GATE - Light Novel Discussion

[aohige]

Man I've been busy all last week, finally found time to do this in the weekend.

I figured I can do the 1/4 left in one post, but it's more packed than I remembered, so I'll split up again.

Spoiler:

In Japan, Kanou and the defense minister Natsume meet with Prime Minister Morita, seeking permission to rescue the ambassadors.
However, the PM feels if they make a big move right now, all their intel will be exposed to the international inspectors and the media currently in Alnus.
He is also worried that this operation would involve occupying part of the Empire capital, which would certainly result in public questioning why they haven't just taken over the capital already.
He feels explaining to the public on futility of occupying will fall on deaf ears, and rather wait out until the media and inspectors return before carrying out any military operation.
He shows more concern about the election than lives of the ambassadors. After exchanging arguments, the PM begrudgingly permits them to go with the operation, under condition that Kanou and Natsume take all consequences upon themselves.

Meanwhile in Alnus, Noriko had become a translator for the international media due to her status as neutral civilian rather than military personnel.
The journalists wanted a non-military translator, and getting locals who learned Japanese to cooperate had proven tougher than imagined.
She was chosen as a perfect candidate for translator being a civilian who could speak Japanese, English, and French.

The journalists finds out that locals in Alnus were generally had positive feeling towards JSDF, but the Japanese journalist Komurazaki was skeptical.
He feels JSDF is restricting them to only see what they want them to see. (Nanami Kuribayashi, Shino's sister, is there as an assistant and disagrees with his view)
Noriko argues that journalist shouldn't be agenda driven, but he tells her there's no such thing as neutral journalism.
Komurazaki insults her, declaring that because Noriko was rescued by JSDF she is playing favoritism and defensive.

The multi-national inspectors on the other hand seemed to be satisfied with using JSDF translators.
A French inspector marvels learning that the refugees to Alnus had developed most of this community independently.
She praised the system of supporting refugee independence, and asked to learn who is in charge of this.
Himeji, a female JSDF soldier who serves the inspector as translator, reluctantly tells her it's Itami.
Knowing Itami, Himeji doubts he had any "brilliant system" in mind when he brought these refugees to Alnus.

However, the international inspectors had only heard heroics Itami had done, and knew him as "the hero who saved countless lives at the battle in Tokyo, saved the refugees by fending off a dragon, and recently rescued kidnapped civilian from the imperial capital".
While none of what the inspectors said were untrue, it somehow did not fit Himeji's image of Itami, confusing her for a moment.
Each of the inspectors expressed opinions clearly reflecting their country's agenda.
For example, the American inspector was interested in the massive potential for trading with the Special Region, while the Chinese inspector showed interest in migration.

Upon visiting the PX, the inspectors came across several information Japan was trying to keep away from them.
One was a map of the world, which the JSDF had hidden from publishing due to strategic purpose.
Because the only way to purchase anything at the PX was using cash (in either local currency or Japanese yen), they scramble to pull together enough cash to buy the map.
The German inspector (with help from the EU & American inspectors) won the little competition.

Unbeknownth to the inspectors or JSDF, Prince Diabo was observing the ruckus, and decides to contact one of the international inspectors to negotiate.
He swaps clothes with his servant Metometh and sets him up as his double.
The duo sets their eyes on the Chinese inspector, who had lost the race to buy the map.

-------

Meanwhile back in the Jade Palace, the place was drenched in blood.
The Inquisitor army had brought a thousand soldiers from the capital, and forced them to charge in.
Rufurus was driven mad by Tuule, who threatened him that the prince will accept no failures.
He executed the failed Gimlet without mercy and forced the rest of the surviving officers to kill one of their own.
The hysterical inquisitor army used the thousand imperial soldiers as meat-shields.

The Rose Knights, total of 600, had held off the inquisitors but suffered high casualty from the sheer overwhelming numbers.
They are low on rations, and Vifeeta tells Boses that they will have to start eating some of their horses.
Boses wants to lead the forces and charge out with the ambassadors and head to Itallica, but before that they will have to find a way to secure Princess Pina from the capital.

