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[phoenix296]

Episode 2

I'm really liking the mecha design. The CG isn't too bothersome to me as it seems pretty natural with the backgrounds they're presented in.

A lot of action so far, it seems Earth is pretty much done for when you compare the technology gap between the Martians and the Earthlings. I can see why they wanted to start training students in combat as early as high school because they knew Earth would be up against an opponent they have no chance against and they need as many able bodies as possible.

Character wise, we have some pretty over the top personalities so far with not a lot of character building or background. Hopefully we'll see more of the characters in later episodes.

 

[Lord Ghirahim]

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.

It's pre-emptive exposure therapy to prepare us for Xenoblade X.

 

[Puruzi]

This show seems pretty good, hope it keeps it up

 

[phaze]

Aldnoah.Zero 02

This was pretty good. Action packed and didn't bother with unnecessarily prolonging twists and reveals.

Fairly sure it was my first time meeting the CG future on such a scale and eh, I didn't like it much, at least here. Maybe will get used to it. Music didn't bother me at all though.

The way they're focusing on them, you would think the entirety of Vers ground forces is 36 mechs.

 

[Jex]

[Aldnoah.Zero] - 2

I really want to like this episode and this series as a whole, but I just can't. Certain parts about the series are just holding it back from legitimately good.

You know, the best part about following the anime industry fairly closely is that when I watch a show like this I know exactly to blame. I can point the finger at a specific person and say "Oi! You! Why did you do this?". In this case, my blame is not targeted at Ei Aoki, the director of this series. As always, his direction is impressive and confident. Watching his work you realise how sloppy and painfully average most directors in anime actually are. If this wasn't being directed by him I would have dropped this show immediately.

Instead, I have to blame Sawano and Urobuchi. Even though Sawano and Urobuchi have very different roles (composer and writer, respectively) they both constantly commit the same sin - the sin of being obnoxiously over-the-top. Neither of them seem to understand the concept of subtly or restraint.

Sawano can't stop himself from going ham in every action scene and it's very distracting. While it worked in an emotionally heightened and crazy series like Attack on Titan, Aoki's direction on Aldnoah.Zero is far more mature and refined, less 'anime' if you will, and so Sawano's overbearing score clashes badly with the tone set by the visuals.

Meanwhile, Urobuchi tries his best to make the writing clash with Aoki's direction. He doesn't understand that murdering people we don't even know or care about isn't interesting or 'edgy', it's just a waste of time. Neither can he stop himself from making the Martians scenery-chewing villains. I mean, really Urobuchi, can't they just be competent military commanders from a different faction, do they have to be cartoon characters? Does it serve any purpose apart from making the show feel ridiculous?

Also, please stop writing painfully obvious stuff like this for your characters to say. We don't need them to explain what's going on visually, have faith that your audience can work that out from the visuals alone for gods sake:

Now, I have a handful of specific complaints with the writing in this episode. Firstly we have Earthling military blokes spouting a bunch of nonsense:

What does this even mean? They've had just as long as you and they're completely superior in every way!

Is it really surprise? How can no-one has known? Didn't Earthlings clash with the Martians 15 years ago? So why do they have no-idea of their level of technology? Lt Mario whatever saw it with his own eyes, so the military must be aware how outclasses they are!

I can admit that this is a bit of a nitpick but:

Jamming communications and equipment has been part of warfare for a long time, don't talk it's some crazy idea that only Martians could think up.

What are you even talking about? Did you see the parts where that robot is defying the known laws of physics while you're sitting in a giant tin can?

Should they? They just tried something that had no effect, lets try it again! Dumb,

I'm not too thrilled with how everyone is reacting to the attack either. Most civilians seem completely unphased when their should be some serious panic, or at least some moaning and whaling. Instead everyone looks calm and board. The kids chat likes it's nothing even though a calamity is clearly occurring. Earth's greatest cities are being ruined, the end times are approaching etc. And yet everyone is calm and collected. This just doesn't ring true.

Oh, and don't tell me that the communications disruption is the reason either:

Do you see that shit? That's hundreds of thousands of dead people. Panic would be expected. It would be human.

Going back to my Turn A comparison, that show was much better in showing how people would react:

I know a number of people have commented on our emotionless MC but that doesn't bother me. It's so overt that you can be assured that it will be developed and explored later, which is fine by me.

