Doc, you fail . Director is Masamitsu Hidaka. Taniguchi Goro did Geass.

For clarification's sake, Taniguchi's only experience as creative producer comes from Mai-hime.

Hmm, his name gets mentioned in the trailer though at 0:39~

And yeah, even if he was the director, it's Gonzo...

Maybe I've just been watching the right shows from them and avoiding the crap, but I've always had an overall favorable opinion of Gonzo. They've put out some quality shows over the years.

In GONZO's case it's a matter of what you get exposed to than anything else. They do have some gems- Last Exile, Bokurano, Gankutsuou, etc., but the vast majority of their stuff is more along the quality level of Dragonaut, Blassreiter, or Rosario+Vampire's anime adaptation. It matters what you're exposed to and actually realize is by them, for sure.

Taniguchi's great, but his role isn't all that huge content-wise, he's mostly responsible for the budget and timing this time (naturally, he will have some influence, but that lays much more in the hands of the director and storyboard writer than anyone else).

Anyway, I saw the first episode. About what I expected (not bad, but certainly nothing very good), the character designs were a little bit disappointing though- anyone else feel like the kids had heads that were way too big? Or is that just my imagination? Also not a big fan of entirely CG mechs. That's just my take though.