GATE - General/Legacy Anime Discussion

[Takeshi senpai]

Agreed, though I really need to start getting use to Kurebayashi's design(Really liked her LN and manga design) and Pina's design as well. Though having intact bodies around despite being bombarded by artillery is weird. The episode shows that the emperor actually has some political skills and is clever, but still a complete douchebag and still completely ignorant on how powerful an army that could slaughter over 60000 soldiers in less than two days, so the anime is pretty accurate on his character.

[Hmm....]

Sad thing is no amount of recon will help Empire anyway. They just don't know what they are seeing.

Look at it from Empire perspective, JSDF is small in number. These men wear cloth with no metal armor. No shield. Nothing resemble weapon, just an odd stick. Some wagons with no horse whatsoever. Hardly any threat, no matter how you look at it.

When they fought, most of them died to artillery barrage before seeing any enemies whatsoever. I doubt they know what hit them. Even when they make it to small arm range, enemies just make a strange noise and they just....die. Everything is beyond their understanding.

[Elestia]

Originally Posted by com_gwp

Much better than the first episode, I think we can all (even manga readers) agree on this. None of that overt and unnecessary attention given to Itami's otakuism, and I can appreciate the time devoted to the perspective and political broad strokes of the empire.

No doubt the sanitisation still feels at odds with the battle we're seeing, but at least the action in this episode was magnitudes better than the first one.

It's funny since one of the soldiers accompanying the general was about to throw up when he saw the aftermath of the shelling. The horror!

[com_gwp]

Originally Posted by Elestia

It's funny since one of the soldiers accompanying the general was about to throw up when he saw the aftermath of the shelling. The horror!

At least the field looked suitably ravaged, and the shelling was animated quite impressively, all which managed to convey that sense of utter annihilation; nothing in the first episode gave me the impression of this massive invasion that resulted in the destruction of a ward.

Originally Posted by Takeshi senpai

Agreed, though I really need to start getting use to Kurebayashi's design(Really liked her LN and manga design) and Pina's design as well.

I'm actually fairly partial to them, though I miss the more hardened designs that the girls had; Lelena's the one I'm having the hardest time to get used to, what with the anime turning her into a moeblob. (Granted, I guess she always was kind of one.)

[FateAnomaly]

The empire probably think they are fighting against a bunch of magic users. That will explain the cloth armor and the stick.

[Elestia]

Originally Posted by com_gwp

At least the field look suitably ravaged, and the shelling was animated quite impressively; nothing in the first episode gave me the impression of this massive invasion that resulted in the destruction of a ward.

Eh, I couldn't get a sense of scale for the conflicts so far. Even the battle of Alnus seemed more like a small skirmish compared to the 120,000 figure they just mentioned in the end. I mean you don't even see one body in the end when Itami started walking around in the aftermath.

[Wandering Soul]

Originally Posted by Elestia

It's funny since one of the soldiers accompanying the general was about to throw up when he saw the aftermath of the shelling. The horror!

It still conveys the feeling of death and destruction better than the first episode did.

[Elestia]

Destruction? Yes.

Death? Not really.

We actually saw blood on the first episode. Here, we see some perfectly intact bodies on the ground, which magically disappears the next morning.

I mean what the hell are the vultures eating?!

[com_gwp]

I think you're a bit too hung up on wanting to see some dismembered/dead bodies.

I don't deny it would've had more shock value, but those screens were perfectly fine in depicting the aftermath of a very one-sided battle.

[watisit]

Mustard gas and white phosphorous. This will terrify them on the battlefield.

Snipers to hound the leaders.

Tear down their walls with bazookas.

Scorched earth tactics? Lol. What takes them a month to travel we can cover in a day.

The soldiers who helped the king sure got through the concertina wire real quickly.

And Kuribayashi is supposed to be like a cow

[Psyco Diver]

I'm liking the MC alot, he's capable and not a moron. Its really going against the normal flow of MCs in fantasy/action animes, I hope it becomes a trend lol

[Elestia]

Originally Posted by com_gwp

I think you're a bit too hung up on wanting to see some dismembered/dead bodies.

I don't deny it would've had more shock value, but those screens were perfectly fine in depicting the aftermath of a very one-sided battle.

Believe it or not, I'm not in it for the shock value. It's a little thing called realism.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by FateAnomaly

The empire probably think they are fighting against a bunch of magic users. That will explain the cloth armor and the stick.

This come to mind

[watisit]

Or this during a fight

[com_gwp]

Originally Posted by Elestia

Believe it or not, I'm not in it for the shock value. It's a little thing called realism.

I don't want to take the opposite side mainly because I'm not in defense of the sanitisation at all, and because this really is just two sides of the same coin; what I call shock value and what you call realism goes back to the central idea about the depiction of war in all its depraved, visceral and bloodied nature.

What I'm saying is that gore isn't necessary for that, nor is it the only way to do that. If you think what episode 2 showed wasn't visceral enough, we'll just have to agree to disagree on that point.

[cupumanager]

Well done, Modern Armaments. You all made me feeling Sympathy for Duran and his men.

