Zoids New Century Zero Review

New Century Zero has long since been known as one of the best anime series in the Zoids series, because of its beautiful animation and perfect movement cycles with the zoids, but as much as I enjoy the short battles from time to time this series was less enjoyable than the others.

For one, the story is... well, non existant. It follows set battles and such with one shot stories up until the very end, and only during the last few episodes do they throw together some mention of a plot. The plot that they came up with (the back draft taking over the ZBC) was also one I did not favor. I personally always enjoyed viewing the Back Draft as an organization that was in it for the money, and had no interest in domination. Introducing that aspect to the organization was a big mistake in my opinion, and a real disappointment.

The story, or lack of aside- the animation lives up to its reputation, most of all in movement. The solid cel style laid over CGI animation paid off well and the series looks wonderful in motion, though there are a lot of times with screenshots look a little painful. For example, Schneider's blades going through his own face! This is an issue in most series, however.

The characters... Well, I've never been a fan of zoids characters. Although they seem to have different personalities, they had tons of time in the series to cover more background on the characters, or give them SOME story, but they did not. The characters get a mention here or there of one or two events, but no actual history what so ever. There is also little to no character developement what so ever, and interaction for characters is kept completely casual, with an occassional yell or two, and doesn't take into account serious issues or others that could have made the series more interesting.

Sound effects are wonderful. Giving each zoid a different sound for movements and gears is an excellent addition. It's also one of the few series where I think the techno music works in its favor, so that's a big score for the anime.

Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy NC0 quite a bit, it's just not as great as everyone seems to think. Well I dunno, maybe it is, but to me the only thing it has going for it is animation and maybe the soundtrack. That's all.