Watched this on netflix as a recommend, Thought i'd binge watch to see what the drama was about. On trakt, the second series is eps 13-24, it's more or less a second series due to the cliffhanger events of episode 12 and the break/hiatus between 1-12 and 13-24.

Aldnoah zero is appealing, idiotic, and senseless. It's fun to watch, but it is cringey

It's a mecha show. you have to lower your standards, expectations, and pretend it makes sense when there's lurid, emotionless fight scenes.

The plot is unforgivable. lifted wholesale from Mobile Suit Gundam, with a few tweaks to avoid lawsuits, almost for the first half/season.

The opening premise that we send people to the moon in the 70s, there's a teleporter to mars, and the new astronauts/martians get a major tech boost is a pretense, belief suspended. However, Mars calling themselves VERS is disconcerting because that's the middle name of the guy who found the alien tech on mars, after using a teleporter on the moon. in 1975 or something.

Versians / martians somehow drink the kool aid, and now, consider themselves to be an alien/master race with less than 40 years of development, all hail Emperor VERS. Then, they all lean into a racial, religious, and most bizarre of all, a future empire, monarchy and caste system of knights, peers, using mecha as cavalry with a heavy warfare mindset is... silly. Due to resource shortages, they decide to invade earth. because.

In ~2000, they surprise attack the moon hypergate/transporter, and something goes wrong. as the moon/gate detonates, the resulting asteroid debris & tidal shifts kills a few hundred million people on earth, causing a restructure and war footing to eventuate between earth and mars/vers.

"because" it's a Mecha show that is bereft of writing or skill to convey what happens, the plot is all over the place.

And then there's the Mecha. Somehow, in ~15 years, mars takes on a war footing developing the ability to build 37+ kilometer sized ships, built and sent from mars into earth orbit, complete with energy shields, thousands of soldiers each, and mecha with energy shields and laser weaponry. so, in 2014 earth, high school includes mechas, not just simulations, but mecha, and live fire exercises. because there's always the need for high schools to invest in large robots.

The titular ALDNOAH is an ancient magic/tech that does ... something, with genetics that is passed on through bloodlines. (or just blood, S2 spoilers). maybe aldnoah explains how you can drop a kilometer sized spaceship from orbit, into a residential city, and still have the ship functional after it causes a megaton level explosion on the surface.

It's a grab bag of characters and ideas. I liked the beginning, the middle felt stale, but that's anime. It copies a lot of gundam, and updates it a little bit. but, not much more than that.

The show is fun, but the characters are there for plot. barely.

Inaho is the Everyman overpowered "God" teenager. i.e. Do you have a problem that might require a million+ soldiers, here's a single angsty, unemotional teen that can solve all of your potential problems. Basically Jesus. Not the most egregious god character i've seen in 2015, (the irregular of magic high school has a literal OP god character)

Slaine is the b(tch of the show, the character you're either supposed to love, or hate, depending on the plot or the episode. It gets worse in S2. none of the other characters do anything but hit one note. especially the love interest princess, who is essentially the cause of most of the problems in the series through her childish naivete of wanting peace.

Season 2, which aired in 2015, is worse. Remember/seen the finale ? it doesn't matter. It's mostly unredeemable. Things "happen", and sometimes, they make sense for the characters or the plot.