Few people may read this review as it's almost literally at the bottom of the heap of reviews written for this series. But I have to get my opinion out there. this anime is way too overhyped.
It does a lot of good things. It's strong points include the overall story, the character development, the (very) atmospheric music, the artwork and the design of the world. In fact, up until episode 20 or so I really thought I had come across a masterpiece worthy of a 10/10 rating. I even considered going and downgrading some of my other anime because this one raised the bar for me.
-- SPOILERS BEGIN -- Warning: Rant mode = ON
And then the anime brought out all its negatives. The series conclusion is stale, generic and a cliche of mecha anime that really has no place in a project of this ambition, that is otherwise quite unique and well-thought out. The ending is lazy writing at best; uninspired insipid plagiarism at its worst. The villain was well-thought out and her defeat is due to several deus-ex machinae that really frustrated me. I marathoned this anime and expected a good conclusion because the beginning was good and the story progression was stellar. For the anime to let me down at the 20 episode mark was horribly disheartening.
I was even a bit impressed by how the MC had managed to choose between the two girls who vie for his attention. Right at the end I'm given a cliched harem rom-com situation that I never expected. Why? Just why?
The music which usually fit the mood of each episode really deteriorated towards the ending as well. All in all, the ending threw off the anime from a masterpiece to a cringe-fest.
--End of SPOILERS --
This was a good anime and is worth watching but the ending is aggravatingly mediocre.
