01.11
There was once a time where I liked and appreciated Aldnoah.Zero. That time has since passed, and new feelings have emerged to replace this, such as deep self-loathing, extreme embarrassment and undeniable shame.
With the 1st season’s ending, the show ended on a climatic and somewhat unexpected note – Slaine murdering Inaho after Saazbaum murdered Asseylum. However, the hilarious nature of that ending has since been intensified with this latest episode of ‘Katsuhiko Takayama should stick to writing shota hentai’, aka “This Side of Paradise”, the glamorous return of one of last year’s most disappointing shows.
Nineteen months after her apparent murder, Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia announces her wish for her fellow Martians to murder the Terran population of Earth. Slaine Troyard has since aligned with Saazbaum, Inaho Kaizuka is nowhere to be seen, and the rest of the United Forces of Earth are wasting time until their next assault against the Vers Empire. This quaint atmosphere is ruined by the appearance of a Kataphrakt with the power to turn the environment into pure ice, and a new Vers princess being introduced – a princess who hates the power of Aldnoah flowing through her veins. Unfortunately, various plot twists regarding these new events can be guessed before the show has chance to tell the viewers, and even then, spoiling your plot twists right at the start of your show can have a detrimental effect to both pacing and mystery.
As you can guess, our favourite little egg, Inaho, has survived a bullet to the skull, and so has Asseylum! As a result of this, Inaho now has a robotic eye, and Ass-hime is stuck in cryogenic status, with Slaine Floeard as her romantic Mr. Freeze. This twist to the 1st season’s ending comes off as insulting, but also unintentionally comical. The survival of Ass-hime will probably have no proper explanation, and if it does, no intellectual or understandable explanation that only makes sense to those who completely ignore common sense – and there lies our confusion and humour. However, through Inaho performing CPR on Ass-hime while she was unconscious after being strangled by pink-haired not-Martian (Rayet Areash), he has inherited the power of Aldnoah and managed to survive before surgery was performed on him. I honestly don’t know how that works either. Was it her spit, her blood, or some random semen? Shouldn’t the bullet Slaine shot at him rupture through his eye and through his brain?
Aldnoah.Zero had a promising start, thanks to the participation of Gen Urobuchi, a writer famed for his interesting take on genres. The ending of the 1st season tried so hard to copy that trope Urobuchi had become famous for; and for a while, it almost succeeded. With the announcement the show was split-cour, and when advertisements featuring Asseylum and Inaho started to emerge, the love for the ending slowly faded and was replaced with contempt. The 2nd season would benefit if Inaho stayed dead, and instead focused on Slaine, who was abused in the 1st season, whilst Inaho was fellated without rhyme or reason. Inaho was never an interesting character, and even though he actually begins to show emotion in this episode, it was utterly startling how people could relate or emote to his character, and chances are nothing will change in this season in regards to my opinion of him.
Aldnoah.Zero 2nd Season will not ruin the show; the show ruined itself the moment Urobuchi left. Regardless of its director (Ei Aoki of Fate/Zero fame) or composer (Hiroyuki Sawano of Guilty Crown and Attack on Titan fame), Aldnoah.Zero needs a utter miracle to be redeemed. That, or nineteen months of sitting in the corner and thinking about the naughty things it has done.
Also, the best thing about the 1st season – Kalafina’s OP named heavenly blue – has vanished, replaced by fellow Aniplex artist Eir Aoi. The disappointments continue to mount on top of each other. This show left me feeling cold. — Aldnoah.Mahou