frederick.pagac - 2017-05-30 17:47:43

Short, Spoiler Free Review
Divine Gate is a pretty mediocre anime. It has a distinct art style and a great soundtrack (the opening and endings are immensely enjoyable), but that’s pretty much as far as the praise goes. There are far too many characters for a 12 episode series and the backstory is minimally touched on, also the ending is quite disappointing considering what the basis of the story is. This anime is really great visually, but if you’re looking for something with great character development and an enthralling story, Divine Gate is not for you.

Long Review
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Story: The story seemed pretty promising in the beginning (magical gate that grants people’s wishes and a bunch of people with special powers are gathered to find it). Sounds a lot like Fate/stay night, and they both end pretty similarly. But where Fate ended with epic battles and awesome explosions, Divine Gate ended with exposition and disappointment. It’s based on a mobile video game, so there are a lot of characters and backstory when you’re dealing with a constantly updating game. There are way too many characters to keep track of and their backstory is also hard to keep track of. Most of the characters don’t even get their backstories fully explained until the last episodes. As for the in between story, it was hard for me stay focused. Actually, it took me three tries to fully get through the series, and that was only because I was home sick and had nothing better to do. Up until the point where Arthur asks the characters to join him in looking for the gate, it’s really just a bunch of exposition and half-hearted character development that just drags on forever. I give the story a 5/10.

Characters: As I said before, there is a multitude of characters to remember and backstory to keep track of. The problem with that is that all the characters have their own unique designs and distinct personalities, but most have only minor involvement in the story. In fact, of the six characters shown to be the main team in the opening, only about three really have any importance to the plot. And although I did say that the characters have distinct personalities, most are just lifted off of character clichés and dere types. Aoto is expressionless, indifferent, and self-abusive because his parents didn’t love him. Akane is always angry at Aoto because he is expressionless and indifferent. Midori is aloof but gets angry when reminded of past failures. This three-set character cliché can be seen in countless other anime. As for character development, Aoto is the only one who really has any as he starts to care for others and stops blaming himself, which was a nice development but everyone knows it is coming. I guess you could say Akane becomes less angry, but that’s a bonus from Aoto’s character development. Divine Gate tried to give Midori character development in Episode 3, but it was just super cringy. After already getting a sense of her character from the first two episodes, it was weird having her all of a sudden be shouting “NUMBER ONE!!!” at everyone. And apparently the producers realized how bad that sounded and instantly dropped the trope next episode. So we just get this one episode where Midori’s character makes us all want to kill ourselves. Now, I don’t know if this was just a lack of human emotion on my part (although I consider myself a pretty emotional guy), but none of the character deaths affected me whatsoever. Even when the entirety of Arthur’s Court is massacred, I was pretty much like “Oh, they’re dead. Didn’t see that coming” with a very kuudere face. The character’s themselves weren’t too bad (aside from what I’ve already explained) it was just that they didn’t really do anything to deserve my emotional investment. Especially the episode where all of the character’s long lost buddies come back and then instantly die again. No. Feeling. At. All. (Hey I cried for five episodes straight when watching Akame ga Kill! I’ve got a heart). There were some interesting characters such as King Arthur, Loki, Santa Clause, and the Key (who wasn’t explained until the last episode), but they weren’t enough to save the characters. All in all, I give the characters a 4/10. 7/10 for a few.

Art: The art was utterly fantastic. It’s not too often you see an anime with an art style as unique as Divine Gate. The character designs and interesting use of black was what drew me to watching this. The only downside was that it really shot down the realism. During casual scenes it just felt like I was watching a video game, not a real thing actually happening. If you’re looking for anime with great art, I’d recommend giving this a try. Just don’t get too serious about it. I give the art a 9/10.

Sound: I absolutely loved the soundtrack. The opening is marvelous and although the animation used in the ED wasn’t my favorite, the song was still very good. I was incredibly disappointed with Divine Gate because one of the reason I actually tried three times to finish it was because of the great soundtrack. I was hoping that the rest of the series would be just as good. It wasn’t only the opening and ending that were good, I loved the battle tracks and insert songs as well. The music definitely deserves a 10/10.

Thoughts on the dubbing: I’m a guy who pretty much exclusively watches dubs (yeah I know, I’m evil), and I know how to recognize a bad one. Divine Gate was pretty well dubbed. The dub voices seemed like good matches and the emotional scenes were pretty well voiced. Some of the younger characters had annoying voices such as Key’s. Although I did notice that a lot of the episodic characters were pretty lazily dubbed. But that’s basically what I’d expect from a FUNimation dub. I haven’t seen the sub so I don’t have anything to compare it to (and I’m not likely to ever go out of my way to watch the sub). But if you’re interested in the dub, I give it an 8/10.

Even though I didn’t necessarily enjoy Divine Gate, I don’t regret watching it. Really, whether or not you’ll like this depends on what you’re looking for. There are things about it that I highly praise, but it was the most essential things that fell tragically short. If you’re attracted to the story of Divine Gate, don’t bother. If you’re looking for stories about wish granting then I recommend Fate/stay night or Sunday Without God. Or, if you’re looking for something more classic then I recommend the Dragon Ball series. In the end, if you’re looking for something worthwhile then avoid Divine Gate. If you’re just looking for something to casually pass time, then go ahead and give it a shot. Overall, I rate Divine Gate a 5/10.

juston.ernser - 2017-05-23 22:50:35

Hello everyone

For me was the anime on the whole quite ok.
I can not recommend him because he was too boring for me.

I am 3 times asleep with the anime, as far as the battles as I have harem anime seen the 10 times better battles have had XD.

Please do not talk to me fully: you have no idea etc. I’ve already over 400 anime seen. I’m not saying he’s bad, I just want to say that the anime just does not suit my taste.

And does not come to say that I do not understand it, I’ve seen NGE finished and understand the real end !!!!

mbecker - 2016-01-20 20:51:42

Honestamente não tinha muita esperança para o Divine Gate, um novo anime com 12 episódios planeados desenvolvido pelo Studio Pierrot e estava certo, tirando a apresentação não aproveitei mais nada e não consigo viver apenas da apresentação, não sou assim tão fútil está bem?

A animação não é nada de especial ao longo de todo o episódio e na mini luta do primeiro episódio deixou muito a desejar, podiam ter-se esforçado um bocado mais, mas  na primeira luta a sério poderiam redimir-se o que não acabaram por, aliás cagaram tudo e fizeram-me deixar de ver o anime depois da primeira luta porque assim que entraram em modo combate a sério que já de si era contra um modelo 3D que como deveriam saber, não gosto nada, todos os protagonistas da luta passaram do seu modelo 2D para 3D para a luta tornando-a uma porcaria, coreografia fraca, com modelos 3D pouco fluidos e manhosos. Visto tratar-se de um anime de acção em que os combates são importantes perdi logo toda a vontade de o ver.

O apresentação do anime é bastante interessante com as sombras a serem simplesmente preto, dando um ar mais pesado e bastante distinto da maioria dos anime que vejo, quase parecendo por alguma razão um anime sério sobre pessoas que usam armas e os elementos para lutar, o que me agradou bastante e se a animação fosse bonita poderiam ter criado alguns bons momentos, o que não é o caso e deitaram tudo a perder.

A maior parte dos personagens não se destacam e são modelos básicos de personagens de animes, nem o que suponho que seja a mascote fofinha teve sucesso em ser fofa pois é só pequena e feia...

Moral da história, eu perdi 40 minutos da minha vida para vos avisar que não precisam cometer o mesmo erro e ver este anime, podem afastar-se descansados que não perdem nada, sem ser a probabilidade de uma doença na retina dos olhos.