Summer 2014 - Argevollen

Continuing with the anime theme is the other main mecha of the season, Argevollen.  Set in a war torn continent, shocker, Argevollen really seems to be a story of a young mecha pilot, Susumu, who gets caught up with an experimental mecha named Argevollen and the young lady, Jamie Hazaford, who we'll say comes with the mecha.

More specifically, Susumu is part of a small squad apparently out in the middle of nowhere as the enemy forces from Ingelmia siege one of the last standing defenses of Susumu's country, Arandas.  In retreating, he and his squad come across a civilian trailer under attack by enemy forces.  Of course, as a young and hot headed soldier, Susumu defies orders to ignore the trailer and goes in like a dumbass.  But hey, if he didn't there wouldn't be an anime to say is full of cliches.

Anyways, he goes to try and save this trailer, which now only has a single survivor, what we find out in the next episode is a young "engineer", Jamie Hazaford.  I say "engineer" in quotes because honestly it seems like she has no fucking clue what the hell she's doing and yea I'll leave it at that.  She boots up Argevollen and makes Susumu pilot it as well he is a pilot and he dispenses with the remaining enemies with nothing but his fists and feet.

Summer 2014 - Aldnoah Zero

First up on the anime review block is Aldnoah Zero.  Taking place in a world where some portion of humanity has migrated to Mars, Aldnoah Zero is a mecha anime focused on the tension between the Vers empire of Mars and the inhabitants of Earth. At the beginning of the episode you're introduced to the crown princess of the Vers empire, princess Asseylum, her name most likely not coincidentally sounding like asylum.  In any case, Asseylum is convinced that there can be peace between the Martians and the humans of Earth.  To that end she decides to make a trip down to the surface of Earth as a sign that she sincerely wants peace.

At this point we switch away from the elegant princess to Earth where we learn that 15 years ago the Martians destroyed the moon in some crazy war.  We also learn that, at least in Japan, teenagers are being taught how to operate mechas to defend against the potential of another Martian/Earth human war.