ALDNOAH.ZERO / First Impressions

「謁見の先で -Phantom of The Emperor-」 (Ekken no Saki de -Phantom of The Emperor-)
“Tip of the Audience -Phantom of The Emperor-“

None of you took that scene in the preview at face value, did you?

There’s no doubt that Aldnoah.Zero is airing in the right season, because this is a summer blockbuster if anime ever produced one – a popcorn flick that’s easy on the eyes and ears without being too demanding on what’s behind and between them. Gen Urobuchi’s involvement here (supposedly minimal beyond the scenario and first three episodes) is an interesting factor, because the show feels like a hybrid of sorts – there’s a lot of very stock mecha stuff going on here, but just a hint of Gen-like machinations in the political side of things. It puts me in mind of an what happens with an art-house director gets hired to direct a big-budget Hollywood goliath.

I will say this much – whatever concerns I had about Gen not being directly involved (which flared up after last week’s somewhat disjointed episode) are partially alleviated, because narratively at least this week’s was much better. We were very much back in the rhythm of the first three episodes, with much better pacing and scene transition, with the concurrent dramas and Sawano Hiroyuki’s insistent soundtrack giving the ep a non-stop air of tension and anticipation. While there are some interesting outliers with Aldnoah.Zero, ultimately in order to succeed I think it has to build on a base of executing unexceptional material exceptionally well, and that means more episodes like this one and less like #4 are crucial.

Right now what’s working best for me is that execution – the series is quite exciting and consistently engaging – and the emerging subtleties of the Martian political situation. What isn’t working as well for me is Inaho and the general scenario with his supporting cast, which a lot more routine and predictable. As to Inaho himself, at least to my tastes he’s starting to take on a bit more of a Marty Stu quality than I’m comfortable with. His ridiculous level of strategic genius is like his flatline personality – there’s nothing wrong with it on its own merits (his use of explosive armor to deal with Vlad’s plasma weapon was quite ingenious), but without some explanation or embellishment it feels rather unsatisfying.

I can accept a teenager making everyone on both his own side and the enemy’s look incompetent in battle – it’s a trope as old as mecha anime. But I want to know why he is the way he is, how he got that way. And his robotic demeanor isn’t especially interesting without some context to understand it (though his puzzling question to his sister about his pajamas – the armor, perhaps? – was certainly eccentric, and his slow-mo salute to Lt. Marito was the funniest moment in the episode). I know this much – if the action sequences in Aldnoah.Zero are going to come down to Martians kicking Terran ass every week until Inaho suits up and schools everyone, that’s going to get old fast, no matter how well-done those sequences are (and so far, they really are).

On the other hand, I find things with Slaine’s storyline quite a bit more interesting. I liked the way Aoki Ei and screenwriter Takayama Katsuhiko rapid-fire switched between the events on Cruhteo’s ship and the Terran warship, each growing steadily more tense as the episode progressed. Will Slaine and Inaho’s paths intersect, or will they continue to influence events separately for the entire length of the series? It’s an interesting thing to ponder, and there are many interesting things to ponder on the Martian side of the equation this week.

In the first place it’s now crystal-clear that Cruhteo was indeed out of the loop on Asseylum’s assassination attempt, which I would have bet against before this episode. In hindsight it does make sense, and the likeliest scenario is that he’s more or less a dupe, being set up by Saazbaum’s faction as a fall guy in case anything goes wrong (as indeed it’s starting to). Even as Cruhteo sets up his own investigation as to what really happened with Asseylum’s assassination, Saazbaum sets up his own investigation of Cruhteo – struck by reports about Trillram’s death that don’t seem to jibe with his dying in Saazbaum’s own meteor bombardment (which in itself made little sense, as Trillram would have known it was coming).

The upshot of that is that Saazbaum has realized that something is up with Slaine. This proves crucial given the dynamic with the Emperor (Ogawa Shinji), who’s declared a temporary armistice based on his doubts about why the Terrans would have perpetrated or even been complicit in his granddaughter’s death, knowing the consequences. All of the Knights including Cruhteo are outraged, and Vlad goes so far as to immediately disobey by going on a mission of revenge against Inaho. Slaine eventually sneaks into the “audience chamber” – which is actually a form of holographic projection – to tell the Emperor the truth and try and stop the war. But Saazbaum has gotten to the Emperor first, telling him that Slaine was a Terran spy who would be trying to poison him with lies. For now, the Emperor seems to be a fairly moderate but easily duped figure, and frail to be point of being bedridden. That implies that his public “appearances” are no more than holographic projections – and prompts some interesting questions about what’s really going on with Asseylum.

There’s a lot of really fascinating stuff going on with this side of the story, all the more so as the details are filled in. The so-called “kiss scene” in the preview of course turned out to be a troll, but it did show us how Slaine came to know Asseylum – she saved his life after he seems to have crash-landed on Mars. He has a long-dormant personal connection to the Emperor as a result, and Saazbaum makes reference to “Dr. Troyard”, who’s no doubt Slaine’s father. My sense of the Orbital Knights is that they’re a bunch of political extremists hell-bent for leather to take the Earth by force, militarist and nationalist by temperament and philosophy, and loose cannons that the Emperor couldn’t control even if he was inclined to.

That’s both a strength and a weakness for Aldnoah.Zero, as it certainly sets up an interesting dynamic on the Martian side, but makes it hard to have much respect for them as adversaries. The one’s who’ve gone down to directly engage Earth (Trillram and Vlad) have been stock cartoon villains, bullies and sadists humiliated by an opponent who still smells of mother’s milk and now dead as a result. Cruhteo – generally sympathetic to the Knights’ cause but unaware of what they’ve done to further it – is the figure who seems destined to emerge as a key, as his reaction when he discovers the truth will impact the story significantly Most of the intrigue on the ground comes via the secrets and lies among the young cast members and how they’re going to impact the story going forward, with Rayet seeming to be a real flashpoint in that respect.

Zephyr’s Impressions:

Well, things certainly change in the blink of an eye don’t they? One moment the Emperor of Vers wants an armistice, the next moment he’s back to his old ways. All things considered, it’s odd that this was even done if they were only going to do it for about ten minutes (less, if you consider Vlad’s revenge-attempt), but I guess it did set the stage decently for the other events in this week’s episode. Long story short, it’s Inaho emotionlessly kicking ass again, another hip song gets unveiled from Sawano’s ALDNOAH ARCHIVEZ, and generally it’s a straight forward episode—even if it feels like some of the developments were made purely for development’s sake.

At the very least though, the pieces are coming together for the Orbital Knights, who thanks to the sneaky Saazabaum now have the full support of the Emperor. At the same time, this means the clock’s counting down on Slaine’s life with every passing moment, and you have to feel a bit sad for the guy. Just when he thinks he’s successfully stopped the war, he’s actually done the opposite, and there’s definitely a measure of fate linked with his character here when you think back to how he managed to meet up with Asseylum (out of all people) after crash-landing 5 years back. That’s without mentioning his father too, who seems to have played some part in things too.

Aside from this, there’s a little commentary on war and the supposed notion of how “honor’s all one can handout,” and while I can’t say that’s exactly accurate, it does paint an interesting picture in terms of Marito’s mindset. Clearly, he’s still reeling from the events of the past—who is this John Humeray?—and I expect that to play a big part in the future. Until then, well, it’s definitely an interesting path ALDNOAH.ZERO’s carving out. It might not be the best thing ever, but it’s definitely consistent in terms of its enjoyable nature. It’s just a pity the soundtrack and ED single won’t be out for a few more weeks…

203 Comments

    3. slaine will now see the battlefield as he wanted. with littel help of this last count. he will use him to guide them to find the princess, and then kill both of them. he will die on the battlefield my lord..

      in other words, slaine importance has reached a deadend, well he is about to enter.

      Worldwideweb
      Reply

      1. He’s a protagonist and the show fan favorite character. You must be delusional to believe he’ll be killed. His father being mentioned even increases his plot relevance.

