Welcome to "Military Space Politics - The Anime!"
I understood what the show was trying to do in the beginning. It started off with a good opening battle, and then pushed out all the backstory so that it could focus on the WAR in the end. But just because it's understandable doesn't mean it's a good way of telling a story. The story was actually the WORST part of this anime. It was just.. mediocre. The beginning was way too slow and progressed in this most BASIC way possible, solely relying on the nice art and -anticipation- of "EPIC" space battles to keep the viewers interested. Perhaps the beginning would've been more interesting if it was fleshed out, and a proper amount of time was spent building up an enjoyable cast of characters... But that's not what this anime did. The whole thing felt rushed, which makes sense because this should've been a 24 episode anime at least.
Thanks to the rushed story-line, and just some bad writing, the only really likeable characters are the two main protagonists. All the other characters exist ONLY to further the protagonists' story-lines. The other characters have no real depth to themselves. You don't feel for them at all. You feel even LESS, somehow, for the cast of basic stock characters that get slaughtered in huge space battles. In my humble opinion, the anime would've meant so much more if it spent time building up each general similar stories, such as Kingdom, tend to do.
Taking a break from the story for a second: the art in this anime is rather good, and it's the main reason why I wanted to watch this instead of the ancient OVA that people go on in praise about. The sound is also rather good, and I especially enjoy the opening.
Now! Back to the story:
The latter half of the anime was a major disappointment. I figured the beginning would pay off, since they at least got all the backstory out of the way so they could focus on some cool space battles and strategies -- but that isn't what they do. Instead, they dedicate most of this anime's run-time to politics and mostly pointless talking. The high command, on both sides, is so hilariously dumb you wonder how they even got into their positions in the first place. Prepare to feel aggravated when no one listens to the basic logic from the protagonist, and instead goes with a screaming maniac who literally seizures randomly when he gets frustrated. Seriously, there is no justification for the guy being in the military.
After watching politics for 80% of the anime, you finally get the big hyped up space battle in the final episode of the anime... kinda. In reality, you only get part of it because it ends on a cliffhanger. Even in the final episode, most of the time is spent on everything BUT cool strategies and tactics. There are a few CGI space battles, talking between characters that you don't care about, politics, and then... Possibly three total minutes of the content you'd actually expect from this anime.
Overall this anime was a complete disappointment. I rated it 5 (which is rather low for my standards, as a 7 is supposed to be average for me) because it did have some good qualities, and I REALLY wanted to like it, but unfortunately it just didn't come through. Hopefully next season is better, if they manage to produce one.
If there is no season two, do NOT watch this anime!
Story: 3
Art: 8
Sound: 8
Character: 5
Enjoyment: 6
Overall: 5