I'm sure there will be pay off.

You already know my stance on CG and this wasn't even Orange tier. It was just ugly tier.

 

[duckroll]

The way they're focusing on them, you would think the entirety of Vers ground forces is 36 mechs.

I think they are. Each knight pilots a mech, everyone else is either manning the landing castles or flying transport. What else would they need? Their mechs are just -that- good.

 

[Mortemis]

Felt indifferent to this episode, and it definitely dropped my hopes down quite a bit when it comes to how the show is going to end up. To be fair, most of the problems I have with it were there last episode, but I felt more optimistic since it was interesting and brand new, seeing them pop up again sucked.

Some things I liked:
-The action was pleasing to see, I really like the martian mech designs and seeing them decimate earth's army was well, uhh, nice.
-Pacing felt better than last episode, it slowed down quite a bit which I thought it needed.
-Like duckroll said, I like the larger than life framing they did with the mechs and how the action scenes are handled. It really emphasizes that the martians are so dominate.

Some things I didn't like about it:
-The characters are so bleh it hurts. Especially the MC, I find his emotionless personality worse than Kiritsugu, who I was at least able to stand.
-Speaking about the MC, the way death is handled when it comes to the characters reacting sucks, the MC literally had his friend slip into death and his face barely even changed. It felt like an "oops" moment or something.
-I'm enjoying Slaine's moments much more than Inaho, he may not be the most interesting of characters but I can see what development he can go through and I'd rather see the war from his pov much more than Inaho's, but that's just as of right now.
-I can't relate or have any sympathy for the army who are just going out and getting blown up. Maybe that's what they want, but other than the sister kinda, there's nothing there for me to care about them getting annihilated, as of right now I'm with the martians to see some epic action.
-Music doesn't fit well with this show, KLK's soundtrack made sense for me but using it here didn't at all. Made it feel a bit cheesy.

If this can turn out better like F/Z did, I'll be incredibly happy. I didn't really enjoy the first two episodes of F/Z all that much so I'm definitely giving this some time, but my main problem is the MC and if he keeps this up he'll make watching this show much less entertaining.

Edit: Reading through Jexhius' review, I gotta agree that seeing everyone so damn calm and collected, and having teens have calm conversations when all hell is breaking loose is just stupid. Shit's going down, let's see everyone lose their minds from fear, not be all calm thinking that their mediocre army is gonna keep them safe or something.

So the writer is changing after episode 3 right? I'm hoping they can get someone that can really bring out the good, they have great directing, they just need the writing to match up.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

2

I thought the episode was just as interesting as the first. What is needed is at least explanation of the light of Aldnoah as well as what technology is powering their Martian Kataphrakts to make them on this level. Even if Inaho and friends can get into the mechs, have to wonder what effect theyll have unless their is some latent supernatural ability at work in this universe.

Spoiler

Slaine development is as compelling as Inaho, I imagine Slaine will end up becoming a bit stronger having seen these things and will switch sides upon seeing the princess perhaps. Im also guessing hes never taken any life before due to his fear and closing his eyes with Trillram and being silent after that. Maybe he'll stop Trillram from firing later in the anime. Inaho may see an emotional breakdown at one point, his character is acting and seemingly on that path due to his limited display of emotions.

Music is great especially with the vocal songs always kicking up at destructive brutal moments.

 

[Jarmel]

I think they are. Each knight pilots a mech, everyone else is either manning the landing castles or flying transport. What else would they need? Their mechs are just -that- good.

There is a post on Animesuki, where someone seemingly found some translation of part of the official website and it seems like the Martians are slightly impressed that the Earth Kataphrakts are mass produced.

For UFE's Cataphracts, they were first rolled out in 2003. So far two types are known, KG6 (orange and the school training use) and KG7 (greenish and the newer model), both types are 13meter in height. Unlike the unique VERS' Cataphracts, Earth's Cataphracts are mass produced and used as main weapon and also training tools. Even VERS' undercover agents expressed their thoughts on Earth's Cataphracts as a threat in their reports.

An excerpt from the agent report dated 12th April:
"Using military vehicles as base and revolutionizing their own technology, UFE managed to build prototypes and then mass produced their own Cataphracts within a short 2 years period after the war ended. Not only they did it in such a short period, their Cataphracts were also used in riot suppression and peacekeeping, proving their capabilities. Of note is the UEF's large scale production capability, with huge supply of material and human resources. We should not let our guard down. Further investigations are necessary to assess the UFE's Cataphracts' performance in actual combat..."

