Aldnoah Zero Thread

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yazi88
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Aldnoah Zero Thread

Well, since this is a mecha show AND a Gen Urobochi joint, its bound to get people interested and is also a ORIGINAL show to boot! Let the discussions begin!

The 1st episode introduced characters but I don't know who the actual central character is, is it the attendant Slaine or the earth boy Kaidzuka? Only time will tell...

And Urobochi or rather Gen the BUTCHER lives up to his name with the massive killings happening...

Your thoughts everyone?
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Destiny_Gundam
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Knowing that Urobuchi is the one behind it makes things pretty predictable. Expect max amounts of despair at every turn.
Spoiler
The princess was a decent person so you knew she wasn't going to have a happy ending. But then again, they made a point of not actually showing her during the attack, so that was probably a decoy and the real princess is fine.
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Raikoh
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

It feels way too derivative of various Gundam series (most noticeably AGE) to feel like an original production. Though the stuff between the teachers was rather well done, the kids were just sort of bland, especially Kaizuka, who feels way too bland to ever be any sort of main character - at least, at this point.

And the "twist" behind the
Spoiler
assassination
is so predictable that it's almost laughable. The only way that a twist could take anyone by surprise is if they just ignored the obvious plot hook and didn't make it an
Spoiler
inside job.
Has some good stuff in it so far, but also some bad stuff.
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Ryujin
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Is the show set for 1 cour or 2 cours?

What interests me is how the invading Martian forces are supposed to be militarily independent of each other--feudal lords in competition with one another & probably in this for fame, glory & the favor of their emperor as much as territorial gains.

I'd like to see if Urobuchi will expand on this in the form of political infighting, internal rivalries, alliances of convenience with the locals, etc.

Also, if each of the 19 invading forces have their own unique mecha designs & styles of combat.
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Compass
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Hey guys, picked this up 3 episodes in. This show is giving me a lot of S1 Valvrave vibes. The good half of Valvrave. I'd suggest watching at least up to 3 to get a full sense of it.

I'll hold back on discussing anything for a few days, even in spoilers, because this show deserves to get a shot at surprising you. :D
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EZero8
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Nothing like a good bit of ground-pounding, city wrecking mecha action to get me back into watching anime. The plot doesn't blow me away, but I'll keep at it if only for the action scenes.
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Outlaw
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Logic flaw.
Spoiler
If Pill Bug's armor absorbs everything, even light, then why can they still see it? Shouldn't it just look like an ominous black silhouette?
Still it was a good fight, it's always fun to see a win scored through intelligence and ingenuity.
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Soma Taozi
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Eh, when shows use Giant Robots as a serious military weapon, I kind of let stuff like that slide. It is about the characters and plot, it shouldn't be bogged down in real science.

Although I guess I can understand that taking people out of the story.

Overall, I am with-holding judgment on Aldnoah Zero...I normally wait until about the 4-6 range before I start coming up with my own conclusions on how good it is going to be...and have a finale call around episode 8.

But the show has a lot of potential and it keeps me watching. I like the soundtrack (its Hiroyuki Sawano for god's sake) and the characters. Besides...despite how dark his stuff gets, I like Gen Oribuchi. I don't think his work is unnecessarily grimdark like some accuse him of and I appreciate how he does things differently; furthermore his series are very consistent...with strong stories and characters (from Madoka Magica, to Gargantia...Oribuchi has proven he can do anime well).

I honestly think this will be a quality show for the summer. Probably not going to be as good as Zankyō no Teroru...but, it will still be a strong entry. But who knows? The summer season is still young...
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zetatype
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Outlaw wrote:Logic flaw.
Spoiler
If Pill Bug's armor absorbs everything, even light, then why can they still see it? Shouldn't it just look like an ominous black silhouette?
Still it was a good fight, it's always fun to see a win scored through intelligence and ingenuity.
Spoiler
What's interesting is that if you look at the scenes where its armor turns on (ep.2) and off (ep.3) the Pill bug actually does appear as a black silhouette for a few seconds.
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Compass
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Actually not a logic flaw. Can be explained.
Spoiler
The shield does absorb all light from the outside. However, the blackness that would result would reveal its weak spot which would not be black. This would be a major flaw. It is likely that the shield projectors also project light to make it appear as if it is operating as a normal mech. Imagine tinted glass. He can't look (in) but you can look (out).
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YazanGable
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

So far, I'm still on the fence with this series.

