Fate/Extra: Last Encore

Oh boy, Fate/Extra: Last Encore. I should say, right off the bat, that while I am a fan of the Fate universe, I am not a fan of some of their more recent adaptations. (I’m looking at you, Fate/Apocrypha) As a series that’s over the top like Fate/Extra Last Encore, it felt like a chance for me to take a wild ride, turn my brains off, and try to enjoy this for what it is. How did I feel at the end? Well, let’s just say that I want my time back if I had a holy grail.

When Shaft was announced as the studio for ... production, I immediately raised an eyebrow and found myself wondering if this could ever work. As an anime adaptation of Fate/Extra, this became a plot that’s modified for the sake of anime storytelling. It sells its story similar to some of the other Fate franchise’s series if you’re familiar with the franchise. Jumping into this show was not easy for me despite my familiarity with the Fate universe.

So I decided to give this a shot anyway. Why not? It has an alluring premise and takes place in an alternate timeline to Fate/stay night. In this timeline, mana have disappeared and Wizards are forced to use virtual space for magic. Similar to some of the other Fate series, a Holy Grail War is set up by a computer that pits 128 Masters in a tournament. The winner will be chosen with a wish to be granted by the Moon Cell Automaton, a mysterious computer of unimaginative powers. Main male protagonist Makuno Kishinami gets caught up into this battle for survival and is clueless on why he is involved. Luckily for him, he gets a servant called Saber. (do note for the sake of avoiding spoilers, I’ll just refer her as “Red Saber” from now on)

Yes, this formula is definitely not something new despite some differences with the world setting and premise. What bugs me though is how the main plot is executed with Hakuno and Red Saber as the main characters. Don’t me wrong. They are highly entertaining to watch at first but after a while, you may wonder if it’s worth investing time into them at all. In particular, Hakuno is a very oddball character and seems to be only motivated to survive and avenge the deaths of others. In a way, the guy can be viewed as an anti-hero. My impression of Hakuno gradually faded more and more after seeing his development. In essence, he doesn’t develop much at all and his personality feels all over the place. It doesn’t help that Red Saber is incredibly one dimensional and behaves like a child. While she can be addictively cute to watch at times, Red Saber is hardly a character I would declare as well-written. We don’t know much about her and it’s hard to judge what her motivations are in the story. So yeah, watch this for the mindless character chemistry but if you’re watching for concrete characterization, look elsewhere.

If you’re hoping some of your favorite Fate character to show up in this series, then prepare for disappointment. Only a small handful of characters like Rin, Sakura, and Shinji appear and most of their roles are downplayed to get over the main cast. Some of the characters from Fate/Grand Order game also shows up although their roles are so small that you’ll likely forget them incredibly easily. Most of the minor characters have their roles minimized and episodes’ resolutions feel rushed. Oh and Shinji….what a bastard. I wish the series deleted him and never gave him a chance to show up for his abominable personality. But the series’ main story is not abominable. It’s actually much worse. For the majority of viewers, you’ll probably scratch your head on what the hell is going on. I know I did and feel like the series tries to do way too many things at once. Now, I know Shaft is known for their style to present this anime like a theatric thriller with avant garde cinematography. But wow, this show easily fell apart in the beginning and didn’t manage to salvage itself at all. With just 10 episodes, it became more of mindless popcorn entertainment than a creative story to tell.

I mentioned Shaft few times already but I’ll do it again. The studio’s ideas can easily be recognized by their artistic choreography and avant garde artwork. Running gags with violence and head tilts are also pretty easy to spot. The biggest culprit here is Hakuno as he gets his limbs tore apart, body impaled, and put into a position where he can easily die. Somehow, he survives and we see his reaction in a dark grimy way. I think Shaft wanted us to experience what they do best at and honestly, I think they went a bit overboard this time. The shock value in this anime feels impactful but serves little purpose besides amplifying Hakuno’s personality up to the 11. Oh and the fan service. It seems this show wants to milk Red Saber as an eye candy ever chance it gets. The camera always flirts with her by showing lewd body parts, poses, and try to make her as sexy as possible. Bath scenes occur several times in the show and Red Saber never seems to be uncomfortable being nude. It’s pretty shameless and easily distracting to the point where viewers may talk more about the fan service than the story. On the other hand, I think the battle cinematics is nicely made. It’s fast paced and captures an alluring style of fighting. While glorifying servants’ abilities to fight, it also doesn’t make us forget how badass Hakuno can be. Finally, I have to point out that both the OP and ED theme songs are quite attractive once you get used to the style. The charismatic movements of Red Saber is exceptional there.

After watching Fate/Extra Last Encore, I have to wonder what the hell the producers were thinking. Were they trying to make a show to get us viewers into liking the characters and story? Or was this another attempt for cash grab so fans can pour their money into their franchise. Either way, this show ended up being a disappointment for me. I can’t recall how many times I scratched my head. Oh and Red Saber's voice...she sounds like a kid stuck in an adult’s body with that infamous UMU. What a shame for a show that could have been something so much more.

When I heard there was a Fate anime in 2018 done by SHAFT, one of the best studios out there, I was hyped with its weird pairing.

Now it's over and I'm here to give my thoughts.

Story (2/10)

The Fate series has always been slightly confusing at first but at the end, you'll understand everything and have fun.

And it's always related to 7 classes of servants with masters fighting to win the Holy Grail.

... This show took this and went 10000x more complex with it.

With the War being like a RPG where you have to clear floors to progress to the top, it was interesting on paper.

I loved how they were taking risks with the writing.

However, for 10 episodes, the exposition dominated the show so not many fights happened.

10 episodes was too short. Due to this, the story was super rushed and everyone, me included, are left confused.

Characters (2/10)

Red Saber and Hakuno were the only 2 that were showcased in this show.

The other servants and masters were forgettable with barely anything being explored about them.

Red Saber was cute and charming but I feel like the writers milked her character too much.

Hakuno has some interesting abilities but is such a boring lead.

Rin was fine but nothing special here.

Alice and Hakuno was great in their episodes.

I'm disappointed. So many characters felt so useless in the end.

Art & Animation (8/10)

It doesn't have great fights since the studio is inexperienced with fights.

Otherwise, excellent job with such a weird yet breathtaking world.

Characters looked good for a world like this.

Sound (7/10)

Good OP and ED songs, solid OST.

Enjoyment (2/10)

Not really too much to enjoy. Just a boring, overly complicated and lackluster mess.

Weakest Fate show I've seen and it's too bad since I thought this would be amazing after that 1st episode.

Score 2/10

When first hearing Fate/Extra would be adapted into an Anime, I was excited for one of my favourite PSP games to finally have an anime form, right on Apocrypha finishing it’s spotty airing.

