Title: The New Gate Vol. 2
Author: Yoshiyuki Miwa (Manga Adaptation), Shinogi Kazanami (Original Story)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 204
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy, Adventure
Publication Date: May 26, 2020
The Story
Volume 2 of The New Gate starts off with Shin gathering Hilkweed in the forest when he comes across a voice telling him to “Go Away.” Apparently, this is some sort of barrier spell and since Shin has a high enough resistance, he decides to go check it out. When he does, he comes across some ruins where he saves a fox, which satisfies Millie’s request from the orphanage. After bringing the fox, now named Yuzuha, back to the orphanage, he realizes that his adventure is just beginning.
A greedy man of the church simply referred to as a Pig, wants to assume control of the church and shut down the orphanage but if someone has enough power and is of the family lineage, they will hold precedence over anyone else. Wilhelm makes an appearance and after a discussion with Shin, decides that he can trust him. Together, the two of them take Rashia from the orphanage to The Spirit Plains where they look to have her acquire the Purify skill… something that will bestow upon her great power and ensure that she be the one to preside over the church and orphanage.
The back half of the manga deals with them battling lvl 150+ undead and having Rashia deliver the final blow until she satisfies all of the requirements to obtain the skill. Things seem to be going well until a lvl 804 Skullface King decides to show up.
The story was pretty straight-forward and as any good second volume does, we are treated to a nice balance of story progression and character development. Two stories intertwined in this volume with those being a story of saving the orphanage and a story of bonding between Shin and Wilhelm. Also, we did get a bit of main story progression with the appearance of a certain someone, albeit briefly. While all of the basic isekai elements are present here, the series continues to feel compelling!
Characters
Shin’s development is kind of put on hold but Wilhelm does suspect that something is off about him. He can’t believe that he defeated a lvl 343 Skullface Jack by himself while holding a Rank G adventurer card. Wilhelm questions whether or not he is a Chosen One and in typical fashion, Shin elects not to tell him the truth about himself and just goes with the Chosen One story since it’s rather convenient for the situation. Honestly, just once I’d like a character in an isekai to just flat out tell the truth and see what happens. It would be pretty hilarious!
Wilhelm did receive some development and thanks to his soft spot for orphans, he doesn’t seem to be as brash as we once thought. He is actually pretty noble and while his relationship with Shin isn’t perfect, he does have a certain amount of respect for him. He does find Shin’s lax attitude to things a bit annoying, though but that’s good as it preserves a bit of his character from when he was first introduced in the last volume. Wilhelm is kind of growing on me as he is a trusting person albeit one who exhibits extreme caution. Despite his rage tendencies, that makes him pretty calculated in his decisions. He is a bit of a mixed bag but still seems balanced all the same.
Rashia is just your typical meek and timid character who has trouble believing in her own abilities. She scared to even take part in any of the battles and only did so out of necessity. Even with Shin and Wilhelm protecting her, she lacked confidence or had to be constantly reminded to cast her spells. She just reminds me of the typical player in an MMO that needs a lot of hand-holding and can’t really do much on their own. I can just see her trying to put on a brave face but failing against a lvl 1 rat, haha! Still, she’s innocent enough to where you want to hug her, though!
Final Thoughts
Despite the averageness of the story, The New Gate takes your typical isekai fantasy setting and makes it interesting. It keeps the whole RPG element intact but it is kind of weird when people in the world just start talking about inventory and levels like its part of their normal daily lives. I know that this is an actual game world but NPCs aren’t usually keen to game mechanics so that does kind of break the immersion a bit but it doesn’t do so in such a way where the series is unenjoyable.
There’s plenty to like here about this series. It doesn’t dwell too much on menial things such as what happens during downtime. It keeps the action and the story advancement in good balance so that just when you feel like you’ve had enough of walking around and information dumps, it gets you right back into the action and picks up the pace. I’ve seen other series struggle with this as they lean too heavily on the action and don’t give you enough time to breathe and take in the lore or in other cases it’s the opposite where you get too much downtime and information and not enough action to keep your interest.
Thankfully, The New Gate has struck the perfect balance all while keeping the world feeling alive and moving even when the spotlight isn’t on the supporting cast. The main characters of Shin and (apparently) Wilhelm keep things entertaining but the same run-of-the-mill questions in any isekai series are still present here. Those questions being: How will Shin get home? Are there any other players still trapped? Will people find out he’s from another world? Some of those questions might just have some of their answers teased. We’ll have to wait until volume three to see if we get any closer to those answers!
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This item was provided for review by One Peace Books
