[Fish Sandwich]

So, I haven't had an interesting enough opinion to actually post on here in ages, but I have two years of pent-up frustration about Gaim and this sounds like a great chance to vent.

First of, cards on the table, I've seen every Hesei series and Gaim is the only one I don't like. I adore Wizard and have an easy time forgiving even Kiva's flaws, and I think Gaim is a pile of ****. Okay, that's a bit extreme, but I'm not fond of it.

I think the biggest problem I have is less the show itself and more overabundant hype that others have already mentioned. As I just said, I liked Wizard, so it was especially rough for me to hear about how much better Gaim apparently was so often.

But the thing about that is, for about half of the show's run, I would've agreed! I loved seeing each new episode of Gaim, and while I'm usually the first to point out that simply being darker and less episodic doesn't make a show better, it felt like Gaim had some real quality beyond that.

While it would take a novel's worth of text to detail every problem I have with Gaim, and this is a long enough post as is, the short of it is that as the show went on, it became apparent to me that the show was nowhere near as smartly written as I was giving credit for, and by the second-to-last episode (AKA the last "real" one) the magic had faded completely.

To end on a more positive note, the break from the formula WAS nice, even as someone who didn't find it stale, and the acting was the best the franchise has ever seen. It may be hard to notice through the veil of subtitles, but no matter how crappy the lines got, or how flat the characters, the actors breathed life into their characters with some genuine passion, and I can only hope they get roles in better shows down the line.