Fate/Grand Order / First Impressions / OVA/Movie / Series Introduction

「Fate/Grand Order -First Order-」

I have never played Fate/Grand Order, and do not intend to (because mobile game, language barrier, vampiric free-to-play model). I know very little about it. Still, I was relatively enthusiastic about a Fate/Grand Order anime, because I wanted to find out what they’re doing with the franchise and the world. Fate works pretty well in the videogame format; not only has it already, in Fate/Extra, but the original VN really did seem to want to be a bad RPG with its awkward stat sheets and arbitrary mechanics. And Type-Moon has recently done pretty well with anime properties, and it’s a trend well-poised to continue with a feature-length special. The only danger is that videogame adaptations are a tricky business (how do we translate game mechanics into anime? Mostly, we can’t), and mobile game => anime, in particular, have almost universally sucked. And, who knows? Maybe the adaptation is aimed at those who have played the game, and will go over the heads of those without the prior knowledge. It could still not be for me.

And so it seemed, when Fate/Grand Order -First Order- started with that most tired of clichés: people panicking while shouting technobabble at screens. A word to all budding directors out there who still do this: you sound ridiculous. It’s unavoidable, because jargon always sounds silly to those on the outside. Yeah, I know, you want to keep your plot mysterious by masking it in proper nouns, but it doesn’t sound mysterious to us. You’re not being mysterious, you’re playing Mad Libs. Your plumber can tell you your pipe has sprung a leak, or tell you that your Troy has gadzooked a moist-danger. One is meaningful advice, the other is a stroke. By all means, start in media res, but nobody really needs to speak much. Just, I don’t know, make something explode. Everybody understands explosions.

Thankfully, the rest of the feature is much more accessible, owing to the regular infodumps Fate/Grand Order will routinely provide. Everybody is on hand to give exposition, including the villains who are friendly enough to reveal whatever secret magical powers they have up their sleeves. Conveniently, we have a protagonist (Shimazaki Nobunaga) who has, against all odds, managed to not know anything about anything, and so there’s always a good excuse to be explaining something. Still, I think it’s probably best that any potential viewers go in having watched a Fate show of some kind or wielding some wider Type-Moon knowledge. That way, you can catch the little references, feel smug when you rognise the ‘Atlas’ name-drop, and be totally on board with Cu Chulainn being a total bro or Medusa dying first (not before killing Shinji, though; I guess everybody feels better now. Happy New Year).

Exposition aside, there’s not actually that much story in the 72 minutes or so of Fate/Grand Order. There are, roughly speaking, two plot lines. One is a fairly generic RPG thing: go here, kill this. The other is a boy meets girl story. And while Mash/Ms-Can’t-Afford-Full-Gear/some Arthurian knight (Takahashi Rie) is super cute (free glasses-kouhai? Now I know how Chaldea attracts recruits), that’s really all there is carrying this relationship. And she has a lot of work to do. The male-lead (the player stand-in in the mobile game) is, by comparison, exceptionally boring, and that’s sold as a feature, not a bug (except instead of ‘boring’ they call it ‘human’). He frankly has very little purpose other than to have a boy for the girl to meet (and for, er, chauvinism, I guess). So, overall, while there is a lot of stuff going on (extinction of humanity, and all that), it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of depth there. I suppose one can argue that this is more of an action flic, and indeed that is the main draw of Fate/Grand Order. But while it is quite the visually solid show, I didn’t really find all the fight scenes very engaging either. I think it’s because a lot of the time choreography simply was not that inspiring. There seems to be only so much they can do with a girl whose only armament is a giant dinner plate, it seems; when she’s not bashing mooks (and looking good while doing it!), she mostly just gets beaten on. An effective tank in an RPG, perhaps, but rendered visually it just makes one wonder what would happen if people tried to walk around the tower shield that she can’t see from behind of. Even her big moment, while suitably dramatic, probably has uplifted more by the music than anything else (because morphing into a brick wall, if anything, actually looks weaker). For the female-lead, I wished for a bit more agency on her part, I suppose, in both story and in fights.

