Aldnoah.Zero — Isaac Asimov Revisited???

So it’s been a long time I wrote something good, but it just so happens that I finally got time to plough through the second season of this much hyped anime series called Aldnoah.Zero, and… Don’t worry I am not going to do a review or post spoilers. I am here to talk about something that struck me after watching the very first episode. Yeah if you guessed it correctly, full marks to you. I am talking about the reference to Asimov.

o ISAAC ASIMOV — THE THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS

Isaac Asimov. Prolific science fiction author. The one to introduce the Three Laws of Robotics and revolutionize the concept of science fiction. And the very person to define the way I relate to science fiction and how I think about it.

Anyways getting back to the topic, I think Aldnoah.Zero took the concept from Asimov’s Robot Series, which comprises of namely 4 books: The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire; not the plot but the storyline theme. I said i won’t spoil Aldnoah.Zero so I will concentrate on Asimov’s books.

The series starts off with the concept of human colonization outside the Solar System, with outer planets being colonized. These are known as the Spacer worlds, and the inhabitants as Spacers. Unlike Earth, the Spacer worlds are population controlled. Robots vastly outnumber the Spacer humans to the ratio of even 10,000:1. The humans are totally independent on robot labour, and since diseases have been eradicated from the Spacer worlds, Spacers live longer than Terrestrials (Earthlings), with lifespans reaching up to 400 years.

Now you may ask, how is this all relevant to my topic? Hold on guys, I’m coming to it.

o ASIMOV’S ROBOT SERIES

Now comparing the Spacer worlds and Earth. Earth is overpopulated, unhealthy, people living underground in enclosed cities, “caves of steel’. Living underground to the point that some can’t even bear to go out into the sunlight, without getting sick. Compare that to the Spacer worlds like Aurora and Solaria, with 10,000 humans on a whole freaking planet. Damn i can’t even start to think about it. No humans for miles around. And I think I’m lonely. Phew. And they have practically limitless resources, and longer lifespans. Talk about pseudo immortality. Orochimaru would die to be a Spacer.

So what would you feel towards the Terrestrials as a Spacer? Yeah. You would think you are the superior species, even if both originate from Mother Earth. As Light Yagami would say, “Now I will be God of this new world.” That’s exactly what happened there. The Spacers looked down on Terrestrials to the point that they cut off political connections between the Spacer worlds and Earth. Moreover with the vastly staggering robot population, they had practically total military dominance on Earth, basing on technological power. Coz the robots are by default bound by the Three Laws.

Plot sounds familiar? I bet it does. Wait there’s more.

The series starts with “The Caves of Steel”, when a Spacer ambassador is found murdered. Along comes detective Elijah “Lije” Baley, with his Spacer robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw. In the later books, “The Naked Sun” and “Robots of Dawn”, Elijah has to travel to the Spacer planets of Solaria and Aurora to investigate seemingly impossible human murders on planets overpopulated by robots governed by the Three Laws of Robotics.

Seemingly impossible murders.

Were they just murders? Or a part of some other great devious Spacer scheme?

As Baley planet hops trying to shed light on these mysteries, the hard and bitter truth comes to the forefront. The political hostility of the Spacers towards Terrestrials and plans to convert robots into killing machines by overriding the Three Laws of Robotics. Stuck on the hostile Spacer planets, Elijah finds himself looked down upon as a mere Terrestrial. Behind enemy lines, Elijah finds a partner and lover in Gladia Delmarre, the widowed wife of Solarian scientist Rikaine Delmarre, besides his robot partner Daneel.

However, the facts and findings speak for themselves, and the light shines upon two Spacer political factions, the liberal party headed by Han Fastolfe that favours Earth and a peaceful co-existence between Spacers and Terrestrials, and the conservationist party headed by Kelden Amadiro, blinded by a Spacer superiority complex.

The series culminates in the final book, “Robots and Empire”. Set two centuries after Elijah Baley’s death, the plot show his descendant Captain D.G. Baley, heading spaceships with “Settlers” from Earth to colonize the outer planets. It is discovered that Solaria, Gladia’s home world has been abandoned by human civilization, and what remains is apparently millions of hostile robots, responsible for the disappearance of a number of Settler spaceships.

Now, what has been going on to make robots rise against humans that they are hardwired to protect y the Three Laws? A malfunction? A fatal program error? Or a subtle but clever plan to turn them into a military force to be used against Earth?

With the help of Captain Baley and R. Daneel, Gladia embarks on a perilous quest to end this madness once and for all. Unfortunate for them, the cat and mouse chase leads them to Earth, where Amadiro has plans to annihilate the population of the Earth by a newly developed weapon, the “nuclear intensifier”, with which to accelerate the natural radioactive decay in the upper crust of the Earth, thereby making the surface of the Earth radioactive. All this because of the conservationist Spacer mind-set that only the superior race should colonize the galaxy.

Ultimately, Gladia, with her powers and influence over the political factions from both Earth and Spacer worlds, thwarts Amadiro’s devious plan and paves a way for future co-existence between Terrestrials and Spacers, and utilizing a mixed species to colonize the outer worlds.

