Aldnoah.Zero

Episode 11

Been disappointed by the relative dearth of serious action the past couple of episodes? Episode 11 makes up for it, and in a big way, as it serves up the biggest barrage of action since the Tanegashima incident and some of the series' most intense sequences to date.

The start of the episode is a bit slow, as the first 2½ minutes merely recap the end of episode 10. While that is an annoyingly long recap, it does allow a smooth transition into the feature event of episode 11: Saazbaum's Landing Castle's strike on the Earth Forces HQ. Even with the base being buried deep, and even with the Deucalion on its side, questions certainly lingered about how the Earth Forces could possibly hope to defend against the attack that viewers all knew was coming, since they were still out-teched. (In mecha series, superior tech is usually equaled only by superior pilots in terms of importance in deciding the outcome of warfare, and the Earth Forces have not been shown to have the latter edge.) Those questions quickly became even bigger when the Landing Castle showed that it had a fully array of bunker-busters at its disposal. How, then, could the Earth Forces possibly hope to hold out, even with Inaho's tactics on their side?

And that's where the big twist that we knew had to be coming arrives on the scene: Aldnoah tech automatically shuts down when the one who activates it dies (or, apparently, goes into cardiac arrest), but a royal family member can also forcibly shut down even something activated by someone else. As ass-pulls go, it's a remarkably logical and reasonable one, and has some extensive ramifications, too; consider how much of a check that gives royalty on unruly subordinates, how messy that could make a civil war, and how that gives Saazbaum an even more powerful and specific tactical reason for wanting the princess dead if he actually knows about it, as it would make her his one vulnerable point. In a narrative sense the princess having this ability continues a long-standing tradition from fantasy stories of a female character having the mystical power to stop a malevolent force but needing to be escorted to the proper location by the hero so that she can work her mojo.

But that is merely the desperate hope presented to the protagonists. Aside from a scene where Asseylum comes to accept that too many of her own people are too much against her for her to take anything less than the most drastic action, the bulk of the episode is in the action. We get to see that Eddelrittuo isn't just an escort/handmaiden; she has some serious driving skills of her own to handle what looks like a Humvee that well under that much duress. We get to see how circumstances work out for Rayet to end up in a Kataphrakt again. (Yeah, despite her being locked up, we all knew that would happen, didn't we?) And we get to see the almost insanely audacious plan to assault Saazbaum's Landing Castle directly so that Asseylum can work her mojo – although of course that doesn't happen without complications, since this is only still episode 11. So much is going on, in fact, that Slaine largely get left out.

And, for the moment, that's totally fine. Even without him the episode has no shortage of spectacle, no lack of tension. We may not be seeing much for direct mecha-on-mecha fights, but this is where the cool factor of this series lies. Bold maneuvers based at least somewhat on logic and tactics, dramatic flair, and a good sense of action timing – all of it ties together for a big batch of blow-out fun. Yeah, if you have had a problem with Inaho being a little too perfect or too composed then the events shown here will only reinforce that impression, but episode 11 still reminds us that when the writers and production staff get their act fully together, they can really deliver.

Rating: A-

Aldnoah.Zero is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.