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「戦場の少年たち -The Children’s Echelon-」 (Senjo no Shonen Tachi -The Children’s Echelon- )
“Children’s Battlefield -The Children’s Echelon- “
ALDNOAH.ZERO – what happens when a robot pilots a robot.
I think the jury is still out on whether ALDNOAH.ZERO is one of those series where it’s better not to think too much and just enjoy the ride, but the verdict on whether or not the ride is enjoyable is definitely in – guilty as charged. This show is a blast in more ways than one – visually pleasing (Shimura Takako character designs really should be a requirement for every mecha series) with a high-octane soundtrack and a relentless narrative momentum that makes every episode a breathless experience.
The artistic impression scores, then, are impressive (even from the East German judge). As to technical merit, as I said that’s still a bit up in the air for me. Translations of the timeline on the series website have done nothing to allay my doubts about the timing of events leading up to the current situation, and some of the science as relates to the Martian Kataphrakts and their barriers seems a bit dodgy to me. And how is it that no one in any of the earlier skirmishes noticed a small army of spy satellites hovering nearby to every VERS kataphrakt?
I’m not a purist for that sort of thing though, to be honest – with mecha series if the entertainment value is high enough I can overlook a lot as long as the illogic doesn’t extend extensively to character behavior, and even at that we’re still looking at questionable rather than preposterous when it comes to the details. It’s a function of this sort of series that teenage heroes can figure out stuff the top brass of the military can’t, and that Rayet and Asseylum should conveniently possess the technical skills (heck, either the driving age in Japan is different in this timeline or Rayet is a helluva fast learner) necessary to carry out their part in Inaho’s counterattack is par for the course.
Inaho remains in interesting mystery, still betraying almost no emotion in any situation apart from the odd GAR line of dialogue, and the import of his actions themselves. I continue to hope we learn what makes him tick (and why he’s such a technical and tactical whiz), but for now he’s a solid badass peachfuzz warrior of the stone-cold type, and I quite like the way he dissected the information from earlier encounters with Trillram and calculated a potential weakness in his kataphrakt. If we accept the basic genre premise of teenagers being the vanguard of the human race as it fights off invaders, this was set up about as realistically as one could hope for. Simply put, there was no one else left to fight and Inaho had both the nerve and the wit to make an effective commander. Plus, these students have had a measure of military training as part of their school curriculum.
Another element I liked here was Rayet and Asseylum ending up fighting side-by-side, which is certainly ironic given their respective backgrounds. While it hasn’t been explicitly stated it seems pretty likely that Rayet knows why her family was executed, which gives her the advantage over Asseylum. I might quibble with Asseylum’s willingness to go head-long into battle with units from her own world when, as far as she presumably knows, they’re fighting a good-faith battle prompted by their belief that she’s been assassinated by Terran terrorists (terranists?). Either she knows more than she’s let on or she’s incredibly cold and detached and decided that Trillram and his crew were a necessary sacrifice in the interest of longterm peace, but there’s no denying she’s a trooper – and now there’s no denying that she’s some sort of mahou shoujo, too. That explains her ability to slip away unnoticed after the attempt on her life, but mahou shoujou in a mecha series? Even for Urobuchi Gen, isn’t that crossing the streams?
The ending of the episode was a cracker, and it definitely sets Slaine up as a pivotal figure going forward (not that it wasn’t already obvious). He’s the consummate boy caught between two worlds – I hope we find out how he got into his current situation – but his loyalties are certainly going to be tested now that he knows the truth about Asseylum. His initial reaction certainly reveals serious sackage – he palms Trillram’s pistol and blows him away (frankly, he won’t be missed by me). But what does Slaine do now – does he join the Terran resistance? I think it’s likely his next steps are guided by Asseylum’s, but it seems as if he and Inaho are ultimately destined to be joined by fate, and the Yin-Yang nature of their personalities (which is so extreme as to suggest there may be an even deeper connection between them) only strengthens that impression.
Zephyr’s Quick Impressions:
Princess, oh my Princess. Why art thou so kawaii while wielding grenade launchers?
Ladies and gentleman, ALDNOAH.ZERO’s single-handedly making mecha action cool again and that’s just the way I like it. This week, it’s a game-changing episode all about knocking out the Martians’ cloak of invulnerability, and quite literally at that. Slaine, Asseylum… hell, the whole cast gets in on the action here in one way or another, and there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing an episode give you an ending where the bad guy finally gets his butt handed to him when he least expected it (he made some pretty terrible squealing sounds).
With that in mind, it must be said how ALDNOAH.ZERO continues to resemble an amalgamation of multiple series from years past, and this week brings us a mecha-sniping moment seemingly straight out of Evangelion and a commencing attack moment seemingly straight out of SO-RA-NO-WA-TO. Normally I’d be frowning at this constant usage of elements from other sources, but when you got Sawano Hiroyuki vocals playing amidst some pretty darn good action scenes, I can’t say I really care at this point. I’m slowly but surely getting used to the characters and their outwardly fearless/emotional-less attitude while I’m at it too, and things just keep looking up for this series in terms of how it should fulfill everything fans of the genre wanted from this show. Oh, did I mention how Cruhteo should be getting involved soon too? Oh boy. ALDNOAH.ZERO might be far from perfect in some developmental aspects, but it does a lot right—the soundtrack especially—and here’s looking forward to some more Princess ass-kicking.
Those are some mad driving skillz! :3
“heck, either the driving age in Japan is different in this timeline or Rayet is a helluva fast learner”
I’m trying not to delve to deeply into the inner workings of the show, but I’m pretty sure it’s because they’re shown learning to pilot mechs in highschool- that it’s not to far-fetched for them to know how to drive cards
*cars. Woops, not talking about yugioh 5ds
Yeah, but Rayet wouldn’t have been sent to a public high school given her unusual circumstances, and I would think her father would have tried to put her in a school where she isn’t being trained on how to kill her own people.
Since the ‘rats’ mentioned waiting a long time, it’s not too far fetched that they’ve been positioned as Sleeper Agents for a longer period of years (perhaps the 15 since the last Heaven’s Fall.) Taking that into account, she may even have been born on Earth and gone along with all the usual Earth-youth things, like public school.
For all we know, her skills and all might have been acquired while she was still among her own people. Laws on driving could have be different in Martian society after all =3
Well Rayet is a daughter of Versian undercover agent, so it’s not far-fetched to assume she got well trained how to use arms and how to drive. Heck I wouldn’t be surprised if she had driven one of those missile carrier vans at some point.
I though this was quite obvious. She was the one who gave the princess tips on using a grenade launcher after all. She is essentially a trained teenage terrorist so knowing how to drive comes with the skill set.
She also has a personal grudge on the Martians and is now an asset for the good guys. So good one Martians! Way to shoot yourself on the foot.
I was under the impression that Rayet and those involved in the assassination were people from Earth who were trying to defect to Mars, and were given the opportunity to do so if they completed this mission.
Slaine you yandere!
I think he is not yandere, it’s only natural because a dirty traitor roach that bossing you here and there is in front of you, and probably that’s the only chance.
Now Slaine must return to his princess’s side, and bring along with him all the intel they will need to survive those Martians.
Which leads to another problem. I’m sure Slaine can contact Crutheo, so when he does that and tells him the princess is alive, how will they solve this problem? The Martians can’t exactly go “Oh, our mistake. It’s a misunderstanding. Sorry for wiping out so many cities. Let bygones be bygones?”
Good point. Either Slaine defects, upon which he will be branded a traitor and the war continues on, or returns to his employer to report, upon which there will be a civil war in their ranks.
I would like to see everyone going crazy xd.
When exactly did mecha action stop being cool? Not sure where this article decided to pull that one from or what kool-aid people have been drinking.
Well apart from Gundam which is more to do with toy sales and fujoshi shipping, Yes mecha anime are generally not cool nowdays.
Have they ever been cool? You seem so grumpy.
If destroying and outplaying a seemingly overpowered mech with impregnable shields using only with the factory built mechs combined with technical analysis and strategy isn’t cool, I don’t know what is.
But if you think something like Gundam Destiny overpowering everything using only big weapons when the opposition had no chance is cool, then GTFO please.
Yeah I figured that was the sort of brain dead and obviously response the show was trying to illicit. Obviously its not that simple and no Gundam Seed Destiny is my least favorite example. Luckily not all Gundam series are as cut and dry as that or frankly this has been so far.
It depends really on personal taste. I’m just saying that there’s been an influx of mecha series lately and not all of them are up to par with what Aldnoah Zero’s been offering in that regard so far.
It doesn’t necessarily mean mecha suddenly went totally uncool or something prior to this, but that this series does at least make it look quite cool.
well yeah, in the last years Mecha genre..wasn’t as great as I wished it was.
most of last years’ series had really idiotic heroines and MC that kept on crying and whining every time. not to mention that in most of them the plot wasn’t good enough.. it stick to normal formula without something new under the sun. simply put, I just had the feeling of Mecha being a genre with some same-old formula and nothing really special – buddy complex style, Majestic prince, star driver & captain earth style, or even the current Argevollen..all gave a feeling like some old rehash. there were some surprises like Sidonia luckily.
but no anime was able to really convey this feeling of..almost “epicness” as Aldnoah Zero (AZ in short) is doing. we get to see something different in both heroine and MC behavior. he is not whining and complaining, he feels different (sure, it raises some questions, but assuming things will develop, it’s OK) same like that Slaine..there is almost of feeling of code geass in the air in terms of Mecha/story with this princess. even Gargantia that brought MC who is actually a soldier and not whining, barely (or more right to say – didn’t) made it as some really good Mecha.
AZ, with its great combination of MC behavior and the epincess of what’s going on the screen due to great production values, is able to send the right vibe and ignite that small flame..that’s how Mecha anime should feel. I am not saying everything is so bright regarding the plot, we’ll have to see, because there aren’t really huge surprises or something bright, regarding how things going on. but at least it doesn’t feel like same old story and characters with a different gimmick that actually doesn’t change anything.
Akane of Psycho-Pass did that contume change too.
princess w/ grenade launcher +10000 cuteness pts
a cute badass
As much as I’m enjoying this series, and that I love the opening, soundtrack, and I’m liking the direction of the characters so far, I will have to say that first Martian Kataphract was pretty weak.
