I started to watch this show after I noticed the Finnish character and wanted to see it for myself out of petty curiosity. You say it can be hard to enjoy the drama when it's only toys, but in this specific case it's the opposite for me: I tend to find Gundam hard to enjoy because it's so much about the Gundam religion and Gundam and Gundam and Gundam and Gundam, but since they are all toys in this show, it doesn't really matter. I mean, it's all basically simulated in the game here, even if there is a physical part to it and the build of the toy matters hugely, but in the end they are still toys in a game. Above all the skills of the one remote controlling the toy seem to matter much more than in the actual Gundam shows I've watched, where it has almost always been a simple situation of a true Gundam beating all the other mecha out of the sky no questions asked, just because it's Gundam.

I've been enjoying this surprisingly much. The fights have been good enough. I very much doubt there's going to be any revelation the real Gundam universe is there, like you say. This show is about the toy fighting tournament. The other stuff is there only to build the characters, to give them some extra personality and motivation. Reiji and the company boss are from some other world, and the boss brought the technology with him, I reckon, so I suppose that's a nice enough explanation to make the games possible.

I don't really expect it to happen, but I hope Aila and Renji get a bit closer to each other. Otherwise I'm just looking forward to seeing the rest of the tournament.

I guess this should technically be in the Gundam forum...