mdchan

Not the sort of thing I typically watch, but it's actually a very good isekai (another world) anime.  There is a hefty amount of political intrigue, but even if that's not your cup of tea you should be alright (from someone who also dislikes political intrigue).

Story/Plot

One day, an odd structure appeared in Ginza, Tokyo (Japan) which acted as a gate to another world.  From it came a literal army of humans, orcs, goblins, and even dragon riders who attacked people indiscriminately until the Japanese police and military were able to subdue them.

After investigation into the portal, Japan decided to send a group of soldiers to the other side to discover the cause of conflict and look at the other world; this group, the JSDF (Japanese Self-Defense Forces), then occupied the hill on which the portal resides and wind up having to do various things from defending their position to establishing relations with the inhabitants of that world.

The story has much potential, though we don't see all of said potential in this season.

Characters

The protagonist is 33 year old Youji Itami, an otaku who doesn't seem like the sort to be a protagonist.  Though he is able to remain calm in stressful situations, he's also typically super laid-back to the point of being seen as laziness.

And of course, where would a male protagonist be without a group of girls around him.  Rather than those girls being in the unit in his command (despite the unit containing two female officers), the three who wind up following him around the most (two of which legit crushing on him) come from the other world.

...but I'll let the anime introduce them, because a couple need to be shown via their screentime to get the full impact of the character.

While the characters have personality, they can be a little bland at other times.  However, the side characters (and the aforementioned trio of girls) are often enough to keep the viewer interested in what's going on even when the protagonist isn't on screen.

Overall

Despite the political intrigue (which I find boring), it still shows a tension of what would happen if a gateway to another world opened up in a single country.  It also shows how the home country handles it, and some other political dealings.

I suppose that's supposed to be the tension in the anime, because I didn't feel much tension from any of the battle scenes or character interactions (except for their encounter with a dragon). 

The JSDF is aiming for peaceful negotiations with the people of the other world; and though that might clash with the ideals of the current ruling Empire, other smaller cities and towns are more open to the peace negotiations.

Technically, that's where the tension comes into play.  In between that, there's a relaxed and often comedic feel to the anime, but is done in a way which doesn't feel forced or out of place.

If you're looking for an anime with a lot of action, this really isn't the place to go.  While there still are fight scenes and violent encounters between special interest groups from the nations of Earth, much of the anime focuses on the political side as well as character interactions (and adjusting to a new language and world), and peace negotiations over war.

Though I very much enjoyed this and will watch the second season, it's not without fault.

The biggest fault, and what caused me to even lower my star rating of the anime from "4.5" to "4", was the "season cliffhanger" event.

The anime runs 12 episodes, and near the end of those 12 episodes it decided to bring in a new character (and you've guessed it, another female) who wants to request the help of the JSDF...while the protagonist is away on some peaceful exchanges.

Of course, that tells the viewers immediately that it's not going to be resolved in at least that episode, and then the next episode...doesn't resolve it, either.  So, after 12 episodes and the crew resolving one of the focused/main conflicts between the princess of the Empire and the JSDF (particularly Itami's crew), the anime decided to throw this new plot into it with no resolution in the first season.

I cannot excuse that.

If this was a 24 episode anime, then it would be perfectly fine to introduce the next plot point while the previous one was being wrapped up (preferably in foreshadowing or hints, but still alright the way it was presented).

For a 12 episode series entering the falling action of what the first couple episodes brought to the table and then leaving things without a conclusion (especially with this new plot point) is something I personally, as a writer, cannot forgive.

Yes, there's a second season; and I expect it to delve even further into the politics as it tries to clean up this plot point which walked into the town the JDSF occupies.  Literally, it walked into the town.  >.>

The second season did not immediately follow the first, the first being from 2015 and the second having a date of 2016.  Due to the timing right now, I can go straight from the first season to the second and hope that they do something to resolve this plot point...but I can understand how people felt watching that first season, seeing this plot point stroll into town, and then having to wait on a dumb (and avoidable) cliffhanger for the next season for quite some time.

I've been there, done that...and with the amount of times I've experienced it, I should have the t-shirt as well.

It's not right to the viewers, and it's something which can and will cause me to lower the rating on a series.

If it wasn't for that poor decision (most likely by the studio), I probably would have given this a "7 out of 10".  I can't say I really got attached to any of the characters (though there are one or two strong personalities among them), and the plot feels like a swing and a miss...or perhaps it's just building.  It has potential and is slowly building to that potential. 

However, the story divided up between world vs world (the JSDF vs the Empire), Earth nation vs nation, and even some dissonance between the characters themselves (such as humans vs bandits and even the fight with the dragon).

Though this first season does well in laying the groundwork for the story, don't expect to see any big conclusions to any of the points of conflict in this season.

I'm only giving "story" and "characters" a "6" for potential; season two will determine if they use the story and characters to the full potential, or if they continue to throw new characters into the story before developing the ones we already have.

And again, the unresolved issue of the female who I presume is bringing the action part of the second season's plot in the last episode and a half or so definitely hurt the anime rather than help.