The war is renewed when a visiting Martian princess is attacked by terrorists during a visit to Earth. The forces of Mars descend onto Earth in force. Here's where the series does a great job of not letting the mecha get too far out of whack. The Martians do have some nifty powers in their mechs, but never do they become unexplainably powerful, or lacking any sort of weakness. The earth forces use much less extravagant mechs that are easier to relate to as potentially recognizable military hardware so the conflict isn't entirely alien in nature.
As for the characters, the way the war is setup does allow for a semi-feasible insertion of the stereotypical Japanese high school student cast, war tensions and universal conscription. I did enjoy the way the male lead ends up turning down better equipment as the series moves on, choosing a beat up trainer mech painted neon orange as his ride throughout. It makes the scenario a little more desperate and human.
That said...I don't really like the cast of characters, particularly on the Earth side. Nothing really changes for them. They are constantly on the run and trying to avoid death at every turn. Most of the character development is experienced through the anti-hero(?) a Earthling boy that ends up living among the Martians. From his view you see the inner workings of the Martian society, and it's where the series gets it's somewhat dark, cynical aura from. That said, the series avoids painting either side as innate good or evil, a trap that has easily doomed many a war anime to first level mediocrity. The Earthling hero suffers from a borderline case of “Too badass to relate to” but constantly being outgunned somewhat compensates for this. I would have liked it a lot more if the series showed us a crack in his shell. I liked his calm, matter-of-fact nature, but after awhile I want to know he's still human. As for everyone else, you can take them or leave them. The princess is dragged around by circumstance. So are the rest. I was going to rate this series significantly lower than I ended up doing mainly because of the ending so far. I'm not going to spoil it, but I think it's worth seeing though to the end.