Mind you, Fate/Grand Order is an enjoyable show. But I can’t really tell how much of that is just from me being a Fate fan, and in particularly a Fate fan who very much wanted to see an OP Cu Chulainn kick butt and be fabulous. And, oh yeah, he does a lot of both, even if he suffers from a bit of boring choreography himself in the beginning when all his runes only made explosions. No doubt, he carries both his party and the show. And while I’m fine with watching that all day, I wonder if those who, say, didn’t watch much Fate/stay night, like the guy less, and weren’t as thrilled about his bad karma being avenged would not enjoy the performance quite as much. That’s troubling, because otherwise there’s not much else for Fate/Grand Order -First Order- to lean on.

Is there going to be a -Second Order-, and this first one is just for establishment? As it stands as an anime, we’re left feeling that there should be a lot more to everything. If there’s no sequel to follow-up, we’ll be holding onto a lot of vestigal pieces. What’s the purpose of the sparklies except as game loot? What’s the purpose of the Pokemon except to have Kawasumi Ayako squeak some more for our amusement while she’s there? What’s the purpose of the director woman except to have her be angry, be miserable, and then die? In a nutshell: we’re left with a lot of underutilised character, and they all have stupid names. Nobody names their daughter ‘Mash’ unless they hate her. ‘Leff Lynor’ is a Superman love interest, not a villain (even if the demon is so uncouth as to wear his hat indoors). And… Animusphere?

Animusphere?

Pfft.

Ahem. So, yeah, I hope that this is not all of Fate/Grand Order. If they just wanted to market the game, then I guess this is actually plenty. It’s a solid hour of entertainment. My curiosity is piqued. Mission accomplished. As a full anime experience though? Surely there’s more potential here. There could certainly be more ambition here. There certainly could be more waiting in the wings, and they could certainly do better. And I would like more, and better, and more ambitious. That’s what it means to be a fan.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「色彩」 (Shikisai) by 坂本真綾 (Sakamoto Maaya)

66 Comments

  1. It´s pretty bad when your only redeeming quality is being part of the Fate´s Universe…
    hopefully the rest of the new Fate projects will be handled better than this… by the way, happy new year guys.

    Kingdragun
    Reply

    1. Bad in what way I wonder, from your perspective. I can understand what you are getting at if you are talking about the plot; the story, overall, felt somewhat forcibly made as it didn’t flow well with the other fate franchise. The animation was decent, Medusa had awesome lance skills which makes me want to see Perseus fight, but other factors, mainly the story, was somewhat poor, especially with the protagonist. I know having a “Gary Stu” is bad but having an incompetent, to the point of being “uselessly cliché,” Main Character is even worse; Ritsuka could have potentially save Olga, by simply using a Command Seal to “teleport” Mashu to grab a floating Olga then let that heavy shield do the rest with “gravity,” I’m surprised Ritsuka didn’t even think about that, instead of “helplessly stare and do nothing as Olga dies,” talk about being lethally unintelligent. For some reason I prefer maybe an Olga and Ritsuka pairing, we saw some scenes where Olga was in emotional pain when Ritsuka shows attention to mainly Mash.

      “sigh” notably sad the female protagonist (who has no name) made a cameo but she was injured along with everyone else.
      https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20011.jpg

      Olga’s death did seem upsetting. But, if we are thinking about “parallel worlds,” it may not be that bad. I am not sure about that 2004 Grail War, that Ritsuka went to, but I am pretty sure that 2004 was the same Holy Grail War Shirou Emiya participated in. Not to mention, I heard that a young Olga made an appearance in Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, which I think is somewhat before the Fate/Stay Night events; don’t ask me what Olga did in Case Files, I’m clueless, I am still trying to find if there is any difference in personality with Olga’s 11 year old self and adult self, the comments bellow made me conclude that there was initially a lack of info on Olga’s personality in Fate/Grand Order. Anyway, regardless, in the world where Shirou Emiya took action (fate/stay night, fate/strange fake, and so forth) we could guess that maybe Olga didn’t meet the same fate.

