I'm a big fan of the anime. It was really well done. One of the few times an adaptation is better than the source. It got memed on for a while because there were a few delays when it was airing. Great music, great mech designs, interesting story.
The problem with 86 in the long run is the long list of cartoon villian tier actions that some of the countries/governments/populace take targeted towards the 86. The LNs are constantly wanking the 86 while everyone else is depicted as room temp IQ retards.
It's great!! The OPs are so hype, the mecha is great, story is really good. I think I liked S1 better though, S2 had some nice moments but I think S1 was more engaging overall.
Still, it's very touching and is one of those series that has a special place in my heart.
I saw it on broadcast, it was entertaining but I felt it was not as impressive as they were promoting it. I understood the message of the show, the heroine is the obvious best girl, but I didn't really like the hero.
I really wanted to like it since it's one of the few mecha anime that has more grounded vehicle designs (especially so non-humanoids), i.e. not sentai shit, but the whole racism plot is so overdone that I couldn't help but space out watching it. Love the designs though.