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*Spoiler-free Review*
Biggest disgrace to this series anybody could have imagine.

So it's 2019. Avex pictures(The parental company of âge,Muv-luv VN maker studio) announces MLA anime. Fans got mixed opinions. "Why it's started from alternative and not from extra or unlimited?" Avex pictures staff answer: "To bring in more people into Muv-luv. It would've been boring for most of anime onlies to start from the extra, because it's a calm stakeless romcom from 2001. It should've been adapted in 2000s, tbh. Supposedly they were hesitant to start adaptating ML triology, because it would've hindered people from buying the VNs and required a good amount of money. Which ... was a bad take imho. You ask why? Mechs play a great part into ML, at 2000s, they had a handful of quality options available to adapt a mecha series. Gainax, sunrise, even xebec. They all were in their peaks, mecha wasn't as niche as it is in 2021, when even sunrise isn't that promising of a studio and handling a ton of their projects into the parental company (bandai namco).

In 2021, They finally announced that yumeta company(most famous work? A digimon movie) and graphinica(In charge of ssss. CGI) will be adapting this. This one smelled extremely hit-or-miss adaptation from the get-go, mostly on the miss side of the things.

First episode, being stand-alone, was kinda good-ish. It portrayed the atmosphere of the dire situation the japanese were facing rather well. It was also rather digestable for new people. They had the same experience with the first episode of AoT(which its author, isayama, is a big MLA fanboy). It was also the only episode that Kouki yoshimune(the author) had direct influence in making it. VN readers were ready to see the first moments of their "Dripless" shirogane takeru after this.

Second episode is out. First thing that bothered people was bad animation. Proportions of the bodies, lazy drawings(especially in long-shot situations), weird positioning of limbs and body parts were irksome tbh. There's a good reason why shows like Kimetsu no yaiba and Jujutsu kaisen are massively popular nowadays. When their stories are digestable enough for people to get into, their top-tier animation quality will invite you to a festival of beauty. Look no further from this season, takt.op destiny is massively popular. Its flashy animation is the first thing when you ask about that show's advantages. Dear people from Avex pictures, when you know animation is the first thing people will judge your show, why did you ridiculed youselves and hired this studio? This animation level isn't even acceptable by the standards of 2000s anime.

Another issue that this show suffers from is the pacing. Some genius must've thought that rushing through events to get into the sick parts will make people care about the franchise. Bad news for ya. They adapted the manga and even cut through its content as well. VN as a medium, has the advantage of enough time to flesh out the situations and characters masterfully. Anime simply doesn't allow that if you don't want to invest a lot of money and episodes. Muv-luv, as a franchise, looks the most generic when you see it from a surface PoV. Now when they rushed through a rushed adaptation of the VN, Basically most characters other than takeru were made into cardboard cutouts. The new viewer doesn't have the slightest of clue to care about them. When the build-ups from the former titles and the journey that evolved takeru from the airheaded boy who takes the current situation for granted is cut-out from the narrative and basically shown as a quick slide-show, even the reason the viewer must care about takeru is vanished. That must be the reason why kouki yoshimune, the creator of this series is constantly dropping youtube links about "supplementary materials" for the anime onlies. He clearly ISN'T happy with the way this adaptation is going on, since he also lowkey complained about the situation this anime is on his streams. But why they took this questionable method? Budget issues? Understandable, have a nice day.

Sound is mostly exquisite. OP and ED are less relevant to the story, mostly ED, but OSTs from evan call were nice and pleasing. The VA performances were ok, except the takeru's VA (which was needed more experience to take this role).

So dear people in Avex pictures, Is this how you invest new people in your franchise? You basically took away the slightest reason for an anime only for care about anything. First impression (which is the animation) is nowhere to be seen. Narrative is just blazing through details, which those interactions and infos could've added subtle and powerful touches to the story. If you wanted to advertise your franchise, this low-effort, low-budget adaptation isn't the solution. This adaptation is simply became an "unwanted" one both by anime onlies, and VN veterans. All I can say is Avex pictures basically missed the opportunities were on their way and now they're trying to fix it by this pathetic excuse of an adaptation.