Anime Corps

Aldnoah.Zero has been doing pretty well so far in keeping my attention. Can it continue to do so? And will Inaho ever show any emotion? We shall see.

I’m JustintheThief; Here is my review!

The episode starts with the Cats being moved onto a transport ship, probably one of the ones that was sent to rescue survivors. Everyone seems to have made it out alive (with the exception of Trillram… that asshat). The only person being rescued who doesn’t look happy is Rayet. We also see Slaine standing over the slain (heehee) body of that asshat.

A bunch of debris which looks like large meteorites begin crashing onto the earth, causing a lot of destruction. This must be the Meteor thing that Saazbaum talked about. It seems the meteor bombardment was meant to destroy the survivors, though they managed to just escape. Slaine watches the whole thing, horrified, from his spacecraft.

And the group enter the cabin of the ship, Eddelrittuo joyously greets Asseylum. Yuki also congratulates her brother Inaho warmly, though she jokes that it’s all due to her. Nina and Inko are reunited (I didn’t realize that she was the cutie who came with Marito to help pilot the rescue ship), and the rest of the crew looks on warmly, though Nina begins thinking sadly of their destroyed town, though Inko does her best to encourage her. Marito thinks they should probably dodge the debris in their way before they crash.

Asseylum introduces her self to Inaho as Seylum and thanks him for the rescue. She asks him to show her around, which Yuki seems to think is a good idea. Strangely, a few moments later, she shows Inaho that she’s really Princess Asseylum. Her disguise is some sort of holographic camouflage. Inaho tells them he saw her die, though Eddelrittuo tells him it was a body double, while the princess looks saddened.

Seylum wishes to contact her grandfather so the hostilities can be ended, but Inaho tells her that, realistically, it’s impossible. Inaho wishes to alert the others, but They think their may be spies aboard the ship. This news seems to startle Rayet, who was a spy. Though I’m unsure if it’s her just realizing she’s a spy, or her trying to reconcile with herself truly what side she is on. Could be many other things as well, though. She asks that it be kept a secret.

Yuki gets fitted with an exoskeletal arm brace. The doc warns her it will be painful when the anesthesia wears off. She seems unconcerned and accidentally breaks something with the stronger arm.

We see Inko, Calm, and Nina looking at a picture of Okisuke. They’ve obviously just explained what happened to Nina. Calm is angry at all the Martians for his death. Though they all talk about his terrible qualities, you can tell they loved him, and are just doing what we all do, and try not to think of something they will make them cry. Seylum looks worried as she hears the angry words about Martians.

Rayet and Inaho talk for a bit. She asks Inaho if he’ll keep the secret. Always rational, he explains that though Asseylum isn’t an enemy as Rayet seems to think, in times of crisis, people will be looking for someone to blame. And the Martian anger is hot now. He’ll keep the secret. Rayet promises nothing, holding true to her seeming indoctrination that Martians are the enemies. Hope she comes around. I like her.

Cruhteo (you know, that dickbag) and Slaine are talking about the death of Trillram. Cruhteo decides to look for whoever called the Meteor Strike. Slaine doesn’t tell him he killed Trillram, and wishes tell Cruhteo that the princess is alive, but realizing that many of the Knights want her dead (though I don’t think Cruhteo did) he holds his tongue. Thinking he wishes to fight with the Knights of Vers, Cruhteo hits him, wanting him to know his place. Slaine tries desperately to decide what to do. I think he’ll stay with Vers and try to find the ringleader of the Assassination plot.

The rescue ship lands and the commander greets the Captain Magbaredge. She instructs them to wait on a ship that had to detour and to resupply the ships to leave when they need to. She notices the who place looks abandoned, though it is safe, but Marito points out that this is better than digging in, in case the place becomes dangerous. The other get to work getting everything prepared. Marito is along, worried about his hesitation in fear in the last battle with Trillram’s Martian Cataphract.

One of the perimeter guards sees a damaged allied mech, but it’s only being carried by a Martian Cataphract, which starts an attack near their base. The groups begin to hurry and the Terrans begin their counterattack. Vlad, the Martian attacker, has a plasma sword as a weapon. Unfortunately, the earth’s forces are just not match, even with their guns.

The ships are preparing to launch, the decision to destroy it far away with missiles seeming prudent. But one of the command stations is destroyed when the plasma blade goes through the building.

The ship the main characters are on is mostly fine, but something is wrong with the engines. The crew panics and Calm leaves, while Rayet watches Princess Asseylum. Yuki and Marito find the engines fine and begin making temporary repairs. The princess decides she must show herself, but Inaho tells her to stay put. He and Calm go out to fight and he directs Inko to go “up there.” She looks unexcited about the prospect.

The battle begins. Inaho is brilliant. The explosive rounds are ineffective, as the heat from the sword made them explode before contact, so he went with non explosive rounds. They melted however and went awry. Though the Knight was impressed by his idea. He and calm try a pincer move, but Vlad sees and intercepts him. But using an explosion as a smokescreen while moving, Inaho gets within range and grabs the arm with the plasma sword. He stays calm as Calm watches on. After some quick calculations, a crane operated by Inko smashes Vlad with a giant ship container.

It destroys part of his monitor, but it doesn’t work a second time. However, the constant barrage begins taking its toll, and soon, the other ship arrives, making it even less in favor of Vlad. Marito and Yuki, with the help of her stronger arm, get the motor working and they call a retreat. They escape when Vlad decides to call it quits due to the damage to his Cat. They all get away safely.

Slaine comes back to Cruhteo, asking to be given the chance to avenge the Princess. Cruhteo again tells him he isn’t worthy and strikes him across the face. But Slaine stands his ground, wanting to go into battle. I think he wants to help save the Princess…

This is just a good show. I love the story, the action is fun, the characters are likable. The engaging story and animation is always something I look forward to when I watch a new episode. And I know that they’ll have to do something different to defeat each Knight, and I like the way they have handled it so far. I just hope they can keep it up. Inaho is a little too good of a protagonist, but he isn’t perfect, and he utilizes others in his plans instead of just him, so I think he really doesn’t get the perfect protagonist, but it could be something that happens in the future that could wreck the whole dynamic of the show. That’s my one worry is they’ll make Inaho too good. But I don’t think that will happen.

I’m curious about some character motivations, but obviously that only peaks my interest more. Slaine and Rayet being the ones I want to know more about. Hope we get some more answers soon. And they got more screen time. I just like the parts they are in. Not that the rest of the characters aren’t interesting in their own right. There is a good balance here you don’t see in a lot of shows. Really puts this show on a good level.

Well, that’s enough of that. Got any question? Comments? Cries of Outrage? A cure to the zombie virus sweeping the Northern US as we speak? Well let us know. Seriously. Or we are all doomed.

Bonus Pic!

Pixiv Link!