, though obviously he's just a scrub little guy, hope there is more to the higher up guys.

I really enjoyed it overall, definitive watch for me

 

[Blusby]

another episode out, another paint by numbers expected outcome of the genre.... only thing that slightly surprised me was how absolutely one sided the tech is, but I am sure

Spoiler

Mr. Emotionless will find some sort of beta/ancient weapon that can compete against the martians to help save his friends. If he finds just normal training stuff and somehow takes down stuff I will likely just stop watching as it would be to stupid to bother continuing.

Spoiler

It was implied that the Aldnoah's invulnerability shielding has a limited timespan, I'm sure strategies will be made around that key piece of information.

 

[Dynedom]

Cross-posting from the Anime OT

Aldnoah Zero - 02

Oh boy. I'm getting Guilty Crown vibes from this. Maybe it's the comically over-the-top villain?

Then some of this writing. I mean, mechanime (or any anime for that matter) have problems when they

Spoiler

kill off friends/family of an MC in the early game

but then to double down by having the MC

Spoiler

be almost completely unaffected by it or have pacing that makes it seem that way

just seems like a big no-no. I mean, even Black Bullet

Spoiler

handled death better

.

Also: what in the hell did

Spoiler

they think was going to happen to a person who tries to exit a high-speed vehicle? His heart may have been in the right place but come on.

The editing or arrangement of scenes seemed odd as well. What was the real point of showing

Spoiler

the MC meeting the princess

in such a way. Why not show that before

Spoiler

cutting to everyone in the truck?

Episode 03 will really show a lot (for good or bad). Mainly whether or not the MC is a robot.

 

[Deadly]

Aldnoah 2
Talk about one sided..... Has my interest at least but is so far kinda predictable.

Spoiler

Was the sister dead or just unconscious?

 

[Blusby]

Aldnoah 2
Talk about one sided..... Has my interest at least but is so far kinda predictable.

Spoiler

Was the sister dead or just unconscious?

Spoiler

She's just unconscious.

 

[Kettch]

Oh boy. I'm getting Guilty Crown vibes from this. Maybe it's the comically over-the-top villain?

Eh, it's not possible for this to reach Guilty Crown levels of terrible. Unless the MC takes a complete 180 and starts crying whenever he has to do anything.

 

[duckroll]

Episode 2

Yeah, that was really cool. I love Ei Aoki's blockbuster style direction. It's really cinematic, and especially when it comes to action scenes, there's this larger than life feel which isn't very common in anime. It's probably a good thing that this episode focused mostly on action and setting the tone of how lopsided the war is, because the first episode was pretty heavy on the exposition. Both the aerial and ground battle scenes were pretty well done, and there are clear similarities to Fate/Zero. I don't think it's quite as visually polished so far, but it's definitely promising. I love the design of the mechs too - especially the Martian ones. Reminds me of Escaflowne stuff, except in a modern day urban military environment.

Too bad about the music though! I was hoping Sawano would be able to restrain himself a little, but nope. I dunno why he has to default to using over the top musical vocals to highlight "big" scenes happening. It's just so.... cheesy.

 

[Jex]

Sawano and the Butcher are literally killing this show for me.

 

[SliceSabre]

Episode 2

Everything about the MC is ruining this show for me. When his

Spoiler

sister calls him and he's still at their house and not yet evacuating

I could feel something bend inside me. This is one of those shows that is better when the MC isn't around. I seriously hope for some massive improvments in his character though I expect nothing more than the shallow

Spoiler

'He saw his parents die in the war when he was a toddler, had to be raised by his older sister and has been emotionless ever since.'