      On the side note, incase anyone didn’t know, I read somewhere that Lev was a close friend Touko, but I can’t understand how Touko could have been friends with such a maniac. Anyway, predictable anime logic, anyone with squinty eyes, or wears a fancy top hat, or both is evil.

      https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20014.jpg
      On another note, this dude……………you would think he could have saved Olga if he is who I think he is, seriously. I guess he isn’t as strong as I thought.

      Oh, and PASSERBY
      “I have never played Fate/Grand Order, and do not intend to (because mobile game, language barrier, vampiric free-to-play model).”
      Same here BTW, I don’t want to be addicted to video games. I don’t know what did that other joke came from, in regards to the “Nobody names their daughter ‘Mash’ unless they hate her” along with the Animusphere joke.

      L002
      Reply

  2. This is what happens when you adapt what’s apparently the game’s intro and tutorial level. But I’m told it gets pretty awesome later on This obviously isn’t meant to be an standalone

    bassgs435
    Reply

    1. Indeed.
      As a FGO player, I expected this first OAV to not be that good, and I was still pleasantly surprised because I could see the effort to make it better than the actual game tutorial (the expositions and info dump were really bad in that one, here they made them a little better), and they even put some really big hints at future plot points.
      I didn’t expect that and imho it was a way of saying “Yeah, we’ll animate the rest in the future, just wait”. There is still the “Next Order” part of the “Fate Project 2017” that hasn’t been revealed yet, and it will probably be about adapting the next chapters of the game.
      And yes, it gets better. Actually, it gets awesome by the end, a lot of Nasuverse fans were really surprised and hyped by how FGO became a “proper” Fate visual novel. Reading the other comments, TheVoid explained it better.

      Lelo
      Reply

    1. Woah. That’s overreacting a lot. And the cashgrab’s the game. This anime’s better because it offers you the chance to experience the story without having your money drained by the cashgrab known as gacha system. Of course, I’m assuming they’ll make more. The fact that it bothered to have the first order subtitle and the insane amounts of money GO makes guarrantees it

      bassgs435
      Reply

      1. Deen’s movie was quite enjoyable, actually. Yeah, it wasn’the exactly a comprehensive adaptation but there’seems only so much one can do in an hour-half movie. The direction/OST/animation were all well done.

        Eugene
        Reply

  4. Yeah, I kind of wish they would put more effort into this.
    As a game player, I knew the First Order story line wasn’t that interesting since it served as a introduction and a tutorial game for new players. However, they could have tried to shadow that weak spot with a higher quality animation and fight scenes. It’s not like I want a UFOtable quality (I do want it but it’s impossible), but it should be at least on Silver Link’s Prisma Illya level.
    The enjoyment I got was how Caster Cu was OP when fighting against Archer. Funniest part was how he start wielding his staff like a spear like he wasn’t happy with his own class. lol. The one that disappoints me quite a bit was Mashu vs. Saber Alter fight, which should have been a lot better.
    Overall, it wasn’t bad (I’m probably biased since I like F/GO), but it wasn’t that good either. I just hope they would fix the animation quality and the story line before they release Second Order.
    (Secretly wishing that they would let A-1 or UFOtable took over the later Orders, which have better story-line than the earlier ones. Maybe I should join a holy grail war so that my wish would come true haha.)

    Seorori
    Reply

    1. I think the animation’s decent enough for a newish studio. Just look at Rokka no Yuusha, which was from another newbie studio to see what we could’ve gotten. They also said they’ll have better animation on the BDs. So you can always wait for those. (The BD for first order comes out in march, by the way)
      And I don’t want A1 because it could easiy go the way of Qualidea Code. They’re too fucking unpredictable when it comes to quality (I mean, seriously. Look at Qualidea Code and Gunslinger Stratos and then compare with Occultic;Nine. They can go from shit (QC and GS) to absolutely great (O;9)). And Ufo’s too busy with Zestiria, Touken Ranbou and Heaven’s Feel

      bassgs435
      Reply

      1. Regular reminder that A1 doesn’t really have a set development team. It’s more of a money funnel. If a producer puts enough money through them, they are very good at organising a good team to make whatever you want. Look more to the staff that are making each particular A1 show.