Just wondering what engineer would create a machine that has to rely on 3rd party sensory systems to navigate in combat situations? Those aerial drones weren’t even guarded if I recall correctly and was easily disabled during the fight. You’d think some Martian engineer would have considered the chances of of the Terrans using chaff and designed their kataphracts accordingly.
I thought the weak point was going to be one of the green “eyes” or something. At least the kataphract could protect those points if it so needed to. But it’s equipped with little to no(?) ranged weaponry so how would it protect the aerial drones if it came down to it?
Although, I will give it points for at least having the weak point linked to the place where signals are sent between the kataphract and the aerial drones.
In anycase, although that is a small gripe of mine, it was nowhere near enough to detract from the enjoyment of this episode. I look forward to future skirmishes and the strategies and tactics they will employ. Also, this setup is starting to remind me of Evangelion (not saying it’s a clone). Just the whole monster-of-the-week thing that overpowers the protagonists at first to which they then formulate a plan to beat it using whatever they have available. I see future fights being similar as the Terran Kataphracts as it stand are no match for the Martians.
1 those drones are small
2 small dones are hard targets and they’re not easily seen
3 the earthlings ere beaten the crap out of them so do you think they have time to sit and seriously see how its possible?
4 this new phase shift armour might be new and recent,y introduced. That’s why the earthlings migt not have any intel on it
the answers to all your questions were given in the 2 min exposition of the weakness (and strength) of the martian mecha: their barrier.
-strength : it blocks everything (bullets, lasers, bombs)
-weakness : it blocks everything (radio transmissions, LIGHT)
because of the barrier the pilot CANT see the outside of the mecha, by the same there cant be communications between the pilot and the outside world. so they had to adsd some HOLES in the armor to let radio waves/communication pass (that is why they used the water… so see where the water wasnt getting destroyed)
About the holes not beinf protected..they WERE .. the armor got open then bullets got sprayed insode and still the pilot didnt die , the mecha didn’t explode… so yeah they were likely shielded , the damage was too much for the shielding.
PS: i do have some issues with the way they explained the barrier tho..if it STOPPED LIGHT then the mecha should be invisible to us too (we would see a mecha like black figure) …
The only reason I can think of the bug not being black out is it automatically select wave length of solar light and doesn’t absorb unless it surpass certain threshold. Because it absorbs everything like that AND no one can see it, it should be too dangerous for even their own people.
I believe it’s because of Aldnoah’s light technology. Evident during the scene where the martian mecha phase on/off its Aldnoah’s light, it becomes void black before turning back to normal.
Considering all the Martians shown so far are smug ***holes, it’s very likely they were just that overconfident with what they have and never considered any flaws in their machines. They were just too reliant on their technology and never considered that that the Terrans are capable of exploiting weaknesses. That makes them inflexible and unable to adapt to new combat situations.
Funny how they consider themselves superior and yet they fall back on some of the simplest mistakes people have made in war.
I’d echo that as well.
One could also reason this just goes back to the pros/cons argument. Generally the more powerful tools/weaponry tend to have some kind of drawback and it’d figure something that can absorb virtually any frontal attack comes with some drawback. Considering the benefits and the opponent they’re facing, it’s arguably a small drawback… of course, until your strategy gets exposed.
That said, it might just be the Martians themselves aren’t as technologically advanced as we suspect. Rather, they haven’t developed their own tech and have mostly relied on piggybacking off stuff they found lying around, so they’re using this because they haven’t found any alternatives for it that have a better pro/con exchange or something of the sort.
I think the shield + drone setup was very well designed. There was clearly some user error.
As much as video games may have conditioned us to roll our eyes at glowing weak points, there are some things that armor (or barriers) just can’t protect well, like the wheels/treads/bottom of feet, or sensor arrays.
As for the camera drones, our heroes didn’t actually destroy them (and there were quite a few) – they just threw up a smokescreen. Actually destroying the drones would require maintaining visual contact for long enough to shoot down all 8(?), and sniping little camera drones is pretty hard with stompy eraser death-bot mowing you down. There’s no guarantee that he can’t just deploy more drones to replace destroyed ones, either.
Agree with you…
Those drones are small and they’re hard to be seen and targeted….
My question is, if the shield absorbs everything including light, how do the cameras transmit information to the mecha?
That’s what the weakness they found was – the water showed that there were a few unshielded spots: the feet’s soles (so the mecha could walk) and that part Inaho stabbed (so it could receive transmissions).
“And how is it that no one in any of the earlier skirmishes noticed a small army of spy satellites hovering nearby to every VERS kataphrakt?”
The abilities of each Vers Kataphrakt differs and thus the properties of Trillram’s Nirokeras, including its weaknesses, would be unique to itself. In other words, his Kataphrakt is probably the only one that relies on those spy satellites.
This could make fighting the Martian forces trickier, since the Gaian defenders would need to figure out how to fight each of them one by one, deprived of the convenience of exploiting a common weakness.
Yeah, this had already been established, I don’t get where that comment even came from. They don’t all have spy satellites.
Ah this series managed to raise my expectations a bit. It’s nice to see the enemy mechs actually have a weakness (which is a little flawed in retrospect) that has now been exploited which rules out that they have to resort to the good natured people of the enemy race lending them technology. It’s funny how you just gotta ignore high school students figuring this stuff out so quickly these days or your mind will explode lol.
Interesting to note while I still have a dislike of Inaho, Slaine seems to oddly be effected by killing and death quite a bit. I think i can see that Inaho being stoic is supposed to be a direct contrast to Slaine being oddly emotional. They are strongly hinting that the two share some kind of connection so i wouldn’t be surprised if they are brothers or something. I could do without another Tatsuya but if they actually do something with this character other than having the writers jack him off every single episode I’d be fine with it.
In the end, it’s all about that cloak of invulnerability in more ways than one. The Martians look pretty powerful and in ways they clearly are, but at the same time they seem to be just jacking technology they’ve found and trying to use it, and you can argue they’re not quite as powerful as they seem to be.
As for Slaine, I reckon there’s definitely a link between his emotions and how he was bought up as a Terran with the Martians. The perspective of growing up on both sides and being with the Princess likely played a large part in that.
not quite; the timeline explicitly states that they are at least able to mass-produce their starships, as of about……2003, IIRC, according to the official timeline (it has been translated). However, the use of Aldnoah for defensive purposes seems to be a somewhat recent development; the official timeline states that both sides took casualties in the first Earth-Mars war in 1999 when the Martians first used Kataphracts to attach UE bases on the moon. However, that does not suggest that there isn’t a finite supply of Aldnoah cores, and the fact that the shields are able to defy known physics (you can’t have infinite absorbtion without either a) all that mass going somewhere or b) having close to infinite mass or energy) without huge drawbacks.
I think to view Martian technology vs. Earth technology, you can probably think of a comparison between current real life technology vs, say, WWII technology.
In some ways, 21st century military would make WW2 military look worthless. But that doesn’t imply that there’s no way we can’t be hurt. Especially in an urban setting where the goal is not mass annihilation but surgical strike. US’s issues in the Middle East with urban warfare is a perfect example of how the environment plays a part in military success.
So really, the Martians can have vastly, world destroying technology. Yet at the same time, it’s reasonable to think that one isolated piece of that advanced technology can be destroyed given the right setting. But in a large scale fight, the difference in power is basically impossible to even out. Just as with proper logistical support, a modern day carrier group can likely wipe the floor with the entire navy of WW2 era.
there is another diference:
those two examples ARE earth technologies and we developed them.. meaning that we CAN make modifications to them, we can retrofit them and keep them updated. hell take a look at the bow and arrow.. developed 61k years ago..and we still adding things to them!
It seems the Vers empire is only piggybacking on the Aldnoah technology ..they cant improve it..or modify it… can you imagine how different the episode would have been if they could add 1 single camera ON the Vers Mecha? or add infrared cameras (they see thru smoke) to their sensor drones?.
Vers are really advanced.. but they are also stagnant since their clutch is the Aldnoah tech.
@inanis
That’s actually incorrect, the Vers are more than capable of improving on the alien tech. IIRC the Vers as a state are only ~40 years old and the majority of the current armament consists of hijacked technology. Four decades is more than enough time to understand something when large amounts of manpower, intelligence, and resources are thrown at the problem, after all, it only took North Korea ~50 years to build nukes, less for China, India, and Pakistan (due to foreign assistance), and these are states which have possessed no significant scientific foundation until the mid/late 20th Century.
It’s not unreasonable to assume to Vers can make adjustments to what they already possess and it would explain the presence of huge amounts of high tech weapons like the landing castles. After all it’s very unlikely the Vers just happened to come across ~30 floating fortresses and all the associated weaponry, a huge amount of this they would have had to build from scratch.
@inanis
TBH, I really don’t know enough of the backstory to truly comment on how much of that technology they’ve harnessed and how much is just “we know this does X if we do this” type of understanding.
I was commenting more on how if we look at things from a different perspective, we can see how it is very plausible that the Martians can possess technology far surpassing any Earth military. Yet at the same time, have enough weaknesses in them where a group of what is effectively bunch of cadets can take out a single piece of their top equipment. If you put Trilliam’s mech as part of an advancing army with long range support like the other Knights shown in episodes 1 and 2, a lot of those “weaknesses” that may seem like plot holes are easily covered up if it were part of an army instead of by itself. There are enough evidence to support this. The Air Carrier that Slaine pilots looks to be very weak and unsuitable for such solo missions as this one.
@Pancakes
the official timeline states that Vers was founded as the result of an armed insurrection approximately 7 years after the first settlement began, and it has a population of–at most–3 million people given that the first settlement wave was circa 350k according to the codex; that’s the population of a small city, but given the politics and environment it’s incredibly inefficient. While Aldnoah enabled them to become self-sufficient, they’ve clearly merely adapted Aldnoah to their purposes rather than being able to improve upon it. There’s also the fact that its use defies known physics (infinite absorption armor–where does all that mass go?)There have to be significant weaknesses, and the fact that Trillram’s mecha’s weaknesses were so relatively easily exploited means either incompetence on the part of the pilot or design oversight borne of sheer cultural arrogance.
