Haven't watched a new Gundam series in about a decade, not since Seed Destiny really soured me on the franchise & 00 wasn't looking particularly great.
However, playing a really terrible Gundam game lately (Gundam Vs.) did manage to get me in the mood to watch something from that series again, so I decided to try out Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans - Season 1.
Having finished the season, I'm really digging this one. Gundam is a franchise that relishes its tropes, and this one seems to be going out of its way to not hit as many of them as usual (and openly mock others). Honestly, with its focus on a lot of gritty tank & ship warfare and relatively little mobile suit combat, it actually gives me a very 8th MS Team-esque feel. The Gundams are relics from a 300-year old war, so they're few & far between.
The story surrounds a team of child soldiers who have been implanted with devices that allow them to interface with mecha through their spine & brain, without extensive training & knowledge. After getting screwed-over by their adult overlords, they stage a coup & basically end up starting their own private military organization. Their goal? To escort the leader of a local resistance movement from Mars to Earth to argue for Mars' independence.
The show follows this group's journey from Mars to Earth & beyond as they try to fight off pirates, the Earth military, and constant political machinations from both their allies & their enemies. In fact, I think what looks like the villain of season 2 is one of the best the series has ever done, perfectly puppet-mastering all the pieces on the board into moving himself into power without making it look like a last-second "gotcha" (which Seed Destiny was guilty of, IIRC).
There's a sense of sheer brutality to this show that really clicks with me. Beam weaponry doesn't exist, and resources are relatively scarce so battles often revolve around trickery & the use of several different groups of fighters (mobile suits, ships, footsoldiers, etc). The combat usually comes down to tanks blowing each other up while the mobile suits try to bash each other to death with glorified clubs & spears. Characters seem to die fairly regularly so far, something Gundam usually reserves for the end of the show.
Season 2 comes out on BluRay next month, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this story goes. I hear the ultimate ending is outstanding.