The characters are nothing special and fit pretty neatly into age-old cliches. The main character is a farm-boy, who (lacking the "magical" powers that everyone else has) is the only one that can pilot an ancient and especially powerful mecha. He's likeable enough, and he is willing to change his I-won't-kill-anyone attitude in the face of war, so that's something.
There's a queen that has the hots for him despite her being married to the king, and he has friends on both sides of a conflict.
The fights are fun, and the whole series had provided some beautiful eye-candy.
The mechanics of the world and the magic system are not well-explained. The plot is straight-forward, and the scripts is nothing spectacular.
What I really can't stand is the fan-service. The outfits that many of the women wear are ridiculous. The queen walks around all day with her panties showing, and the anime takes every opportunity to show us her naked body. And then there are the lolis. Why oh why is there a twelve year old with gigantic tits fighting on the front-lines of a war? I was really hoping that she would die off quickly, but instead *another* annoying loli is added. She claims to be twenty-five but doesn't look like she's graduated middle school. Both seem to be around for the long haul. I might have given this anime an 8 instead of a 7 if not for these two insufferable characters.
