Original writing date: 24/11/2015.

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 shows 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.

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 armistice 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.

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.