[AgileSiamang7]

For me, Kouta was a refreshing character to follow. He wan't your typical Shonen idiot hero, but he wasn't the smartest person around and that was fine. He couldn't tell that his best friend wanted his head, but really why would anyone suspect their best friend of that? We know because we're the audience and we see the death-glares Micchy shoots his way whenever his back is turned, but for Kouta all gets to see is that his friend's going through some weird time.

Some people have given Kouta crap for not magically finding a way to save Kaito at the end, but if he did then he'd just end up copying the end of Blade, since they were both Overlords at that point and Kouta would just be an Orange Kenzaki then. Some people say that Kouta didn't develop much by the end, but what else would you describe starting off just wanting to get a job, and then finding yourself the least asshole-ish person trying to keep humanity from going extinct (well, least asshole-ish and strong, as Zack isn't an asshole). When Sid tries to break him down, he stand by his morals and tells him to fuck off. When Yggdrasil would rather take the easy way out (as Ryouma's attitude makes it clear that he could save more of humanity if he wanted to, but he doesn't), he calls them out on it and destroys their city nuke, survives their attempts on him, and does what he can to keep the city worth coming back to when it's evacuated. The only way I can see Kouta having not developed as a character is if you treating him becoming a god as just him finally getting a job, ignoring how changed and distant he is once he claims that fruit.

Having characters like Zack actually becoming important later down the line was nice and refreshing, compared to the DBZ style of writing many shows, animes, and comics sadly follow of introducing characters that just fill the background or where useful before the writer's new favorites stole the scene (Rock Lee being pushed onto the bench, the until recently benching of non-existent Wally West, etc.). I've seen tons of people hate on Kanon for being useless, but at least in the Gaim, while you may hate the dance theme and activities in the show, at least the side characters had something to do, rather than just exist and take up a bed in Takeru's home.

As much as I love Gaim, it's not at the top of my list, but it definitely deserves the love it gets. The tie-ins, Taisens, and crossovers can be a bit much, but not enough for me think badly of the show.