Review of Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia
When watching fantasy animes, there are times when I find myself being immersed in them. Feeling like I am also a part of their world where magic and heroes exist. Some animes can do this. Some cannot. What I would say though, is that Fate/Grand Order: Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia succeeds triumphantly. In this anime, we follow the journey of Fujimaru Ritsuka and his servant Mash Kyrielight on their journey to recover the grail in the Babylonia singularity. Yet, even with this simplification, terms such as grail and singularity are difficult to understand for audiences who have not watched other Fate adaptations. What is thebackstory of our MC Fujimaru? Like other Fate animes, this one is no exception to being confusing and having many unanswered questions. There are countless times where I would need to scroll through the comments searching for explanations on what was going on (thankfully people do explain things in comments). However, this does not stop it from being able to create exceptional moments that we share with the characters. Moments where you will feel as if you are apart of the world created due to the powerful monologue speeches made. Moments where you will feel your tingles in your spine and your eyes glued to the screen from the climactic moments in the anime. These instances allow you to feel apart of the world that is created in this anime which also makes the flaws of the story less punishing.
As for the characters, it was quite a large cast which made it quite difficult to remember what happened to certain characters, especially the minor ones. Nevertheless, each character did have their moment or two where they were especially emphasised. Personally, I felt that there are two characters that I specifically feel should be touched upon. These are Gilgamesh and Fujimaru as I felt that they contrasted to the generic characters in anime.
Fujimaru Ritsuka may seem quite generic at first as a fantasy protagonist. Having the “we must save everyone” syndrome and being the typical good guy, he first struck me as being quite boring. However, when analysing him more carefully, it made me realise that there were some variations that we see in him compared to much other fantasy anime. The most obvious being that he was not the overpowered main character that you see in animes such as Blue Exorcist or the recently aired Cautious Hero. In fact, he was essentially quite useless in battle and relied heavily on the support of other characters in battle. Yet, he still manages to have his moments in the anime where he outshines the other characters. Some may argue that this is a flaw because it’s just pure plot armour which is quite true. But I still enjoyed him as a character due to him being juxtaposed to the many MC that we find in other fantasy anime.
Another character I felt worth mentioning is Gilgamesh. In contrast to his Fate/Zero personality as being quite egocentric, the version in FGO Babylonia is much more likeable. Yes, he does maintain some of his arrogance, but we also get a glimpse of his kindness and his caring side which we do not see in Fate/Zero. This is different from many other arrogant characters in anime who are simply just cocky and a villain by nature like Gilgamesh was in Fate/Zero. It is also interesting that there are relatively few scenes where we see the Gilgamesh in FGO Babylonia in battle despite him supposedly being quite powerful. Instead, we mostly see him sitting on his throne giving out orders to his subjects. However, when he did battle, it always seemed as if he gave it all. This contrasts greatly to the normal narcissistic characters who like to play around and barely giving it their all. With this being said, the anime was able to attain a uniqueness due to it having characters with personalities that were slightly different from normal.
To wrap it all up, FGO Babylonia gave us a taste of masterful art and music. Like the other Fate series, this one also delivers on spectacular art that draws you into their world. The background scenery is often detailed and vibrant while the fight scenes were animated to be very impactful. Together with the good art, there are also many good soundtracks that can be heard throughout the anime. This is to be expected though as it is the case with most if not all fate anime. However, the CGIs in some cases were not as smooth as I expected to be which makes it not perfect.
Overall, FGO Babylonia manages to deliver what a fantasy anime should aim to do, which I personally think as drawing you into their world. It includes many different aspects that would allow people who are into fantasy animes to likely enjoy it. If you are able to look past the flaws that I mentioned and are into fantasy animes, then this anime should definitely be given a try.