Fate/Extra: Last Encore - Illustrias Tendousetsu

Fate/Extra Last Encore is basically what happens when you put the IDEAS GUY in charge of everything rather than working on the project as a group. Nasu clearly had a story that he wanted to tell, but it wasn't done in a way that was fun to watch or easy to understand, making the show seem like a convoluted mess at a first glance. While they claimed that Last Encore was written in a way so that people who are familiar with Fate/Extra's setting and people who aren't could enjoy it equally, the outcome ended up being the complete opposite. Where did it all go ... wrong?

One of the major issues is that the setting is completely unfriendly, especially so for people who are familiar with Fate's normal setting. The only vaguely similar thing is the concept of Masters and Servants, but no one's going to know what Moon Cell or Angelica Cage are. They're supposed to be on the moon as some computer programs or something, but I'm sure at this point most casual watchers already lost interest and moved on to watching something more highly intellectual like Overlord III or something.

The show, for all intents and purposes, and regardless of intent, assumes the watcher is familiar with Fate/Extra's setting, which shouldn't even really be a necessity if you want to produce a show that reaches out to as many audience as possible instead of the small group that may have played that one PSP game nearly a decade ago. The problem is that it can't deliver the setting very well without resorting to an overly expository dialogue, so it ends up wasting a lot of time that could be spent for something better- Though looking at the mediocre battle scenes, I guess there wasn't anything they could do other than scrolling through the classic Shaft's Google background Powerpoint presentation.

But while the expository dialogue is a problem, the bigger problem is the show underexplaining whatever is happening on the screen. Basically, Nasu spent so much time explaining the setting to familiarize the new watchers that it didn't have the time to properly explain what was actually happening on the screen. I guess it does raise a question about how much explaining is "too much" or "too less", but this show really does feel like the latter when it comes to the actual story it's trying to tell. It's completely fair to argue that maybe the show was just 2deep4u and that it's the viewers' fault for not figuring it out, because technically, everything does make sense in this show. There are also some genuinely good cases of foreshadowing, and there are some really nice visual cues that clue the viewers in on why something is happening.

One of my favorites was when Hakuno meets Pieceman in the first episode in the trash chute below the school, he briefly sees a vision of a city in flames reminiscent of Fuyuki from the 4th Grail War- But later in the last episode you notice that this is actually city Pieceman died in during his life on Earth. This is significant because Hakuno doesn't have a memory of his own, so it has to be a memory of someone who was down there with him- And he just so happens to meet Pieceman immediately after the vision, foreshadowing the later twist in the last episode.

There are many other cases of neat visual cues and foreshadowing like that if you look for them, but all of that just gets buried under really uninteresting setting, the characters' interaction, and generally awful delivery of the plot as a whole. While Hakuno does eventually get character development, he's just a really boring main character, and the character interaction in the show ends up being very limited in general due to the whole "monster (master) of the week (floor)" format that the setting had going for.

The animation, as mentioned above, is pretty subpar- And doesn't really get very good until the last part of the show with Gawayn. While Shaft tries to manage by cramming in as many expository dialogue as possible, when it gets to the battle scenes, it really shows that the budget for the show wasn't very high. But while the animation itself isn't very impressive, some of the scenery and the storyboard that doesn't involve animation can look pretty good, so visually it has something going for it. The soundtrack is also notably good, but that's about to be expected from the composer.

Summarily, Last Encore technically isn't a bad show at all- But unless you're familiar with the setting, like the characters, like the series, and basically go out of your way to TRY to enjoy it, you will very likely not enjoy it. So in terms of delivering a palatable show that's friendly to the viewers, it has completely failed. Most people aren't going to attempt to understand a show they can't comprehend easily if they don't like it, because that's supposed to be the show's job in the first place. This is something that would've worked much better as a novel or a visual novel, and it really shows.

While some people might say this show is a "cash grab", it really doesn't feel that way at all once you look at all the stuff they managed to cram in the show. There was definitely passion put into this show- But instead of the hugging you gently kind, it was the shoving the big dong into your mouth kind.

What if saber went full UwU, hahahahahhahaha jk. Well shit now we got it to.

This is a review for season 1 and 2 for what is worth it. Fate/Extra is an alternative setting for Fate/Stay. As such there are elements overlapping in both anime. But that’s it. There is no relation to each other what so ever. So when you watch this keep that in mind.

Story:
Typical Fate/ story. Boy who was actually not involved in the grail war at all gets pulled in and gets a saber class servant. An important aspect is not if Hakonu (mc) will reach the moon cell, but how. As ... a more character driven story, the plot itself is ok, having the typical MC plot armor MC will be op, but that is somehow perfectly explained. I leave it at this, if I explain more it is just spoiling.
Note being a more character driven story than a story telling anime, there is not very much explanation of servants, the moon cell, earth and magic. Fate/zero would be an appropriate introduction (not explanation).

Art:
The art is okayish and Fate/ like, except the character design. Their face made it a tad awkward to look at after I was used to the style of Ufo-table (Stay, Zero, UBW). It is not bad. The action is fluent and vividly animated so that is a big plus. The still frames however killed it for me sometimes. What was rather impressive and sometimes distracting was how many times they switched frames. This adds to the aspect of Sabers noble phantasm (revealed in the finale). Switching so many times has to cost a lot of effort of animating.

Character & Voice Acting:
To understand the character you have to see the anime itself. They develop and get revealed with each new episode. Being a character driven show I think some aspects of Hakuno and the other enemies could have been more “human” or rather more interesting.

Saber: as I said before, UmU. They put a lot of effort into red Saber (not Arturia Pendragon). A. Lot. Of. Effort. As a main character she gets the most UmU, screen time and camera angles. It somehow does add to her character (which is rather awkward to see). To understand why Saber is so UmU you have to see her full noble phantasm. It is a theatre. All in all her details are well built, but still a bit too much UmU, OwO!? Her VA is rather good and enthusiastic and fits her face well. But gosh her UmU.

Hakuno: he is passive, but passive aggressive you know. It is like a dog who doesn’t really bite or bark but stands there. Silently growling. That struck me ass odd and bad character presentation but he was a lot less idealistic and annoying than Shirou in Fate/Stay. To fully understand him you have to watch it yourself. Even his VA feels passive aggressive. Love it, hate it, it is fully in character.

Rin: She is there simply as fan service for Rin fans. She gets here fair share of flare. In this anime it was her time to shine and she did. Being an active side character she does help the story develop, but don’t expect to get most actions of her while watching the first season. As for her VA, Rin is Rin. If you love Rin it will be an absolute Win.

The better part that was somehow lacking were the dialogues. I think the dialogues between the main cast and in the finale were quiet good and well-coordinated. What lies in between the start and finale was lacking so much emotions. It didn’t feel climatic or there was not enough tension. Again it just felt passive aggressive. So to say there was not much bombastic VA all together from the enemies.

Overal:
While I’m on my Fate/ crusade I thought that I had to see this to. Somehow I’m glad I did and somehow I wished that I went straight to Grand Order. While if you emerged yourself in the show, it was enjoyable. If you know what the grail war is, then this post-apocalyptic setting was unsettling. I think Fate/Extra is misunderstood because there was besides Rin not much likeable or hypeable characters. There was a lot of subtle and nuanced hints about the story throughout Hakuno’s journey (rather call it that than fights), but a not so attend viewer may miss it and might judge the anime as lackluster in storytelling. If you want UmU Saber this is your summon, other than that it might be only for Fate/ hardcore fans.