Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia

It’s been several years since the gacha game Fate Grand Order made its debut. Now in this new decade and Sony is practically sitting on a gold mine. In fact, reports have been shown that the game made into the 3 billion figures in global player spending in 2019. That’s a whole lot of 0s. Ranked as one of the most popular global gacha games, FGO’s destiny is the inevitable anime adaptation. Let’s talk Fate Grand Order. To get the obvious out of the way, viewers don’t need to absolutely watch the previous Fate shows or play the game. Sure, it can enhance the experience butFate Grand Order is perfectly watchable if it’s your first entry into the Fate universe; although I do recommend watching at least the prologue or OVAs. Taking place in the A.D. 2016, Fate Grand Order Babylonia chronicles the adventures of Ritsuka Fujimaru and his partner Mash. Their journey takes them to Mesoptoamia where they make sinister discoveries. Fate Grand Order Babylonia is designed to celebrate the game but also tell a story with mythological elements and uniting heroes for the beloved fans. And when watching a Fate show, you have to remember that there’s many terminologies to remember, some that imperative for the show’s overall purpose. Fate Grand Order also personifies its cast that makes each and every single character stand out in some way. With such a large cast, the anime did have to make work to fit the overall tone of the story. Director Toshifumi Akai knew the monumental task at hand and had to make this into at least a 2-cour show. With 21 episodes, Fate Grand Order sets sail from the first episode to showcase the human side of our main leads, Ritsuka and Mash. As with most Fate-related shows, character chemistry is an important part to connect the cast together. Ritsuka and Mash shares a relationship built on their companionship. They share a common interest with but also looks after each other’s’ well-being. Essentially, this pair is a living proof of how important trust can bring two characters together. Ritsuka himself also goes on to become a central figure to dealing with the conflict at Uruk, a city led by the famed and prideful king, Gilgamesh. Oh, you’ve heard of Gilgamesh right? Maybe you’ve heard him from one of the previous Fate franchises or perhaps from the actual historical king in ancient textbooks. He’s the ruler of Uruk and as you may expect, he is a central figure in this iconic city from Mesopotamian mythology. Compared to his other incarnations, Gilgamesh still retains some traits of his character but in this show, he is more compassionate and caring towards his followers. The alliance he forms with Ritsuka and Mash also shows that unlike his previous characters, Gilgamesh realizes he cannot accomplish everything solely by himself. In essence, this version of Gilgamesh takes on a more heroic role compared to the “Big Bad” he made himself famous for in previous animated franchise. Taking a step back though, you should also come to understand other characters such as Ana, Merlin, and the Three Goddess. The three Goddess is a trinity of beings with extraordinary abilities. Consisting of the members Ereshikgal, Quetzalcoatl, and Gorgon, they represent absolute power and a unity of divine strength. The first half of the show focuses on Ritsuka and Mash trying to defeat and recruit them as part of Gilgamesh’s grand plan. While the fight themselves are predictable by story nature, it’s still very important to understand the purpose. Individually, these Goddesses have unique character personalities such as Ereshikgal’s pride or Quetzalcoatl’s playfulness. Character bond between these Goddesses and main protagonist Ritsuka is also important as Ereshikgal grows closer to him and vice versa. But let’s also not forget other prominent characters such as the famed Ishtar. Making herself famous with her “Rin-face” and similar personality, she plays an integral role in the main story. One of the fascinating things about Fate Grand Order Babylonia is being able to get us to invest into its cast, and for this instance, Ishtar is a breakout character. She exemplifies the behavior of a Servant but also crosses into the realm of humanity with her behavior. It’s one of the more curious elements of the show that get us to see what separates humans and Servants. This is somewhat opposite of Enkidu, a Servant who values animals and nature more than humanity. Every Servant in this show is an enigma, with more lore that are explored in the game. But as a setback, the anime adaptation had to make time and cut loose some background storytelling. That just can’t be helped. Fear not as I’m sure most of the audience should be able to understand the fundamentals of Fate Grand Order even if you’ve never touched the game before. The anime does an excellent job at characterizing the main cast such as Ritsuka. He’s even more aware of his decisions with logic and acts more human under extreme circumstances. Other characters such as Mash gets an upgrade to showcase their fighting abilities. Rather than being a tank bot like in the game, Mash delivers offensive power during her fight. Even Ushikwakamru manages to get a badass upgrade in the show in one of her most iconic battles. Watching Fate Grand Order Babylonia assures that the audience will experience a journey aimed for anyone, both newcomers and the hardcore fans. Artistically, the Fate franchise has jumped between Unlimited budget productions made possible by ufotable to mediocre disappointment such as Fate/Apocrypha. And