The New Gate

I really enjoyed this anime. Plot was interesting but decent, not bad not good. The begining was very similar to how Sword Art Online started. The Opening and the Ending songs were good, I really liked them, especially the ending song... That is very soothing. The voice actors and actresses did a good job also. It's just the animation. It was obvious that this anime was lacking in funds. It didn't make me angry that the animation was bad because I understood the reason. Because of the tight budget, the animation was bad and sometimes even worse. And it saddens me. It's truly is a ... shame because this could've become more popular and ratings would've way higher if its animation quality was at least average since the 'isekai' genre is now very popular.

Anyways, I'm giving it a 7/10 out of generosity. I'm really hoping it gets a sequel, or at least an OVA because I really wanna know more about Shin's dead lover Marino! But knowing the history of the Studio behind it, we probably won't see a sequel 😔

Any light novel readers here? The LN has been "publishing" since 2013, making the story quite old. So, the story is either very long or it publishes every few months or so, that is if the LN is not abandoned.

Conclusion, if it's one of your first time watching an anime from the 'isekai' genre, you'll love it. If not, if you've already watched a ton of them over the years, you'll probably not like it.

Having watched this show, while it's fresh on my mind. There is alot going against this show.

Based on my opinion, the negatives could be based on the fact that the animation could've been a lot better. I don't want Demon Slayer or Fate levels of animation, that would be a bit too much considering that this show has very few fight scenes. On top of that, the fight scenes themselves are rather short when they do happen. The story is another flavor of Isekai but those are bound to happen just about every season because Isekai Mangas/Light Novels are plentiful yet too boring due to ... the same formula. Trying to pay attention to the story, it feels like there is a hint of inspiration from Sword Art Online with the twist that the story starts the same way that "In the land of Leadale/Leadale no Daichi nite". I don't mind that, but Leadale does it's story better albeit the animation is far worse in that show but the story keeps bringing me back. Compared to the manga, it's obvious that The New Gate really tried to capture the feel but ultimately loses it's essence or spark that would bring me back the same way that Leadale does.

On the positive side, I think that the story from the manga is adapted in an okay sense. The effort is there but there still isn't as much of a spark. Still, the story is well adapted despite it not being a 1-1 adaptation. The stopping point for the show is left off where there could be more, so that's a plus incase you enjoyed it like I did. The voice acting of the characters is projected decently(from a subtitled point of view).

I know the negatives outweigh the positives, but I still stand by my 8/10 score due to the fact that the show's story is decently adapted compared to the manga. This is a big bias but I do enjoy reading the manga and despite the animation being mid, it's still something I would like to see adapted nonetheless.

The problem with a lot of these isekai adaptations is that while most of the these isekais out there getting an adaptation are uninspired, there are some of them that have some specific fun elements aside from the setting and plot that the adaptations fail to comprehend more than with non isekai works. What made new gate likable was the characters and their behavior and the drama relating to them, which the adaptation gloriously mangled to move the "plot" along.

The show starts with a scene where a bunch of people are dragging away one of the main heroines, the black haired elf in the poster, ... to idk struggle snuggle or sell her as a slave or whatever, doesn't matter, and our MC comes to the rescue. Dere dere moeblob GET! said elf is now suddenly pretty friendly with our MC. But there's one problem now: to move the plot along you need to get back to the plot. Seeing how in the original there was no kidnap squad to save moeblob from, she didn't warm up to the MC immediately and was quite skeptical of him and his intentions as well as seemingly more mature and cheeky. So the next thing they do after they make the moeblob look like a dere dere moeblob is to insert some of the dialogue from the original and manga adaptation back into the scene which felt weird to see as the dere dere moeblob now seemed a tiny bit rude.

The above scene is to an illustration of the quality of the quality of the adaptation. Speaking of characters first, the characters in the anime adaptation look much more childish with the faces being much rounder than either the LN or manga art, as a result of which, the personality of one of the heroines, the black haired elf, feels incredibly different. Her personality while still bubbly also had cheekiness and more maturity to it. The same is true for the other silver haired main with her character again not being able to express her wistfulness, which is an important part of the title.

Now the core issue that actually butchers the adaptation, it's that you have these charas act out the rushed plot whose selling point was supposed to be it's big sentimental scenes with some of okay slice of slice of like that accentuated it in the first place, with the sentimental parts being bittersweet moments and moments of mildly melancholic happiness (like the feeling of nostalgia). It's already obvious a rushed plot doesn't even begin to work for something like this, like it's not going to make you sentimental, but then you also have moeblobs acting out those moments at certain places to boot. Just look at the manga's chapter 2 page 20 onwards till the end and compare it with ep 1 9:40 onwards for a few minutes.

Similar to the scene just above, a lot of other scenes were spoiled in the adaptation. Even though the character design and the rushing were already enough to ruin these moments, the adaptation went a few steps further to ensure it meets their creative vision. The generic, poorly written kirito-lite parts of the work ie the "plot" only matters if the stakes matter to you. The stakes matter to you if the character and the world matter to you, with the world ultimately dependent on the characters. It's all about the people. The generic kirito-lite activities matter as far as how the characters react to it when you do them, whether you care about those activities affecting the charactes, whether you care about how they'll perceive you etc. Essentially, do you care about the characters and if they're worthwhile. Guess what makes them so.
finally, there's nothing creative in the technical side as well to maybe try and salvage it, and then there's the Substandard script that miserably executes buildup scenes to sentimental ones.

Maybe it isn't that bad of a show and it's the expectations of manga readers and the lack of comprehension of the work's appeal by certain others that play a part in its bad rating, so a 6/10 is a safe bet, but it's certainly not a recommendation worthy show. No "mixed feelings" here since there isn't any substantial element worth picking it up for, If the title is to be recommended, it should be the manga. A 6/10 but with " not recommended" for it.