Meanwhile Pina was receiving condemnation from the Senate for the battle in Jade Palace.
The only Senate members left were warmonger hawks, as all the peace talk supporters were either arrested or fleeing.
Hamilton tries to defend the Princess, but she tells her it's no use, as they have no intention of heeding their words.
They threaten her to disband her knights, but she tells her do as they will, as this nation has no future regardless.

--------

Outside the capital, a squadron of dragoons spots enemy "flying swords" and engage them.
The dragoon are hunted down by the fighter jets and gunned down.
The F4 Phantoms bombs the dragoon stables, destroying the capital's air forces.
On the West Gate, the soldiers observing the dragoons shot down and stable destroyed are swiftly assassinated by Oshino, a SFGp member code named "Assassin".

West side of the Empire is the Basoon Prison, which is now under the control of the Inquisition and jails peace talk supporting nobles and Senators.
Sgt Kuwabara takes out Inspector Rufurus, and leads Kuribayashi and Tomita to infiltrate the prison.
The squad is working with other troops such as 4th recon and SFGp.

They throw grenades in the facility and charge in, simultaneously soldiers drop down from five Kawasaki C-1 infiltrating the capital.
The soldiers in the capital will be preoccupied by them to send any reinforcements to the prison.
Zorzal sees the countless paratroopers descending, and thinks his palace is under attack.

The foolish prince panics, and orders all the soldiers on the walls to assemble to protect the palace.
Zorzal shakes in fear and gets up from his seat, only to have Tuule tell him he will lose everything if he runs now.
She laughs and convinces him to stay, but he is disturbed by Tuule's apparent enthusiasm with their situation as she laughs.
But as if to break any shred of courage he mustered, he sees a massive army of helicopters approaching.

The helicopters led by Kengun however were there to carry the rescued prisoners away.
Upon hearing the battle at the Jade Palace, Kengun asks Major General Sabae permission to head to the Jade Palace to assist.

In the forest adjacent to the Jade Palace, the 1200 inquisition army surrounding 300 Rose Knights were engaged by the JGSDF 1st Airborne Brigade.
Consumed by fear of their insane leaders, the inquisitor army would not retreat even when they die by the droves to the fires from type 89 rifles.
They return fire with arrows, which severely injures some of the paratroopers.
Even with superior fire power, they are overwhelming number of enemies who never stops advancing despite the heavy fire and grenades.
Once the paratroopers snipers succeeds in sniping the "Black robe" inquisitor leading however, the empire soldiers suddenly stop their advancements and flees.
Rule by fear goes down the moment the source of the fear is eliminated.

Meanwhile on the Rose Knights side, they observe the panic in part of the enemy encirclement, and charges in to take down the Black Robed inquisitor in charge.
As the knights calvary charges in opening path through the enemy formation, the paratroopers follows in to assist.
Together they take down the enemy forces.

Kengun leads his men into the Jade Palace to rescue the Japanese ambassadors, and is shocked to see vast majority of the injured knights were either women or elderly.
Bozes asks if he's criticizing them, and he apologizes and tells her there are female soldiers in his military too, but as a male he can't help but feel pain seeing so many injured young women in once place.
He shakes her hands, then Vifeeta. Unfortunately Vifeeta does not speak Japanese as she's never been to Alnus.
Being a tomboy girl whose interest lies in becoming a strong knight, she does not share the same fujoshi interest as the princess and Bozes.

Bozes is surprised to learn the JSDF is not here to conquer the capital.
She argues with Vifeeta that they will now by hunted by Zorzal's men, as he would not care that they acted upon Emperor's rule.
Bozes asks Kengun a favor, to let her knights accompany them to leave the capital. And to take the injured back to Alnus as her forces head to Itallica.
Vifeeta confirms (with Bozes translating) with Kengun that the injured will not be treated as prisoners of war, and he assures her they will be treated humanely as guests.
She is relieved and slaps Kengun on his back telling him he's an ok fella.
Meanwhile the paratroopers gleefully picks up the injured women and carry them to the vehicles. With enthusiasm.

