The New Gate

Supporting

“The New Gate” (finally a short title, I missed those) is what happens when an overused idea meets subpar execution. I’m getting really tired of writing this but… this show is another example of no story and all plot with no long lasting consequences to anyone or anything, and a world that bends over backwards for the MC. Above that, it's so generic that I really couldn't tell You much about the plot or world without being certain that I’m not mixing things up with another show. It's devoid of originality that much. It’s just another self-indulgent fantasy of a cringe 13 year old. That’s mebeing nice to the show by the way. Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page… I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them: “What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.” “STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”. The first episode left me with more questions than answers and not in a good way. It's prologue is actually the most lazy thing I’ve seen in a while. In short it’s Sword Art Online with even less sense and charm, if You can believe that. I call that an achievement. For starters how the fuck did the “If You die in game, You die in real life” worked? I give shit to SAO for being lazy with its writing but even that had an explanation, not a very good one but still, for its deaths. “The New Gate”? Nope. It uses the words of st.Todd Howard: “It just works”. At this point “The New Gate” should have “Made by Bethesda” slapped on somewhere. Eff off with this. If You can’t make it logical just fucking don’t do it. It’s not like the game world really matters in the grand scale of things. You could bring Shin - the MC, to the isekai part in a million other ways. Second thing and this is the thing that most, both isekai and vr death games, share: Why would he want to go back? Seriously. We don’t see his “before” state. We have no idea if he has a family that worries about him, a girlfriend or even a damn cat. He has nothing as far as we know. And since we are on the subject, how long did the death game last? WHo is taking care of his body? Is his body still in his world after the isekai? Did his body disappear? If his body disappeared will he even be able to return home? Will he have his “new” body in the real world? If yes, what about his stats and skills? He’s just gonna show up one day, practically a demigod and work at mcdonalds? I can actually accept that he doesnt think about it, he’s an idiot in a lot of ways, but even his companions, who knows the truth of his situation? The damn NPC that got sentient, that knows about the game, the systems, the other players don’t even think about that? Even the one NPC that is in love with him? No one? On top of that, what the fuck are the other “players” doing? I assume they also have their skills and stats from the game, which implies most, if not all, of them are far more powerful and knowledgeable than the inhabitants of the world. We later see that there are a few of them in the world and not one of them was a psycho killer, a tyrant or at least someone who created a nation with advanced magic and technology to resemble his home world? Everyone just thought “Hmm… maybe I’ll do nothing. I just survived a death game, why would I even want to have some sort of cosy life after that”, or even “Cool, the game is now real. Time for a killing spree!”? Let’s go deeper. The author has no idea how time works. 500 years have passed. 500 yers. Let that sink in. Really sink in. It took humanity less than 100 years to have 2 world wars, develop an atomic bomb, send people to the moon and create the internet. These fuckers had 500 years and yet they still treat in game mechanics made real like “lost technology”. In 500 there was no one who could have had an obsession with those items and magic? No one who had the vision, intelligence and imagination to create even a pseudo version of them for anyone to use? Of course not. What am I thinking? That would make too much sense and our MC wouldn’t be that special. My bad. This isn’t a testament of Shin’a uniqueness but of the world's incompetence. Seriously, eff this world. It has nothing to do with an actual, organic world and everything to do with dumb game logic that pauses everything until the MC shows up. I can’t believe I’m writing this but I think I miss Sword Art Online, it at least pretended to have a living world and some things were actually done without Kirito. At least we get to see from the start what kind of person he is. He put’s himself in danger for others (I am not touching the idiocy of a solo player killing a raid boss, fuck that, it’s too stupid) and pretends it was nothing. Later we even see something that could actually be called a personality trait. Too bad it happens only on 2 occasions in the whole show and nothing really comes from that. He’s just another flavourless, nice gyu MC that gets all the babes. How original. Well ok, I’m not totally fair. In his case we do get a reason why he isn’t interested romantically in any of them. The problem? We get that in the last episode in the last scene. Too little too late for me to change my mind about him being an idiot. If I had to name some good parts of this trainwreck… I mean show it would be a former NPCs. They actually have personalities and did something when Shin wasn’t around. Yes, the best looking one - Schnee took over his place, but despite that became a respectable combatant that most nations would love to recruit. It’s stated that some even used underhanded tactics to get her. This is something I would like to see. Not her acting like a love stricken moron that serves Shin. I want to see Schnee as an adventurer dealing with her own shit. Same goes for Girard. He created a nation and lived far beyond the age range of his species. On top of that he’s so proud that he wants to die in battle against his friend and former master. This is someone who could have been an awesome MC. But what does the show do with him? Makes him an unimportant in the grand scheme of things background character for Shin to have a semi deep talk that changes nothing for him or the viewers. Both Schnee and Gigard would work as amazing protagonists to show Shin around the new world. Leave Shin as a deuteragonist for 4-5 episodes. He’s so bland it wouldn't change much. He can regain his protagonist status after he’s up to date and only after he learns new respect for his former followers. The fact he created them means nothing in this case. They made something of themselves when they were left alone. He didn’t have a chance for that. Put the mofo in his place. Even if he is all powerful there are struggles that can only be done without violence. You just need to think about it a little. My favourite example that I really think more writers need to know about is “Superman: Peace on Earth”. There You see Superman - practically a demigod failing. It’s not a small failure either. He fails to help an entire nation. He is given a choice where there is no happy ending. In both cases innocent people will suffer. The difference is the degree of that suffering. This is how You should challenge an almighty being. Give him a struggle in which his power is the problem. I don’t want to see Shin soloing an entire horde of enemies, the fucker defieted tha last boss of a death game, You can’t top that, give him something that no matter what he does someone will suffer. Make him live with that. Make him live with the fact that it is his fault. That someone is suffering because he is what he is. All powerful, full of good intentions and absolutely naive to the world. Sorry, I went into teaching mode by accident. As it stands this show is about nothing. There are no consequences to anything and the only thing that does change is the number of busty chicks that would like to ride him like Mario rides Yoshi. The most competent, and yet still lazy, arc is the Gigard arc. It’s almost like when writers had a good idea and for some strange reason even skills to write something that is a start to a competent story. That didn’t last long and we got back to brain dead writing pretty fast but it is proof that there is potential in this. Shame a competent writer never got to work on it. I'm giving it a 4 because I've seen worse shows. Far worse.