All right, normally this is where I do some kind of opening funny intro, however so much crap happened in this episode, if I don’t start recapping now, this review’s going to be over 2000 words long. So let’s just start it up.
So the episode starts off with the group hiding out in Itami’s ex-wife’s house with the other people who came from the other world because people are still looking for them because they’re a bunch of assholes.
One of the funny things that happen in this scene though is the princess and her friend discover “art” which is really yaoi manga. And they love it and I have to admit, I laughed quite a bit.
What’s that? you’re not convinced that’s yaoi?
There you go. The name of the doujin is even ‘BL Comic’. (Very original title by the way)
So they decide to go out on the town the next day. The princess and her friend want to find more yaoi, however they call it “art” so the other guy traveling with them thinks they mean art and take them to a museum. Haha….ah….the princess was too embarrassed to ask for what she really wanted and therefore had to go to a museum instead of Akihabara. Wah wah wahhhhhhhh.
The rest of them decide to go out shopping on the town.
So afterwards, Itami meets up with the defense minister to talk about stuff and old times and how he needs to protect the visitors and how it’s very important and bladdity blah. (Yeah, this is one of the scenes I kind of just zoned out at as I didn’t really care)
All right. Now that that scene’s over, the group is going to go to a hot spring. And here’s where things get weird. First of all, the SDF Sends backup army people to watch them so they don’t get captured by another government. So just keep in mind, what’s going on during the next scene I talk about, is a bunch of people who aren’t Japanese getting shot and making comments about how amazing the SDF is and how they never expected them to be so good.
Jesus, can I find an image on Google that’s Japan literally patting itself on the back? (checks) (sigh) unfortunately now. So in that case, have this screenshot of caucasians looking shocked at how good the SDF is.
Meanwhile, back in ‘la la we have no idea what’s going on outside’ land the group is having a good time at the hot spring. They ask Itami’s ex-wife why she’s his ex-wife and we learn they split because he wanted to go through the gate and she thought it would be too dangerous. That’s….really about it.
We also learn (if it wasn’t entirely obvious) that The princess’s friend totally has the super hots for Itami’s friend. Holy crap! A show where a female character likes someone OTHER than the main character?
This episode is really on the move as we cut back to the prime minister who’s talking to the president…..know what, i’m not even going to call him that. I’m going to call him “Not Obama” instead. Because he’s less a president and more a generic 80’s villain. (seriously, are we sure we didn’t cross over with DC comic and this is Lex Luthor as the president?)
So Not Obama basically tells the prime minister (in not so many words) that he found all this corruption in his cabinet and if they don’t give them the visitors from the other world, he’ll expose it.
The prime minister agrees only to withdraw his amazing super SDF people that apparently American agents couldn’t beat because after all…they’re the best!
Cut back to everyone being asleep except for Rory and Itami and this is when things get steamy. Rory can sense the people getting killed nearby and gets all…well for lack of a better word, horny. And she basically gets all up on Itami and wants to do him.
And the episode ends as you know they’re about to get interrupted by the Americans which kind of pisses me off.
See, I know they’re probably NOT going to put these two together, (because I never seem to ever get the characters paired together that I like) however a man can dream… a man can dream.
So what to say about this episode? First of all, it would be hard to not describe the BLATANT “JAPAN IS THE BEST COUNTRY EVER! LOOK HOW MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE EVERYONE ELSE IS!” I can see what people were talking about when it comes to the patriotism in this show. It’s glaringly blatantly obvious. To me, it doesn’t make the Japanese look like better people, it just makes the author look pettier. By not having the other countries look sympathetic or like real people, you’re just villainifying them and that’s a tactic they used to use back in WWII. I think this series would carry a lot further if they made the government heads not WANT to do these bad things but feel their hands forced to by other factors. That would make this aspect of the show seem less stupid.
When it comes to this blatant Xenophobic racism I’m beginning to either tune it out or laugh at it because it’s so stupid I can’t even deal.
Anyway, as for the rest of the episode, it was cute. I wish I got to see more of the princess’s Yaoi searching adventure but hopefully we’ll see more of that later, and I know i’m kicking a dead horse here, but I REALLY REALLY want Rory and Itami to end up together. God help they won’t, but I want them to. Just going on the record saying this.
What’s weird is, it seems recently that the show doesn’t exactly know what to do with the elf chick and kind of delegated her to the background. She hasn’t really DONE anything in a few episodes and I hope she does something soon other than…well….the nothing not talking she’s been doing.
I’m not the biggest fan in the world of Itami and his ex-wife and no, I wouldn’t be okay with them getting back together.
Gate is definitely a series I wish I could marathon all the way through. I hate having to wait every week for these episodes as I want to keep watching and see what’s going to happen next. That doesn’t happen that often for me with series I watch on this site, but this show can be proud to know I do. So..there’s that.
Overall, it was a fun episode just…guys…tone it down on the blatant Anti anything that isn’t Japan thing. It makes you look pretty petty.
Episode 7/10
-Hideki
Some people wear sunglasses at bight I swear.
“Meanwhile, back in ‘la la we have no idea what’s going on outside’ land the group is having a good time at the hot spring. They ask Itami’s ex-wife why she’s his ex-wife and we learn they split because he wanted to go through the gate and she thought it would be too dangerous. That’s….really about it.”
…No, that’s not what she said. Look, she’s been in love with him a long time, but never really had the guts to admit it. He was her friend, but didn’t love her (never even considered it, because clueless anime lead etc.). In a drunken burst of courage one night she managed to propose to him in that half-assed “if you’ll feed me I’ll marry you!” fashion, and he went along with it because he’s a nice guy who didn’t dislike her and didn’t want to see her keep running herself on the edge of starvation trying to live off her manga/doujin work.
After the Ginza incident she realized that he might actually get killed in his line of work, and his response made her realize that he didn’t understand the way she felt about him. She loves him, and has for ages. He doesn’t get that. Combining that with her belief that the “if you’ll feed me I’ll marry you” thing actually was a pretty disfunctional basis for a marriage, she concluded that it wasn’t right to keep it going.
“What’s weird is, it seems recently that the show doesn’t exactly know what to do with the elf chick and kind of delegated her to the background. She hasn’t really DONE anything in a few episodes and I hope she does something soon other than…well….the nothing not talking she’s been doing.”
We should get more into Tuka’s story after our heroes return to the Special Region.
Still nobody told me how to do the spoiler thingy (-_-;)
Since i don’t really think we might get that far.. let me make you happy.. Itami+Rory (more or less since she is making a contract with him and now shares pain)
Why, that DOES make me happy! Thank you! XD
You know, they codenamed all the JSDF guys outside the cabin after Fate/Stay Night, right? “Archer”, “Lancer”, “Saber”, “Assassin”, “Holy Grail”… Laughed so hard once I figured that out. And for the record, the military guy Itami was talking to is an otaku as well so he probably had something to do with the F/SN naming scheme.