Aldnoah.Zero Part 2

A mecha show like Aldnoah Zero isn’t without controversy. They say controversy creates attention, and honestly, it’s a bit of an understatement with this show. From the way the first season concluded, one could not help but wonder how they will craft the contents for the sequel. It should be no surprise that many viewers will wonder the fate of our main protagonists (such as Inaho and Asseylum), the state of the war, and what’s in stored for Slaine. However, what blasts off this season is nothing short but predictable cliché writing, a stack of weakly balanced characters, and in general a disappointment that doesn’tseem to be able to correct itself from what season 1 got started on. Like the first season, the sequel begins directly from where the season 1’s events left off except with a time skip. Characters still look the same but some things have changed. Included with these include the absence of Asseylum on Earth. Then, there’s also Slaine who has now devoted himself entirely to the Martians. And in a state of war, Aldnoah Zero Season 2 seems to continuously shove down the audience’s throats of the personal struggles of certain characters. Don’t get me wrong though. I like how the show expresses its interest to show how our main characters’ lives are going in season 2. The problem I find is how it constantly recycles the same ideas over and over again. In general, it fails to ensnare a viewer’s interest with the frequent ideology clashes. Less emphasis is put on the development of our characters but instead showing them their roles with a lot of badly stitched tropes. Furthermore, season 2 seems to highlight on even more problems with plot holes and writing for certain supporting characters. Logic itself also makes the audience question sometimes if the show knows what it’s doing. For our main characters, most of them play their roles in the war. Although many characters has certain objectives, it’s clear that the show has a weakness with its character development. Only on occasions do certain side characters shine in this second season. This is because the sequel seems to emphasize on building up the story with various interconnected events. However, the grim reality is that it’s predictable down to the earth and nothing really stands out besides our main characters. Season 2 also seems to have forgotten some of the major supporting characters on their development. (Rayet anyone? Calm?) In short, it’s neglecting their chance to shine and seems to constantly try to shove down the main characters down our throats. New character such as Harklight and Lemrina doesn’t gain any strong characterization at all. For instance, Harklight seems to play the sort of devoted servant for his “master”, Slaine. On the other hand, Lemrina is has a borderline obsession with him. It’s kind odd really. The sequel almost seems to devote its entirety on Slaine’s ambitions and ultimatum. Some of the diverting romance sub-plot is hardly anything interesting with the lack of interest between Slaine and certain characters. In general, it’s messy with its characters. However, I do have to give credit to certain characters that makes their name more known compared to the previous season. One such name is Mazuurek that viewers may have forgotten about. His role in this season is expanded and in fact, even interesting to see considering where his loyalty lies. This seems to be a sharp contrast with other Martians who holds their close minds about pursuing peace. Instead of conquest, Mazuurek is devoted to Asseylum and believes her to be alive. So what does the man do? Take the risk and find her. Unlike the rest of the Martians who are too busy trying to stack up body counts or flexing their mecha biceps, the show offers a more thrilling insight on his mission. Unfortunately, this is still mostly overshadowed by our main character/antagonist Slaine. Season 2 really tries to show what he is capable of and his ambitions but it’s not working. His emotions gets the better of him and even some of the people that trusts him deeply now have turned against him. It’s hard to feel sorry for him because his own actions previously caused these consequences. And not to mention, his rivalry with a certain guy he dubbed ‘Orange’ isn’t going to forgive him. Although not overbearing, some good portions of the show concentrates on action. However, it still remains the style it portrays with its gimmicky fighting. In particular, certain mecha now has ability to clone themselves, use piercing threads to slice and dice, or even make frost out of their enemies. Technology seems to have unlimited boundaries in the series as we even see the conscious of an electronic eye take hold of a person’s mentality. As fascinating as this all sounds, there’s really not much to get hold with these creative ideas. No matter how outrageous some of these ideas gets, the end result is almost always the same. The familiar strategies used through teamwork or taking a chance by calculations. Season 1 did that and the sequel doesn’t really express itself any differently. The modus operandi seems to be that wherever battles happen, the result is almost predictable. Certain build ups and death flags are also become more like false advertisements as well. Talk about disappointment. On the more technical side, I do give praise to some of the artistic direction the sequel handles itself. Action is fluid and the coordination is attractive. Even some of the new style of the music can be appealing when combined with the intense elements of sci-fi warfare. The OP and ED songs also holds some degree of symbolism along with a few recapping of the first season. Character voice mannerism on most parts remains solid and character expressions show credibility with the events of the sequel. However, it can be cringe worthy to hear some of the stereotypical emotional scenarios because honestly, it’s all over the place. In retrospect, Aldnoah Zero Season 2 is a slick and empty hollow shell of its prequel. Many events are predictable with a lesser degree on character building but more so on their grand roles. And to be honest, it’s annoying to see the same repetitive angles used over and over. At times, it even looks fake with a wrestling-like drama with faces and heels. It’s not only that but the story itself also introduced certain characters out of nowhere. While certain characters do get more emphasis compared to the first season, some of the previously established characters seems to lack focus on-screen. Instead, we are constantly being fed by Slaine and his preposterous ambitions that can be ridiculous dull. I can’t say for a fact that the sequel is complete utter trash though as it is mildly interesting to watch the development of the Vers/Earths War. It’s somewhat thrilling to see which side will win in the end and whether or not certain characters will meet their endgame goals. But for now, season 2 doesn’t get any better. Not by a damn long shot.

