The Good: - Great art style. - The cell shading is some of the best I've seen in a tv series. - A wide variety of mecha designs kept the series interesting. - Battles between cell-shaded mechas = awesome. The Bad: - Plot progression is very slow. It was a struggle to watch more than 2 episodes in one sitting. - Most of the series was devoted to presenting background stories of various mecha pilots/translators. Unfortunately, the lives of the these pilots and translators were boring. The fact that these flashbacks were presented DURING the mecha battles made things even worse.Conclusion:
This would have been a great series had it been condensed to fewer episodes. They went through great lengths to familiarize the viewers with the pilots of every single mecha; but there was just too many characters. As a result, I found it hard to sympathize with any of them (with the exception of the Japanese and Chinese crew). Cut the flashbacks in half and add more mecha airtime and this series would've been ten times more entertaining.