In 2015, the Chaldea Security Organization draws on experts of both the magical and mundane fields to observe the future of mankind for possible extinction events. Humanity's survival seems assured for the next century—until the verdict suddenly changes, and now eradication of the species awaits at the end of 2016. The cause is unknown, but appears to be linked with the Japanese town of Fuyuki and the events of 2004 during the Fifth Holy Grail War.
In response, Chaldea harnesses an experimental means of time travel, the Rayshift technology. With it, Ritsuka Fujimaru, a young man newly recruited to the organization, and the mysterious girl Mash Kyrielight, can travel back to 2004 and discover how to save humanity. A grand order to fight fate has been declared—an order to change the past and restore the future.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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IzaEpsil
*Minor spoilers* 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.
Stark700
Adaptations based on the Fate franchise is hardly a new sight to see these days. In recent years, we’ve seen ufotable adapt Unlimited Blade Works while Silver Link put their talent into Fate/kaleid. Where does Fate Grand Order fit in? To be honest, this can be watched although not exactly a good place to start if you’ve just took your first step into Fate universe. A lot of people often questions about what order to watch Fate series. Fate Grand Order draws references and alludes to Nasuverse quite frequently so at least a decent amount of understanding should be obtained before watching this special. Asan episode worth of over 70 minutes of content, this to me was less of a special and more of a mini-movie. In addition, Fate Grand Order’s story is canon so it isn’t some fairy tale story made up from fans. This brings back a familiar feeling you’ll probably be experiencing if you’ve heard about the sacred Holy Grail Wars.
The special leaves little time for humor and instead jumps right into the meat of the story. It’s somewhat thrilling as the first few minutes introduces the main protagonists including Mash and Fujimaru. Following that, we get quite amount of info dumping about an organization known as “Chaldea”, humanity, and servants. This is where things gets interesting as Fujimaru gets involved with a mixture of complicated events. We are also told about the servants including one Fate fans will be very familiar with….Saber. However, what I’m most impressed in this special is Cu’s role including the fight that he gets involved with. The most prominent character from Chaldea is Olga and she also gets an unwelcoming surprise. However, a problem exists in this special about these characters. “Why should we care about them?” The simple answer is that you probably shouldn’t really put too much faith into the characterization. It’s hard to really characterize the cast in a mere 70+ minutes. In essence, the special is designed more as a way to attract fans to the game. There hasn’t been a full TV anime adaptation announced yet so this special serve more as an advertisement. Fate/Grand Order is a Japanese mobile game designed for iOS and Android although there hasn’t been an official English release yet.
That being said, I’m rather underwhelmed by the main male protagonist. It just feels like he’s there after getting a better understanding the events and purpose of Chaldea. The character chemistry between Fujimaru and Mash was just generic and there’s hardly interesting about either character. To me, it felt like others overshadowed their roles in this special. Yes, I’m looking at you, Cu. Not only that, I can’t really feel a lot of emotions from this even after what Olga discovered later on in the episode. With that being said though, if you’re into an action fest of servants and powers clashes, then this will be a treat for you. The animation quality by Lay-duce was decent although not at the level of famed studios like ufotable. On most parts, they got the battle choreography down right along with character designs. The joy of seeing servants fighting again in Nasuverse brings back the fun experience of what Fate fans has been waiting for. The soundtrack also compliments with the action sequences to make this into an acceptable supernatural thriller. On the other hand, the voice acting felt rather mediocre. Again, it feels like Cu stole a good part of the special despite not even being the main character.
So, should you watch Fate Grand Order? Honestly, for anyone familiar with the Fate franchise, I would say it’s a right choice to watch this. However, if you’ve never touched anything related to Fate or Nasuverse, then this will feel a lot more like some random movie on your PTW. Fate Grand Order is more or less advertised as a way to get viewers to try out the game. The anime, while offers base content, can’t be taken for granted for its main storytelling. There’s just a lot of potential that weren’t, and to be quite frank, impossible to unlock from this. And that’s a certain kind of disheartening.
Gozmit
As an avid fan of the overly popular Fate franchise, the hype I got before watching this film was immense. This is a great special, but it definitely has plenty of areas that could be improved. Although this film is admittedly worse than the other Fate series like Kaleid, UBW and Zero, it's still worth a watch. Set in the year 2015, the final era of magic. Caldea is an organization established to observe the magical world and the world of science - as well as to prevent the final extinction of mankind. Humanity is guaranteed at least another 100 years, that is until the futurerealm observed by Caldea vanishes into thin air. Caldea is now sure humanity won't live past 2017, due to events taking place in the Japanese city of Fuyuki in 2004. The organization issues a Grand Order for a "Holy Grail Expedition" to investigate, uncover, and perhaps destroy the singularity responsible for wiping out mankind.
Right off the bat, the story looks very enticing... is an over exaggeration. The plot is honestly very linear and doesn't do much justice in terms of plot twists or suspense. The cast is pretty typical but those who watch will surely not take of complacent that the male protagonist is described and epitomized as "human". So you can expect the most cliche male protagonist possible.
This is a very good looking series in terms of art and animation. But with every adaptation, there is always a limited emphasis on character design. If you have watched any of the fate series, you will immediately recognize that some of the characters have been reused. The animation will look different from the other fate adaptations since it's not TYPE-MOON producing the film but Lay-duce, which I've never even heard of before. Again, this film may feel off if you've watched any of the other fate series. However, if you're a newcomer than there shouldn't be any problems in terms of quality and art.
This pacing of this film is undoubtedly fast being a 1 hour and 12 minute special. Although due to the amount of information and fast-pacing, it still feels somewhat maintainable. Without prior knowledge, the servants can be a bit one-sided. The thing you have to remember is that you're *supposed* to know the characters beforehand but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment. It shouldn't matter anyway since there is literally zero character development for the servants.
