~ Art Style ~
The art for this show is phenomenal [for the most part]. I love the art style and theme very much! I'm a fan of artworks that depict a lot of nature and natural scenery and with this series you get to see a lot of desert. And I don't mean just boring static hills of grainy yellow sand,no...this art is very organic, it's very alive and in constant motion and there is a soft, flowing and again, poetic aesthetic to it. This is a show that offers a perfect example of what CGI should be used for in anime! Whenever they show a flock of birds in flight or a herd of “Sand Dragons” in motion it can't help but evoke some sort of emotion from you. It seems almost kind of spiritual to see such grace and fluidity in their motions....even the way the clouds are drawn and the way the grains of sand flutter as the wind blows touches you in some 'spiritual' way, at least for me it did. Also the mecha battle scenes were “OUTTA SIGHT” if nothing else you HAVE to see episode 22's battle scene between TANK VS AIRPLANE, that was probably the most memorable mecha battle I've seen to date. One piece of warning though is that the art styles seem to fluctuate a bit throughout the series.
~ Audio ~
I watched this dubbed and I am not familiar with anyone from this voice cast. However I still enjoyed this English dubbed version, I think everyone did a good job, everyone's voice fit their characters' appearance perfectly. So I would recommend watching this in the English dub version [unless of course you hate dubs all-together, then feel free to watch the subbed version] However I did watched the subbed version and I was more entertained by the English dub.
~ Story ~
This show doesn't seem to have that very definitive overall plot that you'd find in most shounen anime [i.e. the underdog/under-achiever who's only dream is to get stronger and kick everyone's ass and then proceeds to do so with each battle getting much grander and wilder and each opponent bragging about how much stronger he was than the last guy who got his ass beat up]. No, the Third is really not about that at all, even though there are some very awesome battle scenes, this is a bit deeper than that but you can still enjoy it on that basic level of Honoka [the main character] and her sidekick talking tank, Bogie, go on these odd-jobs like transporting or hunting for stuff, serving as an escort/protector, rescuing kidnapped people and such....and while on the job she shoots and blows up enemy soldier robots set up by the Third [which are humanoids with a 3rd eye in their foreheads]. You can watch the anime for this reason and still be entertained too.
~ Cast/Characters ~
If you have a defective brain like I do, then the smaller the cast the better for you to remember them. Plus also with a small cast you get to spend more time with them and get a better understanding as they develop. And with having a narrator present throughout the show, this was even further achieved. All of the characters were likable and if they were not likable then they were either misunderstood or you wind up having sympathy for them. But I definitely like the main characters like Honoka, The Tank/Bogie, Iks and The Teacher because I liked the way they all related and interacted with each other...actually I like all of the characters because of this reason. It was less about shooting and blowing each other up and more about relating and sharing and depending on each other, which makes me wonder if this could really be considered a shounen anime.
~ Verdict ~
You have to love a show that starts out with a poem. That let's you know right then and there you are in for some deep sh--. I would recommend this show to just about anyone unless they just rather not deal with emo-crap and would rather watch regular shoot-em-up, blow-em-up anime then you can STILL watch this anime, LOL. But really if you are in the mood to be enlightened or feel emotionally connected and find a deeper meaning then you should definitely watch this.