        Durga
        Reply

      3. @Zephyr:

        Snort. Is this the same Gen who made Gargantia, Madoka (where everyone survived anyway) and Psycho Pass (few deaths)? Gen’s not Tomino. His reputation is blown out proportion. He’s not the leader of this project.

        Durga
        Reply

      5. The point is more so you don’t know who he’ll kill and when. He might not be leading this show, but he was the original think-tank behind it, and you don’t know how much of his original creations and tendencies will carry over.

        Not saying it’ll happen (Slaine dying), but it wouldn’t surprise me if it does, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it happens more so later rather than sooner.

        Also Gargantia wasn’t led by Gen either, interestingly enough.

        Zephyr
        Reply

  2. I don’t know how I felt about that episode. Inaho’s tactics were great, but I don’t get why the soldiers just shot at Vlad again. didn’t they learn from the report of the last fight? or do they just not modify their tactics? and again they sort of just stood around to get diced up.

    and interesting we see some events on Vers, but the Emperor is easily manipulated. He wanted to investigate what happened since he thinks it’s fishy, but a Knight easily strings him along about treacherous Terrans, and Slaine’s story is too easily disbelieved. it’s a little too convenient how they’re threading the Vers story together.

    And all the orbital Knights are so one note it’s frustrating. They call Slaine impudent for either assuming he wants to advance or actually take revenge, but they come off as arrogant assholes whose haughty nature blinds them from seeing they’re what they accuse Slaine of. and you wonder how it is they have a society full of these douche bags. they absolutely have displayed no real prowess when it comes to fighting except being smug in high tech gear and being assholes to their underlings. that just spells out incompetent.

    I guess I’ll stick with this since I like Inaho’s scenes, and I’m interested in his backstory and how the overall story will play out, but I find the Vers stuff to be really disappointingly nuanced.

    Impel Down Hippo
    Reply

    1. The orbital knights are pretty baffling since just with the discovery of alien technology, they’ve become so full of themselves that they look down on the “terrans” just because of the difference in technology. Plus I kind of question the military of the Vers since so far, they don’t have any signs of troops or army but have attacked on their own for the duration of the war (I kind of want to see if they standardized their forces since the fights so far have been one Kataphrakt per battle).

      Then there was the introduction of the emperor, which I actually believed to more tolerant like his granddaughter, until he resumed the war on Earth; I have to wonder now what the emperor thinks of Slaine since he’s allowed to be close to the princess but everyone is so intolerant towards the Terrans. Now I’m worried how Slaine is going to survive when Saazbaum tries to take him out.

      And I have to say, it never gets old seeing the logical plans Inaho makes to defeat these knights whenever he and his friends are in a pinch, but for how long are his actions going to succeed when the Vers may increase their hostility and force him in a corner?

      Dualash
      Reply

      1. I think that brings another question of whether or not he’ll even stop the war if he sees his granddaughter alive later and finds him with Slaine. One can see the “YOU’VE CORRUPTED HER, YOU TERRAN” cries from a mile away.

        As for increasing hostilities, they might send another few orbital knights instead, but I don’t know. They have this sense of singular individuals earning honor on the battlefield, so even if they do I don’t know if they’ll change the way they fight. Unless they’re on the backfoot and losing or something… but by then, it might already be too late.

        Zephyr
        Reply

      2. @Zephyr:

        Even if the Emperor discovers Asseylum to be alive and stops the war, his sheer incompetence could be said to have dissolved any believable sense of peace that would result from it anyway. What kind of a leader backtracks like that without even following through on his supposed desire to uncover the truth?

        Apparent as it is at just how essentially leaderless the Martians are, I don’t see this being resolved without a near complete purge of the leadership or their utter destruction. Mayhaps Asseylum’s as-of-yet unexplained Aldnoah power could have something to do with that?

        Ryan Ashfyre
        Reply

      3. It’s definitely looking like Asseylum’s going to be the only one who can really turn things around on the Vers side, yes. And I don’t doubt her Aldnoah powers will come into play at some point. Perhaps if her grandfather passes away?

        – – –

        Though, it is still possible that the Emperor’s merely doing what he’s being asked to do for now (to appease the Orbital Knights), while secretly investigating in the background. The way he acted makes it seem like this isn’t the case, but if it is, it does open a way for him to stop the war by purging the Orbital Knights (the original perpetrators of which’ll probably have been defeated by Inaho already by then).

        It won’t soothe the Earth’s rage at the Emperor in that case, but it looks quite possibly that Raylet could attest to the involvement of Terrans in starting it all in the first place, which would be made much more believable by Asseylum’s involvement in anything relating to this. So yeah, I guess even in this situation she’d be involved, just in a different way.

        Zephyr
        Reply

    2. The cannon fodder did their best. They opted for AP rounds instead of HE and they are fighting on a helo carrier so not much room to position themselves. Once the ships guns were destroyed there was no possibility to get Vlad in a crossfire (unless the cataphracts have hitherto unseen sustained flight capability).

      celebrinen
      Reply

    3. but as if this littel squad from tokyo can only relay on inaho. are thy blind of honor? like the samurais in the first invasion in the ancient psst? taken an unkown enemy headon because of blind honour and die because of the power gap of technologie

      dont let our mc be the only one that use his brain. in the end we get used that when he get serious some of the enemys die… it will lose the wow effekt and turn into same produce as every episode my dear…

      Worldwideweb
      Reply

      1. Perhaps someone with a more solid science background can answer this question, since I was an Econ major and IIRC only took 2-3 semesters of physics/chemistry in college. Is what Inaho’s doing pretty obvious for adults with relevant backgrounds? Since I lack frame of reference, I can’t really say if what he’s doing only look smart because he’s a high school student.

        baubo
        Reply

      2. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s “pretty obvious,” but if you go for any kind of bachelors or more advanced degree in Chemistry or Physics, you’ll probably hear about/learn some of or most of the stuff they’ve utilized here. As a Biology major personally, I haven’t remembered any specific discussion about things mentioned here, but there were topics discussed in my classes which could have led down that path. As such, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were mentioned in some respect/more details in the other disciplines.

        Though… it must be said, even if you do somehow remember every little detail, it’s one thing to know the effect and another to be able to actively apply it on the battlefield, so in that sense Inaho’s still a bit outside the typical norm when compared to regular people here.

        At the same time though, Inaho’s clearly gone through a more militaristic brand of schooling here, which likely means they’ve focused more on practically applicable concepts they might see on the battlefield. Chances are they’ve mentioned stuff like Steam Explosions and the Leidenfrost Effect intentionally at some point, but yeah… I guess even then it takes quite a bit of skill/talent to be able to internalize it and actively apply it regardless.

        Zephyr
        Reply

      3. @Zephyr

        To me, an additional key thing is whether someone can do all this without the benefit of communication with the outside world. No access to books, internet, calling experts outside the immediate proximity.

        Perhaps I’m just too reliant on modern technology, but I constantly have to look up stuff for everything I do in life. So at least from where I’m standing, the lack of ability to do anything by the military seems somewhat reasonable to me.

        baubo
        Reply

      4. Yeah, that’s what I mean by it’s one thing to hear something, but another thing to be able to internalize it (remember it after), and actively apply it.

        Inaho’s still definitely a more unique case when it’s all said and done eh. Though part of that might just be our skewered perception of him as “a student.”

        Zephyr
        Reply

    4. Watch “The Abyss”, there they use some Water filled with Oxygen to dive deeper in the Ocean as Human ever could, because of the Pressure. So this “vomit” is the same kind, but know it got stuck in his Lungs system. The Girl just suck it out, so his Lungs can breath normal Air.

      Thats all

      Germanguy
      Reply

  5. Hate how the story is willing to make an entire world military look mentally handicapped for the sake of making the MC seem like the only competent being hundreds of miles…
    Inaho’s battle skills would be more justified, and better highlighted, if he was with a group of runners that aren’t UE military starting off. Rather, just a bunch of civilians with reasonable boat operating skills and a few mechas to muster up some force in case of attack, not this whole “let’s embarrass the UE” stuff. Yeesh, Terrans have been preparing for this day forever…and this is the result? Lord I hope it’s just this portion of the military that sucks butt.
    I’m not someone who thinks Inaho is some OP’d mess, the writing is literally just giving him all the glory every waking moment. There are high ranking military officers on that ship…none of them are useful at all. Wow.

