I kept wanting to like this anime, but after the first few episodes, it was just a huge let-down that I ended up not being able to justify my time with.
The first two episodes are really great and a completely misleading setup to what the majority of the remaining anime entails. These two episodes are dramatic, tragic, and have great impact. I was so excited to keep watching, thinking I'd found a hidden gem of some kind in Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse.
I was quickly disabused of this notion. The following series of episodes changed perspective both literally and figuratively. Gone were the raging hordes of monstrous aliens hellbent on human destruction, and suddenly present was every garden-variety anime trope you could come up with.
The whiplash was brutal and unwelcome in my case. Female characters who initially seemed confident and independent were quickly relegated to roles of fanservice (eye-candy), and "damsels in distress" for the male lead to rescue from ridiculous situations (like a sprained ankle, falling on a piece of glass, or being ganged up on by a group of rapey upstarts).
The promising female lead that starts it off is sidelined and put in second place in almost every way in less than 5 episodes, after which she suddenly develops feelings for the male lead despite there being clear animosity between them before that point. I sympathized with the male lead for several episodes because he, too, was suspicious and confused about her abrupt change in character.
The only apparent reason given for her behavior swap is because she recognizes the protagonist's TSF-piloting skills after he manages a hit on her in a 1v1. After this happens, she starts blushing intermittently in all their following interactions as if that's all the reason she could need to fall for the guy. You hardly ever see her piloting a mech again, other than in flashbacks, for more than half of the anime (and maybe the whole lot of it; I can't say since I am not going to finish this).
To put this anime in perspective, here's an example:
At one point, in the aftermath of a mild incident that gets them temporarily stranded in their bathing suits on a small island, the male protagonist asks the two main female leads: "What would you two have done if I wasn't there?" as if two battle-hardened elite soldiers would have been completely helpless to paddle a boat and walk across a beach on their own without him. But they go along with his attitude, and afterwards are ordered by their superiors to submit themselves as models in a bikini photoshoot as punishment for their misadventure (which the male protagonist, of course, does not have to participate in even though he was party to said mishap).
I kept hoping this would turn back into a badass mech anime with deep, tragic themes and a meaningful cast of characters, but it ended up being just another piece of fluff, complete with a pseudo-harem, a pointless tournament (in the middle of an alien apocalypse, mind you), and a bikini beach episode. I am willing to bet there's a hot spring in the next 9 episodes, if I could be bothered to endure it. The only reason this anime seems to exist is for the express purposes of depicting anime girls in tight jumpsuits, showing off giant robots with big guns, and boosting the male lead's already oversized ego (and all those who identify with him).
As such, it's a pretty standard anime of little noteworthiness in a deceptively decorative package.
P.S. There was indeed a hot spring episode.