...right up until SHAFT reared its ugly head.

Right from the start, you can tell this is a show made by SHAFT just by colours and composition alone, it almost feels as disjointed as a Wes Andersen movie without the humour as every introductory shot insists on bombarding the viewer with artsy stills and not getting to the point of the story. Failing that, SHAFT at least set up the story in the Moon ... Cell; a supercomputer within the moon that mages' go to in attempts to win the Holy Grail using summoned historical and mythological figures, the typical fanfare of the Fate franchise, with the literal blank slate of a protagonist and incredibly oblivious Saber servant included!
I don't have anything against works made by SHAFT, but the studio itself for copy-pasting the same style of production onto everything they get their hands on, as well as retroactively touching up animation after airing for commercial release. After being disappointed with 3-gatsu no Lion, Arakawa and Mekakucity Actors, I have zero confidence in being able to like anything made by SHAFT that doesn’t involve Gen Urobuchi. Akiyuki Shinbou’s caustic style of filmmaking bleeds far too much into adaptations, so much so that TYPE-MOON may as well abandon the animated features to come after the cliffhanger ending of Last Encore left me with a foul taste.

While I'm compelled to TL;DR this as a 3/10 burning trash fire that truly shows SHAFT being incapable of adapting anything that isn't Monogatari, seemingly oblivious to the fact that their stylistic choices and direction overall do not go with everything - and the studio can (and will) sabotage an anime by adapting it as poorly as possible to fit their image.

Now, for the long wall of text that summarises my feelings in individual segments.

Animation: 3/10

I almost wonder if shaft, with all their talented animators who can work wonders with over-the top sequences and scenes actually did this anime - not that the animation looks bad, but the opening is this mess of CGI environments that the singular Saber looks like a ragdoll in, hitting literally nothing but shadows with her sword - frames are skipped or missed out entirely in action sequences to make the motions look clunky and jittery, with shoddy post-production dust, light and smoke effects that do fights a disservice. Scenes of dialogue are atrociously bad, with still frames and cutaways occupying a majority of the screen-time while voices ramble on - gestures and motions made for only either displaced dramatic emphasis or memes. Shinji Matou doing the cliched shaft head-tilt in the middle of conversation is just jarring and honestly lazy, it feels like this studio keeps a template on animating this crap over and over, regurgitating any value that pose once had at the viewer.

Choreography in scenes is jarring and strange, with settings being as inconsistent as they are colourful, and characters moving about well enough, but the transitions are always to some unknown - no consistency is established, much like the first episode of GATE, except all the way through. The main problem for this occurrence is that the setting is in distinctly different locales, each with their own visuals and aesthetic, and this type of scene transition only works with one part of the story thanks to the context of the setting. In everything else, there is zero cause to unnaturally alter the colour palette of the setting unless you're trying to instil a certain mood, yet nothing in the dialogue even indicates a change in tone, and no result comes of it.

Fight scenes last for such a short time, without any buildup to it in previous scenes, and entirely stupid moments where the brightness on-screen noticeably fluctuates between fine and so dark that the bright colour palettes become indistinguishable from the background, and the viewer barely sees these shots that would be cool if not for this ridiculous toying with contrast and white balance in scenes that are supposed to be tense. IN THE VERY FIRST SCENE, this happens for more than three seconds to the point where I had to squint to see what was going on because the editors made it intentionally hard to see - likely to prevent the flashes of bright reds and yellows from causing any seizures, but given the mature visuals and themes that occur occasionally, surely SHAFT can animate it properly, seeing as UFOtable made UBW with similar effects without compromising the viewer's ability to actually watch the show.

Story and Characters: 2/10
There isn’t enough character in the characters and the story is a mess, so one section for both!
I know Nasu was involved in the writing of this show, but his obsession with Fakes does this entire anime a disservice - while Shirou Emiya is at least a protagonist whose ideals are challenged as a blank slate, Hakuno Kishinami was always a bland-self insert for the player of the Fate/Extra games, though that's not to say the character had poor writing initially. Hakuno in the games is introspective, using an internal monologue as commentary while being involved in the plot. Hakuno in Last Encore has been twisted, warped into something that is not Hakuno at all, but a caricature of what the director and writer believe to be a good protagonist – disconnected, bland and redundant. A protagonist who is neither expressive or particularly interesting in Last Encore, and who never seems to have words of his own - which the writing STILL manages to screw up whenever he speaks, or anyone else does. The female version of the same character who has a speaking role in only one episode is more interesting by far, and she barely gets screentime between the exposition dumps.
Everything characters say is either half-assed exposition or incredibly dull dialogue that's supposed to retain my interest while the bright, flashy colours hold my attention, with no less than three tired bathhouse scenes where Nero goes into triads about herself or meaningless conversation, all the while naked or in something that reveals even more skin than her regular outfit – to the point where the show will concoct any excuse for Nero fanservice.
Saber, out of all the playable servants in Extra, is the least interesting despite being well-written, since Archer from Stay Night or even the other Extra original, Tamamo-no-Mae, could have been in with much better contribution to the plot than Nero. The show even references Tamamo and EMIYA in the first few episodes as a sticker and a crumbling tutorial boss-like jobber, much to rub the wasted potential of Last Encore in the faces of thee audience.

Speaking of Nero, whose identity really shouldn't be a secret at this point, she's the most interesting character by having the most to say - Sakura Tange voicing, Nero essentially speaks for a majority of the runtime. Between hearing her tall tales like some kind of overly-cheerful war veteran between every 'Umu!' was refreshing for the overall dull pacing of the show, and her explanations in short, concise remarks before promptly going back to the subject of herself was honestly refreshing - while grating, Tange's voice talent is good enough to put charm and character into her role, much like Jack the Ripper in Fate/Apocrypha. It's a shame since every other character is about as base as possible, with no real motivations laid out or actual character to speak of, even the protagonist who takes up to the very end of the anime to realise his own motivation before the series is left on an abrupt cliffhanger.

The main crux of the plot is that one-thousand years after an alternate ending to Fate/Extra, the digital environ within the Moon Cell, S.E.R.A.P.H, is now falling apart as it now has floors between each stage of the Holy Grail War, with floor masters mirroring the cast of the original game and servants the piece of cardboard known as Hakuno has to defeat to ascend to the next floor. Each floor is a different landscape shaped by the floor Master as they contain the last remnants of humans while earth has apparently been left as a barren wasteland, but we never hear of earth outside of one scene, so automatically the motivation of one character, Rin, is utterly removed to make her an atypical mentor character. To see characters whose stories were complex and gripping be reduced to two-episode arc villains upsets me, especially when their interactions are reduced to the same quality as bad fanfiction – the appearance of Robin Hood was excellent, seeing as he retained the same charm present in Fate/Grand Order and Extra thanks in part to Toriumi Kousuke.
Alongside that, new characters are inserted to service the plot for very little reason other than to earn my ire, as a pink haired character who screams ‘Determined Opportunist’ and whose name I’ve honestly forgotten appears several times to engage in meaningless conversation. Why not a different character, instead of a new one? Four characters from Extra are entirely missing, each of whom could fill that role instead, so why paste on a generic stand-in when the designs and characters are already there to use in the production of the show? It makes no sense to design an entirely new character who serves no purpose, let alone not use that character outside some vague exposition.

