After 12 episodes of twists and turns season 1 has finally come to an end. Up until this episode I couldn't decide if I liked Alnoah.Zero or not. I find it hard to become a fan of the main character Inaho Kaizuka. He's unbelievably skilled at piloting his trainer mech, unbelievably as in it doesn't make sense that hes so much better than everyone else. His personality isn't charming either, because he doesn't seem to have one. He's completely emotionless throughout 99.99% of season 1. His character development is essentially non-existent, which for a main character is kind-of a problem.
However, the story of Count Saazbaum and Slaine Troyard, combined with the overall plot of the anime kept my interest. Slaine in-particular is the most interesting character to me. He's in a very strange position. He's both Terran and Martian but at the same time he's neither. Nor friend nor foe, nor hostile nor neutral.
Episode 12
I absolutely loved everything about the episode and I rather be straight forward about that. The sense of fear, danger and desperation began to sink in when the battleship Deucalion crashed on the landing castle. Count Saazbaums kataphrakt was quite impressive, combining the power of other kataphrakt that had been previously encountered into one package....but that's exactly what led to his downfall.
Inaho almost killed Saazbaum but Slaine saved him using Cruhteo's katapharkt. I didn't expect that decision to come back to haunt him so quickly as Saazbaum shot the Princess, seemingly killing her. Slain fired on Saazbaum but if you noticed his gun jammed, a shell didn't completely eject. He didn't seem to hit Saazbaum with a killing shot at all so I suppose we'll see him again soon.
I was surprised to see Inaho showing emotion has he crawled towards the lifeless princess. The short stand off between Slaine and Inaho was the best part. I thought nothing was going to happen but Slaine really shot Inaho. THAT MOMENT as Inaho lays in a pool of blood and Slaine is the last man standing brought it all full circle. It faded to credits with no music, just the arctic wind sounds and it left me staring at my screen, wide eyed and speechless. POWERFUL ENDING!!!!
I love how Slaine was the last man standing. The one who was on both sides and neither side fired the final bullet.
Questions on Episode 12
I wonder why and how Count Cruhteo's kataphrakt aldnoah drive was still active. He died so shouldn't it have shut off? It was shut down until Slaine entered the cockpit......Does this mean that Slaine can also activate and deactivate aldnoah drives?
By the end there's no telling who is alive and who is dead. The Princess may be dead because I can't see what use there is for her besides taking over the thrown of Vers and making peace at the end but I can see this war come to and end in other ways as well. Inaho is the main character but it seems like Slaine has a good chance of taking center stage.
Death/Alive Prediction
Inaho - 60/40
Princess - 40/60
Saazbaum - 21/79
What are your thoughts?
Aldnoah.Zero returns for season 2 in January of 2015, read more about it on Anime News Network!
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