The 08th MS Team turned out quite epic in the end; pretty much Shingu and Stellvia level of epic.

Norris is my favourite character. He lived well and died well, and is a good role model. I'd love to be Norris when I grow up. Ginyas though... gives us engineers a bad name really. Bad creators, no cookie. The main couple managed well, although Shiro was sort of simple. Aina masterfuly navigated her conflicting interests. The way love makes a woman stronger was played to perfection too. An inspired and powerful performance on merits, but somehow didn't grab me personally.

The biggest issue with the show is that it takes 5 episodes out of 11 to line things up, starts moving in ep.6, and only gets into awesome in the second half.

Liked: Yes
Rewatch: No

P.S. Oh, yes, the mecha question. Now that I think about it, there was some mecha in the show too. I seem to recall some in Vandread as well, and heck, it was far more magical there.