Aldnoah.Zero - generic discussion thread

[AntonKutovoi]

Considering this is an Urobutcher's anime, Princess probably will live, but only for now and to face something much worse later.

[LostSome]

Originally Posted by MeggieMay

Still, I was left wondering if Katrina didn't happen in this timeline? I find that a interesting idea if it didn't happen..

Katrina probably didn`t happened with all the changes with the moon.
Can half of the moon even stay in a stable orbit ?

Originally Posted by Eclipze

Too much difference in height.

You could tell how tall that probably fake princess was ?

That Crohteo is not as big as a creep as I thought he would be. Saazbaum however... And those other knights...
Crohteo was probably the only one loyal to the princess.

[GN0010 Nosferatu]

Originally Posted by LystAP

Spoiler for Tech.:

Ancient Martian technology apparently; human Martians hording it all to themselves and being all elitist and racist about it.

Two course; so the first 12 on repelling the Earth invasion, and the second half on invading Mars. Perhaps.

So then are the mecha reserved engineered from the alien tech?

[Kaoru Chujo]

Loved it. Good pace, well set up, characters with potential, generally nice animation. Good work by Amamiya Sora (princess) and Hanae Natsuki (Earth main guy). The little girl (a maid) with the princess was played by Minase Inori (see avatar/sig). I expect both of them to somehow be alive in ep2. A few words, well spoken as they were, seems too little for Inorin. But maybe.

[Key Board]

Anyone notice how calm, and at times.. seemingly apathetic the black haired guy is?
I checked all the scenes he is in, and he always has that permanent keep calm and walk on expression

Also.. "A missile is coming, so you guys should move"

[bakato]

Originally Posted by AntonKutovoi

Considering this is an Urobutcher's anime, Princess probably will live, but only for now and to face something much worse later.

Yeah. She's probably still alive. You can see her supposed last moments in 17:56, but if you think about it if she was in the car that was blown up it would have shown her viewpoint moving. So odds are she was never in the limo in the first place.

I applaud this mecha anime for straying from the norm by not having our protagonist suddenly fall into a state-of-the-art mech to fight the bad guys on even grounds.

So...

Dirty political backstabbing? Check.
Emotionless protagonist? Check.
Pacifist, sincere princess? Check.

Loved the music at the end. Death and destruction chock full of despair. This is how you do it. Let the carnage begin.

[Faerie]

Loved it! This and Tokyo Ghoul had my favourite setup episode so far.
Loved the setting, the characters and setup have me interested, the animation is nice and I'm a fan of the classic, imageless ending credits. Seemed very fitting, given what just happened. Great first episode.

Originally Posted by Key Board

Anyone notice how calm, and at times.. seemingly apathetic the black haired guy is?

Yup. Something's up with him, it didn't seem like a particularly natural reaction. At all

Oh and like most, I have almost no doubt that the princess will be alive- for now. It seemed too obviously like a decoy to not be one- unless Urobutcher is trolling and this is actually it for her... heh.

[bakato]

Originally Posted by Faerie

Loved it! This and Tokyo Ghoul had my favourite setup episode so far.
Loved the setting, the characters and setup have me interested, the animation is nice and I'm a fan of the classic, imageless ending credits. Seemed very fitting, given what just happened. Great first episode.



Yup. Something's up with him, it didn't seem like a particularly natural reaction. At all

Oh and like most, I have almost no doubt that the princess will be alive- for now. It seemed too obviously like a decoy to not be one- unless Urobutcher is trolling and this is actually it for her... heh.

The weird thing is I'm getting no vibes of a traumatic past from him.

[Irenesharda]

Originally Posted by LystAP

Spoiler for Tech.:

Ancient Martian technology apparently; human Martians hording it all to themselves and being all elitist and racist about it.

Two course; so the first 12 on repelling the Earth invasion, and the second half on invading Mars. Perhaps.