One of the most egregious things Last Encore does to patronize the viewer outside of stating the obvious or dumping exposition in moments of still shots and clunky transition is to pull things out of thin air to retroactively explain them later – like Dead Face, a weird rage mode for Hakuno made from pure edgy fanfiction, explained away five episodes after it first appears, with the power to apparently resurrect him from being fatally wounded at least three times in the entirety of the show without explanation. He’s stabbed, many, many times only to appear spotless an episode later, without a single problem from being impaled on several swords at once.
All this time spent on just talking to explain away the shitty writing within the show does what shaft like to regurgitate best – retroactively explaining it away and expecting the viewer to nod their head in amazement at their “good writing”. It feels like the villains lose for no reason whatsoever and have zero sense to kill the protagonists while they’re incapacitated, and since it’s established repeatedly that Hakuno can just come back if he dies, the plot loses all tension whatsoever since the narrative is following the immortal cardboard cutout and his babbling fanservice girl.
As much as this series likes to pretend it has any deep psychological elements, it falls flat when everything is explained to the viewer – no use of camera angles, tension, music or expression to convey the struggles of the protagonist going through an identity crisis, just a blank slate.

For a short series, I do understand the need to cut content. But if that was the case, why include so many scenes where nothing is accomplished or developed upon? It baffles me to think that so much time could be wasted turning parts of the story that could be covered in single episodes and drag it out to double the runtime. So much more could have been squeezed out of Last Encore if it wasn’t trying so hard to be a flashy art piece and convey a narrative that is coherent while having those same interesting themes tied into it instead of loosely covering it with a sheet of vacuous, surface-level dialogue.

Music and Art: 5/10

While the writing, animation and composition ruin the show, the art style is actually pleasant enough to distract from the atrocity of writing that Last Encore is, where Wada Arco’s design actually make the series nice to look at when the animation isn’t being a let-down – the Nursery Rhythm episodes are by far the best for creating the strange atmosphere that suits shaft’s style, where colour and contrast are emphasized greatly. Nero standing out amongst the blue hues predominant in most of the background in episodes, the contrast turned up in scenes to make the characters really show. Which is a shame as the aforementioned turning down of the brightness occurs too just when the colours and artwork is a spectacle in action scenes, taking away from the value of Last Encore’s art direction.
The music isn’t bad, however both the opening and ending themes feel incredibly disjointed from the animations themselves, especially the opening as a good song for an opening isn’t synced at all to the animation, highlighting just how poor the sound mixing was for these segments. In Last Encore overall, there isn’t any real problem with the music otherwise. The score matches the mood of the scenes very consistently, though the music itself sounds very much like stock fantasy RPG soundtrack, with very little techno influences despite being set in a virtual world – failing to set up any growing sense of tension throughout it – the music could have done with being remixed for certain scenes like transformations or episode 10 to incite a sense of wrongness, but the bell chimes used in Alice’s episodes instill a good balance of music that would accompany a traditional fairy tale and something being very, very wrong with the setting.

Enjoyment and Overall: 3/10

While the art and sound direction are redeeming qualities, the story, characters and direction alongside absolutely dogshit pacing where content is stretched out to fill runtime with irrelevant conversation, Last Encore does no justice at all to the game the adaptation comes from.
If you want a solid story with the same setting, I would recommend the original game or it’s sequels, but not this at all. Shaft should not have been trusted with this adaptation, and simply ‘looking good’ by way of art style or animation is not a way to impress when the writing and characterization are so lacking.

Kinoko Nasu, the main writer of the original Fate/Stay Night and Extra, stated that he wanted this to be a starting point for those as their first “EXTRA” experience, for the audience to become familiar with the original game and other works from Last Encore, and vice versa, yet this only really succeeds at confusing viewers for the first time and annoying fan of the franchise with it’s inconsistencies. If you’re expecting this anime to give fans fanservice in the form of cool moments from Extra, don’t. If you’re unsure of where to start with the fate franchise, it’s not this. Last Encore is an awful adaptation, and many who are starting off are simply better off watching Apocrypha, which at least has more than one redeeming quality outside of the evidently higher production value.

I really enjoy Shaft animation, the Monogatari series in particular being my favorite anime series

I really enjoy the Fate series, having seen most of the main animated material and Zero being one of the first anime I ever watched.

So why don’t I like Fate/Extra: Last Encore, a Fate installment animated by Shaft?

In all fairness, many of the elements that make up smaller portions of the story work or present themselves perfectly adequately. Shaft animation might often appear in a trademark stylized way, but since the animation was fluid and reasonably detailed it certainly gains a pass.

Some of the scenery shots and images from the ... final episode very well make their way into wallpaper-worthy territory. Music, whether background, battle, or theme song, aren’t particularly stand out, but music is at least doing its job if it stays supporting the action and not interrupting it.

Characters have always formed the major backbone of the series, since all of events and themes revolve around the actions of key characters. Fate/Extra Last Encore falls more in line with past Fate installments rather than branching out into some of the wider Nasuverse characters.

The main character falls somewhat into the generic high school age MC with burgeoning intriguing characteristics, but lacks the originality of Shirou in Stay Night or the more mature takes on heroism seen in Fate/Zero. Tohsaka Rin makes an appearance and remains in the character expected from her earlier appearances in Fate anime. The other more minor characters come and go on an almost episode-level basis and barely do more than act as obstacles and opponents for the main character and his servant.

And the main servant, the Arturia Saber lookalike from the media, commercials, games, art, and ruiner of trying to learn anything about the Roman Empire, Red Saber Emperor of Roses. Saber Nero Claudius.... Why Fate has an obsession with genderbending is still unknown. She certainly adds an upbeat, optimistic outlook to the usually downcast Fate series, but the reception would vary viewer to viewer.

The largest sticking point for the series comes from the plot. The Fate series has always used the Holy Grail as its principle McGuffin, and while that is present in Fate/Extra, it doesn’t appear to be the focus of the main characters. Instead the plot wanders, passing through different and mostly unconnected stages.

Each stage wanted to discuss different ideas or the traits of the cast, but seemed to devote too little time while trying to balance action with dialog, and the series ended up not allowing for enough of either. Episode 7 stands out as something I personally rewatched multiple times and still failed to comprehend the reason for it and the point it was trying to make.

