Civilization ends in December 2016? Well, would you look at that, it is the last day of December 2016 in my time, but January 1st 2017 in other places. Let us see what happens in the next few hours. *Shrugs*
Have you ever watched the Fate/Series? Yes? Well, I would say not to keep your hopes up on this part of the franchise, and I'll tell you why.
The start of the story is that Mash Kyrielight ponders into the distance, whilst sitting next to her companion, Fou. Fou is a familiar-like beast in which had befriended Mash. Fou suddenly sees a man on the floor, fainted. That man was Ritsuka Fujimaru, the male protagonist of the series. During their time, there was technology called the Rayshift, a technology that utilizes time travel. It is used to go back in time, and it is in the facility called Chaldeas. The use of time travel is meant for the sake of the future, as the people who have the potential to be masters only can go back in time. HOWEVER, this use of time travel has a serious plot hole, that being:
How can they talk to people that are still in the future?
Time travel is a very highly rated aspect in any piece of literature, and if very well done, many would love it. However, the way this part of the series tries to use time travel just seems so bland, and they did not go in depth upon the use of time travel. I will give them that the use of time travel in this series was a bit interesting, it just was not done in a proper manner at all.
Every other part of this piece of literature seems extremely bland. There was not anything notable about the animation (except for some battle scenes), sound, and characters.
For the animation, one part is that they tear off a statue's head after being stoned to death.. but the body spews out blood as if it were a live person. Some of the battle scenes were at least a little bit entertaining. They were able to have my eyes focus a bit more onto the screen, but nothing more.
For the sound, it did not feel like those characters' voice actors fit to who they were trying to be. That being, it felt very out of place. The soundtrack was not anything I found particularly invigorating, either. The sound effects were not anything to point out, as well.
The characters was about as bland as tofu mixed with a banana. The main characters were not anything special, and I did not have a fun time watching them except during the battle scenes. I did not feel any emotional investment to anyone.
The Fate/Zero soundtrack was absolutely astonishing, as it kept me in vast concentration in every single battle. The animation was also out of this world in Fate/Zero, as it was very detailed in each of the scenes. The characters in Fate/Zero were absolutely lovely, and I enjoyed each one of their ideologies.
I guess you could say that the difference between the two is the insane budget that Fate/Zero has, whilst it did not seem so much for Grand Order, the story especially. Fate/Zero has the clash of extreme ideologies. What is a king? What does it mean to be a leader? What is justice? What happened to justice? Those are all questions that Fate/Zero answers, in which had me in high expectation on Fate/Grand Order, as it was apparently meant as another part of the Fate/Series.
Is this really another part of the Fate/Series?
Yes, this is another part of the Fate/Series, but it feels as if it was not. They go back to what is the first Holy Grail war, but it was nowhere near as exciting as Fate/Zero. I could even say that Fate/Stay Night had me more interested than this piece of the series.
I, for one, am going to consider this piece to be separate from the Fate/Series.
Overall: 4.25
It could be that since I watched Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero first, it led me to having an extremely hard time watching this. I could not enjoy myself very much while watching it. I guess I set my expectations way too high for this, only to become something that should be swept under the rug.
Will it be good to you, though?
Did you enjoy these parts of the Fate/Series: Zero and Stay Night? If so, I would not recommend watching this unless you have a large amount of time to spare.
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Note: This anime is meant to be an advertisement for the game being Fate/Grand Order. There will be an added review on the app game, and the game is available on iOS and Google play currently for US. Outside regions are said to have been locked out of this game.