        Passerby
        Reply

  6. I liked how when the MC asks where he is after being found passed out in the hallway Mash’s first instinct was to provide exposition explaining the facility, it’s name and it’s purpose… not something more logical like “In the hallway outside blahblah”.

    qwert
    Reply

  7. Eventually, in Fate/grand order, I want to see Zelretch fight, I only have a rough idea how strong he is. He defeated Type Moon, and I don’t really understand how powerful the 2nd magic is; I mean, I see Miyu and Ilya use it, as magical girls, but I don’t see just how powerful 2nd magic is.

    Not to mention I really want to see Altrouge Brunestud soon. I feel the Type Moon staff forgot about her

    L002
    Reply

    3. Think about how Illya makes flying magic just work because she just thinks how it should work for Magical Girls. That’s the level of how powerful Second Magic is. In fact how powerful all the True Magics are.

      They are the most “broken” and OP stuff out there.

      Dorian S.
      Reply

  8. Sadly the initial parts of the story aren’t that good (Fuyuki + France + ESPECIALLY Rome) because the story wasn’t really being written well since it is a moba. Even the lead whether as a boy or the red headed girl who cameod briefly didn’t have a personality till way later.

    It was Okeanos which you see the main ally of (Red haired red wearing woman with Scar) that the story starts to pick up and Nasu gets more involved by America and then fully involved by Camelot. Here’s hoping the story gets rewritten to be better for the next two. Fuyuki’s already an improvement with Emiya Alter as Saber Alter’s right hand instead of fighting some shadow servants.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    TheVoid
    Reply

    1. I hope if there’s going to be more F/GO anime (which I think could fix a lot of what went wrong in this one), they would know to try to pass over the weak parts of the mobile game and focus on the strengths. And if F/GO manages to rise above just a Type-Moon casino venture, if in the story if nothing else, then all the better.

      Passerby
      Reply

      1. There’s a lot of interesting info and lore in the later arcs, in part because Nasu wrote a good deal. Including lore you’ll learn about more in Fate/Extella starring the “Final Boss” and the main ally of the Rome/Septem arc.

        We’ll learn about things like the Gods, the Age of Gods, Human and Grand Order, Monsters and how they work, the Evils of Humanity(Which are similar to but are not All the Evils in the World), and more spoilerish info. One interesting tidbit I’ll share is that all the servants from special events between the main story show up to help in the Final Battle in the game. Inlcuding all the servants from Fate/Zero as Urobuchi wrote the story for that event while Nasu did the joke story that followed.

        Right now the story of Fate/Grand-Order 1 is complete and they’re doing an interim story leading into Fate/Grand Order 2’s story. The only thing that we’ll really need to worry is if the story will depict the events of later arcs as the grand massive battles they’re supposed to be.

        Nasu and Type-Moon really took the story seriously when they realized just how much the fans were looking forward to it. It’s to the point that they later half can be seen as a Visual Novel.

        TheVoid
        Reply

      2. No, it didn’t. What the hell are you even talking about? The bad guy didn’t even know or expect him to make ANY wish. This wasn’t even foresaw or planned. It’s LEV not dying before his full possession what kickstart everything.

        That wish became the only Deus Ex Machina (and plotted Deus Ex machina because it was set up by GOD) to stop the bad guy. It was literally the only thing that could stop him.

        Angelica
        Reply

  9. Olga ironically received the most character depth in this OVA.

    But Fujimura is a one note, dimensionless character that merely exists (random Nice guy harem protagonist Number 48), and Mashu has only marginally more depth (shy girl who has some hidden levels of bravery but needs confidence). With Olga put on a bus in a rather cruel manner, any subsequent orders have to rely on Fujimura and Mashu to carry the show. And that’s a big concern, because while there is a glimmer of a foundation to build on Mashu’s character, there isn’t any for Fujimura. Sorry Fujimura. You are no more than random Shounen Protagonist number 48.

