ART: Being the animated gundam series to succeed Gundam 00 on TV, AGE has received some negative lashes for its "colorful" or "childish" character art. Nagumo Takuzo (video games Inazuma Eleven and Prof. Layton) is responsible for the character art, and it does give off the impression that it wouldn't respect the serious story of the Asuno Family, nor respect the military fiction genre that commonly follows Gundam. While I do feel that way, and while I do think their characters faces and noses sometime look lazy, I think the style accentuate the characters. The mecha art is good, and I enjoy checking out blogs for the toy models. There are a few designers who worked on different previous gundam works such as Wing, X, Crossbone, and even 00, but the gundam AGE itself seems to adopt more from 00. You can't help but see Exia within AGE-1. Except the starcraft, there are little to no CGI used anywhere. That's a plus for me! You can follow the battles easily. Background art, like the forests and building structures of the colony, are well done. The openings are great to watch too.
STORY: AGE is developed for younger watchers to recognize the Gundam product, and to appeal to a wide audience, which I think makes it easy to follow. I thought a storyline about three generations of pilots from the same family was a great idea. Destruction and violence takes place; also, it has features that are orthodox to the previous shows like the Earth Federation and space colonies, a youthful gundam pilot compelled to battle with a super weapon designed by his family, and military personnel and civilians escaping on a spacecraft. Explaining more may be giving out spoilers, but you if you're familiar with the UC series, you can probably point them out while watching AGE. Plus, I think the UE are a cool enemy. Their vicious fighting tactics, and the Federation's helplessness against them, make them interesting to watch. On the other hand however, the story being VERY linear and being unfair to its supporting characters is a negative. Since the storyline is split into three generations, time passes quickly and the seasons are shortened. Plenty of climaxes, but short seasons. This leaves things to have small develop time.
SOUND: Lovely music. The OPs and EDs are a mix of rock and pop. I especially like the opening themes "Asu he" and "SHARP". The ED "My World" is well done too. Voice-wise, Kazuhiko Inoue (Jerid from Z gundam, Gai from ASTRAY) does well as a narrator. Like a grandfather to his grandchildren, his gruff tone relays the setting's tense reality, of generations thrown into chaos by the UE. Along with him, other VA from previous gundam works such as Sakaguchi Daisuke (Usso from Victory Gundam), Yusa Koji (a minor in gundam X), Ono Daisuke (Sven Cal of STARGAZER), Toichi Hiroki (Lasse of 00), Endoh Aya, (Kimie Crossroad in 00), Romi Paku (Loran from Turn A), Suwabe Junichi (Sting of SEED DESTINY), and Kusanoki Taiten appear in the cast. The main characters (Eguchi Takuya, Toyonaga Toshiyuki, Yamamoto Kazutomi) are voiced by more-or-less new VAs but they do well in portraying the boys.
CHARACTER: Like I said, the story is straight-forward. The main characters, as members of the Asuno family, receive the most development. Each season quickly passes by, leaving characters and replacing them before you get to know them well enough. This feels pretty bad when it comes to romantic relationships. One thing that bothers me is that because the gundam is a force to be reckon with, many (not all) side characters are more-or-less insignificant. Also, the antagonists are so vicious in their supposedly "fair goal" that they seem like monsters more than anything.
ENJOY/OVERALL: Simplicity in story, bad direction with some characters. I like the family concept in AGE and the evolution of the gundam. Good music. I think it's a fair show and has the gundam essentials. If this show teaches you anything, don't give in to anger and spite.
