Note: This review covers only the second season of GATE, read the review of the first season for a full understanding.
ReviewGATE 2nd Season starts with a bang. Itami and the japanese army are engaged in peace talks with the empire, there is a crown prince with a taste for war, and some shady humanoid assassins playing in the shadows. Although the first season lost many episodes dedicated to cute girls, this starts makes you think we will definitely move forward with the interesting concept with intensity. This is even more prominent when the soldiers from Japan kick the crown prince ass right in front of the emperor and kill a dozen of fully-armored soldiers with just a few shots from their rifles.
Conflict. War. Betrayal... and Tuka. Tuka? Yes, Tuka, the elven girl that got completely forgotten by the end of the first season. Once again, instead of going full throttle on the political issues and guns versus swords, GATE goes back to its female cast. This time, not only does it loses precious screen time with them, it does so by using a forced trauma and picking up a boring character to be the central part of this plot at the beginning. Tuka doesn't matter, she does nothing, she is boring as hell, she was never ever important in the first season.
- The Final Showdown with the Dragon
The first season gave us a glimpse of soldiers fighting a colossal dragon, a natural war machine with bulletproof scales, superb speed, high air mobility, and so on. We finally get a chance to see this fight materialize in the beginning of the second season, yet... with Tuka's stupid trauma going on. She calls Itami "dad" and is all giggles and love with him because the show demands fanservice and must use the gorgeous blondie elf at some point. However, instead of unleashing a small group of soldiers or jets and tanks and choppers, what we get is Itami and his girl crew fighting it. Damn. Boring.It teases with its awesomeness from time to time
Remember the crown prince who got his ass kicked? Remember the emperor? Remember the cute princess who led the party in the first season? Well, at a few points GATE remembers them, along with japanese ambassadors, a few military show-offs, and attempts at assassinations and scheming. When it does that, GATE shines, it becomes entrancing, tense, and it makes you want more of it. The beauty of the girls becomes just yet another attractive asset when paired with this interesting idea and cunning development. A pity it only does that for around a quarter of its time, dedicating the other three parts to Itami's all-girl crew.It tries to build on that
Although the all-girl crew is inherently more boring than backstabbing and scheming, GATE does try to put some spice to it by attempting to develop some of these girls in this second season. We have the ridiculously executed Tuka arc in the beginning, then a few scenes trying to give Lelei a reason to exist and showing more of Rory's relationship with other deities. I respect these attempts, but sadly I am not looking for a Clannad-format show when the backstory is about a medieval empire on verge on going head-on against modern-day military prowess.Perhaps the cast outgrew the narrative
Remember the dark elf, Yao? Yeah, you see her in the beginning a bit, but then... puff. She vanishes. She is still there, hanging with Itami, the trying-not-to-be-useless Lelei, the useless-and-annoying Tuka, and immortal Loli/Rory (tchanan!), but you don't even get her name right after a while. To write this review I had to look at the cast entry here in AniDB because I simply couldn't remeber her damn name. This happens to everyone from first season, all those soldiers from Itami's squad, generals, ambassadors, medieval lolis wanting to marry a japanese guy, that ally who gets nearly killed, evil minions, and so on. There are too many people to focus here and too many possible points of view. This would be an amazing element if the show decided to either go head on with multiple story-fronts or focusing truly on Itami's point of view and make everyone else a mystery. GATE, however, does neither. It simply tries to show everyone, everywhere, and everytime. A honorable attempt, but still a huge failure. If Sword Art Online and Log Horizon had severe issues with stuff happening outside of the screen, GATE is the exact opposite, it could benefit if a few things were took for granted or happened beyond our point of view.The production
A1-Pictures quality looks rugged here. Although the girls can get quite charming and the dragon is awesome, there is a considerable lack of consistency, with many scenes where all the brightness and sharpness are lost to generic work. This is more prominent at certain episodes, typically the ones where nothing of importance happens, so I can only think it was all on purpose to save some budget or perhaps hit the deadline.
Once again, GATE repeats its mistakes. The teases in this second season are amazing, it open doors to some awesome events, yet it never truly explores them, opting for a fanservice approach with Tuka, Rory, Lelei, and Yao swarming over Itami. This slowly forces the show to forget some important points, skip interesting developments inside the military or the empire, or downright force some nonsensical decision (or lack of) just for the sake of keeping the focus on Itami and his girls. Assassinations? Secret guilds? Secrets of the gate? Nah. Why focus on that when you have the gorgeous blond elf, a immortal loli with sexy voice, and a default japanese highschool exemplar student?
A pity. This is a concept I love, and it annoys even more because it became close of achieving something meaningful and exciting. It is still worth your time, yes, but not without that mantra that has plagued us for the last few years... "great idea, terrible execution".