    Shall we take the time to notice that the Vers clearly made no such preparation for water related offense/defense? This’ll be a short war if they (terrans) take the battle to the water.

    Other than Inaho being surrounded by idiots and the Vers mechas being the pinnacle of arrogant and flamboyant technological advances, I think the show is doing some very great stuff.

    Loved the twist with Slaine, upset that Slaine was stupid enough to be so impulsive though. You’d think with all the thinking he’d done as to whether or not he could trust anyone he would’ve considered that the Knights had already poisoned the mind of their ruler. It’s also interesting to see that even King is arrogant enough to find Slaines words distrustful simply because he’s Terran by birth. What a shame, all it took was one guy to say “Slaine is simply an insider” and the king/ruler/whatever listened so easily.

    I wonder if the Vers mechas reflect their brazen, zealous, bloodthirsty, arrogant mindsets on purpose. That’s 2 impractical enemy mechas we’ve seen so far. Good for showing off, but full of far too many weak points.

    Kabble
    Reply

    1. A counter argument could be made Mars clearly didn’t have their own big blue wet thing, so makes sense they were ill prepared for any naval combat, opting for air superiority and ground attacks.

      This does make two out of two martian mechs falling to water though.

      Also, there wouldn’t be a lot of space to dodge on the carrier’s deck, so having numbers was probably a disadvantage. I wonder how many more squads of pilots are left on the carrier.

      MrSmith
      Reply

      1. See, I can accept that counter argument, but so far the water has been used to get the better of the fancy aspects of the vers mechas
        First was using the disintegrating shield to suck up as much water as possible till it shut down, now this steam and plasma stuff…
        I’d be willing to guess that all of their flashy skillsets are the aspects with aquatic downsides. Weird.

        Kabble
        Reply

      2. you’re mistaken about the 1st one. they did not overload the shield. they were looking for the holes in it. and it’s not really about the Vers not taking countermeasures. it’s the pilot being incompetent and using it in a really bad place. you don’t bring a tank to sea (unless it’s WWII).

        GoXDS
        Reply

      3. Ah, whoops.
        Now I remember. Pardon, so hellbent on trying to wrap my head around what can be done to justify the things that’ve happened in the story so far that I forgot that part lol.

        Kabble
        Reply

      4. the shield never “shutdown” because of the water…they used it to show where the holes in the field where , they could have done the same with sand , or even smoke…but water was easier.

        inanis
        Reply

    2. “I wonder if the Vers mechas reflect their brazen, zealous, bloodthirsty, arrogant mindsets on purpose. That’s 2 impractical enemy mechas we’ve seen so far. Good for showing off, but full of far too many weak points.”

      You know if the martian mechs worked together they would pretty much be unstoppable. Each other their mechs have great strengths but also great weaknesses. If they joined forces they could nullify their weakness and complement their strengths. But because of their “brazen, zealous, bloodthirsty, arrogant mindsets” they don’t see the need to work together.

      In fact you could say that it is foreshadowing how the unwillingness of orbital knights to work together will be their undoing. From what we have seen the orbital knights seem to function more like feudal lords and it would not surprise me if their political infighting becomes a significant factor in their downfall.

      Zetatrain
      Reply

  6. Inaho really is an enigma. I hope his own backstory will be introduced soon. On the other hand, poor Slaine, no one believes him 🙁

    I wonder when Slaine and Inaho are going to meet? Or will they even meet at all? Hmm..

    Meldoy
    Reply

    2. Personally I like to think Inaho is the only true alien here. Vers / Mars are descendents of humans, but Inaho descended from something else all together.

      Granted, some people’s brains simply work differently. Right now he’s on the high functional end of the autistic scale, but his thoughts are clearly not on feelings– his own or others.

      Drasca
      Reply

  7. Seems like Every Martians except the princess and her maid are scums which I find it rather disappointing. Surely, every martians can’t be this paranoid, territorial and arrogant race. So Slaine was in bad luck simply crash landing in Mars? Gee, hard not too feel sorry for him.

    Soliloquy
    Reply

    1. Hahaha; well if you wanna talk shipping, this is what i see happening. Inko is supposed to be Inaho’s childhood friend while Calm is just their classmate and good friend. Based on anime logic, it would seem that Inko would have a strong bond with Inaho that borders on romance, but aside from their little talk in ep 3, i really havent seen anything strong between them to even support the idea that they are really close pals let alone have some sort of romantic connection. I dont know if that’s the narrative’s fault or not.

      Honestly, this what i think is gonna go down because this is the only way that each of the main cast ends up with someone and doesnt get left alone. Although Inko is Inaho’s childhood friend, we also see that she is pretty chill with Calm. Rayet has acted sort of like Inaho’s confidant as of late and Slaine and Seylum go way back. So for everybody to end up with someone I think its gonna be (assuming there might be some sort of romance between the characters) InahoXRayet, SlaineXSeylum, InkoXCalm…..everybody wins yaaaaaayyyy!!!…unless future eps tell me something different. Oh and MaritoXYuki : )

      sonicsenryaku
      Reply

      1. I agree that there are important things to flesh out and resolve but fleshing out your characters is just as important and deserves just as much time. Making the characters have meaningful connections with each other whether its through making them interesting to watch interact or by emotionally connecting us to them is what i want from this series by the end of its run. Having the characters end up with someone is just a bonus that really doesnt take away from the focus of the show as long as the directing stays good and everything falls in place

        sonicsenryaku
        Reply

    6. so Lt. Marito is chopped liver now? well he hes been a death flag man walking… so maybe for that reason they deserve each other the death flagged couple!
      Yuki X Marito sinking shipppp hoooo!

      GoodStuffs
      Reply

  9. I don’t forsee things wuth Asseylum ending very well, she’s way too Idealistic and doesn’t appear to think on what will happen on the long term and a tad on the impulsive side. 😕

    Devastator001
    Reply

      1. I agree, hell even her thinking if she told her grandpa that she was alive, the war would be over and everyone will just get along. There’s no way that the Earth FOrces would just let the Orbital Knights just go after they’ve caused thousands of casualties both in civilians and military personnel.

        I’m prolly watching this on that part will play out with the princess 😕

        Devastator001
        Reply

      2. >Devastator001

        But it’s not like the Earthian Forces can actually fight back even if they don’t like the ceasefire and stay blood-thirsty for revenge. Unless they got a few thousands of Inaho’s, that is.

        Saburau
        Reply

  10. I get the funny feeling that Rayet is more of an important main character than the series is leading on at the moment and that she might end up being the most involved with the conspiracies that will arise later on in the series (as well as with Inaho’s cause).

    In regards to Inaho’s stoic demeanor, it’s as stilts said in the podcast, I dont really think it matters if we get an explanation for why Inaho is the way he is nor do we need one. I say this because the narrative itself hasnt given the audience any affordances to make an assumption that there is some underlying pretext to Inaho’s mannerisms or that it’s important enough to even mention considering if there is one . If Inaho is to get any depth and character development throughout this series, it wont be from understanding why he is the way he is, but by how he changes with the progression of the story and how he interacts with the cast of characters. Inaho is pretty much an archetype at the moment; He’s just suppose to be a genius with eccentric qualities to support the fact that he is a genius; you know the whole geniuses are so intellectually outstanding in exchange for losing a bit of “human normalcy” (which surprisingly has some truth to it). Well that’s Inaho right there. He’s transformation from this archetype in my opinion depends on what the story plans to do with his character rather than learning about his past because it doesnt seem like the story itself really cares about his past

    sonicsenryaku
    Reply

    1. You wrote

      I get the funny feeling that Rayet is more of an important main character than the series is leading on at the moment and that she might end up being the most involved with the conspiracies that will arise later on in the series…

      I’m sure she will — she’s the 4th character listed on the official web site after all. Inaho, Asseylum, Slaine — and then Rayet.