Well Aldnoah is definitely going be popcorn entertainment first, thought-provoking show second now, and no that’s not a bad thing.
If Urobutcher’s idea was to make a solid and realistic timeline to explain how human Martians are now invading Earth with alien technology, one has to wonder why he didn’t expand it a couple hundred years and have the Vers invade Earth, say, about 150 years after seceding? For one it would help quell the political science criticism surrounding the Vers society and their sense of superiority over Earth; and two it would also give better suspension of reality over how the Vers have amassed and can operate easily such a large technologically advanced arsenal; it’s highly doubtful that the Vers founders just happened to come across an alien armory after all.
Only other serious problem is our stoic to the point of autistic MC Inaho who really needs an explanation concerning his current state of mind. I think its clear that there was some traumatic experience in his past that did it (considering his interactions with the girl pilot whose name eludes me atm), but it’s still annoying not having something to put offsetting dissonance to rest. Everything else like the Vers Cataphract barriers and our little Martian princess can be overlooked as at least we have some explanation that can hold up to the “is it entertaining?” inspection 😛
Either way Aldnoah is still the mecha show of the season, it’s doing everything right that Argevollen has failed to do and provides a more intriguing end of the world story than Captain Earth. Ain’t going to stop watching this anytime soon. Not to mention I cannot get enough of the OST + Kalafina OP.
>Well Aldnoah is definitely going be popcorn entertainment first, thought-provoking show second now, and no that’s not a bad thing.
I agree. I actually really like action stuff. The problem though is that they generally involve a lot of plot armor, e.g. luckily finding overpowered mecha/superpowers/something else that make stupid decisions in real life turn into heroic moments.
I’m all for turning off my brain when necessary to enjoy some good action, but it’s so much better when I don’t have to.
Come on… Who would not like cute girls doing cute things????
https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
now that was a great episode! Inaho showed great deductive abilities and assembled a plan that was tactically sound. Great deduction in assuming the barrier was not 100% since to needed to receive the video feed and planning for a way to see where the weakness begins. though that exposes a significant weakness in that mech’s tech – having the video feed be completely separate is an awful idea for the simple reason of technical glitches.
and Inaho showed he had some emotion after all when he finished off Trillam’s mech.
Trillham continued to prove himself an arrogant dbag, accusing them of mocking him during the battle. reminded me of a baseball game I read about today where the losing pitcher took great offense to a batter “unnecessarily” bunting during a 2-0 game.
and Trillham’s death by Slaine was far too good for a traitorous shit like him.
all in all, fascinating stuff.
I do have to wonder how that kataphrakt was not invisible if it can suck in light ( light is also a form of electromagnetic waves, as with radio signals and all that).
To be invisible it has to bend the light around it. Sucking in light would make the mech a large black spot (which we see is the case when the Barrier is turned on or off in this episode and the last). As for why the mech has color when the Barrier is active and sucks in everything, that reason seems to lay in the series mythology and relates to the Light of Aldnoah, the alien technology behind the mechs.
It wouldn’t be invisible, it should probably appear as a black shadow. You can pin down it’s appearance more to artistic licence as it wouldn’t look as cool attacking a black blob.
As mentioned by the others, invisibility is a result of refraction of light not absorption. And for those wondering how the explosive impacts launched at the mech did not affect its vulnerable areas, it was already mentioned that the mech’s barrier absorbs kinetic energy.
I see. Thanks for the information guys.
Black Holes are born with that. Where even Light can not escape the Gravity of a Black hole
I guess it should have been better explained in the episode itself, but consider what would be your first line of thought when you see a towering black giant that consumes everything it touches except the ground under it’s feet? Probably that it is capable of producing arbitrarily shaped event horizon that sucks in everything, the driver can’t see you just as you can’t see him, because not being able to cross event horizon works both ways and that the soles of it’s feet are probably unprotected.
Walk in a park really – now just get it to fall and it’s as good as dead.
I think Martian designers weren’t so utterly stupid as to just let out something like that into the field and rely on it’s ultimate shield to plough through the battlefield if the trick’s that obvious. If you look closely at how it puts up it’s shield it first turns completely black (apart from eyes, but that’s probably just aesthetics to make it more menacing) and then it’s colours come back in a slightly hexagonal pattern.
I think the shield is just two-layer – first you have an event horizon that absorbs everything the shield touches and you have an active optical camouflage over that, that masks the true appearance of this shield as to make it’s working principle less obvious.
It’s security through obscurity – you just don’t know that the driver sees nothing and assume the shield lets the visible light spectrum through – and Martians were probably content with just that, thinking that the tech is so advanced for earthlings they will never figure that out.
But well, security through obscurity never works in the end : D
Anyway, even if that seems to make Martian inventors less of a moron, it’s still a puzzling design.
If they are so advanced why couldn’t they use quantum entanglement? Well, ok, let’s say they want to keep that part of science right and you can’t get quantum comms without, again, having holes in the shield (you would need a classical channel anyway for quantum comms to work) which makes us return to square one.
But wouldn’t for example having a lot of small-ish sensor holes (like for the eyes or something) be a wiser choice? With most of the mech covered in the shield they would receive little-to-no-damage anyway and you would not be reliant on external sensors. Also the potential attack surface would be way smaller than the external antennae the mech had here.
One would think that the shield would always be black from the air around it being destroyed. Maybe it doesn’t absorb gases? Also, notice that gravity works just fine. Gravitic weapons could be usable. Also the terrain could be easily used against it. All you need to do is make it fall over on its back while under fire it would bore itself down into a hole that it could not get out of. Personally, I’d go for a puji spike trap for the legs. Have bloody shaped charges under an AP spike. Once the mech drives its leg down into the spike, a shaped charge could cause so much damage that it could not keep upright.
Given the explanation of “it absorbs light”, it should have been a giant black form with all its weaknesses revealed in colour. A flawed design.
The only explanation I could imagine was it emitting a holographic image outside of the mecha through the signal receivers too (above Aldnoah’s light layer). That would explain why we can see waves in the surface when anything hits it.
Yup. Everything this series does just excites me in a way I forgot was possible.
I also need that OST in my life. That insert song was kickass.
That soundtrack will play when it’s your time to talk. lol
Yes, I like their choice in Sawano Hiroyuki for music in this show as well. It brings me back to Attack on Titan and the grandiose nature of humanity’s struggle.
Now this a much better episode. In hindsight it would actually makes the disappointing previous episode better when you consider it as a setup for this episode.
It’s nice to see a series that actually presents itself as Real Robot series. Sure, the genre can be mixed with some Super Robot elements when more fantastical things pop-up and that’s okay with me, but I’m glad Aldonah Zero is so far committed to being a Real Robot show. The enemies machines may be advanced, but they are still machines that can break.
Another interesting point is how the military is presented here. After the laughable presentation for the Terran military last episode, we are now presented Captain Darzana who is shown as *gasp* a rational military officer who *gasp* is concerned with saving civilians. It’s like today in Aldonah is opposite day. Also, I think she’s hot, but that’s neither here nor there.
I’m glad we can actually give SOME definitive character to Inaho. He’s calm and intelligent, and I still think he does have emotion, he just can’t express it. Its very subtle but its there, with implications that his friend’s death did affect him, and that he relies on his other companions to help him win the day.
Lastly, I do give props for Princess Aseylum who thankfully isn’t a helpless stereotype that will annoy me with pacifistic platitudes. She’s willing to stand up for herself, and isn’t above using firearms to defend herself. Also she stared down a giant robot, that’s points for me already. Definitive proof that she has massive balls(ovaries?) of titanium.
I hope they continue with the development of the Princess and placing her in more battles and giving her more training. Hopefully she’ll get to fight and pilot like the main 3.
Confirmed: Lt. Marito also has his own harem hehehe
Balls of titanium???
You mean PLOTS pf titanium
I hope Inaho continues to use generic mecha till the end of the series, and wins by strategy and tactics only
Ok, maybe give him OP mecha for the final episode
Personally would prefer if MC stayed in the rear, while the frontline guys get the OP mech.
The dangers of overconfidence. Acting like gods over technology you didn’t invent per se. In the end those martians are facing humans like them not animals and they are going to realize it soon.
“A cornered rat will bite the cat”
I’m happily surprised the plot moved forward with conventional mecha and tactics; i.e. Inaho didn’t magically find an overpowered brand new mech that just happens to work for only him and proceed to pwn with it.
In this Anime some Persons asking for drive age? Seriously? The Zone is evacuated, there is no Policemen nearbye, or do you think they go there to the Mars Mecha and give him a ticket of destroying building?
What are you writing?
See the surrounding, when and where this is happening.
Inaho’s conclusions was nearly the same ideas as mine. i am now the Hope of Humanity? i just used my Brain. Well, i suggest Dust to go for the weak points, but they used Water to check it out.
Seriously, looks like you get out of bed with the wrong leg Enzo 🙂
Could you drive an APC two years before you got your drivers license? It’s not a question of her getting a ticket – it’s a question of how realistic it is that she’d actually be able to do it.
Did you copy the moves of your Father, when you sit next to him, when he is driving the car? You should do fine, somehow. Only problem will be the gears. And yes. I remember a scene of mine, when i put our car ins motion, but only on 1st gear.
i remember after a hurricane hit America, some 8 years old boy drive a school bus for evacuating. The teacher asked, how can drive the bus
and today racing and driving games, to the rest
Maybe I could have driven when I was 14 from watching my Dad do it, but I sure as hell wouldn’t have wanted to be in the car with me when I tried. I should also point out that my Dad didn’t drive an APC, he drove a Volvo.
same the scene, when the girl crush a car under her mecha feet. the buddy said, “there is no one here that will punish you for that”
same as your dad, if he would not be around. he would be proud like a mountain, that his boy drove all to safety in a car
but yea, perhaps this transporter here had a automatic gear. then you just pull on the pedal and break. but she got trained from her dad, because she know how to handle the grenade launcher. So she is not a normal girl
I drove my Uncle’s car at 12… never got far but i did start it and drove it like 50 mts before he cached up with me (i was going so slow lol) … i got in so much trouble for that..