oh, who can forget about Fate/Extra Last Encore, the show that decorated with absurdity and surreal choreography. Where does Babylonia stand in the Nasuverse? It’s not too easy to answer because everyone will have different perspectives. The main selling point is the combination of 2D and 3D animation during intense fight scenes. This applies to later episodes in the anime where the heroes fights boss entities together similar to the game. According to an article from the animation staff, many of the season’s animators are young but are able to bring their storyboarding skills to the table. One thing to do take notice is how the show’s setting is able to grace us with the mythological setting. It feels like we enter this new world with the characters during their journey. The anime does far more than just telling and showing but rather giving us a tour of the world. Uruk itself is decorated with its rich culture and the civilization that lives on its lands. And course, we can’t ignore the character designs. Fate has been known for some extravagant and colorful visual designs especially for its prominent characters. Gilgamesh and the Goddess Alliance falls in this category with their distinctive looks. They have the look of divine entities, to be worshipped, and holds a commanding presence over others. And like most of Fate shows, there’s also room for running gags such as Jugarman’s animalistic-like characteristics or the tsundere fashion of Ishtar. It feels like every year or so, we get a Fate adaptation that fans will talk about but some will shake their heads in disappointment while others accept it like a gift from the Gods. I’m pleased to say that Fate Babylonia managed to become a show that welcomes all viewers with open arms and one that is enjoyable from beginning to end. Now that we have the Fate goldmine flourishing, can we get something like Fate/hollw ataraxia adapted next?

Fate Grand Order, the CGI dilemma, and the strange development of Ritsuka. When this adaptation was announced, I was excited. However, I cannot say the same after seeing the entire adaptation. Although Fate Grand Order Babylonia arc has a good story, it made three mistakes. First, as a vivid fan of the whole Fate series and as a FGO player, I expected them to use the adaptation to expand the background of the characters, their relationships, reasons, for example, Tiamat, Quetz, Enkidu, Gilgamesh to name a few. I was hoping that they would add some new story to aid the plot and fill in the littleholes left by the game's stages and, in some cases, the game plot choices. Unfortunately, this never happened, and you can notice unexpected behavior in some parts of the story without any previous explanation. The production only focuses on adapting the same game story. They did not add any new content, but they did remove some parts. Also, to understand the plot, you must have a little knowledge of FGO setting and the other singularities. Furthermore, they used three episodes as summaries and one more with a special (repeat). I cannot forgive that. The second mistake is the horrible 2D - CGI mix. Even if I love FGO Babylonia, I cannot say that CGI models are great. They are awful in most scenes. I need to be honest with all of you; perhaps the most acceptable model is Tiamat Dragonic Beast. The rest of the models are very average and don't fit the production and budget for the game that gets a lot of dollars a month. I do not accept some comments like "they will polish some visual errors in the BD." As an animator and character designer, we deliver something to a screen as a final product because it will have a wider promotion. On the other hand, the biggest mistake is to add broken lines and inconsistency to Ritsuka. In the game, you use the character as the conduit between the servants and the player. However, the player's choices do not dramatically affect the plot. Following that order of ideas, in the adaptation, the writer tried to make him the great hero. For me, as a player, in the singularities arc, it has no meaningful use. It may have some use if you think you are Ritsuka and if you play the game for that reason alone and not for the servants. I'm sure 99% of players are more interested in servants than this character because he has no traits. You (Ritsuka) pay for the servants and not for your development, keep that in mind. Also, this changed some characters like Hassan (he needed more screen time and a little explanation of who he is), Gilgamesh (the cartoon behavior at the end), Gorgon (Avenger, the plot never explained what she did when she destroyed Tiamat's horn), Ana (died without glory), Enkidu (lost much of the progression and growth that can be noticed in the game). These characters were only used to make the MC shinier. Ritsuka is an important character but it cannot be the most important character because the story is not centered on it. You (Ritsuka) do not have traits, so trying to play a role with strange growth is a writer's mistake. Finally, although all those mistakes that drove some fans away, they can be accepted, and ignored. I mean, I enjoyed the story. Maybe the reason is that I follow the game, and I enjoyed the main essence of the plot, so I am biased, very biased. However, they wasted a great opportunity to adapt something that could have been called epic. As a fan, you will enjoy it no matter the mistakes or my comments as a casual viewer, maybe not because it is needed some extra info to understand the plot. Sadly, I cannot give it a better score because when I love a series, I am very critic.

