The story is a familiar one to Gundam fans. Zeon wants to attack Earth... again. It's up to a young, rookie Gundam pilot and his friends to save the day aboard their new warship... again. But, rather than our young hero (Ensign Kou Uraki) hoping in his Gundam and laying waste to the enemy all the time, he relies on his teammates and takes time to learn how to be an ace pilot. The enemy, Anavel Gato, is neither the cool, calm, leader nor the Newtype that Char Aznable was. He is vengeful. Hot-headed at times. Those two center the series, but the side characters are very important and each add so much to the series.
The subplots and side plots move along with as much steady pace as the main plot and the intrigue level is high. With only 13 episodes, the pace is rapid and exciting leading up to a very exciting and somewhat unexpected conclusion. The meat of the show, the mechs, are pretty awesome. Uraki's Gundam Zephyranthes is the standard stream-line Gundam with all the trimmings. Gato's stolen Gundam Physalis is one of the beefiest Gundams ever made. With massive armor, shield, and most importantly a nuclear cannon that would make Freud say, "Compensating?"
The art and sound are all very good for the time it came out. The soundtrack is decent (at one point borrowing from John Carpenter's "The Thing" I swear) Sub vs. Dub? Win for the Sub. With special mention going to Gato's Japanese VA, Akio Ootsuka (his English counterpart Kirk Thornton does well, too).
The pound-for-pound amount of action, drama, and range of emotions that are packed into these 13 episode is the best of any series. There is not as much sweet, sweet, 'splosion porn to be had as in other series, but the strong plot more than makes up for it. I have watched this one series more times than any other. It's that good. Anime fans will like it, Gundam fans will love it. 8/10, check it out. Cheers!
