Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front – Babylonia First Cour: Bootylicious

I’ve said this before, but the Fate franchisee has basically become the Star Trek of anime. It is a series that has created some of the most moving, deepest and jaw-dropping scenes that have ever graced the screen.

It’s also got some of the dumbest shit ever seen as well.

That’s Fate, and it’s been that way since a little eroge novel called Fate/Stay Night came out in 2004. Throughout the long history of this franchisee, to the highs of Fate/Zero and Ufotable’s adaptions, to the lowest dregs of Fate/Extra Last Encore. That doesn’t change with this years newest TV anime, and probably never well. Join me after the cut as we dive into the first cour of Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front – Babylonia.

Fuck the FATE/GO Gacha System

 

My thoughts on Fate/Babylonia in it’s first cour can best best summed up by paraphrasing a quite from the Star Wars episodes of Family Guy

“This is the story of Fate/Grand Order, let’s start with Part Seven.”

That is the big issue with Fate/Babylonia. As the first full adaption of the Fate/GO game, it decides to start with the seventh chapter of the story, the last full arc before the series enters it’s finale. All of the build up, all of the development of Mash and the master, as well as several other great supposed moments have been skipped in favor of jumping to another part of the series. An act that was done after an apparent vote from the community of what arc they wanted adapted first into an anime.

Now on one hand, I get why they did this. The Babylonia arc is the most popular of the seven, having been penned by series creator Kinoko Nasu himself. It is also with the series that has several characters that are tied in some way to the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel. This route has Gilgamesh, kid Rider, and the beloved Rin Tohsaka, this time having been swapped out as the ancient goddess Ishtar. Hell even Taiga shows up in a fight scene that is fucking amazing.  These are very well loved characters and recognizable even by casual Fate fans. So I understand that they wanted to go with a sure fire hit off the bat. And don’t get me wrong, Fate/Babylonia has been a fun ride so far. It’s well animated (reaching near Ufotable levels), it has great action, decent enough characters, and of course it’s secret weapon: Booty.

I mean, holy shit. This show just leaves it.

All

On

 

The

Freaking

Table

Bro.

I mean it’almost hilarious that this show has as many booty shots as it does, but I’m not complaining, especially after how much of a drought 2018 was in terms of real good fanservice.

Yet despite all of that, Fate/Babylonia still suffers from that fact that it started it’s story at such a weird part, and there are many times as I watch, even when I’m enjoying it, that I know that characters like Mash and Ritsuka have already had the bulk of their character arcs completed. While they aren’t done by any means, the Mash that we seen in Babylonia feels a lot more put together and sure of herself than the Mash we saw in the prologue film First Order. We just haven’t seen those six other arcs. I know that they are coming in some form or another, but it is a bit of a heavy lift for a lot of fans, even someone like me who is quite steeped in the lore of the world. It never gets to Garden of Sinners or Tsubasa levels where you need the wiki beside you as you watch, but it’s not far off.

I’m pretty sure that even as we enter the second cour, my thoughts on Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front – Babylonia won’t change that much. Still, this is a series, a franchise that has such a passionate and devoted fan base, and has banked up SO much goodwill with the Ufotable films and anime, that you can’t help but give them a pass here. Everything on screen pops, the characters are never truly boring, you are going to be entertain from the sheer spectacles. If the Heaven’s Feel movies are the deep and thoughtful side of Fate, then Babylonia is the fun Hollywood popcorn flick, and you know what? That’s 100% fine in my books, because this is a damn good popcorn flick.

We all know this was at least 40-60% of the reason that adapted this one first. We all know it, and we all fucking love it.