      The fact that she is first to meet Inaho may be a clue about her. Can she follow all of Inaho’s thinking? She isn’t surprised by the reactive armor, she went along with Inaho’s plan back in episode 3 despite her cynicism and the plans apparent riskiness, maybe she’s just as sharp as he is? That makes his smile more one of recognition than of fondness.

      It would be interesting if, when Inaho’s strategic finally fails him and he looks set to lose and die in a fight, Rayet is the one to trip up his opponent.

      dbm
      Reply

  12. Ok now Inaho has sailed full steam ahead into blatant Gary Stu territory. It’s getting to the point where the battle and its setup doesn’t matter because our magical, robotic Inaho will come swooping out to easily destroy the enemy, all without either breaking a sweat or showing any sign of emotion. Inaho is almost Shinji in reverse where we do not have enough personality/emotion of any kind to actually give him life. With that said though being a Gary Stu is not an issue for popcorn shows such as these, the problem lies in the inability here to cover it over with struggle and conflict (i.e. character). If there is any fault with Aldnoah so far it lies purely with Inaho and his nonexistent personality and flat development which lacks any form of explanation.

    Now ignoring Inaho this was a good episode with the first signs the plot will not stay limited to the “Earth-Martian” war. Considering Slaine’s father (assuming that man is) has some level of importance within Vers society it can be assumed this has to do with the Aldnoah technology (that Dr. title is not for show). Furthermore is the comment about the Vers emperor being the wielder of Aldnoah; it’s very likely that Aldnoah is a single unit of something that contains all the necessary info for the Vers technology. Who wants to bet that Slaine’s father is one of the people involved in deciphering the Aldnoah technology?

    Pancakes
    Reply

    1. Yup, he’s headed for Gary-Stu territory. -____-
      If the show would just remember that military forces have intelligent people too then Inaho would be far from that territory…but right now we might as well expect Inaho to be behind every. single. successful Terran strategic offense/defense all around the world cause everyone around him is just an idiot.

      Kabble
      Reply

    2. I disagree on that statement withe Inaho being a Gary Stu. He’s edging there but he hasn’t crossed the line. His experience with dealing with Vlad is based on previous experience with him, where he would have died if his friends were not backing him up. He also did not come of it unscathed, since he was forced to sacrifice his own mecha to win and it was only due to very specific circumstances that he could do that.

      His victory was foreshadowed, plausible, with no blatant ass pulls or Deus Ex Machina. Qualities that pervade a Sue. Now I agree with most of your sentiments on Inahos’ personality but being a Sue isn’t one of them.

      fragb85
      Reply

      1. I agree with fragb85.

        I suggest watching the latest episode of SAO2 and Mahouka and compare it with Aldnoah’s latest episode.

        For some reason, each and every one of these animes arent holding back at showing how badass their main characters are. However, the greatest difference between them is how much Gary Stu levels are being pumped into each MC.

        Tatsuya of Mahouka definitely tops the Gary Stu list.
        Show Spoiler ▼

        Next (and very far behind our leader) is Kirito.
        Show Spoiler ▼

        Now compare Inako to these 2. Inako may have his genius intellect, but thats about it. He even destroyed Mr. Samurai dude using very believable methods such as Reactive Armor and Steam Explosion. He even had to sacrifice his own mech to pull it off!

        Inako may look like a Gary Stu but he isnt one (though he is nearly crossing the line)

        Ginobi47
        Reply

      2. I should rephrase because I agree that he isn’t a full Gary Stu (yet). In terms of smarts and always winning Inaho is a Gary Stu, he always has an answer ready and never seems to remotely care or appear to be tested in any manner. That alone makes Inaho out to be OP in the intelligence sense, not to mention incredibly bland, more like plot device than actual character. It’s not a deus ex machina like you mention, but it is annoying to have Inaho be the only one to come up with the answers every single time due to his personality type.

        What Inaho lacks is the relationship part of the Gary Stu label, there is no harem on his part, he’s not openly liked and praised by everyone he comes across, enemies don’t quickly and irrationally come over to his side, etc. Furthermore is the lack of any superficial weakness that haphazardly tries to cover over his many strengths. Overall IMO Inaho is in Gary Stu land, he just hasn’t taken up residence yet.

        @Ginobi

        Fully agreed, Tatsuya is the leading example for what makes a Gary Stu for everyone using the label. He is both OP and loved by everyone. His weaknesses are simply words, there to distract from what he actually is: nearly invincible. Tatsuya possesses the stoic demeanor, has an answer ready for everything, solves the problems no one else can, is the best fighter among magicians, and always looks like he’s hardly challenged when engaging. Tatsuya also has the harem (including his “sister”), his enemies who are not antagonists have always come over to his side or simply disappeared. Not to mention Tatsuya is doing all this before even leaving high school. It doesn’t mean watching Tatsuya kick a*s isn’t fun, but without a doubt he is a Gary Stu. As for Kirito, well, enough has been espoused on that topic 😛

        Pancakes
        Reply

  15. still need more info about Slaine’s background. ofc that includes Dr. Troyard, but exactly did his escape pod (I assume) even get allowed into the area of the princess’ place?

    the bit with the Emperor changing his mind seemed quite…odd
    the Emperor’s tone with Slaine wasn’t negative and plus he allowed him with Asseylum. yet he quickly believes the guy BSing even though earlier he was wise? enough to try to figure out the situation earlier (did he even get any investigation reports back at all yet?). plus, how, exactly, would the Terrans communicate with Slaine (mostly during the 5 years before this current conflict). my friend believes that it’s possible the Emperor is only pretending to be tricked so the Orbital Knights won’t plot behind his back so it’d be easier for him to do…something. but considering he was willing to consider the UE’s true intentions, I’m doubtful that he’d be so willing to utterly ruin his relationship with the UE.

    GoXDS
    Reply

      1. Even if this was part of some kind of plan (which I’m doubting right now), he’s still by declaring war, be is condoning the actions of the knights, as well as the continued death of millions of Terran civilians and soldier. He really has not more value to Terran life than any of the other Martians.

        Irenesharda
        Reply

  17. Ah yes, reactive Armor. The military geek in me loved it especially seeing its application on a mecha anime. You have to admire its inventor who basically conceived a defense based on EXPLOSIONS.

    Honestly, I don’t mind Inaho’s victory because he actually fought him before and got away with it. Its already established that the Martians are inflexible so its only natural that he would at least have some knowledge of what to do.

    That being said, Inaho need more interactions with his friends. I don’t mind his Vulcan personality, because it actually does show depth WHEN(and only when) he interacts with others. He reacted to his friends death, and he does show some exasperation on his sister last episode. Sadly there wasn’t much here so he didn’t get any more development that he sorely needs. Also what was the deal with Rayet of all people being the one pick him up on his pod? Are they implying some sort of bond forming between them?

    For the actual interesting plot with Slaine as he is now knee-deep in the conspiracy. Too bad he is in a even worse position the before. Dude, can’t really catch a break can he? The Emperor’s introduction was a disappointment though. I was hoping he would shake up the Martians, who have so far been smug elitist pricks. But no, he just gets manipulated and its back to the status quo. It honestly felt pointless.

    I do have one thing that is starting to irritate me so far: Inaho’s need to speak ALOUD about his tactics. Its borderline fourth-wall breaking. Haven’t the writers heard of an inner monologue?

    fragb85
    Reply

    2. The Emperor’s intro wasn’t pointless. Not only did it finally give us a glimpse of Martian life and culture, but it also gave us a bit of the state of the Martian government and how much influence the Emperor has. Seeing the princess is fine, but the Emperor is the one who not only started the Vers Empire, but he’s the seat of power right now.

