This was a very important episode and one that shouldn’t be missed!  Amidst the war that was re-enacted by the Vers Empire in the last episode- the comedy has been very subtle.  When Eddelrittuo addressed Asseylum as milady in front of the officer was so funny!  Even that fan service thought by the student didn’t have music accompany it- this is great to see.  This show has now structured itself to be a strong drama mecha series.

Koichiro Marito, this guy has a lot of potential in this series.  He’s held on to a ton of regret and that reveal from Darzana only added fuel to the flames. I can see this guy doing something reckless much later on in the series. Initially, Aldnoah Zero was just about humans fighting martians and now that we are progressing on through the story it’s amazing how well the writers developed John Humeray around the characters here.  Darzana from what I can see bears pain in her heart, as does Marito.

TROYCA did a fantastic job on doing the CG for this series.  The Vers Kataphrakts have all been unique and the design on Femieanne’s machine attacks ended up being completely different than what we’ve seen before.  Refreshing to see this considering how well animated the show has been so far!

I find it strange how many of the important people on the ship haven’t been killed yet- I say this only because Gen Urobuchi has a habit of eliminating people randomly in his series.  This is the second series that has used Tanegashima as an integral part of the series- the other being Captain Earth.  It’s fascinating to see two different animation studios [Bones and A-1 Pictures] draw the same location in the same season.  Both of which are mecha series.  Aside from the very end of the episode not much of Slaine was shown, and I cannot wait to see him and Inaho working together due to the Princess being onboard.  As a mecha series this show is better on a larger scale than M3: Sono Kuroki Hagane.  The soundtrack this episode was strong again as well.  Nice work on this Sawano.  Love that ending song!  I think one of the most pivotal characters in this show is Rayet.  She’s lost her father right in front of her eyes by the Martians and here was where we see her question her role in all of this.  How is she going to defend against the Martians, or will she?  I’ll be curious to see what happens with her later on.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 8/10

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