August 28, 2015

GATE -- ep 9

 

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The title of this episode was "The Hakone Mountain Night Battle" but Rory didn't end up involved. That'll be next episode. (Oh, well.)

First half of the episode was spending the night at Risa's place, and then going shopping the next day.

The second half was at the hot springs. And there was only one potential "buy the BDs" shot, and that not certain. I suspect this isn't that kind of series, frankly.

This episode was all setup; lots of little things that happened (like the Pina and Bozes discovering Boy Love manga) which establish grounds for later events, but nothing really noteworthy in itself.

There wasn't any rubber duck at the onsen, so Lelei amuses herself in the hot spring by levitating a ball of water.

(She eventually lets go of it and it splashes on her head.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 12:41 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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1

Unfortunately, Episode 9 is also the episode where classic Japanese stereotypes about foreigners - in this case, Americans - start hitting full force.  I was not impressed by it, as well as the sudden forgetfulness regarding the SFGp - Delta Force helped train the SFGp, so why would the Americans be surprised at how good it is?!?

Posted by: cxt217 at August 28, 2015 02:24 PM (gbKL5)

2 Did I see this right? The Prime Minister is blackmailed into letting the Americans kidnap Ambassadors from another world who are honored guests in Japan?

Concerned about the loss of honor of his fellow politicians, he opens the door for an entire country's dishonor? I assume the "invitation" to visit will be rather unrefusable.

I hope I got this wrong, because this was a really good series up until this point.

Posted by: topmaker at August 28, 2015 04:54 PM (2yZsg)

3

Yeah, that's what happened. I'm not sure how long this is going to last; it might be one ep or two. At the very end, the Americans get their noses pushed in, and after that Earth politics don't intrude on the story any longer. The story moves back to the other side and stays there.

Right now my guess is one more ep, but I could be wrong. I didn't think this episode would end where it did (chapter 21). This plot arc ends with chapter 24. At this point I'm leaning towards two episodes, but only time will tell.

I'm hoping not, because if it's two episodes then it is likely that this will be a one-cour series and I'm hoping for two cours. (Chapter 46 would be a fantastic place to end a 2-cour series.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 28, 2015 05:18 PM (+rSRq)

4 "(Chapter 46 would be a fantastic place to end a 2-cour series.)"

Yeah, I remember you making that comment earlier. I am tempted to start reading the scans, but I am seriously afraid of losing interest in the anime because I got so far into the story. Sometimes that happens and sometimes not. I haven't quite figured out the rationale of which and why.

Posted by: topmaker at August 28, 2015 05:23 PM (2yZsg)

5

Right now, I am trying to decide whether to pretend that this part of the story never happened, because frankly, the story has dropped to retard-level stupidity in a single episode.

Posted by: cxt217 at August 28, 2015 05:53 PM (gbKL5)

6 It doesn't stay that way for long, thankfully.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 28, 2015 06:54 PM (+rSRq)

7

So.  On the first hand, we know Lelei's magic works cis-Gate - in our world.  This is confirmed on the second hand that only Rory is strong enough to wield her silly pole-arm.

That would seem to imply, on the gripping hand, that all of their Secondary World forces work in "our world."  I think that has some rather astonishing implications both for technology and religion. 

I'm not exactly sure what a host of mages such as Lelei might do in our world, but I frankly confess myself perplexed, as an orthodox Catholic, as to how to incorporate someone like Rory and her master, into the grand scheme of things.  I'm sure for a writer in Japan - Shinto, Buddhism - it's not a big deal; but as a writer such as me that tries to stay within the lines of my own faith, it's a really great puzzle! 

Of course, what's a significant puzzle to me is likely of no account to the author.  Still, as was alluded to in the thread below, this series is worth discussing.  Love this show!  Thanks for putting up with us, Steven!

Posted by: Clayton Barnett at August 29, 2015 02:21 AM (lU4ZJ)

8 I have friends that used to work for several of the US TLA agencies, and they seem to have a lot of fun looking at the portrayals of their agencies in fiction and seeing how wrong they are.  ("I wish the NSA headquarters looked that good inside.")  Apparently, it's very hard to find one that is 'close enough'.

I can, for the sake of storytelling, accept that the US is desperate to meet with the cross-gate individuals, the US has a black ops squad, and the US is willing to use any means necessary (including the Black Ops squad) to get to the cross-gate individuals.

Operationally, I have a lot more trouble with:
1. Not being smart enough to bring night vision equipment on a night assault.
2. Not having the foggiest idea what kind of defenses you are up against, like the capabilities of the Japanese troops, or that (in the manga, at least), they've got a drone blimp with thermal imaging watching your every move.  Seriously, you have spy satellites, and this is obviously a very important operation; use the tools you have!

Plot-wise, the US has a trump card that gets them an insane favor from the Prime Minister, one that will automatically be exposed to the public when the kidnapping gets reported.  I have a massive problem that he didn't use it to just call in a secret meeting between the guests and US representatives (which would be a lot less embarrassing for the US and the Japanese PM).  At the very least, he could have had the Japanese PM call off the defenses before half the US assault team was dead.

There were a couple of nods to somebody having half a clue, at least.  The US was at least smart enough to equip its assault team with COTS rather than US gear, and it looks like the Japanese are shown to have come to the conclusion that the 'survival gamer' cover story works best for everyone earlier than in the manga.

Based on the previews for next episode showing some of the stuff from the very end of the trip, I strongly suspect the next episode is the last in Japan.

