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

My most favorite game (from my most favorite franchise) receiving an anime adaptation is a blessing. To top it all off, it's an adaptation of the chapter featuring one of my most favorite anime characters of all time. Even with these standards set before I started watching, they were all exceeded by the end of its run. I'll admit, I started FGO before the English server came out, so I was playing in a server where I couldn't read the story. In return, however, I've been playing the game for more than 4 years now and it's a big part of my daily life. I've alsostarted picking up the story on my own recently, all the way to the Lostbelts. For this Babylonia chapter though, the anime is my first time going through the story.

The reasons why I loved this show are all the same reasons why I love fate in general: the lore, the action, the noble phantasms and the OSTs. However, this time, we don't have servants fighting in a battle royale. Heroic spirits unite to save humanity. Power levels are off the charts. Co-ops create interesting character interactions. Also, seeing new sides to characters we already know led to a combination of nostalgia and awe. This is the best Gilgamesh yet in all of Fate's anime adaptations. Thanks to FGO's setting where our protagonist travels to different eras, we get to gain insights into different characters' lore that are not possible in the standard Holy Grail War set up. This time we get Gilgamesh as the wise King of Uruk in his own land, in contrast to his archer form that is summoned to the modern times that earned his disgust.

The story is what probably exceeded my expectations the most. The twists and turns of the story surprised me as I was expecting a fairly linear plot of defeating the bad guys and getting the grail. How different histories and mythologies interweave in the plot was amazing for me. As for the animation, it's consistently good most of the time and some key scenes are done beautifully. All of these elements accompanied by the epic OST brought me to tears several times.

Now I do also understand that the writing was weak at several points, and the pacing became rushed by the end. Additionally, Fujimaru as a self-insert game protagonist doesn't make much of an exciting lead. However, I guess the overall incredible amount of enjoyment I got from this anime, thanks to being immersed in Fate for a long time, is why I give it a 10.

Now I wait for the final singularity, Solomon!