The first five episodes are genuinely difficult to watch. Everything changes when the show stops performing and starts being honest, Ange's fall from princess to nothing becomes the framework for something genuinely dark about systems designed to crush anyone who doesn't fit. By the final arc, you're watching a girl rebuild herself piece by piece, and the show has earned every moment where you believe she might not survive it. This isn't a mecha show that happens to have character development; it's a story about betrayal and survival that uses mechas to put Ange through hell. Those who stick past the rough opening don't just find a better show, they find one that understands the cost of hope.

A princess learns that everything she believed about her world is a lie. Angelise, first princess of the Misurugi Empire, lives in a peaceful society built on Mana, a magic-like power, and she is expected to inherit the crown. She even shares the common hatred of the Norma, people who cannot use Mana and are treated as less than human. Then, around her sixteenth birthday, it comes out that she is a Norma herself. Public fury follows, and she is exiled to Arzenal, a remote military base where Norma are pressed into service. Stripped of her name and now called Ange, she must learn to pilot humanoid robots called Paramails and hunt the giant dragons that invade from another dimension, protecting the very people who turned on her. Her captors have put a powerful weapon in her hands, and a dark secret about the dragons may change everything. The series blends mecha action, sci-fi, romance and ecchi.