ALDNOAH.ZERO VS THE ROBOT SERIES

Ok you must be bored by now, thinking I started with Aldnoah Zero and ended up babbling about some science fiction author no one hardly knows nowadays.

I’m getting to that. For my points I had to summarize the plot to be able to draw the following comparisons.

1) Firstly the scenario. The anime series shows the conflict between Earth and the Martian empire, also referred to the Vers Empire. The conflict arises because of the natural resources on Earth, and the technological resources on Mars, obtained from the primitive Aldnoah super civilisation. Similar to Spacer worlds with a robot intensive population. However, Asimov’s Spacer worlds had abundant resources, whereas the Vers Empire wants to take over Earth for its resources, because despite their upper hand in technology, all they have is a barren lifeless planet.

2) The outlook of the Vers Empire to the people of Earth, calling them filthy Terrans, is similar to the way Spacers despise Terrestrials.

3) The Clan of the 37 Orbital Knights keeping watch over Earth are the Spacers waiting to take over Earth, with the Knights’ Flying Castles akin to the Spacer worlds.

4) Now for some character similarities, although none of the anime characters measure up to Asimov’s original characters. Still an effort can be made in that direction. The Knights like Saazbaam and Trillram compare to Kelden Amadiro and his group, awaiting the slightest pretext to wage war with Earth and annihilate the Terrans. Perhaps the only characters coming close to being actually compared, with their deep distaste for Earth and a warring mentality. However, even among the Knights, there are liberal Counts like Mazuurek in the second season, who can be paralleled to the liberal Spacer faction.

5) Next comes Slaine Troyard, a misfit in the Vers Empire, but survives nonetheless. A shadow of Elijah Baley, who struggled fiercely to gain a hold among Spacers. However part of that Lije’s character can also be seen in Inaho Kaizuka, the Terran prodigy, who plays a pivotal role in the series in terms of military tactics and analytical supervision.

6) Last, the Martian princess Asseylum Vers Allusia, trying to make amends of the past and rekindle cordial relations between Earth and Vers. But here it pains me to point out that she doesn’t even come close to being compared with Gladia Delmarre, with only their respective situations in the plots being their ground for resemblance. The puppy soft princess does nothing to stand up to the strong and independent character of Gladia, with her only strength being able to activate the Aldnoah drives for the mere fact of being the “Vers Princess”, with her little maid in tow intermittently chanting “Your Highness, Your Highness”. Even in the second season, she is being dragged as an unnecessary pivotal character resulting in the climax culminating in her rescue.

7) Finally the plot similarity, the Orbital Knights are always looking for an opportunity to crush Earth, similar to Amadiro’s plot. The superior Mecha technology of the Martians, powered by the Aldnoah drives easily overpower the Asimov drives that power the Earth Mecha, hinting at the possible likeness to the hostile robot army being raised on Solaria.

TRIBUTE TO ASIMOV??

Now then, the producers have nowhere explained or said that Aldnoah Zero was inspired by Isaac Asimov’s works. And I haven’t heard anyone else saying that too, but hey, you got to read some books to know. The only subtle hint is the operating system for the Earth Mecha — A.S.I.M.O.V (Accuracy System Image Module for Optimum Velocity). Too easy for me there.

As an anime series, I am impressed by Aldnoah Zero, that’s why I was truly tempted to analyse the series. Mecha being one of my favourite, I enjoyed the first season, and eagerly waited for the second season to air and find out how the latter half will pan out, keeping my fingers crossed for an impressive experience.

THOUGHTS AFTER SEASON 2

Although I mostly based my observations and findings after season 1, my thoughts did not change much after season 2. Coz this being an anime series, I did not expect the mind-boggling complexity of science fiction novels. And true to its nature and traits, this series provided a great deal in terms of eye candy for the mecha fan and technical jargon for the science buff, bringing in appropriate scientific terms to counter the events and effects.

And as we know, anime series do not feel good unless there’s a climactic fight, in this case provided by Slaine Troyard and Inaho Kaizuka. Not wanting to spoil the outcome of the battle, it was surprising to see that the two characters that come close to measuring up to Elijah Baley in terms of character traits and scenario have to duke out with each other in classical anime style, like Naruto and Sasuke. And needless to say, the Princess has been dragged forward as the classical “damsel in distress unnecessarily necessary” character without any change in the “fall in love with the hero” theme.

CONCLUSION

Even though a die-hard science fiction fan, I was nevertheless impressed by the anime series. The mecha, the visual effects, the technicalities in the storyline, made me crave more of the stuff. And I’m not bothered to say that the Kataphrakts are my new favourite mecha, coz they have in their designs a sense of function, and not just flashy redundant form that other mecha might include.

Now I compared the series with stories of my favourite science fiction author. Yet I’m leaving this topic open for discussion. There might be similarities to other series or novels also, which I may not know coz I haven’t read or seen them. I do not intend to hurt any die-hard fans of the series, but these are totally my opinions. Feel free to counter my case logically, and enlighten me of more on this context.

Now I take my leave, probably thoroughly confused. But I gave my arguments, and systematically presented my case. Time for you to be the judge. Good luck!

©Auro_29052015

Edit: This article was referred in an online discussion in Anime Stackexchange.