Sound is a non-sequitur. Nothing really stands out, nothing's really bad.
Overall, I give this film a 7 / 10. The plot has so much potential if they expand the story even further into multiple parts. But for me right now, the plot is very mediocre and the characters are too typical. Definitely deserves a watch if you're bored and have free time though.
CodeBlazeFate
This "Special" glorified advertisement has the most ironic anime name in history. A woeful way to cap off 2016. For anyone who saw this shortly after, what a horrible way to start off 2017. *SPOILERS FOR FATE/GRAND ORDER: FIRST ORDER AND ONE SPOILER FOR FATE/ZERO SECOND SEASON* Fate/Grand Order: First Order isn't grand in the slightest. The only thing "grand" about this special feature film is how much of a grand travesty it is. It simply doesn't GET how any of the intricacies of the Holy Grail War or the servants work. Instead, it opts to be generic and full of black holes (that's how gaping theseplot-holes are), and as a result, this glorified mobile game advertisement fails as an addition to the franchise, and is the literal worst place for a newcomer to start. Why, you may ask. What exactly makes it fail to grasp the fundamentals of Fate? Well, let's find out, shall we?
Basically, this organization (Chaldea) sends people that can become masters, to the past in order to intervene in events that could damage the timeline as we know it (despite the fact that they intervene when the events happen rather than prevent it outright, so how the hell does that work?) SO, some generic MC (named Ritsuka) randomly ends up in Chaldea, unconscious, in which we don't know how he got there, and gets kicked out of an assignment (by the directer, Olga, for sleeping in the briefing) with 47 other members, and there is a sabotage. How did it get sabotaged, causing so many people to almost die? Why did the person who did it, do it? Well, hold on to those questions forever, for they are never answered! His new friend, Mash, gets trapped under a hot piece of wall, and when MC-Kun gets his hands burned, yet when he uses his uniform to help him, his hands and outfit aren't burned. This event causes the Chaldea crystals (or something like that) to leave, which will doom the human race if not fixed, and they fix it by going back in time. What even is this? These things are what make it possible for humanity to survive? How? We know literally nothing about these things aside from that, making the structure of this film a mess. Believe me, it gets even messier.
Just as Mash is about to die, she forms a contact with a mysterious servant, and with this, a plethora of new questions appear. How did get get here? Why is he a silhouette? If a contract is never formed like this, why is one being formed like this? How does he fuze with Mash to make her a demi-servant? Are those even supposed to be possible in Fate/? What is this shielder class? Are there any OTHER new classes that aren't a part of the main 7? Again, none of these are answered. So, they time travel into an event taking place in 2004 in Fuyuki (the same one that would get burned down at the end of Fate/Zero, and they can communicate with people in the future, and they are sent to stop this bad event from taking place by resolving it rather than stop it before it starts. Yes, that makes TWO gigantic plot-holes in how their time-travel works (since there ain't no multiverse theory here), and they are never patched up. Time travel is easy to screw up in a story, damaging it in the long run (which is why multiverse theory is a much more stable ground for time travel, which is why Dragon Ball Z gets this right), but linear time-frames are much harder to safely work with, as they are very fragile in what you can feasibly get away with without creating a big plot-hole. Guess which route they take, and guess what happens!
So, Mash and her "master" Ritsuka get sent to stop a singularity that is not given an explanation as to why it will mess with time. Is it because there are servants but no masters? Maybe. They never tell us. Also, how can there be a Holy Grail War with no masters? I mean, servants physically cannot exist in this world without a master supplying mana, How come this was never recorded. You'd think that the organization that is effectively meant to record everything in time itself (how else can they know when something could cause a time paradox at any given moment in history?) would've been able to do this. For some reason, the director, Olga, is here for some reason. They later explain that she was right above the explosion of the sabotage, but we didn't even see where she was, so we can only take this shady, untrustworthy anime's word for it. So, after the duo saves Olga's life, she is informed by the doctor (Romani) that they are here to stop this one singularity and that the sabotage critically injured all of the other candidates. Then they run into Medusa (Lancer this time, usually she's rider class), and they get their asses handed to them before Cu Chulainn (Caster this time, usually he's lancer class) shows up, and together with Mash, they kill her. Turns out, somehow, Saber went Alter, she killed most of the other servants and somehow turned them into alter versions, with their personalities altered as well, but we only get to see two of them for some reason. Caster killed one of them (assassin), he says that Berserker won't bother them unless provoked (which is why he isn't even here), but we see silhouettes of Gilgamesh and Medusa (who is probably rider class by process of elimination) and neither of them show up at all, so what happened with them is unknown.
We get our explanation as to how a Noble Phantasm works here: it is naturally triggered after a certain unexplainable feeling triggers it. This heavily clashes with how Noble Phantasms have worked in the rest of the franchise. They were simply a unique ace-in-the-hole trump card a servant had that could be activated at any time to really turn the tide of battle (like reviving yourself 12 times, summoning the wrath of Excalibur, ramming someone with a pegasus at extremely high speeds, or creating a reality marble to summon things or people in order to crush your trapped foe), but now, they can only be activated after discovering a random feeling?! NO! BULLSH*T!!! Well, they move on and then encounter Alter Archer, so Caster stalls while the rest of the group face off against Saber Alter (who is surprisingly much weaker than any anime incarnation of Saber thus far), and after two ok fights and plenty generic tropes and moments to truly sell this broken mess as trite, they finally defeat Saber Alter. Now, for one of the worst endings I have ever seen.
