Power through or skip the first series

We're five or six episodes in. I hear the animation gets way better later. I'm here for the robot fights but the amount of fanservice scared away my co-viewer (who was there for the romcom.) Is the first season important enough that I should just watch it or am I good to skip it for the more modern series that come after?

(I was originally sold on the show with promises of Mecha Combat and by a clip which turns out to be from the second season with (I thought) better animation.)