Consumer Review

Score: 1/5 (Hazardous to Your Health)

GATE tries to be an eclectic mixture of different genres and topics, but it fails at all of them.

Critical Review

(Spoiler warning: because this show is bad, I don’t care about avoiding spoilers.) ／人 ◕‿‿◕ 人＼

GATE is about many things, so I’ll go through them one by one.

Cultural/Technological/Magical Contact

This is arguably the special sauce of the show, the topic that’s barely covered anywhere else. Contrast between modern civilization and high fantasy creates a scenario that naturally questions the preconceptions of the two. It creates a new point of view to examine the modern technologies and social structures that are often taken for granted. And, it can lead to the deconstruction of fantasy tropes traditionally propped up by suspension of disbelief.

The show does this well in its portrayal of weaponry. For example, when bullets pierce right through a shield formation, the viewer reevaluates the power of guns (compared to, say, videogame cover) and the function of a shield (as seen in most fantasy settings). This is escalated later on by showing bigger guns mounted on helicopters so that they can fly over fortifications. Great!

Challenging preconceptions like this is a powerful effect. But the show fails to apply it elsewhere. Extremely common props like radio and cars are completely taken for granted. The most common reaction that gets tired fast is a resigned, “oh, cool”.

It’s also conspicuous that the fantasy elements don’t receive the same amount of awe (or even just a bit of curiosity) from the modern Japanese. The Japanese don’t blink when they encounter orcs, dragons, wizards and demigods. This indifference dilutes the impact of both the fantastic and the modern, downgrading them to merely “ordinary”.

World Building

It’s surprising how much screen-time gets spent on shallow politics. The fantasy emperor plots to weaken his vassals, presidents organize commando missions and half an episode is spent in parliament. These attempts to make the world feel more legit end up backfiring because they introduce cartoon villains who do bad things for no good reason. The show doesn’t realize that believable political intrigue relies on understandable motivations and difficult choices, not people in suits who give orders.

SERIOUSLY, WHY WOULD THEY EVEN NEED TO KIDNAP A GATE-WORLDER?

In fantasy land, there’s nothing to say. Everything is played by the book. Catgirls and elves are literally people-with-some-extra-stuff. This isn’t a bad thing per se. But the show doesn’t gain any points for being average.

Action

The only action scene with good animation and fight/battle choreography is the defense of Italica. Everything else is bad or mediocre.

I can forgive poor animation due to budgeting concerns, especially if it’s skillfully handled. But the show doesn’t know how to impart a sense of scale, location and movement in its battles. For example, when the imperial army first invaded through the gate, there’s no sense of how many soldiers and victims there were, or how much of the city was invaded. We’re only shown one-off clips of violence that don’t contribute to the bigger picture. The show can’t even frame properly. In the battle for Arnus hill, there’s a shot where the sky and far-off mountains are the backdrop for explosions. WE DON’T CARE ABOUT THE SKY AND MOUNTAINS. WHERE ARE THE SOLDIERS?

The fight against the dragon is an unremarkable battle on flat ground. There was no sense of dynamism for the participants and their positions relative to one another were murky. It looked like they were driving toward the dragon the whole time, without traveling any distance.

Characters AKA Harem

Despite all the screen-time spent on showing off Itami’s harem girls, their personalities amount to nothing more than hug pillow stuffing. Most of their appearances are simply visual fanservice or generic girly reactions to something. Their uniqueness comes from easily summarized traits. Lelei is smart. Tuka is traumatized. This is too vague for quality waifu material!

Even the two girls who received the most development, Rory and Pina, fail to be compelling. Rory’s ambiguous religion, unique powers and vast experience give her the potential to be complex. But none of this is discussed in depth so she boils down to an Itami-lusting killing machine. Pina has the luxury of a backstory and goes through an interesting role change from princess to general to ambassador. But in practice, she’s portrayed as someone who’s “just there” and acts surprised. AND WHY IS HER NAME EVEN A PUN? WHAT DOES THAT ACCOMPLISH?

Even though the cast is together most of the time, they don’t interact with one another or act as foils to emphasize each others’ traits. There’s no hint of group dynamics such as what Rory and Pina think of each other, or who Tuka is most comfortable with. They’re just a group of strangers caught in orbit around Itami.

Self-Insert/Self-Identification Potential

Someone assures me that this aspect is a factor in appreciating the show and I assume there’s a delicate balance between making the character relatable to the target demographic and making the amazing things that happen to him just believable enough that suspension of disbelief isn’t broken. This is such an alien concept to me that I cannot make a worthwhile judgement on this balancing act. So for the purpose of review, I will simply take it as truth that Itami is a perfect self-insert character.

With this as a given, I would say that the self-insert fantasy is weakened by the fact that the “amazing things” that happen to Itami are not actually very amazing, as discussed in previous sections. The bland harem, bland setting and bland action/adventure aren’t effective incentives to reward self-insertion.

Overall Theme

Even if the individual elements are weak, it’s possible that their interaction with each other makes the whole greater than the sum of their parts by expressing an overall theme. With GATE, the only pervasive theme is wanking over how great Itami is.

And, uh, no thanks.