Divine Gate Impressions

Divine Gate's plot is the kind of gibberish that you only get from anime. 



A brief synopsis, courtesy of MAL:

When the Divine Gate opened, the living world, the heavens, and the underworld became connected, ushering an era of chaos where desires and conflict intersect. To restore order, the World Council is formed. As peace is restored, the Divine Gate becomes an urban legend.

In that world, boys and girls deemed fit by the World Council are gathered. They are ones who aim to reach the gate for their personal objectives. Those who reach the gate can remake the world.

What lies beyond the gate? When they reach the door, will the world change? Will it be the past that changes, or will it be the future?

The initial idea, with the three worlds merging isn't a bad one (though slightly unoriginal) but it loses most of its credibility when there's very little visual difference between the humans, demons, and fairies.The fairies of heaven look a little more magical, and the demons look perpetually angry and/or unhinged?  So what? 

That's not to say the anime looks bad.  On the contrary, Divine Gate probably has some of the most beautiful art I've seen all season.   Combine that with the rich, lush colors of the world and most of the episode is spent marveling over the visuals instead of laughing over some of the most melodramatic dialogue I've seen in years.  I think my favorite gem is, "A rain will not fall forever, but after that day, the rain never stopped falling on your heart."   A line that I'm almost certain has ended up in some sixteen year old's creative writing assignment. 

In fairness, this show has potential.  The lore itself could be interesting if it's explained properly, the main characters are likable, and mainly, there's tons of potential for really cool fight scenes, as seen in the ED.  It just has to be careful not to get caught up in too much needless dramatic BS that it's clearly not suited for.  Just skip to the part where they start punching people in the face.