Aldnoah.Zero wants to be many things. It wants to be a Real robot anime, a super robot anime, and a war story all wrapped up in one, but it fails on all fronts. It borrows story elements from many different mecha anime and yet doesn't seem to understand what makes them work.
Well let's start with the main problem with A.Z, the characters. Inaho is boring as can be, you can tell that they wanted to borrow the silent and stoic ace pilot protagonist trope that's popular with mecha anime, but doesn't really understand what made those characters popular and interesting to viewers. He shows practically no emotions and reaction, and says everything with a deadpan expression. This makes it very hard to care for him. Literally a robot has more character than him. He's a character that is more in the same vein as Kirito from SAO, that is a plot device that viewers are meant to self insert into.
On the opposite end of the spectrum you have Slaine. While Slaine, unlike Inaho does have emotions and characterization, he is entirely directionless and makes no sense. He is whatever the story wants him to be at any given moment in time, and his biggest flaw is having laughably bad luck. He is whatever the story needs to be at any given moment in time. They wanted to make a Char clone but didn't understand what made Char such a good character.
In a similar vein you have the peace princess of the series Asseylum. She is a plot device, doesn't really have any characterization besides of generic nice girl, and she doesn't show that she cares about anyone or anything outside of her ideals. She doesn't ever grow as a character.
The main characters on their own are bad enough but what makes it worse is that everyone else around them is forced to be incompetent just so they can look good. This is a war story that doesn't allow the setting to effect the main characters, in fact nothing can really affect them outside of each other. With that being said that story really does bend over backwards just so that Inaho and Asseylum can save the day, even if it makes the entire second half of the series pointless. The story's very concept is terrible.
The visuals are nothing special, and neither is the music, this really isn't one of Sawano's best works.
I'm giving it a 3/10
It simply isn't worth it, there are much better mecha anime out there.
Or how to not write a mecha anime 101
Aldnoah.Zero wants to be many things. It wants to be a Real robot anime, a super robot anime, and a war story all wrapped up in one, but it fails on all fronts. It borrows story elements from many different mecha anime and yet doesn't seem to understand what makes them work.
Well let's start with the main problem with A.Z, the characters. Inaho is boring as can be, you can tell that they wanted to borrow the silent and stoic ace pilot protagonist trope that's popular with mecha anime, but doesn't really understand what made those characters popular and interesting to viewers. He shows practically no emotions and reaction, and says everything with a deadpan expression. This makes it very hard to care for him. Literally a robot has more character than him. He's a character that is more in the same vein as Kirito from SAO, that is a plot device that viewers are meant to self insert into.
On the opposite end of the spectrum you have Slaine. While Slaine, unlike Inaho does have emotions and characterization, he is entirely directionless and makes no sense. He is whatever the story wants him to be at any given moment in time, and his biggest flaw is having laughably bad luck. He is whatever the story needs to be at any given moment in time. They wanted to make a Char clone but didn't understand what made Char such a good character.
In a similar vein you have the peace princess of the series Asseylum. She is a plot device, doesn't really have any characterization besides of generic nice girl, and she doesn't show that she cares about anyone or anything outside of her ideals. She doesn't ever grow as a character.
The main characters on their own are bad enough but what makes it worse is that everyone else around them is forced to be incompetent just so they can look good. This is a war story that doesn't allow the setting to effect the main characters, in fact nothing can really affect them outside of each other. With that being said that story really does bend over backwards just so that Inaho and Asseylum can save the day, even if it makes the entire second half of the series pointless. The story's very concept is terrible.
The visuals are nothing special, and neither is the music, this really isn't one of Sawano's best works.
I'm giving it a 3/10 It simply isn't worth it, there are much better mecha anime out there.