    Andmeuths
    Reply

  11. Hey Passerby, read this, reminded me of Izetta’s writer, checked twice to see this was you. Don’t visit the site often, haven’t watched this or that witch show, but I rather liked your write-ups on then. You’re not just bashing, but offering some really helpful advice I wish more producers took into account when making these, but sadly don’t because their audience is usually edgy teens or pervs. Anyways, have a nice day, thanks for the chuckles.

    Justinnnnnn
    Reply

    2. Always glad to hear that somebody finds these posts valuable. I personally take no pleasure in seeing a show go bad (and I doubt many anime fans do), so I at least hope that the autopsy can be informative and/or entertaining.

      (And while it was no Kajiura, I think F/GO‘s score was actually fairly good. Though I did like the Saber Alter arrangement of Sword of Promised Victory in the VN, so I was disappointed they didn’t use that or something similar.)

      Passerby
      Reply

  14. Well this should be interesting. If we go by the preview of the introduction, seems like the people highlighted are going to be the one’s involved in each Holy Grail War, I’d assume.

    …though of course, since we’re doing time travel, these wars aren’t exactly the correct ones, are they? Especially since our man Cu is playing the role of Caster.

    Though then again, Cu seems to get the short end of it. Can’t unleash his best as either Caster or Lancer.

    You know maybe that’s all that stops the Servants from just wrecking everything. And I don’t mean everything as in other Servants, I mean the freaking planet.

    Dorian S.
    Reply

    1. From what I see, Cu Caster soloed Black Rider, Assassin, and Archer; as well as beating Lancer and Saber with help from Mashu.

      While Cu Lancer just died in every route without beating anyone. I was chuckling when he hope to summoned as Lancer next time.

      Kuma Kuma
      Reply

      1. Actually, Cu as a Lancer is probably stronger than his Caster counterpart. The reason he do not appear to be like that is because he’s extremely nerfed by Kotomine because he is used just as a Scout.

        But, hopefully America will also get animated and we’ll see him as Berserk, which is by far his strongest class.

        Higure
        Reply

  15. Fan of FSN (played VN & watched anime) so watching Grand Order was a given even if all I knew about it was FSN universe cell/mobile game. Not much to go on, but still had fairly high expectations for this. Can’t say those were met. It wasn’t bad & had some moments, but yeah, a bit disappointing, and I agree with a number of the review’s points.

    For a 1+ hour show with quite a bit of exposition, even with my (albeit limited) background I still felt there were some gaps. I suppose it did a good enough job with the overarching story. For… reasons, history (grail related stuff) gets screwed up at various points in time causing humanity’s extinction -> so go fix it. Fair enough. Still, I had a number of questions arise while watching. For example, they go to the freaking UN to ask for time travel permission (“ray shifting”)!? WTF!? What happened to keeping magic secret from non-mages/general public, let alone dropping a bomb like “BTW, we got time travel”!? But it’s literally one line of “context”. Frankly, I think they were better off leaving that out.

    I’m also still trying to figure out what the original plan was. As presented, I got send random group of master candidates back in time -> ??? -> profit(?) I’ll just go along with somehow giving random people servants without the grail (necessary before), but they were candidates so… hope enough of them get servants – and not any evil servants at that? Seriously, what WAS the plan? Given how things played out it doesn’t matter. Clearly it’s just some reason for the story to isolate the ML (or player in the game) as the only one who can save the day. Fine, but lack of details resulting in questions didn’t help when I was trying to immerse myself in the story.

