If I had to pick a word to describe this series it would be "elegant." If I had to pick two, it would be "elegant and epic." Technically that's three, but I'll spare you the Spanish Inquisition skit and get to a review.

The basis of the series is as follows: the universe is divided into innumerable tribes, but it concerns itself with 5. The Golden Tribe created the universe and ruled over it for quite some time, but decided to leave it for a new one. Before they left, they sent an invitation to all other tribes to journey into space and reign in their stead. This invitation was answered by 4 tribes: the Silver Tribe (humanoid aliens with telepathic abilities), the Bronze Tribe (insectoid aliens that travel in giant nests), the Heroic Tribe (giant aliens with a thirst for power and conquest), and lastly the Iron Tribe (humanity).

Flash forward to the beginning of the series and the tribes are all at war with each other. The Silver Tribe has united with the Bronze Tribe to eliminate humanity from the universe, and control 4 Nodos (beings of various races with the surviving members of the Heroic Tribe sealed within). Having been exiled from Earth, humanity's only hope lies in finding the 5th Nodos, a human raised by the Golden Tribe and containing one of the strongest members of the Heroic Tribe within. The expedition to find this savior is led by the princess of humanity's royal family, and they find the Nodos in the form of a boy named Age, who has lived alone all of his life on a shattered world. From there, the real story begins as viewers follow Age and the crew of the Argonaut as the war for humanity's survival begins.

There are a number of reasons to love this show, but I'll outline a few here. First, the animation is nothing short of gorgeous. The attention to detail is impressive (such as when the Argonaut prepares for active warp), the battle sequences are epic and flow smoothly, the backgrounds are beautiful...the list goes on and on. The characters are very well written, and there's a good range of personalities around so the character interactions are always interesting. For fans of action, the battles are on immense scale, and once Nodos get involved you start talking destruction on a planetary scale, but there is also a nice amount of downtime where you get a chance to know characters a little better.

The soundtrack is beautifully done, and Funimation did a very good job of casting the English voice actors, in my opinion. The other thing I appreciated was that the story was a little more complex than just having "poor little humanity" vs. the "big bad alien threat." There are motivations behind the war that go far beyond territory or other simply political measures, and the series does a nice job of acquainting the viewers with the antagonists, their reasons for acting as they do, and their view of the conflict. This is especially true of the 4 Nodos belonging to the Silver Tribe, as they are dynamic characters, not just stock bosses to be used when a big battle needs to happen.

All in all, sci-fi fans should appreciate this series, and I highly recommend looking into getting the box sets as soon as you can.