Valvrave The Liberator
What a hidden gem of a show, it's a shame the Gundam franchise missed this golden opportunity, they probably missed out on billions of dollars, but then maybe it is another rejected scrpt for SEED, because this is obviously a Gundam script. The best part about this show are the characters, even very minor characters like the space US president who is a coward when push comes to shove, but have realistic motivations when making decisions, like political popularity and national interest. It is quite a miracle a mere 24-episode show manages to completely develop so many great characters, the writing on display is simply top-tier. The biggest problem with the show are basically all due to it not being Gundam, the idea of the vampire Newtype is goofy and dumb, and there seems to be some missing arcs in the second half, probably because of time/budgetary constraints.
The mech design is also a weak point, like many other non-Gundam mech shows, you just have the same model being copy pasted with small tweaks and swapped color scheme, although more effort than usual has certainly been put into this show, as the alternate equipment do look and function very differently. There are also other goofy aspects like the space habitat much of the story takes place in, has no engines so they have to get off and use the mech to push it along. You really have to suspect, maybe that's just because they didn't have the time and money to custom design some kind of school on a space ship, so they had to just go with a generic hexagon dome thing.
It is the characters that define this show, they are so great, each one has to be among the top of that respective archetype. Take Shouko for example, the "love interest" of the protagonist, she is so smart, brave and assertive, she pushes the plot probably more than the protagonist does. This is one of the strongest love interests of all time even though she's not a combatant and she is not invulnerable, when her emotional strength is finally pushed to the breaking point, it made for some of the best moments in the show, which I absolutely cannot talk about. This is a very mature character and writing practice because despite being the love interest, she doesn't go on a date with Haruto, they don't kiss, they don't have valentine or even love confession, instead they share and develop things true long-term relationships require, which is trust. That's the writing of a top tier love interest.
Shouko has a competing love interest Saki, another amazing character. Unlike trashy love triangle shows where they get jealous because they accidentally see the other couple kissing or otherwise being intimate. Saki and Haruto also share some important bonds, but they are constantly troubled by the moral weight of actions and consequences. Yes, deep down Saki is jealous of Shouko but even that's made into a very clever scene relating to the final battle and true secrets of the Valvrave mechs, which I also can't talk about.
L-Elf is space batman, he is Lelouch and Suzaku rolled into one, he can do anything, get out of any situation and predict every move of his opponents. It does get goofy at times, but it isn't trash power fantasy, instead it's a great plot device the show uses to compress time. The fights get resolved a certain way because L-Elf is badass yes, but that doesn't matter because the fight is really about the story and development of a certain character, once that job is done, the mechanics of the fight no longer matters. This is why bad shows often have boring big fights, because fights in stories should be "about" certain themes and ideas, and not just mechs shooting each other, this show understands that very well and makes great use of the limited length it has. This is not to say L-Elf is just a walking plot device, his relationship with the protagonist and his squad mates are likewise amazing, very well developed.
This show is just so full of amazing characters and there's so many of them for a 24-episode series, I will just say one more, there's this hacker girl which you've seen a thousand times in other shows but this one is just better than most of them. The writing around Akira is yet another display of excellent writing, nobody wastes screen time with exposition of who she is because the students in the school all know, it's only the audience who doesn't know. So things just happen naturally and we don't learn the proper context until later on when it is appropriate to reveal their relationship.
By the way I say this is 24-episodes because it is, seasons 1 and 2 are inseparable, it basically makes no sense for this to be in 2 seasons. There's no conclusion of any kind at the end of episode 12, it just keeps going.
My advice is don't read the synopsis, all that Dyson sphere stuff is BS nonsense and luckily, they don't matter for the story at all. If you think the vampires are goofy, I guess just pretend they're Newtype because that's basically what they are, just go with it and focus on the characters. I would argue this show is just as well written as Code Geass, it is just a bit rushed in the second half to the point of missing a few small developments. At some point I became afraid to continue watching just like I had been with Code Geass, because the characters felt so real and the consequences of their actions so real, that I just became afraid to see what bad things would happen next. There's a moment of absolute despair like in Code Geass R2, and that roller coaster ride turned out to be just as wild.