Some of the actions and abilities of the cast also seemed to be skated over due to a lack of time to explain their existence, but only poked further plot holes or raised more questions. Many lines of dialog seemed to try to explain what the reason for these abilities was, but became unnecessarily philosophical and lacking in focus to the point that it was more confusing than simply accepting "magic" as the explanation.

Fate/Extra: Last Encore falls as the weakest entry to the Fate series in the animated universe. The characters were functional, but failed to distinguish themselves, the technical aspects worked fine to well, but the plot left so much to be desired that the series as a whole is hard to recommend. Perhaps supplemental material helps Fate\Extra make more sense, but until then it seems fine to skip this entry in favor of Zero or Unlimited Blade Works.

The Fate franchise being one of my favorites;Fate Extra LE was an anime I was excited to see ,but I should have learned my lesson from getting hype for Apocrypha in 2017 and not jump on the hypetrain. I felt like my reasons were justified for LE though as it was being animated by Shaft, one of my favorite studios and also had Nasu himself writing the script. Before I get into my reasons for not liking Extra LE, I will say that I never played the game Fate Extra or CCC, I`ve only played Extella so my understanding of the anime is not as ... good as someone who has played the game it`s based on.

One of the main reasons I disliked LE is the format. Everyone is probably familiar with the format of the Holy Grail War but LE has a strange take on it. Hakuno and Nero and sometimes Rin would get to a floor, fight the master that controls the floor than advance. If you ever read Tower of God it is kind of like Baam and co climbing the tower floors. In Tower though each floor is given enough chapters to form a well-paced story; in LE each floor was over in 2 episodes and you could forget about one floor as soon as they move on to the next.

Even if it was the usual Grail War it wouldn`t have helped. The battles were all lackluster. Fights are a vital part of a Fate anime and I wasn`t expecting the fights to be as good as Zero and UBW but better than what we got from this. All the fights felt too short and none of them had that epic feel. Even Apocrypha for all its flaws had fights that felt epic. The biggest kick in the balls was Nero unleashing her Noble Phantasm. It lasted all of 30 seconds and the whole sequence was just her dashing over with a big slash. The main servants Noble Phantasm deserves more than this. The first time I saw Artoria use Excalibur in Zero was one of the most exciting parts of Zero; in LE Neros NP was just another forgettable moment.


The story was the biggest problem. It was hard for me to summon any interest at times. Hakunos whole thing of trying to recall who he is and what his purpose is felt cliché. It was hard to care about the enemy masters and servants when you knew they would get beaten in 2 episodes. They felt like villain of the day type of characters to me, so why should I care? The only good part was the designs of some of the floors like the city floor and the Madoka Magica themed floor.

The characters also lacked depth. Nero as the main servant should have good character interaction with Hakuno but most of their dialogue involved Hakuno being depressed and Nero encouraging him. Hakuno would have random moments of anger and put his serious face on and ramble about how much hate he has like Sasuke used to do. The most memorable of Nero and Hakunos scenes were the fanservice ones. I make no secret of liking ecchi/hentai as my list will show but from this anime I wanted interesting conversations like the ones Kirei and Gilgamesh had in Zero; instead we get an emo kid needing encouragement every step of the way.

The only things I really liked about LE was the animation and opening song. A boring story and bad use of characters really lowered the enjoyment of watching this every week. There`s supposed to be a continuation of this but I have no hope for it getting better. If you are new to Fate do not start with this shitshow under any means and even if you have watched Zero/UBW/2006 Fate I would not recommend wasting time on this.

Not every Fate series is for everyone - Apocrypha is a pretty contentious subject in particular (I liked it for what it was), and Prisma Illya, at least the anime (manga was great!) is hit or miss too depending on your tolerance for relentless loli pandering and mostly terrible fights with a few really good ones. However, despite my not necessarily liking all of them, they still ended up feeling like Fate and having at least something likable about them, including Deen's original FSN.

Last Encore... doesn't. Outside of a really nice opening it's just lacking in anything that makes Fate... Fate.

Edge of your seat fights? ... Haha no, they're all genuine garbage, poorly animated with no sense of weight or fluidity - even the motion is generally pretty jerky. Definite'y don't expect ANYTHING like UBW's Ufotable animation or Apocrypha's over the top and at times impressionistic style - these are bare-bones, low-quality fights that fail on pretty much every level possible. Uninteresting on a strategic or tactical level and not even good at being eye candy.

Characters? Well... it has Red Saber. Everyone likes Red Saber, right? I mean, we all loved her in the Rome part of FGO, right? All kidding aside, I like Nero just fine, actually probably among my favorite characters of the Extra/Extella setting in general, but she is the ONLY character here who even makes a token attempt to appear as an actual character. Everyone else is a cardboard cutout at best. It's hard to say more without spoilers, will just say that the studio clearly had no idea what the hell it was doing with most of them and barely even tried with many.

Emotional scenes? Drained of all weight when you don't give a damn about anyone in them or actively want them all to die, and the main character is probably the worst of them all, somehow managing to drop below 1 dimension to be the first ever 0 dimensional character in anime, actively siphoning the drama from anything meaningful(?) happening! Truly a feat to be remembered. People can complain about Sieg from Apocrypha all they want, but at least he was surrounded by more interesting people - Hakuno is not, and he's FAR worse than Sieg ever was.

Designs? Eh. I don't mind the Extra style though it's not my favorite, and the anime doesn't ruin them TOO horribly - but they're still not great here and the janky animation doesn't do them any favors. Extella got away with lower quality models by dint of what it was, this anime does way too many close-ups to BS its way through.

Animation? Boy friggin' howdy are you out of luck. Shaft apparently decided to Monogatari everything, so half the damn characters strike random poses constantly, like a crappy budget Jojo that wants to be Monogatari and fails at even that. Scene animations are abrupt and unexplained. Everyone either stands 100% still for the entire conversation without breathing once, or is constantly contorting in ever more improbably ways for no apparent reason. Already touched on fights, but the animation isn't any less crap there, energy attacks in particular look like garbage, and as short as the fights are they STILL suffer from clearly reused animation.

Dialogue? Hoo buddy. I can't COMPLETELY blame Shaft for this one, the Extra setting suffers from a terminal overdose of stupid, unnecessary terminology on a level that puts the rest of Fate to shame, but Shaft's archetypal pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo adds an extra layer of obfuscation to ensure no one has any idea what the hell is going on. Sort of like my last sentence, but add half a dozen references to concepts that are never explained, probably toss in a Jesus allegory or two, couch it in underwhelming voice acting, and then throw in an arbitrary reference to something from another Fate series to top things off.

