This is a review of the first season of 24 episodes from the Japanese TV series Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri.

Rating

8/10

Praise

The show had drawn my interest was because I like to see scrubs get rekt. The show has guns, tanks, helicopters, and all kinds of modern technology. Compare that to swords and spears. The native's reactions were intriguing.

Itami's character plot was amusing. Itami is an underachiever who kept on getting promotions and failing to the top despite his incompetence, apathy, and lack of discipline. Kuribayashi was so jealous. It reminds me of Big Head from Silicon Valley whose hilarious incompetence and care-free attitude causes him to fail his way to the top and become a millionaire and legendary programmer by doing absolutely nothing.

Criticism

The story about other nations and their covert ops kidnapping the visitors was utterly ridiculous. It would have made more sense for other countries to be more cautious at first like sending spies or double agents to the special region for intelligence gathering. An important point to recognize is that the purpose of the kidnapping scene shows that Rory was capable of fighting a group of trained men armed with guns. The scene was pointless anyway because this important point was never realized. Rory never fought against modern soldiers other than that scene. The story between nations wasn't developed enough to jump to kidnapping. There should have been a gradual buildup of international tensions or escalation, which would have taken too much time to end in one season. As the way that the season was structured, the kidnapping scene was a waste of time. I would prefer that the kidnapping scene be left out.

The show uses some overdramatization. I am not too fond of the anime female crying trope. It is annoying and not realistic, especially the TV news reporter crying about not getting a story. Why would an adult cry over such a mundane thing? Another crying scene is when Lalena realizes that her sister Lelei has surpassed her knowledge and abilities. Nonetheless, this drama is much more understandable because of rivalry and jealousy. It was plausible yet overdramatized.

When fighting the fire dragon, all the characters die except the main characters. A major cliché. Whatever.

If Sherry Tyueli's parents were going to burn down the mansion anyway, why didn't they just leave with their daughter? What is the point of staying? Why would the Oprichnina officers allow the parents to stay in the fire? They could have easily arrested them and then escorted them out of the building.

It didn't make sense to reduce protection of the Jade Palace embassy. Needing to operate with discretion is a challenge, yet the perilous situation calls for immediate action and no delays. In the real world, attacking an embassy is a big deal. Remember Benghazi? If the end goal was making sure that the senators were safe, the embassy should have accepted refugees seeking asylum and also prearranged plans and authorization for the protection of the embassy.

Some reviewers had criticized the ignorance of the language barrier. The show doesn't go into the technicalities of the language barrier. This is reasonable. It is implied that the main characters learned the Japanese dialect or the native dialect somehow. Grand Master Mimoza's answer to a history question revealed past gate crossings. It may have been possible that the Japanese spoken language was inherited from generations of Japanese humans crossing the gate. The differences between dialects may have been manageable compared to learning a completely different language. The ignorance of the language barrier doesn't really ruin the story. Some shortcuts are necessary. Too many technicalities would be a distraction.

I have questions about Tyuule. How did Tyuule get a secret henchman? How did Tyuule transform from being a prisoner to Zorzal's right hand? The show does not explain these questions very well. The show could have explored or explained Tyuule a bit more.

The biggest problems of first contact are disease and contamination. Surprisingly, the show does not address the problem of disease. There should have been outbreaks of disease. This may be an interesting and realistic plot to explore.

Next

What I would like to see in the next season would be explanation of the gate and the gods and demigods. We definitely need a full takedown of the evil Zorzal empire. More action and more exploitation of natural resources? An oil conflict might get interesting.