Did anyone felt that even though Juney was a typical cliche "I want moar power because my friend is better" type of character that he was a better fitted rival than Wilfred?

naw. he was more of those "I gotta learn ALL the secrets and become the strongest!

so he seemed more like a Getter-Robo character if anything.

I agree, and I also agree that the female Mejin feels added in. I did say that if she had her own battles on the show or more of a background or something, then she would feel much more important.

To be fair, most side characters feel like they're just to tie the main characters together. This'll garner hate, but what about Gyanko?

She has a great personality, but all she is really in the series for is to tie herself to the first season (her brother), tie Sekai and Fumina together because of her crush on Sekai, and even after that for the past what, 10 or so episodes she hasn't done anything. She appeared in the crowd to cheer them, yeah, but that's about it.

Same could be said for a lot of the people involved. Heck, I don't even remember the girl's name who piloted the V-Gundam/ Sword Impulse custom and I bet most others in here can't either without looking it up. Yet she was a part of one of their biggest fights up until this last one.

I feel Gyanko can slide ahead a bit in the character department because we saw her interact the characters in other episodes.

the "date" with Sekai,
her challenging the triplets,
so on and so forth.

her friends however.... no. i don't even remember their names.
I did think it was cute when they flaunted over straight build pilot's little brother.

I meant the girl that was on the same team with the Mega Shiki. We remember that pilot and the pilot of the Flier in the team, but the third member is completely unknown except for that she fought with them.

Oh yeah she used a modified Victory Gundam with a kind of Sword Impulse pack.

Yeah, and no one knows her name. lol. It's like Lucas' partners. They were just slapped in because he needed some for plot. I think there was only one random side character where we got to know the other pilots, and that was the guy with the Destiny Gundam. His partners got their own side story and even then it was only because they wanted to help his little brother get better.

I do, it's Yomi. Didn't even have to look it up. I don't disagree with your point though. The show tried to build up a lot of one off characters that just disappear after their fight. Heck, I don't remember the boxer's name because I considered him a one off character and then he kept showing up. Not that I dislike the boxer, I just didn't expect to see him again.

Shimon, that's the boxers name.

To be fair though, the first season did do that a lot too