The anime was clearly rushed - and while it was stuck explaining one of Fate's more unnecessarily complex settings in short order, that doesn't excuse the atrocious pacing.

As a whole I find little to no redeeming quality in this adaptation - it's all the worst aspects of Fate made worse by the worst of Shaft, without any of the good points of either side. I'd go so far as to say that it is by far the worst Fate anime adaptation currently and not really even worth checking out - though if you do, the 3 episode rule works well here, aside from an intriguing first ep, 2 and 3 are highly indicative of the rest.

Blizzard: Oh shit we messed up
Bethesda: Lol I'll show you how to make your fan base hate you
Shaft Studios: Hold my beer

Foreal tho, why do you guys keep making the fate series worse and worse? Like do you guys really have nothing better to do than make another pile of junk? Don't get me wrong. First 2 Fate series were absolutely amazing, then after that went all down hill. Pls stop beating up the dead horse. Leave it to die and don't make another horrible spinoff/money milking machine/adaption.

Getting into the actual anime itself. Solid fight animation (for the most part). But I'm getting a lot ... of the Bakemonogatari vibes from cut scenes when people are talking/walking. Stop trying to be another god damn 'popular' series and just do what you guys did with the first Fate series. Don't try to copy another series for the love of god. (Yes I'm well aware same studio as Bakemonogatari with fate extra).


A little hard to complain about next thing, since it involves a spoiler but let's just say lolis go poof here. And clearly the studio doesn't understand the community LOL

Here's a summary of each episode. Episode 1 : chit chat for 20 mins, last min go find new servant/master. Episode 2: chit chat for 19 mins, 1.5 mins of fight, finishes off with 1 hit kill last 30 seconds. Rinse and repeat.

Overall I would not recommend if you think changing studios will make the series great again. Ya might as well skip it and go watch something else. Characters are bland. Fight scenes are average. Just flashy but nothing special. Music is ok. Don't make Fate series a fan service anime (or attempt). Did not enjoy it overall, this anime is basically a Fate series x Bakemonogatari mashup

I have watched so many anime of the ‘Fate’ franchise up till that moment, and it is the first among all of those anime with the most boring story I have ever seen.

As well I found the characters including the main one very normal and uninteresting.
It had a very bad storyline which no matter how much times I watched it did not make sense. Just knew that something is connected to the holy bell and ascending up.
Although I always regard 'Fate' franchise as one of the best franchise in my heart, but Fate/Extra: Definitely, last encore is one of those series that I would never ... recommend for anybody. It should be avoided as much as possible

Story: 2/10"

No. I categorically refuse to consider Fate / Extra Last Encore a beautiful anime. I'm sorry for all those who love the series but no. Simply no. I don't think I can put into words the illness I felt in watching the different episodes. I have witnessed all kinds of horrors and I'm not kidding. I'm talking about the inexpressive faces of Kishinami Hakuno, the lack of psychological depth of the protagonist, the stupidity of the story and Nero Claudius.
Holy Mary, here we are: we are talking about Nero Claudius.
Do you know Artoria Pendragon? Good. Take her face, change her body and throw the depth ... of her psychology into the garbage. Having done this you will have Nero Claudius.
An idiotic, repetitive character, with a story not at all equal to that of the real Nero. A female character who is present only to give an extra reason to some fans to go back to browse the hentai doujinshi of Nero Claudius.
The fight scenes are pretty bad and the characters get lost in useless dialogues and here you have to bow to the producers, do you know why? Because they really thought they were hiding the narrative scheme: two episodes for each level and then on. What bullshit!
Combat choreographies are boring and you can easily see several animation errors. The only decent thing about this anime is that in the end it ended …
Oh! No! Wait! In reality it is not finished! Three episodes are still missing due to a delay in the release. I don't recommend it to anyone. It's not at all an anime worthy of carrying forward Fate's animated franchise. I'm sorry but it's not worth to watch it, I was the first to be hopeful but I was disappointed by this pile of garbage.

Reviewer's note: This is my 18th entry into the Fate franchise and this review encompasses the Illustrias Tendousetsu episodes.

✪ Genre: action (swordplay, gunfights), contemporary fantasy, magic (spellcasting), RPG< seinen, (superpower) with elements of sci-fi (artificial intelligence, post-apocalyptic, dystopia, virtual world)



✔Positive Aspects✔


◧ Animation: even though this series was created by Shaft, the design standards fit the same mold that previous studios followed - a combination of colors of moderate to low saturation/medium to high illumination, with the environment and landscapes, urban, natural and surreal, being comparably more "muted".
...
◧ Soundtrack: cool soundtrack, mostly dominated by slow and medium tempo orchestral music, whereas, and more infrequently, new age and medium temp electronic music is used.

◧ Character development: probably the best aspect of this title, since every single episode devotes significant time into explaining the motivations, intentions, and personal histories of the protagonists and/or deuteragonists and/or respective antagonists. On the downside, significant filling out of the protagonists'/antagonists' background histories took place during episodes 8, 9, and early 13, instead of taking place throughout the series in an even manner. Lastly, I found the regendering of the protagonistic servant a very interesting touch, especially given the unlikeliness of such a figure occupying that high of a position of power during his respective time period.


✘Negative Aspects✘

◧ Plot: spin-off titles tend to retain the premise of the Fate franchise, with magicians battling each other in order to acquire the omnipotent magical artifact called "Holy Grail", but reinterpreting it in a way that diverges enough to create a standalone product and this title is no exception. However, this title reimagines the premise so radically that it moves into sci-fi territory, leading to a fairly convoluted end result. The entire series is largely incoherent until episodes 8 and 9, and 4 minutes into episode 13, and even then, I can't say that I finished it without any head-scratching questions.

◧ Action sequences: they tend to escalate and finish up quickly, while being fairly generic, even for the genre. Previous studios, especially after Ubisoft's groundbreaking releases, followed a specific approach (various camera perspectives, different camera 'heights', quick zoom-ins/outs, etc.) that produced pretty satisfying fight scenes. Unfortunately, Shaft chose not to follow said approach.


Overall: This is a pretty tedious and confusing title. Usually, I go through a 13-episode series in a day or two, but I wasted 5 days on this.


P.S. For further reviews of the Fate franchise, please take a look at my profile.

"Fate extra last encore is made so it can be viewed by newcomers and old fans alike" - says the lying mushroom.

So Nasu lied again, in other words bears still shit in the woods. This is the guy who said that the tsukihime remake is still undergoing while playing bloodborne while getting others to write for him. Nasu's word hold as much weight as toilet paper, and you can use it as such. But there is a more important issue we need to tackle, and that is why does this exist?

As a long term fate franchise viewer, I am up to date with the most ... recent patches and nerfs of the franchise. So I have a question, why make another alternate timeline for FE, especially when it is obviously getting pruned?

