Chilling episode, but the series itself still feels like it's piggy-backing on show like Attack on Titan or Akagame ga Kill for popular appeal ~ bleakness, post-apocalyptic world etc. It's been a while since an anime has had the resolve to kill characters in cold blood; and "child" violence at that. With the next episode entitled, "The Price of Life" I'm really hoping that Iron Blooded Orphans moves in a direction that values life a bit more to provide some contrast.

Gundam is a series that has a pretty acute habit of desensitizing viewers to violence because of the mecha/mobile-suit combat and it's cool to see this series return, if only temporarily, to the people vs. people rather than mecha vs. mecha. The duel between Crank and Mikazuki fit more w/ the commanders personality than the more bleak themes of the show. So, regardless of the "Calamity War" I hope that duels aren't something that characterize this show. They seem too "kind".

I'm still hoping that the show gets a bit darker because invincible protagonists aren't particularly engaging or satisfying to watch. It was cool to see Mikazuki kiss or put some faith in his bracelet, but the whole battle hardened martian appeal is evaporating fast for me. Granted I suppose this is going to be a 26 episode season, probably (2) 13 episodes halves, so we probably won't see anything particularly eventful up until episode 8 or 9. I'd really like to see some actual adversity where they have to make some meaningful sacrifices.

It's kind of hard for me to care about characters other than Mikazauki, Orga or Kudelia because they seem rather flat so far. Character development feels a bit wanting/lacking, but again, it's only been (03/26) projected episodes. Lot of the characters seem to fit the traditional gundam sorts of support character molds; as in fairly simple, straight-forward and easy to read.

Overall looking like a good show, but I guess as far as Gundam goes, I appreciated Zeta more than anything else.