So I would take it that the Vers Kataphrakts are one-offs.

 

[Mortemis]

There is a post on Animesuki, where someone seemingly found some translation of part of the official website and it seems like the Martians are slightly impressed that the Earth Kataphrakts are mass produced. So I would take it that the Vers Kataphrakts are one-offs.

Do you think the MC and Earth are going to stick with these KG's, or are somehow going to get their hands on the Mars mechs? I can see them sticking with their own guns, from this episode I think they hinted that the god-like armor they have is only temporary, so I can see them just trying to go about and break through at the right time.

They are. They're Aldnoah relics, which means the Martian colonists didn't build them, they were left behind by the ancient Martian civilization. Alien weapons, overtechnology, etc.

Each knight gets one and the rest of the soldiers just man those flying castles. I think they said that there are 35 knights? Can't remember but 35 of those monsters is gonna be tough to overcome. They also said that each is basically acting independent from each other so I can see some sort of betrayalton or something.

 

[duckroll]

So I would take it that the Vers Kataphrakts are one-offs.

They are. They're Aldnoah relics, which means the Martian colonists didn't build them, they were left behind by the ancient Martian civilization. Alien weapons, overtechnology, etc.

 

[LMN]

I personally hope that the MC and earth will continue to use the Earth Cataphract and not get the over-powered Mar Cataphract later on. It would be a lot more interesting to find out how they have find a way to defeat each Mar Cataphract.

 

[Jarmel]

Do you think the MC and Earth are going to stick with these KG's, or are somehow going to get their hands on the Mars mechs? I can see them sticking with their own guns, from this episode I think they hinted that the god-like armor they have is only temporary, so I can see them just trying to go about and break through at the right time.

Not sure. If they go the Fate/Zero route then the show will be about Inaho out-tricking all the baka pilots into stupid stuff or thinking of strategies that takes advantage of any weakness the mechs have. In that Aldnoah will be this show's version of magic and just like in the Fate universe, that comes with a ton of restrictions and limitations.

 

[duckroll]

I took another look at the opening scenes in episode 2, and it's interesting to see how a bunch of shots with Martian mechs were actually 2D!

http://imgur.com/a/Iau70#0
http://imgur.com/a/sVPsQ

It reaaaaaaally sticks out when everything else is CG, including the backgrounds in some of those scenes!

 

[Xamdou]

Really digging this show! This and SAO2 are my two new favorites!!!!

 

[Narag]

oops

 

[ColossalLazy]

Ep 2

Well they sure were prepared after being curbstomped 15 years ago.

Its kind boggling that all they did was attack recklessly instead of gauging the enemy capabilities. Independence Day military was faaaaaaaaaaaaar more compentent.

I am pretty sure next episode or the another that the princess will save all of them with her powers of Aldnoah.

 

[Finalow]

http://imgur.com/a/Iau70#0
http://imgur.com/a/sVPsQ

yeah, those were pretty good. the rest was just really ugly, fuck CG.

the episode wasn't bad but I agree that the writing had some problems. especially everyone being so calm "no biggie, they're just destroying the planet" and the earthlings military just going in and getting slaughtered like dumb pigs. (or not showing any sort of plan after "preparing" for 15 years, at least not yet)

I actually liked the music during some of those scenes, especially that part with a vocalist (it lasted like 3 seconds I think?) near the end.

 

[BassForever]

Calling Inaho is actually a martian

 

[SOLDIER]

I know it's still early, but there are a few recurring criticisms I feel need addressing:

1. Lots of people are calling Inaho the MC of the series: they're half-right. The promotional material and the intro make it very clear that the protagonist role is shared in this series, with Inaho and Slaine having an equal role (to balance between Earth and Mars, naturally). Considering how little Inaho himself was even focused on in this episode, there will probably be multiple perspectives beyond him and Slaine.

2. Regarding Earth's military tactics against the Martians, it was mentioned that the much of the previous war was covered up by the government, to the point that the one person attesting to the Martian's tactics is being labeled a fraud. There's probably a legitimate reason to the cover-up that's kept much of the military in the dark.

3. I think the music is fine, I don't know why people seem to hate Sawano's compositions. If the action is over-the-top, the music should be fittingly so.