      We can see from him that while he still carries great authority, and thinks things through, he can be manipulated by the right person. He’s not easily manipulated, or else Cruhteo’s argument would have swayed him. However, with Cruhteo, he stuck to his guns. However, Saazbaum is obviously a master manipulator and seem to also be extremely intelligent since he not only figured out what really happened to Trillram, but he figured out that Slaine was responsible, and thus what he knows, and further was able to form a plan around all of that.

      And poor Slaine, he’s now unknowingly revealed himself to enemy, and has not only made himself a target, but also informed Saazbaum that the princess still lives! So now she’s in danger as well.

      Irenesharda
      Reply

      1. I have a feeling that the old bastard(emperor) is not really manipulated by Saazbalm either. I think he is just acting that way.
        His order to Cruteo to investigate the “death” of his granddaughter is supposed to stay valid, and if he knows she is alive, that means Slaine was right and honest and naturally the guy who was very eager to stop Slaine suddenly starts to look like a villain. And that’s Saazbalm. When his involvement gets revealed he would get all the blames and get executed. And the emperor would say “It was very unfortunate and regrettable, but the bad guy is now gone”. If nothing comes out and Saazbalm gets away from things? Then the emperor stays with Saazbalm and gets his knights their jobs done. He would survive or even get some gains either way.
        The old guy, I believe, knows all this, and just is riding the tide with Saazbalm for now.

        Saburau
        Reply

  18. Good ep4, still i have the feeling Rayet is not gonna make the end of this series alive >_<

    I hope we get dating advice from Darzana to Kaoru at the end of every episode ^^
    Afcourse ending with Koaru in a wedding gown and Darzana forever alone ^^;

    .Mero
    Reply

  19. I have no problems with really any of the characters so far. Explained or not Inaho is a tactical genius, it is recognized as such by the story itself, the enemies they have faced so far I feel are perfect and honestly I’d rather they’d get the grunts out of the way early instead of it being a these 1 dimensional stereotypical enemies lacking any background come later in the story or are seen repeatedly in the story. In fact its evident that Vlad and Trillium were purposely introduced and dispatched this early purposely to establish a capable Inaho in a believable manner. Believable because its pretty apparent that neither antagonist were very bright, Vlad obviously skilled, prideful, battle hungry, and Trillium foolish, sadistic, and a little psychotic, seemed to both be way over confident and extremely arrogant. They didnt behave like there was any real threat to themselves but rightfully so as their mechs are way farther advanced than the earth forces and they knew that going into this. Just think about it like this if your playing a game and you have to play by the rules your play style is vastly different than if your playing with cheats. Thats exactly it with the 2 so far and their personalities are clearly reflected in their mech designs as well. They viewed the earth forces as inferior and technologically they were so they were pretty straight forward in attacking and hardly behaving like they might die let alone get defeated.

    So Point being Inaho is the type of soldier who rises through the ranks quickly in real life the high value soldier in a military, that’s even touched upon in this episode in regards to the medal and the captain speaking about him. If Inaho had an OP mech he’d quickly become a high priority target as well and i’m sure if he did Vlad and Trillium’s approach to fighting against him would be vastly different.

    So in all we have yet to see Inaho battle a truely difficult battle its not the he’s vastly superior to everyone he’s just superior to who he’s around and who he’s battled so far. And honestly as far as the knights are concerned since when do you send your best troops to the front line especially when your hardly expecting a challenge.

    Also if you really have a problem with the soldiers on the earth side, you have to realize they have no real training vs the knights, and they are just regular soldiers, the only one with any experience cant get his shit together. Also they said to use different rounds in this episode when loading up, but obviously that didnt work, so when you have an OP mech quickly dispatching everything its path on a ship with no where to go, the logical answer is to spray and pray. I mean soldier or not if that were reality i’d be shitting bricks facing those odds. So just remember we havent seen even any real experienced soldiers, veterens, special forces or anything like that on Earth side yet.

    Last Slaine is clearly going to play a huge role in all this, I can see him getting some OP mech later on, You have to take in mind that he was the first character introduced not Inaho

    Pgod
    Reply

  20. Am I wrong for getting some strange Eureka Seven vibe from the the circumstances of some of the characters and bits of the premise?
    Idk, bits and pieces of the show leave me thinking of the series..

    Tori
    Reply

  21. perhaps slaines father found out how to use the ancient mars technology, and the militery use it for war. and now his son want to end this war. thats the irony. or his father rised at the biggest asshole until he found out the lost technology.. power corrupts

    Worldwideweb
    Reply

    1. I don’t think that’s the case, but that’s just me. Slaine mentions that Asseylum rescued him and his father, likely referring to the 5 year flashback. I then recall that the Orbital Knights have stated they’ve been waiting to invade for 15 years after their initial conflicts on Earth. The times don’t really add up unless they are not referring to his father when they mention Professor Troyard (Perhaps his grandfather?).

      SerRompalot
      Reply

      1. I think where you’re confused is that you think that the knights actually have stayed in the Satellite Belt for the entire 15 years, however it’s obvious that they go back and forth from Mars all the time. Cruhteo just went there to pick up the Princess to take her to Earth.

        Slaine and his father came to Mars 5 years ago, after the Heaven’s Fall, however, that is plenty of time for the knights to have come back to Mars to restock and what not and to know about Slaine and his father, thus how Cruhteo and Saazbaum know them.

        Irenesharda
        Reply

      2. I don’t think I’m confused at all. What I meant was that the Orbital Knights have been using Aldnoah energy/technology for 15+ years, so it wouldn’t really make sense for Troyard to be the one enabling the technology if he were saved 5 years ago.

        SerRompalot
        Reply

    2. Here’s my theory:

      We know that Dr. Troyard is dead as said by Asseylum in the first episode. And Saazbaum says, “Ironic, eh Dr. Troyard” at the end.

      What if Slaine’s father found out about something he wasn’t supposed to and Saazbaum had him killed? And that’s why he finds it ironic in this episode, because his son is now in the same position, and he will have to kill him for knowing something he shouldn’t?
      Just a thought.

      Irenesharda
      Reply

  23. I REALLY hope the Emperor wasn’t so easily manipulated, or else that’d just be poor writing. The princess holds her grandfather in high regards; I’m assuming he’s not an idiot and can see that Slaine’s explanation not only has merit but also confirms that he was right to be suspicious. Throughout history, kings have always been wary of the noblemen below him. I want to believe his decision to continue the war was meant to appease the knights while he continues his investigation.

    ploon
    Reply

    2. We can see that he’s not easily manipulated as we can see that he wasn’t swayed at all by Cruhteo. However, it’s more of it being that Saazbaum is just that good of a manipulator.

      Irenesharda
      Reply

  24. It’s funny all the Martian Cataphracts met their deaths because reactions of their super-power aldnoah technology with plain old H2O. Two thirds of the world is covered in it yet they didn’t consider it as a precaution.

    I honestly don’t get why the Emperor completely dismissed Slain’s words in minutes with hardly any thought. And even more, okay, so what if Slain was lying about the princess, the motive would be to stop the war on earth which he didn’t want. Hell, who wants war anywhere except weapon dealers?? How could the Emperor even take those words from a worthless Terran solder as a reason to re-declare war the next minute. They don’t even have any proof that he’s a spy. He’s also obviously in love with the princess and they’ve been together since childhood so how could he ever want her dead or use her death. And they didn’t even consider the possibility of Slain telling the truth. As far as I heard, the princess even holds some pretty important secrets about aldnoah technology, so how is a possibility of her still being alive not worth any consideration I DON’T GET THIS GUY BY THE SLIGHTEST.

    Marebito
    Reply

  25. As I’ve said in animesuki… it’s really not about the martians being brain dead or the other soldiers being super bad. It all boils down to Inaho being better. I mean let’s be serious here… how many people in here thought that he was gonna get defeated by using steam pressure from his plasma blades?

    I’d be willing to bet that very few if not no one was able to guess that and if you’re saying everyone else except Inaho is dumb then what does that make you?

    MartianMage
    Reply

    1. No, that is not the point. We are watchers and only see whatever side of the story that can be crammed into a 20 minute episode. My serious answer is: how dare you ask that?

