Anime: Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri

There's no pacing whatsoever with the story. There's very little transition between plot points so it just feels like you get dropped into a major arc of the story and you're like "wait, why is this happening?". The story isn't complex though so you won't feel lost – just bored, frustrated, and a little confused.

The show tries to have its own in-universe politics but none of it is logical or engaging. You can't have political drama if there are zero consequences for the main characters. The only thing that's political about the show is that it's blatant nationalistic propaganda. I don't fault it just because it's propaganda, I fault it for being so bad at it. You're just rolling your eyes at a certain point.

It's strange to have a story where none of your main characters can actually impact the story. The story just moves along regardless of what the main characters do. (Again, probably because the show is too focused on the whole lazy propaganda thing.)

Almost all of the women characters only exist to react to the dudes in the show, the protagonist is a gary stu, and one time a horse sounded like a human baby and then they shot it...so that was a thing.

And I hate the pedophilia. An immortal death demi-god loli that has an orgasm anytime nearby soldiers die is weird, boring, and gross.

Notice: This review covers both seasons.

The hook of this show was a medieval civilization coming in contact with an advanced one. How will they interact, solve their differences, coexist, and learn from each other? A very interesting concept that is sadly completely destroyed by the simple fact the whole thing is based on a light novel written by a military otaku and then adapted by A-1 Pictures, the studio with an uncontrollable urge for butt shots.

The first episode is promising, since it shows how the less advanced civilization would try to solve all its problems by invading and taking over land by burning down houses and enslaving its population. The more advanced civilization would of course not only overwhelm it with better weaponry but also use far more elaborate political games to ally itself with this now world.

All that are soon thrown out the window soon afterwards, since the author was more interested in self-indulging in a fantasy where his favorite toy soldiers are steamrolling everything else and have harem adventures with all sorts of fetishes. It is not hard to see his overbearing nationalism, as he favors the Japanese military (JSDF) to the point they are doing everything right, while everybody else is incompetent. This does not limit to savages from the other realm, but also to every other nation on our earth.

Anyways, the plot is basically a bunch of otakus joining the military and crossing over to the other side of a dimensional gate, where they are supposed to secure their forces and forge a truce with the local leaders. The way they achieve this is by simply bombing the hell out anything that attacks them, scaring the leaders with a display of advanced weaponry, and amassing a harem of elves, witches, bunny girls, and any other sexual fetish you can imagine to be their prize.

Everything is clearly one-sided, as there is no actual cultural exchange taking place. The JSDF is easily taking over everything with its super amazing tactics and firepower, while at the same time showing zero interest in magic forces that would allow it to make people immortal, or offer it instant regeneration. This is what I meant by self-indulgence, since there is no attempt to make both sides grey. If you are a Japanese soldier, you are the paragon of good with the most powerful weapons in the universe. If you are anything else, you are an incompetent asshole who loves to gloat before getting pulverized by the awesome JSDF.

The show goes as far as making America seem like a back stabbing bunch of assholes who wouldn’t miss the chance to invade and take over the gate (something which they do before magically getting wiped out by the supreme JSDF). Also, the nobles on the magical realm are sadistic rapists who love to torture innocents, thus making them one-dimensional evils that deserve to be killed by the (of course) inspiring JSDF. And of course all females in the show are there just for otaku pandering, to be saved by our noble heroes and then turn into their waifus.

Essentially, this is an anime that belongs in the pre-WW2 era, when everything animated in Japan was military propaganda. The characters have no real personality or character development and exist to simply be plot devices for furthering an agenda. The protagonist in particular is a clear example of a character not made to be an individual, but rather an archetype appealing to a certain demographic. He represents what otakus worldwide wish they would be (kindhearted, with a job, nobody minds his sleazy hobbies, is super smart, a top soldier, all chicks want to have sex with him) and has no problems in his life other than missing the latest porn doujin because orcs invaded his manga store.

It’s all so painfully pandering to the point it stops being funny after a couple of episodes. Yet another example of why light novels are cancer and otaku pandering is what helps it spread.

Review
GATE: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri (GATE) is, by its essence, the kind of show I have always dreamed of watching. My mind always took me to think about crafting a world where magic meets guns, where army meets fantasy warriors, where someone with our knowledge finds himself in an early developed world. There is much to explore in such setting, much to do and fantasize. There is a saying somewhere that anything you do not understand could be called magic,and thus throwing modern-day people into a medieval world could develop to a huge array of interesting things.

Anyway, GATE is not my dream though. It does mix a couple of nice things, but it mixes a lot of other things as well and... many of those would better be forgotten. It still offers a solid watch and is one of the most interesting show of a somewhat mediocre season, but its initial potential is wasted on elements that plague anime all around.

GATE is the tale of Itami Youji, an otaku fanboy that loses his chance to visit a doujin event because a gate to another world opens up in the middle of Ginza. From the gate comes an army of armored warriors, dragon riders, and monsters all of kind. The japanese army quickly dispatches the intruders and Itami manages to help the civilians to survive the day. He becomes a hero and is thus chosen to be part of the expedition to this other world that lies beyond the gate.

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1. I could like this protagonist..
   You see, the very first thing you may notice in this show is the yet again another damned annoying protagonist. Itami is the nerdy guy who apparently only wants to find his waifu and waste his time not interacting with the world. There is a twist here, an interesting one. He is older than the average, he serves the military, he works, he has a life. He is a normal guy that just has a hobby. This is definetely interesting. He is not unwilling to interact, he is not a psycho teenager, he is a man I could see some day, a guy maybe like me or some of my friends at work.
   
