An overpowered existence and his adventure in another world, this is the gist of the story of The New Gate, and that’s maybe it because, honestly, I couldn’t find anything more noteworthy to this anime.
Adapted from a manga written by Kazanami Shinogi and illustrated by Miwa Yoshiyuki, this anime was animated by Cloud Hearts and Yokohama Animation Laboratory, and directed by Nakatsu Tamaki.
Well, the theme of the story itself is no doubt interesting, it’s like what happens after Sword Art Online ended.
So, the story starts as the protagonist Shin defeats the boss monster single-handedly, freeing all other players who were stuck in a death game of an MMORPG.
Just like in the SAO, Shin was last to remain, and when Shin was about to step in the exit gate, something changed, and the gate that was supposed to take him out of the game delivered him 500 years into the future in the game.
Well, this is a new touch, which was missing in Log Horizon, and hence starts his journey to find a way to return home, while roaming in the discarded game world where all the NPCs have gained their ego.
His aim for traveling was to find old connections in that unknown world.
Up to this point, everything seems fresh and new, no doubt a unique approach to an isekai story.
So, why is it that I told this story is only an adventure in another world and nothing more?
To know that further discussion of the story is much needed.
Table of Contents
Not Enough Story Buildup In The New Gate
The way the story of The New Gate started one would expect, that there would be abundant ingredients that could help the story to be of enough length before it enters a set route to make it more engaging.
However, as soon as Shin enters the game world 500 years in the future, he miraculously seems to know everything he needs to do, and except for some scuffle with some monsters, he doesn’t have to face any major obstacle until he finds his confidants.
Even after 500 years the culture or environment seemed to have remained the same, that’s some next-level nonsense, which seems like a plot armor to relieve the protagonist of all the hardships.
Leaving aside the OPness of Shin, all the predicament seemed to be designed like a predetermined scenario in a game, while it has been a long time since that world became independent, so that aspect is not at all depicted properly in the entire story.
Except for some characters with egos who used to be NPCs and some new characters that didn’t exist in the game, nothing is different from a prewritten scenario of Roleplaying Game.
Next is, the aim of the story.
In the first half, it seemed like it was a story of walking down memory lane for the protagonist, like Summoned To Another World For A Second Time, but, in all honesty, the way it depicts that aspect, it feels that Summoned To Another World For A Second Time anime does more justice to its theme than The New Gate.
Between each of the major events, there is little build-up which as a result, fails to deliver the importance of those scenes to the viewers, as all of those results seem easily achievable.
Protagonist and His Confidants In The New Gate
The protagonist was supposed to be more concerned about reconnecting with his old confidants since he has been missing for the last 500 years as shown in The New Gate and it is enough time for everything to change many times.
It seemed everything and every interpersonal connection was going as Shin assumed, like everything was revolving around him.
Everyone was waiting for him, and he was showing just like a charismatic dude, and no one was questioning or blaming him much for his absence.
What’s more, is that some characters are more prone to be soft towards Shin because they had their past entanglement, however, newly acquainted characters who are supposed to be a little bit distant also seem to be too close to him even after meeting him only once.
Well some characters like Wilhelm seemed to have some healthy distance from our oh-so-charismatic protagonist, but those characters are so few that it doesn’t make any difference.
However, the elf Schnee is a character who seems to have some depth, although with her too much devotion towards Shin she has just the right amount of worry and required unhealthy jealousy.
So one could say, that, for NPC gained ego’s example, Schnee could be the perfect one.
However, with this little repertoire of unique characters, the shortcomings of the protagonist’s character and the other confidants can’t be covered up, that’s why the flaws remain unchecked, which results in the story’s degradation.
Story Deviation
The story of The New Gate deviates from the theme a lot in the second half of the series.
The story which started as a walk down memory lane, soon turns into a battle story with a poorly built politically influenced plot.
Meeting with his old NPC friends was the aim of Shin and the story goes that way for some time albeit very emotionally detached, since all the forcefully enacted emotional scenes were cringeworthy.
Meeting with new companions was also within the range of expectations, but entirely changing the story angle at the last moment by introducing some villains and suddenly ending the story at that point is detrimental to the series.
Final Thought
After watching the series, and finding all of its discrepancies regarding the story flow, character depiction, and story build-up, one can safely say that this isn’t an isekai story that is anything more than its adventure elements.
Though the series tries to break that shell, the overall presentation of the story makes the effort worthless.
So, after lots of consideration, there is only one thing to say, this is a one-time watch series only.
That’s why, don’t expect something extravagant after hearing about the story’s theme, since the series doesn’t do justice to it.
If you are interested in isekai fantasy anime, read my blog post on Mushoku Tensei season 2 part 2.
