Aldnoah.Zero – Episodes 10 & 11

 “I couldn’t care less if you’re a Terran or a Martian.” – Inaho Kaizuka

Episode 10 Synopsis: The Deucalion has crashed after the Aldnoah drive stops working and the crew scramble to find Princess Asseylum. Slaine learns the history of Mars and is given an ultimatum by Count Saazbaum.

Episode 10 Impression:

 I honestly don’t think I can call these reviews anymore – rants would be the appropriate label, after all. Aldnoah Zero continues to amaze me with just how disappointing it can be: the characters are disappointingly bland, the story is disappointingly unoriginal and vapid, and I’m sick and tired of watching a series with Gen Urobuchi and Hiroyuki Sawano’s names tied to it stumbling over itself every single episode. Allow me to elaborate:

 Inaho. Let’s turn the clock back a few episodes and remember the moment Inaho shot Slaine out of the sky. Why did he do this? Ultimately, the general consensus was that Inaho was acting to protect the Princess – fine. Now let’s look at episode 10; let’s look at Rayet Areash, regicidal(-ish) screwball extraordinaire. Why didn’t Inaho kill her? In the episode where Inaho shoots Slaine out of the sky, it is established that Inaho is acting to protect the Princess, as we’ve already established. So why then the change in temperament? Rayet, for all intents and purposes, killed the Princess – killed her! Slaine didn’t even get that far (and let us remember that Slaine would never have even posed a threat in the first place (he was helping them for god’s sake!) It’s completely insane! It’s impossible to justify! And then… And then they forgive her! Slaine gets tortured and almost killed for doing nothing and Rayet… I swear upon everything that is holy, if Rayet is released without a trial, atrocities will be committed…

 In other news, they’ve finally made it to Russia. Yay. The Princess performed and lovely song and dance about peace and war and everyone, as expected, ignored her… Viva la revolución! The contrived pretense to this entire event left it dead in the water, in my honest opinion. The best parts of the episode (and of the series thus far) were those involving Slaine and Saazbaum, the only character in the entire series whose lives I actually value… With Saazbaum’s impeccable foresight, the Princesses message to Vers was blocked and Saazbaum is free to wage total war on the people of Earth. The offer made to Slaine – to join him (Saazbaum) out of courtesy to Slaine’s father – is an interesting one if only because, should Slaine choose to side with Saazbaum, it could change the series dynamic… Then again, I’m going to refrain from becoming too excited, lest I fall into the same fraudulent ‘game-changing scenario’ trap at the end of each episode…

Side Note(s):

• How did Marito escape Tanegashima?
• Why didn’t the Princesses neck show any signs of strangulation?
• The fact that this episode has a five star rating on Crunchyroll is sickening.

• Chris.

~*~

Episode 11 Synopsis: Count Saazbaum’s Landing Castle descends down to Earth and begins an assault on the United Earth HQ. The Deucalion is under direct attack from Martian forces and Princess Asseylum must make her way to the ship.

Episode 11 Impression:

 I might as well give up at this point. What on Earth with this travesty of an episode? Let’s break it down: Rayet has magically been forgiven, they then giving her her own Kataphrakt to pilot; Eddelrittuo, the tiny loli servant girl, is driving around in a Humvee like as though that’s entirely normal and Inaho, a teenager, is commander of Earth’s forces… Sigh.

 After Saazbaum’s Landing Castle begins its assault on the United Earth’s HQ, the military Inaho (who they’ve never seen fight, let alone ever heard of) decides that it’s time to escort the Princess into the Castle itself and flick the off-switch. Easy, right? Actually, yes! After managing to deceive all of the Martians with their decoy Kataphrakt’s during Inaho’s skydiving antics, I was (not) surprised to see that they all survived the barrage of Martian missiles… a part from that one guy that we’ve never seen before and whose death effects in us no way whatsoever… But, you know, death. Meanwhile, Slaine was derping around in his usual, “I’m about to get completely and utterly f*cked over” way, only then to find out that his Princess was in another castle… Doh!

 I don’t even know what to say about these episode any more… the first five minutes of this one was a recap and the only interesting, sensible moments of this episode came from the shooting down of the Deucalion and its plummeting into the Castle. Will we finally see some character deaths? Of course not. At least, not from the Deucalion falling. In fact, the only person I see dying in episode 12 is Slaine because they’ve tortured him in pretty much every other way thus far. I doubt the Princess will even care… She has Inaho-sama now… I’m done.

– Chris.