I forgot that there was this one character named Lev Lainur. Then again, he only appeared in one scene and was introduced as the creator of this organization. Now, he's a villain. This heel-turn is extremely telegraphed and extremely horrible. And, surprise surprise, even less How the hell did he even get here. Why is he evil? Why did he sabotage his organization's major mission (he claims to be tasked with killing humanity, but by whom?)? Why did he wait so long (the organization was established an unknown yet probably long time ago) to do this? BAH! He kills Olga in a horribly mean-spirited and equally needless death scene (in which NOBODY DOES ANYTHING TO STOP THIS), and he somehow leaves. Everything collapses (for some reason), and they are sent back to the present just in time. Wait. Why didn't the guys in the present get them out of there in order to save their goddamn director?! A master has 3 command seals that he can use, and Ritsuka used one...despite it never being shown that he did so...ever! In fact, he literally does nothing for this entire movie. He is the most useless character in this goddamn film and he's the protagonist.
fuck this ending
So, Mash and Ritsuka bond more, and now they have to save humanity by doing the same thing they've been doing, but on a grander scale. So, we get to see glimpses of what will come in the future (for the characters, anyway) in a montage that is exactly like how a television commercial would play out, and this goddamn movie finally ends. Horrible writing, plot-holes up the ass, stuff that contradicts the very foundation of the franchise, and nothing of any value. As a Fate/ fan, I am borderline offended. Go f*ck yourself, movie! What's worse, we still got a long way to go! Yes, my sanity IS depleting!
As stated before, Ritsuka is not only a bland and generic protagonist (complete with the generic hair and look), but he is absolutely useless as well. Aside from failing to help Mash, he literally does nothing throughout this entire film. He is a horrible protagonist, not for his bland personality, but for the fact that he adds literally NOTHING to any of the major events of this film! I don't even know how an anime accomplished that! It's astounding. Mash is also pretty generic, with her generic insular personality warming up to Ritsuka and that being all there is to her. Olga is made out to be this tough directer who takes no sh*t from anyone, but is just lame, borderline useless, and whiny. She puts up one shield, shoots some magic at some goons, yells at Ritsuka to man up in one scene, and that's it. She adds almost nothing here. Her death meant nothing, which is sickening given how unfair and cruel the death is. Romani is comic relief for one scene and takes over an even less involved role later, and yes, he adds little in both personality and plot impact.
Cu Chilainn has always been a fun character in every incarnation in a Fate/ anime (excluding the Lancer in Zero, since he is a different person, Diarmund to be exact), and here, it's no exception. He's the only DECENT character in this movie, providing some witty lines against everyone and being a genuine badass (sad to think, this is the very first compliment I gave this film). He uses his Noble Phantasm (we can assume so, they never directly state it) a few times, as well as his wit to gain the upper hand against literally every foe. Yes, he is the one that kills every enemy servant, not any of the protagonists. Medusa here, thanks to the whole alter thing, is a completely different person than in any incarnation, and is just a generic sadistic villain for the sake of it, which is a crying shame for her heart-stoppingly beautiful self. Alter Archer is pretty bland here to thanks to the Alter. Saber Alter is basically a "fight me" villain, with no purpose besides being some final boss at the end without a personality to speak of. Lev is a horrendous villain. He shows up once and then is a cliche villain for the sake of it. He's exactly like Hans from Frozen in that regard, except he gets literally nothing done (except for horribly kill Olga), and the villains here were bad enough as it is. Talk about a horrendous cast. Only one good character out of like, eight...
Thankfully there are some aspects of this special that are a little more decent. Studio Lay-duce is fairly new here, only really being known for animating the two Magi Sinbad no Byouken anime. I won't cut them any slack since outside of one or two good character designs, lackluster --if sparse-- CGI, the LN style, mediocre colors, and ok at best artwork are still damning aspects of the visuals here. Conversely, the fights are alright and decently animated and some of the effects like Saber Alter's Excalibur Morgan look downright badass. Regardless, the visuals aren't very engaging outside of the fight scenes, which are the only times this disasterpiece doesn't suck or rend my soul.
There is no OP by the way...just putting it out there. The background OST here is beyond lacking, that at times, there wasn't any. Sure, the OST is unspeakably forgettable, but at least play the tracks more! As for the ED, Shikisai, by Maaya Sakamoto, it starts off interesting but becomes a meh theme overall. There really isn't much of anything to any of the songs here. Fitting for such a generic and boring pile of absurdity.
This film is rather boring. It may be partially due to the robotic dialogue and how cliche everything feels, but the film is very un-engaging. Plus, the final 10 minutes are nigh-infuriating for how horrible the events are and how stupid and mean-spirited it all is. What's worse, the more I think about this movie, the more infuriated I became as I tried to process just how wrong the story was and how little it seemed to understand the Fate/ franchise in general. Being bored is one thing, but when you're bored and annoyed, or, God forbid, bored and angry, that simply makes for a torturous experience. A few chuckle-worthy mini-moments hardly make anything better either.
What even was Fate/Grand Order: First Order? A horribly made and painfully long, glorified commercial. Some of you will try to argue that it's a prologue so it cannot be judged like a full-fledged series, but the writing here is so damn awful that most full-length series fail to match it. The characters (barring one) are generic at best an horrendous and/or useless at worst, and nothing about the story worked in any capacity. It actively contradicts the Fate/ franchise's rules sometimes and has an insanely stupid ending. I get that this was first and foremost, a prologue to advertise the Fate/Grand Order mobile game, but that is no excuse for how horrific the writing here is. If I saw this when it came out, I would've immediately labeled this as one of the worst anime of 2016, but not only will I have to do that now in 2017, but I also have to name this the worst Fate/ anime in current existence, and I hope that no Fate/ series anime ever surpasses this. With all that said, I bid you adieu.