What makes an anime good? Well, we can answer this by asking what makes a story good. There are many aspects to a story. Characters, dialogue, world building, originality - the list goes on. There are also many aspects of a story that are only present in visual media - specifically animation. While it is hard to pinpoint what makes animation good, "you know it when you see it" is a pretty good rule of thumb. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia fails on every single level of story telling. Allow me to explain why. First,let's talk about the plot. Saying that this animated adaptation of the Babylonia singularity of the popular "Fate/Grand Order" gacha game has a plot is like saying that a piece of white bread has flavor. Technically, by the literal definition of the word - yes. It's true. Fate/Grand Order - Demonic Front: Babylonia consists of an endless series of inane events that make me question if anyone working on the project gave a singular planck length of a shit about it. I anticipate this review will be quite lengthy, so I will not bore you with the details. The entirety of the story can essentially be summed up in one sentence. "3-5 bland protagonists fight a gigantic, oversexualized female villain with gargantuan breasts." I shit you not, about 90% of this series fits this exact sentence. The other 10% is filler. This filler consists of {figure 1} • People walking • People talking • People walking while talking • Female sidekicks blushing while talking to the male protagonist That's pretty much it. You could watch the 21 + 1 episodes of this, or you could read the above summary and understand the entirety of the program. Now that we've got that out of the way, I'd like [like is a strong word, prefer would probably be more appropriate for this context] to talk about the dialogue. This should be a rather brief talking point. Pretty much every piece of dialogue in this god-forsaken script fits in one of three boxes. {figure 2} [1] Refer to bullet point 4 of {figure 1} [2] Characters saying a load of garbled nonsense while fighting each other [3] Characters saying a load of garbled nonsense while not engaged in any particular fight I can't stress enough how insufferable the dialogue of this adaptation is. To be fair, this is probably an accurate representation of the experience one endures while reading the dialogue of a virtual novel gacha game written by developers that know that >99% of players will not read a single line of dialogue - and those who do are already spending hoards of money- I mean virtual currency that holds no tangible value on the game. In most Fate anime adaptations, there's a standard amount of weird anime dialogue that sounds kind of cool and meaningful but is really just fluff when you think about it for a few seconds. In this, it's the whole thing. No line in this entire 11+ hour slog holds any significance, whatsoever. Author's note: The length of that section was unfortunate. Let's take a brief detour to discuss the world building. Luckily for the writers, this takes place in a pseudo-historical setting! Looks like the work's been done for them. Unfortunately, this is not quite the case. While even the most amateur of writers could utilize a historical setting with a modicum of competency, the writers of this anime defy the odds, and fail to do so. I wouldn't even know that this was set in Babylonia if it weren't for the title of the series, in addition to the slew of historical names and locations they drop in. There is essentially no tangible trace of the fascinating history of this period of human history, or the geographical details of this specific story's setting. >90% of the scenes take place in generic dirt fields, or inside buildings that vaguely conjure an image of ancient civilization. Would it really have been that hard to throw in a famous monument here or there? Not to mention the historical figures, which are as stock standard as they come. The utter incompetence of the writing team is baffling in this department. Pseudo-historical ancient civilization is one of the easiest tricks in the book. Yet they bungled it. Originality? It's Fate/Grand Order. Come