[Brother Coa]

For me this series was something new and interesting when I first found out about it. The concept of modern military going to fantasy world and waging war there was something new to me back then. What also interested me in this was interaction between these two different cultures. But GATE delivered far more than that for me, it is also disappointing in some areas.

Story - 7/10 Story in GATE would be your average fantasy anime story with monsters and swords and cute girls in armor. If not for the entire military mix in it, which was present from episode 1 to the very last episode. This mix is where this anime really shines, it really catches the viewer and makes him to ask what will next step be? How will primitive people of that world react to this and that? But it's far from perfect or even very good. Bellow all of this it's yet again harem story where MC get's several girls following him. And politics in this anime are not done great in all honesty - modern ones, not fantasy ones. Fantasy ones were done good as expected from medieval way of thinking but author clearly did some mistakes when it comes with handling modern politics. And lastly he made military a little too perfect, I am military otaku and I had to agree with others that SDF was presented as just too perfect in this anime. But overall it is good story that can be easily followed and get into.

Characters - 8/10 Characters in this anime are indeed interesting and thanks to 24 format episodes they got chance to be developed and shine. I especially like the main character Itami - finally MC that is not teenager with hidden magical powers who will turn into indestructible mary sue by the end of anime ( SAO, Magical Index, Fate and many, many others... ). MC is actually an adult, 33 years old and he is professional soldier who rose to rank of officer. Yes, his hobby is something added that made little sense but actually people would be surprised how many soldiers are also a hobbyist today. Itami is balancing everything well, looking to ease his job as much as he can but doing the right thing when time comes. Others are again well developed, Rory steal the show in anime fanbase, Lelei is you typical teenage kuudere genius, Tuka is damsel in distress, Yao is naive and unlucky ( most shallow of all characters ), Pina is princess, soldier and politician in one etc... I really felt that some minor characters deserved more screen-time and development but we have Gaiden books for that ( I would personally loved to learn much more about Rogal Dorn, Hamilton and minor characters like that ). Overall, great number of characters and well development with interesting MC.

Sound 9/10 - What can I say other than it's doing it's job when it counts. Also, main theme kicks some major a**.

Visuals 8/10 - To me at least, anime is rarely about animation ( unlike 80% of anime fanbase today, and I personally dislike God Eater because animation looks so unnatural in it for anime ) but I also understand that animation is important part because of how well it delivers the story. What can I say about GATE? Animation was good, not great and not bad. Some scenes were done great and with HD footage, but the rest was your average anime animation we have today. I even noticed in second half of the show how they re-used some animations from previous episodes to fill the gap, only inverting some things to make it slightly different while everything else was same ( go and watch Fire Dragoon F-4 attacks and episode 23 F-4 attacks - you can clearly see it was reused ). But other than that animation was good and did it's job quite well.

Battles 10/10 - I must mention this as this is essentially one of main parts of anime - the battles were glorious. From Ginza and Alnus Hill to Italica and Capital military was presented in it's shinning light and very realistic. Weapons work as they should, tactics are correct, armor is correct and military morals are presented like they work in reality. I suppose I should not be too surprised as main author is former SDF officer. Aldo done better in manga the battles are still major goodness to be seen. It really invoked "Zulu" in me as well as "Peacekeeper" movies mixed with "We were soldiers" and "Band of Brothers". This anime is great watch for even those who are not into anime but are military lovers.

Enjoyment 10/10 For me this anime has flaws and bright moments but it was rarely boring. At any time something was happening to keep the viewer watching. And it is never too slow or too fast.

For me this anime is 9/10 - one of the best I have ever seen. And standing right there on my top 3 with FSN and Claymore. I will buy BD's for sure when they get out.