      To some watchers, if something fictional is to be enjoyed, then it must be believable and everything must make sense according to the rules and circumstances of the story itself.

      Marebito
      Reply

      1. I don’t see what so unbelievable with what happened in this episode. Again did you ever think of Inaho winning through steam explosion? Most probably not and I don’t see any reason at all why these soldiers would even remember that reaction. Soldiers are trained to operate and shoot not know about all the possible scientific reactions that may arise in combat especially when a freaking plasma blade isn’t something that you have to deal with everyday.

        MartianMage
        Reply

    2. Also I don’t see why we need a more detailed explanation as to why Inaho can think of using these unconventional methods to win besides him being a tactical genius. Did people really have some issues with Lelouch and Light as to how they can think of complex plans?

      MartianMage
      Reply

      1. I don’t think people had issues with complex unexpected “believable” plans.

        For me the problem with Inaho is that he has very bland and uninteresting personality.

        Light and Lelouch were depicted to have extraordinarily crafty characters YET they also maintain strong human aspects. Those are important for empathy and understanding the character more. Finally both of them have charismatic auras.

        The only thing I’m asking here is that he at least acts HUMAN. If for some reason they pull a rabbit out of their asses and say Inaho is an alien then I sure won’t be surprised.

        megalith
        Reply

      2. Hmmmm… sure there are people who are complaining about Inaho’s personality and I really won’t argue about that… but there are also people complaining about Inaho being able to come up with these unconventional strategies and this is something that can simply be explained that he’s a genius. I mean seriously what other explanation do we need asides from that?

        MartianMage
        Reply

  26. Lol One more example that those “Martians” didn’t create that tech, even though they are acting like hot sht. Power doesn’t mean much, if you don’t have the brain to understand and use it. I would very much like to see the actual creators and owners of that tech to show up at some point.

    Inaho in one of those Martian Mech…that is a frightening thought.

    Satyr
    Reply

  28. What is interesting about Inaho is that his priorities are completely clear. He cares about protecting his loved ones, and really nothing else. His sister Yuki, definitely. Inko and Calm, probably. And now Asseylum has likely been added to that list. But other than that he doesn’t seem to care about fighting, or honor, or being a great mecha pilot. Given the choice to defend Yuki with a chainsaw or fly to mars on an alien super-mecha to defeat the Vers, he’d take the chainsaw. His lack of interest in advancement, I think, reflects his intent to cleave to the people around him.

    Do we know the details of how the rest of his family died? How well does he remember the mass death in the last war?

    dbm
    Reply

    1. Triply lucky because if his lungs really were filled with water, he’d have died. The kiss was entirely superficial to saving his life — which he gets because the princess wants a new terran pet.

      Oh look Grandpa emperor, I rescued a terran boy. Can I keep him? huh? huh?

      Drasca
      Reply

      1. I also didn’t realize it at first but the reason there was so much “water” is because it’s likely that was for liquid breathing (like in Evangelion though that’s a little different. look it up ;D).

        GoXDS
        Reply

      2. There are oxygen enriched liquids. They are not water, and there’s long term issues with those. It is funny to see mice breathing in those liquids however, because they react like they’re drowning, but they’re fine.

        Drasca
        Reply

  31. I already get that Inaho is a very strategic person, but the way this shows just goes on is annoying me.

    He kinda reminds me of (L-elf)-personality^10. I find him utterly boring to watch not because of his methods but because of the whole environment of the show. Like no one else around him is thinking. Well Valvrave had that case too, but it was interesting to watch because there were idiots like Haruto and Shouko who did dumb unexpected things and drive the show were you’d probably least expect.

    I’m hoping for something interesting to happen soon or at least something to put some dimension into Inaho and not just some swoonfest of how “Genius” he is.

    megalith
    Reply

  32. I thought that the Vers Emperor was wiser and more open-minded when he put a temporary stop to the war and ordered a fact finding team. Soon after that, Slaine comes and tells him about how the Orbital Knights of Vers planned the assassination. Then the villain comes out from hiding and tells him that Slaine’s a spy like he told him.

    Even if Slaine was a Terran, heck even if he was really a spy, I thought the Vers Emperor would have at least put Slaine’s story as one of the possibilities because he should have probably known that the Orbital Knights really wanted to continue the war. But no, let’s just ignore about Slaine’s story being a possibility and declare an all out war.

    Another thing, am I the only one here who wants a Seylum and Inaho pairing? After this episode though I think it’ll be a InahoXInko/Rayet and SeylumXSlaine much to my disappointment (if there will ever be romance in this series).

    The Story You Don't Know
    Reply

  33. That fight was unfair for that poor Mars Knight. I mean, Inaho has already downloaded him last episode, and he definitely knew how to deal with his sorry ass the moment he showed himself.

    sadakups
    Reply

  34. Did anyone noticed that at the end of the fight when there are debris from both units shown sinking there is a glimps of the head of the Martian kataphract and it has a mouth with teath. is it possible that those martian kataphracts some kind of a bio-mechanical weapon?

    P.S.
    Sorry for my terrible english.

    Kampi
    Reply

    1. BTW this just struck me, do you think that maybe those martian kataphracts can be something resembling Orphans from Brain Powered in that they are living beings that can be piloted by humans?

      Kampi
      Reply

      2. @Germanguy

        You wouldn’t have been able to see the teeth if the metal covering hadn’t melted off, so it obviously wasn’t for fear tactics since no one would have seen it.

        There are some other clues that point to the Martian mechs being organic in nature to some degree, considering the fact that they are all unique in both look and power, they are housed in some sort of liquid rather than in a simple hanger, they are fixed very quickly, and now we see that underneath the metal seems to be a skull-like head, it suggests that there is more to these Martian mechs than meets the eye. And since we’re dealing with alien tech here, I wouldn’t be surprised.

        Irenesharda
        Reply

    4. And why did they lower the Kataphrakt in liquid for repairs?
      Biological-mechanical hybrid, the liquid resembling LCL from evangelion.

      Could also explain why every Kataphrakt looks different and has different abilities, because they are sprouted from a living being that has it’s own traits and abilities as well?

      .Mero
      Reply

      1. very good point. this mars mechas are perhaps the real lifeform of this ancient colony, where the humas somehow live as parasites inside their body. like evangelion. thats why they have displays, they can not use the normal eyes. they are stuck in a big alien powered aldoha powersuit. guided from inside their spine…

        very good point, indeed

        can the princess somehow awaken their real concenoius, so the pilots get stuck inside?

        Worldwideweb
        Reply

      2. sory it got stuck in my mind. there is possible a another reason for the liquid. easy.
        earth gravity
        with the liquid, they can simulate the mars gravity, or to move the parts easier of the flootin effect

        think how the nasa astronauts train in a water pool to simulate the nno gravity in space… perhaps this is it

        and these lifeforms, could be some sort of golems. artifical crated big mechinal goloms with human like exoskeleton

        Worldwideweb
        Reply

  35. How can a blatant romantic meeting be a “troll”? It was obvious those Slaine and Asseylum in their youth, with a Kiss of Life involved in a beautiful scenario of a meeting of fate just for the two of them with blushing from the little princess, eye-contact and tender soundtrack. That’s called a romantic set up meeting.

    I wonder though, conversely, the role of Slaine’s father. Was he collaborating with the traitors or he died opposing them?

    Durga
    Reply

  37. I think that creators made couple of important mistakes that make it .
    Firstly the timeline.
    Since humans started migrating to Mars from 1972 there was little time to establish large population even if we account on the access to advanced alien technology. After all action takes place in 2014.
    All they had to do was change date to let say 2114 and it all would make much more sense.

