Where to start with this anime... it's a ride, that's for sure! This review will encompass season one and season two thoughts because I watched them back-to-back on Crunchyroll (where it's made to seem like one season overall of 24 episodes), so for me it's just one big story.

Do you like military anime? Comedy anime? Harem anime? Isekai anime? Fantasy anime? Well man oh man, if you answered yes to all of that then you definitely want to watch GATE! I can't really pick a specific genre that I'd put it in, because it's just so ridiculous that it doesn't necessarily fit any true standards. I think that's why I liked it so much though, because it is so absolutely out there.

Thankfully, there is [sort of] a plot to this anime. It's extremely loose, but the key element that ties all of this together is Japan is trying to make friends with people from another world who is far behind them in technology. It's not a strong plot line, but it fits well because it thus lets the story develop in fun and interesting ways as we watch the characters evolving [a bit] and facing interesting struggles that come from two very different worlds colliding. It's probably something many of us have thought about, but few anime have really approached. Certainly even rarer that they do so in such an overwhelming way. Regardless this anime is a lot of laughs, a few serious moments, and a few moments that just make you really happy to watch overwhelming force be applied to selfish idiots.

It's not a perfect story, but it's a fun one filled with fun characters. Better yet we have a diverse cast of characters, and even though our main protagonist is surrounded by [beautiful] women, for a change we aren't thrown with the trope that he's a pervert, the women aren't (for the most part) throwing themselves all over him or having jealous fits of rage, and romance is not the actual undercurrent of the plot. It was extremely refreshing, to say the least. After a while you just get tired of the boy-meets-harem-girls-fight-over-him nonsense. There really wasn't any of that here, and in fact many of them harbor a lot of respect for our protagonist as a sort of savior (without devolving into hero worship).

At the same time we of course have our required bad guys, because this wouldn't be an anime with any action if we didn't have that. This is probably the only place that's a bit lack-luster, because the bad guys in this instance are just morons. Straight up, grade A idiots. They're not particularly a challenge, at least not at this point in the story, and that's almost a shame. For me anyways it was still fun to watch the baddies struggle uselessly against our unlikely band of heroes, so why not? Not all anime need strong opposition for the heroes to fight, sometimes you just want to watch the good guys win. And we did, and we knew we would.

Despite it having a loose plot, there are some items that needed to be tied-up that haven't been. This being the case one can only hope that perhaps there will be a season 3, but if there isn't then it's no big loss, either. Thankfully, even with a few unanswered plot points we still get a [relatively] satisfying end that does bring closure to where we are in the story, so one isn't left with an intense longing for more. Another welcome relief, because as nice as it is to get new seasons, it's also nice to not crave them to resolve a massive cliff-hanger (that leaves you on the hook for over a year, the struggle).