Fate/Grand Order: First Order

*Minor spoilers* Civilization ends in December 2016? Well, would you look at that, it is the last day of December 2016 in my time, but January 1st 2017 in other places. Let us see what happens in the next few hours. *Shrugs* Have you ever watched the Fate/Series? Yes? Well, I would say not to keep your hopes up on this part of the franchise, and I'll tell you why. The start of the story is that Mash Kyrielight ponders into the distance, whilst sitting next to her companion, Fou. Fou is a familiar-like beast in which had befriended Mash. Fou suddenly sees a man on the floor,fainted. That man was Ritsuka Fujimaru, the male protagonist of the series. During their time, there was technology called the Rayshift, a technology that utilizes time travel. It is used to go back in time, and it is in the facility called Chaldeas. The use of time travel is meant for the sake of the future, as the people who have the potential to be masters only can go back in time. HOWEVER, this use of time travel has a serious plot hole, that being: How can they talk to people that are still in the future? Time travel is a very highly rated aspect in any piece of literature, and if very well done, many would love it. However, the way this part of the series tries to use time travel just seems so bland, and they did not go in depth upon the use of time travel. I will give them that the use of time travel in this series was a bit interesting, it just was not done in a proper manner at all. Every other part of this piece of literature seems extremely bland. There was not anything notable about the animation (except for some battle scenes), sound, and characters. For the animation, one part is that they tear off a statue's head after being stoned to death.. but the body spews out blood as if it were a live person. Some of the battle scenes were at least a little bit entertaining. They were able to have my eyes focus a bit more onto the screen, but nothing more. For the sound, it did not feel like those characters' voice actors fit to who they were trying to be. That being, it felt very out of place. The soundtrack was not anything I found particularly invigorating, either. The sound effects were not anything to point out, as well. The characters was about as bland as tofu mixed with a banana. The main characters were not anything special, and I did not have a fun time watching them except during the battle scenes. I did not feel any emotional investment to anyone. The Fate/Zero soundtrack was absolutely astonishing, as it kept me in vast concentration in every single battle. The animation was also out of this world in Fate/Zero, as it was very detailed in each of the scenes. The characters in Fate/Zero were absolutely lovely, and I enjoyed each one of their ideologies. I guess you could say that the difference between the two is the insane budget that Fate/Zero has, whilst it did not seem so much for Grand Order, the story especially. Fate/Zero has the clash of extreme ideologies. What is a king? What does it mean to be a leader? What is justice? What happened to justice? Those are all questions that Fate/Zero answers, in which had me in high expectation on Fate/Grand Order, as it was apparently meant as another part of the Fate/Series. Is this really another part of the Fate/Series? Yes, this is another part of the Fate/Series, but it feels as if it was not. They go back to what is the first Holy Grail war, but it was nowhere near as exciting as Fate/Zero. I could even say that Fate/Stay Night had me more interested than this piece of the series. I, for one, am going to consider this piece to be separate from the Fate/Series. Overall: 4.25 It could be that since I watched Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero first, it led me to having an extremely hard time watching this. I could not enjoy myself very much while watching it. I guess I set my expectations way too high for this, only to become something that should be swept under the rug. Will it be good to you, though? Did you enjoy these parts of the Fate/Series: Zero and Stay Night? If so, I would not recommend watching this unless you have a large amount of time to spare. -------------------------------------------------- Note: This anime is meant to be an advertisement for the game being Fate/Grand Order. There will be an added review on the app game, and the game is available on iOS and Google play currently for US. Outside regions are said to have been locked out of this game.

