So, I watched the first three episodes. It's.....ok. Steadily improving as it goes along, I think. The show looks nice with some good action scenes; the landing sequence from episode 1 is still a highlight, and episode 3's plan is executed rather well. Nothing terribly inventive, but more than enough to impress. I like the mech design because it mixes two of the things I like: I'm actually a fan of the functional, mass-produced military stuff, which we get. But I also like mechs that just look weird, which we get from the Martian ones with the big purple mech and that laser-shooting white mech. Not a fan of the character designs; they seem a bit bland and kind of "soft" for the material.
What lets the show down a bit is the writing. I did expect the exposition to be worse than it was with Fate/Zero's first episode being the way it is. It's not terrible, but it is noticeable. However, it's something that'll probably be gone from the show eventually and it's already mostly confined to that initial first episode, so I can let it slide (though the explanations did go on longer than they needed to in the third). Another issue is the predictable plotting, but so far it seems more like they're setting up the premise and planning to go somewhere else with it rather than treating "THE PRINCESS IS ALIVE!" and "YOU KILLED THE PRINCESS!" as these shocking, pivotal moments. Again, not a huge complaint.
The characters are where I have the most problems. Maybe I'm just more annoyed than usual since I just came out of Knights of Sidonia having witnessed some of the blandest people imaginable, but it bothers me that I can't really think of anything terribly distinctive about this cast. I think you can pretty much take bets as to when the main character's other friends and sister will die, and the fact that the guy is an emotionless husk is irritating. The show is clearly going somewhere with it, but the promise of character development to come doesn't necessarily mean I enjoy what's currently onscreen. Inaho being the guy who makes the badass plans helps a bit. At the moment I think the only character I can really latch onto is the Jaded Veteran, and that's more because I have a soft spot for that sort of character more than anything else. The villains so far are over-the-top and cartoonish, which is annoying. I was hoping we'd get some interesting viewpoints from a lot of different factions (especially when it was mentioned that the Martian dudes aren't necessarily allied with each other), but now it just seems like it'll end up as Mars vs. Earth rather than Mars vs. Mars vs. Mars vs. Mars vs. Mars vs. Earth.
So, yeah. Like I said, it's ok. I think it'll probably keep improving, but I want to see some actual character development and more interesting material on the Mars front. I hope it stays tactical and we don't just end up with the Earth kids commandeering a Martian mech to wreck some shit.