Let Justice Be Done, Though the Heavens Fall - Aldnoah.Zero Review

Finding time to watch anime these days for me is proving to be a difficult task. However, every once in awhile I get a little window of opportunity to check out some of the new shows that have come out in the past season. One of the newer shows that I felt I had to check out was the new mecha anime Aldnoah. Zero, written by the mastermind behind Madoka Magica and Psycho-Pass, Gen Urobuchi. With that in mind, I came into Aldnoah. Zero expecting a new, dark, and refreshing take on mecha anime. Perhaps my expectations were a bit too high and I came away feeling a little bit underwhelmed.

Aldnoah. Zero follows an alternate history timeline which means the universe is not entirely dissimilar to our own. In this history, the 1972 Apollo 17 expedition led to the astronauts finding a hypergate on the Moon which connected to Mars. The leaders of this expedition colonized Mars and created a new state an culture apart from Earth. In a need for resources, the newly named Vers Empire attacked Earth. Thanks to the technology of Aldnoah, the Vers Empire thrashed Earth's forces. However, the scale of the war destroyed the hypergate, leaving several Martians stranded and the job left unfinished. In the present day of 2014 however, the "Orbital Knights" as they have been dubbed, use the staged assassination of their own Princess Asseylum as an excuse to invade the Earth. As the war drags on, we get to see both sides of the conflict and begin to understand the motivations behind both sides. However, despite this strong premise, Aldnoah. Zero falls flat in the execution. The plot never explores any new avenues and finds itself falling into mecha anime cliches more often than finding new ways to explore the genre. The protagonist is nigh-invincible, the Terrans catch lucky breaks more often than not, and the only real drama is that a character will die at the end of an episode only to anti-climatically return at the beginning of the next. I've always said that merely killing off characters is a cheap way to create drama (looking at you George R.R. Martin), so I can forgive that last part, however, it is much harder to accept. Because of the war's origin being an inside plot by the Orbital Knights it set up a great opportunity to see both sides of the conflict and understand their motivations. However, while this sort of device is supposed to make you sympathize equally with both sides, it made it really hard for me to root for the Terrans because the Martians were much better developed characters and in some cases seemed more just in going to war. However, the show portrays most of the Orbital Knights as morally bankrupt sociopaths rather than people acting because they believe in the righteousness of their cause. A show cannot try and create a Black and Grey Morality in the two sides of the conflict and then hang up huge blinking lights telling the viewer who they should be rooting for.

Aldnoah. Zero wants us to sympathize with the Orbital Knights, but then also tells us we should hate them. Conflicted messages much?

The problem really lies with the characters. Mecha anime are known for being theaters for the debate of the necessity of war and to give a "war is hell" message to the viewer. However, for such themes to exist in a work, there must be strong characters for the viewer to sympathize with and identify with. Unfortunately, the characters here are entirely one dimensional and don't seem to serve much purpose besides moving the plot along. Take for example the "protagonist" Inaho, who's personality is just as deep as the shallow end of the kiddie pool. The average episode of Aldnoah. Zero usually plays out something like this: enemy mech shows up and has powers well beyond the reach of Inaho's mech, Inaho, despite a lack of actual combat experience, is able to eventually size up the opponent and defeat them single-handedly. I understand that the show is trying to convey some sort of message about how the strength of the mech is less important than the pilot within it but that isn't even the case here. You're telling me that some of the top military officers in the Vers empire, who crushed many of Earth's finest soldiers in battle before this, are suddenly powerless in the face of a high schooler who has no prior combat experience. Inaho isn't given any reason for being Earth's best mecha planet other than "the plot demands it". I mean, all he really seems to do differently from the other Earth pilots is not stand there and die. I understand that as an anime watcher I am supposed to have a certain suspension of disbelief for most situations that happen in shows but that is almost too much.