Yes, FELE is a pruning event, 990 years in the future, humanity near extinct, hakunon lost to twice. For all extent and purpose, this is a pruning event. You aren't going to continue this timeline, TM, and you know it.

The official timeline is, FE -> CCC -> extella (roughly, even though they technically are still separate timelines), FELE fits none of these. Hell Twice is nicknamed 2030, not 3020.

So, the anime in addition to being impossible to understand for newcomers, it is also fanfic for FE. It reuses everything from FE, and brings nothing new.

Why, WHY DON'T YOU JUST ANIMATE FE then? or Extella/zero (ie. FE under a different name)

WHY, what is the purpose of this show!?

I have no problem with TM reusing old characters and setting, FGO CCC event did that, but hey at least CCC event still provided some new lore and setting, it is not 100% reliant on CCC (maybe 80%), or when rasputin dug up Kirei's corpse, at least we got rasputin from that, and rasputin interaction was new.

What is FELE bringing? nothing. You can't watch this without knowing deeply about FE, but if you know FE, why watch this show instead of the actual continuation of the timeline?

In short, official TM fanfic (as canon as carnival phantasm), no need to watch, just go play FE.

This series is "based" on a videogame but it's not necessary to play it to understand it.

The animation style is like no other from the rest of Fate media and to be completely honest I don't think it fits at all. If this season used a brand new cast of characters, I would probably enjoy it after getting used to it but that's not the case. The animation style just makes the original characters look like parodies of themselves and I don't like it.

Another main visual difference is the action scenes. Compared to the other Fate titles, this season has barely any action. ... You get 3 seconds of something that could look like a fight and then it's over. The lack of action wouldn't be much of an issue with the plot was interesting and the environments looked alive.

I've mentioned this but allow me to repeat myself: the plot is terrible. Once it starts revealing bits and pieces of what's really going on, you'll already have a good idea of it anyways. Predictability and being boring is a killer combination. Also, don't expect closure from this 10 episode anime because the 3 extra episodes (no pun intended) are supposed to do that.

The last thing I'll mention will have plenty of SPOILERS about Saber:
1) Saber's design is a joke. It's clearly based on King Arthur's Saber that we all know and love but the only thing in common is the haircut. We get a Saber with a red "dress", green eyes, no armor, lots of clevage, thighs and ass crack all the time. I am not joking: her crack is out all the damn time. I'm okay with fanservice but they completely butchered the King Arthur's Saber design which is also the design of the cover-character of the entire Fate saga. It's obvious that the decision to keep the signature hairtsyle was made in order to bring viewers and fans from the previous seasons but what a way to throw up a middle finger to the entire fanbase.
2) I'm really happy that the original King Arthur's Saber's seiyuu is not involved in this because everything about this "new" Saber is insulting.
3) It's insulting not just because of her character design but also because she's Nero, the Rome Emperor that set fire to his own city. Nero's Saber's personality is super cheerful, something that Nero was not. In fact, Nero's Saber's backstory is presented but is not historically accurate. You are told that Nero wasn't loved by his mother but this is far from the truth. Nero's mother wanted him to become Emperor and so she married the Emperor Claudius and conviced the Emperor to adopt Nero as his son. After the Emperor died, Nero's mother pulled whatever strings she chould so Nero would be declared the new Emperor instead of Claudius' biological son. Five years into his reign, Nero had his mother executed in order to reign independently. This was also the time that Nero's mental health began to deteriorate, the best example of this being the Great Fire of Rome that he caused in order to create more space for a brand new royal palace. He also blamed the Christian Community for the fire and got them persecuted, tortured and executed. Why this looooooong history lesson? BECAUSE THIS MAN WAS CHOSEN TO BE THE HEROIC SPIRIT OF THE MAIN CHARACTER AND WITH A DESIGN BASED ON KING ARTHUR'S SABER. Nero and King Arthur have NOTHING in common so at least they should've come up with an original design. Nero's Saber has the wrong personality and wrong character design. This season makes no sense whatsoever in any possible alternative universe.


All things considered, this season gets a 4/10 from me.

2020 Summer Review Challenge

Introduction:

To keep things simple & straight, this review is part of a challenge I’m doing with my friend. Without the conditioning of this challenge, I might as well have dropped this anime for good. However, despite all ill ends or vices, I’ll give this anime the fair share of perspective it deserves.
The review will remain subjective until the very end & will contain minor spoilers.

Fate/Extra Last Encore is a fantastic battle royale for a show but, what’s so devious about it ? Is it the slow-paced projection of a plot it offers, is it the generic characterisation, or perhaps the atypical animation ... associated with Fate (Ufotable) ? Rest assured as I try my best to dissect the core issue or dynamic of Fate/Extra Last Encore.

Keep in mind that I won’t be summarising or giving any form of synopsis. You can do that on your own.

P.S. I'm not a VN reader or Fate series gamer, so my knowledge of this series is from this adaptation alone.

Plot/Premise:

It’s fair to assess that Last Encore’s plot isn’t so much missing as it is clustered. The first 4 episodes try to balance the audience with its introduction to the story vs. settling down with the premise. Carrying our characters around through different repetitions or memories seems very fetterd at the very least; there is pertinence in every bit of the shells they explore through each episode. The fables are frantically present in every scene of the setting: nothing can deny such gruesome worries in a battle royale. A romanticist mix between .Hack & Fate, it appears. I wouldn’t proclaim that I dismay the idea but, the innovation with it lacks in just being ‘generic’.

A virtual world may actually seem like the perfect setting to execute Fate’s beloved core element and, there’s no jest about it not shining well. Every pace of the anime expects you to be hyped up for this one crucial deus-ex-machina conclusion. Now, this isn’t the first time Fate does this but, I’m quite astonished at how cliche their attempt was. With its sibling, Zero, it managed to spark up the element well enough to hinder no indication of an ‘arsepull’.

While here, in this commuted title, all they seemed to recognise is the fact that there is no ‘other’ way to solve this plot’s trope ? Then guess what? Throw down a typical antagonist whose motives are so generic that even the word ‘generic’ would throw its brain away & die of a cringe fest.
Let this con not distract you from the fact that there are subtle moments within the anime, where you could ignore this trope completely & be well contented.

Also, the lack of a proper lore or backstory in this title won’t make much of a difference, since the virtual reality setting is pretty much an off-giver of the mess that Garden of Sinner makes. Yes, it’s paramount to note some of its lore ties to the unrelated Nasu title: it’s needed to comprehend one of the unexplained elements that the anime throws at you later on.

It’s hard to assess both the first 10 episodes & the last 3 together; however, I’m heavily disappointed in the potential it wasted. That doesn’t excuse the snail paced introduction the audience gets neither the grandiose fights this show awes you with.