Bozes leaves Vifeeta in charge and wants to head to the palace to find Pina.
She shrugs off Vifeeta's warning that that's a suicide mission and runs off on horseback.
Vifeeta jumps on a horse to chase after Bozes, and asks Kengun (in a language he can't understand) to wait until she brings her back.

This is half of what's left. The next post should be the rest, all the way to the end of novel 3 (and Lelei & co's follow up)
Hopefully I'll have some time this week to finally finish novel 3.

Anyways, first fateful meeting of Kengun and Vifeeta.

[Om Nerabdator]

Originally Posted by aohige

Man I've been busy all last week, finally found time to do this in the weekend.

I figured I can do the 1/4 left in one post, but it's more packed than I remembered, so I'll split up again.

Spoiler:

In Japan, Kanou and the defense minister Natsume meet with Prime Minister Morita, seeking permission to rescue the ambassadors.
However, the PM feels if they make a big move right now, all their intel will be exposed to the international inspectors and the media currently in Alnus.
He is also worried that this operation would involve occupying part of the Empire capital, which would certainly result in public questioning why they haven't just taken over the capital already.
He feels explaining to the public on futility of occupying will fall on deaf ears, and rather wait out until the media and inspectors return before carrying out any military operation.
He shows more concern about the election than lives of the ambassadors. After exchanging arguments, the PM begrudgingly permits them to go with the operation, under condition that Kanou and Natsume take all consequences upon themselves.

Meanwhile in Alnus, Noriko had become a translator for the international media due to her status as neutral civilian rather than military personnel.
The journalists wanted a non-military translator, and getting locals who learned Japanese to cooperate had proven tougher than imagined.
She was chosen as a perfect candidate for translator being a civilian who could speak Japanese, English, and French.

The journalists finds out that locals in Alnus were generally had positive feeling towards JSDF, but the Japanese journalist Komurazaki was skeptical.
He feels JSDF is restricting them to only see what they want them to see. (Nanami Kuribayashi, Shino's sister, is there as an assistant and disagrees with his view)
Noriko argues that journalist shouldn't be agenda driven, but he tells her there's no such thing as neutral journalism.
Komurazaki insults her, declaring that because Noriko was rescued by JSDF she is playing favoritism and defensive.

The multi-national inspectors on the other hand seemed to be satisfied with using JSDF translators.
A French inspector marvels learning that the refugees to Alnus had developed most of this community independently.
She praised the system of supporting refugee independence, and asked to learn who is in charge of this.
Himeji, a female JSDF soldier who serves the inspector as translator, reluctantly tells her it's Itami.
Knowing Itami, Himeji doubts he had any "brilliant system" in mind when he brought these refugees to Alnus.

However, the international inspectors had only heard heroics Itami had done, and knew him as "the hero who saved countless lives at the battle in Tokyo, saved the refugees by fending off a dragon, and recently rescued kidnapped civilian from the imperial capital".
While none of what the inspectors said were untrue, it somehow did not fit Himeji's image of Itami, confusing her for a moment.
Each of the inspectors expressed opinions clearly reflecting their country's agenda.
For example, the American inspector was interested in the massive potential for trading with the Special Region, while the Chinese inspector showed interest in migration.

Upon visiting the PX, the inspectors came across several information Japan was trying to keep away from them.
One was a map of the world, which the JSDF had hidden from publishing due to strategic purpose.
Because the only way to purchase anything at the PX was using cash (in either local currency or Japanese yen), they scramble to pull together enough cash to buy the map.
The German inspector (with help from the EU & American inspectors) won the little competition.

