Pretty good ending considering that the show is getting a season. It wraps up the effects of the election, where it puts Tekkadan and Kudelia, and sets pieces in motion for next season. It kind of sucks that they took back some stuff from last episode but I'm relatively OK with that.
McGillis is cold-blooded as fuck. This guy has to be the most one of the most devilish Char clones so far, lol. I also laughed a bit when Atra and Kudelia were head-patting Mika at the end. I did really like that they had Kudelia giving the younger kids homework to do on their trip home. Nice little thing to be consistent.
There are some areas I'd like them to explore more in-depth in Season 2 like the Turbines, if they have time. I find it interesting that they're essentially the same type of group as Tekkadan. I also really hope they take the man-machine thread and develop it well while they're working on the Tekkadan story. It seems to be the core of the upcoming conflict.
Can't really understand why people were down on this, I thought it was great, although it was my first Gundam. I loved how relatively grounded the series was, the political element really elevated it for me. That and Mikazuki.
Are other Gundam series as good or better than this? Where's a good place to start?
It really boils down to what they want out of a Gundam show more than anything. I know quite a few Gundam fans that watch purely for the action. So IBO isn't enjoyable to them because of that. Then you have individual complaints that crop up here and there.
IBO is an outlier in the Gundam franchise in a lot of ways. It doesn't focus as much on the action and spends more time on its characters. Even the way they focus on the characters is pretty different. The political element isn't at the core of the story either. It's meant more to move the story along and as such, they don't really explore the topics touched upon too much. So, depending on why you like IBO, the other Gundam shows might not fit for you as well.
Wow Ein seriously, you were supposed to be a huge threat and you couldn't even do that right. Although it's great that Lafter and Shino lived. How did Azee live?
God damn chocolate loli, Gaelio was legitimately the best character in the series (the only one with any real development too).
Does anyone else get the feeling that Shun is role playing Ein, just with out the murder.
It was blood-colored oil!