i mean thats the real robot genre in general. the point of real robot was to show the horrors of war, which were often viewed through how they affected children. Tomino, gundams creator, litterally was a baby on the break of WW2 and grew up with the aftermath. many of the old guard directors(e.g directors at ghibli) are very explicit on their anti war stance.

afaik tominos recently been on word about how he believes he failed on his mission to get people to be anti war given how modern youth and the directors of modern shows brush that message aside (of course not all directors)

the easiest way to get a persons view about war is their opinions on attack on titans ending (which is a mecha plot disguised as a meatbag)

part of the reason why theres a handful of people who dont like it missed the anti war message the show was bringing on. Far too many people expect "happy endings" when sometimes thats the unrealistic one.

Victory Gundam is where my mind went. Protagonist is literally 12. Smouldering pile of corpses in the first episode. Inspired by the Yugoslav civil war. Anno's favorite Gundam and inspired a lot of Evangelion (along with Ideon lol).