DarthInvader
Is Fate/Grand Order: First Order, another adaptation from the Type Moon universe? Yes it is. Is it a cannon worthy adaptation from studios like Ufotable and the studio that must not be named *cough* Studio Deen? Not entirely. Is it another money making “adaptation” to exploit the grand Fate Universe that studios such as Silver Link have done in the past? After knowing it is based off of the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, quite possibly. With that out of the way, is it worth watching this movie/special or should I watch the cannon works by other studio first? Well isn’t that why you are readingthis review? *(To save you from reading the entire review, watch the Ufotable arc first before watching this)*
The major plot of the anime revolves around the organization called Chaldea, who carries out Holy Grail Expeditions to investigate and destroy any singularities that may cause the extinction of humanity. The director immediately throws the viewers into this chaotic world where the main characters are just as confused as the viewers are in trying to figure out what exactly is going on. Not to fret, they quickly summarize what the Holy Grail war is, who they are and their purpose. Although the story appears to be complex with all the “mankind is on the brink of extinction” bs, it really is simple. However, this Michael Bay style directed movie will leave viewers confused with the amount of forced comic reliefs and unnecessary explosions. They just want to make the viewers believe this organization matters. They try to inject elements like romance and ecchi to appeal to the viewers but it just wasn’t well done so it leaves an unsatisfying taste in your mouth. The story had too many plot holes and the whole concept of time travelling falls flat when people are able to communicate across timelines. The ending was really predictable and it made no sense why the villain needed to create the problem in the first place. It was too abrupt and if they are trying to coin this as a special not a movie, then more movies/specials in this series needs to be released.
The movie introduces the major characters Fujimaru and Mash as the master and servant in this movie. However, the characters barely go through any growth or character change for the viewers to become attach to them. Even the servants introduced throughout the movie felt hollow. The ideology, the dialogues, the complexity of their psyche that Nasuverse had was barely visible. People were just fighting and dying after delivering their signature line. There is no motivation or purpose behind each of their decision making. The characters just felt flat. The most interesting character to come out of this special was the narrator, because by the end even he was questioning what in the fate world he was narrating.
Despite the movie/special doing so poorly in the story and character department, they didn’t put much effort in making their art and sound stand out much. There was no epic OST like other Fate animes to get your blood pumping nor did this movie have quality animation like Ufotable had with their Unlimited Budget Works. Still, for a studio like Lay-Duce, who just wants to make a quick buck with this mobile game adaptation, the action scenes were still fun to watch. Who doesn’t love the nostalgic feel of seeing servants like Archer and Saber fight?
Overall, viewers will find more enjoyment out of this movie if they have already watched the other cannon adaptations of the fate series that focused on the Holy Grail War. For those watching this for the first time, you will enjoy it more if you go in with really low expectations. Keep in mind this movie is a blend adaptation of the mobile game and a small arc in the Fate Universe. Although the fans of Fate Universe always appreciate seeing more movie/show adaptations, I’m sure viewers like me will forget this movie even existed. We would appreciate it more if studios stopped milking the Fate Franchise and actually presented a well-developed adaptation with meaningful memorable characters and crisp fighting choreography with great background scores. Nevertheless, give it watch if you have nothing better do. Even if you hate it, at least your love/appreciation for other Fate Universe adaptations will grow.
Raven-clock
"Fate/Grand Order: First Order is a 1hour prologue to what looks to be an interesting game." I'll make this brief. Aside from knowing who Mash is and discovering her glorious fanarts, there is nothing else I've found enjoyable in this adaptation. The story does not directly spoil any events from the branches of Fate adaptations, though they do hint at some story elements and information that is not yet adapted into anime form. After watching, I'm left with the curiosity to check out the actual game itself, not because this adaptation was great but because I believed the actual game must be so much better than this.
TahZin
Before I start with the review, I’d like to say a few things about its source, Fate/Grand Order, the mobile game. It started off as a fun entry in the Type-Moon franchise. So it's understandable if you think the story at the beginning isn't impressive. But after the release of a few chapters the players realized Fate/Grand Order is becoming like the a conduit for the whole Fate series, that includes Fate/stay night, Fate/Zero, Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/Strange Fake, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya etc. Suddenly F/GO turns out like the most canon story out of the whole franchise, with rewriting certain canon parts of it. It evenis contributing towards the whole Nasuverse as well.
With that being said, this special episode, titled "Fate/Grand Order: First Order" is based on the prologue chapter of the game. As a prologue, you should limit your expectations and understand this is not even the beginning of the story. This is more like a setup episode, with certain parts of the game’s prologue rewritten by Nasu himself to make it more anime-friendly.
As a setup for the story, about half of the episode includes exposition contents. What is going on around, how this is happening, what to do, things like these. It’s almost as if they are trying to hold your hand and give you a tour of a museum and forcing you to read the descriptions. A lot of viewers might not like it, and I can understand that. However, all these are because it was the tutorial part of the game. I’m not telling you to like it or hate it, but asking you to understand why this is happening.
After most of the exposition is done, the 2nd half of the episode is solely based on the protagonist and his team’s first adventure in this world. A lot of anime original contents were added, which I believe was mostly necessary. See, the game at this point was only throwing waves after waves of enemies to teach you how to fight, none of them were worth mentioning. Only the final battle of the prologue (and may be one or two battles before that) was important. The anime version here featured some full length amazing battles between servants. The fights, for most of the part, were done greatly.
Animation: If we talk about the animation, I’m pretty sure most of the Type-Moon fans will be disappointed. And why not!? Previous most of the Type-Moon anime adaptations (Kara no Kyoukai, Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works TV series) were done by ufotable, a studio extremely well known for their brilliance in visual department. They are known as one of the best studios considering great animation and visual effects. Fate/Grand Order: First Order, on the other hand, is done by Lay-duce, a studio which is very little known since they are relatively new in the anime industry with the only notable names done by them are Magi: Sinbad no Bouken and Classroom Crisis. If the viewer compare their works with ufotable’s, they are certain to get disappointed. However, if you ignore that, the animation isn’t bad. It is good most of the time, with the quality dropping only a few times when the characters are zoomed out.
