I went into this with no expectations and was surprised to find superior animation, fully-fleshed-out characters, good symbiosis with their robots, and truly nasty and difficult-to-defeat monsters. For Kaiju fans, this will be a winner.
The one nagging question I had throughout (and thus the 8 stars instead of better)... where the blazes is the rest of the military? There are no tanks, no fighter planes, no missiles... nothing but a handful of comes-from-nowhere UNARMED alien robots (which have to be armed by the humans) to help the humans fight these giga-monsters from outer space? The lack of any other military is a major flaw here, with no reason whatsoever given for that lack.
The plot and animation are considerably superior to most giant-robot fare, the characters well-developed, and it had both a primary plot and mini-plots within. Each character had their own story, their own hangups, and their own growth through the series. I'm a real stickler when it comes to having a valid plot and story... and was totally satisfied with this series.
I binge-watched the first season (all 9 episodes) in one day and am looking forward to season 2, if there is one. There should be.