Unbeknownth to the inspectors or JSDF, Prince Diabo was observing the ruckus, and decides to contact one of the international inspectors to negotiate.
He swaps clothes with his servant Metometh and sets him up as his double.
The duo sets their eyes on the Chinese inspector, who had lost the race to buy the map.

-------

Meanwhile back in the Jade Palace, the place was drenched in blood.
The Inquisitor army had brought a thousand soldiers from the capital, and forced them to charge in.
Rufurus was driven mad by Tuule, who threatened him that the prince will accept no failures.
He executed the failed Gimlet without mercy and forced the rest of the surviving officers to kill one of their own.
The hysterical inquisitor army used the thousand imperial soldiers as meat-shields.

The Rose Knights, total of 600, had held off the inquisitors but suffered high casualty from the sheer overwhelming numbers.
They are low on rations, and Vifeeta tells Boses that they will have to start eating some of their horses.
Boses wants to lead the forces and charge out with the ambassadors and head to Itallica, but before that they will have to find a way to secure Princess Pina from the capital.

Meanwhile Pina was receiving condemnation from the Senate for the battle in Jade Palace.
The only Senate members left were warmonger hawks, as all the peace talk supporters were either arrested or fleeing.
Hamilton tries to defend the Princess, but she tells her it's no use, as they have no intention of heeding their words.
They threaten her to disband her knights, but she tells her do as they will, as this nation has no future regardless.

--------

Outside the capital, a squadron of dragoons spots enemy "flying swords" and engage them.
The dragoon are hunted down by the fighter jets and gunned down.
The F4 Phantoms bombs the dragoon stables, destroying the capital's air forces.
On the West Gate, the soldiers observing the dragoons shot down and stable destroyed are swiftly assassinated by Oshino, a SFGp member code named "Assassin".

West side of the Empire is the Basoon Prison, which is now under the control of the Inquisition and jails peace talk supporting nobles and Senators.
Sgt Kuwabara takes out Inspector Rufurus, and leads Kuribayashi and Tomita to infiltrate the prison.
The squad is working with other troops such as 4th recon and SFGp.

They throw grenades in the facility and charge in, simultaneously soldiers drop down from five Kawasaki C-1 infiltrating the capital.
The soldiers in the capital will be preoccupied by them to send any reinforcements to the prison.
Zorzal sees the countless paratroopers descending, and thinks his palace is under attack.

The foolish prince panics, and orders all the soldiers on the walls to assemble to protect the palace.
Zorzal shakes in fear and gets up from his seat, only to have Tuule tell him he will lose everything if he runs now.
She laughs and convinces him to stay, but he is disturbed by Tuule's apparent enthusiasm with their situation as she laughs.
But as if to break any shred of courage he mustered, he sees a massive army of helicopters approaching.

The helicopters led by Kengun however were there to carry the rescued prisoners away.
Upon hearing the battle at the Jade Palace, Kengun asks Major General Sabae permission to head to the Jade Palace to assist.

In the forest adjacent to the Jade Palace, the 1200 inquisition army surrounding 300 Rose Knights were engaged by the JGSDF 1st Airborne Brigade.
Consumed by fear of their insane leaders, the inquisitor army would not retreat even when they die by the droves to the fires from type 89 rifles.
They return fire with arrows, which severely injures some of the paratroopers.
Even with superior fire power, they are overwhelming number of enemies who never stops advancing despite the heavy fire and grenades.
Once the paratroopers snipers succeeds in sniping the "Black robe" inquisitor leading however, the empire soldiers suddenly stop their advancements and flees.
Rule by fear goes down the moment the source of the fear is eliminated.

Meanwhile on the Rose Knights side, they observe the panic in part of the enemy encirclement, and charges in to take down the Black Robed inquisitor in charge.
As the knights calvary charges in opening path through the enemy formation, the paratroopers follows in to assist.
Together they take down the enemy forces.

