From the moment the first episode of Aldnoah Zero finished I was instantly hooked. This was the first newly released mech show that looked very promising enough to be the next juggernaut. With the first episode written by Gen Urobuchi and animated by A1 what could possibly go wrong with this show? Well its the Urobuchi so something is gonna go wrong whether you like it or not. While not completely living up to the hype theres no denying that Aldnoah Zero is a wellmade mech show that tries. Taking place within the future Mars and Earth are locked in a temporary ceasefire as one of the hyper gates that allowed the Vers Empire to travel to Earth was destroyed leaving many of the Martian fleets stranded floating above Earth. After one of the royal family members of the Vers Empire gets assassinated the war is instantly back on track and the Martians now have a reason to break the ceasefire they have had so long with Earth. Some of the concept choices they went with are atypical of what would be in your standard mech show. Its an underdog mechastory especially when you see the Terrans Earth having the weaker mechs and whereas the Vers Empire Martians have the stronger ones. This was a really interesting choice since it paved the way for a very good episode in which our main protagonist Inaho has to devise a counterstrategy. All of this careful planning goes out the window in later episodes with many of the tactical games being reduced to Metal Gear Rising Boss Fights. Much of the story while not completely compelling at points does take some twists and turns many of which miss the mark. To put this into an analogical perspective Aldnoah Zero likes to play a Russianroulette with a loaded nerf gun. While you might think a certain someone might die in the heat of the moment Alndoah throws you for an endless loop of fake deaths that become tiresome after a while. There was one impactful death that happens and it worked as a plot twist but you have to wade through a lot of fakeouts to get to it. Aldnoah Zero likes to play duckduckgoose with its KillDeath ratio that it dissolves any possible tension and seriousness. Characters are horrible balancing act of proper development. and any sane person would root for Slaine more so than Inaho. Inaho is such a GaryStu that makes me wonder how anyone could root for that robot. The bulk of the side cast gets shafted a lot in favour of big fights. I never really got to know anyone beyond their past traumas. Many of these backstories were set up through clunk exposition dumps with flashbacks that only appeared to pad the downtime moments without playing a role in the overall story. For the most part the soundtrack kept me going as I wouldve most certainly dropped the show. Hiroyuki Sawanos work here is legitimately a 10/10 that is half the saving grace of Alndoah. It has its epic moments but it gets bogged down by how erratic the presentation of characters and plot are. I think most of my time with the show was more fun when it revolved around surviving in a sort of postapocalyptic world. It was humanitys last stand for the earth and I loved it when it was going for the survivalism theme. I just wish Aldnoah Zero went to greater lengths in exploring more with its storyline because I can see so much missed potential. The show failed to live up to the hype after its stellar first episode but it does set out to do some good things in the mech genre with a standout soundtrack. The biggest risk the writers gave to the audience is getting invested in a decent world before rewriting history in its second season.