    Secondly historically colonies usually rebelled against their mother countries after couple of generations (Because that most of people living in colonies never had visited their mother country their loyalty was with the colony. ), not immediately the moment they became self sufficient. Additionally they also needed a good reason to rebel if they wanted to majority of colonist to support them.
    But here it is evident that when Mars rebelled against Earth it was populated almost exclusively by earth born population.
    In fact emperor itself must clearly have been born on earth.
    Additionally most of Mars characters that show hatred toward Terrans must themselves be only first generation Martians.
    Of course there is possibility that when Vers Empire was established propaganda machine started to do everything in its power to promote hatred towards Earth and its inhabitants as a way to secure its powerbase.
    It would be much more probable if there were couple of generations of Mars independence from Earth. that they would have time to both develop their different culture as well as hatred toward Terrans.
    Of course there is also possibility that Martian emperor is Hitler like character that came upon piece of Alien technology that allowed him convince or subvert will of Mars colonist so that they would rebel against Earth.

    GrzegorzM (POLAND)
    Reply

    1. Actually, yeah there are a lot of inconsistencies. While people began to investigate Mars in 1972, the Vers Empire wasn’t started until about 10 years later in the early 80s. And by their ages, many of our Martian characters had to have been at least born on Earth. Cruhteo is in his late 30s according to his bio, and Saazbaum is in his 40s, so both have to have been on Earth at some point before the empire was started. Also, according to the website, 70 year-old Emperor Rayregalia Vers Rayvers was originally Dr. Ray Regalia who headed the space investigation team that investigated the alien technology and was the start for the first settlements on Mars. He eventually started a rebellion and formed the Vers Empire.

      Also, it has been said in other information, that as of 2014, the Vers population is still under 1 Million people.

      So, yeah, there’s really no logical way the Martians should dissociate themselves from Terrans as much as they do, but they do for some reason.

      Irenesharda
      Reply

      1. @Irenesharda

        So, yeah, there’s really no logical way the Martians should dissociate themselves from Terrans as much as they do, but they do for some reason.

        They have numerous logical reasons (logical from a story-telling point of view of course) to act they way they do .. the number of years they spent on Mars is irrelevant .. they are acting very naturally and in a very believable way given the circumstances.

        1-First, they live on a different independent planet from earth.
        2-Second, they have found technology far superior than earth’s technology and surrounded it with a mystic -almost religious- aura.
        3-Third, groups of humans can easily dissociate themselves from other humans for numerous reasons in a very short time -cults exist for a reason- ranging from religion, racism, elitism and patriotism, superior technology, propaganda and brain washing .. etc etc …. the Nazi did what the Vers did in much less time and with much smaller tech gap.

        Hunter-Wolf
        Reply

    2. They didn’t want to change the date because they wanted to pursue current-day school uniforms. I can’t wait for the day when 90% of Anime is no longer tied down by high school. It just doesn’t fit every single storyline

      Rick Anime
      Reply

  38. Dunno, if 2014 is the Earth year or the Mars year

    Because 1 Mars Year take away longer then a Earth Year. Earth circle the Sun faster then Mars

    But… yeah, i think they mean 2014 Earth time.. Yeah this Generations thing is to fast

    Germanguy
    Reply

  39. I wonder why the passengers seemed unaffected when the ship tilted and kept watching the screen as if nothing happened.

    Can’t help but remember knights of Sidonia where they even prepared safety railings and buckles in case sudden shift.

    kabayongtao
    Reply

  40. I wonder if we will see some type of mass produced Martian mechas used be common soldiers.
    Even if Martian mechas are much more powerful than their earth counterparts they still should operate in groups. After all since it was established that not all variants poses force field and their armor is not invulnerable to earth weapons simple flanking maneuvers should be danger to them. Vlad mecha relied on using sword for protection so if somebody could sneak up upon him he would be in lots of trouble. In fact they tried this tactic in last episode.
    As for steam explosion I think it would be simpler and more believable to use self-destruct mechanism in mecha and throwing him in to water simply protect ship from damage from resulting explosion. Especially since there should be some kind of fale-safe in swords design to prevent something like that.
    I also wonder if main characters will manage to capture Martian mecha so that they could fight on more equal terms.
    As for the Earth forces sucking in fighting Martians it would take adding only simple line during conversation of Martians characters to change that. Something like “We have taken heavier losses than expected” or “Terrans resist more strongly than expected” to increase viewer opinion of Earth army.
    Additionally since Earth army expected colony drop like tactics to be deployed by Martians they could have fought their castle after they landed by smuggling near their location nukes. After all since Martians would already have destroyed nearby countryside when landing then there would be no danger to civilians since they already would have been killed.

    GrzegorzM (POLAND)
    Reply

    1. well as some here mention it, on mars there is no saltwater. sure they know h2o water, at last they are humans, too
      but salt water from the earth ocean, was not in their minds when inventing this power suits

      Worldwideweb
      Reply

  42. I can accept a teenager making everyone on both his own side and the enemy’s look incompetent in battle – it’s a trope as old as mecha anime. But I want to know why he is the way he is, how he got that way. And his robotic demeanor isn’t especially interesting without some context to understand it

    Maybe Inaho is just that way without anything happening to him?Personally I find it rather annoying when people make complaints like this about characters just because they don’t fit their narrow view of ‘normal’ people, first I doubt anyone here has met even ten thousand individuals in their entire lives but you came up with a generalized idea of ‘normal’ for billions of people?Second even if it was actually normal, this is supposed to be a work of fiction aimed to entertain people which means it doesn’t have to have ‘normal’ people anyway.

    anon
    Reply

    1. I think the deal with Inaho is not how he thinks, but how everyone else thinks. He’s a genius, okay, they happen in anime more often than in real life. But these other characters are trained soldiers and high-ranked officers, so at least some of them should be able to fight more tactically than just “shoot-shoot-oh shit run” (especially Madgebarge should know how to handle her units).
      Inaho saving everyone once would be okay. Expected, even. Saving everyone twice – well, it’s anime, he’s the protagonist, he can do that. But saving everyone every episode, without any trouble? Boring.
      Especially since this time the soldiers (and the narrative) basically waited for him to come, and when he comes, he wins in… what, two minutes? Without any difficulty? When everyone on the sideways goes “oh, Inaho’s so awesome”? It’s not really good writing.

      Reite
      Reply

  43. Inaho is so intelligent, I’m won’t be surprised that, at some point, he can position Kataphrakts in such as way that they can be hidden by waist-high walls until he calls them.

    paulrenzo
    Reply

    1. Actually what Inaho said at that point was not “I’d be glad to” but seeing Vlad turning up his blades even more,”It’s even better”. Because more heat of the blades means bigger explosion. Ironically, by turning up his blades, Vlad was basically digging his own grave hard there.

      Saburau
      Reply

  45. Wow that writer gave too much credit for the 15yrs old boy is way too advance to know how arm grab and 2 striking pattern technique.

    Everyone around in the ship looks unintelligent to perform a lookout in the sea and the air to spot the enemy.

    Any naval main guns in the world has multi ammunition to engage air and surface at long range.

    4 soldier just standing and no movement not even spread out to box in the enemy.

    One Veteran soldier sudden disorder his vision.

    Gave the military a chance to prove themselves in real combat. THEY KNOW HOW TO MARTIAL ARTS.

    Private
    Reply

  47. I keep trying to turn off the logic side of my head when I watch this show. The Martians seem to have a clear disdain for Terrans as if they are a totally different race. Worse, from what I gather, they have only been on Mars less than a hundred years? I am pretty lost in that regard.

    Besides that I do like all the problem solving going on with Inaho. But it appears he is the only one that can figure out how to fight off the Martians. I know most any show is like that though but it still feels a little strange

    I am enjoying this show still. Just wish they would just STOP and explain in great detail about Vers and how these Martians became so radically different.

    Rick Anime
    Reply

      1. Thanks for your explanation! So this is just like I feared. The Martians have only been there less than 50 years. But in that small amount of time they have apparently developed their own Class system, sovereignty, and massive superiority complex.

        Things would probably become a lot more clear if they slowed things down and gave more background on Vers. But we probably won’t get it

        I guess I’ll just continue to sit back and watch Inaho win this war on his own 🙂

        Rick Anime
        Reply

    2. @Rick

      Yep… I wish they could explain why Kase-jin would hate Chikyu-jin so much in the upcoming episodes, or would they?

