So far, the series is great. In fact, this is probably the most excitement I've had watching a Gundam series (or even a giant robot series in general) since Gundam Wing. I did hear that the show is kind of like a more contemporary parallel to Gundam Wing, and it's hard to argue some of that. I don't think it's a Gundam Wing clone, like some people say, but there are definitely similarities. Many of the characters are definite shoe-ins for characters in Gundam Wing, such as Setsuna being a bit like Hiro Yui (the name may be spelled wrong). But there's enough that's different that I think it can be easily classified as an original series.
Another thing I liked was the Gundam on Gundam action. Now I've only seen up to episode 18, so I can only really review it up to that point. But it's kind of refreshing to see antagonists with Gundams that are actually superior to the main characters' Gundams. And the overall tone of the show is also great, where the main characters are both heroes and villains at the same time (normally the main character is someone you can sympathize with, but in this show that's not always the case). They do good things, and often horrible things, but they always have a reason for it. Nobody seems to be a straw man in the show, and that's something you don't see everyday in media, especially in cartoons. Also, the overall plot of the show has characters that may have once been viewed as the antagonists actually becoming heroes themselves. There are characters that just pilot ordinary mobile suits and fight against the Gundams that I was able to relate to much more than the Gundam Meisters. And there were even times where I was rooting for those characters, even though they were antagonists.
So all in all, it's a great series.
There are a couple flaws however. It's not a perfect show. And unfortunately, some of these flaws are difficult to overlook.
The biggest one, and one that I think many people will get, is the manipulative character, Nena. I seriously hope she gets hers at one point or another. She was cute at first, and I thought she was going to be a reflection of Lady Unne from Gundam Wing (being evil and manipulative, but changing over the course of the series) , but that doesn't seem likely now. But my biggest issue with her though isn't her being an antagopnist, it's that she seems to have the coolest protagonist in the show wrapped around her finger. She is literally the anchor that holds Setsuna back and prevents him from achieving Hiro's level of awesomeness. Seriously, I'm just waiting for him, or someone else to off this manipulative wench once and for all, so that Setsuna can become awesome again. And if it doesn't happen, I'll lose alot of respect for this show. I just can't understand why Japan seems to have an insatiable fetish for these types of characters. Japan, if you're reading this, stop making characters like this for Gundam. It is not cool, and it is not exciting, and nobody likes them. It's boring, it's soap operaish, and it's been done way too many times. Didn't you learn anything from 8th MS Team? Gundam is not supposed to be a soap opera. Gundam is supposed to be a war drama.
Second, is the overall theme of the series. Don't get me wrong, I think this is kind of a nifty way to get their message across. But like Big O, I think a message like that could probably be conveyed in a much smaller time span. Basically, it's whether you're on one side of the spectrum or the other, whether you were born in America or Japan, whether your intentions may be noble or personal, sometimes intervening in conflicts without knowing all the facts can make things exponentially worse than just allowing things to play out naturally (Gundam 00 is a protest to the war in Iraq, if you hadn't figured it out by now). I think they could get that message across more effectively in a shorter series, where the audience doesn't have to wait an entire week for each new episode to air and forget half of what happened in the process.
All in all though, it's great stuff. I love the new Gundams, and again it's nice to see main characters that don't always have the biggest guns in the series, but still work through it. I just hope they fix that issue with Setsuna and Nena, because man, that's getting stale (and I looked, it's still going on).
