Egao no Daika is set in the future on another planet, where the population of planet Earth has already ruined the environment and moved on to find another planet to inhabit. The story revolves around two girls, Princess Yuuki Soleil of the Soleil Kingdom and Stella of the Grandiga Empire. Yuuki and Stella, though they come from different backgrounds and answer to different governments, have more in common than just meets the eye. The story follows both of their perspectives throughout a war between the Kingdom of Soleil and the Grandiga Empire, which is one of the show's main plot points. I'm just going to leave the setting at that without spoiling much else, since it'll be better for you to watch for yourself.
What makes the show interesting is how the story unfolds very personally for each of the characters. Many times an episode may start with something that is out of context (and many times even out of chronological order), but the show drops enough clues for viewers to piece together the context, and doing so is often very rewarding in that it leads to organic character development for the cast. While the characters and the story writing aren't the best I've ever seen, they need to be given much more credit than what the ratings on MAL and what the anime community indicates.
The show's portrayal of war is also very intriguing since it shows off the ugliness of the front lines along with the challenges of making the big decisions in the safe (yet comparably stressful) command room. One of Egao no Daika's biggest strengths is opening up an intelligent discourse on the human condition. Especially when it comes to war, it often tries to digest thought-provoking topics when exploring the motivations of front line soldiers that are only pawns in the war, or when a leader needs to weigh their personal ideology against the greater good. The show often calls into question and really evaluates what the greater good should even entail. While Egao no Daika definitely doesn't have the philosophical clout that some other more well-known shows have, what it brings to the table isn't just ideological mumbo-jumbo that some people unfortunately misunderstood it as.
Overall, Egao no Daika is a character driven show that explores intricacies of the human condition using the setting of futuristic war. Futuristic war entails mechs and mecha fights, but you definitely don't need to be a hardcore mecha fan to enjoy the show. I think that at its core, Egao the Daika still tells a character driven narrative that touches over some philosophical questions. If you at all enjoy shows that have very human dialogue and characters or thought-provoking thematic elements, Egao no Daika should be right up your alley. The animation quality and some of the action sequences are already enough to carry the show as is, but the direction of the narrative and the thematic elements posed by the show definitely place it several tiers above your average seasonal rando show. As an anime original production with no source material, Egao no Daika deserves to be recognized for that.
P.S. If you've played Xenoblade Chronicles X, Egao no Daika's setting, characters, and thematic elements are all strikingly similar. Xenoblade Chronicles X is by the far the most slept on Xenoblade Chronicles game that falls under the radar of most of the Xenoblade community. Xenoblade Chronicles X is also my favorite Xenoblade, nay, favorite game of all time. Seeing the parallels between Egao no Daika and Xenoblade Chronicles X (both in their thematic elements and how they're getting largely ignored by their respective communities) is what gave birth to this particular review. I continue to defend Xenoblade Chronicles X from the haters that misunderstand it and didn't even play it, and I'll continue to advocate for Egao no Daika as one of the most underrated shows of the Winter 2019 anime season. Anything is possible with passion and will!
