Being able to watch 2nd stage is easily worth putting up with the first series. It takes the plot and brings it one step forward. Although, unfortunately, it still shares the "harem" genre with the 1st stage. The first three or four episodes continue with the trend the first stage started. Except christmas has already been done, so here are the first four episodes: birthday, baby is born, new female is introduced, birthday. After that, however, it goes right into Thinker mode (Thinker is my genre label for either confusing anime or insightful anime) and fleshes out the amazing plot even further. The new mecha designs are also reeeally amazing, especially the Vandread.