4. We've seen "people trampling over each other in a panic" so many times, it's refreshing to see evacuations occur in an orderly fashion. Sure, the former seems more plausible, but I don't see how people having their shit together qualifies as "unrealistic writing".

Episode 2:

Spoiler

Only the second episode and already shit has gotten real. This series might end up having the highest Butcher death-count yet.

1. The princess is (unsurprisingly) alive and in hiding. Whether or not she knew about the attack is still up for debate, but if that intro is any indication, there's much more to her than being an innocent catalyst to start this war.

2. Inaho is not right in the head. That was made expressly clear here. Not only do I think he wouldn't really be torn up if his sister died, I'm starting to think he didn't exactly hold onto his friend's hand for dear life (he did show an expression that kind of suggested "Hey, why aren't you keeping me from flying away?").

3. The conflict so far is extremely one-sided, both in power and sympathy. So far the Martians are complete assholes, especially that one guy, but it's far too soon to tell. Hopefully we get more diversity from both sides.

4. Slaine continues to be the bullied character of this series. I'm rooting for him, but I also know that tough times are ahead.

5. That girl they saved, meanwhile, is guaranteed to have a Bad End once they find out she had a hand in starting the war.

I thought the CG was also handled well, though that's also coming from recently watching Knights of Sidonia.

 

[Frog-fu]

Calling Inaho is actually a martian

Nah, he's just a brick.

 

[duckroll]

Calling Inaho is actually a martian

I called that on IRC earlier, but I can expand on it here! If I'm right at least I get worthless cookie points! I think he's probably Luke Skywalker. Instead of just the princess, there were probably twins, and the boy was hidden on Earth while the girl was taken back to Mars to be brought up by her grandfather. Since she's a girl, there wouldn't be a successful concern that could spark off a civil war. The plan was probably for the boy to grow up on Earth and not develop an indoctrinated hatred for a place he has never been to before, while the Martians kept a ceasefire. The princess might not really be on a "goodwill" mission so much as to bring her brother back, but the false flag operation derailed that first.

Let's see how much of that actually happens. Lol.

 

[CornBurrito]

Honestly I don't think the MC Inaho is emotionless. I think he was just legit shook.

 

[Jarmel]

I called that on IRC earlier, but I can expand on it here! If I'm right at least I get worthless cookie points! I think he's probably Luke Skywalker. Instead of just the princess, there were probably twins, and the boy was hidden on Earth while the girl was taken back to Mars to be brought up by her grandfather. Since she's a girl, there wouldn't be a successful concern that could spark off a civil war. The plan was probably for the boy to grow up on Earth and not develop an indoctrinated hatred for a place he has never been to before, while the Martians kept a ceasefire. The princess might not really be on a "goodwill" mission so much as to bring her brother back, but the false flag operation derailed that first.

Let's see how much of that actually happens. Lol.

So he's going to bang the princess right?

 

[duckroll]

So he's going to bang the princess right?

Nah, Slaine's Han Solo!

Spoiler

But he could bang his own sister once he finds out that he was actually adopted!

 

[CornBurrito]

Slaine is so fucking lame.

 

[Frog-fu]

Slaine is so fucking lame.

I'll take the stoic that at least feels something and outwardly shows it with hesitating to kill people over the emotionless husk of a human being that is Inaho, henceforth known as the human brick.

Team Slaine ftw.

 

[SonicX_Zero]

Ep 2 was really enjoyable I love how overwhelming the Martians are and I cant wait for ep. 3, now for some things regarding the show so far

-The way I see it Slaine is like Kiritsugu during his Kerry days, while Nao is like the older Kiritsugu and I'm curious as to how the story will explain what broke this guy and why he became stoic.

-Regarding Count Cruchteo's Kataphrakt

Spoiler

I think the reason Trillram stopped chasing them would most likely because his special shield wore off, I mean this mech practically just goes through everything like nothing and then all of a sudden he stops before a tunnel... wut?

 

[Xisiqomelir]

Saw a thread about this in /a/.

Really enjoying it so far.

 

[Branduil]

Aldnoah Zero 1

Was already rolling my eyes when that terribad Sawano song started playing over

Spoiler

people being incinerated

, and then this happened and my eyes rolled out of my skull.