Sound: The BGMs of this anime are probably its best part. Some freaking amazing OSTs, used beautifully with the events happening on the screen. The ending song is actually the opening song of the game, perhaps a bit of a remix version of the original, and I liked it
Character: Characterization is done well, and considering this as a setup for what’s to come, the introductions were done good.
Enjoyment: Before watching the series, I knew this was done by a lesser known studio, and the story is based on the weakest part of a mobile game. More precisely, it is just a prologue. That is why I limited my expectations. In that sense, they surpassed my expectations! 74 minutes of a prologue episode didn’t feel boring at all…… well, may be the first half an hour, but come on! Even the first episode of Fate/Zero was full of expositions one after another.
Overall, I’d like the viewers to take it easily and enjoy it. It’s not a god tier special episode, and it doesn’t need to be one. I know the ending of the story (or at least up to what is revealed in the game) is damn good. So I can understand if a sequel TV series is declared, or may be other special episodes, the quality will only rise from here.
sminkle
I was expecting something as amazing as the previous installments, but was greatly disappointed. They severely rushed the story line and filled it with plot holes and cliches. Not only that, the first 50 or so minutes were extremely boring. When drama is forced into the story just for the sake of moving the story along, you have to turn off your brain and accept it in order to try to enjoy the movie. If you think too much about it, you'll realize how bad the writing is. If you love the senpai/waifu dynamic, 10 minutes of random fighting with mediocre battle scenes, lackluster sci-fiwith plot holes, and characters with whom you have no emotional attachment to ....then you might like this story. The character design was cliche and has the standard anime tropes, you won't find anything new here.
FatherNick
Oh boy, where to begin? Ever since it's initial announcement, I was excited to watch the anime adaptation of Fate/Grand Order. Having played the game for a bit over a year, I was eager to learn the story and how this timeline was supposed to fit with the rest of the Nasuverse. Instead, I got a half baked story with a bunch of cliché characters and a confusing plot. Story: 5 It's... an interesting concept I suppose? I'm sure the game did a much better job with handling it, but the adaptation barfed so much dialogue and exposition at the beginning, I was very confused going intoit. The beginning also seemed very rushed, which didn't exactly help either. The rest of the story seems to be loosely connected plot points that hardly have any correlations with one another. Again, since I didn't follow the story in-game, I wasn't sure if this was the fault of the original or of the adaptation. Either way, the story was nothing special.
Art: 4
It may be because A1 pictures did all of F/GO's Promotional Videos or because Ufotable set the standard for Type-Moon anime, but I was highly disappointed with the production value. Everything, from the unremarkable directing to the clunky animation, screamed mediocre. The only reason I give it a score below "mediocre" is because it ruined a lot the immersion, especially during the fight scenes where it is most noticeable.
Sound: 5
The music wasn't that interesting, as nothing really stood out. I noticed they used some music from the game, which was fine, because they did not overuse it and instead used an original soundtrack (I think, anyways. Don't quote me on this.) I know some people were upset that Mashu's voice actor was changed, but I personally didn't have a problem with this. Overall, nothing to really mention here.
Character: 5
They're as cliché as they can get. Cute, timid girl who has a crush on the main character? Check. Tsundere? Check. Typical "average guy" protagonist? Check. Edgy and unsubtle villain? Check. Really, you have probably seen these characters done before - and done much better. The only good character is arguably Caster, and that's because he was Fate/Stay Night's Lancer. There are "alter" versions of Servants from Fate/Stay Night that make appearances, but unfortunately do not have much screen time due to its fast pace. Hopefully, they will continue to introduce other Servants from the game (as they teased at the end) and will have more satisfying characters.
Enjoyment: 6
I usually don't account for enjoyment in my overall score because my enjoyment stems from everything listed above. Although, I am a big fan of any work done by Type-Moon and I was glad to see that this was adapted. Even though it was not fit to my expectations, I still enjoyed seeing some of these characters on screen.
Overall: 5
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who casually watches anime, but to those who like the Fate franchise or has played Fate/Grand Order, I would recommend to at least give it a shot.
KingHarkinian
How amazingly poor! I've played dozens of hours of Fate Stay Night and been a mild fan of the series for a few years, but this is far worse than subpar to the series. We're talking so bad I can't believe that the original makers of the FSN game or anime, or the very well done Unlimited Blade Works anime, could've accepted to release that. Story: 2 : Forget any other Fates. This is a story with Servants and that's the only connection. The world is apparently in some "unspecified deadly anime danger" and some non-specific techno-device-thing exists that predicts whether humanity will survive or not. Andthere is also some time/space travel. And techno things. And a surprise twist villain. And oh god that whole thing was so cliché and uninteresting I just can't even care. It was a bad surprise villain with an extremely poorly developped world, with some atrocious setups, with everything being just bad...I can't even be bothered to explain. This was too terrible to be worth an explanation, to be honest.
Art: 3 : I tend to write often "for a 201x anime it's fine". Well let's reverse that. For a 2016 anime, this is TERRIBLE. It's under-animated, generally cheap, you get no feel for anything, the faces, frames, reactions, situations, everything that's supposed to seep from the art in an anime is utterly trite or plainly cliché.
Sound: 3 : Was there music? I don't remember any music. I also don't remember anything worth mentioning with the sound or VA. Everything was just so freaking forgettable.
