This explains everything and nothing.
What They Say:
It’s been 19 months and the Terrans are in bad shape as the Martians have claimed most of Earth. The latest threat is an enemy whose powers allow him to freeze anything within a certain area.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
See that note right before this? Well usually I try to avoid spoilers as much as possible even with that there. But this time, that doesn’t work so well. It’s basically impossible to discuss this episode without completely giving away the resolution to the cliffhanger left by the end of the first season. Chances are you’ll be watching to see how that plays out if you watched all twelve episodes of the first season regardless, but if you’re not sure if it’s worth it, you can look at the grade, lower than I’ve given since the first chunk of the first season (which retrospectively may have been some of its strongest material, ironically), but beyond that the answer is too much of an “It’s complicated” to be boiled down as easily as some.
So for over three months we’ve been left wondering some important questions about Aldnoah.Zero, such as… Is our main character alive? Does his prospective usurper lose any right to the position upon acquiring it? How long can they keep us guessing? How many more twists do we have in store? Well the answer to the last is anyone’s guess (what the series is banking on, presumably), but the rest of the mysteries can’t quite be stretched across the length of an episode, or at least it might be rather irresponsible to attempt as much with one more cour and whatever big ideas this is all leading to. While you may not have caught every trailer for this new season you’ve likely at least seen some of the primary key art to promote it, depicting Slaine as the protagonist with no sign of Inaho or Asseylum. For the sake of featuring major characters while keeping ambiguities intact across the break it was really the only choice, but the whole exercise ends up feeling like a bit of a troll, because wouldn’t you know it… everyone’s alive!
Now that doesn’t mean everyone’s in great shape. Inaho has a sweet new robotic eye and actually seems to be progressing in his social aptitude, but Asseylum is unconscious and captive to the Vers Empire, with the next princess playing the part of Asseylum endorsing all that she stands against, using the same holographic costume technology that Asseylum had used to disguise herself. And who’s behind all this? Saazbaum and… Slaine. Yes, that’s the same Slaine who seemed more likable than anyone else right up to his severe close to the first season.
Ending the first season with several of the main characters dying only to reveal that none of them actually did in the next actual episode can come across as even cheaper bait to get people excited for the second season than any of the twists the first season was mired in, but Slaine’s apparent drastic change in personality and morals is possibly a more questionable choice than any of that. But the point of this series has very clearly become to always surprise the audience, even if it means some suspension of disbelief on fundamental storytelling elements like character motivations. Is this all part of some grand plan that will make Slaine out to be as saintly as he appeared throughout the first season, and somehow saving Saazbaum while nearly killing Inaho was in fact the best choice he could’ve made? Or will the dualism characterizing the male leads of seemingly like minds persist even as the expectations of who would be a preferable character are subverted, putting everything in its normal place of the protagonist being likable and the antagonist (whether or not he’s a villain) being unlikable? Either way we’re unlikely get very far by trying to pick up hints from foreshadowing, and will instead be assaulted by more twists that run the risk of losing impact as they continue to play out.
To keep the suspense for as long as possible this episode did feature very little of Inaho compared to Slaine, but movements to make Inaho the protagonist we’ve always wanted may be in the works. His near-omnipotence has been obnoxious in the past, but as the Asseylum imposter cites the same false information about Earth as the real one did when Inaho first met her, the fact that if nothing else he’s been established as a character likely to pick up on such details and responds to the televised broadcast condoning the slaughter of its people in the same way as he did back then sets him up to deduce the reality of the situation and act accordingly. Whether or not his character is making the positive progress we’d like to see may hinge on whether his social exploration allows him to open up and let his comrades in on what’s going on in his mind. While the macro progression of the plot may be a bit too volatile and obfuscated for its own good, this at least feels like solid foreshadowing of how this next matter will be resolved.
In Summary:
Aldnoah.Zero returns, continuing its trend of hoping to keep its audience blown away by surprising developments but may be met with more raised eyebrows as it makes a far less drastic change to the status quo than had been teased to at least ensure that everyone had to come back to watch the next season. It’s neither the most surprising nor the weakest choice, but the execution was inevitably going to be a bit anticlimactic after the shock of the previous season finale that was going to lead to something of a mess no matter which path it took. There’s never any telling where the plot might head, but for now the changes in characterizations pose the biggest questions, and the pattern indicates that there’s at least as much uncertainty on that end.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, 27” 1080p HDTV.