Imagine, Duran still pushed forth with his night attack plan, EVEN when he had witnessed how his fellow lords and their glorious armies got massacred by some kind of Whistling AoE Blast Spell never recorded, heard or seen before, in mere minutes, at a dozen leagues away.

Even so, how many of his men deserted? Even so, He valiantly still attack Anus Hill that night. Thats after seeing tens of thousands dead. Now, as his horse tripped on barbed wire, His men bravely rescued him, loyal to the end for their Lord. What kind loyalty was that! Against such unspeakable horrors, the men didn't rout in an instant. Honestly, watching Duran poignantly letting loose an arrow made me shiver.

I mean, even the lowly footsoldiers of the Jayesdeef, the Green Men, are such powerful magic wielders - They can cast hundreds of Armor-Piercing spell like a torrent of fire hail from their Iron Wands, without incantations, at such rate as if they don't have cooldown time; and how many mana are needed to do that? If that's the low footsoldiers, how about their Master Wizards inside Metal Arks that brings down Whistling Death from afar? Too OP, Nerf plz. Remember, Those men never seen anything like this before.

Then, The Emperor. Yes, this weakens up potentially dangerous Vassals - but the Imperial Army itself has lost tens of thousands at the Gate Invasion fiasco. Augustus screamed and cried when he heard 3 Legion has fallen at Teutoburg; but Molt only shrugged at this losses and just went "We can use it to our Advantage". The another tens of thousands of losses in the subsequent Siege of Holy Anus Hill weren't from the Imperial Army, right; but this should send a shockwave of panic across the Empire. The Senate should went wild at the first time, akin to hearing Hannibal crossing the Alps and crushing defeats at Trebia and Trasimene combined - and we're talking about casualties totaling in the hundreds of thousands! Sure, The Empire later employed Fabian Scorched Earth Strategy, but I just can't feel the sheer panic and fear, no sense of urgency from the Emperor himself, like he's rather see the empire burn than losing his power.

By the way, Itami singing Mei's Company theme song at Recon mission reminds me of this:

[Takeshi senpai]

Well, his son's retardedness and arrogance came from someone.

[cupumanager]

Also, I found how JSDF can learn enough of the land's language and writing system enough to make a phrasebook, in 4 months, quite remarkable.

Oh yeah, how sad would Itami be if he found Magical Girls and Catgirls corpses stewn around Alnus - who knows if there are some kind Magical Girl Orders or Catgirl Meido Corps in the Imperial and its vassals army?

[SPARTAN 119]

Originally Posted by Hmm....

Sad thing is no amount of recon will help Empire anyway. They just don't know what they are seeing.

Look at it from Empire perspective, JSDF is small in number. These men wear cloth with no metal armor. No shield. Nothing resemble weapon, just an odd stick. Some wagons with no horse whatsoever. Hardly any threat, no matter how you look at it.

When they fought, most of them died to artillery barrage before seeing any enemies whatsoever. I doubt they know what hit them. Even when they make it to small arm range, enemies just make a strange noise and they just....die. Everything is beyond their understanding.

That's what I was getting at earlier- the JSDF were so far ahead of them that the Empire mistook them for wizards, if not gods. However, so much had changed since that time that a person from the pre-gunpowder era would not realize a gun, let alone a tank or a howitzer, was a threat until they made the mistake of attacking them- much as the Empire did.

Originally Posted by cupumanager

Also, I found how JSDF can learn enough of the land's language and writing system enough to make a phrasebook, in 4 months, quite remarkable.

Oh yeah, how sad would Itami be if he found Magical Girls and Catgirls corpses stewn around Alnus - who knows if there are some kind Magical Girl Orders or Catgirl Meido Corps in the Imperial and its vassals army?

I agree that the phrasebook thing is quite remarkable. The only way that might be possible is if they had linguists study the language of the Imperial POWs from Ginza, and determined it was (for some reason) similar enough to an Earth language, possibly Latin, for them to figure it out that way.

[Iron Maw]

That was good step up from last week. Though wasn't hard for anime staff to do in my case since what annoyed back then was handle better here. I like that the anime (at least compared manga) gave more time Alnus and Duran here. Especially this was first proper engagement between SDF and the Imperial Forces (+ Allies). That said... the battle went about as well as anyone would expect.

Unsurprised to see the lack of gore and all. The battle in ep 1 set standard for that there.

Originally Posted by Takeshi senpai

Agreed, though I really need to start getting use to Kurebayashi's design(Really liked her LN and manga design) and Pina's design as well.

I've already made peace with Kuribayashi and her sassy personality still intact at least so that's good. Pina's newly and randomly added cleavage is stupid though. It looks like a giant tear she forgot to fix and her armor design in general is mediocre. I've got no hope for the Rose Order Knights to be any better at this point. You would think that Rory would have already provide most of this series fanservice needs.

Well there minor issues at the end of the day.

Originally Posted by Psyco Diver

I'm liking the MC alot, he's capable and not a moron. Its really going against the normal flow of MCs in fantasy/action animes, I hope it becomes a trend lol

The last 2 years or so has had lots of capable fantasy heroes though, so I don't see how that makes Itami stand out. If anything that is immediately unique about him it's fact he's 33 year old LN protagonist who happens to be a professional soldier. That's practically unheard of nowadays.