Aldnoah.Zero

'*Aldnoah.Zero**(Japanese: アルドノア・ゼロ, Hepburn: '*****Arudonoa Zero**, and stylized as **ΛLDNOΛH.ZERO**) is a Japanese anime television series plotted out by Japanese novelist Gen Urobuchi under his anime company, Olympus Knights, and directed by Japanese storyboard artist/director Ei Aoki.

The first season series was initially going to made available in July, but was instead released on August 4, 2020.

## **Premise**

In 1972, an ancient alien hypergate was discovered on the surface of the moon. Using this technology, humanity began migrating to Mars and settling there. After settlers discovered additional advanced technology, the Vers Empire was founded, which claimed Mars and its secrets for themselves. Later, the Vers Empire declared war on Earth, and in 1999, a battle on the Moon's surface caused the hypergate to explode, shattering the Moon and scattering remnants into a debris belt around the planet. Cut off from Mars, the remnants of the Vers Empire established several massive orbital space stations within the debris belt and a ceasefire was established. 15 years later, in 2014, an attack on the Vers princess during a peace mission causes the Empire to launch a new attack on Earth, this time determined to conquer it once and for all.

## **Production**

### Development

The director of the anime is *Fate/Zero* director Ei Aoki. The anime features mechanical designs by Kenji Teraoka, who has worked on titles such as *Mobile Suit Gundam 00* and *Ghost in the Shell*. The soundtrack is composed by the critically acclaimed Hiroyuki Sawano who has scored various anime such as *Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn*, *Guilty Crown*, *Blue Exorcist*. The anime was written by *Olympus Knights*, among them the notorious Gen Urobuchi who previously worked with Ei Aoki on *Fate/Zero*. Ei Aoki did the storyboard for the First Cour openings whereas Takafumi Hoshikawa did the storyboards for the First Cour endings.

### Release

*Aldnoah.Zero* was announced on February 15, 2014, as a project headed by Nitro+, with animation by A-1 Pictures and TROYCA. It was created by Gen Urobuchi and is directed by Ei Aoki, with mechanical designs by Kenji Teraoka, characters by Masako Matsumoto, and designs by Takako Shimura. *Aldnoah.Zero*'s production committee, Project AZ, consists of Aniplex, Houbunsha, Tokyo MX, Nippon BS Broadcasting, Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, MAGES, Nitroplus and Movic.

Katsuhiko Takayama has been responsible for series composition, managing the flow and story of the series. Urobuchi created the mainframe from the story until the preliminary version as Aoki was responsible for the characters; as a result, he does not feel connected with the Inaho developed by Aoki, although he stated, "Aoki-san is a pleasure to work with on storyboard."

The director of *Aldnoah.Zero* is Ei Aoki and the original creator is listed as Gen Urobuchi, both of whom had previously collaborated on *Fate/Zero*. The main cast was announced by Aoki at AnimeJapan on March 22, 2014.  Urobuchi produced the scripts for the opening 3 episodes of the first season, after which Katsuhiko Takayama took over, completing the remaining 9 episodes; Takayama continued in the second season, doing 7, with further writing credits going to Shinsuke Onishi (4 episodes) and Ayumi Sekine (1 episode).

### Broadcast

It has been broadcast on Tokyo MX, BS11, Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, Gunma TV and AT-X in Japan, with streaming available on Niconico. Aniplex of America licensed the series for a streamed simulcast beginning in July 2014. It was also streamed in Australia by Hanabee

The series originally ran for two cours; the First Cour began with episode 1 on July 5, 2014, and ended with episode 12 on September 20, 2014. The series resumed with the Second Cour with episode 13 on January 2015. Crunchyroll and DAISUKI simulcast the anime for viewers outside of Japan.

A dub was announced by Aniplex of America on June 6, 2015. The recording was done at Bang Zoom! Entertainment. There were many voice actors from the dub of Gen Urobuchi's other mecha anime, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet including Alan Lee, Geoffrey Chalmers, Julie Ann Taylor, Kirk Thornton, Matthew Mercer and Patrick Seitz. It is be distributed in the United Kingdom by Anime Limited.

The streaming of the dub of the Second Cour began on Netflix began on March 1, 2016.

Anime Limited stated on May 6, 2016, that episodes 1 to 12 will be available on Blu-ray in the UK on May 30.

## **Trivia**

* The tagline "Let Justice Be Done, Though the Heavens Fall" is the English translation of the the Latin phrase "Fiat justitia ruat caelum," which signifies the belief that justice must be realized regardless of consequences.
* Both dubbed and subtitled versions of the first cour were available on Netflix in the USA, until May 9, 2019.

- Available soon: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba