Story: Yoji Itami is your everyday average Otaku. He likes Doujinshi, he has his own personal fetishes, and he likes online novels. On the way to go buy some Doujinshi, a Gate reminiscent to a roman structure opens up in the middle of the city, and all kinds of people, monsters, dragons, and militia barge in and begin slaughtering the innocent civilians. With quick thinking, and the help of the military he contacted, Itami rushes to help with the situation where we discover that this guy is actually a pretty damn good soldier reaching the rank of First Lieutenant. And so, with a mysterious gate that spawned creatures of fantasy existing in the middle of Japan, the government dispatches the JSDF to go in and discover what is on the other side of the Gate.
Gate's story is very similar to the ideas of conquering a new land. We have the invaders and the natives played by the JSDF and the Empire respectively, and we have to opposing sides that go to war (to some degree) and battle for control over certain areas. However, rather than a full-on takeover, Gate focuses more on peaceful resolutions and a mix of cultures and knowledge amongst the two different peoples. Rather than focusing more on the war side of politics, Gate puts most of its effort towards the idea of peace as throughout the entire anime there are talks of peace, sharing cultures and goods, as well as other political acts such as Diets, shifts of power, and well, war. Because you can't have two opposing sides go against each other without war.
Aside from the peace treaties, occasional war, and trade that goes on in the series, there's honestly not much to say beyond that. Character development doesn't particularly exist in this anime as it is very much story-driven, and any sort of thing that seems like character development really only equates to "Itami is a good guy." Hell, those are the closing lines for the show. In addition, some of the politics does get a bit messy halfway through the series. A lot of things happen around the halfway to 2/3 mark of the series and it isn't...really all that clear. A lot of events can happen in Gate at one time, and it ends up becoming rather confusing to watch simply because there is just so much going on.
In the end, Gate did succeed in what it wanted to tell, which was a story that focused on two different sides now coming together since there was a gate that allowed them to come in contact with one another. What it didn't really do well on was the specifics on what it wanted to do. Its somewhat poor execution was only heightened by the lackluster ending. In all fairness, it was a very anticlimactic ending. Nothing...really happened there and the luster of the series just sort of faded away.
Overview:
+ Good base story idea
+ Decent plot and progression
- Lackluster ending
- Poor execution sometimes by jumbling a lot of stuff together at once
Characters: In addition, characters in Gate are good when looked at from face value, but they don't really hold much value in the long run.
Up first, there's Yoji Itami, the main protagonist of the series. As a First Lieutenant of the JDSF army, Itami is a man who has control over an entire little squadron of characters. Throughout the series, Itami is shown to be a rather lax man, wishing only to be one with his Otaku goods and not worrying about the going ons in politics and what have you. But contrary to that, he is a very kind person, seeing that everyone who asks for help should get help and unwilling to back down whenever there is any immediate threat to the people he knows and loves. But really, that's about it. There isn't really any character development for Itami throughout the entire series. He stays rather static with the role that he's given and really doesn't change at all. In most cases, he acts a bit like a plot device because he's the one giving orders and the one that influences most of the characters in the series, while not really changing much as a character himself.
And then we have the three title girls of the series. Tuka, Lelei, and Rory. Similar to Itami, these three girls don't really change much as the series goes on. Static in their roles as sort of "the last girl" due to how Tuka comes in the series, "the knowledgeable one" on account of Lelei's will for knowledge and ability to become a mediator/translator between the other world and Japan, and the "fan favorite" on account of Rory's rather...interesting personality. (I relate her to Tokisaki Kurumi as a comparison, and a bit sad that Sanada Asami didn't get the role for Rory. The parallels!!!) They also don't show up as much as you would think, since there are times where we can basically go an entire episode without either one of these three saying any significant lines.
As for side characters, Gate has a very expansive cast featuring characters from both sides that add to the complexity on the views on what is going on in the other world. However, like always, there are some characters that get more screentime than most. Most notably is the third princess of the empire, Pina Co Lada (I'm sorry, but...that name is hilarious. She's a drink.), who spends the series learning about Japan and, like the JDSF, is shooting for peace. Aside from her though, many other characters get shelved off into two separate categories. Characters who actually involve themselves with the main characters on an episode by episode basis, such as Itami's unit, or just story fodder who serve to do nothing but try and build up the way the story works or what kind of people live in the world. (Cause there are a surprising amount of non-humans.) As a result, the story fodder is chock full of characters you really only meet once and is just a complicated way of saying that they're plot devices.
Overview:
+ Rory
+ Some interesting characters
- Little to none character progression
- Expansive and completely forgettable side cast. (They even had random operatives from the US, China, and Russia one time. Come on, Gate.)
Art: Produced by A-1 pictures, Gate has a rather high quality style of animation. The colors that they use for the series features a rather bright color palette that gives off a very whimsical feel to the series, reminiscent of a magical world. (Well, we are in a magical world.)
In addition, the animation is very fluid and nicely detailed. Any sort of action sequence that does not involve just complete modern warfare is very fluid in its motions (Particularly Rory and her massive halberd badassery), and the backgrounds and characters are very nicely detailed. While there aren't any completely stunning scenes to make note of, the animation does stay very consistent throughout the whole runtime and doesn't fail to look good in any way.
Overview:
+ High quality animation
+ Fluid fight scenes
- No real memorable moments in art
Sound: Gate's OP is a very peculiar piece to listen to. It's unique in the sense that you can't really pin it down as a specific kind of track. It's not heavy metal, it's not your general cutesy music, nor is it any sort of epic war song. It's a sort of mixture of rock music with a little whimsy, and some war song-like attributes, particularly one that sort of boosts morale. Oddly enough though, it doesn't go to the extent of being memorable. That being said though, it is still a decent track and one worth listening to.
The ending on the other hand is similar to a very cutesy song. The three VA's who voice Tuka, Lelei, and Rory sing the song, and it honestly isn't really all that memorable. There isn't anything about it that screams as a track that's memorable.
Overview:
+ Unique OP
- Mediocre ED
Personal Enjoyment: While Gate had more than a couple problems with its execution, it was still a rather enjoyable show. It reminded me of a more serious version of a similar show called "Outbreak Company" where we have an Otaku placed in a magical world.
Did I like this show?
Indeed, I did. Because the show was mostly story based, there were moments where I was completely enthralled by what was going on and was greatly anticipating the next episode. The concept of the show intrigued me and I thoroughly enjoyed that initial battle scene. (The slaughter was funny.) Also Rory. Rory is a fantastic character and probably the fan favorite for the entire series.
What didn't I like about this show?
Gate had some very obvious problems with its execution. As it didn't focus on characters, everyone was rather one sided in terms of personality. In addition, the politics were confusing to me when they began bombarding us with country interactions, and the series just sort of...ending with that anticlimactic ending really didn't do any justice for the series.
Would I recommend this series?
If you're a fan of war-related anime or any kind of fantasy anime, then Gate would be good series to watch. While there are problems with the way the story is made because of its severely down moments and its less than phenomenal character development, it does have enough to it to make it an enjoyable show. Plus, you get to see like a dozen people take down a freaking dragon. That's pretty badass.
