Aldnoah.Zero

This looks promising. The first episode wasn't big on action but it sure knew how to establish the tone. This anime will not hold back the punches.

Although from the way the scene was shot, I get the feeling that the princess isn't dead, and probably wasn't even in the car.

This has Gen written all over it. I'm game.

Good thing Urobuchi didn't even write this first episode, then, isn't it?

The guy who's behind the writing in this is the same person responsible for Boku no Pico, Ga Rei Zero and Stratos 4. Urobuchi is only listed as the original creator.

Also.

"A missile is coming."

Copying and pasting from the Summer 2014 thread:

Looks good so far with only a few minor flaws, but it's really going to be the second episode that sets the tone for this series.

Also, that's the least-dead dead girl I've seen in a while. It's not even Like You Would Really Do It level - we know that she needs to suffer, and that's not going to happen if she's already out of the plot this early.

Also, don't we already have a thread for this?

Wow, that landing scene was brutal. Almost worse than Terminator 2

EDIT: Fun stuff. If you use an asteroid impact calculator, the minimum kinetic energy imparted by those Landing Castles on impact comes out to around 120 megatons of TNT. At best. At worst, an individual Landing Castle brings down the hammer with more force than the global nuclear arsenal of IRL Earth.

Martians don't fuck around.

edited 5th Jul '14 3:38:56 PM by KSPAM

Don't we already have a thread for this?

Anyway, quite good, though it remains to be seen where it's going

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=14014566830A21180200&page=1

Main thread is here, started by yours truly. I wonder if we can merge them.

edited 5th Jul '14 6:13:17 PM by Ominae

Urobuchi said in an interview at Anime Expo a couple days ago that he wrote the first three episodes and then handed it over to Boku no Writer. Hopefully that means he was involved in the composition somewhat.

That was a pretty decent first episode, I think. One of Urobuchi's strengths as a writer is creating interesting and compelling settings and conflicts, and it's on display here.. A lot of exposition had to be worked in, but it wasn't nearly as bad as say, Fate/Zero. And I enjoyed the high school bantering. The next episode will have a little bit more breathing room, which is good. There's lots of stuff there to play with thematically. Also, Kalafina ED is real meh.

"I wish people all over the world would get along and live in peace!"

The BUTCHEEEERRRR

edited 5th Jul '14 7:23:41 PM by majoraoftime

I just realized something. This is a Japanese tv show... where an iconic American city is shown getting graphically nuked on-screen in the first episode.

... welp, how long until someone takes this and runs with it?

Very unlikely.

So uh, when exactly did humans first found a colony on Mars? And how did the Martian settlement go undetected by us?

I was amused that the time that landinship Planetfall'd was 20:05.

edited 6th Jul '14 2:21:11 AM by Scherzo09

Surprisingly the time when landing castle fell was 20:05 ie callback to New Orleans disaster.

There is one blog I read, which points out some similarity between the martians & imperialist japan between WWI & WWII.

edited 6th Jul '14 8:03:42 PM by woodguy

We found the gate in 1972, but apparently the Vers empire has been there for thousands of years. If they had the ability to reach the gate that long ago, it stands to reason they could easily avoid detection. I was confused about the timing as well as I mentioned in the other thread.

edited 6th Jul '14 9:06:39 PM by jedi1113

According to various translated timelines I've seen floating around, "the humans calling themselves the Vers Empire" have only been around about forty years. The technology they found on Mars though was apparently some 35,000 years old.

There's some question as to the merit of the official translation: At 12:15, CR has the princess saying "If we go back far enough, we ourselves are descendants of emigrants who struck out from that blue world." while Vivid-Watashi has "We too are descended from those of the blue planet, however long ago it may seem." Functionally similar, but in my opinion the latter fits events that happened in living memory better.

edited 6th Jul '14 9:22:51 PM by HighVelocityPointyThings

The problem is if it's only 40 years, their rhetoric is even more bullshit than Gihren from 0079.

