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		List Price: $19.98		Label: Geneon [Pioneer] Salesrank: 132506 Released: January 6, 2004
		Our Price: $0.03
		Used Price: $0.59
		MPAA Rating: Unrated Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Like Shinji in Evangelion and Akito in Nadesico, Shun Ukiya is an initially unprepossessing hero--a goofy kid who's read too many comic books. In 1969, as Japan enters its postwar economic boom, sinister alien invaders are attempting to take over the Earth. The lock-stepping aliens can only be defeated by the Gatekeepers, young men and women with the psychic power to channel energy from other dimensions. These teenagers are sought out and trained by the Earth Defense Force, A.E.G.I.S. Being recruited by A.E.G.I.S. forces Shun to face his troubled relationship with his late father and his family responsibilities. At the special high school, he meets other agents he'll be working with: mechanical whiz Megane, infantile musician Reiko, and Ruriko, whom he knew as a child. An appealing mixture of comedy and sci-fi adventure, Gatekeepers will appeal to fans of Evangelion, Nadesico, and Generator Gawl. Rated 13 Up: Violence, mildly risqué humor. --Charles Solomon

Gate Keepers - Open the Gate (Vol. 1) (Geneon Signature Series) Reviews:
Kind of silly.
2008-09-07 - This show is kind of silly so far. I may give it a chance, but it was a little boring. If I can find the next volumes for cheap, I may spring. Too many other shows I would rather see though right now.

A cute lighthearted action/comedy
2005-09-20 - Is Gatekeepers fine art? Hardly. Is it entertaining enough to check out, defintiely for those who have a sense of humor.

Basically the series follows a rather large group of teenagers with the ability to call forth energy for another dimension, called a Gate Ability. Of course giving a team of teenage heroes you need a villian to create chaos.

My favourite aspect was Reiji Kageyama, the dark gatekeeper. He is a little bit of every anime character rolled into me. He is smart and goes to take over Japan.

Rated 13 up: violence, mildly risque humor

Good
2005-01-12 - A few years ago I bought the first volume in the manga series. Basically, when I bought this I expected it to be an anime form of the manga but was slightly disappointed. The manga and anime are a lot diffrent, with diffrences in storyline, and characters mostly, but both are great. The anime series is funny, but still has a good plot, and some good action scenes, even if it wasn't much like the manga series, however diffrent they are in story.

STRANGE INVADERS
2004-06-29 - The year is 1969 and Japan is experiencing an economic boom but underneath this prosperity is a horrible secret. Aliens, called Invaders, are living disguised as humans, waiting to strike against us. An organization has been formed to fight them, A.E.G.I.S, and it is assembling a band of "Gatekeepers". Gatekeepers are people who are able to open gates to other dimensions and harness incredible powers from them.

Shun Ukiya is a unambitious high school student who lives with a younger annoying sister and a mother who pines away for their dead father. He finds himself in the middle of a battle between some Invaders and an AEGIS gatekeeper, and when the Invaders come close to destroying his home, his own Gatekeeper powers are activated. Astonishingly enough, he even knows the first Gatekeeper. Her name is Ruriko Ikusawa and Shun only remembers her as a kid whose nose was always dripping. How things have changed. Together they must hunt for other candidates for the Gatekeeper team before the Earth's time runs out.

I haven't made up my mind about this series yet. A lot of it makes no sense or is stupid. The Invaders are robotic looking guys who wear sunglasses and cowboy hats with machine gun cannons that fold out of their suitcases. There's really no explanation of their motivations or origin here. They seem to attack things for no reason in particular. What's the deal with the bandaid over Shun's nose? What is that exactly? He seems to have this white line across his nose even in his flashbacks as a child. At one point in the series, the Invaders, who can join together and make a much larger being, turn into a giant bowling ball and a super-huge ghetto blaster that shoots albums...oh gosh, how goofy.

The thing that Gatekeepers has going for it is some absolutely gorgeous animation by Gonzo. I would almost watch it and turn the sound down. Not quite though. Some of the comedy elements actually do well and are quite funny. I might try to watch one more volume before deciding.

Good, but not catchy enough for me...
2004-03-25 - I found the premise of this show to be very interesting. An alien series taking place in the Japan of 1969? Teenagers with incredible powers? So I gave it a try. But it didn't grab me like I thought it would.

The characters don't work well together. Like most heroes and their heroines, Shun and Ruriko fight with each other ALL THE TIME. That gets old after a while. Reiko is my least favorite of the characters, given that she is the type of person I can't stand; a silly, clueless girl who can barely remember her own name, much less form a coherent sentence. About the only thing she has going for her is her ability to play the piano. Megumi is your typical antisocial bookworm, and Fei acts like a child. None of the characters have any chemistry, and that makes it hard to watch them.

The story is an old cliche, and the story writers didn't do much to try and change it. The teenagers are the only ones who can save the world, using their powers. But if you have seen Sailor Moon or Pretear, then these powers are nothing new. Shun's power of wind, Kaoru's super-strength, Ruriko's healing ability, Fei's fire-blowing power--all have been used before.

The aliens look like Men In Black gone bad. They carry suitcases that conceal machine guns, and all of the bad guys look exactly the same. They don't even *look* like aliens, much less attack like aliens. They are always led by a guy in a red suit and a hat--he is the means of destroying the entire set. So you have the Men In Black being led by a Man In Red.

The show had the potential to be a great show, but I feel that too many cliches were used.