   But it's A1-Pictures guys...
   I'll give a cookie to someone who can describe A1-Pictures works in one sentence! You said "dark theme, light presentation"? Hurray! A cookie for you my friend. Once again the most popular studio of the last few years embraces its karma. Gate's first episode is all about beings from another world invading our own and coldly murdering citizens, yet you can feel there is something wrong there. Everything seems awfully cute, bright, colorful, even calm. When the second episode kicks in, however, you can clearly understand what happened. This is a show with all the girls you can think about, all the cuteness and colors you can imagine, everything about what you know A1-Pictures does.
   
   A medieval world
   There is a true potential here. Instead of a teenage lost in another world, what we have here is an army. The logic of our reality prevails and instead of sending Kirito to solve our problems, we send the military. They kick ass, especially when their foes swing swords while they fire rifles from 500 meters away. This is a one-sided battle they can't expect to lose, but that's not what is at stake here.
   
   It's about the medieval point of view and politics
   You see, in the eyes of the people living in this magic land, the guys in green are just an insanely powerful army with magical staves and invincible vehicles that can fly and explode things. The Empire that commands most of the land is powerless against the military strength of Japan alone, so what can they do? Or better, what can Japan do with this vast piece of land that suddenly popped inside its territory? Interesting questions, right? However...
   
   What about cutie elves and girls of all types?
   Itami, the soldier with a hobby, is tasked with scouting the place and making friendly interactions with the people of this world. The show jumps the language border by making them understand each other in one or two days, so they can skip to the part that is of most interest to their audience: the girls.
   
   GATE has a young cliche'd japanese girl (that is from another world) with all her silence, education, cuteness, and so on. It also has a gorgeous blonde elf with nice attributes and zero importance. It does have a few female soldiers that are all about cuteness. And of course, of course... the damn immortal loli half-goddess that has orgasms when people die around her. Yup. Kings? Nah, show the emperor guy for one minute and let's skip to his daughter, a cutie tsundere princess and her female vassals. Hey, who's this funny geezer? A fuckn master mage? Nice! Let's forget about him! Only the girls matter! There are even cat-girl maids, bunny-girl maids, and medusa-hair maids!! They are all damn cute! Yay!
   
   A-hem! You understand by now, don't you?
   Once again we have a show with a nice premise, some decent values, yet again lost for the sake of fanservice. Some of the girls even manage to get interesting, there is even a bit of development for the annoying immortal loli and her role in the fantasy world, something that makes her one of the most interesting of the bunch, but the vast majority of it is just about cute girls doing cute things, going to a hot springs, demanding sex with the protagonist, or doing girly things to make certain they fit the roles japanese society demands of them, even if they are from a fantasy world that has nothing to do with Japan.
   
   The concept saves most of it though
   Warfare, battle against dragons, bandits, and all the political background kicks in sometimes to make GATE an interesting watch that can keep you lured in. There is even a glimpse of how the world sees the fact that Japan has a gate to another world inside its territory, something that can be nicely explored alongside the amistice with the Empire beyond the GATE. The idea offers a huge deal of interesting points to explore, and while this first season focus far too much on the girls, it does progress in some interesting areas. A1-Pictures may make things cute, but they also excel in animation and consistency, making up for a show that is quite beautiful to the eyes, even if bit too light to what it tries to present us.
   

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Comments
GATE is something you can enjoy. The concept is awesome and the production is superbly done. What plagues it, however, is the same thing that harmed shows all over these last few years. This nearly insane fetish with lolis, the paranoia with cute girls, and the insistence in making these things more important than the initial idea makes most of GATE's experience something you can find nearly everywhere else, especially other works from A1-Pictures and their cutie style.

Anyway... this is a first season, and although it ends with absolutely no climax or important event, it does a decent job at being above the average and mixing the cute girls with the serious political intrigues that would certainly fit an story where a new world pops inside the borders of a nation. It is far too light and it could benefit from gritty realism and deaths, but perhaps this can still be used to surprise us in the season to come.

Gate could've been a story of modern vs old, with a bit of cultural exchange; instead it went down the otaku pandering route, combined with absurd amounts of right-wing nationalism.

It is a real shame, since there were some genuinely interesting comparisons, such as the difference of how prisoners are treated by the Japanese army compared to the medieval army, but these scenes are barely touched upon, as if the writer was only using the scenes to say "Japan is the good guy! Everyone else is the bad guy!"

In fact, that seems to be the running theme throughout the series. Japan is presented as the Good Team 100% of the way. Everything the JSDF does is unanimously praised, while the Americans, the Chinese, the opposing medieval armies, and even the Japanese DIET that oppose the invasion are portrayed as being evil, greedy, or just plain imbecilic. As the show continued, it became more and more like Japanese military propaganda rather than a legitimate story. Any and all enemies are helplessly mowed down by the superior might of the Japanese Army and the immortal death god (who looks like a thirteen year old girl) that joins them. This doesn't exactly lead to tense battles, since it's quite obvious who's going to win every time, and the show doesn't even try to hide it.

As for the characters? Well, there is the protagonist, Itami, who is an otaku (who also happens to be a top-class soldier with a heart of gold), his squad, and a bunch of underage multi-color haired girls (except they're elves and demigods, so they're actually hundreds of years old!). None of these characters undergo any sort of development, and their personalities are practically non-existent. They exist to be cute girls, and that is it.

That being said, it was somewhat fun to watch the cultural exchanges that took place, and I cannot say in good conscience that I didn't enjoy myself. But I feel that Gate could've been a lot more than mindless entertainment, so I can't help but be disappointed.