GATE: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri

[KrayZ33]

One episode, Itami is in the throne room. Next episode he´s running around in a city. The episode afterwards he´s driving a jeep towards the dragon. But there never are intersections showing how he got anywhere. It´s like a 4-koma comic strip was turned into an anime.

You are trying to reduce it to that, but it's actually not like that at all, of course he is running around. He's exploring the new world and he's part of the recon squad. He always starts from Alnus Hill, his BOP, and we actually see him driving quite a lot having talks about stuff inside the car and helicopter.

[Kraco]

I don't think this is so weak at all aside from the grand freedoms the author takes what comes to Itami. Some freedoms would be given in any case as he's the MC and you can't really build an interesting story if interesting and challenging stuff doesn't keep happening to the MC all the time, but sometimes the freedoms are too over the top. I'm highly satisfied we got so much politics and diplomacy. The battles were kind of embarrassing to watch due to the hugely asymmetric power balance. So, I'm happy the story doesn't push fighting more than every now and then.

Itami's harem doesn't bother me either. Tuka has been a disappointment, but otherwise it's a nice collection. Only Itami's foolishness annoys me occasionally.

[shinta|hikari]

His harem is horrible. Only Rory is memorable, and even then she talks like a drugged slut 100% of the time.

[Ryllharu]

I dunno, his ex-wife Risa was pretty memorable. But that might be more due to Nanjou Yoshino than anything else.

Yao isn't too bad either. Big improvement over Tuka, who has been a complete waste of an elf in modern clothing because her personality is so bland.

I'm hoping for Yanagida x Delilah, assuming they both survive surgery (and why wouldn't they).

[KrayZ33]

Isn't Pina considered in his harem too? I always thought she is and I like her alot. She isn't stupid and pretty much invovled in everything so far, especially the politics and negotiations.

Would be a shame if she isn't. She is so capable, didn't even hesitate to sacrifice the 3rd Recon Team in Italica to gain an advantage.

[shinta|hikari]

I'll give you Pina, especially because of the dumb name, but the wife had too little screen time to matter. Dark elf is better than normal elf, but that's not saying much.

Now if evil bunny were in his harem, that'd be something. Also angel whore.

[Buffalobiian]

Her situation is quite complicated. She despises Tyuule for surrendering to the enemy that got all their people killed anyway. Moreover, Tyuule knows that Delilah hates her, and took a sick pleasure in secretly ordering Delilah to kill Noriko. It was only right before it all went to shit that we also discovered that Delilah didn't know Tyuule is still alive. This changes things substantially for Delilah. She might actually be the best person for resolving this situation, since she can identify Tyuule as the manipulative bitch that she is.

She knows she's alive. That's why she vowed not to die until she gets revenge on Tyuule.

MFauli has a point. I just don't give a shit about this anime enough to care about it like that.

[Kraco]

Episode 17 - HS




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That was quite a battle. As expected, none of the dark elf extras made it. It's kind of silly that Itami & Gang needed to slay the big dragon with so much difficulty, yet moments later all that firepower arrived. But I guess that's what Itami deserves by doing things on his own.

No wonder Rory doesn't want to get anywhere near Hardy. Can't blame her at all after seeing this. Giselle's reaction to her dragons being annihilated was pretty funny.

[MFauli]

The shittest episode ever. WTF. I can´t even muster the strength to list all the things that went wrong here. Makes me so angry I´m incapable of expression emotions. :|

Just the worst offenders:

- oh, how happy our heroes were that they survived the dragon fight ... who gives a shit about all the no-name dark elves that died, right? At this point, this anime is a parody on the level of Konosuba, only slightly less funny

- When I thought "fuck yeah, finally another apostle appears! Now the heroes cannot do as they please anylonger!", moments later she´s as weak as all the other fantasy-people that are not on Itami´s side. This shit is so frustrating. It was cool how the jets quickly dealth with the dragons, but I SO wished for Giselle to fly up to the jets and slash both of them into nice explosions.

