Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Anime Review: Aldnoah.Zero

Aldnoah.Zero Review



   “Another weird anime with punctuation marks in its name” is the first thing that came to mind. I liked .hack but still, it was different but lacked unique. If you are ready to watch an anime that you don’t really know what to expect, then Aldnoah.Zero is for you.

Story: 7/10
   I was surprised by how good this was. First the characters don’t seem very well developed nor do they relate to the viewer, and that is what makes them a lot more realistic in the fact that all characters have a deep emotional side story, and even if it didn’t get covered on the screen, it actually happened. The way characters act in the time of crisis should be unpredictable, but this random flow of emotions is really well portrayed here. 

  Also, despite the main protagonist being a guy, there is a surprisingly huge number of female cast in this anime, but not enough to completely erase all romantic aspects of the main lead. This is both good and bad, but again it failed to pull me in towards the protagonist’s inner struggles, if he had any.

Music: 4/10 
  Taste in music is a personal opinion, but I find the opening annoying, but including the ending theme in some cutscenes – er, I meant climax scenes? - makes it worthwhile.

Artstyle: 10/10
   Come on, this was made in 2014. Not much senseless censorship like Black Cat or Tokyo Ghoul, and the world was very inclusive. Some scenes had cliché camera angles which really give the retro feel of the old anime, while not looking boring at the same time. The animation was smooth, the boring robots had smooth motion cycles, etc.

Overall: 7/10
   There are many points that do not make sense (such as the infinite repair supplies, anyone?) but overall this is a good anime to watch if you want something that tries to be unique like Code Geass did, and didn’t fail nor succeed, like Code Geass did as well. That said, it is quite from everything else you’ve watched, and if you like tactics, Aldnoah stresses on points never explored in anime and difficult to find even in a video game.

  I wish they make an action-RPG with this, because seriously this anime if filled with things comparable to video games. Play More Zelda!