The subs helped explain a little better. It seems that there are two different groups on Mars, and then another group of people that lives on the Satellite Belt ( the rubble caused by the destruction of the moon that is now in orbit around the Earth) It seems Earth found the space bridge and technology on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission and used it to colinize Mars. But then an alien Martian civilization that was once the same species as human (how the heck did humans get out into space supposed eons ago? ) but are now completely different, claims that all the tech on the moon was theirs and took it back. So, its seems to be so far, Vers vs. Humans, since by looking at how Slaine is treated, former Earthling that now live on Mars (Terrans) seem to be treated like dirt by the Vers, and more than likely none are very high in Martian society that's been taken over by the Vers.

Originally Posted by bakato

The weird thing is I'm getting no vibes of a traumatic past from him.

I don't really either. Unlike other emotionless characters in this genre, like L-elf from Valvrave, you can tell that there's a lot of tragedy that has made him the way he is. However Nao, seems to just be emotionless naturally. However, it would be interesting to see if maybe the Heavens Fall incident caused his current demeanor. His parents don't seem to be in his life, so I'm guessing they're dead or killed, so maybe there was some tragedy that happened thanks to the war?

[Faerie]

edit: Ah, Irenesharda was faster

Originally Posted by bakato

The weird thing is I'm getting no vibes of a traumatic past from him.

I agree. The only thing that would maybe make me consider a traumatic past at this point is, I didn't see any parents. But from what we've seen, I kind of doubt it.
But something's definitely up, that much is clear...

[andyjay729]

Well, that went from zero to mach 5 pretty fast, and so far it's running pretty smooth. Please stay on track, Butch.

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing about the destroyed moon causing tidal problems, esp. in New Orleans. I don't think it would actually cause earthquakes; as far as I know there's no definitive connection between seismic movements and tides.

Spoiler for episode 1:

I also think Princess Blondie either escaped or had a decoy.

[BPD Renegade]

Anyone else thought those two kids at the end were going to get blown up right after they wished for peace?

I'd forgotten Sawano's composing the music for this until the spaceship dropped. And Kalafina's OP sounded fantastic.

Great first episode.

[Stark700]

The OST is pretty awesome for this show so far. It definitely has potential.

[Lou0wnZ]

Originally Posted by BPD Renegade

Anyone else thought those two kids at the end were going to get blown up right after they wished for peace?

Glad I wasn't the only one.

Though the irony was obvious enough on the kid's wish, haha.

LOVED IT! The pacing was marvelous, it managed to establish the world, a few of the characters, and the story while keeping a good pace. Princess almost obviously isn't dead since they didn't show her face. MC didn't do much instead of being really creepy, whoch hopefully will be logical, instead of being just his personality. I would really hated that. Left lots of questions unanswered as well, mainly regarding the Aldnoah and the guys at the Moon, also about how the Vers Empire was formed, etc.

And DAT carnage though! And DAT OST! Damn, great stuff.

[bakato]

Originally Posted by Irenesharda

The subs helped explain a little better. It seems that there are two different groups on Mars, and then another group of people that lives on the Satellite Belt ( the rubble caused by the destruction of the moon that is now in orbit around the Earth) It seems Earth found the space bridge and technology on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission and used it to colinize Mars. But then an alien Martian civilization that was once the same species as human (how the heck did humans get out into space supposed eons ago? ) but are now completely different, claims that all the tech on the moon was theirs and took it back. So, its seems to be so far, Vers vs. Humans, since by looking at how Slaine is treated, former Earthling that now live on Mars (Terrans) seem to be treated like dirt by the Vers, and more than likely none are very high in Martian society that's been taken over by the Vers.

I don't really either. Unlike other emotionless characters in this genre, like L-elf from Valvrave, you can tell that there's a lot of tragedy that has made him the way he is. However Nao, seems to just be emotionless naturally. However, it would be interesting to see if maybe the Heavens Fall incident caused his current demeanor. His parents don't seem to be in his life, so I'm guessing they're dead or killed, so maybe there was some tragedy that happened thanks to the war?

Not quite. You were right until humanity got to Mars. Basically, the human pioneers of Mars found Aldnoah, ancient Martian tech, which they used to secede from United Earth (UE) and claim that they were a superior humanity. Thereby establishing their own empire. It's kinda like how the first Americans seceded from England thanks to long distance...Funny. It's often said that long distance romance is a dud, but it looks like that also applies to distant settlements.

