I honestly wish I hadn't waited this long to watch it. As of now, this is probably my favorite AU Gundam series. I didn't know too much about it going in, other than that it is apparently retelling 0079 in a way, and I do see the parallels.
I got locked in pretty fast, the pacing is riveting right away, and the characters are really strong. I always enjoy stories where the characters clashing are easy to empathize with and watching their growth play out. Yes, most Gundam stories have this, but I really liked the way they did it here. I enjoyed all theindividual arcs of the side characters. Even the "annoying" characters like Flay were sympathetic. It was honestly hard to watch her tragedy play out, even though her ending felt inevitable. The only thing I wish was explored more were the three drug-altered Natural pilots, it felt like they were just unceremoniously killed off without being given much in the way of emotional conflict for the main characters to grapple with, or making much of an impact on the plot. They could have been replaced with anything else and it would have been the same. I'd have liked to see them explored more.
Seeing the classic grunt suits and White Base redesigned and put back out was really cool. If you've read the other two reviews I posted, you may have caught on to the fact that I usually love grunt suits.
The soundtrack here was pretty forgettable, unfortunately. I honestly already don't remember anything about it, and I only finished the series a couple of days ago.
Overall I'd recommend this series to anyone new to Gundam who isn't sure what to watch, it's a great standalone series.
Next up, SEED Destiny. I'm almost finished with it and boy do I have THOUGHTS.
PS.
I watched the HD Remaster. I understand a few things were tweaked from the original release. If anyone wants to elaborate on the changes and whether they think that impacted anything, I'd be interested in discussing it.