Character : 1 : Ok this is by far the biggest offender. You see, a terrible story can still roll if you like the characters. BUT THERE WERE NO CHARACTERS. The main guy? The main girl? The main tsundere? All of them, they were a walking mass of cliches, every frame, every time they made a face, I could tell what they were going to do or say before they said it, it all felt rehashed, overdone, dead, so done to death it felt just bothersome, they had nothing past their tropes, they had no buildup, no personality, no depth, nothing at all! Literally the only thing that saved this from being a 1/10 overall is the characters from OTHER Fates. Seeing Cu Chulainn or Arturia again(they're not their usual roles in this, which might be the only semi-interesting twist in the story) meant that I could see characters that I knew and gave just a bit of a damn about.
But for this anime's "original cast"? It's literally 0. Not one of them deserves mention. Maybe the tsundere/commander's physical appearance is alright. That's it. I'm grasping.
Enjoyment: 2: Cliché, trite, boring, predictable, the only thing missing is outright offensive.
Overall: 2 : Whoever commited this thing needs to be asked two simple questions:
"What is the worst cancer of the anime industry?"
and
"What should be the first order of any new anime?"
And if he answers "Copying without creating" and "A creative basis" then outright ask him if he was trying to kill the anime industry any further.
For any other answer, just fire this guy...please, no more of this...
drazer012
No spoilers in here- As a long running fan of the fate franchise i honestly had my jaw drop to the floor when i started to see the direction this movie took. Maybe if it wasnt having to live up against the rest of the Fate franchise it would be an ok movie but you cant even begin to compare the two. The story is honestly just so... out of nowhere. I had absoultely NO idea what was going on half the time, and there is literally no character development in the entire move. They try to make emotional scenes but i just find myself unable tocare about any of the characters because i know NOTHING ABOUT THEM.
As for the animation quality and fight scenes they just dont live up to the Fate standard. The animations are all missing that brilliant flair that made the series so well known for its fights. And speaking of the fights the choreography (i guess thats what you'd call it) is atrocious. One of the fights is the literal definition of bashing a rock against a wall. There was one fight in there that i feel captured a bit of the original series agression but as with most scenes it only lasted a few minutes.
I feel like if they had took the time or effort to make this into a whole 20-some episode series it could have had some decent potential, even with the lackluster animation. But as it stands its a rushed, underwhelming movie that feels like it just stole the Fate name and characters and did NOTHING interesting with them.
2life
A boy gets roped into a slaughter ritual without knowing much about the war and servants. Does this sounds familiar? If yes, then you know this is a alternate version of Fate/Stay, Apohcrya, Extra Encore and so on. Somehow Type-Moon loves to depict the end of humanity and let a slow sluggish boy with his "feelings" save the day. Fate/Grand Order the First Order is an introduction to the whole Grand Order series. This show assumes you're already familiar with the Stay and Zero series. There are references towards those series and some information is left out as Grand Order assumes you already know this. Asresult the whole introduction towards Grand Order feels a bit messy if you don't know the other titles. This being the only disappointment, let's see what First Order has for us.
Characters:
The Ritsuka (mc) feels a bit of a mix between Sieg and Shirou. He is not completely dump and slow but also not very helpful. Most of the time you could have omitted him as it feels that he plays no particular role or feels important. He should have a more interesting side, but that hasn't been shown either. I guess this is part of character development for the follow up series.
Mash is best girl. A little odd ball who has great powers. But of course she has to try and develop it. Other than Ritsuka, Mash has reaction time and actually adds a little bit to the action and conversation.
Caster who is actually Lancer. As a caster type and not yet corrupted, he thinks himself of a guide towards Mash and her team. As always he is a good guy with a fast end.
Art:
The special effects and animation is what you would expect from Type-Moon. It is good, fluent and vibrant. What actually was a bummer was the battle between Saber and Mash. There were just two battles, Lancer vs Caster and Archer vs Caster, so there is not much action going on. That's why i think this movie did feel a bit dull.
Enjoyment:
As a standalone anime i think this is average. It's not bad but it also doesn't shine. As the introduction to the Grand Order series it doesn't really trigger me to watch the rest. Characters are most of the time not really deep and feel all one sided.
NatsumiKagami
Story (6/10): It's very mediocre and it's just about three very clueless people that got sent to fight back in 2004. It's very rushed compared to the game, but it's not that badly executed. Art (10/10): There's nothing bad to say. The characters and animation are done beautifully. Sound (8/10): The soundtracks are decent and the voice actors do a good job. Character (6/10): The characters are all clueless, but are not annoying or bad characters exactly. Enjoyment (3/10): It was SO BORING until the end, and even then, it was not that good. Overall (6/10): This is one of the worst fates, but theseries is amazing. If you want to watch a good story with great fight scenes and animation, watch Fate Grand Order: Babylonia.
SirMonday
For those who don't know, Fate/Grand Order is a mobile game based on the Fate franchise. Having never played it, I can't really speak to the gameplay. However, Grand Order's story seems to be canon to the Nasuverse, and if I've understood correctly this movie/special/extra-long episode brings to life the first "arc" or "chapter" of the Grand Order story. So. Fate/Grand Order: First Order. Is it worth your time? That depends. If you don't know anything about the Fate series, I'd recommend you stay away from this for now. If you're not familiar with the Holy Grail War's rules, this movie will be nothing shortof an incomprehensible mess to you. You might say that makes it a bad movie, but I disagree - this is very clearly not aimed at newcomers to the Fate series, any more than I suspect the mobile game would be. It's expected that you know what you're getting into. There is no explanation of rules, no moment to understand the confusing world you've been thrown into. Watch *at least* Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night:Unlimited Blade Works before watching this, and if all of the Heaven's Feel movies are out when you're reading this (as of the time of writing, none are out), watch those as well.
How much do you like the Fate series? If you didn't like either Fate/Zero or Unlimited Blade Works, then still stay far away from this. I don't mean to say it's a bad movie/special by saying that, but if you didn't like those, there's little to no chance you'll like this. It's still Fate, after all.