on now. Before we get into what is regrettably the longest section of this review, I'd like to briefly touch on the animation. In the handful of reviews I've read for this series online, I've seen several claims that this is some of the best animation that the Fate series has to offer. Reading these reviews genuinely made me question my sanity. It's hard to convey with words how fundamentally incompetent and incohesive the animation is. There are moments [however brief], which are genuinely good looking. However, these moments of beauty are overshadowed by the gargantuan mountain of canine manure that is everything else. It's important to understand that there are essentially three different styles of animation, all of which occur [for the most part] simultaneously throughout the course of this adaptation. {figure 3} [1] Normal animation. I won't pretend to know how anime is made, but if you watch any anime from the last decade, you know what I'm talking about. This style is reserved only for the protagonists [with a few exceptions] and looks the best. [2] Static backgrounds. As far as I know, Static backgrounds are a fairly standard implementation in modern anime. However, the backgrounds of this series are reminiscent of the kind you would see in a mid-2000s children's show, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters or GX. This art style is utterly incohesive with the first, and sharply detracts from the experience. The colors are much less vibrant, and the details less specific than the style used in [1]. [3] 3-D models. These are god awful. Most of the swarmy demon enemies are animated with this method, and holy fucking shit is it distracting. The first style of animation looks like it's somewhere around the 24 frames per second range, which is completely normal for an action anime. This style looks like interpolation on steroids. It is impossible not to notice it. Every time you see something that is animated like this, it draws your attention away, as your eyes are attracted to areas of the screen with higher frame rates. This is incredibly distracting, as I don't want to be looking at the swarm of enemy demon tigers while the protagonists are supposed to be the subject of a given scene. This style is also often used in tandem with even more vibrant colors, along with a sort of shimmer. While this description is not nearly sufficient to relate the visual experience of this series, I hope that it provides the reader with some sense of how incompetent the animation was. Alright - one more thing I'd like to touch on before getting into the long part. The fucking sound design. Every single sound effect just sounds like someone took a fart and boosted the base and reverb. It adds to the unending list of things that take you out of any semblance of an experience that the show possessed, and reminds you that you are watching an anime based off of a gacha game based off an erotic visual novel that is old enough to engage in consensual intercourse. Ok. fine. I'll talk about the characters. My entire review for this was initially just going to be a paragraph on each of the characters [more specifically, why they suck], but I decided to lengthen the review to include a few other topics after the excruciating experience I had to sit through. If you don't want to read about each of the individual characters, I suggest that you scroll down to my summary. I promise this is the last section. Ristuka Fujimaru - The most bland and uninteresting protagonist to ever grace the world of anime. And yes, that includes Shirou Emiya of Fate/Stay Night [Studio Deen adaptaion]. Holy fucking shit is this guy boring. I don't even have anything to say about him because there literally isn't anything. His only personality trait is that every girl wants to fuck him. I guess it does well at catering to the male incel weeb target audience. Every lonely weeb with no personality loves these sort of characters. Mash Kyrilight - Do I really need to say anything? Play Fate/Grand Order for 2 minutes and you'll know the entirety of her character. The most interesting thing she does for the first 9 episodes is flash her panties during