I think it commits the common trope within this genre where the actual most interesting character is not the main character, but rather, a manageable character is put into that spot. Makima is the most interesting and mysterious character, but she is elevated to too high a degree that no writer would be able to write a compelling enough story to justify her overall existence, so a relatively tame and simple person like Denji is put into the spot light.
I don't like this kind of story, I like Denji and Power but I'm not particularly interested in them since their motivations, when you strip away the veneer, is very simple and pedestrian and after the 5th time of him saying "Oh I just want to date Makima", it is just like "Okay we get it." I didn't feel any personal engagement with his fights since his reasoning doesn't relate to me at all.
On the plot, sometimes the story just bogs down in unhyperbolic terrible writing. For example, in episode 9, we have this team of apparently very competent criminals who just attacked a public branch in a major terrorist attack, deciding to saunter, stand around, chat, doing everything except making a fast and clean getaway.
They were then all smushed by Makima, after which, the survivors are *still standing around chatting about what just happened", so they could be ambushed by Kobeni, who goes from having 100% accuracy shooting behind her without looking to having 0% accuracy when she is actually aiming from a stationary position. There are a tonne of these kinds of "oh so now the plot needs to happen so everyone will now have 0 IQ" moments in the story that, when you see them, are infuriating. it feels like we are watching the writer playing with action figures and making up BS to have things happen to these toys rather than a story that is unfolding in a sensible way.
I don't think this is a masterpiece, I don't think it's the show/story of the generation, I do think it is a very beautifully animated and excellent showcase of what this medium can deliver.