Dunno about the APC.. never seen one from the inside…but if i had someone close to me in the military or if i had military classes and happen so see how one of those works .. then i think i could be able to get one to work.
Dunno about Rayet, but since her father was a black-ops undercover agent i bet she had the opportunity to see how one is driven , atleast one time. … also pretty sure she is “experienced” too (the way she explained how to operate a grenade launcher was too concise and too calm) … otherwise why would her father bring her along?
It looked to me that Rayet seems to have some sort of training. She is associated with the martian group that attempted to assassinate the princess so it would make sense that she knows how to handle herself in a combat environment. This becomes very apparent when she informs the princess succinctly on how to fire the smoke grenade launcher, which illustrates that Rayet knows how to handle herself in combat situations and therefore allows us, the viewer, to extrapolate that she have other skill sets that make her versatile in a combat environment, such as driving that vehicle.
Why do you even think she wouldn’t know something as simple as driving a car, when she was the daughter of the terrorist leader. I’d say, she probably would have gotten arms and combat trsining as well.
Sorry Enzo but I have driven an APC before I drove a car.
nice episode:
-Inaho is NOT emotionless… he “the stoic” (trope) …like a vulcan … wonder if hes gonna go like Spook (StarTrek , 2009) and lose his s#1t at some point.
-A barrier that absorbs light shouldn’t look transparent! we SHOULDN’T be able to see the mecha either.. all we should see was a black outline! (and dont tell me is just a “directional abortion”..in that case shouldn’t the direction be backwards? no need for air drones that way!)
-about Asylum … dont think shes a mahou shoujo… that was a.. camouflage.. right? right??
-that after ending scene! nice i was thinking: “meh now Slaine gonna drop the gun and follows like a good sheep” then he shoot him! NICE, that guy had it coming!
PS: I was thinking “aww Inko gonna die now” after the talk she had with Inaho .. it really looked like a death flag. Glad shes still around… for now.
PS2: that princess , a short tutorial on shooting grenade launchers and 2 mins later shes doing it with a smile on her face… me like.
I don’t think he’s emotionless either – what I said is “he betrays almost no emotion.” I still think the question of why that’s so is an interesting one.
KHAAAN!!
the reason we see the color of the mech is most likely a non-narrative reason. Its so we as the viewers can marvel at the design of the mech. Only when the barrier is not active should anyone in the story be able to see what it looks like (they should only see a black shadowy figure as long as the barrier is active, to which i believe the last ep tried to do by sort of distorting the mechs colors when something came in contact with the barrier). The other reason (albeit contrived) could be that martian technology is just awesome and can do stuff like not look like a black blob regardless of its light absorbing barrier 🙂
The episode was great in terms of soundtrack, animation, Mahouo Shoujo 360 noscope Princess and all, but the story was a bit weak.
One of the elements I was hoping to see in this this series was the deconstruction of a genre, similar to Madoka Magika, and thus far I’ve been a bit disappointed. They do a great job and the MC had an outstanding insight and a good pre-battle speech without going all Shinji Akari, but the whole idea that some teenagers were able to deal with a Martian Kataphrakt so effectively irks me.
You could argue that in the heat of the battle, while fighting an overwhelming enemy, people wouldn’t be able to see the drones. But aren’t professional soldiers supposed to be better than that? For any other anime I wouldn’t have had this high standards, but this is Urobuchi we’re talking about.
Sigh… Good show still. I’ll just enjoy it like any other Gundam for now and hope it doesn’t turn into another Gargantia.
Thank you. I see much being made of how excited people are by the soundtrack (I find Sawano more than a little played out at this point so the soundtrack honestly does very little for me) and some rather trivial things like Inaho not complaining about situations or whatever (how can he when he’s basically written to have no real personality whatsoever) but little to address how little we know about the characters and what makes them tick or the overall conflict. So far they’ve spent 3 episodes slapping us in the face with how fucked humanity is only to turn around and basically show us that all the adult characters in this show are in fact apparently just idiots and how even a child could figure out how to take down the mechs that so far Earth’s finest haven’t even been able to scratch after 15 years of preparation. That’s not smart writing to me, that’s contrived writing that borders on the verge of insulting. At least Gundam allowed it’s adult cast to shine alongside some of the younger ones too and didn’t just portray them all as complete idiots or mustache twirling antagonists that just stand there as you proceed to carve up their mecha like a turkey and spout your one liners about settling scores and then babble all of their diabolical plans to a subordinate who also happens to be the caretaker of the person they are trying to kill so that they then get to shoot them in cold blood and we get our cool end of episode scene that is strangely unsatisfying. I mean I can’t say I’m sorry to see Trillram go since he was such a lame antagonist, but I can’t say I felt any sense of satisfaction in seeing him meet his demise since he basically put up no fight whatsoever this week and practically asked to be killed off multiple times.
I’d also argue this show is aiming at trying to be a subversion, not a deconstruction, but it’s not a subversion of the mecha genre, but what people seem to think the mecha genre is like and where it’s conventions fall short, specifically stupid shit people always bitch about like the balance of power and the emotional capacity of the main character the former of which I also don’t feel this how gets right so much as it tips the balance overwhelmingly in one direction as the plot necessitates for the ideas the anime is attempting to put forth. So far this show feels like the product of producers that did a lot of homework by going to forums and listening to shit people bitch about when it comes to mecha anime and basically designed a concept show whose sole claim to fame so far is that it attempts to do the opposite of the things people are always complaining about with mecha as a way to curry favor and praise for it from people that have obviously never seen some of the better ones that do involve things like strategy and tactics against the odds, but also have the people they are facing be menacing and capable in their own right a lot of the time instead of just on a power trip in a gimmick robot.
That’s literally as far as the show has gotten by the end of it’s first cours first quarter mark, that it does the opposite of what people bitch about so as to earn praise instead without having to really work for it in terms of script writing, world building and thematic and character resonance. Things like front loading death counts instead of leaving the big casualty markers till the end, having the MC be emotionless and making use of a grunt mecha with little more than a knife and sub machine against an incompetent antagonist piloting what at first appears to be an OP mech that for whatever reason is equipped with no ranged weaponry which is probably the thing it needs the most to compensate for it’s apparent lack of armor should it’s shield mechanism somehow fail. It’s not bucking cliches at all really, in fact it’s actually kind of embracing them, but just playing them in reverse of the typical expectation so far or at least in ways that people think are reversals so that it looks like it is.
What I want to see from this show in coming episodes is an effort to flesh out the characters and give them more than just expository dialogue and one liners to spout. I want to get to know more about this world and it’s back story and for the show to gain more of a human touch instead of just beating me over the head with how cool it’s soundtrack is and it’s pretension towards attention to deal. I’ve heard more than enough of the former and seen more of enough of the latter from Story Concept creator Gen Urobuchi that it’s not going to be good enough for me to include it in the list of all time great mecha series if it can’t offer me more than that.
Guess we were both expecting too much when the initial crew was announced. You’re right it does look more like a subversion, although deconstruction was what I was hoping for. The only recent anime that had a good world build up without too many hiccups was Log Horizon.
Most of the current anime watchers are quite young and perhaps have never seen any other old good mecha shows besides the obvious NGE and some Gundams. Though I wouldn’t go as far as to say they were checking the forums for complaints it is obvious they’re trying to interact with a certain demographic here.
Character development is a must and some background story won’t hurt. Like I said, hope this doesn’t turn into Gargantia Deluxe 2.0.
P.S. For anyone interested in good, less known mecha shows I gladly recommend RahXephon, Bounen no Xamdou and even Blue Gender. The last one is a bit gore-y and has an R+ rating, but it has a good story and depiction of what a post-apocaliptic mecha anime should be like.
Out of curiosity, what mecha series would you recommend and what sets them apart for you as the great ones?
Also, are we to take your comments as meaning you don’t like the show at all, or more along the lines that it’s okay but not living up to the hype?
Having watched both Rahxephon and Blue Gender in their entirety (though I will admit it has been some time since then, I will agree that they are good series but I’m not sure where you’re coming from if you’re trying to tout them as being superior to more recent offerings.
I definitely enjoyed them but I don’t feel either did anything better than another show and they had their share of flaws (particularly in their endgames, without going into detail here.)
I still join you in recommending them but I’d caution anyone who checks them out to not go in with expectations of being totally blown away by utter masterpieces.
Watching Sword Art Online II Ep3 right after watching this (epic) episode and that ‘unexpected gunshot’ in the end just seems… awesome to see guns in ‘real action’.
Also, now it’s been confirmed for me, too; this show is the show I will be always looking forward to the most this season.
Puella Magi Asseylum Magica
https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
Hell yeah, let the comeback begin.
RIP Trillram, your over-the-top villainy shall be missed. XD
Now that Slaine has gunned down Trillram, Inaho will find joining his side:
1 the enemy’s kickass grenade shooting
mahou shoujoPrincess whom her military wants dead in order to facilitate their warmongering,2 said Princess’ Knight, who after finding out she survived, will do everything to protect her, giving him a new found purpose in life,
3 daughter of an enemy spy, who got coldly killed off after he served his purpose
All three will have purpose for helping Inaho, and each with some degree of knowhow of the enemy.
4 after the Meteoroid Bombardment from space, the Count of this Knight will join the side. He turn to be a Human fight back Beachhead
Mahou shoujo transformation? Hmm…must be nanotech. Yeah, let’s go with nanotech 😉
So it wasn’t a disguise. It was a transform!
If I had to guess, I’d say she has an aldnoah core either on her person (as in a charm, necklace, etc) or implanted into her body… According to word of God, she’s only 14.
Girls with big ass guns can only be exceeded by Princesses with big ass guns
Seriously , name me one other main character that formulates a plan that could kill him and his friends while taking a dump. Inakooooooooo
Damn, that princess is really cute while using the grenade launcher. Too dangerous!
now we see the plot advance to “princess Lover vs invaders”
The Asteroid Bombardment will happen, and this count get nearly killed, and he join sides with the Princess. So Slain rejoin with the Count to fight against the Traitors, perhaps they can not request backup from Mars. They are to far away. But hope that not all Knights are that Bloodbath crazy around earth, and jump to the aid of the Princess
Hu? Did i hit a Nerf? My Comments need moderation now? 🙂
Huh?
