Yeah. The style of this season was way different from previous ones. With such an intense change, it really gets a lot of polar feelings of love and hate from viewers.
MG5 just wasn't that entertaining for me. I prefer the classic comic book vs fight of the week formula more, even though it was so basic. It was simpler and much more fun to watch schoolgirls fight and butting heads. They also put way more time in shaping out fun characters. Putting guys and yakuza into a totally muddled plot just made everything slow and boring. It totally fails in pushing members making them more recognizable to fans and general viewers. Something that all previous MG seasons have done well (with Rena's Gekikara literally being one of the most loved and iconic things in all MG and AKB48).
The only thing I really liked was the further development of Otabe's character.
But like muppet says, at least the girls got some real drama acting experience from it.
Anyways, there's still the HKT spinoff prequel SP on 29 Nov to wrap it all up. Hope Katsuzetsu breaks a few skulls.
And with MG4 kinda being a retelling of MG1, and MG5 being a totally different show like MG3, wonder what they'll do for MG6.