Kyoukai Senki

 Made by Sunrise, this series could just as well been a Gundam series.

The art, the story, the mecha design... superb stuff.

The story takes place in 2061, with Japan on the edge of total destruction.  In a world ran by human and AI controlled mecha as troops, the country is divided in four conflicting area's.  Amou Shiiba is a technology scavenger who one day stumbles upon the sentient AI called Gai.  Due to circumstances, he ends up labelled a terrorist and cast out.  While being cornered, another mecha like his appears, taking out he military suits.

The mech is piloted by Gashin, and he is approached by his comrades, wanting to restore Japan to it's old state.  As the rebels camp is attacked, Amou joins in the defence, teaming up with Gashin to fend off a mysterious AMAIM dubbed "Ghost".  After the battle, Amou hides his suit, taking Gai with him.

Amou goes in search of ms Risa's relatives, a girl he got to know in the resistance camp and fell during the battle.  When the corrupt deputy governor deports Mr Nose and young Hina, people he got to know during his search in Risa's hometown, Amou goes in search of them.  He collects Kenbu, and hunts down the deputy governor, exposing him for human trafficing.

When the city is under attack, a third AMAIM shows up in the same build like Kenbu and Jogan, called Reiki and fighting in a close combat swordsman style.  It quickly takes out the attackers, afterwards rendez-vousíng with Amou and Gashin, and revealing it's pilot, Shion.  They learn the AIMAM's and especially their AI's, seemingly where develloped by the same mysterious person.

The North American military sets a trap to capture Ghost using an elite team, but as it learns how to combat them, it manages to escape.  In the meantime, the Russians are invading an area of japan and our heroes have to stand against a commander that values quantity over quality with their three battesuits.  But using their knowledge of the land, they quickly even the numbers, facing the commanders of the force and while sparing them, overcoming the invasion.

 

 

Ghost keeps ravaging the enemy though, and the NAC troops prepare another action to capture it, seemingly accidentaly leaking this to Maou and Gashin during an onsen visit. But Ghost has evolved, pushing the AIMAM's back easily.  The NAC plans to swoop in, aiming not only as they said the Ghost, but also the three AIMIM suits. Amou goes to great lengths with his friends to destroy Ghost, with Gai ready to bring the ultimate sacrifice.

A truly good series for a mecha lover like me, and the suits looked awesome as well, both the manned as the automated grunt ones.  Like I said at the beginning, add some blue to Kenbu and you have a perfectly fitting Gundam series with the needed political factions and all.

Now to wait for the second season, so yeah, you know our hero survives due to that fact, but it doesn`t make the finale any less intense.