August 07, 2015

GATE -- ep 6, Ride of the Valkyries

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It's been an exciting day, you know...

The brigand military unit has broken through Italica's east gate and the only thing remaining as a defensive position is a half-assed fence defended by untrained militia. It ain't looking good.


Itami has radio'd for reinforcements, and a squadron of helicopters has been sent. This section of the show is full of obvious references to Apocalypse Now.

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They come flying in directly out of the rising sun, with Wagner playing loudly. The force is mainly Hueys but there is at least one Cobra and one Kawasaki OH-1 "Ninja".

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The commander spots some men on the curtain wall trying to load a ballista. That is actually a threat to helicopters operating that close to the ground, so the Cobra goes in and takes care of it.

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Tuka and Lelei are watching from the South Gate, where nothing is happening. Lelei is deadpan, as usual, but it's clear that she's impressed.

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The Air Cav concentrates initially on the forces outside the wall, because there are friendlies mixed in with the enemies inside the wall.

While all of this was going on, Rory was rather quietly going completely nuts. Lelei explains that the souls of all the dead were travelling through her body on their way to Emroy, and the effect on her was like an aphrodisiac. The only real solution was for her to get involved in the fighting. She eventually jumps down from the South Gate and starts running through the city (at amazing speed, including jumping from the ground to the tops of multi-story buildings). Itami takes his master sergeant and one of his privates, Kuribayashi, and one of the vehicles, and chases her. By the time they reach the East Gate, Rory is already out there in the thick of the fighting.

Kuribayashi turns out to be something of a berserker. She instantly jumps into the fray and starts slaughtering attackers, between her bayonet, her rifle, and her pistol, and at least one grenade. When she throws the grenade she shouts "shuryuudan", which means "grenade".

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"Back to back badasses" indeed. Fortunately Rory hasn't lost her mind completely and recognizes Kuribayashi as a friend and ally.

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Having wiped out all the guys outside the wall, the Cobra radios Itami that it's going to wipe out the hostiles inside, and gives him a slow count of ten to retreat. So he and the sergeant run forward; the sergeant picks up Kuribayashi and Itami picks up Rory and then they run for it.

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The Cobra fires an M197 20mm cannon. The result is about what you'd expect.

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The princess is impressed, to say the least. Terrified. Overwhelmed. Demoralized.

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Flying up there is the OH-1 Ninja, with a ducted fan in its tail.

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Once all the shooting stops, Itami negotiates an agreement with the princess. Who is amazed at the lenient terms asked for by the JSDF.

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And the air cav heads home, with the townsfolk all shouting "Arigato! Sayonara!"

Recon 3 also heads back, and on their way they encounter the Princess's cavalry unit, which manages to capture Itami while the rest of Recon 3 escapes. And that's where we'll pick it up in the next episode.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 12:12 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 540 words, total size 4 kb.

1

If the Apocalypse Now references could not be blatant enough, the lieutenant general commanding the JSDF garrison at Arnus Hill specifically mentions Robert Duvall's Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore by name during the briefing sequence.

The only thing that could have been more devastating for the bandits was if an AC-130 was providing the close air support.  Even the slicks had door machineguns, and we even saw an air assault sequence at the end.

Yeah, we get to see other members of the princess' order of knights.  Unfortunately, Itami will not enjoy the experience too much.  

Posted by: cxt217 at August 07, 2015 02:31 PM (WZ3q8)

2 Having a Black Ships moment will do that to your morale, yeah.

The interesting bit, for me? The shiner that Rory hung on Itami is hanging around. The show's not beyond a bit of comedy violence, but even there the consequences are "real" for the people involved.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 07, 2015 07:30 PM (pWQz4)

3 That was interesting because it didn't happen in the manga.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 07, 2015 07:37 PM (+rSRq)

4

Heh, we have Itami doing an otaku/pervert/smart intelligence move when he apparently choses all the ladies among the captured bandits to be transferred to the JSDF.  Even better was what Kuribayashi and Kurokawa evidently thought was Itami's reason for doing so.

