Title: The New Gate Vol. 3
Author: Yoshiyuki Miwa (Manga Adaptation), Shinogi Kazanami (Original Story)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Physical
Pages: 216
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy, Adventure
Publication Date: October 4, 2020
The Story
Volume 3 of The New Gate picks up with the fight between Shin, Wilhelm, and the Skullface Lord. Realizing that the Lord is an obscenely high level of over 800, Shin has no choice but to unleash his true power. Wilhelm is confused but demands an explanation should Shin survive. After he takes Rashia with him and leaves, Shin and Yuzuha stick around and start mowing through the undead. Shin notices a blip on his radar moving in his direction which turns out to be his old support character, Schnee.
Schnee and Shin end up taking care of the Skullface Lord and enjoy a brief reunion. They catch up with Wilhelm and explain everything which Rashia is asleep. Wilhelm cannot believe that Shin in a high human but they end up parting ways for the time being. Schnee is happy to have Shin back home; however, she says that there is someone still alive that has been waiting for him, the first Beast King, Girart. The volume ends with them planning on meeting up with him.
The story content was a bit on the short side because that was offset by a tremendous about of action that took up the first third of the volume. Shin really is incredibly overpowered and it is even further cemented when we are introduced to Princess Rionne who speaks highly of the High Humans that used to live, stating that she would be no match for one. After she investigated the battle scene, she suspects that a High Human is still alive but doesn’t know it’s Shin… at least… not right now!
Characters
There was quite a lot of character development this time around… none of which had to do with the main character outside of the fact that it was revealed that Shin was a master blacksmith and the true owner of the Moon Sanctum which shocked Tiera!
With the proper introduction of Schnee, we learned a bit about what happened after Shin defeated Origin. Schnee honed her battle skills as well as her cooking skills in the 500 years that Shin has been gone. She made quite the name for herself as someone you don’t want to cross nor get on her bad side. Even Princess Rionne acknowledged her power when the two of them crossed paths during the battle against the Skullfaces. After all, being the support character for one of The Divine Six comes with a bit of respect and nobility. Also, it’s pretty obvious that Schnee is in love with Shin. I mean, she did crawl into bed with him on their first night back, after all! Too bad Shin was too much of a goodie two shoes to do anything about it!
Wilhelm has kind of settled into this role where he has big respect for Shin but cannot truly show it. There is a bit of a jealous factor there but it’s also a love/hate/respect relationship between the three of them. I’m sure that Wilhelm will call on Shin when he’s in a pinch and more banter and comedy will be had when that time comes.
Princess Rionne is a mixed bag. She seems noble enough but her prodding into the whole “I think a High Human did this” situation could be both good and bad. The fact that she actually wants to spar with one should she find one also shows that she’s a bit eccentric. Otherwise, she also appears calm and collected. It’s hard to read her right now as to what her true intentions are but I’m sure this isn’t the last we’re going to see of her.
Then there’s Yuzuha… the Elementail fox that suddenly gained like 200+ levels, grew up, and transformed into a naked girl…. And wanted a hug. Shin didn’t like that so she transformed into a naked boy… and still wanted a hug. Ah, pedophilia jokes… how we never tire of you because Japan just doesn’t give a…. *ahem* she also likes to eat… A LOT. She / He / It’s a fun character, though…
…Squeak!
Final Thoughts
The third volume still has that “vanilla flavor” when it comes to isekai but the action was highly entertaining but the whole sudden power up seems so typical of isekai main characters these days. While the book is following the fantasy isekai recipe to the letter, it’s still a very entertaining series that keeps you engaged.
I love the playfulness between the characters but it’s easy to see that Yuzuha is going to be the most playful of them all. They did seem to set up a bit of a mystery with her with the whole “Elementails are supposed to be hard to tame” thing. It made it seems as if they are craftier than we’re giving them credit for so I wonder if something big will come down the line with Yuzuha or if it’s just going to remain as some sort of pet for Shin?
Looks like we will meet Girart in the next volume and that means we’ll probably get another info dump before we see any action. The only thing I didn’t truly like in this volume was the weird explanation of parties and how voice chat worked. It was pretty convoluted and if that were in a real-life video game, I’m sure nobody would care about the in-game voice chat and just use Discord instead… why? Because that’s what everyone does today anyway!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @JJPiedraOELN
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was purchased for review