      Anyway, since Mars orbital period is much longer than Earth’s, it is logical to say that to Terrans it has been only 30 years. However for Martians, it would’ve been 60+ years.

      Of course, genetically, they aren’t different than Terrans so they’re still Homo Sapiens. However, just by obtaining the power of Aldnoah make the Martians feel superior than Terrans and drowned themselves in self-deluded grandeur. If you don’t believe me, look at humanity’s history, and it all make sense; where skin colour, race and even religion/beliefs can make people believe/hypnotized themselves that they are superior compared to others… Wait… Is this what Urobuchi trying to highlight?

      Insania
      Reply

      1. yeah, mars need more time to cirle the sun. so your 60 comparing is not wrong, but they are humans as well. they dont found ethernal life or can life longer. so if a boy on earth is 10 years old, on mars he would be the same. it is just that mars would lie behind of earth, humas stay the same… or they found somethhing on mars…

        Worldwideweb
        Reply

  48. Martian planetary year may be shorter but a time does not passes there faster because of that.
    That it is why in many sci-fi books there is a term standard year, terran year etc.
    At least good part about this anime is that main character received military training even though he is only 15.
    That way we no longer have a situation when someone who never piloted a mecha suddenly becomes ace pilot 5-minutes after entering one.
    This fact irritated me the most in most of the Gundam franchise as well as couple other mecha animes.
    As for the Martians mechas they may be powerful but are not super powerful as to be able to destroy entire armies / fleets on their own. They posses clear weaknesses that can be easily exploited once you find them out. Although it is clear that Martians are so arrogant that do not take that in to consideration. As for the Emperor, we do not know how the firs war started but it looks like that Martian were the aggressors and that means that Emperor must have supported the war.

    GrzegorzM (POLAND)
    Reply

    1. @GrzegorzM (POLAND)

      Regarding your previous post, I highly doubt that they have foot-soldiers, as we can see in the previous episodes, there were none of them shown, probably due to low population(come on, like a 30+ year old Empire could afford that). It seems that the Cataphracts were the only fighting machines that they have so far, (apart from Sky Carrier), and they were used mainly for Blitzkrieg…

      About their Cataphracts, it seemed that each one of them shown in episode 2 have different characteristic (Nilokeras used light to absorb/neutralized attacks, Argyre utilized plasma, one utilizes light whip/TENTACLES (hehehe) and another one controls lightning), but as for Trillram and Vlad, their arrogance and pride were the causes of their own downfall. I think that, if we are technologically much, much superior to others, we tend to ignore (more like intentionally neglect) our weakness and act foolishly as well as arrogantly without calculating/predicting what the opposing side might discover or do, which in this case was exploited brilliantly by Inaho. Since they were too arrogant to come up with a fail-safe measure to make up for their machines’ weakness(s) and ensure the well-being of the pilots (not to mention their Cataphracts), the Martians lost 2 war-machines already. Once again, looking at history of war tell us that being technologically advanced doesn’t make us superior/able to gain advantage in battlefield. I’m sorry my fellow Americans if I offend you, but even though the Vietcong were inferior technologically, but their resourcefulness managed to give American soldiers a very hard time during the Vietnam War.

      Then again, apart from the Cataphracts, I think that Sky Carrier is quite capable as shown in episode 2, as it have the ability to ‘borrow’ whatever power the Cataphract it carries (Slaine’s Sky Carrier managed to absorb rounds fired from the F-22 Raptors when it was carrying Nilokeras, however was damaged when fired upon by Inko with rocket/grenade in episode 3, due to the absence of Nilokeras), but I may be wrong here.

      Regarding the problem(s) with Gundam Series, I found it quite annoying too, and I’m glad Aldnoah Zero managed to be different from Gundam Series. Regarding the Emperor, I assumed was it just like the Feudal times; the King hold little to no power, and most Knights/Samurais were the ones with power, wealth and influence to actually have the power to mobilize army/people. So, IMO, when the Knights wanted war, the Emperor has no choice but to agree with them…

      Insania
      Reply

      1. yeah, best examples from ww2

        german high tect tanks, at their time. they had better firepower. but their weakness was their weight. they where sitting ducks on a mud batlefield after a rain, or must conquer mudpits.

        best example is maus. it was so heavy, it could not across any bridge at their time

        big is not automaticle better you know
        and let us not talk of the fuel hunger. without fuel they useless as mobile unit

        that even japans navy had made the experiances. big badabums not able to move out, because no fuel

        Worldwideweb
        Reply

  50. I thought this was the first legitimately weak episode, really. The emperor’s scenes were just too much of a 180, and read more like a hamfisted attempt at the old ‘give hope then take it away’. And while I have no problem with Inaho (and happen to think any complaints about his personality are very much in ‘I don’t like this character’ territory than anything else), Vlad’s appearance in this episode was very literally for no reason other than to squeeze in a mecha fight and let Inaho show off.

    This is the first episode that felt like it had elements of obvious paint-by-numbers writing. Not fond of that.

    Corin
    Reply

  51. Eh, I’ve already had enough of Inaho’s zero personality “I always win” antics (though i find his awkwardness at times to be funny). Slaine is pretty much the only character i really care about at this point. Them meeting is practically inevitable but it’s strange how much more human Slaine acts than Inaho…….or heck any of the other students lol. I think the contrast will be interesting though.

    Still really hope that the writers don’t keep up this military incompetence while continuing to jerk off Inaho.

    leatherhead333
    Reply

  52. https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
    I am here to clean up this Ship from Dirt, with my Plasma Blade hand brush.
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
    Oh my, this Turret is so old, it has Holes. I take it out to clean it
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
    Subarachi, now it’s time for the Bridge
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2027.jpg
    Please wait, there is more Dirt for you to clean up
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
    Where, where i am so excited. Where is the Dirt
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
    The Truth Senpai, i Love you!
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
    What!?
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
    Uh, did i hear it right?
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
    Oh, i was so on steam after that!
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
    Boys and their Yaoi…
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2038.jpg
    Damm this Inaho, the Guy was my hottie
    https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2039.jpg
    Earthlings and their strange sex behavior.. No wonder they are Apes

    Germanguy
    Reply

    1. https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
      https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
      Da fuq did we just watched?

      https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2010.jpg
      Dudes…. Get the fuck off my ship

      https://randomc.net/image/ALDNOAH%20ZERO/ALDNOAH%20ZERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
      Yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi

      cruiser2710
      Reply

  56. This is a late entry, hope someone would see this.

    Soldiers get used to routine they learn from military drill. So, they could get surprised easily if they find their training completely out of touch with reality. A rookie, with a bright mind and high initiative, could do better because he is not stuck in the dogma of good old military training. In addition, those poor terran cannon fodders have no proper command.

    As for the Martian Emperor’s behaviour, one needs to remember this is a story written by Japanese. The Emperor in the cartoon is a reflection of the real Japanese one, which was more often than not a figurehead of his shogun. From the Emperor (the cartoon one) point of view, it is actually easier to handle the situation if the princess is killed by the Terrans. If it is his generals planning for a rebellion, he would have little option but to let them do what they like until he could find some loyal knights to protect him.

    sevenfarn
    Reply

    1. Yeah, he Know that the Knights have the Power to replace him, if they want. If they came up with this Princess Kill plot, then they would not Stop at the old King. (You must know a bit of the Mars background to understand more deeply my post)

      It’s not a Spoiler. Some Episodes ago, someone put a Background Story Link, and it was okay then…

      Germanguy
      Reply

  57. Ep 06:

    Nice one.

    If the Lt. can not board an Mecha anymore because of this War Trauma, then the Captain of the Ship (She is Superior Commander) rise him to Combat Tactical Commander or some thing. With this he can help his Comrades. Or somehow he fight his Trauma and succeed. But until now, he is better in the Supporter role

    and yes, seems like they read some how the Net. They also explained that the Mecha Soldiers are all “battle virgins”, too

    But now, they realized that without Aldnoah Drive their changes against a all out War is slim

    Germanguy
    Reply

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