GATE #5

So episodes 3 and 4 stumbled a bit but we’re finally at the Battle of Italica. So the question is, will they do this right or fuck things up?

Well I’ll tell ya, they pulled it off. So far so good. And they did it by doing their own thang rather than following the sequence of the manga and I presume, the Light Novels. For instance, in the manga, Princess Pina’s backstory was told in an alternate comic. But here, they’ve integrated the story of how Pina’s knightly order was formed as well as a call back to earlier episodes.

They also explained the presence of demi-humans on the battlefield, showing that they had magic, whilst the manga didn’t even mention their contribution. A lot of stuff got explained too, like the tactics employed by Pina. Like the significance of why the JSDF were sent to guard a certain gate in Italica etc.

They’ve also handled the sex and violence better here. The scene where the bandits desecrated the bodies of villagers in order to lure the militia into breaking their defensive line was a tad different in the manga. There, they dragged out the corpses of women. A guy in the militia recognized one of them as his fiancee and when the bandits realized that, they decapitated the her and threw her head at the guy to incite ’em.

Gate has a lot of stuff that has to be censored out, but there’s good censorship and bad. This is a case of good censorship. They managed to get across what was happening despite having to change things up a bit.

They also finally talked a bit about Rory’s religion/beliefs. Which was a long time coming really. Now there’s a reason for her to stay with the JSDF.

A lot of old characters got de-aged though. First the emperor and now the maid. But eh.

The title of the next episode gives me hope they won’t fuck it up. Especially since this episode was a damn good adaptation as well. After the next episode, I’ve no idea whether GATE even has the potential to not suck, but for now, I’m super SUPER eager for the next episode.

Addendum: That said, in the manga, Pina imagines what her fate would be after the Battle of Italica and we see several of her “fantasies” like being chained up for slavery/rape and boot kissing. It’s not very graphic but the anime seems to whitewash the risque parts, so hopefully her fantasies will make the cut into the anime anyway.