MSG: Iron-Blooded Warriors first impressions

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>>14992491
It makes sense in a mystery-driven plot not to give out all the details immediately, but it also needs to catch your interest to reel you in and make you want to become invested in the story and characters. Everyone's actions are so vague and disjointed that it is hard to care about anything that is going on.Everything felt like an excuse to have action scenes happen. The only mystery here is where the coveniently-placed Gundam came from and how anyone present at that facility had the resources, knowledge, and expertise to make functionable a centuries-old machine that no-one alive knows how to reproduce.

The plot also suffers from inappropriate tonal-shifts that make it nigh-impossible to determine this anime's level of self-awareness. It rides this awkward line between comedic satire and grimdark, dystopian drama.There are wide gaps of uninteresting dialogue that reveal virtually nothing in service of virtually nothing, it became a task to pay attention to these scenes. It also doesn't help that I couldn't stand almost the entire cast of characters, which I'll get into, now.

Not one of these characters has displayed any depth to them, they are all one-dimensional, cliched, unlikeable, and most-importanly: unrelatable. Apparently, from what I can figure, the primary protagonists are a living weapon and his cool-dude-sterotype handler. Said living weapon seems completely devoid of emotion and does what his handler tells him to do without so-much as a twitch, which includes murder(also has creepy scent-fetish). --->cont. part 3

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>>14992494
Mikazuki is a remorseless mind-slave and I'm not sure what we're supposed to feel for him, other than pity and anger (same basically can be said about every "protagonist" character). He was not "chosen" by the Gundam, but rather he was single-minded enough to risk his life on potentially-fatal augmetic surgeries that made him, literally, the only one capable of piloting it. When at the controls of the Gundam we never get the idea that he is ever in any real danger or that anyone can even pose a challenge. For some reason he is the love-interest of the damsel-in-distress character even though he is an emotionless 'tabula-rasa'. He is unstable, incredibly dangerous, at the helm of an advanced weapon, and at the behest of a teenage boy. Terrifying.

Mikazuki's handler, who's name escapes me, is somehow even-less likeable. Despite his desperate origins he still manages to be this brash, handsome, alpha-tough-guy-teenager who always knows what to say and does unimaginably-risky things that, somehow, turn out more-or-less ok in the end. Everything he says is coated in a thick layer of cheese and he makes me want to punch him every time he opens his stupid mouth. This asshole is no Kamina and feels horribly forced / out-of-place for the setting. --->cont. part 4

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>>14992498
The antagonists are headed by moustache-twirling do-badders who want to do bad things. The only notable baddie was also, ironically, one of the only characters I liked: Crank. He was the only one who seemed to behave like a sane individual and gets brutally murdered for it. After he realized he was fighting child soldiers he retreated out of a sense of morality and honorable integrity. He then gets berated for abandoning the operation and is ordered back to complete his task. Knowing that if he stepped down, someone else would just step-up with a whole brigade of mechs, so he goes alone to minimize loss-of-life. He challenges Mikazuki to an honorable melee duel to settle the matter, but scarcely has the heart to to give it his all because he realizes he'd rather die than kill children. As he sat dying in his ruined mech's cockpit, he gives Mikazuki some heartfelt last words. Last words that Mikazuki cuts short with two consecutive shots from his handgun, followed by sniffing a bracelet a girl gave him in one of the creepiest scenes I've ever sat through.

All the other characters are just props for the stage.

In the end I am left feeling confused and dirty, it was like some kind of fever-dream. I feel like I watched a Japanese mad-man's interpretation of 'Lord of the Flies' and only makes me think of Mobile Suit Gundam in the most superficial way possible.
[[Opinion ends here.]]

Now that I got that out of my system I'd like to ask a few questions that I am genuinely curious to get answers to, for any who feels that they can give a reasoable response.

-What is the general concensus for this anime? (for either Western or Eastern audiences)

-What am I missing? (things I overlooked, cultural boundaries, obscure genre, etc.)

-What was your initial reactions when watching for the first time and your overall opinions of the anime?

-Does the anime change in any significant way beyond the first five episodes?

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What is this, who are you and why should I read this, in that order.

>>14992501
>-Does the anime change in any significant way beyond the first five episodes?
>first 5 episodes.
It gets really really worse after that.
S1 is absolutely shit.
S2 shows some improvements but in the end it doesnt really escape from what made it shit in the first place.

>>14992491
You're kinda one year late goy, everyone know how shitfest the show is back when it aired.

But it didn;t stop the normal anime watchers to praise it as the best gundam series.

Honestly, IMO
They're liking this show just because they didn't understand g-reco and got ass baby blasted when someone told them otherwise. So when IBO was aired a lot of G-Reco haters flock to it despite its apparent flaw and terrible plot while the animation is kinda good on the early episode but got much worse later on.