her fight scenes, but after that point she doesn't even do that. She shields the other characters from getting zapped a couple times, and gives weird uWu looks at Fujimaru, but other than that she's pretty useless. Her boobs also look like water balloons which is pretty funny. I like her crotch window too, super cool costume design. Ana - Proxy Illiya loli bait. Looks 8 years old and ties people up while wearing a leotard that says "stare at my crotch you horny incel." I liked it when she died. Archer [Ishtar] - She's literally just Rin in lingerie without a personality. Out of all the main cast, she probably does the most cool stuff during fights [kind of like being the fastest snail], so that's cool I guess. Oh, did I mention she's wearing lingerie? It's a really cool character trait. I like the parts where she hits on Fujimaru and shows her panties to the screen. Super interesting and original. Breaking new ground for the Fate franchise. One of the main antagonists is her alter ego except by the point that they introduced that plot point I had literally 0 investment in the show so I can't say I payed all that much attention to whatever the fuck was going on. Avenger [medusa?] - My favorite character. Her tits are funnier than a Chris Rock comedy special. She's literally just an 800 foot tall tentacle serpent lady with absolutely GARGANTUAN boobs. Like it's not possible to describe how gigantic and funny they look. I think her scenes were supposed to make me horny but all they made me do was laugh. She also dies like 3 times. Caster [Gilgamesh] - Never in all my life have I seen a more beta version of Gilgamesh. He only uses his weapon wall thing like twice and it looks like shit both times. He gets merc'd by exhaustion somehow by Ishtar's alter ego shithead, which is fucking pathetic. His mongrel count is shockingly low - I don't think any other adaptation of him has said it this few times. He has absolutely no presence and is a disgrace to the Gilgamesh name. Even the Deen adaptation did a better job than this. Enkidu - I have no fucking clue what was going on with this character. They had some sort of plotline with Gilgamesh and being a fake or something but I honestly couldn't give less of a shit. Their fight scenes were all really lame and their dialogue was flatter than my chest. Fou - Lancer [Ishtar alter ego] - She shows up a couple times before her fight scene when Ishtar switches to her. I think I was supposed to be intrigued by it but I was just mildly confused. During her fight scene she's a cgi skeleton for some reason. Looked kinda cool in the opening shot but after that was dinky as all hell. When they defeat her she returns as her normal self and every time they do an Ishtar pantie shot they also do one of her, which is also in addition to mash, and Ana - that episode was like 90% panty shots. Leonardo Da Vinci - Big forehead. Is just kinda... there [during the scenes with Roman] Merlin - He's kind of cool and surprisingly not very horny, even though he's an incubus. Looks pretty neat and isn't oversexualized. 5/10 character. Wetzel Pretzel [Rider] - Another horny girl with no clothes on. Shocking. She looks like a clown because of her costume design, and her voice actor is mind mindbogglingly annoying. Every scene she appeared in made me want to peel my eyes out and my ears off. Romani - The best character in the entirety of the Grand Order universe by far. Has some cool lines and doesn't annoy me. Looks neat. 6/10. Tiamat - Literally looks like a Pokemon. I don't know how they animated her this poorly. Basically just a more cgi looking version of Avenger. Big tits, not interesting, funny as fuck. Her horns are kind of cool. Maybe would be a cool Yu-Gi-Oh! card. Welp, that's it. That's my review of Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia. In summary? Don't watch this. If you're horny, just watch some hentai. This is that weird in between where its only appeal is horny stuff, but it isn't hentai so why bother if that's what you're looking for. It also perpetuates anime stereotypes of submissive women that are only viewed as sex objects because that's what the target audience wants. 0/10.