From my experience, this site automatically filters for certain words and off-site links in comments, so if you used any of them, your comments will automatically be flagged for moderation.
More like, stop writing several posts in sequence just to reiterate your comments. You’ve been like this on the site and some people have gotten tired of seeing that.
Either way, asking bloggers if ‘you hit a nerve’ like that is not very appropriate, if you ask me. There are better ways to go about it.
Not to mention, I’m no interwebs expert, but when you have the word “spam” in the email address you use to register that might just trigger the spam filter occasionally…
good point, but this email protect me from inet spam very good. because the spam robots would ignore it
I know it is the Auto Name Filter here. But i dont know what word he dont like.
And you guys dont saw my Smile at the end? With that i mean it not seriously. More a joke…
With how the princess can ‘transform’, the shield being able to absorb ‘everything’, I did say the sensors was camouflaged and was revealed due to either (i) smoke screen or (ii) plot device.
Hey, who would make the eyes and ears of an near impenetrable mech that would otherwise be blind or defenseless be obvious? There’s something, but it’ll either be explained later or become a loophole.
enzo i think the main reason we only saw the spy satellites with this one is cause probably all of the martian mechs have their own special ability’s, and this is the only one with the barrier thing that required them spy satellite thingy.
I’m still wondering if these ‘Martians’ are actually Earthlings who migrated to Mars thousands of years ago with the help of alien technology, or that they’re actually Earthlings who migrated to Mars back in the 70’s. Either way, their mannerisms and outlook are far, far, far more reminiscent of ancient humans with souped-up alien tech than the Earthlings from the 70’s (Seriously, you can’t just cancel out modern-era developments. It doesn’t make any sense.). And even if some of them DID migrate, it seems rather strange to call Earthlings ‘Old Humanity’ as the inculcation of Versian values would’ve taken A LONG TIME for these particular strain of ‘humans’ to supremely resent us ‘barbarians’. Which leads me to thinking that the Versians either wiped out or assimilated the Earth colonists, or forced them to accept Versian values (or that one other possibility where they duly accepted Versian rule, or that some ‘alien tech’ brainwashed everyone).
All of the above that I stated, or that everyone’s getting the wrong idea here.
Think about it, the fact that Asseylum just doesn’t really know what Earth feels like is kind of telling. If they set up a monarchy in just 4 decades, wouldn’t her parents tell her of how Earth was back then and possibly be somewhat nostalgic about it? Plus, the outlandish names, their appearances and pompous dress of the Versians, and that those Versian undercover agents were stranded down there after the war… It all just doesn’t lead to them abandoning and resenting everything about Earth just like that. Sure, Earthlings colonized Mars, but in doing so they came into contact with the Versians who had already laid claim to the alien tech and Aldnoah.
All the data i read about the story indicates that Vers are the human Mars colonists after finding the Aldonah technology abandoned on Mars 70 years ago (which allowed for rapid technological advancements), and it seems they formed something close to a cult glorifying and almost worshiping the new technology, which would explain the rapid change in their attitude and mannerism as well, cults have that effect even in real life and its impact is strong enough to remove the so called modern-developments you speak of (to the point of considering human on earth as inferior creatures and treating them like animals or trash, heck the Nazi did that while they where with us on earth XD).
Then there is the fact that 15 years before the series started a battle happened on the moon and the gate linking the Moon to Mars was blown apart during the fighting, which stranded those Vars on the moon and disconnected them from their homes on Mars, so now we have three factions .. the original human on earth (or the Terrans), the humans who traveled to Mars 70 years ago through the moon gate and founded the Vers empire after finding artifacts with ancient tech (the Aldnoah tech), the splinter faction of Vers that got stranded on the moon 15 years ago in a battle with terran humans .. gate was destroyed and they were unable to travel back to mars so they settled down in their floating castles around earth.
Which in turn leads us to the REAL reason why they want to take earth, it seems like the Vers empire on Mars either abandoned them or considered them dead, so their stranded castles surely where running out of resources and aren’t ideal to build a civilization in (and can’t be 100% self-sufficient), so the most logical option for them was to descend down to earth and reap it’s resources for themselves to survive.
The scary part is that the humans aren’t fighting the Vers empire in all its power, they are just fighting the stranded faction that was left on the moon after the last battle, i can’t imagine how overwhelming the actual full power of the Vers empire might be XD.
Say what?! Dang… I don’t exactly know how you got your sources, but if that part where they made a cult round that alien tech and completely changed their lifestyle in just a manner of decades, then dayyum son… It’s just that I can only infer from what I’ve seen in the episodes thus far so if that’s the official story, then can’t argue with it. (Though it does make the suspension of disbelief on my end a little harder)
As for them Martians stranded in the Lunar orbit, I can definitely see how they wanna wipe us out based on whatchu’ said. Though I still wonder if the Versians really wanna wipe us out just for the sake of wipin’ us out which is why they don’t even wanna go back to Mars, assuming that their landing castles have the ability for interplanetary travel.
This show is getting better by the episode, can’t wait for the next one~
wonder why people get “head scratch” with Inaho get to discover the enemy’s prowess where in the military should while people forgive the massive amount of atrocity Code geass have done with the military forces showing Lelouch is so intelligent while in fact he is the only one who is using his brain and the other commanders presented as total dumbasses
That happens a lot in Gundam too and more shows.
Even in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, especially early on, Yang and Reinhard are surrounded by idiots on both sides in order to highlight how much better they are.
and yeah,
http://en.workupload.com/file/AXqPAi8R
the External Cameras being deployed back in ep.2
A prime example of Brains over Brawls. If your opponent is OP, stop and think for a bit. And boy am I glad to see a MC with braincells. Too many MCs nowadays follow Wizard’s Third Rule: Passion Rules Reason.
Well, just give him a spoon of facial expressions every now and then and I’m good 🙂
Generic moustache-twirler is down! I repeat: generic moustache-twirler is down! For the count!
So, these guys have the tech to essentially wrap objects in a black hole, but they couldn’t be arsed to fit the object they’re wrapping with some sort of quantum entanglement communications to minimize the weak spots? Amateurs I say.
Oh well, it’s a fun enough ride so far.
I like the princess because she isn’t some damsel in distress & she’s actually capable of looking after herself also protecting herself
Only what she did was complete idiocy and proves nothing of her credibility, she survived only by being lucky, if Trillram wasn’t confused for a second there, he would have just swing his arm and wiped her off the place of the universe like he did with red head’s dad.
Nonsense.
If anything, she timed her appearance at the exact right moment, correctly guessing that Trillram would be momentarily confused by seeing her alive.
You say he would have come to his senses soon anyway? Well, the brief moment of confusion is more than enough time for Inaho to blow the bridge up and approach Trillram. So as a time-delaying tactic it was a brilliant gamble on her part.
Yeah, she explicitly stated that she knew how much time she needed to buy, said she’d get them that time, and she did exactly that.
I loved this episode – what with the Hime kicking arse like that. Girl power, yeah!
And oh Trillram, how did u get back onto the shore without getting wet from the water? I would have shot you down just like that too, dirty scumbag. Heh.
Umm… not to be mean, but has Guardian Enzo actually been watching the series? He keeps commenting on how these kids shouldn’t have these skills: why can the redhead drive, why is Inaho so good with machines, yet it’s been established since episode 1 that military training has been made a standard part of earth curriculum since the last war. All of these kids can be safely assumed to know how to drive, fight, handle weapons, fire a weapon, and every other thing that goes with having military training every day.
They are trained child soldiers. While Inaho’s personality certainly still needs some explanation, the overall technical/military capabilities of the cast HAVE been explained.
There are several different issues at play here. In the first place, Inaho and his mates having basic skills is not in question. But it should be clear by now that Inaho is a freak in terms of what he knows and what he intuits – he’s not normal. Is there a reason why he’s such a tactical genius? Does he do a lot of self-study because he’s a tactics otaku? As with his impassive demeanor, I think those are valid questions.
The question of Rayet is different. The driving thing was strictly a joke but since so many people seem intent on making it into a big deal, in the real world the families of sleeper agents normally have no idea what their spouse/parent is doing – it’s part of their deep cover. In normal circumstances Rayet would be a normal teenager who attended a normal school. Maybe that’s not the case here, but we were never explicitly told that. Do all high schools in this reality have ROTC? Maybe – but again, we have no way to know one way or the other.
Lastly, the actual quote (yes, I am watching the series – are you actually reading the post you’re criticizing?) is “If we accept the basic genre premise of teenagers being the vanguard of the human race as it fights off invaders, this was set up about as realistically as one could hope for.” I think Aldnoah is doing fine as far as scenario setting in having these kids be the last wall of resistance, in context. But you know, there is a context – in reality high school students aren’t doing the heavy frontline fighting for first world countries. It’s an anime conceit generally and a mecha conceit specifically – that’s all I’m pointing out.
a good example of kids not knowing their parents are sleeper agents is the show (and a pretty good one at that) the Americans. sure it’s fictional, but it is based on how Russian families were set up in the US during the cold war to act as spies.
Why doesn’t that armour absorb air? And if it absorbs lasers, infrared, radio waves and the like, why doesn’t it absorb the visible spectrum too? Well I suppose the answer to the last one is obvious. If it doesn’t reflect visible light and it’s pitch black, they can’t show off their mech design.
I would think that absorbing everything would require a lot of power. My guess is that they limited the effect as much as possible, just enough to be a weapon and armour.
It’s most likely to be some sort of reverse optical camouflage projected by this “aldnoah’s light” technology in order to hide its weakness. Both episode 2 and 3 sorta hinted it when the mech started up / shut down, it briefly turns void black and then you see its ‘color’ again, and the way the ‘color’ reappears looked like some sort of layer wrapped around the mech.
Good catch.
Its funny really, how people are complaining about the mecha being visible while being able to accept without a problem that there exists an armor that absorbs everything around it whitout having problems with its weight.
Cause where does all the absorbed mass go? Shouldnt the mechaa become heavier if it absorbs that much material?
