Aldnoah.Zero

Country: Japan

Director: Ei Aoki

Year: 2014 (first cour) / 2015 (secon cour)

In an alternative universe part of humanity colonized Mars in the 1970s and turned against their home planet shortly after. In 2014 young Martian princess visits Earth as a goodwill ambassador, but right after her arrival she becomes a target of a terrorist attack. Outraged Martians immediately break a 15-year old ceasefire and attack Earth with all they've got. Which is a lot, since they're in possession of superior technology far surpassing anything forces of Earth can send against them.

I'd say it's a decent premise (though technically any premise is decent if one can handle it) and after watching the first episode I thought that maybe Aldnoah.Zero actually deserved all the attention it was getting. It didn't seem like it will be really mature and serious, but there was a big chance it will be quite intense and entertaining. Plus I haven't seen anything putting good old Mars to use in a while, so I liked the idea. 

After two or three more episodes, most of the main cast was introduced and I found it really promising. Well, maybe the characters weren't really interesting on their own, but they had a potential and there was plenty of room for development. And most importantly they were interesting as a set – bunch of people with various backgrounds, involved in the outburst of war in different ways, with different goals and priorities. They were gathered by chance and had to cooperate, at least temporarily, in order to survive. From the start, there were some hidden tensions and promise of interesting relationships and interactions.

But then the show creators decided that it would be really cool if Aldnoah.Zero was actually all about two arch enemies and their inevitable clash and started pushing the action in that direction, against its natural flow. This is what made this otherwise promising anime end up as quite average and hardly exciting – forcing upon it a formula it had no resources to realize. 

Kaizuka Inaho is an introvert but a very reliable Earthian boy in a final year of his military training. Slain Troyard is also an Earthian, but he has been serving the Martian princess for the last few years. His father was someone important and was doing important stuff and had important friends and something important happened, so Slain had his life saved by the princess, but nobody cared to properly explain what was all that about. Anyway when those two were just parts of a bigger story, it was really fine. Slain, in particular, was quite intriguing with his potentially conflicting loyalties and every time he made an appearance I got excited, anticipating how his presence will influence the situation. But none of them had what it takes to be the main protagonist in this kind of show. Placing almost entire weight of the story on them was a huge mistake.

There's nothing that makes pitching them against each other particularly appealing. They aren't natural enemies. They don't really have any conflicting interests or radically different ideals. The only reason they didn't end up in the same team was because Inaho didn't feel like making friends with Slain when they first met. Well, okay, he actually acted like a total asshole and Slain had all the right to be seriously pissed about that time. But they didn't even used that. They were put in opposing camps by 'tragic' circumstances. But since they weren't allies or friends to begin with, parting of their paths wasn't very thrilling either. To put it simply, there wasn't even an ounce of the chemistry great rivals are supposed to share. It was just dull and totally unnecessary.

Basically, everything about this show goes wrong after Inaho and Slain meet which is frustrating because it was quite an anticipated moment. The shift isn't immediately evident, and the first cour is really decent till the end, but it eventually takes its toll. The second cour is just weak and while I certainly wasn't forcing myself to watch it, I didn't really care what will happen to anybody either. Everything that was really interesting about other characters was resolved in the first cour and after that they were all degraded to plot devices and comic relieves. There is some talk about what really brought the enmity between Mars and Earth and why the war started, but it's just for the sake of appearances. It's supposed to make You believe that this show actually addresses some serious matters, when, in fact, entire conflict, political and social issues behind it remain a background as flat and unconvincing as a landscape painted awkwardly on a sheet in amateur theatre. We never even get to see Mars.

Overall Aldnoah.Zero is a show above average, but only because average isn't actually good. I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it, but I neither had particularly great fun watching it (especially the second cour) nor will I remember it for too long.

And now a closing quiz:

Why Mizusaki cannot get a date?

a) because she's a freaking soldier and an officer and she doesn't have time

b) because she has a bitch of a superior who never misses a chance to lower her self-esteem

c) because she's a closeted lesbian masochist and has a crush on her superior

Post the correct answer in comments to win Martian invasion.