Anime A beautiful trainwreck.
Reconguista is perhaps one of the prettiest Gundam series I have seen, plenty of vibrant colors and interesting and lovable mobile suit designs. And it is all complemented by an equally beautiful soundtrack as well as an interesting premise.
Unfortunately, that's where my positives end. Everything else in this show falls flat on it's face. Starting with the plot itself I almost feel inclined to say "what plot?". It comes of as more of a bunch of loosely stringed together event's that is desperate to tell a narrative. And it is all further hampered by plot points that either pop up out of nowhere or never get's anywhere. And it all leads to finale that ends in one massive Anti-Climax.
Another point against the plot are the constant leaps in logic, and sometimes outright absence of it (the Kuntala origins especially comes to mind.) and seemingly lack of even basic intelligence.
The characters don't make things any better. They feel less like characters (in fact they feel less than even stereotypes) and more like scattered single personality concepts that are simply along for the ride. Bellri is the epitome of Never My Fault and Victim Blaming, Aida wouldn't even be able to hit the broadside of a barn and Mask gotta be one of the biggest blowhard Char Clone's since Chronicle. And that's before I get into my problems with Klim. As a whole they just come of as hollow, empty and annoying.
Another problem with the characters is that there is a whole lot of them. New characters are constantly introduced only to be forgotten moments later.
Finally are the constant use of Ass Pull's, Non Sequitur's and Deus ex Machina. As mentioned before some plot points come strait out of nowhere and dialogue that simply comes of as riveting and nonsensical. And then there is the Exposition Dump's, dear god the Exposition Dump's.
All in all this just leads to a show that fails to build neither excitement nor intrigue and as a whole becomes flat out boring as a result. I really wanted to like this show, especially after Turn A Gundam which I consider one of Tomino's more decent works, but I guess in the end it simply wasn't meant to be.
Anime Gorgeous, yet Incoherent.
G-Reco is a show let down by it's own ambition. It is blatantly unable to convey the complexity of its plot in the allotted 26 episodes, and requires extensive background reading to be understood with any degree of accuracy.
However, despite this, G-Reco manages to be one of the more engaging entries into the Gundam franchise in recent memory. It accomplishes this by, wait for it... having actual characters.
A serious issue with shows like Age, 00 and Try Fighters was that their characters were frankly boring, with little actual development or chemistry between them in the majority of cases. G-Reco manages to present the audience with a pleasantly engaging cast that are delightfully nuanced. The show understands that a bit of levity now and then is superior to ten episodes spent explaining why an emotionless brick of a lead character came to be the totally uninteresting person he is today. G-Reco managed to make me care about it's characters, something 00, Try, Zeta & Wing often failed at.
The major issue that keeps G-Reco merely 'good' as opposed to 'excellent' is the plot, which could be likened to an over-stuffed fridge that buries anybody opening it under a mountain of expired meat, furry cheese and the occasional squishy tomato. The script point-blank refuses to stop introducing new characters and factions, none of which have adequately explained motivations or backstories. G-Reco desperately needed a 50-episode run to even come close to making a setup like this work, and they failed miserably with only 26.
All that said, the show still has a lot to recommend. For one thing, it's gorgeous. The CGI and animation is top-notch, with combat scenes filled with glorious particle effects and a total absence of stock footage. The color palette is also spectacularly vibrant, with scenes on earth taking place in and around beautiful jungles, forests and islands. Even the space colonies are pure eye-candy, totally disregarding the dour 'used future' aesthetic of past shows. As an art student, G-Reco made me drool.
In conclusion, G-Reco is great - IF you can tolerate the incoherent plot. Tomino perfectly recaptures the character balance present in his previous masterpiece; Turn A. If you liked that show, you'll probably like this.