Originally Posted by Faerie

edit: Ah, Irenesharda was faster

I agree. The only thing that would maybe make me consider a traumatic past at this point is, I didn't see any parents. But from what we've seen, I kind of doubt it.
But something's definitely up, that much is clear...

Usually, emotionless characters with a traumatic past give some sort of indication with expressions like downcast eyes when something relevant to said past comes up, but this guy did nothing. It's truly a wonder how he'll fit into the story since it's so difficult to get a read on him.

[felix]

Originally Posted by bakato

The weird thing is I'm getting no vibes of a traumatic past from him.

Emotionless = lack of ritualistic behavior (potentially group conciseness/interest as well in this case), ie. "he's not screaming like a cavemen to warn his fellow cavemen of the danger of the sabercat-missle"

The whole emotionless = trauma is anime trope. Since this is an anime, I would say 90% chance that's going to be the case until proven otherwise; if it was any other anime it's almost 110% chance this is the case.

In any case, any idiot with some idea of all the dumb things humans do in daily life (subconscious rituals, group imposed ideals, group imposed decitions, etc) can suppress any number of them and get this "emotionless" vibe around him. I say idiot because it's pointless to do so (sadly). Just as in the scene in the anime, even if you can keep perfectly calm and screaming in panic is a pointless waste of energy, all the monkeys around you won't budge unless you communicate in their monkey language, ie. screem "OH MA GUD, MISSLES, WE GOTZ TO SAVE OUR BUDS" to initialize the "run from em' Saber Bears" protocol. It's like if instead of english everyone here spoke in some "LOL" language, everyone who wishes to community anything in the context will have to use the braindead method to communicate... ohwait we're on the internet, that happens all the time.

[BPD Renegade]

Originally Posted by Lou0wnZ

LOVED IT! The pacing was marvelous, it managed to establish the world, a few of the characters, and the story while keeping a good pace. Princess almost obviously isn't dead since they didn't show her face. MC didn't do much instead of being really creepy, whoch hopefully will be logical, instead of being just his personality. I would really hated that. Left lots of questions unanswered as well, mainly regarding the Aldnoah and the guys at the Moon, also about how the Vers Empire was formed, etc.

I had to keep clicking the pause button because all the background info was being given at the same time as characters' conversations! But I can't complain, since it went fast, fast, fast, but not too fast.

Originally Posted by bakato

Usually, emotionless characters with a traumatic past give some sort of indication with expressions like downcast eyes when something relevant to said past comes up, but this guy did nothing. It's truly a wonder how he'll fit into the story since it's so difficult to get a read on him.

I think his and Slaine's current portrayal gives us a lot of room for character development later on. I can't really see either of them being as passive as they were for the entire series, and given that this is a two-cour (confirmed?) we have plenty of time for them 'evolve,' so to speak.

[AvianWing]

Wait, did I read the subs wrong?

They found the ancient tech on Mars with Apollo-17 (1972), learned everything about the tech, established an empire with pecking order, and became the absolute world power in 1999. What? Wouldn't USA be the superpower since they discovered that technology first? Or is the first thing that a few astronaut think of is defecting and establishing a colony while calling themselves royalty?

[Irenesharda]

Originally Posted by bakato

Not quite. You were right until humanity got to Mars. Basically, the human pioneers of Mars found Aldnoah, ancient Martian tech, which they used to secede from United Earth (UE) and claim that they were a superior humanity. Thereby establishing their own empire. It's kinda like how the first Americans seceded from England thanks to long distance...Funny. It's often said that long distance romance is a dud, but it looks like that also applies to distant settlements.

I don't know, that's not what I got when the maid was explaining their history, and then putting that together with the exposition that was mentioned through the episode.

From the way they said it, the Vers are a completely different group that came in after Earth colonized Mars and then claimed that all the tech on the moon, including the Aldnoah was theirs. The maid said that the Vers has a common origin with Earth, but they had long ago become a completely different species. If this is an alternate history, where everything stays the same up until the Apollo 17 mission (1972). That's definitely not long enough to create a whole other species different from humans.

But maybe that's just a subs issue. If so, they really need to explain more as the series continues.

[Theo]

If the protagonist looks bored out of his mind during a missile strike, then why should we care?