Manga/Gate -- Modern Military meets Epic Fantasy

Cover Image of the manga adaptation here: [1]◊

Cover sample from the LN here: [2]◊

First chapter sample from the publisher's website here: [3]

Now normally this would go to the Literature section, seeing as it's originally based on a series of novels, then light novels, since a manga on it is out I figured that I'd throw this in here.

ゲート 自衛隊彼の地にて斯く戦えり (Geito - Jieitai Karenochinite Kakutatakaeri or "Gate - the JSSDF Fought Here"), or "Gate" for simplicity, is pretty much what the description implies: an army that wouldn't be too out-of-place in the Lord of the Rings, suddenly bursts from a gate that opens in the middle of Ginza, Tokyo, with the aim of counquering it. The JSSDF drive the invaders back into the gate, but not before the invaders kill many civilians. The thing is, the Gate is still open, and despite the repelling the fantasy army's eventual counterattack, the Japanese military is pretty much clueless about the why and wherefores of their enemies.

This is where our main characters come in, of course. As part of a small recon group, they are to scout the area beyond the Gate, and report about what they find to their government. There are no kids here; they're all soldiers in their twenties (and their commander is a divorcee in who's 33!), though they have their own quirks (the commander and one of his troops are otaku and proud of it), but these are nothing compared to what they find on the other side.

Anyone else heard of this before? Aside from the obvious people in B-T? It sems that at least eight chapters are out so far in the manga, though only two have been scanslated so far.

edited 8th Mar '12 10:21:52 PM by MyssaRei

LOL... It's like Strange Journey. Strange invaders from another realm vs military dudes...

edited 8th Mar '12 10:16:12 PM by djmaca

What I found amusing was the description of the guys from the JSSDF, and the fantasy folk that eventually join up with them. The JSSDF people are all soldiers, obviously, but the people that join up include a mage, and elf, and a 900+ year old demigoddess (who looks like she's 13) berserker who... apparently dresses gothic-lolita style. Oi.

edited 8th Mar '12 10:21:15 PM by MyssaRei

The art feels so familiar... Whose the author again?

And LOL at your title, peace. ;) Can you see something wrong?

edited 8th Mar '12 10:43:19 PM by djmaca

The premises interested me. However, I couldn't find scanlations anywhere. Even Baka-Update don't list any. Are you sure it exists?

I have the RA Ws up to chapter 5, so yes it exists. It doesn't have any kind of dedicated translators working on it though, and the only reason why we have two chapters translated was because, well, someone volunteered. I can't say that I want to drum up interest for this, but it would be a shame if it didn't get some attention.

By the way, four books so far, with at least 500 pages each. Yeesh.

Here's a scanlation of the 1st chapter done by Seitsuki from animesuki forums. Give thanks to the guy for translating this great manga and enjoy the work.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5so24psbn2zhq3w

Incidentally the last volume of the novel is out, and the manga publisher's website seems to have parts of the comic out:like this for example - [1].

Talk about dissonance - How can we have a Victorian mansion in the middle of a town that looks like it's under a medieval siege?

edited 4th Apr '12 10:39:54 PM by MyssaRei

The 1st manga volume is out and 4chan are scanlating the manga.

You can read them over here. http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/comics/gate-jietai-kare-no-chi-nite-kaku-tatakeri-r5353

I wasn't able to comment on this at Asuki (since the thread moves too fast sometimes), but I'm surprised that 4chan took an interest in THIS series of all things. What gives?

It's not about high school? A lot of people on /a/ would prefer originality, going by all the green texting threads they do about cliches.

Personally, this reminds me of the plots of Doom, Quake and Half Life. Well, probably Quake moreso than the others, but still.

edited 23rd Aug '12 1:10:15 AM by RocketDude

Meats...?

I just checked it out, looks pretty interesting so far. Considering how outmatched the forces of the other world seem by the modern JSDF, and how long the novel series is, I have to wonder if actual military engagement only ends up being a small fraction of the narrative.

Well judging from the Asuki thread, in the novels there's a good chunk devoted by to the wheeling and dealing being done by Japan and the other nations about the implications of the Gate itself. You see a bit in one of the chapters uploaded, where the US is considering actually sending its own forces through the Gate, but have their hands tied because of their forces being deployed in the Middle East.

So what's the update schedule on this comic in Japan? Weekly? Monthly?

I think it's supposed to be bi-monthly.

According to the linked site, it appears to be a monthly web release.

Can somebody PM me a link? I found a different series under the same name (which, I'll admit, also looks interesting), but I'm having trouble finding this one.

Liking it so far. Unfortunately, we're only at chapter 8 of the manga, and Baka Tsuki is only 20% done with the prologue of the first book. But still, nice.

Also, I added a picture to our page.

I finished reading the manga, will move on to the L Ns soon. I loved how the villagers immediately noticed the phallic symbolism of guns

Technically, only the RPG, though I suppose "wands" in general can be seen as that. Heh.

Also, no one commenting on the incredibly obvious Apocalypse Now reference (even the soldiers point it out) from chapters 10 onwards? :P

edited 25th Aug '12 9:43:19 PM by MyssaRei

And thus the whole of volume 1 has been scanalted. Can't wait to see Pina and JSDF fight against the bandit army.

Despite being supposedly being a competent fighter and leader, it's kind of hard to take Pina seriously because of her name. Since the other chapters are untranslated, I wonder how the JSSDF crew reacted to it.

Does Pina mean something weird in Japanese? Google translate is being unhelpful.

Oh, I missed her last name.

edited 28th Aug '12 8:05:37 AM by Discar

Dude. Her name is Piña Colada. You don't need to speak Japanese to think her name is funny.