Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia is a 21 episode based upon the mobile game. It adapts the seventh chapter of the game, so while it was released after the First Order movie, it jumps quite a way forward. Therefore, if you haven’t played the game already, then it is recommended to have watched the First Order movie, then the Moonlight/Lostroom episode, and then coupled with episode 0 of this season, it does a good enough job of giving you the background to understand what is happening.
In First Order, we learned that Risuka and Mash must travel to each of the seven singularities, which sends them to the past in order to correct the abnormality to prevent the extinction of humanity int he future. In this anime, it covers the seventh singularity, where Ritsuka and Mash are sent back to 2600 B.C., to the ancient city of Uruk. Episode 0 provides some background to Mash and how she came to her powers, with events that precede the First Order movie.
The anime then starts off by providing a tease of the previous singularities and the characters that they had met. This does make you wish that all those chapters could have been adapted instead of jumping so far into the plot. Alas, they might be animated in time and this season provides several interesting and popular characters, not least being Gilgamesh, the arrogant but absurdly overpowered king. The pair of protagonists finds themselves landing into a heap of trouble immediately with various characters showing up. Most of them are mysterious at first, since they basically pop in to introduce themselves before disappearing again.
The city of Uruk and its surrounding lands are under attack by the three goddesses. They have formed an alliance to kill all the humans in the lands. Under the leadership of Gilgamesh, humanity has built a wall to hold out against the demonic beasts sent to attack them. Gilgamesh himself has enough power to hold out so he doesn’t really need the protagonists’ help, and neither does he have to give the grail to the pair to close off this singularity.
Several story developments are predictable, such as who Ritsuka’s allies are going to be. This is a disappointing turn of events since the beginning was strong, with great chemistry between several of the characters. We get the best incarnation of Gilgamesh yet since you actually see the efforts behind his rule that justifies his arrogance. By the time the middle of the season comes, it starts to become by the numbers, especially with Ritsuka gaining a lot of female companions. Several of the female characters definitely lean more towards the romantic side of things in terms of showing interest in Ritsuka.
It’s hard not to notice the increase in fan service and pandering to the male audience, given the skimpier outfits of several female characters. Then there’s the usual gender swap of well known historical figures. It worked well in the first Fate/stay night for King Arthur but when it’s done again and again, twisting the true personality in order to get these stereotypical anime archetypes, it’s a bit too much to swallow.
The anime has good animation most of the time. There will be plenty of times where the quality drops so much it is little more than colored outlines, these scenes tend to happen when the camera pans out to show more of the characters. The final villain, the big one out of them all, it animated in such a weird way (3D modelling) that it feels completely out of place among everything else. The aesthetics are completely different, and it also makes it hard to discern what you’re looking at when close ups happen.
There’s a lot of flash during battle scenes. Mash and Ritsuka are not shown to be crazy strong. Sure, they’re stronger than the average (and most likely the most powerful normal) human, but their opponents are goddesses. So the battles can either go one of two ways: something unorthodox so it’s not a head on clash, or it is a match between goddess / servant vs goddess. Ritsuka can’t do much more than stand behind Mash and provide her with magic. There are times where the anime is quite wacky with its seemingly joke characters, before whipping back to serious scenes. On the whole, this works out okay. There are times where you can’t help but feel some of the significance of several plot developments is lost on the viewers. This could stem from the lack of knowledge of the plot overall or the characters.
Unfortunately, the stakes keep escalating during the battle against the final villain. Since this climactic encounter is spread out over the course of nearly a third of the season, it gets to the point where it just keeps bigger and bigger, creating a sense of apathy. The protagonists keep throwing everything they have against it and the villain keeps overcoming these attempts. You feel that when the battle does eventually end and the protagonists triumph, it won’t be able to live up to the build up. It also ends up creating a fairly messy ending with a lot of terms thrown around. Some characters meet their end unceremoniously, which is disappointing considering how a few of them are hyped up.
Overall, Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia is a solid anime adaptation and a fun watch, even if you have not played the game before. It works well as a standalone story on the caveat that you have at least watched the movie before it. There are several likable characters with a good blend of over the type cheesy humor and drama. While there is plenty of action, there are times where the overabundance of it can make the pacing feel slow. It can lead to a lack of concern since the enemy just gets more and more powerful while shrugging off the protagonists’ most powerful attacks, even if it does look flashy.
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