The war continues, and Inaho continues to be a very questionable protagonist.
What They Say:
The Martians bombard the Earth with meteor attacks. Inhao and friends continue to travel with a Terran military squad when they are attacked by another Martian Kataphrakt.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There’s a lot going on in this story. There’s no shortage of questions about the war that’s unfolding, and it will certainly be important to have each answered in turn. But for now, there are still plenty of characters with plenty of room to develop, and this episode does well to look at a few of the big ones. Slaine is the one character who was clearly going to be a protagonist from the beginning not yet in the group with the rest of the characters who appear to round out the main cast of the “good” guys, finding himself in an interesting position of realizing that those he continues to serve are likely his worst enemies yet playing it safe and staying within their system until the time is right to avoid arousing suspicion and to have the best shot at executing a plan.
Princess Asseylum is at the center of at least the two male leads’ concerns, and along with being the justification the Vers used for attacking Earth, is believed to be the key to stopping the war as well. One of the big questions that will affect how the plan to stop the war progresses is just how widespread the plot to kill their own princess was within the Vers ranks. One of the main things keeping Slaine from saying anything to those around him is this very question, while Asseylum herself at least hasn’t voiced any suspicions about the circumstances of her assassination attempt to Inaho in her explanation of the situation as she understands it, that team will have to figure out some part of what’s going on before they try to execute their plan, or they’ll likely end up walking into a trap.
It could be a good chance for Slaine to glean at least a bit more information from that side of things to convey if he manages to regroup with the princess before she faces an enemy she may not suspect, or even just tell them what he already knows in case Asseylum really has no idea what’s really going on. Asseylum is clearly both the victim of an assassination attempt and a political puppet, but this episode further develops the hints that she has a great deal more compassion than the others we’ve seen from Vers, seemingly torn up about the death of a double in her stead. There’s surely more to be told about that how that played out and the relationship she may have had with the girl who died in her place, but it’s good to learn some more about her character in general. That is of course in contrast to our actual main character Inaho, still a disturbingly unaffected slate with perhaps an even more unique background given the otherworldliness about him. While I certainly think we need some insight on why he is… the way he is, the more it goes down that road, the more we risk focusing on tropes in favor of humanity.
In Summary:
The first three episodes of Aldnoah.Zero were written by original creator Gen Urobuchi, appropriate as I’d consider them the setup episodes in some way, setting up, more or less, the setting, the plot, and the characters, respectively. Given the very foreign and complex nature of the first two, it really did need that much time to set up, and as a result didn’t wow quite as much as I was hoping for. But that foundation is important for the rest of the series, and this one proved that it served its purpose well. There’s improvement all around, despite some issues surrounding the main character, and above all the series does a good job at keeping the questions flowing. At the very least, it’s succeeding in carrying a compelling narrative that hopefully won’t fall apart.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42″ Class LCD HDTV.