As we all know, Aldnoah Zero is an anime that is being made by A-1 Pictures and directed by Ei Aoki, the director responsible for the animated television series Fate/Zero. The writer for Fate/Zero was Gen Urobuchi. He is also the writer for Aldnoah Zero. This is the reason that a lot of AnimeGAF(the term we affectionately use for ourselves) was excited for this show. Because we liked Fate/Zero. We liked it a lot. The composer for the series is Hiroyuki Sawano. He did the music for Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill. These are popular anime shows. People were not as excited about this. That's because they think his music is not very good.

Aldnoah Zero is a show set in an alternate future where 2001: A Space Odyssey happened. Except with giant robots. Giant robots, also known as mecha, are a popular genre in Japan. Giant robots used to be animated by hand, but now they are done with CGI. We call this duckroll's anime future, referring to an AnimeGAF in-joke about anime turning into CGI. We call it that because duckroll is known for defending the use of CGI in anime. By the way, CGI stands for computer generated imagery. People with robots blew up the moon 15 years ago, because of reasons.

Aldnoah Zero's first episode has a lot in common with the first episode of Fate/Zero. This is because both episodes have a lot of scenes of people talking about obvious information they would already know. This is a well-known writing technique called "As You Know." There is an extensive page on the website TVTropes explaining this. If it's overused it can be a very annoying form of exposition, because it requires characters to speak in unnatural ways, and it's boring. It is commonly thought better to explain things visually than with lots and lots of words. At least Aldnoah Zero's first episode is only half as long as Fate/Zero's.

In the last few minutes of the episode there are lots of explosions and people dying. This is good because it distracts us from the fact that nothing happened in the first three fourths of the episode. It would not even matter if the explosions are good because we are eager for anything to happen at that point. But they are pretty good explosions.

The important themes of Aldnoah Zero are racism and war. We know this because one characters beats up a boy, just because the boy is a different race. Racists are jerks. Why did he beat up that boy.

The racists also decide to blow up the Earth, because some people

Spoiler

blew up their princess.

Wow, that's a bit extreme, isn't it. Racists are jerks.

In conclusion, Aldnoah Zero episode 1 is an episode of anime where people talk about a lot of things. They talk about these things because it's a fictional world where we, the viewer of the anime, don't know what is going on. But it doesn't really seem like they would be talking about these things, realistically. It would be like someone from AnimeGAF explaining very basic things about anime that everybody in this thread already knows. That would be silly.

 

[duckroll]

Wow I can't believe you got it wrong again Branduil! First you got Ufotable wrong, and now after correcting it, you claim that A-1 Pictures animated Fate/Zero! Are you drunk?

 

[Branduil]

I don't know what you are talking about.

 

[duckroll]

I sense a time-space discrepancy...

 

[Turin Turambar]

Aldnoah Zero 2

A bit late to this but things I learned with this ep:

-The bad guys (except the one loyal to the princess, and who knows if he will turn coat eventually) are eeeeevil. What's the deal with evil guys and this season. Tokyo ESP, Tokyo Ghoul, Aldnoah Zero...
-The series is predictable.
+Predictably the terrorists were

Spoiler

martians acting from orders of the most military minded parts of their army, and of course the were evidence to be eliminated.

Predictably the bad guy

Spoiler

leaves one person to escape with the knowledge of truth so maybe that will be their downfall down the road.

Predictably

Spoiler

the princess is alive and one of the plot threads of the story will be her trying to reach fellow Martians and stop the war. And eventually learn the attack against her was an inside job I imagine.

-The Martians mechs are OP, there is no way to fight against them. Or humans have a secret weapon still not shown or they will capture a Martian mech or Slate will switch sides with one.
-The CG is ugly. In other series I didn't mind it a lot, but here it's especially jarring, they aren't trying to hide the 3dness.

So the series is starting to fail in the second episode. Am I supposed to feel anything AT ALL

Spoiler

when one of the teenager kids die?

 

[CornBurrito]

Aldnoah Zero 2


So the series is starting to fail in the second episode. Am I supposed to feel anything AT ALL

Spoiler

when one of the teenager kids die?

If the other characters are anything to go by, no you weren't supposed to feel anything.

 

[Cloudy]

Just saw ep 2. This show is awesome

OP and ED songs are so good

 

[ambientmystic]

Just watched the 2nd episode.