Adaptations based on the Fate franchise is hardly a new sight to see these days. In recent years, we’ve seen ufotable adapt Unlimited Blade Works while Silver Link put their talent into Fate/kaleid. Where does Fate Grand Order fit in? To be honest, this can be watched although not exactly a good place to start if you’ve just took your first step into Fate universe. A lot of people often questions about what order to watch Fate series. Fate Grand Order draws references and alludes to Nasuverse quite frequently so at least a decent amount of understanding should be obtained before watching this special. Asan episode worth of over 70 minutes of content, this to me was less of a special and more of a mini-movie. In addition, Fate Grand Order’s story is canon so it isn’t some fairy tale story made up from fans. This brings back a familiar feeling you’ll probably be experiencing if you’ve heard about the sacred Holy Grail Wars. The special leaves little time for humor and instead jumps right into the meat of the story. It’s somewhat thrilling as the first few minutes introduces the main protagonists including Mash and Fujimaru. Following that, we get quite amount of info dumping about an organization known as “Chaldea”, humanity, and servants. This is where things gets interesting as Fujimaru gets involved with a mixture of complicated events. We are also told about the servants including one Fate fans will be very familiar with….Saber. However, what I’m most impressed in this special is Cu’s role including the fight that he gets involved with. The most prominent character from Chaldea is Olga and she also gets an unwelcoming surprise. However, a problem exists in this special about these characters. “Why should we care about them?” The simple answer is that you probably shouldn’t really put too much faith into the characterization. It’s hard to really characterize the cast in a mere 70+ minutes. In essence, the special is designed more as a way to attract fans to the game. There hasn’t been a full TV anime adaptation announced yet so this special serve more as an advertisement. Fate/Grand Order is a Japanese mobile game designed for iOS and Android although there hasn’t been an official English release yet. That being said, I’m rather underwhelmed by the main male protagonist. It just feels like he’s there after getting a better understanding the events and purpose of Chaldea. The character chemistry between Fujimaru and Mash was just generic and there’s hardly interesting about either character. To me, it felt like others overshadowed their roles in this special. Yes, I’m looking at you, Cu. Not only that, I can’t really feel a lot of emotions from this even after what Olga discovered later on in the episode. With that being said though, if you’re into an action fest of servants and powers clashes, then this will be a treat for you. The animation quality by Lay-duce was decent although not at the level of famed studios like ufotable. On most parts, they got the battle choreography down right along with character designs. The joy of seeing servants fighting again in Nasuverse brings back the fun experience of what Fate fans has been waiting for. The soundtrack also compliments with the action sequences to make this into an acceptable supernatural thriller. On the other hand, the voice acting felt rather mediocre. Again, it feels like Cu stole a good part of the special despite not even being the main character. So, should you watch Fate Grand Order? Honestly, for anyone familiar with the Fate franchise, I would say it’s a right choice to watch this. However, if you’ve never touched anything related to Fate or Nasuverse, then this will feel a lot more like some random movie on your PTW. Fate Grand Order is more or less advertised as a way to get viewers to try out the game. The anime, while offers base content, can’t be taken for granted for its main storytelling. There’s just a lot of potential that weren’t, and to be quite frank, impossible to unlock from this. And that’s a certain kind of disheartening.

As an avid fan of the overly popular Fate franchise, the hype I got before watching this film was immense. This is a great special, but it definitely has plenty of areas that could be improved. Although this film is admittedly worse than the other Fate series like Kaleid, UBW and Zero, it's still worth a watch. Set in the year 2015, the final era of magic. Caldea is an organization established to observe the magical world and the world of science - as well as to prevent the final extinction of mankind. Humanity is guaranteed at least another 100 years, that is until the futurerealm observed by Caldea vanishes into thin air. Caldea is now sure humanity won't live past 2017, due to events taking place in the Japanese city of Fuyuki in 2004. The organization issues a Grand Order for a "Holy Grail Expedition" to investigate, uncover, and perhaps destroy the singularity responsible for wiping out mankind. Right off the bat, the story looks very enticing... is an over exaggeration. The plot is honestly very linear and doesn't do much justice in terms of plot twists or suspense. The cast is pretty typical but those who watch will surely not take of complacent that the male protagonist is described and epitomized as "human". So you can expect the most cliche male protagonist possible. This is a very good looking series in terms of art and animation. But with every adaptation, there is always a limited emphasis on character design. If you have watched any of the fate series, you will immediately recognize that some of the characters have been reused. The animation will look different from the other fate adaptations since it's not TYPE-MOON producing the film but Lay-duce, which I've never even heard of before. Again, this film may feel off if you've watched any of the other fate series. However, if you're a newcomer than there shouldn't be any problems in terms of quality and art. This pacing of this film is undoubtedly fast being a 1 hour and 12 minute special. Although due to the amount of information and fast-pacing, it still feels somewhat maintainable. Without prior knowledge, the servants can be a bit one-sided. The thing you have to remember is that you're *supposed* to know the characters beforehand but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment. It shouldn't matter anyway since there is literally zero character development for the servants. Sound is a non-sequitur. Nothing really stands out, nothing's really bad. Overall, I give this film a 7 / 10. The plot has so much potential if they expand the story even further into multiple parts. But for me right now, the plot is very mediocre and the characters are too typical. Definitely deserves a watch if you're bored and have free time though.

