First let's start with the GOOD: From what I'm aware, This series is said to be a stand-alone in the Gundam universe, meaning no other previous Gundam series or manga ties into this at all. This gives the developers complete freedom to create something new and different. With that they created some fantastic mecha designs, particularly the ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos.
The Barbatos is much different than previous Gundam designs and it really shows some out-of-the-box thinking in giant robot construction and movements. As someone who thinks that hand-to-hand combat in giant robots is a bit silly, they actually did a decent job with how Barbatos uses it's Mace. The Graze-type mobile suits are also well executed and certainly look the part of a mech designed for space combat as they are covered with vernier thrusters in parts of the body that actually make sense for practical movement in zero-gravity. The artwork is quite consistent in the theme towards it's outlook of the characters and their surroundings not to mention some of the soundtracks including the opening of the first season Raise your Flag is great, Unfortunately this is about it for the "good" parts of this series.
Onto the BAD: As previously stated, this is a stand-alone series, meaning the developers had every opportunity to branch out from the horribly over-used concept of a hilariously young protagonist that has no business piloting the most dangerous (and likely the most expensive) military asset in the galaxy.
And..Sigh....here we are once again with the same tired old story of some kid being handed a Gundam without question and what a surprise, he needed no training to beat anyone and everyone with no effort. This has never been believable in any mecha anime I've seen and heard about
(let alone any anime) and personally I think it ruins the story and shows just how awful/non-creative modern mecha anime gets.
Moving on to the paper-thin characters. You have the token permanent-angry-look-on-his-face-disgruntled-child protagonist. His purple-haired buddy that looks 30-years old despite somehow still being a "kid". A litter of siblings that help them named Biscuit, Cracker, and Cookie (you can't make this garbage up) that really serve no purpose in the story. Another pretty girl or royalty that hangs out with them. Your token feminine bad guy and his even more feminine right-hand man (why do they always make the bad guys out to seem gay?).
I'm not going to get into all the other laughably bad characters that show up later in the series but just be prepared for one horrible hair style after another. Not to mention the fact that this story follows a group of completely uneducated kids (they literally can't even read or write) that can somehow manage to pilot mobile suits they've never set foot in before, run and maintain giant space ships, and somehow they are able to (without any resources or experience whatsoever) develop advanced weaponry from scratch for the Barbatos. How do they even read the HUD and control screens in their mobile suits if they can't read??
Utter nonsense.
I'm sorry but with the half-hearted animation wasn't a big enough giveaway that this series is cheaply shown, then any self-respecting human being would pick up on that fact after just a couple episodes.
Even if I'm not the biggest Mecha fan, I can at least hope the show throughout my viewing at least represented in it's anethestics and not of this half assed military attempt with the Gundam title slapped on the front of it. It almost look like any show of these many Genre can get away with doing this and just feels like those are the only required standards.
This series was recommended to me for getting into a modern day Mecha anime but this is just another money-grab designed to prey on "otaku" that just automatically loves any new anime because, well, simply because they identify as "otaku". Here's to hoping they branch out form this nonsense in future Gundam series. And please, PLEASE, for the sake of the mecha genre, please make the next protagonist a GROWN man or better yet a woman who is actually believable for the situation.
If you need an example of good character design in a mecha series check out Macross Plus. In fact Macross Plus was also condensed into a movie which is arguably better than the series. It contains a bit better telling of the story, the animation is superb, the characters are great, and best of all: no children. Yes I understand that this review is about a series called "Iron Blooded ORPHANS", but adults without parents are still called orphans Too as well duh.
This series didn't need to be about kids and it really ruined what little story there was to begin with. Personally I wouldn't even recommend this series to the most die-hard mecha fans. Perhaps it might suit well for casuals of the genre but who knows? I personally would Just get yourself a Barbatos model kit, marvel at its design, and imagine a much better series than the one they actually gave us here.