Characterisation:

Strongest part of this anime so far; but not necessarily ‘good’. Protagonist and his servant manage to perform as expected, without being any form of irritation to the screen. Recurring characters are unsurprisingly still a chore. How, you ask ? Imagine asking a crow to deliver your love letter. Either it’ll eat it for dinner or deliver a half torn letter to the wrong person. I’m not sure if jesting about the depth of characterisation is worth it for this review; however, I’ll remark on the dynamic of the duo that is Saber & Hakuno. Their development is quite profoundly put ‘as fresh as a stale bread’. While it’s edible, it’s by no means fresh; you still have to throw it into the bin. The bread needs to be remade in order to suffice the tongues of the guests.

Hakuno’s oblivious personality or amnesia isn’t a strong suit here, neither is his ambiguous history. Saber’s personality is grounded but not well suited - or it could be that my taste is a bit different (though not superior or inferior). Some could appreciate this Saber and so could I but, given the fact that this show spoils the bread enough already, it feels like another chore to spare.

Much of the other characters make striking appearances with their thematic pertinence to the setting & deliver their part; decent but not solid. I surely could speak miles about the ‘wonderland’ arc but, I wouldn’t want to bother another paragraph, significant or not. I’ll just say that it’s my favourite. There is much to be recognised through that arc’s characterisation, which would have been a fine contribution had it marked itself rigorously much earlier on.

Soundtrack:

I’ve no complaints about the soundtrack, it’s your typical Fate experience - even if not Kaijura. It blends well with the fights & the scenes. Discussing or reviewing soundtracks isn’t really my strong suit; though, my insight on it really counts when it’s grandiose or bland. As for this show, it wasn’t really either, it was only bearable & listenable enough for my ears - something which I always appreciate. The opening & ending are remarkable, to say the least. However, sound design could surely improve in 1 or 2 areas.

Animation:

It’s more of a matter of taste here. Being spoiled by Ufotable, it’s hard to digest a Fate series by Deen or any other studio. While it’s not bad, it just leaves this ‘not Fate’ vibe in the back of my mind. The art style is decent if not to my liking & the animation is lukewarm. The fight scenes could see better days. The backgrounds are amusing and much wondered in colour. I like this element of the show but, there’s just this awful aftertaste that I can’t seem to get rid of.

Conclusion:

As apparent by this review, my insight of Fate/Extra is very monotonous given how dull the anime looks at first glance. It’s not something anyone can enjoy - even if a Nasu Tard. It takes much commitment & fangasm to appreciate this series. It’s not necessary to watch this show, so it’s not by any means recommended either. The last 3 episodes can step on my palate though - despite having a cringey antagonist. A remarkably mediocre hazard.

- Excessive Exposition and talking. Talking is not bad but requires a good script.
Dialogues are rough here.
- fighting has no choreography and sense of environment. They are talking most of the
duration of the fight.
- animation is worse than 2006's Fate/stay night
- no setup and payoff, things are introduced on short notice
- trying too hard to be serious and deep. It tries to ask questions that the original has
already asked and answered. Same questions can be asked but they should be
answered in new different manners to make this series unique but fate/extra fails to ...
answer any of the questions asked.
- Extremely one-dimensional characters. random characters are introduced to help
our duo in their battle but they talk a lot and seem to form relationships with the duo
Immediately even though they are in the middle of a war where everyone is greedy
and nobody can be trusted. The plot is convenient for the sake of convenience.
- for some reason, Saber's ass is always visible. her personality has nothing to do with
that outfit.
- the MC talks a lot about hate. he sounds dumb most of the time because he lacks
intelligence and expertise on that subject. Most of it comes out as non-sense
rumbling.
- everyone is trying their best to be edgy, reminds me of Tokyo ghoul and attack on
titan.
- the voice acting is also bad
- fate is a big IP. fate/grand order game makes a lot of money they can afford talented
people for spin offs
- one problem that has plagued the entire fate is the number of characters they want
us to care about.
- Protagonist is barely active in the plot. all he does is act as an edge lord. Side
characters are more active than him and he is reacting to their actions.
- and I haven't mentioned the worst offender yet. The Editing is the worst I've seen in
a long time. nearly as bad as Bakemonogatari.
- the backstory and melodrama of each master remind me of bleach's melodrama. it's
painful to sit through.

Fate/Extra : Last Encore? More like Fate/Extra : Last End my life right now please. I beg of you.

The clear definition of Last Encore is Fatemonogatari. It literally feels the same. The difference is just that the characters look like they’re out of a low-budgeted hentai.

The story’s boring, bland, and unclear. No wonder why people kept telling me to play the PSP version or some shit. I don’t know how I spent my time watching this. Probably because I had hope that it might get better since my 10/10 streak reached about the 50th.

Well congratulations Last Encore. You broke my 10/10 streak. ... Are you happy?

I’m very mad right now.

Let my preface this review by saying that I've only seen the anime adaptations of fate and know close to nothing about the games. Apparently this anime is a "sequel" to one of the Fate/Extra games, so many of my gripes may be fixed by playing that. However, since I haven't played that I will be judging the anime on its own merits. That being said...

This is the worst anime I have ever seen. The story was all over the place. They tried to do something with turning the Holy Grail War into an RPG style virtual dungeon game (where ... they fight the main boss of a floor and then proceed to the next). This is a cool idea but they hardly explore it at all. The characters were generic and boring, none of which having the potential to go much deeper except for Saber/Nero. And Nero is supposed to be the character that "carries the show", but honestly I found her to be passable at best. There are hardly any fights (which was what made me fall in love with the Fate series in the first place) and the one's that are there are boring and lack creativity.

There were times when the show attempted to present deeper philosophical themes, but those were mostly ill timed in the context of the scene and just felt out of place.

The sound design and visuals were passable, but nothing in particular really stuck out to me.

I never thought I'd find the anime that dethroned Sword Art Online as my least favorite, but I think I can sum it up like this:

A cringey show is better than a boring one.

One of my favorite characters in any Anime, this show has a little virtual girl named Alice who is promised by the main character that they shall return one day to play with them. She waits for over 1000 years as her consciousness and physical body twists and deforms, absorbing fragments of a deteriorating estate reminiscient of Wonderland, until the child has taken on a monstrous appearence and has something akin to dementia. When the main character, reincarnated and dealing with their own issues of form and function, finally does return... it has long been too late. They perceive the little girl's eerie surroundings and ... deteriorated state as a horror and attack her. Unable to communicate to them that she is still in some sense human and able to perceive them from inside her hideous body, the very person she has held on for over the millenia shatters a last hope she can barely be said to hold. This subplot is psychologically powerful and artistically beautiful in its presentation, but that is where my praise for this series will end - RIP, Alice.

