Considering the limited viewing time I get these days, I have to consider what I’m watching when I do get the chance to actually sit in front of the TV. With a one-year old running around and demanding attention, I have to make sure that I watch something that I would actually understand even if my concentration is compromised.
Given the main character and the opening scene of GATE: Jietai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri (or GATE: The Self Defence Forces Fight Like This in That Place), it was a good enough fit for my needs.
All Itami Yoji wanted was to attend a doujinshi event, but a strange gate that suddenly unleashed an army of soldiers and monsters threaten to ruin his plans. With his otaku knowledge of anime and manga, coupled with his practical skills as a JSDF soldier, he became instrumental in fighting back against the invading force and getting civilians to safety. Recognized as a hero, he receives a promotion and an officer position in the JSDF force sent to the other side of the GATE. Their mission is to establish a foothold in the special region and try to negotiate for peace with the empire that rules it.
You would think that, as an otaku, Itami would find joy in traveling to a world that seems to be the embodiment of a fantasy adventure. The special region features a Roman-style empire with classes of knights among its soldiers, dragons, magicians, elves, animal girls, and even a gothic lolita-esque demigod. But a true otaku apparently appreciates all these by merely reading or watching them, although Itami isn’t above expressing his enthusiasm to find actual elves or cat girls. In truth, he’s more concerned about all the doujinshi events he’s missing in Japan.
Itami isn’t interested in heroics, but somehow ends up being reliable in his role as a squad leader. While the female human soldiers in his group find his otaku ways rather off-putting, he is somehow a magnet for different female personalities in the special region. In a short amount of time, he ends up with female companions in the form of orphaned elf Tuka Luna Marceau, human apprentice sorcerer Lelei la Lelena and a 961 year old but young appearing demigod Rory Mercury. Then, he also ends up starting peace negotiations with Princess Piña Co Lada (hehehe), daughter of scheming emperor Molt Sol Augustus who instigated the attack against Japan.
Despite the large number of female characters who keep themselves in close proximity to Itami, GATE doesn’t actually end up as a harem series. It just so happens that Itami is a magnet for unusual relationships with women, whether he becomes a reluctant father figure, object of affection, or accidental punching bag (I know… still sounds like a harem, but it really isn’t). It doesn’t strive to be anything more than what it is, an adventure story set in a fantastical world with inhabitants that are surprisingly similarly human as Itami and his squad members. Even if they do have weird ears or magic powers.
GATE keeps a light touch on its storytelling and it really was easy to watch. The comedy is a highlight, with the fish out of water reactions for both the Japanese and the special region inhabitants when faced with each other’s culture, and the hijinks that are usually at Itami’s expense. What makes GATE special is its handling of the more serious themes, never deviating from the tone of the series but never undermining that this is still a story about war. Scenes that displayed the more effective firepower of the JSDF and Rory’s ability to wipe out armies aren’t actually anything to laugh about, but the storytelling never turned somber during this time.
GATE felt like the ultimate tutorial on how the Japanese would conduct a cultural exchange program, peppered with fun characters to watch. Admittedly, the anime series’s large cast can be hard to keep up with, especially with Itami and his squad visiting more new places, and with Japan sending more key personnel to handle peace negotiations. But in the end, all you need is Itami, because the different characters rely on him even if they accuse him of being unreliable and he somehow ends up becoming central (or, at the very least, instrumental) to all of the major events in the special region.
GATE isn’t the anime series I would have immediately gravitated to when it premiered last summer, but it ended up being reliable as great viewing material. Funny how that parallels people’s impression of Itami.
Happy viewing!!
PEPS LIKES TO 