- Oh right: CARRYING TUKA INTO THE VOLCANO - W T F?!? And nobody knew that she´d fire off that deus ex machina-energy blast (which was fucking dumb in itself!), so that´s not a valid reason. How fucking dumb was Itami to do that?! This impotent closet sex-maniac did his best to FURTHER traumatize this elf girl. Nothing he did should have helped her. Ofc it did, cause, duh, anime. fuck´s sake ...

- And how out of place Tuka looked. Seriously, when she layed on the ground, unconscious, I thought she looked like one of Heidi Klum´s top models ... just a useless, dumb bitch, who exists for no reason but her hotness. sigh



I will mention to points of praise, though:

- Rory taking damage that would have hurt Itami was good. That made a lot sense.

- Leilei losing her mind and going all "´MERICA! Fuck YEAH!" and using her magic to attack the dragon by herself.



Sigh, sigh, sigh
My one wish is for there to appear an enemy within the fantasy people that can counter the JSDF. It is so boring how Itami always wins. So boring

[shinta|hikari]

I actually agree with most of your points, though I'm a lot less emotional about it. It could've been much better is the biggest issue for me in this episode.

And didn't Itami's truck have a radio equipped? Were they so far away that no one in the entire military was able to radio them that help was on the way? I don't think planting the C4 took Itami an entire day.

And you don't give rocket launchers to amateurs. Period. I was already imagining the chaos the moment he started giving them "lessons."

Itami, you shit head. How dare you hurt Rory like that. Fucking dumbass.

[Kraco]

And didn't Itami's truck have a radio equipped? Were they so far away that no one in the entire military was able to radio them that help was on the way? I don't think planting the C4 took Itami an entire day.

Lots of mountains and canyons. The fighter pilots could have established a radio contact, but they weren't on the move before Itami had left the car behind.

And you don't give rocket launchers to amateurs. Period. I was already imagining the chaos the moment he started giving them "lessons."

There are thousands of rank amateurs with rocket launchers in their hands in the world at this very moment. They are usually called freedom fighters, resistance, terrorists, or just regular soldiers of certain third world armed forces. It's the beauty of modern small arms that even an ape could use them. No need to be a soldier, knight, or a mercenary with a decade of training and experience to be able to kill efficiently.

Itami, you shit head. How dare you hurt Rory like that. Fucking dumbass.

She'll regenerate. Plus you can bet she has gone through worse many times during her long, long life.

[shinta|hikari]

Lots of mountains and canyons. The fighter pilots could have established a radio contact, but they weren't on the move before Itami had left the car behind.

Oh right. I'm not familiar with military tools enough to know the range and how interference works. However, shouldn't Itami know that? Then why the hell did he come up with the plan of having Rory inform him of the dragon's arrival if interference could block the signal?

Or is the very idea of the interference in that scene bullshit? I mean, the volcano had a gaping hole on top. I'm no expert, so which is it?

There are thousands of rank amateurs with rocket launchers in their hands in the world at this very moment. They are usually called freedom fighters, resistance, terrorists, or just regular soldiers of certain third world armed forces. It's the beauty of modern small arms that even an ape could use them. No need to be a soldier, knight, or a mercenary with a decade of training and experience to be able to kill efficiently.

I don't get the point you're trying to make with rocket launchers. The episode itself showed how stupid it is. Those who give arms to amateurs don't do it because it's ideal. They have no choice but to arm them. And can you really say that no one on their side has suffered from them doing that?

Moreover, Itami's situation and your analogy is completely different. An hour long lecture with no practical training for dark elves who don't even know what guns are before fighting a gigantic monster is different from arming terrorists. You seriously underestimate how dangerous friendly fire is with your statement here.

To top it all off, Itami decided to enter an enclosed cavern with a whole group of elves with launchers. Smart man.

If he had any brains, he should have left a few more elves with rocket launchers outside. Then they could've fired their launchers at a safer place (than a friggin cave!) and informed Itami of the dragon's arrival by way of the explosions. He already knew the dragon wasn't there before entering, yet he decided to bring every single elf inside. Why..?

