I never expected this show to be in my list of tops. But it's most certainly in the top 5 for me. Though I have no way of deciding what I like the most out of any of those 5 it includes in no particular order: Gaim, Den-O, Ryuki, Agito, & OOO.

I'm not coming into this thread to preach the gospel of Gaim so please don't take it that way. But I count it among the best rider shows I've ever seen.

Let's not forget that even Micchy's actor wants Micchy to die and not have salvation.

That's how much people despise Micchy.

Me too man, I just get a little tired of people forcing praise where it isn't needed and viciously lashing out at those who dare attempt to be critical. Gaim is a fantastic show in it's own right, the blind fanboyism only sours the experience, not make the show greater.

Honestly, you keep saying this, but I'm not seeing it. Gaim is good. Really good. But I think everyone here is easily capable of pointing out flaws. If not here, where are you finding this said group of people forcing praise?

You haven't noticed it in every thread? Are you new?

A bit, but that's sort of besides the point. In all the active threads since I started lurking here, I've seen a share of fair praise but nothing too over the top; definitely nothing that could be considered "forced." It seems to me like there's been twice as much complaint about this overpraise than the issue itself as of late. Half of it from you. :p

I guess it's harder to comprehend if you weren't here way back in the days when people were calling Gaim "the greatest Rider series ever made" when they hadn't even seen a trailer, just a photo of Gaim's back.

It was really bad when people went absolutely bananas for the fruit gimmick. Don't get me wrong, it's grown on me, but man were people just going nuts for that. All that combined with the dance theme the show was said to have...I was really freaking worried. I'm glad my fears were for nothing, but I was just seeing people go insane over a really really..not what I was wanting out of Kamen Rider, thankfully the show itself made it all work and the weird motif was held up by episode after fantastic episode. It's wavered a touch here and there, but it's yet to really hit any major drops in quality. Again, as I said, it's not perfect, but still one of the better seasons I've seen at this point.

Basically the hype level at the beginning (with the announcement of the fruit gimmick) was this:
http://oi55.tinypic.com/2yvvuyf.jpg

The gimmick is one of the worst parts for me, mainly because I actually really loved it at the start but then the show forgot about its own gimmick and just gave everyone the same weapon. I want a Arms Change focused Rider series which keeps the focus on it for the whole series.