I just dont get it – the creators are building a world here with a technology we are supposed to understand only partially, not completely. To question some of it and not all is like asking if god has his paradise on venus or mars. I think its best not to question every physical aspect in a work of fiction where advanced technology -meaning technology we cant understand – is the main point of the show.
but with this you see how much they love to watch and discussion about the show.
Interesting point, so far we don’t actually know what happens to objects or humans that came in contact with that barrier except they disappear.
They might have disintegrated into residue not visible to the naked eye or they get to be absorbed into the machine, converting them into power source.
Or thinking wildly, maybe they get to be teleported into Mars, leaving hope that Inaho’s classmate and the terrorists are still alive. lol.
I was merely wondering, not complaining. Besides, by asking, someone more attentive than me noticed the creators animated the armour to turn black when turning on/off. At the time of viewing, I didn’t think anything of it but now I can appreciate that particular attention to detail.
How much I let my suspension of disbelief stretch depends on a various factors. One of them is the character reactions. Seeing how none of the were characters mindf*ked by where the mass was disappearing to, I figured “advanced technology”. Another is consistency. Seeing the armour absorb various EM wavelengths but seemingly leaving light out was strange. Seeing it passively absorb endless amounts of water but not air also strikes me as strange.
Btw, my brain was off at the time but at ~7:30, the protag says it absorbs “Matter, light, sound, radio waves, everything”. He even explicitly mentioned light so…
Lets us not forget this Mecha here, was unique. Perhaps the other Assault Mechas dont have this Phase Shields. So if they go there and repair asap the Information Network, they then have Eyes again, and perhaps to send Military backup Power to the other Citys
Right now, earth is blind. Priority is to gain her eyes back, what happen in the rest of the world
Flashy animation and mediocre substance; this is shaping into guilty crown 2.0
Let’s hope we can get some worthy Urobutcher material then. So far this doesn’t feel like it was written by Gen the man.
Pointless comment with crappy logic; this is shaping into “i’m just here to troll” comment 2.0
Nice try fellow, how about you go get your “substance” elsewhere, or maybe try harder and maybe .. just maybe .. you might actually contribute something useful to the discussions here instead of pointless trolling.
If you like it than good for you, but besides nice character designs (Kokoro Connect) this show is/has become so ridiculous I can’t even take it seriously anymore. The plot is bad, characters are just eyecandy and it’s just another trashy mecha series that doesn’t even come near to the average ones like Valrave or Majestic Prince; it’s more in the field of Buddy Complex or Kurogane no linebarrels. The reason I compared it to a subpar and very bad show like Guilty Crown is because all that one had was nice character designs and the same kind of bombastic OST kicking it in far to often/anytime to amplify the “awesomeness” of the show. But nothing adrenaline pumping or thrilling is happening at all after all this hype it’s kinda dissapointing really.
@Heliopolis
Maybe if you tried telling us what unholy power convinced you that the plots is bad and how it convinced you with that, but no you just went ahead with pointless comparisons that no one cares about and bizarre alien logic dictating that any mecha show with nice character designs and great OST must be bad regardless of anything .. huh !!?, look .. there is nothing trashy about the show and nothing is subpar about it in any way shape or form, i think that same unholy power made you end up here when you were supposed to be there —> https://randomc.net/category/shirogane-no-ishi-argevollen/ … now that’s a subpar mecha show.
Man they’re so lucky that the Martian Kataphrakt didn’t emit laser beams.
Thinking about it, lucky again that they didn’t investment for greater martian cameras that can actually scan and render geographical information using methods such as sonar or thermal.
Things might have turn the other way.
I just find it refreshing that the MC didn’t find some super secret advanced mech stashed away in the school gym/underground/hanger and used the power of revenge/love/protecting to beat the OP invaders.
It starts out like so many other mecha show where an invasion of super advanced suits obliterate what little defense there is. The script then would move on to the MC needing to protect someone or avenging someone. He would find this secretly built prototype that would come in and save the day.
Started out that way then, wow, MC used brains and mass produce suits to defeat the OP invader. Then again, Code Geas sort of started that way then everything just went into who could build the best OP mecha faster overdrive.
So far I like it.
It’s kinda like invert stereotype. Instead of the MC using an OP mecha, gunning down loads of cannon fodder mechas, the MC is using cannon fodder mechas with team efforts to bring down an OP mecha.
Hurray for the underdogs!
I feel that this princess is a fake as well.
https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
JUST LOOK AT HER BREAST! ITS NOT THE SAME!
Conclusive proof right there. Boobs don’t lie.
Hips neither!
To the downvoter(s) on Croos and celebrinen’s obviously tongue-in-cheek post, please, have some sense of humour and see their posts for the playfulness that they are instead of being so stuck-up.
dont try, there are some Troll down voters, to see us crying about these needless things, just for the fun
i only react, when someone give me a good contra commenting, what i wrote wrong
Every time a person down-votes a tsundere, neko-mimi maid gets stomped on by a giant robot.
Why didn’t they shoot down the cameras rather than just smoke them? If they did success they didn’t have to continue the runaway and so diminish the rate to loss more member. Even “if” after being shot the kataphrakt deploys cameras again, or they are having hard time shooting the cameras (probably Calm will having hard time, but i think Inko will shot 2 or 3 at least), they can just shift to the next strategy (the strategy we saw this episode). It’s still worth the try (if it did succeed we might not see the action of our Inaho though :v )
They didn’t know by what means the unit recieved the images, could have been satelite, could have been Slain as well (I thought that at first) so the best viable tactic was chaff and smoke.
This is why Zephie makes me watch his show
A mix of humor and straightness.
Though Zephie, you’re still way far from Stilt’s humors opening comment though.
Eh. I’d much prefer to keep it balanced rather than pushed to one end of the humor/straight spectrum.
There’s some emotion shown there, folks. The apparently emotionless robot can smile. The very last line before he finishes off the Kataphrakt also betrays the fact that he feels something about his friend’s death as well, and I think that’s pretty much case closed.
The issue lies, of course, with how these kids pretty much on top of things while the military gets their asses handed to them. While everyone’s panicking, they are abnormally calm and able to think rationally. It does feel a little cheap, but the result is an entertaining fight against seemingly insurmountable odds for our Terran heroes. Logic notwithstanding, that was a brilliant battle and I was surprisingly entertained by the process of preparation and deduction done by these kids. Either I’m really an idiot who just enjoys exposition of any kind, or perhaps my level of belief suspension is a little higher than most. :p
There’s an interesting spectrum of characters going on here with the main cast, and I’m pleased to see that the pacing seems pretty good as well. The show could use a little more character development and I’m hoping to see more of that. Either way, it’s probably a smarter choice to enjoy it as it is DESPITE the glaring flaws.
“It’s a function of this sort of series that teenage heroes can figure out stuff the top brass of the military can’t”
Well there really was no way the team that first went fought the martian mech could have figured out how the barrier worked.
The MC was only able to start hypothesizing when he noticed that it didn’t follow them into the tunnel. And even after that he needed time to gather addition data and analyze it. The adults had neither the data nor the time that the MC had.
So, in this case, its not that the teenagers are more competent than the adults, but rather the teenagers were presented with different circumstances. Also the students do have military training. In the first episode it was stated that military training was added to the high school classes.
Granted it won’t surprise me if we do see instances of the adults being completely incompetent as it is something that usually comes with the territory.
as for kids driving,
this was from a local trackday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSbqWZnJ62k
The little chat between Inaho and Inko was nice, I half expected her to climb into the cockpit with him.
Also, just how many thousands of gallons of water were eaten by Trillram’s robot?
Ok, Aldnoah Zero totally won me over with this episode, i was cheering on for humanity as they fought and taught those snotty martians a hard lesson “never look down on your opponents”, specially with Sawano’s awesome music (and that fantastic insert song) playing in the background .. that was sweet epicness, and it always feels so good to cheer for the underdog when it finally gets to fight back and snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat, Aldnoah Zero now has a feverish fan that’s going to defend it from any and all martian trolls (with logic “bombs” and reason “missiles”), all you trolls out there .. beware my wrath XD
Ahm, now i’ll tackle some of the points in the original post by Enzo and some of the ones being discussed in the comments.
Ahm, only the kataphrakt that was defeated this episode had spy satellites hovering around it due to the problem with it’s invincible absorptive shields (not all kataphrakts have it), and no one noticed them from the first military group becasue they didn’t even know how that thing worked or had any chance to study and contemplate their encounter, 80% of the military team sent where wiped out on first contact, who the heck would be looking into the sky for tiny satellites (for no reason whatsoever) when a giant hulking metal robot is charging at them dissolving everything in its wake, two more things .. the army chain of command is also a mess due to the jamming so exchanging any information about anything in general is extremely difficult if not impossible, 2nd .. the main character although young and still in school are considered a paramilitary force themselves as they had official military training and where helping with the evacuation effort.
Also, the military did the logical thing when they realized the huge gap in militarily power, which is evacuating the citizens from the combat zones near the martian castles, and it was clear they were doing a very good job with that, not to mention Kouichirou Marito helped with the attack on the kataphrakts as well, so i wouldn’t call them incompetent by any means.
Like i said above, all long range communications are jammed so i have no clue what do you want the top brass of the military to do, of course the teenage heroes (who happen to be part of a paramilitary force) are going to figure it out before the brass becasue obviously the heroes are THERE and saw/experienced everything first-hand not the army top brass (unless you expect the top brass to be telepathic), also .. god forbid that a teenager can be more intelligent than the top brass in the military, last time i checked getting into the military brass didn’t requite IQ above 100, there is nothing stopping the main character from having an analytical mind with IQ above 150 nor is there anything illogical about it(not to mention he has the stoic calm personality to keep his wits about him in a dire situation, the technical and military experience he gained from his paramilitary training), and last time i checked most of the inventive and most powerful weapons made in WW2 that won the allies the war against the Nazi where suggested by non-military people and scientists not the top brass.
Rayet was part of a terrorist group trained to assassinate the martian princess or carry out espionage and black-ops operation for the martians orbiting around earth, sure as hell she got some extensive military training from her farther and team, and surely enough to know how to drive an APC or fire a grenade-launcher.
