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

Fatevember: Final Thoughts

This is the final post of Fatevember. It’s been a wild ride and I can’t believe I managed to pull it off. Fate Stay Night is a massive franchise and being able to blog about pretty much all of it, has been a great experience. With all the series done, most of the characters I wanted to examine looked at, and plenty of Illya fanboying, we have at least reached the end. So after a month, I want to wrap all of this up with my final thoughts on Fate Stay Night. Join me after the cut.

Still don’t know why it’s called that, even after 30 days.

Fatevember: I heard you liked lists: My best and worst of the Fate Franchise

Fatvember wraps up tomorrow! It’s been a wild ride, but all things must end. Before all is said and done though, I want to share with you some of my bests and worsts of everything that is Fate related, because I heard you liked lists.

So join me after the cut as we take a gander at my best of Fate…and my worst.

My Blog! My choices!

Fatevember: Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family

Anime’s ability to take any concept or idea and make it a piece of good entertainment is one of the hidden strengths of the art form. Unlike movies, TV, or even books, Anime has somehow cracked that magic formula of taking even the most mundane or insane idea and making it just…work. I said it before when I spoke about Girls und Panzer, but it bears repeating here. When other entertainment forms say “Why?” Anime is the only one that stands up and proudly says “Why not?”

For our final anime of Fatevember, we proudly continue that tradition of saying “Why not” with a cooking spinoff of the main Fate Stay Night universe. So after the cut, let’s dive into Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family.

We’ll just call it Fate/Cooking

Fatevember: Carnival Phantasm

Fatevember wraps up this week with a look at the two final animations that have been made as of 2018. We’ve gone through the main storylines, the prequel, the spinoffs that are great, and the spinoffs that suck. Now…things get weird and a bit shorter in terms of word count.

I like many others, love parodies of anime. The abridging boom that erupted in the early 2000s worked in many ways because it allowed fans to tell the stories, but also poke fun at all the anime bullshit. However, it is rare that the anime creators themselves get to poke fun at their own worlds. For Fate Stay Night, however, they have and after the cut let’s take a dive into the 2012 OVA Carnival Phantasm.

The other set of characters you see here are from Type-Moons other series. We’ll ignore them for now.

Fatevember: Fate Grand Order: First Order

Just when I said that there are never any good video game adaptations, I go and forget this was based on one. Can you blame me though? Mobile games and mobile gaming is still a young part of the industry, and it is one that is still looked down upon here in the west. Just look at the recent insanity over the fact that Blizzard Entertainment is announcing a mobile version of Diablo? That alone should show you that the idea of gaming on your phone is still a work in progress.

In the east, however, it’s a different story, and the game Fate Grand Order has been nothing but a money printing machine for all of those involved. I play it myself, and while it is not as free to play friendly in comparison to say Fire Emblem Heroes or Final Fantasy Record Keeper, it has been extremely successful and remains a fun game to play, and I’m not saying that caused I managed to pull my anime waifu Illya for free.

Anyway, an anime adaptation of Grand Order’s story is in the works for 2019, but a preview movie has already come out. So after the cut let’s take a dive into the 2016 film Fate Grand Order: First Order

After Last Encore, we can only go up.

Fatevember: Fate/Extra Last Encore

Have anime adaptations of video games ever worked? I’m serious here, in the few that I have watched they never seem to be well received. They either adapt too much, or too little in their episode count, and often too much is left either on the cutting room floor or just ignored. We’ve seen it this Fall season with Conception, which feels like a bunch of cutscenes from the game edited together. Even Senran Kagura, which is enjoyable for…reasons, feels like it’s more concerned with delivering the goods than it’s with any coherent story.

I say this because the next entry in Fatevember is that weird red-headed stepchild of the entire family. So after the cut let’s dive into the 2018 anime Fate/Extra Last Encore

Ugh…..

Fatevember: Fate/Apocrypha

Now that the world of Fate/Illya has been thoroughly looked over, we continue our dive into the spinoff universe of Fate Stay Night with our second, and most interesting of the main spinoff titles, and out of all of them, this feels the most spin-offy of them all. Let’s not waste any more time, after the cut let’s dive into our second entry in the alternative universe of Fate with Fate/Apocrypha.

This poster has a severe lack of Astolfo

Fatevember: Fate Stay Night’s Illyasviel von Einzbern: From Tragedy to Tranquility

She’s a character who plays more of the third wheel for the majority of the Fate visual novel, yet she was popular enough to have her own spin-off that is the longest piece of Fate-related work ever made. She has an adorable design that sells countless pieces of merchandise, but a backstory that is marked by betrayal, disappointment, and abandonment, unless you watch her spin-off.

She can be a character forged by a centuries-long ambition but born like any other child in this world. A girl whose parents choose power over her safety, but instead directs her anger at a man who had nothing to do with it. Or she is someone whose life was more important than great power, who was given the chance to be a normal girl and experience the values of friendship, love, duty, and commitment.

Either way, she’s one of the most popular characters in the Fate franchise, and my personal favorite female anime character of all time. After the cut let’s take a dive into Fate Stay Night’s: Illyasviel von Einzbern.

(SPOILERS FOR FATE ZERO, FATE PRISMA ILLYA, AND ALL THREE ROUTES OF THE FATE VISUAL NOVEL)

My Illya is here!

Fatevember: Fate/kalied liner Prisma Illya 3rei!

Animes that undergo a major tonal shift are quite often rolling the dice in terms of whether or not it will work. If the core fandom who have stuck with you feel like things have changed, they won’t hesitate to abandon the series. However, you might also be able to bring on new fans that may have not found the series appealing beforehand.

In the case of Fate/Illya the fourth and (as of now) final season seems to straddle both of those lines quite well, being a new complete entry into the series, but also maintaining everything that makes it great. So after the cut, let’s take one final dive into the world of Fate/Illya with Fate/kalied liner Prisma Illya 3rei!

The Plot comes a knocking.