I just finished watching Divine Gate and I honestly enjoyed it! It definitely starts off better than it ends (considering it ends as if it's getting another season soon), but I still think it has potential!
The art style is unique, and really nice to look at. It has a really cool opening and ending (along with a really pretty soundtrack), and the characters all have fun and different personalities.
The plot starts off with a good setup, but starts to rush itself halfway through compared to the intro's pacing. This may have been due to the fact that it was only given 12 episodes, which honestly makes sense when you think about it.
Some of the characters feel underdeveloped too. Besides the three main characters- Aoto, Akane, and Midori- along with the king, Arthur, and fairy, Santa, many of the fairies, gods, and other humans aren't given much backstory. This is okay, since they are the main characters (not so much Santa), however, the supporting characters (one mainly in particular) have importance to the story towards the ending, but their motives behind that aren't explained. The story has a main theme towards the end, which is basically the balance of hope and despair. We find out that Aoto has a lot of despair (which is shown in episode 1, so it isn't a spoiler), but he never explains what he's been through to any of the other characters (it's only explained to the audience through flashbacks), yet towards the end, the other two seem to completely understand him after seeing him argue with *someone who I probably can't say*.
Besides being sometimes under-explained with bits of the character's backgrounds, Divine Gate also tends to over-explain things, rather than showing the audience- with Loki in particular. Due to this, there isn't as much suspense built up with his character as there should be (ESPECIALLY in episode 9...).
The ending isn't really explained, and sets up for another season. I don't think it'll end up getting one, as the reviews for this show aren't the greatest, but I would definitely keep watching if a second season did come out. The story would have a much clearer ending if so. Divine Gate is also based on a Japanese mobile game, so the rest of the plot is most likely explained in that (however, I don't speak Japanese, so I wouldn't know 😢).
Overall, besides bits here and there that are either over or under-explained, I still did enjoy this show. There are a few things I forgot to mention, like how the main characters powers match their personalities and backgrounds, which is probably overlooked by most people. I thought that was an important touch to their characters! I especially enjoyed Aoto's development throughout the story, which happens to be one of the main focuses of Divine Gate. I just wish this was explained to the other characters as well, and not just through flashbacks, since it seems that the other two main characters start to understand his despair without Aoto even explaining anything to them to begin with. I'm wavering between a 6 and 7/10 for this series, but still decided to give it a 6 because I feel like it has potential, but didn't fully grasp the potential it had. If there were a second season, it would be able to explain so much more, especially with the other three supporting characters, which were glazed over until the ending of the show. It clearly sets itself for a continuing storyline, so I do hope it gets a continuation!