-This review will contain spoilers of season one as it relates to season two- There's something extraordinary about trainwreck titles. Its ability to draw in viewers like moths to a flame, watching as the work fold in on itself, seemingly out of breath from the layers of its incompetence. The likes of which forming something like a toxic gas that stifles every bit of its production. Good ideas immediately dying off from screenplay pesticide, hovering over everything like a merchant of death and decay. You see, there's a kind of beauty to it all. The way everything topples over like a game of Jenga, with eachpiece representing a bad aspect of the overall project. The act of "being bad" in itself isn't due to a lack of inherently good attributes, but the fact that what little good is there can't survive because the ground it's growing out of is a complete landfill. When your base foundation is toxic, the only thing left to do is watch creativity wither and die, as it foolishly tries to eke out a meager existence in a place not meant for its type of inhabitants. A bad show making a bad continuation is one thing, but seeing an average one that maintained a steady course of passable grade content, effectively take a kamikaze nosedive into an endless sea of stupor—now that's when things really get interesting. Vanilla content turned into a chocolate turd with sprinkles. Aldnoah.Zero 2nd Season is a serving of just that. A vaudevillian display of secreted nonsense, all standing out for the wrong reasons. So where do we start with this one? It seems like a reach out in any direction to describe what went wrong would seemingly send you spiraling down a bottomless pit. Proceeding with caution isn't much of an option when this follow-up has the logistical density of walking on eggshells. I guess we could start by addressing the "story and characters," or whatever chicken scratch this anime is attempting to pass off as such. And since I seem to be running with the poultry metaphors, we'll touch bases with our egg connoisseur and master tactician first, Inaho. This season sees our Gary Stu coming out of his shell, abandoning his brick wall personality to emote occasionally, almost like he's a "character" or something... well, almost. Where he served as a bodysuit for the audiences to roam about the world before, now he's effectively turned the autopilot off and began doing things for himself. More specifically, he's given an end goal to motivate his actions. Where the problem in this season lies is in what he's given to obtain this end goal, as the screenplay bends over backward to hand him any and all tools necessary to succeed. Where the first season was grafting its existence onto the template of Gundam as its skeleton, this season travels off the beaten path to problematic results. The ability of "Aldnoah" is no longer treated as a guarded inheritance by selected users, as now its power can be gained through a trading system. This system in question was possibly the worst written transferring mechanic to debut in 2015—that being a kiss. No, that wasn't a joke, the second season of A.Z quite literally made Inaho an Aldnoah user byways of a fucking kiss. This is something other stories would use as a form of a joke, as is the case with High School DxD's "Boosted Gear," which is powered by boners, being done as a sexual innuendo to parody shounen content. But that's a comedy, A.Z isn't. And so this season can be seen as a joke of itself without an inkling of self-acknowledgment of that fact. But it doesn't stop there, as egghead Inaho is also granted another major advantage. This time diving more into the realm of 80s cinema cheese. If you're reading this, I'm going to assume you've already watched season one, and if not, I will have to address the events of the finale to help explain the origin of Inaho's next hackneyed powerup. Season one's finale was concluded by a big shootout involving all of our key players up to that point. A shootout that saw Saazbaum and Asseylum gunned down by Slaine. This included Inaho, who received a gunshot wound to the head. Which, by the way, is a wound with a 5% survival rate, not even accounting for the smaller 3% chance of maintaining a good quality of life after recovery. Being the Gary Stu that he is, Inaho pulls through, seemingly getting rewarded a cybernetic eye for his troubles, which grants him an even greater tactical advantage. Now he can integrate his knowledge base with access to an infinite pool of information via the internet from his eye implant. He becomes part Terminator, part egg lover, and 100% HAX; why do these circumstances make him act more human as a result is beyond my comprehension (and the scriptwriters, for that matter). I guess it took getting shot in the head and being part cyborg before Inaho could act less robotic; on a meta-level, there's a bit of irony in there worth exploring, but I'll leave you to indulge in that on your own time. For now, we have more nonsense to explore. For one, The yin to Inaho's yang, Slaine, has finally gone "full retard," and as the wise words of Kirk Lazarus from Tropic Thunder once said: "Everybody knows you never go