Should've waited for the 3rd and then binge watched, from my own mecha watching experience I expected the prodigious kid to pull off some miracle defying shiet against the Martians in this one using their own tech or something along those lines but I guess that's coming up in the 3rd episode.

Other than that it seems pretty predictable so far. Loving the death counts though, seems like no one has plot armour with the obvious exceptions. But then again, we haven't had enough time to get attached to any of them, so their deaths were quite meaningless to the audience.

Evil warmongering Martians not giving a single fuck is just the icing on the cake.

 

[SOLDIER]

If the other characters are anything to go by, no you weren't supposed to feel anything.

You know who else didn't feel anything?

http://i.imgur.com/uyw4U9t.jpg

 

[Haly]

Had a long post written up but GAF ate it.

TL;DR: Aldnoah sucks.

 

[Ninjimbo]

I liked the second episode. It was pretty exciting.

 

[BluWacky]

Only just gotten around to watching the first episode.

I'd probably quite enjoy reading the first half of the episode, as everyone else has said. It's very exposition heavy and only really sketches in characterisation in rough brushstrokes; throwing so many apparently significant figures at the audience so quickly is not always a brilliant idea.

The second half was vastly improved. The building of tension during the assassination attempt was very well handled in particular, and while the character art is not necessarily very attractive we saw some good action animation here. While it's trendy to hate on Sawano's bombast, I actually quite enjoyed two pieces of music in particular - the urgent strings during the missile attack and, yes, the overblown vocal. It's like Kajiura, except less played-out (to my mind, but that's probably more about how long I've been in fandom for).

I could do without so many "clever" lines of dialogue - Branduil's example above of the hamfistedly ironic "I wished for world peace!" scene was a good one - but otherwise the story is perhaps more interesting than I might have hoped. It's the right side of pulp for me - I'm not really into big political genre stories, but the whole ancient technology thing could be interesting.

If only the lead character weren't so dead emotionally...

Anyway, might watch the second ep at some point. Who knows?

 

[Jex]

Had a long post written up but GAF ate it.

TL;DR: Aldnoah sucks.

Wow, really? Lame. This is why I generally recommend writing up longer posts in a writing program of some sort.

 

[Pooya]

I read up a bit on the timeline and other info covered by the pass protected meta game on their site, the setting is actually pretty cool to me and I think I understand the characters, nations and their tech better, I'm less confused now. Despite all the exposition in first episode I think they did a terrible terrible job introducing the world and the alternate history now, I was thinking way off lol.

 

[sonicmj1]

Episode 2

I think Jexhius's posts line up with my criticisms very well. Ei Aoki's direction is great. The whole sequence with the simultaneous Martian assaults on different parts of the world was some really strong visual storytelling, so it's a shame that the mustache-twirling Martian villains and dumb military guys had to talk over parts of it.

I really want to like this show. I trust what they're doing with Inaho (there are some smart choices made to not show his gut reactions to things), the setting has great potential, and it's been really well-directed so far. But every time I think about the writing I get caught yearning for what could have been.

This should be a total no-brainer, but I still have reservations about it. Hopefully it turns the corner after Gen stops writing episodes.

 

[Haly]

Wow, really? Lame. This is why I generally recommend writing up longer posts in a writing program of some sort.

It wasn't that long, I just got carried away with my complaints.

It built upon your post, and the gist of it is that Aldnoah, as military sci fi, has the same problems as LOGH did, with none of the charm to vindicate its flaws. Both shows have a fascination with 18th century imperialist monarchies (Germany for LOGH, Russia for Aldnoah). Both shows are very disingenuous with regards to warfare (LOGH is Franco-Prussian war IN SPACE, Aldnoah is Iraq War(?) WITH MECHAS). Both shows have fucked up timelines that don't really stand up under scrutiny

Despite their advanced robotics, all the Earth forces managed to do is turn their human infantry into bigger infantry wielding bigger guns. Many modern day weapon technologies are missing entirely. Battleships, long range artillery, nukes, UAVs. And this is ignoring all the theoretical stuff being developed by militaries all around the world.

The conflict so far is like watching that farmer guy fight Raditz at the beginning of DBZ, not warfare between two belligerent nations, however large the technological disparity is.

And then there's this:

We know these mechs have a kind of disintegration field around them, yet the purple mech was running rather heavily on solid ground, leading me to believe that that area isn't shielded. The reasonable tactic would be to shoot the ground to try to destabilize it. Furthermore, since these mechs are capable of wireless communication, it means their shielding must not work against all frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum, so radiation/electromagnetic weaponry might work against them as well.

