Gate Episode 4 [Bringing the Refugees to Chill with us]

So we return to the series that constantly reminds us that Japan is the greatest thing in the history of ever. Honestly the entire series could be reviewed with just that one line, but I have to go into a little more detail with my reviews, so we will once again delve into the world of Gate and I will bring you guys up to speed in case you didn’t watch the episode.

So the episode begins with the elf chick (Chuka) having a flashback dream where her dad Thranduil..I mean Elrond.. I mean..THIS GUY

wakes her up (yes, she was sleeping in her dream) and tells her that the red dragon is fucking shit up they have to run. They run as everything is set on fire, and then he throws her into the well.

We then cut to a restaurant where the girl who wants daddy to love her is listening in on a bar maid tell everyone how she saw the Japanese fend off a red dragon. Of course no one believes her because apparently a red dragon is the equivalent of like… Deathwing in this universe.

Meanwhile back in the base near the gate, the main guy brings the refugees there where his superior’s like “Aww shiittt. This isn’t a good idea.” But then the general says “Hey! This is a good idea!” So now it’s okay. Yes, eloquent, I know.

One of the guys then pulls the main guy aside and starts to talk to him about how important the new zone is and all the resources and no pollution and stuff. He then says that if they keep it all to themselves they may get half of the world turned against them. Which of course would be bad. He asks Itami (the main guy) to be the one to build trust with the people on the other side.

The main guy tells the refugees that he’s going to give them food and lodging so just to hang in there.

Now we all know what scene is coming up next. Yep, you guessed it, the “We’re from another land! So let’s see how wacky the stuff from Earth is! Wackadackadoodle!”

Now let’s see…. 2 episodes ago we ragged on the Americans….whose turn is it this time? Um….Russians?

(Snaps Fingers) Shit! The Chinese. Ah I was close.

Yeah so basically this guy’s like “It’s not fair that Japan got the gate! We should have it! Oh well, we’ll be friends with them…for now (maniacally laughs)” Okay I added the maniacal laughter part…but he might as well.

Meanwhile back at camp everyone takes a bath. Why? Because.

And they spend the next few minutes talking about how awesome indoor baths are. Not even joking.

We DO go back to some plot though as…you know what? I don’t remember her actual name, so I’m going to give her a name. Until she does something cool i’m going to name her “Wah Daddy”. Okay, so Wah Daddy meets up with….HOLY CRAP THAT GUY’S ALIVE?!

Huh…well okay then. Apparently that guy who got blown up in episode 2 is still kicking. Didn’t expect that one. Hmm..maybe he’ll get killed by bees eventually. No Hideki no, this isn’t Vanadis.

Anyway, this guy tells Wah Daddy that her daddy basically got everyone killed because he was worried about losing power in his own country. She doesn’t want to believe it but he tells her to go check out the battlefield and decide for herself.

Once again back to the main cast, Chuka has a tiny bit of the crazy as she refuses to believe her dad is dead and is very standoffish. She’s also worried that once they leave the army they’ll have to fend for themselves and probably sell themselves. The magic chick then tells her they won’t have to as they can sell a bunch of flying dragon scales from the dead ones that the army kind of just left there.

The army then decides to help them sell these items and learn about trade in this world. And that’s where the episode ends. Hmm..maybe next week they’ll meet Holo and Lawrence and they’ll discuss medieval trade practices with each other.

If you couldn’t guess, this was not the most action packed episodes you could watch. But it wasn’t bad by any means, it was one of those episodes that if it didn’t exist, the show would feel very rushed. Checking out the wiki I see this is going to be 24 episodes, and honestly, with this kind of storyline, it really needs to be.

One of the only things that’s really irritating and confusing me about this show is that the people from the other world don’t understand Japanese, but they speak Japanese and they’re trying to convey they’re translating and speaking japanese, but they’re all speaking Japanese. This, to me, is a very lazy mechanic. Honestly what they should do is have the voice actors speak in a weird fake language with subtitles and then when they start speaking Japanese they can actually speak Japanese. Because now, I’m not getting the impression they don’t understand. I don’t know what’s Japanese and what’s kooky otherworld language. It’s very confusing and one of the few things very poorly executed in this show.

The characters are beginning to develop and it’s nice, and I do believe the elf may be starting to fall for our main character. Honestly, I just want to know if the three girls will like him romantically or otherwise…i’m not sure yet as they’re not really giving us a clear setup of that.

This is one of those episodes that you’re not going to write home about… (looks at 1000+ word review, shifts eyes) but it’s a nice relaxing episode nonetheless. Granted it seems to have a bit of the ADD as it jumps from storyline to storyline like it was on crack, but it really didn’t become confusing. I DID however wonder what’s up with Wah daddy and her story. See, i’m ASSUMING you’re supposed to care about her side story but I um…don’t. So..it’s kind of lost on my. I want to see the  main dude go on wacky adventures with these refugees. Don’t really care about Wah Daddy’s quest for truth. Sorry sweetheart.

All in all, okay episode. Not going to set the world on fire

but…it was all right. So…yeah. Hooray!

Episode 6/10

-Hideki