Is Fate/Grand Order: First Order, another adaptation from the Type Moon universe? Yes it is. Is it a cannon worthy adaptation from studios like Ufotable and the studio that must not be named *cough* Studio Deen? Not entirely. Is it another money making “adaptation” to exploit the grand Fate Universe that studios such as Silver Link have done in the past? After knowing it is based off of the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, quite possibly. With that out of the way, is it worth watching this movie/special or should I watch the cannon works by other studio first? Well isn’t that why you are readingthis review? *(To save you from reading the entire review, watch the Ufotable arc first before watching this)* The major plot of the anime revolves around the organization called Chaldea, who carries out Holy Grail Expeditions to investigate and destroy any singularities that may cause the extinction of humanity. The director immediately throws the viewers into this chaotic world where the main characters are just as confused as the viewers are in trying to figure out what exactly is going on. Not to fret, they quickly summarize what the Holy Grail war is, who they are and their purpose. Although the story appears to be complex with all the “mankind is on the brink of extinction” bs, it really is simple. However, this Michael Bay style directed movie will leave viewers confused with the amount of forced comic reliefs and unnecessary explosions. They just want to make the viewers believe this organization matters. They try to inject elements like romance and ecchi to appeal to the viewers but it just wasn’t well done so it leaves an unsatisfying taste in your mouth. The story had too many plot holes and the whole concept of time travelling falls flat when people are able to communicate across timelines. The ending was really predictable and it made no sense why the villain needed to create the problem in the first place. It was too abrupt and if they are trying to coin this as a special not a movie, then more movies/specials in this series needs to be released. The movie introduces the major characters Fujimaru and Mash as the master and servant in this movie. However, the characters barely go through any growth or character change for the viewers to become attach to them. Even the servants introduced throughout the movie felt hollow. The ideology, the dialogues, the complexity of their psyche that Nasuverse had was barely visible. People were just fighting and dying after delivering their signature line. There is no motivation or purpose behind each of their decision making. The characters just felt flat. The most interesting character to come out of this special was the narrator, because by the end even he was questioning what in the fate world he was narrating. Despite the movie/special doing so poorly in the story and character department, they didn’t put much effort in making their art and sound stand out much. There was no epic OST like other Fate animes to get your blood pumping nor did this movie have quality animation like Ufotable had with their Unlimited Budget Works. Still, for a studio like Lay-Duce, who just wants to make a quick buck with this mobile game adaptation, the action scenes were still fun to watch. Who doesn’t love the nostalgic feel of seeing servants like Archer and Saber fight? Overall, viewers will find more enjoyment out of this movie if they have already watched the other cannon adaptations of the fate series that focused on the Holy Grail War. For those watching this for the first time, you will enjoy it more if you go in with really low expectations. Keep in mind this movie is a blend adaptation of the mobile game and a small arc in the Fate Universe. Although the fans of Fate Universe always appreciate seeing more movie/show adaptations, I’m sure viewers like me will forget this movie even existed. We would appreciate it more if studios stopped milking the Fate Franchise and actually presented a well-developed adaptation with meaningful memorable characters and crisp fighting choreography with great background scores. Nevertheless, give it watch if you have nothing better do. Even if you hate it, at least your love/appreciation for other Fate Universe adaptations will grow.

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