As for the princess, i think it’s more about her personality than any training, she is clearly a very bold and strong spirited girl, and i think she too got military training (seems the war situation made it necessary for both martians and humans to train their kids for war early on), when she met Inaho the first time she easily overpowered him and knocked him to the ground in an instant (she knows martial arts and is bold enough to attack an unknown male without a sec of hesitation).
Cut the guy some slack, he smiled at the start of the episode, i couldn’t believe my eyes but he did smile, that’s more than we could ask from him now, and as i said above, being stoic and some sort of an introvert makes it easy for him to keep his wits about him which is a great skill (besides his technical knowledge, military training and observant analytical mind) that would make him an excellent leader (as we saw how he organized the attack and spearheaded the final assault with excellent timing), then there is the GAR dialog of course, we are now sure he isn’t “dead” on the inside, he is just bad at showing emotions, which considering all his numerous pros is an ignorable con.
lols, it was surely one flashy way to remove her disguise but that doesn’t really make her
a mahou shoujo, it seems we primitive terrans will consider any advanced technology a form of magic XD .. besides .. Captain earth -a mecha series- had a mahou shojou of its own (and her powers included the belly-button forte and full nuclear holocaust).
http://i.imgur.com/ZgFMHqo.jpg
========================================
Now for Zephyr’s post XD
Just becasue a robot used a sniper doesn’t make it straight out of Evangelion, the context is totally different, the hero robots and enemy robots are nothing like Eva, the dramatic use is 100% different (in Eva the sniping was the focus of the entire episode and a critical event that required rerouting of the entire power grid of Tokyo 3 to power the sniper weapon, here it was just a 10 sec scene where she shot a bridge and it was part of much bigger plan), there are many other examples of robots using giant snipers in battle and like this one they have nothing to do with the scene from Evangelion.
Please, if we followed this logic then people would have had nothing to use for stories and media years ago .. oh some guy used a sniper in a movie to assassinate someone .. then no one must ever use a sniper ever again to snipe someone in any story or media form or they will be labeled unoriginal and constantly using elements from other sources.
========================================
Now for some general points.
1-The enemy kataphrakt being visible despite having a light absorbing shield … there are only two possible reasons, the first being artistic license, the artists just drew the robot so we can see when it should have been a black-blob (not so exciting to watch really a black blob chase our heroes), the second option is that the same shield that absorbs everything casts a holographic image of the robot outside itself overlaying the black-blob that we would have otherwise seen .. it seems logical from an aesthetic point of view as it seems the martians are pompous and like to show off, i think it’s the 2nd option becasue if it was supposed to really look like a black-blob our character should have mentioned something about the giant “black-blob” chasing them around.
2-We must not forget that our heroes got lucky with this fight becasue their enemy didn’t have any ranged weapons, but story wise it’s a good choice to eventually up the stakes when they are up against one of the other kataphrakts that have ranged weapons and eventually they floating fortresses, i can’t wait to see what they will do against the other ones presented in the last episode.
3-Let’s not forget that an orbital strike was ordered this episode (and there is nothing to stop it) and that means few things, first the Martians will be fighting against each other becasue one of the castles, the castle of Cruhteo will be caught in the blast … what will out heroes do, will they evacuate in time or will there be more losses on their side, i can’t wait to see the next episode to see what will happen.
4-Not sure if you noticed or not, but all that technology and firepower with the martians is merely the power of those stranded from Vers on the moon after the battle 15 years ago on the moon that blew the gate to Mars, so those guys who were orbiting earth for 15 are a very small portion of what Vers is like, i think someone from the humans blew the gate intentionally to prevent Vers from invading earth casue if they passed through wtih all their power and technology they probably would have obliterated everything in mere minutes, so i’m wondering whether they plan to show us what’s going on Mars, and what happened on the Moon or not .. i hope they do, i also want to see what’s happening in all other places in the world not just Japan since this is clearly a global invasion.
5-Why is this a 12 episode one cour show !!!!?, that’s just unfair and stupid, a mediocre show like Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen gets 24 episodes from the get go and a magnificent show like this one gets only 12, seriously .. i don’t want Gargantia all over again, i really hope this is a mistake that they will fix soon.
Just for my two points, the only point I’m trying to make is that it looks like they’re borrowing a lot from some pretty obvious source points, or at the very least some tropes/techniques/developmental routes that are quite popular in recent shows. Many people mentioned it seemed like Geass in the first episode for instance, and the list of reminiscent shows has only grown as it’s gone forward.
Could it be that it’s not referenced from those places? Sure.
Does it hurt to point out the many rather symbolic scenes that could be? Nope.
If you’ve watched SO-RA-NO-WO-TO before, you’d probably be commenting about some pretty uncanny similarities too, for instance. Normally I don’t ever think up these similarities. It’s just that this show seems to do so quite a bit, and I wonder if that’s not a coincidence.
Gen and Co. are shrewd guys. They know their stuff and they’ve clearly referenced other things before. The point isn’t that it’s necessarily a negative thing, just that I can’t shake the feeling that they do seem to be borrowing heavily from specific things I’ve experienced, which I’ve already mentioned is fine in this case.
As for the more general case, let’s not boil things down to the “oh some guys used a sniper in a movie you can’t do that anymore” analogy. You’re stretching my argument away from my intention, which is that there are some shows that obviously rehash ALOT of elements from other shows in significant ways, and I don’t like it when I see it. It’s rare. But it happens.
@Zephyr
First of all thanks for the reply, second thing .. allow to elaborate on what i meant, this might sidetrack from the discussion about Aldnoah.Zero but bear with me.
I’ll start by tackling the thing the makes me tick the most, the whole notion that because something “reminded” you of show “X” or story “Y” it somehow means with utmost certainty that the writer of this new show/story is intentionally ripping off/using the same element from story “X” or “Y” becasue it he watched it/read it and decided to use it, sorry .. but that’s not how writing works nor is that how the brain works, i have watched over 300 anime shows and countless movies during my lifetime (30 years) and i’m trying to make my own comics now so i have dealt with this issue a lot, i’d be contemplating a certain idea for a story, think of a certain situation and see how it would further the plot or develop the characters while also having an element of wonder or awesome .. a little bit later after i drafted the whole situation i start getting the feeling it’s a little familiar, i keep recalling all the similar stuff i watched and read (tv shows, movies, anime, novels .. etc etc) and then it strikes me and i remember that there was a similar situation in show “X” or anime “Y”, i start feeling bad becasue of how some people might accuse me of simply just ripping off that show/anime -not knowing the process i went through to build it- and i start thinking about scrapping that scene and redoing it again, lately i realized this is futile and decided to go “screw it” and just use the ideas and scenes that benefit my story regardless of who used them before and how they used them, sometimes this even happens with stuff i didn’t see .. i’d come up with a new idea (one that i haven’t seen anything similar to before) and add it to my story draft only to watch a new anime or movie doing the same exact thing few months later, again i consider scrapping it becasue of how people might view it as “oh, you are ripping that show/story, how unoriginal, blah blah blah”, i stopped caring about such possible accusations after a while and just decided to focus on making solid stories, crafting detailed worlds with interesting characters regardless of how some elements or situations might feel similar to other shows from the point of view of other people, i don’t care anymore (still such snap accusation to any new anime -specially one that shows promise like Aldnoah- piss me off so much).
That’s becasue we make is but the sum of all the experiences and knowledge we gained throughout our lives and are stored in our mind (even if we can’t directly recall it), put a newly born human inside a black box for all his life and he won’t be able to create or invent any stories without raw materials to work with (those raw materials are life experiences and other people’s stories).
And i’m not the one who is stretching your argument away from your intention, you are doing so yourself, i never denied that it is possible that some people just rip off ideas from other shows (sometimes entire premises and stories), what i’m saying is that it isn’t the case here .. and that not every time you get reminded by something watching the show here it automatically means that they just “rehashed” it from another show just for the heck of it .. like i explained it detail above .. that’s not how things work .. and it’s pretty obvious when it happens, it’s this ludicrous trend of demanding everything to be 100% original that’s really unrealistic and show how much continuous consumption of huge amounts of media and entertainment can skew our judgment and make it very hard to enjoy anything even if it’s truly well made.
All in all, by using such snap judgments and shallow analogies you guys are the ones boiling it down to “oh some guys used a sniper in a movie you can’t do that anymore” not me.
Using a sniper in a mecha to shoot something =/= Evanglion
Space colonists coming back to attack earth =/= Gundam
Prodigy teenager leading resistance against overwhelming invasion =/= Code Geass
Just becasue a show left an impact on you and you recalled that image as soon as you saw that scene in a new show that doesn’t mean the writer/director rehashed the scene from the same source or just ripped it off, that’s just what you assumed so, they could very well be working and implementing those elements as they see fit to the story and what’s best for the characters and the situations they experience subconsciously from their life experience or brainstorming sessions (however they work) .. not “Oh remember when a robot used a sniper in Eva, how about we use that here, just shove it there to resonate with Eva fans”.
Cause many of these elements aren’t in fact elements that you can accuse someone of out right rehashing, many of them are building blocks, situations that could occur in any story, it’s like calling someone boring or unoriginal for saying “hi” to you when you meet them, that’s also the reason why tropes aren’t all cliches .. there is a fine difference between the two (as the front page of Tvtropes.org indicates .. funny enough becasue of such notions being spread online these days some new writers try to build stories just based on idea of “averting” all the well known tropes instead of trying to craft and interesting world, interesting characters or trying to say something with their story whether it involves well known tropes or avert them, and that’s just sad.
I’m sorry because I don’t honestly see the big deal behind my comment that requires it to be stretched to this extent. There seems to be some misunderstanding here that my comments are made with the intent of hating, disliking, or undervaluing what’s being done with Aldnoah or anything else that might bear resemblance to/paying tribute to/referencing other things, which is not true at all. I thought it was obvious, but contrary to what you seem to think, I like the show quite a bit and I don’t/never did advocate the desire of having everything be 100% original or anything close.
And I’m stretching away the argument from my intention? I would hope that I knew my own intentions.
In any case, you seem to be taking my comments at much more than their face value and over analyzing to an extreme extent. A vast majority of the stuff you’ve mentioned I didn’t even say or discuss!