full retard." After his failure to kill the men that have been the ire of his existence—despite putting a hole through the skull of one and firing off a dozen shots into the body of the other—Slaine decides to help out Saazbaum "cuz reasons." Entrusting his life in his hands, Slaine vows to serve under Saazbaum ranks for the final battle to come. You know, the "normal" thing to do after you empty a clip into someone with murderous rage. At this point, to say Slaine is a poorly-written character would be a gross understatement. His personality from scene to scene is a complete coin toss. From pragmatic at one moment to pure lunacy by the next, there's really no predicting what the screenplay has in store for him. The only guarantee given is consistent inconsistency; the ultimate oxymoron made into human form. Bringing these two sides of the autistic-character spectrum together is the ongoing war that reaches its final chapter. One that takes towards the heavens, as the earthlings and people of Vers turn the leftover remnants of the Moon into their Battle of Gettysburg. This was brought to life in shitty fashion, as it seemed that the people responsible for the post-production coverup magic in season one has finally succumbed to the same level of complacency plaguing the rest of the staffing. Likely due to the new battle locations not allowing for the use of inclement weather and structural landmarks to hide the issues, the mech suits are now left naked in the vacuum of space. Their gross textures, impersonal designs, and robust movement placed one center-stage, as they're sent jettisoning awkwardly across the sky. It's a real visual eyesore, made even worse with the stark backdrop hanging in the background of a majority of the shots. Clunky pieces of CGI just bumping ugly in the open emptiness of space that surrounds it. This wouldn't be so bothersome had everything else been done to a bare minimum, but surprisingly enough, the character models and sparsely used landmarks were done with a semblance of quality control behind it. By contrast, the mechs just stick out even further. It's a distracting mix of artificiality and decent content. Of course, Hiroyuki Sawano does what Hiroyuki Sawano does best, making the soundtrack the real star attraction amidst all the mismanaged production issues. Other than that, this 2nd season leaves very little to be desired, serving better as a drinking game for every time the show shelled out a new asspull than it does a "decent" continuation. Even if the first season was a ripoff, it was, at the very least, a ripoff of something good. Season two isn't that. There's nothing to sugar coat here; this was a complete disaster. Very few shows have failed to the degree in which this one does. It's almost impressive just how little they manage to get right. But perhaps the greatest irony is that this season failed not because it was an off-brand like its first season but because it actually tried to do something different for once. It took a leap of faith only to be greeted by the ground below, and while that would be funny in most scenarios, here, it's nothing short of embarrassing.

With how much I loved season one, I was so excited for season 2 to start. Please, I'm begging you, do not watch season two. Stop at episode 12 of season one. Season two will ruin the entire experience for you. No matter how much you love season one, don't do it. Just don't. Anyway, on to the review: STORY: Basically, they take the entire ending of season one, take everything back, and then proceed to stop all over the plot and tear it apart, piece by piece. It's a mess. I'm honestly so upset with hoe bad this was. ART: It's almost like they forgot how todraw their own characters. Inaho looks off the entire time, Asseylum looks like a baby whale when she's sad, Slaine doesn't look nearly as good as he did in season one, I could go on. I loved the art of season one. This was a mess, none of the characters ever looked quite right, and frankly the fight scenes were also boring to watch and were always anticlimactic. Oh, and the second ending song, which plays for episode 11, looks like it's drawn by a two year old SOUND: The soundtrack is still amazing. Luckily that didn't change between season one and two. same great songs, and some great new songs. By all means, download the season two songs, but don't watch the show, please. CHARACTER: Basically they took all character development and recked it. the first two episodes of the season makes it seem like Inaho is gonna be better in this season. The first two episodes lie to you. OVERALL: I absoluetly LOVED season one. To the point where I had it listed as my number one favorite anime, and I was constantly making gifs of it. Second season makes me ashamed to like season one. I vote that we delete this season from existence, pretend episode 12 of season one is where Aldnoah.Zero really ends, and move on from there. on a final note: PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS SEASON, EVEN IF IT'S JUST AS A JOKE BECAUSE YOU KNOW HOW BAD IT'S GONNA BE. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. IT WILL DISAPPOINT YOU. DO NOT DO IT.

