Aldnoah.Zero Review

Overall Rating 7.5 out of 10 - Great Show but with many noticeable flaws.

I recommend watching.

This is one of the most properly made shows I have watched in a while. Conclusion is so good, for it alone I could easily give it 8.5 or even 9. 

Unfortunately, it does suffer from usual insufferable trends of the 2010s: "strong women", feminism, extensive male abuse, swathes of unlikable characters. I do have to lower the score for these glaring issues.

Show starts rather slow. Martian prejudice against Earth rubbed in for way too long. Some designs are boring and others silly. Show poorly establishes characters, one can consider dropping it during first 2 episodes. 

On the good side it has a well written plot, another rare feature for modern anime. Story alone is engaging and interesting. It's not groundbreaking like Code Geass, SEL, Revolutionary Girl Utena or Kaiji. However, its clearly on the very high, well written, levels of Fate/Zero and Madoka Magica, slightly worse but closer to that than to Overlord for example.

Some characters are better than others. Main characters: Inaho, Slane and Seylum are good and likable. 

However, many of the support cast are not. Even if they were written to be hateable, creators clearly gave them too much screen time to expose their vile personalities. Their hateable nature ends up rubbing viewer in the wrong way instead of simply establishing villains as villains. 

Overall, however its first proper effort I saw in the long while. I sure excuse flaws of Overlord or Hand Maid May, because I identify with Ainz and Saotome, but these shows do lack plot wise. Here however it clearly is a good effort. I recommend watching.

On the side note, Vers and Count Saalzbaum do well to showcase how Russian government propaganda works. Those in Russia, who hate the West and the US, do so for exact the same reason, Saalzbaum hates Earthlings. Both claim that the other side is rolling in wealth and luxury to breed envy and hate. Putin and propagandists never cease to accuse West in Russophobia, just like Vers government accuses Earth of all sorts of crimes, they themselves are mostly complacent of. Both rather arrogant and proud of their stuff, though Vers have more good reasons for that compare to Russia.