There were two things that felt wrong.  First, usually it would Itami as the officer on the scene calling for the gunships to hit the bandits inside the perimeter, not the gunships announcing they were going get the bandits inside the wall within ten seconds and please be nice enough to move.  Second, what kind of soldier would mistake a dust cloud for smoke?

Posted by: cxt217 at August 07, 2015 08:07 PM (WZ3q8)

5

The commander of the air cav was ranking; I think it was him that ordered the Cobra to finish the job.

As to "dust" versus "smoke" I bet that's a translation issue.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 07, 2015 08:40 PM (+rSRq)

6

The look between Kuribayashi and Rory was priceless!  I wager ten quatloos that before all of this is over, Kuribayashi goes native and becomes an Apostle.

Like you, Steven, I thought that the bruise to Itami's eye was from leaning in too close to his rifle sight.  Given that Rory could have decapitated him for groping her, he should think of it as a love-tap.

This series continues to amaze me.  There's a small animecon nearby next weekend in Columbus; if they've anything GATE related, I'm buying it.

Posted by: Clayton Barnett at August 08, 2015 01:32 AM (lU4ZJ)

7 I was wrong. The word he uses is kemuri which means "smoke", not "dust". I agree that it should have been obvious that it was dust.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 08, 2015 11:56 AM (+rSRq)

8

During the GATE discussion thread at the Fandom Post, I had wrote down why the gunship clearing the bandits from inside the city walls seemed wrong.  The comment actually came from a discussion about Episode 6 on whether the JSDF should have used all the firepower they did.

"...it was the way the gunship opened fire on the bandits inside the city walls with nothing more than a warning for Itami and any other friendlies to get out of the area of effect in ten seconds. That was an extremely risky and dangerous use of firepower since it appears to have not given proper consideration to avoiding placing fire on local civilians and defenders, as well as any members of the recon group. Itami, as the commanding officer on the ground, should have been the one who called for, gave targeting info, and permitted the gunship to attack inside the wall, because he would have a better grasp of whether there was any friendlies in the area and whether they could retreat before the gunship attacked."

Watching the episode again, it sounded like the gunship pilot radioing Itami about his impending action, and not the lieutenant colonel.  From Itami's reaction it did not appear he was told about the decision beforehand.

Posted by: cxt217 at August 10, 2015 12:37 PM (WZ3q8)

9

Though it wasn't stated, part of why the pilot of the Cobra radioed Itami was to give Itami a chance to veto the decision if there was a reason why.

We didn't hear it but the commander of the squadron must have ordered the Cobra to finish the battle. Itami was called not just to warn him to move but to give him a chance to stop it.

Itami didn't need to stop it, and didn't.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 10, 2015 01:59 PM (+rSRq)

10

That still strikes as wrong.  The radio call might have not have gone through, or Itami's radio might have stopped functioning.  Or Itami might not have been able to hear the message over the din of the fighting.  Or even if Itami had heard it but his order not to fire had not gotten through.  If any of those possibilities had happened, the gunship would have been shooting at friendlies.

It would have made more sense if the gunship pilot had radioed 'Do you want me to place fire on the bandits inside the wall?' and waited for a reply.  Even then, I would still be very hesitant for the gunships to fire on targets inside the wall unless it appears the city was being overrun.

Posted by: cxt217 at August 10, 2015 02:12 PM (WZ3q8)

11 IMHO you're thinking too hard. I would say that this falls under the Rule of Funny, since it sets up the scene with Rory punching Itami.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 10, 2015 02:38 PM (+rSRq)

12 Not to put too fine a point on it, we're talking about an air cav commander who went into battle with Wagner blaring out the speakers. Do we have reason to believe this guy (and the crazies under his command) are always careful and by the book? ;p

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 10, 2015 04:13 PM (qxzj1)

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