An Enjoyable Series, Though it Ignores Reality

Gate is a very enjoyable anime. It has things that a lot of people like, in terms of military, fantasy, and harem genres. Where it gets things wrong is if one thinks a little bit about the setting.

Now I'm not talking about the whole connecting a fantasy world to Japan, because that's not too far out there in terms of fantasy stories. What's wrong is when the story tries to involve politics, not of the fantasy world but of the Earth. And in fact the entire premise as a whole is flawed. Japan would not be able to unilaterally declare the other side of the gate as Japanese territory. In fact a good portion of the world would view it as being an aggressive move on their part to do so. At the very least you'd see the USA step in and take control of the situation as stipulated by treaty following World War II when it comes to the defense of Japan.

This alone would be sufficient to derail the anime from the story its trying to portray. But in addition to this it tries to make the major world powers out to be idiots, that is the US, Russia, and China. No one would think kidnapping an ambassador is the appropriate way to gain access to another country. That Gate seems to think major powers would do so does not lend great credence to any ideas the writer had as to how international affairs actually work.

There are easier ways to have done this rather than try to make it into a nationalistic piece about Japan. It would have been much more believable to have made it a multi-national force headed by the UN. And the story could have retained its pro-Japan standing had it simply made Japan the lead for the force, which Japan could have requested. But instead we have the mess we were left with.