Story 3

Starts mediocre, picks up just a touch, then shoots itself in the face. It becomes unclear why things are happening, what exactly is happening, and how exactly the studio concluded these things ought to be happening. Meandering into less and less interesting situations, until finally we are left without the slightest fuck to give as fight scenes make less sense than ever and the meaning we initially associated with the goal of the protagonist and the unfucking of this virtual world dissipates completely. Something is so wrong here I didn't watch Anime for months after seeing this. This is like when your last relationship was so shit towards the end of it you don't feel like entertaining another romantic thought for years into your current marriage. There is this existential dread that permeates the series until it becomes clear it's being poured in through the plot holes, at which point you can't help but be annoyed and wish it was over.

Art 6

There's some stuff other than the Alice subplot that isn't bad. The world itself is done reasonably well, there are some interesting features of the final level. The elevator they ascend in has its charms. Overall forgettable, and as a meta-comment if we could stop doing the black-body, red-eyes, out-of-control thing across the board that'd be great. The character models and getups are passable.

Sound 7

Thought it was ok. Not memorable, but the atmosphere in the Alice arc I did like - sound effects for the lollipop monster were good.

Character 5

Nothing good that they didn't ruin, except Alice who was great. The idea of the main character was good, but unfortunately the character was not. Saber was worse than regular Saber, Rin was just kind of... distant from events? The enemies were mostly lame, characters in flashbacks were worse. By the end there was no investment in how things turned out because it was hard to watch anyone on the screen anymore.

Enjoyment 2

I'm left with the feeling that they ought not to have bothered, and would say as much if it wasn't for the Alice arc which I loved and am glad exists. Usually, that would be enough for me to look past a whole bunch of horseshit and tell you I had a good time here. But no.

This is significantly worse overall than the sum of its parts, an achievement I rarely experience. My attitude towards most entertainment is that bad stuff is funny, any good things cancel out a ton of bad things right away, and the essence of a thing can be good despite not being a good "thing" of its class relatively speaking. This is none of that stuff. Further, it's short - if there was any sweetness I'd recommend you watch it. I do not.

Thoughts on Fate/Extra Last Encore:
It was by far and a way the worst Fate franchise anime series ever made. Firstly: the story. It's difficult to try to summarise the show without spoiling huge details but it starts off with the protagonist (named Hakuno) who feels only hatred and has no memories of his past. He lives in a digital world that is somehow on the moon, and in episode 1 he gets stabbed and nearly murdered by Shinji Matou from the main series during a school murder-contest to see which students will get to participate in the next Holy Grail War, surviving long enough to ... find the sword of Nero Saber, whom he summons to fight for him after a sudden thousand-year timeskip. Hakuno and Nero have to fight various masters and servants in order to make their way to the Holy Grail.
The series has countless major flaws which made it almost impossible to enjoy. Firstly, the protagonist himself is extremely boring. He claims to only feel hatred for all those around him (and this is further reinforced by the plot twist regarding his identity), but his actions never support this and instead he just acts like a normal guy all the time. None of his internalised conflict ever shows itself, and this makes all of his monologues sound like pretentious nonsense.
This is worsened by the fact that the story is filled with weird flashbacks, memories, and hallucination scenes which make it extremely hard to follow. Rin Tohsaka (she's in this series too) has a tendency to disappear for an episode or two at a time without explanation, then reappear once again without explanation. Speaking of without explanation, Rin in this series wields Gae Bolg and has an extremely Scathach-like costume, but we never learn why or how she came to be infused with Scthach's appearance or weapon. What they do with her in the final episode also makes no sense, since Rin and Rani's conflict could apparently have easily been avoided if Rin had just done what she did for Hakuno before a certain too-spoilery-to-talk-about event happened. It is also never explained how Alice knew about the monster at the end of her sanctum when it didn't exist until [spoiler] turned into it.
Needless to say, plotholes are rife throughout the show, though I will admit that a lot of them probably come from the fact that the show has such a short episode count, so writer Kinoko Nasu had to cram as much story as he could into a very short time, and in so doing cut major corners.
The only truly great episodes in the series are the ones featuring Alice (Nursery Rhyme), but I admit that I mainly love those so much becasue of the stunning experimental animation styles used.
Regarding the rest of the animation, the show is a mixed bag. The 2D work is flat-up astonishing, but it's often superimposed with terrible, cheap-looking CGI that ruins the visual aesthetic.
Another problem is how a large number of the enemy servants are built up to look like major threats in the trailer and at the start of their arcs, only to be easily defeated anticlimactically by Saber every single time with no real variation. The battles themselves often feel like they waste a lot of potentially amazing weapons, such as the entire fleet of ghost ships that Francis Drake's noble phantasm summons, all of which do basically nothing and are never utilised during the aerial battle.

It really did feel like a lot of "cool factor" was missing due to the lack of other masters and servants throughout the Moon Cell Sanctums aside from the floor masters and Hakuno as well, since all of the fights were either one-on one or two-on-two with very little in the way of interference or unexpected developments, and most of them felt underwhelming as a result when compared to the epic scale of the battles in the recent Fate/Apocrypha.

In summary then, Fate/Extra Last Encore is a boring, pretentious, VERY confusing, plot-hole filled show with terrible characterisation, a lead who is overpowered to the point of destroying tension, and some of the most underwhelming battles I have ever seen in anime. 3/10, not recommended (apart from the Nursery Rhyme arc).

This is by far the worst of the fates out there. I never fell in love with the story of the fate series, so this show loses its appeal to me when presenting many old faces we see from previous installments. The animation done by shaft is what you'd expect out of this studio, it's just unfortunate that they were only able to get the rights to this particular series. This show is extremely forgettable, the MC does not stand out at all, and this show to me was just not something that did it for me. I wanted to continue to complete the monster ... that is the fate series, but as I continue on this arduous quest I am left with a bland taste in my mouth after watching most of the spinoffs. I think I'll stick to the movies for now as well as the current seasonal works, as this is just a box to check off and forget about.

I have a lot to say about the Fate franchise, but this is probably my least favourite completed series (though there are some worse OVAs or specials). Just complete nonsense. Released as a 10-episode series and a 3-episode follow-up, I wanted to watch this recently (as with all things 'Fate' beyond the original series) because of my time spent in Fate Grand/Order (the mobile game). It had Nero and Drake, characters I enjoyed in the game, but that's about it. The nonsense here is much more nonsense than even typical Fate shows, and the direction is interminably slow. It's one of those shows that just ... randomly focuses on someone's shoulder for no reason while people speak nonsense to each other. Don't watch for any reason other than you are a Fate completionist (and even then, don't watch).