While there's a lot of familiar ground it, it also feels like it has potential to take it some interesting places.
Unfortunately, the execution so far has been...less than stellar for me.
Three episodes in and most of the cast still feel like just talking heads without much to say for themselves barring maybe Slane and Marito. Nao is particularly perplexing here - I feel like he's not badly written, but between an utterly flat voice performance and the fact the animation is so far showing a pretty limited range of facial expressions in its characters (it's kind of sad when Trillram has been the most emotive so far) he comes across as almost inhuman. It really fell on its face in episode two
Spoiler
when watching his friend die right in front of him.
Nao just sort of goes quiet and decides 'we have to stop this.'
Again, on paper it works, but the execution's really not selling it.

Anyway, we're changing writers and gears with the next episode, so I'll give it a few more weeks to see how it handles the changing gears. Gotta say though, not exactly feeling it as it is right now.

Nice OP though.
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

To be honest, the way the main character is portrayed hints at a darker history. He acts like Setsuna from 00 would, basically. And to be honest, all those students are basically child soldiers anyways. They've been trained in military for ages. The fact that the MC's parents are missing too doesn't help things.
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Outlaw
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Compass wrote:Actually not a logic flaw. Can be explained.
Spoiler
The shield does absorb all light from the outside. However, the blackness that would result would reveal its weak spot which would not be black. This would be a major flaw. It is likely that the shield projectors also project light to make it appear as if it is operating as a normal mech. Imagine tinted glass. He can't look (in) but you can look (out).
I had considered it would have been a give away and that's why they just hand waved it. Didn't consider an in universe explanation, well played.
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Xenosynth
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

I dunno, I guess it's because I'm not that tough on things, but from the first three episodes that I watched all today, I think it seems great. The music is awesome, the background events of the plot hit hard, the characters, while not necessarily the most characterized yet, seem a bit more regular and relateable, except Nao, who definitely has something going on, given that Slaine and other characters show quite a bit of emotion, so it's not just flat writing without intentionally being that. I enjoy the kataphrakt designs, the CG isn't horrible. It even has some political intrigue set up.

I've... just not personally found anything to take any issues with on my end. I dunno though, given that people seem to be more lukewarm it's just making me feel like there's something I'm missing, or that I'm just being stupid.
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Xenosynth wrote:I dunno, I guess it's because I'm not that tough on things, but from the first three episodes that I watched all today, I think it seems great. The music is awesome, the background events of the plot hit hard, the characters, while not necessarily the most characterized yet, seem a bit more regular and relateable, except Nao, who definitely has something going on, given that Slaine and other characters show quite a bit of emotion, so it's not just flat writing without intentionally being that. I enjoy the kataphrakt designs, the CG isn't horrible. It even has some political intrigue set up.

I've... just not personally found anything to take any issues with on my end. I dunno though, given that people seem to be more lukewarm it's just making me feel like there's something I'm missing, or that I'm just being stupid.

I am enjoying it a lot too...but I am hesitantly enjoying it because as I said before, I don't start forming an opinion until around episode 4...but I second just about everything you said.

So no...it is not just you.
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Xenosynth
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Yeah, I probably shouldn't randomly write posts when I wake up in the middle of the night really tired and feeling bleh. I read things as way more negative than they actually are and get all weird about it.
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Compass
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

This episode didn't have as good of a set of music as last one, but still pretty good. I'm not sure what else I can say to comment about this, but I think the trainer mech paint scheme is 100x better than the standard military unit paint scheme.
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

You know what development I'm hoping for?

That Slaine's motive in volunteering for combat duty is actually to identify & get close to the other important figures behind the assassination conspiracy -- and arrange for their subsequent deaths in the middle of combat or otherwise.
EZero8
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

Seems like Inaho's shaping up to be the resourceful, observant-type protagonist who doesn't emote very well. Which is fine I guess, but historically those types rarely develop much over the course of the show. Almost seems like the writers spent too much time working on making Slaine's story interesting, then realized that they didn't have a central character for the "good guys" and drew up Inaho as an afterthought.

It also irks me a bit that he's a student and pulling off these stunts against two customized Vers kataphrakts, but whatever. The students are winning via technicality rather than overpowering their opponents, which is somewhat realistic and lends itself to "luck." Besides, it's actually kinda amusing to see these haughty Martians get owned by a bunch of kids.
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Re: Aldnoah Zero Thread

The conclusion of the fight made me laugh. I've found the weakness of Martian cataphracts.
Spoiler
Water. Any amount of it.
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