** Visual orgasms and ear rape inbound ** Fate/Grand Order – Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia is from a hellish gacha game Fate/Grand Order, which I unfortunately didn’t play yet. You don’t need to play the game before watching this. What I would recommend is to watch Fate/Zero and the prologue Fate/Grand Order as they explain how the system works and what has happened before hand. ---- Art ---- Visually an absolute shit AND a masterpiece! Let me tell you first that the CG is absolutely demonic and that’s why I didn’t rate this anime a 10. On the other hand, the hand drawn shots are absolutely amazing.The fighting sequences follow up as smooth as butter. The animators love to throw some but shots into the fights and that is absolute amazing. The way weapons are used is so satisfying that it looks more than simply wacking bad creatures. It gives importance to the use of noble phantasms. They are meant as trump card and that is presented in a visually stunning sequence of blasts and explosions. ---- Sound ---- The sound effects are there to enhance the fight, but at a certain moment the bassdrop when something happens gets annoying. It isn’t really a problem but they could have made better use of it. ---- Voice Acting ---- What was absolute amazing was the voice acting. Every scene, battle or speech felt so good. When you hear Ritsuka talk about good being a good goddess or when he buys Ishtar is simply marvelous. The speeches of Gilgamesh gives me goosebumps. You can almost feel Gils raw power. Or when Mash nervously talks about marriage is just so cute. Ishtars va was super good to, her highlight is when they were in the underworld and the gate asked who the best girl was. You can definitely hear that the VAs had fun voicing this. ---- Characters ---- ALL LOVEABLE, ALL BEST GIRLS AND BOYS. Yeah I can’t say much more about it. The characters fit so well in the anime and their growth, although subtle, is amazing to see. But for the apocalyptic setting, they all seem a bit to happy sometimes. The scenes which are laid back gives a relaxing feeling and melts away anxiety, like the scene where the whole team had diner together. It feels warm and wholesome and melts away anxiety and stress. At other times, like in battles you can feel their tension and battle spirit. When I think about the battle with Spartacus I still get goosebumps. The characters feel very much alive and warm and actually convinces you they are characters and not just a drawing. Ritsuka: Ritsuka is the master we would wish for in Stay Night. He knows what his duty is and tries to carry that out with all his might. He’s soft on the inside and also on the outside. He is just a soft boi. But he can also be levelheaded. He is an admirable character with love for those around him. He isn’t idealistic but he isn’t naïve either. He is a well balanced character. Mash: she is best girl. With her big shield she will protect her precious master from dying, time after time again. As a demi-servant she has some nice ass-sets which can be admired in battles. I wished to see some more interaction from here as she almost becomes a single line character. Ishtar: useless but very cute. Well you can worship Rin as a goddess now. She is a lovely goddess who brings humor to the battlefield. She should be faired as the most useful goddess and owner of the bull of heaven. She will absolutely wipe the ass of anybody she fights with. She is cute and cares about her people. Perfect tsundere. Quetzalcoatl: yes it took me a few episodes before being able to say her name. A goddess of all that’s good and of the sun. And that is clearly visible in her behavior as she just beams with confidence and happiness. Her last battle was simply a visual orgy. Merlin: dickwizard. Gilgamesh: if you have seen Stay Night or Zero then Gilgamesh is extremely enjoyable in this version. This absolutely tyrannical ruler will seize your heart. He gives off the aura of a marvelous leader. He is levelheaded, hot, smart, powerful and an absolute chad. His reason and speeches are that of a natural ruler and his action of a king. The way he treats Isthar reminds me of how Kazuma treats Aqua and it totally understandable. I would love to see more of this version of Gil. It was also adorable to see how he cared about Siridu. ---- Story ---- The story is pretty straight forward and let it tells itself. There are no side distractions or unclarities which makes watching the story unfold really relaxed. It is about a master, Ritsuka, who tries to save humanities future by eliminating threads in the past. This time it happens in the age of gods, where gods still walked along humans. Ritsuka, together with his (underaged) servant Mash, goes on a journey like adventure to stop the goddesses from wreaking havoc and restoring the future. How this story unfolds in an all-out battle against primordial gods and the extinction of entire regions is absolutely thrilling to see. The best part is that this isn’t a simple story of good vs bad (the main premise is) but it is a lot more nuanced. It does however rely on “bad guys turn good guys” but it doesn’t get annoying. ---- End --- Fate/Grand Order Babylonia is definitely one of the highlights of anime 1019/2020. Visually amazing, top notch voice acting and great characters. Also a waifu granting device. On top of that if you play the game, it would greatly enhance your experience as the anime gives much more lore and background to the characters playable. After every episode I had the feeling that it was my favorite episode. I have a blog where I write how I feel about every episode. I would recommend it to most people who like anime in general.