This is the best place for a non-Gundam anime watcher to start with and fall in love with Gundam. If you, like I, bounced off of other Gundam series because of boy-band-member-looking Newtypes with super-human abilities and pilot-specific super Gundam with their own special attacks this is the series to start with. If you bounced off the animation, character designs and pacing of series from the '70s and '80s, this is the series to start with.
A Romeo and Juliet style story amidst well animated jungle warfare where Gundam are just tools of war - advanced tanks - this story makes the world of Gundam much more human and understandable. The art and animation were world class in '96 and much of it still stands up today. The hand painted background paintings in particular I found absolutely wonderful. If you like mech anime and endearing characters, you'll likely enjoy this anime and be more interested in Gundam going forward.