In the end, The cost of smiles left me wanting to see more. It almost feels like there is an entire half missing to this story, yet the ride to the end was one I quite enjoyed. I am not sure whether that story depicts more detailed mech battles and actually engages on the strategies the princess showed she could come up with at the start of the show, or maybe a more in-depth look at the psychology and morals of both cultures, their history and struggles, but if anything I have to commend the team behind this anime for managing to keep the story engagingdespite lacking these building blocks of most mecha and war stories.

I could see this series being many people's gateway into gundam and macross, or even stuff like patlabor and galactic heroes.