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Perhaps the best thing about Sunrise is that it's large enough, 'storied' enough, and profitable enough, that it can safely engage in actual experimentation.
By that, I mean:
1) Sunrise puts out a lot of prominent anime originals. I've found over time that a disproportionately large percentage of my favorite anime shows are anime originals, and so I obviously think it's great that Sunrise is able to produce a lot of them, and does so.
2) Sunrise can go off the beaten path a bit. Tiger and Bunny is a great, recent example of this. A somewhat campy, action-packed show with obvious western influences and a male lead that's in his 30s and with a daughter. I can't think of many well-known anime shows with a male lead like that, and fewer still that are also action-packed. Basically, Sunrise can do stuff (and actually get it to sell, in some cases) that a lot of other studios can't.
Edit: On the topic of Gundam Age. I understand what Sunrise was going for there, and it really is important for Sunrise to try to bring in a new, younger generation of Gundam fans. Sadly, the effort failed. I will be curious to see where the Gundam franchise stands in the mid-to-long term future.
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