Some aspects of GATE are not well thought-out, e.g., the girls’ armor. What purpose do the pointed projections on the pauldrons serve? If one of the warrior maidens tilts her head to the side, she’s liable to pierce her ear or worse. Also, I don’t recall ever seeing any of the girls with helmets, even in the middle of battles. It may be that on the far side of the gate women’s skulls are so thick and dense that head protection is superfluous, but I am skeptical.
Naga, in the Slayers anime, had spiked shoulderpads… as a spellcaster. She’d disrupt her own spells every so often when the required handwaving caused her to jab herself in the face.
At least the Gate girls’ armor doesn’t have the stereotypical form-fitting chestplates, which would break your own sternum if you ever fell over (or just got hit hard enough). And guide weapons towards you heart, rather than away.
Dammit, Mikeski, I was going to make the Naga reference. I thought to myself “Surely I, a middle-aged otaku, am the only person in North American reading this blog that would remember that spiked shoulderpads were specifically referenced as a hindrance and ridiculous detail when the Naga the White Serpent was originally introduced in the Slayers OAVs.”