I re-watched all of Buddy Complex and remembered why I liked it. It's, in my opinion, a fairly underrated entry in the mecha genre, but it supports a surprisingly diverse and well built cast of characters around a plot that doesn't try to extend itself too far. As is seen in the first half of the first episode, the show does use time travel, and by the end of the 13 episode season, it does a piss poor job explaining all the related elements that made the time travel really matter. Thankfully, there is a two episode continuation that was made that acts as the official ending to the anime, and that wraps things up well enough, albeit definitely rushed, to create a satisfactory ending.
Unfortunately, although time travel created some of the strong points of the show, it also ended up leaving several unexplained matters by the end that were questions largely created in the last ten minutes of the final episode of the two part finale. Assumptions can be made and the manga can be referenced, but having the explanations included in the anime in another episode or two would have been cool. As well, there is one character consistency issue that really bothered me in that the MC is pretty much killing people from episode one from inside a mech, but at one point he's handed an actual gun and acts flabbergasted that he may actually be expected to shoot another person. That felt like a really weird time to suffer a morality conflict considering the gun situation happens fairly late into the show.
Overall, I would rate Buddy Complex at about an 8/10. It is definitely held back in multiple ways, but by the end of episode 15, events are reasonably concluded to leave a satisfied feeling. Animation is quality, the action is good, and some general pacing issues throughout aside, the story came together well.
