Title: The New Gate Vol. 4
Author: Yoshiyuki Miwa (Manga Adaptation), Shinogi Kazanami (Original Story)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Physical
Pages: 216
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy, Adventure
Publication Date: December 9, 2020
The Story
Volume 4 of The New Gate wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought that they would have reached Girart in some sort of time skip and we would have gotten an info dump but, instead, we received the actual full journey to Farnid and got to meet Girart in the end.
The journey began when Shin decided to take a quest that would bring him in the direction of his destination. The quest was to escort a carriage for a merchant named Nakk. Shin and Tiera took the job and joined up with two other adventurers, a samurai named Gaien and a girl named Tsubaki. Something struck Tiera and Shin oddly about Tsubaki as when they tried to analyze her, they couldn’t tell what her race was even though she appeared human. She also had skills far above her adventurer rank which added to her mystery even more.
We don’t get to delve too deeply into these characters because once they reach the end of the road, they go their separate ways. Schnee contacts them and ends up taming a divine beast to pull a carriage that Shin purchased and made modifications to. Once everyone was reunited, it was off to Farnid; however, they run into some trouble along the way. After dealing with that, they arrive and are reunited with Girart.
Characters
Shin and Schnee didn’t get much development but Tiera ended up getting some when it came to the divine beast that they named Shimmer because it could use illusion magic. Turns out, 100 years ago Tiera saved Shimmer when he was nothing more than an injured pup. When Schnee went into the mountains to tame him, Shimmer sensed a bit of Tiera’s scent on her and it felt familiar. Even though Shimmer was contracted to Schnee, she undid the contract and had Tiera form one instead. There was no telling if Tiera would walk her own path in the future but if she did, she now had her own guardian to protect her and it is one that was already in her debt for saving it.
Outside of that, we spent a little bit of time with Tsubaki and Gaien. Gaien was pretty cool. He is a dragonoid and seems pretty level-headed and filled with honor. Always calm, reasonable, and a bit straightforward, Gaien is the perfect party member. He has the skills to back up his claims and is always analytical of a situation. Being a samurai class, his personality matches it perfectly. Tsubaki, on the other hand, is a bit more direct with her words. She’s not a brat nor is she overconfident but she holds nothing back when she speaks her mind. Still, she’s highly skilled and respectful of Shin and Tiera despite being a bit caustic at times.
Final Thoughts
While the story slowed down in this volume, it was still pretty good. Even though the journey to Farnid was part of the main story, everything that happened felt like a side quest with a few random encounters along the way. Still, the action did a great job breaking up the travel sequence as I know quite a few isekai that drag on and on and on when it comes to travel arcs. They leave out anything that could make the travel entertaining but you won’t find an error like that in The New Gate.
There was plenty of action and reasons for it as well. Even though some of the battles were short, they still got you invested in why they were happening, thus making you care about them! Now that we have arrived at our destination and have been introduced to Girart (along with an elephant beastfolk and a frog beastfolk), I’m sure we’re going to get a nice reunion and possibly some information on what the next story arc has in store for us.
Also… storing an entire building and a cart into storage? I’d love to have that satchel for any of my MMO characters!
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