A boring, nigh-invincible Mary Sue

Other times, Inaho is actually a bit of a refreshing character because he is actually a rational pilot and understands that there are sacrifices that must be made to win wars. In this respect, Inaho is a deviation from the norm for an Urobuchi protagonist. Typically in works written by Gen Urobuchi, the protagonist is often highly idealistic which contrasts with the more cynical world they exist in. Madoka Magica saw Urobuchi deconstruct Madoka and Sayaka's ideas of heroism. Psycho-Pass put Akane Tsunemori's black and white ideas of justice to the test. Inaho on the other hand has a cynicism that matches the tone of his world. Unlike Akane, Madoka, and Sayaka, Inaho is cynical, cold, and is a consequentialist above all else. Normally this would seen as a change of pace from the naive and wide-eyed mecha protagonists that typically populate these shows. However, Inaho is cynical to the point of making his character dry, stagnant, and near emotionless. What made Akane, Madoka, and Sayaka such strong and interesting characters was despite all the evidence that told them to abandon their ideals, they held strong to them and proved that there was a place for idealism. Perhaps Inaho's character is supposed to represent the effect that war has on people. However, that idea doesn't hold up because he was born during peacetime. His cynicism only really serves to hold back any growth or depth his character could have undergone over the course of the show. It later turns out that Urobuchi was only involved in the first three episodes. That explains why the series after those three episodes feels like somebody trying (and failing) to replicate his style.

Inaho's lack of growth over the course of the series is not exclusive to him. Take for example the character of Slaine, a Terran who crash-landed with his father on Mars and is essentially a pseudo-slave to the Martians. Despite his poor treatment at the hands of a Martian count, Slaine develops a special bond with Princess Asseylum and so he doesn't hate his role. However, Slaine's role in the plot is extremely restricted and he only seems to be important when the story requires some sort of deus ex machina or somebody needs to get shot. The rest of the cast is largely forgettable and is simply there just to move the plot along. This is true of everyone except one character, Lieutenant Marito, one of the few in the military who served during the first Terran/Martian war. In doing do, he was forced to put his own friend out of his misery by shooting him in the head. Marito is constantly haunted by his own guilt and is actually an accurate depiction of PTSD and trauma that war can cause. In a series that wants to be dark and critical on the necessity of war, Marito's case should have been a larger part of the picture.

Things aren't all bad however. As said before, the premise of Aldnoah. Zero is enough to carry it through the 12 episodes of its first season. It is a well set up universe and I wish that we had gotten to see more of it. The action sequences are also phenomenal as it is still interesting to see the unique ways Inaho overcomes the technological advantages that the Martians have. The show was also still entertaining enough for me to watch it nearly nonstop, almost like a Destiny player who is still unsure why they keep playing the game despite its shortcomings. It is still entertaining in that respect, it is a mecha anime after all. The concepts and looks of the mechas are probably the most original part of the show and keep them from looking like Gundam knockoffs. The only negative thing you could say about the mech design is that the Martian mechs are a little too clunky. You would think that a technology like Aldnoah would make the mechs more streamlined rather than the clustered bodies they have. The Martian Landing Castles on the other hand? Probably the coolest piece of technology in the show.

Aldnoah. Zero's character design isn't anything special either. Nothing entirely stood out, the main characters are indicative of the unoriginality in character design that is hampering anime these days. There was a lot of potential with the Martians and instead they resembled boring and cliched nobility stereotypes recycled from Code Geass or earlier Gundam series. On the bright side though, it is a very crisp looking anime and like I said before, the action sequences looked phenomenal. It is a little too bad that the mechs had to be CGI-d in. It took a bit away from the action sequences, not to mention that the mech's were actually CGI'd in even during moments where characters were just talking and looking at them. Remember the old days when mech anime didn't just use CGI as a crutch? <sighs> There is at least something good here though, the soundtrack was handled by the one and only Hiroyuki Sawano and like always he delivers. You could always count on the epic moments of the show being perfectly punctuated by EGOIST tracks.

I will say that I enjoyed Aldnoah. Zero to an extent. Does it deliver on the hype? No. Is it guilty of using Gen Urobuchi as a draw for the show and then letting everyone down by revealing he only helped write three episodes? Yes. This being said, it remained entertaining. However, as someone who really values strong, deep, and original characters in the shows I watch I could not bring myself to truly enjoy this show. However, it is getting a second season in January which should be interesting and maybe will resolve some of the issues the first season had. I wouldn't push my luck though.

My Score: 2/5