Its first season having aired back in summer last year, the “Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite Kaku Tatakaeri” anime is now back for a second season, picking things up right where they left off.
Adored the first season of this anime that adapts the “ゲート 自衛隊 彼の地にて、斯く戦えり” light novels written by Takumi Yanai. Next to the typical elements featured in nearly every anime such as cute girls, silly comedy and fanservice, “Gate” cleverly merges a typical fantasy story with a military oriented setting.
Above its surface of military action and comedy, “Gate” contains plenty of interesting themes and offers surprising depth, the first episode of this second season had a shocking, powerful scene suggesting this season may include laden themes such as racism, slavery and abuse. Although even in this second season some of those subplots may feel rather rushed, no doubt due to the time constraints of its anime format.
While some may lament that “Gate” does not wholly focus on such deeper, more engaging plots and choose to be a darker, mature anime instead of including silly shenanigans, I do believe the series works well in this format that makes it more balanced.
Still, I too wonder what “Gate” could have been like if it had been a dark, mature anime without any of the cute girls, otaku or other silliness. Those moments in the show do tend to dampen the impact of the more powerful or gory scenes, like the massacre of attacking medieval armies at the hands of our modern day weapons featured in the first season.
The typical harem trait of Itami being surrounded by cuties Rory, Tuka and Leilei aside, hope this second season will dive more into each girl’s story and character, their characters do hold plenty of potential for some engaging story telling and enthralling plots.
You can watch “Gate” on Crunchyroll.
