GATE: Jietai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri II Review

It took one season off and then returned to give us our weekly fix of fantasy meets military! A crossover that seems like it wouldn’t work, but my God, did it work so well! It’s time to take a look at the second part of GATE: Jietai Kanochi Nite, Kaku Tatakaeri from A-1 Pictures!

Let’s go!

The Story

First off, I called this the second part of GATE and not second season because the first episode of this part starts on Episode 13. If this were a second season, it would have been called Episode 1. Since we start on the 13th episode, it is clearly a continuation and not another season. Just wanted to clarify that.

GATE picks up right where Episode 12 left off so if you were to watch both parts back to back, the transition would be completely seamless. Zolzal has taken the throne and he looks to drive the JSDF back to their home country. Meanwhile, Tuka still cannot accept the fact that her father has passed away and mistakes Itami as her father. Sooner or later, Zolzal goes completely mad and the JSDF have to make a decision on whether or not to carry out an operation that could cause the peace talks themselves to hang in the balance!

There is still material to adapt, but the way this anime ended, it doesn’t look like there will be a third part/third season/second season, whatever you wish to call it. Let’s just say an Episode 25 and beyond. The anime ended things pretty nicely even though there are many different facets of the story that were left unresolved. They certainly left the door wide open for another 12 episodes, but they could also leave it up to the viewers’ imaginations and just end the series right here. I guess the future of GATE will be determined on how many copies of the anime they can move off of store shelves. Let’s hope they move a lot because I would love to see this come to a definitive end, especially after they teased the fact that there could be a civil war breaking out!

The Characters

In the first part of GATE, the characters weren’t really fleshed out all that much, but here in part two they get some much-needed advancements! I know I covered the characters in my initial review, but I feel I should revisit them because of their latest developments! I do wish to forewarn you all that discussing these characters will lead to spoilers. That’s one of the difficult things about reviewing a second season is that sometimes it’s necessary to talk about things that will spoil the season or the series. So if you haven’t watched part two of GATE or the series at all, I suggest you skip to the Art and Animation section.

Youji Itami

Here is our main protagonist. Despite all that talk of development, nothing really changed much with him. He is an otaku and a member of the JSDF. He claims he works to support his hobby and that his hobby always comes first. However, here in the second part, Itami has a heightened of a sense of duty more than anything. He gripes less about just wanting to be an otaku and begins to care more about his mission. I’d say that’s the only real change we’ve seen in Itami, however, in the final episode, he just reverts back to his normal self which is what made him a lovable character.

Pina Co Lada

She still has the greatest character name ever, well next to one of her knights named Beefeater. She still wishes for peace between the two nations, but Zolzal hatches a plot in the form of a new law that’s passed and brands Pina as a traitor under said law. She spends the majority of this second half locked away in a dungeon and doesn’t really get much screen time, but her payoff in the end is still well-deserved for all that she had to endure!

Despite being a prisoner, Pina still maintains her persona as a noble woman with high prestige. She sheds away what made her a dunce in the first part and becomes strong and able to stand up for herself. If anything, her development made her into a leader more than anything and it just makes her an all around lovable character.

Lelei  & Appregio La Lalena

Lelei is one of the characters that gets quite a bit of development. While her dry and emotionless personality remains exactly the same, you see her grow as a magic user. She even travels to take the masters exam and it is there that we are introduced to a new character who is Lelei’s sister, Appregio.  Appregio is a complete opposite of Lelei, but a character type we’ve seen far too often.  Appregio is loud, obnoxious and pig-headed who tries to hide her jealousy over how advanced Lelei is in both her magic and her studies despite being much older than Lelei. It gives us a nice sense of backstory to the character and not only do we learn more about Lelei, but we see her confidence in her magic abilities grow to where she plays an instrumental part in rescuing Pina.

Tuka Luna Marceau

Tuka also undergoes quite the transformation. In the first part, she was oblivious to the fact that her father died when the fire dragon attacked their village. Here in part two, the news is broken to her and it completely breaks her mind. Tuka begins to truly believe that Itami is her father, but after Itami forces her to confront the fire dragon, she comes to grips with reality. Sadly, she reverts back to her plain old vanilla self afterwards, but she does continue to call Itami father. She obviously knows Itami is not her father, but she does it just to be playful. That makes her kind of cute. I really wish they didn’t just stick her back into vanillaville with her character as she was finally getting interesting.  Kind of sad that once the interesting part was over, she become an afterthought.

Rory Mercury

No development at all. She’s still the perverted demi god with a lust for violence that’s only equal to her feelings for Itami. We do get to see another demi god during the fire dragon arc, though, but outside of knowing more demi gods on Rory’s level exists, she doesn’t advance much as a character.