Kengun leads his men into the Jade Palace to rescue the Japanese ambassadors, and is shocked to see vast majority of the injured knights were either women or elderly.
Bozes asks if he's criticizing them, and he apologizes and tells her there are female soldiers in his military too, but as a male he can't help but feel pain seeing so many injured young women in once place.
He shakes her hands, then Vifeeta. Unfortunately Vifeeta does not speak Japanese as she's never been to Alnus.
Being a tomboy girl whose interest lies in becoming a strong knight, she does not share the same fujoshi interest as the princess and Bozes.

Bozes is surprised to learn the JSDF is not here to conquer the capital.
She argues with Vifeeta that they will now by hunted by Zorzal's men, as he would not care that they acted upon Emperor's rule.
Bozes asks Kengun a favor, to let her knights accompany them to leave the capital. And to take the injured back to Alnus as her forces head to Itallica.
Vifeeta confirms (with Bozes translating) with Kengun that the injured will not be treated as prisoners of war, and he assures her they will be treated humanely as guests.
She is relieved and slaps Kengun on his back telling him he's an ok fella.
Meanwhile the paratroopers gleefully picks up the injured women and carry them to the vehicles. With enthusiasm.

Bozes leaves Vifeeta in charge and wants to head to the palace to find Pina.
She shrugs off Vifeeta's warning that that's a suicide mission and runs off on horseback.
Vifeeta jumps on a horse to chase after Bozes, and asks Kengun (in a language he can't understand) to wait until she brings her back.

This is half of what's left. The next post should be the rest, all the way to the end of novel 3 (and Lelei & co's follow up)
Hopefully I'll have some time this week to finally finish novel 3.

Anyways, first fateful meeting of Kengun and Vifeeta.

Mate i dont have the words to express how grateful i am for the summaries, thx

[RDNexus]

Man, shit sure hit up the fan quite quickly. Well, it's that kind of story.
Just how much rage those scumbag international journalists and inspectors have given me... DAMN!!!
I guess the end of that son-of-a-bitch Zorzal is close.
Thanks for keeping at it, Aohige, despite you tight schedule.

[aohige]

It's just one Japanese reporter that's a D-bag.
The other journalists and inspectors are actually ok people.

[RDNexus]

But instead of trying to get proper intel to show "our" world what good, bad, mysterious and alluring kinds of things the other world has to offer, they only care about sticking to each country's agenda, and that's what irks me. Those folks should really try to play neutral in those cases.

[aohige]

Sure, but that's no different than Japan.
Everyone's doing things for their own agenda, no exceptions.
Heck, even Rory is.

[RDNexus]

Yeah, I know that...
I guess I'm taking favoritism, in this case...

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by xrick

But instead of trying to get proper intel to show "our" world what good, bad, mysterious and alluring kinds of things the other world has to offer, they only care about sticking to each country's agenda, and that's what irks me. Those folks should really try to play neutral in those cases.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. Everybody being out for their own interests is natural, and when those interests don't necessarily conflict, can result in everyone getting what they want/need. "Playing neutral" often results in no one getting what they want/need.

[The 48th Ronin]

I'm not catching up. When did Japan allow international observers beyond the Gate?

And how does the world beyond the Gate looks like in the map?

[Kamui04]

Originally Posted by Captain Orange

I'm not catching up. When did Japan allow international observers beyond the Gate?

And how does the world beyond the Gate looks like in the map?

Remember that there's been plenty of time skips in the story.

Spoiler for Timeskips:

It's been mentioned various times how 'months' have passed between major events. For example after the initial invasion and establishing the base in Alnus. The expansion of the Alnus community. Also after the end of Vol. 2 after killing the dragon remember that Itami had time to go back to Japan to visit his mother, comiket and other stuff while in the other world they have assembled volunteers for 'prospecting resources'. So it isn't strange that in that time they invited the media and inspectors.

As for the map, the manga tankoubons included a regional map and the manga artist pixiv has a bigger map.