Then again, he brought a crazy person on this mission and inside the cave too...

I'll give you this though. When I said amateur, I didn't mean non-soldier. I meant those without sufficient training.

She'll regenerate. Plus you can bet she has gone through worse many times during her long, long life.

So it's okay to hurt others because of your stupidity because they'll regenerate? And it's even more okay because she's been hurt before, apparently. Just a reminder, Rory does actually feel pain.

[Kraco]

I'm not actually trying to deny Itami's foolishness here because nothing in this arc wouldn't have happened if Itami hadn't had the brilliant idea of travelling alone to slay the big bad dragon that his whole team previously could barely deal with. So, it does go along with that lack of sense that he would arm the best he can these volunteering dark elves. In the first place, I reckon Itami didn't fully expect to survive this trip, rightly so. If he hadn't given those elves the RPGs, they would have been good for nothing but carrying stuff. It's also unlikely that against the dragon Itami could have shot more than once or twice if he had been fighting alone. So, having multiple people launch at once would be far better tactically. Too bad the dark elves, being the best warriors the clan had, were still as stupid as rubber boots and couldn't follow commands at all. But that seems to be a trait shared by pretty much every single soldier in this story.

They needed to fight where they did because the dragon's movements needed to restricted. Even magic couldn't hit the beast fully outdoors, let alone dummy rockets. The ledge was quite huge, so if the dark elves had actually been warriors worth their pointy ears, things might have ended differently. But instead they panicked like school children and it was game over for them.

The radio thing might have made sense. Rory was nowhere near the opening of the volcano. It's quite plausible such a weak radio wouldn't make it under those circumstances. They should have sent Rory to the top. In the first place not being on the top Rory would lose 180 degrees of the land she had to observe. Clearly one more of Itami's many oversights.

[MFauli]

All I want from this series is that a one point Itami fucks Rory. That´s all I want at this point :/

[shinta|hikari]

@Kraco - They didn't need to fight the beast at all. Itami's plan was a very logical and smart trap. It was everything else he did that was screwed up. If your entire plan revolved on not getting caught by the dragon in the act while planting a bomb, you should make sure you get a notice when the dragon does come around. Heck, if he didn't waste time moving those swords around, they could've been out there earlier and bombed the dragon to death.

And I'm guessing those rusty blades were all magical weapons and thus could pierce the dragon's armor. Otherwise, it wouldn't make any sense for bullets to be ineffective.

@Mfauli - Not happening, sadly.

[Buffalobiian]

RPGs have probes? This show is EDUCATIONAL!

My favourite part has to be the pilots' banter:

-"these guys are smaller than the other one" (yes, we're not getting owned!)
-They're not our target.
-But they're chasing Itami.
-Hmm... fine. Let's kill them.

[Kraco]

If your entire plan revolved on not getting caught by the dragon in the act while planting a bomb, you should make sure you get a notice when the dragon does come around.

Indeed. I guess the RPGs were just an extra insurance. Too bad it was an insurance they needed since he failed to post adequate lookouts. But then again, the dragon was apparently bloody fast accoring to the pilots, so in a certain sense it was merely a matter of luck. Even with a lookout properly posted on the top, they wouldn't have had much time to evacuate if the dragon surprised them in the middle of the preparations, like it ended up doing. But then again, nothing says the dragon had to come back right then, so they might have as well needed to wait for eight hours. I guess the dark elves were cursed by some god of misfortune (called Hardy).

[shinta|hikari]

@Buff - Won't a single plane with the right ammo be enough to easily destroy an adult fire dragon? Speed-wise, they cannot even be compared, and aren't missiles more powerful than RPGs?

[KrayZ33]

Probably, but then again, who knows. Speed doesn't really help that much in "dogfights" and the dragon is able to switch between speed and hover-mode whenever it wants too.

[shinta|hikari]

Why would they even need to dogfight it? They can just shoot missiles at it from far far away.