My take is that live action makes the absurdity of characters who are clearly intellectually and emotionally below their physical age and entire settings built around the rampant commercialization of a few products even more intense, both for good and bad. When the plastic shit in the show is literal
plastic and you have these belts and swords and whatever spouting out tinny sound effects and Sharknado-tier CG and adults in dance gangs settling disputes with belligerent virtual pets, it makes me realize just how much more easily I take really stupid crap for granted in cartoons that I have more difficulty abiding with in live action.
Seriously, some of this CG, man...
http://abload.de/img/gaim1-28ps5o.gif
This could be something that goes away with more exposure, or it could just be a double-standard that I can't move past. I'll only know with time, but more than anything, I'd just describe it as.......kind of weird and awkward but not necessarily unenjoyable. Some of what makes magical girl good isn't reproducible outside of the medium of animation, like antics episodes with their secondary purpose as platforms upon which directors and animators can go wild with the full extent of their cartooning skills. If there's a toku equivalent to this that shines in its actor performances or technical merits I'd love to see it, but with its disposable bishounen actors and combat heavily reliant upon really jarring CG, I have a hard time imagining what form this equivalent would take. I expect to follow Gaim to completion, though, so I suppose we'll see.
