Jeric Rocamora

You can tell a lot of money was spent on different angled shots of the same scene plus illutrated backdrops that are ultimately unnecessary, and drag out the story... To the point that the animation of the actual Gundams have been tossed aside and streamlined through CG. I would give it a pass, since it's a generally different technique they are just trying out considering the advancements in 3D anime-style animation made in the past decade... BUT it really just feels completely unsatisfying when the Gundams finally get screentime. The battle that takes place in the middle of the story is actual much better animated than the fight between the Gundams - it takes place over an urban environment, and it feels like proper care was taken with lighting and featuring the mobile suits. The battle between the Gundams however, takes place over a flat plane of ocean that seems to not care about the effects of the giant masses of metal flying above it, and in addition to that - the lighting on the mobile suits themselves at this point is TERRIBLE and the angles chosen for the shots do not give you a chance to even visually comprehend the designs of the suits... To be honest, if someone showed me clips of that battle without the 1 close-up shot they did on the Gundam's heads, I would not be able to tell they were even Gundams in the first place. All-in-all, it seems like most of the animation budget was blown on the lead female character, and the Gundams just got the standard, "CG will make it easy," treatment instead of being handled with proper care. I kid you not, there is a like a 2 second sequence of the female character approaching a salad bar that is some of the most beautiful hand drawn animation I've ever seen... but the Gundams? There's no contrast, no direction, no soul to the scenes where they are featured...