GATE (2015)

[ゲート 自衛隊 彼の地にて、斯く戦えり]

Volume 6

Author: Takumi Yanai
Artist: Satoru Sao
Publisher: Alphapolis

Synopsis:
Realizing that he cannot keep pretending to be Tuka's father, Itami finally agrees to hunt the Fire Dragon to help her overcome her trauma.

Story/Characters:
I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that a showdown with the Fire Dragon was in the offing. Interestingly, even though it was Yanagida who was pushing Itami to do it in the first place, he gives our hero quite the verbal lashing for it, something that doesn't appear in the anime. The thing is, it's actually fairly important, calling him out on how his actions are a poor reflection on him as an officer (because rather than go through channels and bring along his unit with support from the rest of the detachment, he's going off on his own, which completely undermines how the military is supposed to operate). I also like that King Duran is brought back into prominence in the story and ties into Itami's backup. Now, while there's some merit in making their appearance a (sort of) surprise in the anime, we get a nice aversion to the usual easy logistics of the series with the considerable difficulty the Jieitai has moving so much materiel through the Special Region. We also get to see some races that never made an appearance in the TV series. Then there's the false flag using Delilah as an unwitting pawn, which adds nicely to the intrigues going on behind the scenes and also gives us the opportunity to get more detail about the Warrior Bunny society and their defeat at the hands of Prince Zorzal.

Art:
The art is as good as ever. We get some nice vista shots on the road trip and a lot of lovingly rendered war machines. The imagery of the butchery suffered by the Warrior Bunnies is as horrific as you'd imagine from the series thus far. There are also a couple good action scenes with the Fire Dragon, which serve as an appetizer for bigger things coming up.

Other:
Once again, there are several 4-koma strips at the end of the volume for your amusement.

Conclusion:
It you found the last volume or two to be a bit on the slow side, things are picking up here, which make for some more compelling content. If you've been enjoying yourself so far, you'll continue to do so here.

Rating:
Read It