[FRS]

As usual thanks for the summary Aohige

[Brother Coa]

Originally Posted by Kamui04

As for the map, the manga tankoubons included a regional map and the manga artist pixiv has a bigger map.

I guess that number 1000 on map represents kilometers?

[Hata]

Originally Posted by Brother Coa

I guess that number 1000 on map represents kilometers?

just some added comments

1. yes, it is 1000km scale, it is also the distance between Tokyo and Fukuoka, which give Japanese a sense of the size of special region.

2. so the radius of the circle, with Alnus in the center, is 1000km, which is what the JSDF known of the special region from information gathered by UAV, recons (both air and land) and talking to locals, and from Alnus to the Empire capital, as the bird fly, is 600km. this is important, as it is well within the range of CH-47J(LR).

3. as you can tell from the submap, the purple region are Empire population, the red region are the various kingdoms, and the white are unoccupied by people. the bunny head on the upper top indicated the head hunting rabbit tribe’s old grass plain location before they were destroyed by the Empire,

4. and that is not all, this map is what the Empire knows of the whole world, mainly the one single continent they live on, there should be land beyond the ocean, which the new novel can explore later when the JSDF move their navy into the special region. (this map, I guess, is what the author think of when you stretch and pull Asia and Europe of the Earth, you can see Africa in the lower left, so obvious there should be an America continent somewhere else.)

[Brother Coa]

So their entire continent is ~4-5000 km in diameter from one end to another?

Giving that we can assume that planet is roughly the size of Earth. That is if this is one of major continental mass like Europe and Asia for us.

It would not be bad idea for JSDF to lunch satellite from Alnus and have it scan the planet itself.

[NAJ P. Jackson]

Originally Posted by Kamui04

As for the map, the manga tankoubons included a regional map and the manga artist pixiv has a bigger map.

Interesting. So the Empire occupies land separate from the mainland where the Gate is located? I assume the circle is where the Starfort is located. I first assumed the Empire capital was much closer to it.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Brother Coa

So their entire continent is ~4-5000 km in diameter from one end to another?

Giving that we can assume that planet is roughly the size of Earth. That is if this is one of major continental mass like Europe and Asia for us.

It would not be bad idea for JSDF to lunch satellite from Alnus and have it scan the planet itself.

More like 10000-12000 km. The radius of the circle in the middle of the map is 1000 km, so that circle is 2000 km across.

[Brother Coa]

I see, thanks for clearing that up.

IN any case, it is also not excluded that continent is a single one on the planet.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Brother Coa

I see, thanks for clearing that up.

IN any case, it is also not excluded that continent is a single one on the planet.

It's roughly the size of Eurasia, so it depends upon the size of the world. There are other continents, though. You can see them to the southeast and southwest.

Good idea to launch satellites to get a better idea of the planetary layout and eventually create a GPS system. Frankly wondering why that hasn't begun already. JAXA has that capability, especially given the additional income from the Special Area. And any differences in size or gravity from Earth's (which would require adjustments to the launch rockets) should be easily measurable from the ground with current technology.

[Apache Thunder]

You'd have to construct a majority of the rocket in the special region since obviously you aren't going to jam one through the gate as it's way to small. Hell even some of the parts for most rockets used to launch satellites are too large so even the parts would have to be constructed in the special region. This requires significant infrastructure. It's no surprise they aren't close to doing something like that. :P

[coded321]

i really wonder how A-1 studio's is going to handle the 2nd the second season. i know that compared to the light novel and manga, the anime had censored many graphic scenes, especially the rape scenes. I also noticed that the anime seems to be relatively more light hearted compared to the LN and manga. so i'm wondering how they are going to handle the more depressing and dark parts of the series, like what happened to the bunny kingdom or the japanese hostage. It was at this point in this story that I think the series got really dark compared to how it was at the start. basically i wondering if they are going to tone down the dark parts to keep it more light hearted, or just simply censoring it out.