Yao Ha Ducy

No real development here either. She was introduced late in the first part and then just faded into the background. While she played an instrumental role in assembling her people to attack the fire dragon, her development ends there. In fact, many of her people died during that operation and it was treated like an afterthought when all was said and done. In fact, you really don’t see much of Yao after that story arc at all. It’s like the writers just stopped caring about her which makes me wonder why she was even introduced in the first place. She ended up being a plot device for another character’s development! It’s bad enough that characters are often used as plot devices, but to be a plot device to a plot device to a character’s development is simply the worst fate ever.

Prince Zolzal

He wasn’t on the list in my original review so let’s touch on his bastardness. After his father was poisoned by Zolzal himsef and removed from the picture, he took over as Crown Prince of the empire. He became your typical dictator and tyrant who passed a law which would allow the empire to brand anyone as a traitor for, virtually, any reason whatsoever. He wanted to drive Japan back to their country at any costs and never understood the fact that Apache helicopters far outweigh swords and shields. While he was a ruthless tyrant, he was also a blithering idiot. How anyone in their right mind would follow him is beyond me.

Zolzal was a villain for villain’s sake.  He didn’t really seem like the grand-scheming evil mastermind, but more or less, just an entitled prick who wanted to make the empire his plaything.  When you really think about it, Zolzal resembled that of a child more than a grown man… well… except when he was having his way with our next character.  I tried to find reasons to dislike Zolzal, but in the end, I was praying for the JSDF to put a bullet into his head not because he deserved it, but because it would mean I wouldn’t have to see this character on my screen again.  Had he not been a blithering idiot, I could have taken his role as main villain more seriously.

Tyuule

Here is another new character that was added. She is, for the lack of a better description, Zolzal’s sex slave. Yep… anytime he wants it, she has to give it to him, but there is more to Tyuule than meets the eye. She only endures this because she wishes to see the empire fall and has been secretly plotting against Zolzal. Knowing the full power of Japan, Tyuule manipulates Zolzal into rallying his troops in order to send them like lambs to the slaughter. It’s a little ruthless… it’s a little aggressive, but it works. She’s kind of an anti-hero that you want to cheer for, but can’t simply because she’ll use anyone and anything to accomplish her own personal goal. She’s kind of like a yin and yang character, to some extent.

While that pretty much rounds out the main characters, there are many support characters such as the members of Pina’s knights (including the lovely-named Beefeater), members of the JSDF, the nobles, etc. While some get some development, it’s mainly in the relationship department. The final episode of GATE pulls a Naruto Chapter 700 and just goes on a shipping spree. While it seems random, the seeds were planted there all along to where all of them made sense.

The one ship that made me laugh, though was between Sherry and Sugawara. Sherry is very young for Sugawara, but she deems him as her husband. What made it even better was Sugawara standing there sweating bullets as everyone looked on in disbelief and then retorting with “We will follow the law!” I just sat there and stared blankly into my monitor saying to myself “dude just hooked up with an underage girl…. And people are cool with it. Goddamit, Japan!”

I’m pretty sure this isn’t legal!

All in all it was a very well-rounded cast of characters that each played their parts perfectly. While it was a bit bothersome that most of their development didn’t come until part two, the story arcs presented here had a profound impact and the characters told those stories wonderfully!

Art, Animation, and Sound

The animation is still okay as there was no real change of pace from the first part. A-1 still used CG where necessary and sometimes it is pretty obvious, just like when they fought the fire dragon, but the action scenes is where this anime continued to shine. My favorite scene that I re-watched over and over was the fighter jets versus the twin dragons. Just seeing them get bombed to hell and back put a smile on my face. Hell, every time it was modern army equipment against.. well.. anyone from this world, it was just so one-sided with such overkill that these serious moments just came off as pure comedy. Everything from the bullets flying through the air, to the missiles launching to all of the explosions that even Michael Bay would be proud of, were pulled off and animated extremely well!

Obvious CG, but still looks pretty

Kishida Kyoudan and the Akeboshi Rockets returned once again to provide us with a new opening theme called “GATE II: Sekai wo Koete.” How appropriately named. The theme fits Kyoudan’s style of that driving power rock that can only be enhanced by her powerful vocals. At least it didn’t sound like a remix of the Highschool of the Dead opening that we were given in part one. Speaking of that opening, it was a nice touch that A-1 decided to use it as the final ending song to Episode 24. It made everything come full circle!

Overall Thoughts

In a world with endless fantasy animes, it is refreshing to see something different. The story of a conflict between modern and medieval draws you in and hooks you through its lovable cast of characters and enticing story. The characters, right down to their names, keep you entertained and everything from the art to the music to the actual story itself just pulls everything together into a very enjoyable anime. I really hope they finish out the adaptation and we get a third part/season/whatever of GATE.

If you were on the fence about this show and want to catch up, I would saw now is the time to do so. This is a fantastic anime that is definitely worth your time!

He’s about to find out why she’s named Beefeater… aw c’mon, you didn’t think I would let this review end without going THERE, did you?