Not a single person in Aldnoah commented or realized any of this. It's just mindless panic. This is not how militaries behave, at least, I hope not. And certainly not militaries who have been preparing for "15 years".

EDIT: Welp, there's the post. I sure love complaining.

 

[victreeb3l]

I agree with Jexhius with a few points he mentioned about the military. You had 15 years to prepare and knew they did jamming but then youre surprised when they did it? Cmon bro.

Otherwise, I'm starting to enjoy this a lot. Mad people died.

And none of these kids give a fuck about anything. Theyre so calm and upbeat, especially Inaho who actually is completely emotionless. I bet hes a robot or something.

 

[duckroll]

I think there's some suggestion in the show that the military isn't full aware of what they were preparing for because things from Heaven's Fall were either covered up or the decision makers simply didn't want to believe what the troops reported. That would be even more contrived and dumb though, so yeah who knows where they're going with that.

It would be pretty obvious to anyone involved in the previous conflict who had seen the Aldnoah-powered mechs in action that whatever they have been preparing all these years were clearly far from enough to combat anything of that sort.

 

[Pooya]

The first war seemingly happened on moon and not much on Earth, damages to Earth were from Heaven's Fall. Chances are whoever actually seen these things didn't survive, they have a graph on Earth population too, most are wiped out. Except one occurrence of them landing on Earth which Morito has seen and is covered up, the cataphract shown in that flashback isn't seen in 2nd episode, so that one could be out in the wild. Maybe somebody landed on Earth with that and still there. Every one of them seem to have their own unique capabilities and god powers, not something you can build anti for that easily, 15 years or not, maybe this is the best they could build...

Then we get to know Earth cataphracts were mass produced quickly right after the war. Right now I hope there is no one of a kind special mecha in this show and it's about strategy and finding vulnerabilities in these unique BOSS mechas and defeating them with inferior weapons. That could be really fun. I was misunderstood before, the red mecha that's on the cover of this show and in the OP, looks like the training units shown in first episode and now they're going to use them in next episode. They probably kill that matter eating one and that draws the rest of the cataphracts to Japan.

There are quite a few characters still yet to be shown affiliated with Earth military, right now my impression is that this episode was supposed to be like first episode of NGE where they throw everything at it and it doesn't work because although they prepared for 15 years they really don't know the true nature of the enemy and not many know what happened at second impact, at least regular military doesn't, but there are some other people that studied them or something. Earth is forced into a war in 24 hours and they've no satellites or proper communication now, so yeah it looked like they're in disarray. underestimated enemy too thinking numbers would make a difference.

I don't think (I hope not...) there is some special secret mecha here, what we've seen is probably all there is, they're probably based on martian mechas, but without aldnoah powers they're worthless and nobody knows what that power really is, they gotta make up for it with tactics and strategy against the arrogant enemy and MC looks perfect for that, he doesn't lose his shit like the military dudes did, lol.

the other thing I hope doesn't happen is aliens coming back in second half of the series and Earth and Mars unite against them or similar crappy development. Hopefully Gen drew the outline of this series before bailing on it, as much as I dislike his script, his ideas are way better than that.

 

[BluWacky]

the other thing I hope doesn't happen is aliens coming back in second half of the series and Earth and Mars unite against them or similar crappy development. Hopefully Gen drew the outline of this series before bailing on it, as much as I dislike his script, his ideas are way better than that.

I suspect this will be the case in some part. If any side in a war is being helped out by ancient technology from a civilisation long since gone, you can bet your arse that said civilisation is going to crop up at some point... (although potentially they'll be benevolent, I guess?)

 

[Jarmel]

Despite their advanced robotics, all the Earth forces managed to do is turn their human infantry into bigger infantry wielding bigger guns. Many modern day weapon technologies are missing entirely. Battleships, long range artillery, nukes, UAVs. And this is ignoring all the theoretical stuff being developed by militaries all around the world.

They have a different timeline so I guess stuff like UAVs weren't really developed in their universe in favor of mechs. We do see the battleships and they seem pretty ineffective. As to nukes, well the issue is that a number of the Castles landed in their own cities.

Let's put it this way; if you're nuking your own cities, you've already lost.