Review of Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia

FGO was something that I went in with absolutely zero expectations. While I was familiar with the Fate franchise having watched Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works, I still had very little expectations from this anime. Having neither the hype nor the rage of the players of the source game, I went into it with a completely open mind. And I can safely say that I don’t regret watching this. Firstly, I think it is necessary to address the confusion surrounding the watch order. One of the unfortunate things with the Fate series has been how confusing it can appear to the uninitiated. This makes itdifficult for people to get into the Fate series. I find this utterly tragic because in many ways Fate represents the apotheosis of what anime as a medium can offer. Having watched this show without any familiarity with the game, I didn’t feel lost. The story was quite easy to follow and I rarely felt that I was not comprehending the plot. Although, I made the mistake of watching this without first having watched FGO: First Order and in hindsight, I think I should’ve watched it first. I would urge people to watch First Order before starting this one.

One thing that people might wonder is how exactly does this differ from Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay night? While FGO definitely retains the “core” aspects of FSN like Servants and Grail, the battle royale format of FSN is, however, lacking. While we are shown in the flashbacks of some character that Grail war was indeed a thing, this show takes place in a world where that is merely a footnote and not the main plot. FGO takes those core components and goes in a much different direction. The premise is one of the strengths of this anime, set in a sort of a “doomed timeline”. We follow our protagonist duo as they try to save the world by solving the 7 singularities unleashed by the mage king in multiple different timelines. We have Mash Kyrielight, an artificially created Demi-servant and Ritsuka Fujimaru, an ordinary young man thrown into this mess by some twist of fate (no pun intended). The time travel premise itself is very interesting but when combined with a Fate “twist”, it morphs into something really unique. Working with multiple timelines does allow tremendous world building potential.

The plot of FGO can be divided into two main segments. First, our protagonist duo has to do has to break the three goddess alliance and either gain the cooperation of or defeat the goddesses. A lot is revealed about the world and the characters through the characters interacting with one another. It often gets a bit tedious but I found it mostly interesting. The second segment deals with the aftermath of the dismantling of the three goddess alliance. The show picks up pace here and we get one explosive fight scene after another. Truly, the very best moments of the show are in this second segment. One criticism that I’d have would be the fact that each time the main antagonist was thought to have been defeated, it ends up transforming into something much much stronger. While it could be argued that it really helped drive home the power difference (after all, you must be pretty strong to survive the noble phantasms of multiple deities and legendary heroes). It just became predictable due to how repetitive it had become. If the intention was to keep me on edge, it did the exact opposite and no amount of flashy fight scenes are going to compensate for that. Another thing that I found a bit difficult to understand was the sudden appearance of certain characters in the final battle, while a few lines of explanations were given I think that wasn’t sufficient for an anime only like myself. While this show never cut any corners when it came to exposition dumps, I felt that it was lacking when it was most needed. The world-building is definitely good by anime standards but it had room for much improvement. I feel like toning down the amount of fanservice would’ve better synced with the rather serious tone that this anime takes. But thankfully, the fanservice never reached obnoxious levels. There was commendable attention to detail like the use of stone tablets and era-appropriate architecture. Although the historical accuracy ends there. Some weapons like catapults shouldn’t have existed in 2600 BC and this is barring the fantasy weapons that some characters use. I still would have preferred a bit more realism and less fanservice but I feel like most anime fans will not share my view about the issues I have raised.

I would say that characters are the main strength of this anime. One the advantages that Fate series has by incorporating historical figures is that character development comes prepackaged with their meticulous individual stories. But the Fate tweaks often change the characters significantly and at the expense of their actual mythical selves. Often times, this comes at the expense of coherence with their pasts as introduced in their individual myths. But perhaps coherence is something that we are willing to sacrifice for the sake of turning heroes into alluring waifus. Although I can safely inform that the writers have managed to competently craft characters that are interesting and well developed, rarely manifesting this flaw. While we have a colorful cast of characters ranging from oneechan goddesses to immortal incubus with their own (mostly) tragic pasts, the mediocre characters were the main protagonist duo. While seeing Mash’s mental struggle was interesting, I just felt like her responses to events lacked much needed individuality. The reason for this was explained in episode 0 but I still felt like her growth could’ve been much better. The protagonist Ritsuka Fujimaru is absolutely unremarkable. Apparently, he is meant to be an insert for the players in the game but in the anime he just resembles a typical anime protagonist without any distinctive traits and a superhuman obsession with goodness. Thankfully, sufficient time is given to the more interesting characters and they and their interactions make the show enjoyable.

The artwork and animation was great. It was quite pleasing to the eye and the fight scenes just brought out the best of the talented stuff that created this show. It is something that we all have come to love and expect from Cloverworks in 2021. It is quite clear from the excellent fight scenes that no budget was spared in the making of this anime. This should is worth watching just for the fight scenes due to how well done they are. Although, I still think the crowd CGI could’ve been better and I am confident that it was not a budgetary constraint as FGO rakes in millions in profit. It just felt lazy but I am willing to overlook it as bad CGI is something of a trend in anime.

My favorite part about this anime would be the soundtrack. The music that accompanied each scene made it truly great and it shifted with the emotional tone of the anime from hype at times to melancholy
at other. The opening was great and it did establish the general tone of the anime. The endings were my favorite due to how introspective and revealing they were about the individual characters. I found the endings truly reflective of the tragic lives of the particular characters present in them.

FGO was something that pleasantly surprised me, having dropped Apocrypha after having watched few episodes I was expecting something similar but I am glad this show proved me wrong. The criticisms that I have are probably because I am an anime only. I am sure the players of the game would not raise the same issues and I am confident unless you are too critical, they won’t bother you much. It is a truly good show and while it could’ve been much better, it definitely anything but disappointing. I think if you are one of those people who enjoy anime with great music, excellent fight scenes and fantastic characters, then this show is definitely for you.