Technically it's only been 29 years. According to the timeline there were 13 years between the Hypergate being discovered (1972) and the settlers establishing the Vers Empire (1985). The anime takes place in 2014.

Isn't 13 years too early to go from explorers finding ruins of an ancient civilization to an interplanetary empire capable of curbstomping earth's military might without any problem?

It's probably best to pretend that the series is actually set in 2044 or so— the timespan is treated as being much longer than it actually was

So they just up and proclaim a hereditary monarchy? How? This isn't even like UC Gundam where it was precipitated by some form of EF oppression on the colonists, this is just the colonists going 'herp derp, we an alien empire now!' Like Christ, most of their population was probably born on Earth.

2040s? Try 2140s, or even later. This is kinda inane.

edited 6th Jul '14 10:55:17 PM by Scherzo09

Alien technology, son.

There's a somewhat detailed timeline on the official site.

The gist of it is, in 1972 the Apollo expedition found ancient Martian ruins on the moon, including the Hypergate that allows for easy space travel between Earth and Mars.

In 1975 the UN had everyone sign a treaty saying Mars wouldn't be used for military use, and the Cold War ended. A group of researchers is sent to Mars led by a professor named Rayregalia.

In 1980 immigration starts and 340,000 settlers are sent to Mars.

Starting in 1982, Rayregalia starts inciting anti-Earth sentiments among the Martian settlers, calling for an armed uprising. The UN immediately moves to suppress the situation, but the situation escalates. They later arrest Rayregalia, but a mob attacks and breaks him out of jail.

In 1985 they announce they are separating from Earth and form the Vers Empire, with Rayregalia named as the first emperor. In fear of the empire, the countries of Earth form the Earth Federation and enter a cold war with Mars.

Things are relatively peaceful for the next decade. In 1996, Martian terrorists bomb several cities, killing 3267 people, causing hostilities between Earth and the Vers Empire to increase rapidly.

In 1997 Rayregalia steps down as emperor due to illness, and his son Gilzeria^* Not sure about the spelling here takes the throne.

In 1999 Gilzeria declares war on the Earth Federation. The Vers Empire fights using mechs called Cataphract. During a battle on the moon the Hypergate goes out of control and destroys half the moon. Pieces form the Satelight Belt around Earth, and some crash into the Earth in an event called the Heaven's Fall. Earth is still rebuilding from that. During the battle Gilzeria is killed in action, causing Rayregalia to retake the throne and is still emperor as of the series' start. Gilzaria's daughter Princess Asseylum is born.

In 2000 a ceasefire is signed by both signs, and a demilitarized neutral zone is formed. In 2003 Earth finished developing its own Cataphracts and first uses them to quell the rioting caused by Heaven's Fall. The riots are stopped in 2007 and things return to relative peace. Steps are made between Earth and Mars for peace.

According to the exposition in the first episode, there's some other ancient Martian technology on Mars called Aldnoah, which is what the Vers Empire have been utilizing to make the Cataphracts and other advanced technology.

edited 6th Jul '14 11:36:54 PM by KuroBaraHime

Still doesn't account for stuff like the Cold War simply ending because of alien tech being discovered, and then the space immigrants deciding to rebel after only two years. And then they decide to adopt an Imperial Dictatorship because... space? And of course the space people have made up nonsense names since again, space. Yes 0079 did that too (and so do many other sci fi anime) but at least they tend to be set some unspecified time in the future. These people mentioned in the timeline were born on Earth.

But the mind to comprehend those techs are still human. We are talking about finding some alien ruins, using it to create technology more advanced than our own, then create at least planet wide civilization that can curbstomp our own within 13 years. Maybe the first thing they encountered on Mars was Terrigen mist which evolved their mind instantly beyond what they had at the time (thus the talk of being different than human).

edited 6th Jul '14 11:51:22 PM by woodguy

Pretty much the only way I can accept that timeline is if the alien technology has some mental effects

So does anyone know what they're saying during the nuke scene? I SAY FRY? I SAY CRY? I SET FIRE?