I get that you like the show and this topic may be a personal peeve or something, but really? It’s kind of as if you’re saying I can’t even point out anything similar anymore without it automatically being some kind of bastardization of the author’s intent or insult on his work or something.
I said it before and I’ll say it again:
I see potential references/tributes/similarities and I point them out.
Could they not actually be references/tributes/similairites? Sure.
Is there something inherently wrong with just pointing them out? No.
Let’s not automatically assume that my comment has some extra scheme or meaning behind it please.
@Zephyr
Sigh, it’s not a big deal nor do i think there is any scheme in your comment, but it’s surely a trend that’s starting to rear it’s head around a lot and not just with anime or multimedia and entertainment, it happens a lot on art sites too and it’s always a source of frustrations for many artists i know (the most insulting comment they get is the usual “this reminds me of show “X”/story “Y”) and i really don’t need to explain why it’s annoying, basically that’s why i think it’s worth discussing.
You sure do know your own intentions better (wouldn’t dare assume other wise unless i had psychic powers XD), i’m talking about what you (and others) seem to be doing .. actions not intentions, generalizing and making any scene with (robot+sniper) become something “straight out of Evanglion” is oversimplifying it so much (hence the example with with the guy who sniped someone, it’s exactly the same), and if i’m going to be the devil’s advocate .. you seem to assume that you know the intentions of the writers and directors of the show when you say something like:-
Saying “seemingly straight out of” makes it sound like you are accusing the writers of just ripping off Evangelion and So-ra-no-wa-to not just that it reminds you of them (other wise why call it an “amalgamation” and say that you would normally would have frowned at it !!!), we have no way to tell the process they made those scenes with or their intentions so making it sound like they are “taking stuff straight out of” something else is a nice way of saying they are ripping those shows, i apologize if that wasn’t your intention but that’s really what it seemed like.
The word “implications” exists for a reason, you don’t have to say everything explicitly, you can “imply” a lot with little words, but again, i didn’t say there is a scheme you are making or anything, i just read too much between the lines, it can be an annoying habit sometimes XD
I’m ok with that really, i do that sometimes, but i don’t say this when i’m doing it.
This makes it seems like you are viewing those references/tributes/similarities in a negative light and just becasue you like the music and action you are going to forgive them and let it slip .. again i’m reading too much between the lines (i know that) but you really made it seem like a bad thing and that the makers of the show are intentionally ripping off other shows -hence the frowning- and that there is nothing original about the show *points up* –> it must be said how ALDNOAH.ZERO continues to resemble an amalgamation of multiple series from years past, Normally I’d be frowning at this constant usage of elements from other sources .. you said that not me.
Take Zankyou no Terror as an example, i did mention in the posts there that i feel there is going to be a cat & mouse chase between the detective there and the main characters, akin to the one from Death Note between L and Light, i didn’t say it’s something to frown at nor that it makes the show an amalgamation of Death Note and other shows .. of course it’s going to use elements from other thriller and mystery shows with detectives, serial killers and the likes .. that’s why it’s grouped with those shows in the same genre, and like i explained above every story genre has a set of tropes that shape its identity .. so any show from said genre would surely use those elements/tropes to one degree or another .. doesn’t making an amalgamation of something else nor something worth frowning at .. just saying.
Finally, i apologize if i offended you in any way, i don’t have a personal vendetta of my own nor am i trying to “win” anything by discussing this, just trying to make my point as clear as possible, like i said it’s an ugly trend that annoys me so much and seems to be spreading around in the last few years (so it’s a bit of a peeve like you said), in the end maybe i just got the wrong impression from your comment above, no harm is done.
Thanks for your time and replies.
Mmm, well, in the end it’s fine.
I can see how the way I worded it could be construed as something else, so yeah.
tl;dr
“Either she knows more than she’s let on or she’s incredibly cold and detached and decided that Trillram and his crew were a necessary sacrifice in the interest of longterm peace.” I think the princess is grateful to the kindness of the carrier and is aware of the delicate situation even if she does not know which side started it. I am sure she realized there was risk entering the earth atmosphere. I look forward to seeing her further development. I am so glad Slaine found out the Martians were over the assassination attempt on the princess. It wasn’t drawn out and he acted. It is getting better with each episode.
Something still smells off to me in Asseylum’s actions here – either in the writing, or there’s something in the character herself we haven’t been told yet. Wouldn’t it have been far more logical for her to be trying from the beginning to establish communications with Cruhteo to let him know she’s alive – wouldn’t that be the best way to stop the bloodshed? And shouldn’t she have demanded to be com-linked to Cruhteo as soon as she made contact with Trillram? Maybe she really is the body double and the princess is dead (I don’t think so, personally) or maybe she knows what really happened somehow (which would be consistent with her subsequent actions). Or maybe there are just some inconsistencies in the writing.
Wouldn’t it have been far more logical for her to be trying from the beginning to establish communications with Cruhteo to let him know she’s alive – wouldn’t that be the best way to stop the bloodshed?←She was trying to do that, until she met Inaho, who would’ve told her to lay still and not try to contact anyone until she finds someone who she can trust, or either she figured this out herself after telling Inaho. The last thing she needs is to end up truly dead or taken hostage by acting recklessly.
And shouldn’t she have demanded to be com-linked to Cruhteo as soon as she made contact with Trillram? …or maybe she knows what really happened somehow (which would be consistent with her subsequent actions) ←Seeing her smile as gracefully as she did when Rayet saw her in her princess form and all the time while Trillram was taken down, makes me think that Rayet has already told things to her (and possibly to Inaho too, since he was curious about why the guy was so persistently pursuing them) since there was a large possibility that the knowledge Rayet had would die with her had anything gone wrong. Maybe the show wasted no time showing that our characters have grasped the whole situation already. And suppose she hasn’t talked yet, Trillram’s actions and their location are suspicious enough. Or anyway, Asseylum had only less than a minute to make things go according to plan. There wasn’t enough time for Trillram to do anything after seeing her, luckily, for she would’ve been killed.
https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2003%20-%2035.jpg “Suprise Motherfucker”
Too bad
DexterNao couldn’t finish that martian off,BrianSlaine stole his kill. He wasn’t going to let that guy get away with attempting to kill the princess, that’s his job.https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2037.jpg “This town deserves a better class of criminal and I’m gonna give it to them.”
Sidenote, I prefer the undercover looks of the princess over her normal looks 😛
https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
Dat princess, dat trigger discipline.
Ok she’s best girl of the season, but she still let this rebellion happen and everything is her fault because she can’t make her own troops fall in line.
At least she still got a few loyals left, like Slaine, who just killed the bowlcut dude for either treason or because bowlcut planned to kill his waifu.
This was a great episode as expected, because the script was written by Gen Urobuchi. What’s going to prove that this series is going to be awesome ’till the end or just end up pretty bad, are the further episodes. The script of those was handed to the creator of Boku no Pico ;-;
Hey – he cashed a check, at least he’s honest enough not to leave it off the resume. He’s also written Ef, Mirai Nikki, Natsu no Arashi and Baka-Test among others.
I see. I knew about Mirai Nikki, but since that it’s based on a manga, it doesn’t leave much space to add stuff.
As for the other shows you mentioned, I didn’t know he wrote some episodes, especially of Baka-Test, which is hilarious. Nonetheless, time will tell.
The biggest question now is HOW DO THEY RESTORE COMMUNICATION and tell the Martians that their Princess is still alive since:
1.) All submerge fiber communication were destroyed. (a.k.a internet, international communication phone lines)
2.) All coms satellite were destroyed. (a.k.a Roaming communication, satellite tv & phone broadcasting)
3.) All the Wide area communication & TV equipment inside those building were destroyed.
I’ll just wait and see how they will get through all that.
Do the Martians want to know, that the Princess is alive? Are they not stamped then as Traitors?
And, i think their surveillance Cameras would pick it up
So only know the Japan’s Country know that the Princess is alive. Thats why they should fix asap to tell the World, that she is alive. Perhaps the Resistance will grown greater
Did they mention anywhere that all communication structures were destroyed? I can only remember that there was jamming, but that’s it.
Well, no one said all communication structures were destroyed in plain text. But it was shown in ep.2 that the Martians destroyed com structures, cables and satellites. It was also shown that people with telephones and computers lost signals. And HQ said they lost contact with their forces. I guess that’s a theatrical style to tell us that all communications are down, instead of having a narrator telling us that in plain text.
Ground forces are forced to local chat. And even that is jammed if the distance is too big.
International cables are down and satellites as well, so international communication is all down, obviously.
But fiber cable network inside the country is still alive. Tokyo might be out but if a service provider and web hosts had alternative hub point in another city in Japan, like Osaka, the services could be alive. And from fail-proof and risk-hedge stand points, and given mega-earthquake-frequent nature of the country, bigger players in Japanese internet industry could very well have those alternatives.
Best mecha action since FMP, imho.
The way they figured out the weak points of enemy mecha shields was nothing short of brilliant… and it was my fave kind of awesomeness, “awsome by analysis” (trope!)
also, rest in pieces, sir Trillram… may your master go the same way soon…
That end scene was just perfect!
I agree.
Oh wow that episode was EPIC!!! I didn’t expect this show to be this GOOD! Oh snap! I will be watching the all season!!
The episode is good but it feel exaggerated by a high school able to apply effective strategy and built confidence in the first experience battle were there not much training in the school to be seen.
No one noticed that Inaho smiled for a split-second in the middle of starting up his mech?
I notice!!!
Space Dandy…..
Wtf…
This show is excellent. It will probably be the only one i’m checking for this season.
Best show of the season
There isn’t a best show of the season yet. Zankyou and this are still duking it out. Zankyou is still the most ambitious show and still has more potential though.
Vers robot, if u r blind from the inside, why bother putting a man inside? Just remote control it LOL
Really LOVE the OP and ED soundtrack! This is another anime where i dont skip the songs (Haikyuu!! OP is also decent!!)
Ep 04:
This episode took out a bit of the momentum that got accumulated in this 3 first Episodes. But it is still good
This show is over rated and only “epic” because of the soundtrack.