Gate Keepers, Vol. 6: Discovery!

Great for being a used second-hand product. Just needed a little cleanup.

Ok seriously, one good episode involving the Commander of AEGIS and his secretary Keiko going after a Invader who has apparently a close friend of Keiko's husband is probably one of the best episodes of this show and it and doesn't even have Shun and his gang of idiots in it much. Gee, maybe a better show would of revolved around the Commander fighting Invaders with his secretary. There's a lot of deep questions about the Invaders asked and the paranoia of anyone being an Invader really seeps in and the Commander's past history during WWII is revealed. Meanwhile, Reiko the mentally challenged teenage piano Gatekeeper girl is belittled by mega jerk Megumi Kurogane who continues to be one of the worst characters in anime ever I have seen, she makes Sasuke look reasonable! This ultimately causes Reiko to break down basically and steal a giant mecha because she accidentally wanted to try it out or something. Meanwhile elementary school kids are asking her out on dates (yuck). Yes I know he was just probably joking around with her, but honestly, yuck, and she even plays along with it! And of course she gets this kid involved in her stupid garbage with the mecha and endangers his life. The issue the episode never addresses is that people are obviously oblivious to the fact that Megumi over there is the one that drove her to go off the rails so much and totally ignore how toxic she is to people and psycho.Finally, the young Chinese girl Fei bugs a grumpy old man selling food on his cart. The man is set up to be a possible Invader, he even has sunglasses in his rundown apartment and he fits the part, though it turns out to be someone or something you would least expect. Fei wants to protect him so much because he reminds her of her grandfather who got taken away apparently by the Chinese government. She even goes against the other Gatekeepers. Now actually her character building works better than Reiko's character building. So I guess that is an OK episode but still this show is nauseating at times.

Though Pioneer did a wonderful job with the presentation of the Gate Keepers series, boasting excellence in visuals, sound, menus, and extras; their decision to maximize profits by stretching this 24-episode TV series over eight DVD's unfortunately means you run the risk of ending up with one such as this: little but filler in content. I'm not sure just what "discovery" is meant by the title of the disc; unless it's that Gate Keepers sometimes lumbers forward aimlessly!With all the by-now very large cast of heroes and heroines in place, we step back a bit to expand four of them: the airheaded Reiko, fiesty ten-year-old Fen, the ever-stoic Commander, and his adoring secretary. Unfortunately the episode featuring Reiko, though having its amusing moments mostly at her expense, also combines her with the "puppet" or "doll" Gate Robo left over from the previous disc. Fen's experience in helping a crusty old man who owns a sweet potato cart almost ends in disaster, pitting the same Robo ( this time operated more competently by Shun ) against a gigantic, beastlike invader which had first appeared as a Spitz-breed dog! The resulting battle is exceedingly silly, deliberately channelling old Godzilla movies of the period in which this is set, with much roaring and stomping through the neighborhood houses.The most pointed of the episodes involves the commander and his secretary on an investigative driving trip spying on the fiance of one of her friends who is displaying strange behavior at the racetrack where he competes. On their return trip they are attacked by a red invader which has merged with his car much like Kikai Shogun. It's revealed that during WWII the commander had been selected as one of the teenaged pilots of the so-called "Baka" or manned suicide flying bombs, but was inadvertently saved from certain death. He therefore has a somewhat fatalistic view of his current mission as well as a determination to see things through, as he feels he is living on borrowed time.The common thread running through these three episodes is that the invaders seem to still be spreading through the population at large, possibly through "replacing" actual humans, making it impossible to tell who they are or where they will strike next. ( Shades of Invasion of the Body Snatchers! ) Though somewhat disappointing overall, this disc sitll has moments which make it worthwhile!