‘Cause this guy right here just screams controversy.

And the writing for this guy is surely to blame. Five episodes in and he’s as deadpan as he was a month ago. You’d think watching a guided missile annihalate a princess would change a man. Most likely it would, for most people. Alas, we still know so little about our latest Urobuchi lead, and as fun as it is to poke fun about how he’s being portrayed (stoic, unfazed, emotionless.. the list goes on), at the very least we can admit that he’s got our attention because of it. Personally speaking, Inaho’s character is not much of a problem (it’s just hard not to notice is all), and I’m very much enjoying Aldnoah.Zero so far.

I suppose it’s a mixed bag right for everyone though. MC’s like this one are all the rage, apparently (I don’t seem to have picked up any other ongoing show that has ’em though). That said, I can also see why a lot of people don’t like him. He could really use some depth at this point (which is really the only thing missing from the standard Urobuchi Gen formula of purpose-driven leads). Any reason would do really, so long as it explains why he’s like that in the first place. He’s bound to change anyway I think, with how things are going.

I mean, who can stay expressionless to that (too bad I’m rooting for Slaine).

That aside, the only other thing people criticize about Aldnoah is how Inaho dispatched two Martian Kataphrakts with overly apparent ease. Having above average intellect is one thing, but combining that with combat IQ and unfaltering focus is what would seem to be the recipe for curbstomp. It’s the Lelouch conundrum all over again, except Inaho gets the extra icing on the cake by manning a less-than infantry level mech.

The off-putting things are (1) Inaho is supposed to be fighting people more prepared for war than he is, and (2) have thousands of years’ worth of technologically advanced weapons. After seeing him fight in now three separate occasions, the resulting counterargument then becomes: (a) Inaho is inexplicably broken / the knights are inexplicably weak, and (b) the Martian Kataphrakts were made to have flaws that can be easily taken advantage of by the MC.

My intention for the next couple of lines (and well, this entire post really) isn’t to justify/rationalize anything and everything about Aldnoah to try and forgive its faults, but just my two cents. These are also purely conjecture and are based one nothing but what we got so far.

Now, (a), I think, can be attributed instead to the fact that the Martians look down on the Earthlings so much that they indiscriminately underestimate all of them. To that effect they so far have rushed recklessly towards the one guy who just so happens to have enough knowledge of science and technology to counteract the supposedly superior mech – given prep time (keyword, prep time). Inaho so far has taken some amount of time to analyze his enemies first before ultimately beating them; whereas the Martians just cast it aside as dumb luck on their part. From that perspective, Inaho “wins” simply because he’s been pulling a page off of the ol’ Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.

(b), on the the other hand can again be just the result of the Martians being too overly complacent. Looking at the bigger picture, despite the two mechs we have so far having at least one defining feature to it, it also balances itself out. The first had a non-scrutinizing barrier, but only at the cost of direct sight; and the second had “undullable” blades, but only as a result of extreme heat. What they have really are just consequential and only became flaws (ironically) when they landed on Earth.

Water, widely known to be non-existent in Mars (or any nearby planet) so far, has been the prevailing key to finding those flaws – since Water was the only abundant thing on Earth that is both visible and viscous enough to envelop a Kataphrakt entirely, it could find the otherwise invisible holes of the barrier; in the case of the second Kataphrakt, water was the only thing there that could “put-out” the plasma, and at the same create steam. Although it hasn’t been said that Inaho has been purposely using water to his advantage, his decisions ultimately lead to its use (so far). The flaw then is not on the Kataphrakts themselves, but to the Martians being somewhat unaccustomed (or less knowledgeable) to the reactions of water.

Again, that’s just conjecture on my part (and I could be entirely wrong).

As one of Summer 2014’s most controversial feature (alongside Tokyo Ghoul..don’t get me started, lol), I just had to write about it. Typing “kataphrakt” though, not as fun. 😀