"BAM!" "BAM!" "BAM!!!". This was how season 1 ended. I was rather thrilled by the sudden plot shift, and dearly looked forward to season 2. Oh how wrong I was back then. Story: 1/10 The very first episode of season two should have been a warning to me NOT to continue watching. It totally invalidated what season 1 had tried to build up(in the last episode). There was no major plot progression at all. Majority of the episodes followed this simple recipe: 1)Enemy(Martians) attacks 2)Non-Inaho personnels try to fight Martians 3)Martians engage their special weapon 3)Non-Inaho personnels struggle 4)Inaho to the rescue! 5)Enemy Martians get defeatedby Inaho It then spirals to meaningless battles between The Deucalion and The Martians. There was no clear motive by Slaine, the antagonist. I wouldn't even call him an antagonist. People were just fighting in the series to waste screen time. They could have better spent that time detailing about Dr Troyard and the history of Aldnoah. Sadly, they did not. To be honest, there was no story whatsoever. Art: 3/10 The mechas and their animation just did not fit the space background. It felt out of place. The facial expressions of Slaine were, at times, poorly drawn. Asseylum sometimes appear to look somewhat like a whale. Inaho's face looked derpish too during certain scenes. This season's art was sorely inconsistent, which was rather surprising since season 1 had a rather decent art. Sound: 8/10 I'm sorry but sound alone cannot save a series. Sawano Hiroyuki should not have wasted his talent on a show like this. The opening to the second series was well done. It has this rock-ballad feel to it which is just HNNNG. In fact, I felt that this season's opening was better than that of S1(by Kalafina). The OSTs were reused from S1 but everytime they came on I just realized why I continued ploughing through this series week after week. Character: 1/10 Huh? What character? INAHO appealed to me at first because I thought he had some backstory to him that gave rise to his stoic mindset. I was wrong yet again. He is basically the solution to every problem. He gained a power-up too this season which made him even more God-like, less sensitive, and more emotionless. I can't say much about him because there isn't exactly anything else to say. SLAINE was my favourite. Was. Then he became a confused maniac - he suddenly wanted to destroy Earth for no plausible reason. While Slaine may be suffering, watching Slaine in season 2 act like a complete fool gave me more suffering. However, he was the most fleshed out character of the entire series - that I can say for sure. His dedication to Asseylum, his determination to rise up the ranks, and his cunningness pleasantly surprised me at times. ASSEYLUM. Nope I'm not gonna waste my time talking about a character who barely made a difference in S2(Some may argue that she did something in the last episode, but did the Orbital Knights listen to her?) LEMIRA. I actually don't know what happened to her after the 'finale'. She was your typical jealous girl character who wants to get into the pants of a guy that adores her sister. I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT MARITO. He is the most pretentious character I have ever come across in any form of entertainment. "OHNO I HAVE HAD EMOTIONAL TRAUMA FROM MY PAST WAR(which wasn't even explained properly); I DRINK TO EASE MY PAIN; I CANT KILL AN ENEMY". He wins the title of most pretentious character. Period. A pity that he is voiced by my favourite seiyuu who also voices Hijikata(mayonnaise). Enjoyment: 2/10 I only enjoyed two and a half things from this series: the music, me being able to laugh at the ridiculousness of this series, and the last 1/2 goes to Slaine. If you have read till here(thanks for reading btw), do yourself and I a favour by skipping this season. Season 1 was all right. Just.skip.this.season. If you want mecha anime, there are better ones out there. (TTGL, E7, CG, Gundam Unicorn, FCLC) Overall: 2/10 +2 points for music. I have stated earlier that music alone cannot save a series. You can have the best composer in the anime industry on your production team, but if your story has no substance, your characters no proper development, and your art no consistency, it is impossible for your anime to be worth watching at all.