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Review: ‘Aldnoah.Zero 2’ finishes up after 12 intense episodes

The 12th and final episode of Aldnoah.Zero 2, titled “Inherit the Stars,” is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu for paid subscribers. Free subscribers can watch the same episode six days from now on April 4th.

Slaine Troyard’s world is crumbling down thanks to the combined efforts of Inaho Kaizuka and Princess Asseylum.

S—t has hit the fan when Asseylum has announced Count Klancain Cruhteo to be her husband, which puts a wrench in Slaine’s plans. I was shocked that Slaine decided to have everybody abandon the moonbase and surrender to the UFE.

Slaine still has Princess Lemrina, who cares about him very much.

Screengrab from the finale of  Aldnoah.Zero 2.

Screengrab from the finale of “Aldnoah.Zero 2.”
Crunchyroll

I had a “holy s—t” moment when Slaine chose to self-destruct the moonbase.

It was a shocking and touching moment when some of the people chose to remain by Slaine regardless, which proves that he is an inspiring leader trying to improve life on Vers. I had to say that it was a touching, but saddening scene.

This leads to the final ultimate battle between Inaho Kaizuka and Slaine Troyard.

Screengrab from the finale of  Aldnoah.Zero 2.

Screengrab from the finale of “Aldnoah.Zero 2.”
Crunchyroll

The final episode shows the ultimate space battle that I have been longing for since the beginning. I am glad that it is actually happening, where three exciting battles erupt simultaneously. Inaho ultimately proves that he is the true bad@$$ of Aldnoah.Zero by choosing to descend into Earth’s atmosphere with Slaine.

They crash land on a beach, where it becomes an inverted version of deja vu.

The end of the first season had Inaho staring down the barrel of Slaine’s gun, which caused him to lose his left eye. That is why Inaho’s left eye is replaced by a cybernetic version complete with sentient AI.

Screengrab from the finale of  Aldnoah.Zero 2.

Screengrab from the finale of “Aldnoah.Zero 2.”
Crunchyroll

Time passes, where Earth and a majority of Vers have reached a peace agreement.

It was unnerving and unsurprising that Slaine was incarcerated for the rest of his life, while the rest of the world believes that he is dead. This reminds me of the ending to the second season of XIII, where former US President Ben Carrington is held in a secret base as the rest of the world believed he perished in a major battle.

Screengrab from the finale of  Aldnoah.Zero 2.

Screengrab from the finale of “Aldnoah.Zero 2.”
Crunchyroll

All the “Inaho X Seylum” fans will be disappointed that the two of them didn’t hook up.

I’m perfectly fine with that because I didn’t expect the two of them to hook up. They were on the level of between close friends and platonic friends. Inaho doesn’t strike me as being the romantic type even though Seylum had feelings for him.

He is the only character, who is romantically unavailable and detached.

That also means neither Inko nor Rayet have a chance with Inaho either. I was disappointed because I didn’t see any interaction between Inaho and Lemrina through the series, which I strongly felt would have been interesting.

I was also wondering what happened to Lemrina after she was evacuated before the final battle.

I am glad to have watched the entire Aldnoah.Zero series, which includes Aldnoah.Zero 2. I didn’t know what to make of the series because it reminded me of Mobile Suit Gundam, Gundam SEED, and Zone of the Enders: Dolores. This made me think of a military version of Patlabor, but it also made me think of Appleseed.

The concept of an intergalactic battle can be cliched, but Aldnoah.Zero has an original concept.

I originally thought that Inaho was a “Gary Stu” because he effectively defeated all the Orbital Knights he had come across, but his personality flaws served as an effective counterbalance to keep him “believable.”

One of the reasons that I’m glad Inaho didn’t hook up with anybody let alone Seylum was that it would have ultimately ruined his character. Inaho is somewhat of a lonely character in my eyes because he looks at things different compared to the rest of his peers. It is believed that Inaho suffers from high-level autism or Asperger’s Syndrome.

He never showed any romantic affection towards Seylum, which means that he is a terrible romantic partner.

Inaho stands strong on his own two feet for that reason.

When you look beyond the storyline, Aldnoah.Zero presented valuable lessons.

I got behind Aldnoah.Zero because of the combat, which related to me because of my martial arts background. Earth is at a disadvantage against the technological superiority of Vers’ Orbital Knights, but Inaho took the time to discern their weaknesses.

It made me think of Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which emphasize superior technique over sheer force.

The Orbital Knights depended too much on their superiority, which made them arrogant and incredibly vulnerable. Inaho ultimately came on top be he “respected their game,” but didn’t receive the same “respect” in return.

Slaine sets himself up as an effective tragic antihero for Aldnoah.Zero 2.

I was surprised to see how much Slaine has “grown” since Aldnoah.Zero, where he was constantly treated as “less than human” because of his Earth heritage. He meant well, but took a bloody path to achieve it.

It is obvious that he became the villain in Aldnoah.Zero 2, but you have to respect Slaine for trying to change everything from within. Slaine could have started a rebellion, but he would have lost and it would have made him look like a terrorist.

Plus it would have turned Vers’ attention on Earth again because of Slaine’s heritage.

Rhetorically asking, can you blame Slaine for doing what he believed was noble and just? He wanted to make things better for everybody on Vers, but understood the near-impossible challenge. You have to remember that Seylum was in a two-year coma after being shot a few times by Lord Saazbaum, who was killed by Slaine in revenge.

I could go as far to compare Slaine to Lelouch Rampouge, the titular protagonist of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Lelouch had his work cut out because he was trying to change things within the Britannian Empire and secretly running the rebellion at the same time.

The ending of Aldnoah.Zero 2 does leave an opening for a third season.

Rhetorically asking, what happens when Aldnoah’s original owners return to Mars?

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