A third act kind of series.
What They Say:
No one knows exactly how the gate was created or what it does. In fact, no one can even see it, touch it, or open it, except for a chosen few. These chosen ones are called Adapters, girls and boys with special elemental abilities like water or fire, who have been deemed fit by a World Council to join a special academy. There they will train for their ultimate destiny: to reach the gate.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track in stereo while the English language dub gets the 5.1 bump, both of which are encoded using the Dolby TrueHD lossless codec. The series works a good mix of what it has to offer with some fun dialogue scenes with an expansive cast on the screen at one time somewhat regularly. These areas move well with the placement as needed and the quiet and loud moments all come across as distinctive and free of problems. The action elements get a better workout, as does the music, as it moves across the soundstage with a lot of energy to it and some good variety based on the powers and their various impacts. Throughout, everything comes across clean and clear and we didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2016, the transfer for this TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The twelve episodes are spread across two discs with nine on the first and three on the second. Animated by Pierrot, the show has a pretty good look about it that feels like it owes to its smartphone game origins with bold colors that stand out in a kind of old school way that’s surprisingly appealing. The series works a lot of dark colors throughout it but really there’s just a lot of variety here that’s cohesive in its own weird way. The result is something that feels a bit flatter than a lot of other shows but the encoding brings it to life very well. Colors are solid throughout and the high motion areas hold up perfectly well with no visible problems such as breakup or noise coming into it. There’s maybe a touch of visible gradients in some solid color scenes here and there but it’s barely noticeable overall, which in the end leaves us with a very good looking encode.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release comes in a standard sized Blu-ray case and was a rare one for me in that it didn’t also have an o-card with it. THe front cover uses the familiar key visual of the main cast all together with powers in motion where needed and a good sense of the colors design for the show. The gate in the background adds some weight to it all but it’s mostly just a murky and ill-defined piece until you watch the show and see what it really is. The back cover gives us a similar kind of murky background with more of the cityscape in view that’s offset by an almost 80’s feeling version of a character with how Akane is standing there. That adds some nice color as does the strip near the bottom of shots from the show. The summary of the premise is well covered and the extras are clearly listed. The technical grid breaks everything down for both formats in a clean and accurate way that’s easy to read. While no show related inserts are included we do get artwork on the reverse side that’s a two-panel spread of a few of the main characters moving forward toward the viewer.
Menu:
The menu design here is one that works the cover elements in a better way with a good spread as the backgrounds aren’t anywhere near as murky and the cityscape feels more defined and engaging. The character artwork from the cover is along the left, rearranged a bit, while the right has the logo and allows us to see the buildings with their shades of blue in a good way. There’s a small block along the lower right that provides the navigation which is quick and easy to use in its own minimal way both during playback and as a pop-up menu during playback.
Extras:
The extras for this release are a bit more than the norm and a bit more than I expected. We get the clean versions of the opening and closing sequences as expected and there’s also some good promos included along with the TV commercials and the like. The show produced a five-minute “what you need to know” piece after a few episodes during its broadcast and that’s included in subtitled form as well. I was surprised that the show seemingly warranted and audio commentary, even if just for the last episode, but it’s good for fans and those fans of the voice actors.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the mobile game of the same name that landed at the end of 2013, Divine Gate is a twelve episode series that aired during the winter 2016 season. Animated by Pierrot, it brought in some solid talent for it, notably with Noriyuki Abe handling the direction. The property is one that suffers in that the game didn’t provide enough of a basis to really work a story here and there’s no manga to balance off of either. What’s worse when you get down to it is that this is basically a third act series. Or, maybe more properly, the last few minutes of the second act before going into the third and final act. That keeps you from feeling any investment in characters, something that mobile games can and have done many times on occasion but ends up being difficult to translate to screen.
The premise is one that’s interesting enough in that some years ago an event happened that brought the three main realms together and created a whole lot of chaos. The normal world found itself blended with aspects of both the heavenly realm and the underworld realm, resulting in those that deal with the threats that come from it. They’re generally lauded by your average citizen since they do so much to help and it’s also why a World Council was likely more acceptable to people as things simply took on a bigger scale than they could understand. Within this setting you have people that are brought in by the World Council who have another objective as well in finding the Divine Gate wherein the chance to grant a wish of sorts can happen. It’s more that it’s a tuning device/moment that can remake the past or the future and alter the way of the world from top to bottom.
Because this feels like a last act kind of series, the introduction of the characters feels rushed and superficial for the most part. Our primary good guys comes in the form of Akane and Midori, people called adapters that use the powers that come from this chaotic world to deal with the problems of it. They’re dealing with a water user type named Aoto that they at first think is a problem but is actually trying to do the right thing in the world. Aoto’s dark and mysterious and his past is presented in tragic flashback form but it’s mostly just to paint a picture rather than make you feel it with his isolation and intent to change the world by finding the Divine Gate. The other two realize he’s not completely bad, even if he is believed to have killed his parents, and they work to bring him into the fold to deal with the larger issue alongside a few other adapters that operate with them under the World Council.
What serves as the opposition of a sort is the Round Table side of things lead by Arthur as he’s the chairman of the Academy that the kids operate out of and is looking to use them for his own mission in regards to the Divine Gate. His role is one that gets some good flashback material as well as a lot is driving him but he’s also got two others that influence him, or at least try to. Loki’s obviously from the “heavenly” side as he’s working his own nefarious plans to use Arthur while there’s also someone from the underworld/dragon side that gets some minor play but who is otherwise largely unmemorable. There are wheels within wheels but it all lacks the foundations it needs to be told properly. This is a series that feels like it needed a thirteen episode run to setup the basics of the world and then a thirteen episode second act series that would start tying things together and expanding the scope of it all. That would lead into this series and then it would have some weight and meaning behind it instead of just being full of sound and fury.
In Summary:
In a way, I don’t want to paint Divine Gate as a bad show because I think it’s actually working some interesting ideas and has some potential. But it’s just the wrong side of it without enough of a foundation to make it work. The concept is interesting and I like the characters for the most part but it’s just superficial and it’s largely treating the bulk of this twelve episode run as though it’s the final three or four episodes of a normal twelve episode run. It really needs to be a three-cour series to do it properly, but it’s still just weird that a mobile game from 2013 got a big anime project like this in 2016 and had someone like Noriyuki Abe directing it. I can totally see why people call it a car accident in motion and there’s appeal in watching that. It just left me wanting a lot more out of it and frustrated at the loss of its potential.
Features:
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Language, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Language, English Subtitles, Episode 12 Commentary, The Divine Gate Anime Explained in (ABout) Five Minutes: The Worldview, Promo Videos, TV Spot, Commercials, Textless Opening & Closing Songs, and Trailers
Content Grade: C-
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B
Released By: Funimation
Release Date: May 16th, 2017
MSRP: $64.98
Running Time: 300 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
