I think the greatest thing about Gear 5 is how unique it is. I don’t think it’s as “cool” as super sayan or Naruto’s transformations, but “cool” is not the intent here.
I love the fact that it’s a transformation that has the basis in laughter instead of anger and friendship. It’s a departure from the shonen cliche and I think it show how creative Oda can get and how much he knows his story.
And it’s much, much better than those Fan made gear 5s we got before. It looks cool af to me, it's just not edgy like most other anime transformations, and I believe most of the anime fandom in general can't differentiate between "cool" and "cool because edgy". I don't blame them tho. I used to be that way before I watched One Piece. One Piece changed my taste in things. When I see something now that only knows how to be cool by being edgy and dark, it comes across kinda lame to me
Every Shounen, pretty much outside of One Piece, the main character gets some ridiculous, over the top, unique "I'm obviously powerful" transformation. Best example: Naruto and how they turned his Tailed Beast mode into a completely unique form different than the other 8 beasts (which I.. still kind of hate). There's many other examples but what Oda did with Luffy is f-king incredible. He didn't get bigger, or some crazier form. He was simplified down and now has a white sheen. That's.. f-king crazy.
There's "some" qualms with his fruit suddenly being a Zoan, and I still think these details will be explained later in the story so I don't get as caught up as a lot of detractors seem to.
The thing everyone's guilty of is that when something "different" occurs, they will argue to death why it's bad when the reality is just that they don't enjoy it.
Change is always the worst thing anyone ever wants to face, and it comes in different ways. I haven't seen a single argument outside of "it wasn't foreshadowed that much" that makes any sense concerning Gear 5, and I think facing the philosophical reason vs. people needing the validation they're "right" that it's bad is the actual solution to what they're looking for.