If you're a huge Nasuverse fan, and you've read the original VN and gone into the lore and whatnot, then sure, this is probably exactly what you wanted. Of course, if you're that much of a fan, you've likely already experienced the story when you played Grand Order, but if you refuse to play a non-translated/non-localised game, then this is probably for you. You'll probably love it.
What if you fall into none of the above categories? You liked Fate/Zero and UBW (and Heaven's Feel, if it's out), but the words "Realta Nua" mean nothing to you, and you're wondering if this is for you. The answer, unfortunately, is not clear cut, and depends on your taste in anime. I'd say it's worth a single watch. That being said, I'd warn you not to expect too much from it going in.
The story here is weaker than in other Fate features, and far too predictable, at least when it's making sense. The art, while certainly not bad, is not the glorious Ufotable Unlimited Budget Works we saw last time. The old characters are back, and are played and portrayed very well, but the new characters are... nothing to make special note of. Despite being on screen for far less time than the ostensible leads, the familiar faces from Fate/Stay Night are far more memorable and practically steal the show. And this really isn't the fault of the voice actors - Takahashi Rie and Shimasaki Nobunaga, as well as the VAs for the other new characters (I'm almost 100% sure Tomokazu Sugita was there, but his character isn't listed on MAL yet) do the best they can with what they're given. I'm not entirely sure how much of this is a problem arising from it being an adaptation of a chapter of a mobile game, and how much of it is problems arising from the act of adapting itself (that is, how much of this was a problem with the source material vs just the adaptation), but I suspect a large fraction. I've left the "Character" rating blank for this reason alone - the characters original to this story would probably earn 1 or a 2, maybe a 3, but the old characters really hold this up, and while it would only really buoy it up to a 5 or a 6, I'm not sure if it's fair to give this a higher score for literally re-using characters from other parts of the franchise.
TL;DR - In conclusion, IF you watched and liked both Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night UBW, this might be worth checking out. If you haven't watched them, watch those first. If you didn't like either or both, you probably won't enjoy this. No matter which of those categories you're in, though, if you choose to watch this, I'd recommend not setting your expectations high, because if you do, you'll likely be disappointed.
dkchacha
Felt mediocre in every aspect, I gave it a higher rating than 5 because I liked seeing familiar characters. It doesn't really go into depth with anything although it has an interesting premise involving "Chaldeas" which is a planetary replicate of earth using its soul allowing people to predict if there are going to be any devastating events in the future. Even with time travel into the past to correct the future it's not interesting which may be partly because there is little explanation. There is an interesting fight sequence but most of the fights are bland. And for the characters we're talking about adiehard devoted waifu girl that takes a liking to MC at first sight and a super weak bland MC that wants to be of help but is useless much like Fate/Stay night Shirou. His personality is exactly the same but this time he is even more useless.
Overall it's an average, mediocre, bland anime. It's an okay watch to pass time, but certainly could be better.
Ubadachi
Fate/Grand Order: First Order is exactly what the title says it is. To put that into context for those that may not be aware, this anime is based off of the mobile game Fate/Grand Order. Specifically the introduction and the first chapter of the game. As someone who has been playing Fate/Grand Order for over a year now and has followed the story to it's recent conclusion, I want to disclose this fact now rather than at the end of the review. Story: 6/10 Unfortunately the episode was entirely dedicated to setting the stage for what will happen later on within the story. And because it isset in Fuyuki, it can feel like it is relying on Fate/Stay Night as a crutch to keep your attention. With the majority of Servants coming from F/SN with shuffled classes and mirrors to scenes from it.
Art: 7/10
I'm personally a fan of most Type-Moon art, and given how this is a Fate work I am a fan of it. While the protagonist's appearance is very dull, most of the other characters have interesting designs. With that alternate take of Cú Chulainn and the altered appearances of FS/N servants we have not seen before such as EMIYA and Medusa. For how it is all animated I would say that for the most part it is solid. Not the best but serviceable with a few high points.
Sound: 5/10
From what I can tell the majority of the soundtrack is ripped right from the game. This could be a hit or a miss depending on the scene. With one scene very early feeling forced just to have the main login music play. As if they need to strike that off the checkbox. If you liked the music from the game you'll have no issue. If you hated it than I'm sorry you'll have to put up with it throughout the episode.
Characters: 7/10
This is where I feel my biases will begin to show. Mashu is a character I have gotten fond of over the course of the game and recently Roman. So seeing these characters animated is certainly a treat for me. And seeing more of Cú Chulainn is never a bad thing for me. However, Ritsuka Fujimaru feels very boring. One of your run of the mill average joe turns hero type of character. The only reason I can think of for him being so stale is because he fulfills the role of the player character. So he's really just along for the ride and acts as a plot device.
Enjoyment: 9/10
As an active player of the game Fate/Grand Order, I have to say that I enjoyed the episode a lot despite it's flaws. It was great to see some of the characters in animations and to get some of the early story bits fleshed out a bit as early translations were very rough to non-existent. As this is the first chapter of a very long story I am very forgiving of what can be lack luster since I was looking ahead for what can happen if they decide to expand this with additional OVAs or even a series. So for a fan of Type-Moon works and a player of the game, I enjoyed this quite a bit. But for someone with very limited knowledge of the Fate universe or having zero knowledge of id, they may not be able to get into it very much.
Overall: Solid 6/10
While I did enjoy the OVA quite a bit, I can not say that I'll recommend it to someone who is just getting into Fate, or an average anime viewer. It was created for fans of the game and I feel it hit that mark pretty well. The story of specifically this episode is nothing really to praise but it can be fun to see play out. It's good for animations based on mobile games, but unlike something like say the Kancolle or Touken Ranbu anime (games I am not very familiar with but very loosely follow), I feel that those will be easier to get into since Fate/Grand Order: First Order does have a few barriers of entry if you do want to fully enjoy it.
