[DreamSword]

I've started my watch of Gaim; Current up through episode 11 including the HBV, the Wizard crossover movie, and Gaiden: Duke.

And so far my opinion is... eh?

Like, I don't dislike it, but for all the hype surrounding this show I just don't really feel any strong feelings towards it one way or another. I don't even so much as have a favorite character as of yet.

If nothing else, it has been interesting seeing just how influential Gaim has been ever since it aired, as many other shows cribbed certain aspects of it, such as the weirdly paced early episodes, the constantly new toys/forms, and, in something I consider a detriment, going for big dramatic swings way too early.

The worst case of this is Mitchy, who, while I don't dislike him as a character, immediately gets jettisoned into a dramatically framed family arc before I even had so much of an idea as to who the guy was, thus resulting in me not really caring. To say that it gave me dreaded flashbacks to Build would be a little bit of an understatement.

One thing that I can give the show though is that, unlike Build, it atleast knows how to crack a smile every so often, with comedic beats that are actually pretty solid and not annoying nor put in at points that completely destroy the overall tone of the episode/story at a given moment. The atmosphere has actually been rather nicely balanced for the most part. Pair that with some decent action bits and I can't really say that I feel like my time is being wasted.

So yeah, I don't feel like it's anything great so far, but it's not as though the show is any sort of chore to get through either.