In concept, The New Gate is just this side of fan fiction. It takes the first arc of Sword Art Online and uses it as a launching pad to tell its own story. Basically, its central question is, "What if Kirito was transported to a fantasy world at the end of the death game?" And let's be clear: Shin is Kirito in all but name. He's overpowered, wears a big black trench coat, and has a strikingly similar personality.

However, none of the above is necessarily a bad thing. After all, a huge number of villainess stories—more than a few of which have become both popular and critically acclaimed—share the same basic otome game romance setting and character archetypes. This doesn't mean they are all lazy copies of each other; it simply means they use an established formula as a base for the story the author wants to tell. We're getting the same kind of thing here with The New Gate.

While the death game is an important piece of the backstory, the plot is far more about the new world Shin finds himself in than the VR world he came from. In exploring, Shin learns about the 500 years of history he missed out on and the societies that have arisen thanks to the world's transformation from virtual to real. Even more interesting is that some people in this world remember the time when it was a game. Hearing how these characters view their existences as former NPCs and what happened to them later makes for excellent world-building and character-building—especially for those personally involved with Shin.

This is most obviously seen in Schnee. As a nearly immortal High Elf, she has remained unchanged since Shin disappeared. She has spent centuries dealing with the guilt of letting Shin tackle the final boss alone. Even though she remembers that it was during a time when she was just a collection of ones and zeros—a time when she had no free will—that doesn't change the fact that his loss formed a gaping hole in her heart that compelled her to wait hundreds of years is the hope of him one day returning. Her situation is tragic but beautiful—especially once her patience is rewarded with Shin's return. It also forms the basis for her greatest insecurity—that Shin will one day find a way back to Earth and leave her behind forever.

If you couldn't tell already, I love the concept of The New Gate. I also quite enjoy the characters and the story. What I don't enjoy, however, is this particular adaptation. As a reader of both the novels and manga, it's astounding how much ended up on the cutting room floor. Full characters and subplots have disappeared entirely—as has their effect on the main cast. Explanations about the world and how it works are likewise truncated, making things more challenging to understand and robbing them of their importance.

However, even as abridged as it is, this would probably be forgivable if the show at least looked the part. Sadly, it does not. The animation quality is all over the place—and by that, I mean it varies from "barely passable" to "hideous abomination." The characters—even the main ones—are often presented in low detail with distorted proportions. Every budget-saving trick in the book is used—including classics like long pans over static frames and only the eyes and mouths being animated. Even the action scenes look terrible, with sloppy line work and lackluster choreography. It's not the worst animation I have seen in my 30-plus years of watching anime, but it's certainly in the bottom 25%.

In the end, despite my love of the world, characters, and premise, I can't find it within myself to recommend this anime to any but the most hardcore of The New Gate fans. (They should at least get some joy from the spot-on voice work.) For anyone else, if anything about The New Gate sounds interesting to you, skip this anime and read the books or the manga. Both are infinitely better than this anime and are a fun ride in general—especially if you enjoy Sword Art Online.