LegendAqua
So essentially Bizarro Fate Zero meets Steins;Gate Fate/Grand Order: First Order has lots of flaws but strengths under it belt once LA finished watching it, but it's primarily an hour long prologue to Fate/EXTRA: Last Encore. In terms of strengths, although Fate/Grand Order: First Order has very similar character beats to it's original Fate counterparts, like Ritsuka Fujimaru voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki is a more competent Emiya Shirou but blander due none of his "justice beliefs" or "powers" Emiya did. Mash Kyrielight voiced by Rie Takahashi is Saber including the "subtle" romantic interest Emiya and Saber had in and she as a Demi-Servant she was pretty badasseven with a shield, however she is somewhat overshadowed by the bizarro Servants , Olga Marie is Rin Tohsaka without her tsundere wiles, but just a more confident vers. of her. What LA is saying is even if the character beats have similar traits to the original Fate stay night, but the difference in these characters makes them likable enough. LA's favourite character quite easily going to Mash.
The animation done by Lay-duce was amazingly detailed similar to ufotable's animation though some subtle difference such as different "shininess" to it and bolded and more pronounced character outlines, nonetheless the animation is pretty well done and detailed to look at especially the detailed and bombastic battles.
The only other strength LA saw was the meat of the story when the time traveling starts happening as well as fighting the bizarro Servants.
Where the flaws comes in, is mostly in it's plot for LA, mainly the beginning long expositional world building, though LA likes world building, it went on "just" a bit too long and that comes in full force as the blatant hints to the major antagonist and obvious bad guy of this iteration of the Fate series because of how long the exposition and "subtle" in long quotation marks hints were given. Lastly the plot's major climax especially with Mash's fight against Saber Alter just ends with an interruption from someone and ends the battle just like that, LA doesn't know it could have shown Mash defeating Saber Alter herself with her new powers but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, then with that anti-climax of a fight comes in the obvious "REAL villain's arrival".....it was just predictable to say the least.
For what Fate/Grand Order: First Order is a mobile game adaptation of the same name, LA can see it's blatant advertising for both the game and the next installment to Fate EXTRA: Last Encore (if the final scenes are anything to go by), but for a one hour episode and given it's world building and plot structure, LA can forgive it for all this as it opens up many possibilities in connecting the various other Fate series (the original series, Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA series that hinted at alternative worlds, Fate/Prototype and the recently announced Fate/Apocrypha) together with Fate/Grand Order: First Order being the glue to all this, heck it makes sense due to Mash and Ritsuka's time traveled to the aftermath alternative vers. of Fuyuki in Fate Zero!
With all this Fate/Grand Order: First Order, with it's final scenes showing the upcoming Fate/EXTRA: Last Encore. Fate/Grand Order: First Order isn't horrible per say, it has flaws in it's plot from it's predictability, expositional introductory (which is somewhat justified to get us into what is going on) to anti-climax fights and revealing us the obvious major antagonist, but this kinda balances it out with it's actually interesting characters and circumstances Fate/Grand Order: First Order setting of Masters going back in time to destroy abnormalities in time (see LA's preamble about it being a Bizarro Fate Zero meets Steins;Gate makes sense now doesn't it?) balances it out. Really if your gonna watch Fate/EXTRA: Last Encore, this might be the first teaser as to what's to come in that installment of the multi-work multimedia of the Fate franchise. But it's "prologue" to all this, it's only the beginning, yes potential even in this work could have better worked out, but "wanting more when more is arriving in the form of other installments" including more episodes of Fate/Grand Order, it's only the beginning...
KyubCube
For newcomers, this anime is one of several adaptations of the FGO mobile game. It adapts the prologue (Flame Contaminated City Fuyuki) to the first arc (Observer on Timeless Temple). There are also anime for the sixth (Divine Realm of the Round Table Camelot), seventh (Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia), and eighth and final (Grand Temple of Time Solomon) chapters of this arc, and another telling an original story that slots between the interstitial Arc 1.5 (Epic of Remnant) and Arc 2 (Cosmos in the Lostbelt). Though no anime yet exist, manga adaptations are slowly adapting the remaining five chapters of OoTT and the five chaptersof EoR.
So here's the thing.
The Fuyuki anime isn't as bad as you've been lead to believe. It makes some rather bizarre changes (including, sadly, cutting a fight between two characters who in the OVA consistently get excellent sakuga), but it's a perfectly serviceable adaptation.
...The main problem is that you might as well just read it in-game. It doesn't have much new to bring to the table; it's just a direct adaptation of Fuyuki Singularity, except cutting the explanation of what Masters and Servants are as well as refusing to tell you anyone's true name except for Altria's. Camelot's second half and Babylonia both have truly epic sakuga and sound design that makes watching the anime worth it even if you already know the story; First Order is kind of just Fuyuki again.
That said, Fuyuki is a pretty damn good prologue, so if you haven't played FGO yet it's definitely worth watching. Especially for Caster Cú Chulainn who is SO COOL.
HitagiSenjou
This anime earned its 7.2/10 just for the waifu alone (and probably a little bit for the C* C**l**n C**ter - censored to avoid spoiling) and the (little bit) of actions as far as i understand. It has ABSOLUTELY ZERO VALUE in terms of plot. The entire movie can be summarized within 2 sentences (or even less). People keep talking about shits nobody understand, die for reason nobody knows why, begging the viewers to read all the story related to this movie AS IF we are supposed to do that 1st and if we already did that 1st we would not see the movie at allanw or would find it a load of bull
Still, voted 7 for the waifu. And for that reason only.
