Majestic Prince - Episode 13-24 (End)
I watched the first 18 episodes of this way back when it was airing, but for one reason or another it fell into the backlog and I never bothered finishing it. Decided to catch up but I couldn't remember anything that happened after the mid-series climax and the PR events the team did during their off time, so I continued from ep13 instead. It was a pretty good ride.
First off, I'll say that Majestic Prince is a very classical sort of mecha series. It's about a team of pilots who grow together, learn to live with each other's quirks, learn teamwork, and has humanity facing an unknown alien force which they start to understand as the war progresses. The series isn't super serious, but I feel it does earn the emotional moments well because it doesn't play the audience like a fool. Things are done straight, and how you feel about a death or a tense moment depends on whether you gave a shit about the characters involved - the show doesn't force emotions on you and isn't manipulative. I guess part of that is the Reiko Yoshida touch. There are certainly moments written to allow the audience to reflect, but only if they want to.
I liked the progression of the second half of the series. It was assembled in a very neat but satisfying way. You have the new hotshot pilot introduced, a major boss fight with a named villain, some down time with funny stuff, a secret mission with heavy sacrifice that leads directly into the endgame, and a final confrontation that totally delivers on the action front. It's well plotted and while the character animation gets pretty iffy from time to time, and the overall direction of the series is super unambitious, I don't feel that the show is cheating me of anything. It's a fun mecha show with great action.
What I find most interesting is that I care more for these characters than I do in something which is far better produced like God Eater. The two shows actually share a number of character arcs too - the main characters are told they are "doomed" if they keep fighting with their special power, the setting is an oppressive war where humanity faces annihilation from a superior primal enemy force, the adults are all forced to take advantage of children to turn the tide of the war. Yet even though Majestic Prince is less serious, has Hiraifaces everywhere, and probably a quarter of the animation budget outside of the CG, I find myself more convinced that the people in MJP could be real people, with real lives, real hopes, real dreams, and when they say something stupid, it resonates.
In terms of CG, Orange really went all out with the action here. I can see a lot of what they did in Akito the Exiled being applied to the choreography of the action too. The melee scenes in particular are really cool to watch especially when they're using everything they have - chainsaws, swords, knives, etc and actually impaling the enemies during fights rather than missing or clashing blades. Watching them use teamwork to pin stronger enemies down before finishing them off is always super satisfying.
So yeah, I think anyone interested in watching a tradition mecha show which leans towards Super in the action but has the setting of a Real in the narrative should definitely check this show out. It's not trying to be different or deep, but is very enjoyable on a base level, and the execution is very competent. The music was pretty good too, but I do feel it hams it up a bit too much with the themes. Just a personal preference there though.