So the United States does seem to be vying for the position
of the antagonist, or at least the secondary position of backstage
string-puller. It’s hard to say how much of this frequently used plot device is
done out of convenience and how much it’s influenced by a more serious anxiety
regarding the USA’s role in Japanese affairs. Somewhat ironically, the larger
development of the JSDF’s invasion seems to mirror events in the NATO invasions
of Iraq and Afghanistan. After using superior technology to crush the defenders’
conventional forces, the invaders embark on a hearts and minds mission to win
the cooperation of the civilian population (There doesn’t seem to be an
insurgency to be fought here, though these are classic counter-terrorism
tactics.). In the meantime, regional powers threatened by the invasion seek to
manipulate events on the ground for their own ends.
The first episode of Gate didn’t leave much of an impression
on me, but this episode was a huge improvement in terms of my investment in the
action. A lot of this was due to the lack of focus on the rather dull main
character; the first half of the episode instead focused on the kings of the
doomed armies manipulated into attacking the Japanese beachhead in a suicidal
frontal assault. Gate was pretty unflinching in its depiction of the slaughter
that followed. In imagery that evoke scenes from the First World War, armored warriors
were blown apart by artillery barrages, caught up in barbed wire, and cut down
by machine gun fire. The horrific carnage of the first half of the episode—in which
100,000 men are massacred in the course of about three days—stood in stark
contrast to the second half, which followed the more standard otaku soldier
routine from the first episode.
There was a lot of interesting things going on in this
episode and I think the question that will make or break the series is whether
or not Gate can tap into its potential instead of just descending into the
usual waifu shenanigans. Fully mechanized warfare has no place for the warrior
traditions of pre-gunpowder combat. It’s no accident that there is barely any
sign of the Japanese soldiers themselves as the slaughter unfolds: they’re
miles away from the destruction, raining death down on people who can’t even
see, much less reach them. The one-eyed king’s determination to repay the
invaders for the death of his friend “with an arrow” turns into a cruel farce
as he braves machine gun fire to shoot off a single, useless arrow before himself
being cut down.
And yet there are people behind the death machines that
slaughter the 100,000 men, regular people with mundane interests who shoot the
breeze while driving down what are ostensibly enemy roads. It’s a fact that
most media seems to forget; when soldiers aren’t being deified as
uber-patriotic supermen they’re stripped of their identities to become faceless
mooks for the designated heroes to kill without pity or regret. It’s the
paradox of modern warfare, how regular people can wield tools of horrifying
destruction without losing their own humanity and Gate really will set itself
apart from the rest of the pack if it can continue balancing these two sides of
the coin as well as it did in this episode. The massacred warriors certainly didn’t
deserve to die, but are their deaths the fault of the soldiers who did the killing itself or the people higher up, who pulled the strings and orchestrated the battle itself?
Gate’s answer seems to lean more towards the latter, as the
principle antagonist takes the form of the emperor of the nation that attacked
through the gate in the first place. There’s time for him to become the usual mustache twirling villain, but for now I was impressed by the more subdued
form his evil took in this episode. He reacted quickly to the Japanese invasion
by orchestrating a slaughter that leaves his neighbors weak and unable to
threaten his empire, then initiates a scorched earth policy to slow the
invaders’ progress. He also seems happy to sacrifice his daughter for
questioning his actions, though what his endgame is there remains unknown.
This was a great episode, but I’m trying not to get my hopes
up to high. More than likely Gate will continue in the first episode’s trend of
nationalistic chest-thumping crossed with otaku pandering and end up as a fun
but forgettable series. But if it does continue on the path this episode set it
on, it could well turn into a far more interesting production.
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