Posted by: Civilis at August 29, 2015 08:13 AM (KlrGc)

9 If I'm not-Bush, I use our relationship to get an interview with the girls; Japan *might* keep Pina's presence a secret from me, but they shouldn't have any real objections to having a quiet meeting with the girls that they just splashed all over TV.  That provides an opportunity to introduce them to the idea that Japan is just one nation, and maybe subtly suggest that it isn't even the most powerful one on the planet, which should freak Pina out even more when she hears about it.

I also play active diplomatic and military defense for Japan--helped by the fact that IRL Eagles and Hornets should have been assisting in counterattacking the Imperial invaders.  Russia and China are active threats in this scenario, and putting a carrier or two west of Japan (ostensibly in case of the Alnus base being overrun) keeps them sober.

Japan can do a lot of stuff by themselves, but if they want to hunt for oil and other goodies, they don't have the expertise--they have tons of seismograph experience, but for earthquake detection, not mineral surveys.  We also can provide better drones than they can slap together on a short timeframe, and we have *much* better logistic experience.  We're also "cheaper" than the other big players--while we'd want some say in things, we'd have no problem with leaving the lion's share of the profit to Japan.

Actually, as mentioned above, one of the absolute biggest things we could possibly get would be to have Lelei's master provide contacts to the school, so that they could get a volunteer transfer student over to the US and learn all about magic (if Terrans can learn to cast... wow).

Posted by: BigD at August 29, 2015 05:17 PM (VKO9N)

10

Russia, China, and the US don't want to just meet and talk to the girls. They want to kidnap them for ransom. The idea is that to get them back, Japan will be forced to agree to let the other country send its own people through the gate and to help exploit what's on the other side.

I don't think any of those countries would actually act like this, of course, but in the story that's their motivation.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 29, 2015 06:35 PM (+rSRq)

11

"Archer," "Saber," "Servants," "the grail has been filled."

My wife couldn't stop laughing at that point:  "The writer really liked Fate/Stay Night, didn't he?"

For me, I feel sorry for the guy that put his field glasses on Rory; at this point, a clean death is his least bad outcome. 

I like BigD's idea from his last paragraph:  get Lelei's master to setup shop in Japan and start training mages.  I wonder if they could use Secondary World forces to clean up something like Fukushima?

Posted by: Clayton Barnett at August 30, 2015 02:02 AM (lU4ZJ)

12 Open codes can come across as bizarre or frivolous if you don't know what they represent. Like "Wound my heart with monotonous langour." That's a famous one.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 30, 2015 02:22 AM (+rSRq)

13

Dangit, Steven:  now you have me wanting to watch 'The Longest Day' again... and it's already past my bedtime!

And, speaking of open codes, I recall how Halsey was stung by the padding "The world wonders."

Posted by: Clayton Barnett at August 30, 2015 03:36 AM (lU4ZJ)

14 Russia, China, and the US don't want to just meet and talk to the girls. They want to kidnap them for ransom. The idea is that to get them back, Japan will be forced to agree to let the other country send its own people through the gate and to help exploit what's on the other side.

My understanding, from the Manga at least, is that the Russians want to destroy the gate.


As far as the target designations, could it be one of Itami's Special Forces colleagues that came up with the names?  I doubt that was the Defense Minister's doing.

Posted by: Civilis at August 30, 2015 06:25 AM (KlrGc)

15 Yeah, someone in command wasn't hiding their power level properly when they came up with their codes.

If the US was really interested in jacking the girls, using a special ops team is actually pretty stupid. Unlike the other players, they've got a perfectly good excuse to move armed men around the country. Just run a "training mission", suffer a "navigational error", land the chopper "to get your bearings", head for the nearest structure. Oh, it's a hot spring, how nice! Up until this point, you're still operating under completely open conditions, which means (among other things) that any Japanese snipers that might want to try to light you up are risking a hell of a lot; forget using the girls as leverage, you could justify taking the Gate from Japan with that alone.

But! Rather than hash out just how stupid this is, let's write up alternative scenarios that can play out the same way, but are much less stupid. Here's mine.

What's the most valuable substance in the world at that point? It's not oil, it's not gold, it's not diamonds... it's biological samples of Tuka. She's in her mid-hundreds but looks like young twenties. Something is doing that, and it's not beyond the pale to assume that if you could get a good look at blood and tissue samples, you could figure out the mechanism. Which brings out the potential for anti-aging drugs on a completely new level of effectiveness. There's your holy grail, Big Pharma.

And with that plot, you can plausibly rope the US into it. Forget diplomacy for a minute, the Gate isn't going anywhere. But nobody else but Japan has access to people with that kind of longevity. Assume you're a US president who's 100% in bed with Big Pharma. You're assuming that Japan has known about this the whole time and is actively concealing it because, well... they have an aging population and an effective anti-aging drug would be fantastically valuable to them, and they'd rather that the US pharma industry not be able to dip its beak into the doubtless-fantastic levels of profits you could make off such a drug. So it's not just important to get the samples, it's important to get them NOW, before a Japanese company that's been working on it for months files a patent application.

Of course a "realistic" US would just ask Japan to provide some samples pretty please, possibly with a promise to share all that sweet revenue. But if you're going to cast the US as a bad guy, this is a much more plausible motivation.

I don't mention Rory here even though, as someone who's significantly older than Tuka, she's working from different principles; whatever keeps her in perpetual lolitude is almost certainly fueled by papa Emroy, and thus probably wouldn't be adaptable.

I'm also leaving out Lelei because, not to put too fine a point on it, does anyone actually know she can do magic? (Probably the US does, if you assume that the Japanese have reported it internally and the NSA does its thing properly.) But compared to the possibility of living to 200 or further, nothing Lelei's actually done in the show (so far) is particularly valuable; you'd love to study it but it's not worth shooting people over.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 31, 2015 09:52 AM (qxzj1)

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