>>283408285 (OP)
R1 and R2 will remain as classics and anyone who watches them today is going to go “oh fuck, the themes of this series deal with the exact tyranny, bigotry and genocide that dominates our news.” Anyone who has studied OG Gundam and the mecha formulae will see it and go “oh, they’re using THAT setup here” while ogling the knightmare frame porn, startup sequences, launches, upgrades, special tools, mech damage and destruction, etc. Anyone who watched Deathnote and knows about how popular that became will go “he’s just like Light fr fr” and then be shocked when Lulu gets multiple development arcs and changes significantly as a person multiple times.
There are even rewards for rewatching it, especially R1, because some of the motivations and backstories weren’t even revealed from the start. It hits different the second time when you know why Suzaku is so fucked up.
CC will always be best girl (but everyone will have a soft spot for Kallen because she’s a freedom fighter who also gets a lot of character development)