    Characters were for the most part OK. Lancer Caster was the best IMO though personally I like him better as lancer class + some magic (e.g. like UBW). So I liked the bit about “summon me as a lancer next time”. Mash was OK and better IMO after she became a “demi-servant”. ML though… meh. Didn’t hate him, but didn’t take a liking to him either. Agree with the review that he seemed ignorant (or stupid – YMMV) at times to set up exposition. Even disregarding that, still meh for me. Director girl didn’t do much for me either though I guess that’s not really an issue given the end. Dr. guy was also OK. It’s early and the main characters have yet to develop (including Leff who’s one-dimensional “Muhahahaha! All humans must die for reasons!”), but so far prefer the FSN cast (yes, even Emiya over ML).

    I’m not saying this was bad, just underwhelming even if you don’t factor in the lack of UBW TV eye-candy visuals. The battles at times were pretty good, though not without flaws either. I mean, OK, Mash has a shield, but there was a lot of just repeatedly bash her shield type “action”. She’s a noob so you’d think she’d be easily defeated with technique, but main character plot armor. Also, got the usual FSN stand around talking during a fight. Sure evil archer, why bother to just kill caster immediately when you have the chance? Have a nice chat. What could possibly go wrong? Lastly, there were the cliche’ moments as well. Power of friendship/feelings/something = Mash can now use her noble phantasm wall. Is that when ML burned a command spell (missed when that happened)? Again, nothing terrible per se and nothing new for anime, but not the best stuff either. Overall I found the fights a mixed bag.

    TL:DR = The anime did enough to capture my interest so I’m in for next installment. I can understand the “lack of ambition” argument, but this struck me more as a “lack of effort” issue. They didn’t “phone it in” as the saying goes, but I do get a sense of “eh, good enough” which isn’t really the way you want to start things off. Lastly, I did end up going to FSN/Grand Order wiki to fill in some gaps. Didn’t answer all my questions, but got enough info to the point I feel I have a sufficient understanding of things. Personally, I don’t feel spoiled much at all in doing so, but others might not feel the same so not necessarily recommending that.

    daikama
    Reply

    1. Chaldea is a UN sponsored organization that utilizes magic and technology to preserve the human order. Its founder is a Magi. The rest is mentioned through the story, including how people started taking Chaldeas research seriously after 2004.

      TheVoid
      Reply

      1. @TheVoid: OK, that helps, but UN sponsored or not, so after 2004 the world knows about magic – right, because I find it extremely hard to believe that that could be kept secret for long. Also find it hard to believe that the UN is always 100% unified in terms of magic use. Certainly not 100% unified for a lot of things in RL. For example, no one tries (in secret for sure) to weaponize magic? I mean freaking time travel – it’s more powerful depending upon use than nukes. Even if you disregard national/international politics – corporations or powerful (mage or non-mage) individuals certainly would be interested. It’s a Pandora’s box IMO, but the anime just drops it in one line.

        It’s not a critical part of the story by any means – pure set up, but coming from strictly FSN VN (and related anime), that was quite a surprise given what I understood about the “FSN world”.

        daikama
        Reply

      2. The UN and the Master candidates knowing about magecraft is not the same as the entire world knowing, especially when Chaldea is a hidden observatory sheltered on a mountain isolated from the rest of humanity. I don’t get why you think a secret operation is known to the entire world.

        And Chaldea is the group that perfected the arts you are talking about, which you also don’t seem to understand. Most Magi are too obsessed with the Root or the True Magic to even do what the Founder of Chaldea did, who put his worldly desires above such things.

        This is all explained later. So either you can wait or you can start reading lot and lots of translations found online.

        TheVoid
        Reply

      3. @TheVoid: I get that Chaldea is hidden on a mountain top – they made that painfully obvious to the point of even giving elevation (BTW – you would be able to see the sky at 6000m unless it’s constantly cloudy/snowing every day, but whatever). FWIW, my point is I’m very skeptical that there would be NO leaks from the UN side of things especially over a period of years. Like ANY secret, the more people who know the greater chance of it getting out – more so IMO in the modern age, and the UN is a large multinational group which is not always unified in opinion. That’s why I find it implausible that there are NO leaks about something as amazing as real magic (and the ability to time travel on top of it) over a period of years. JMO, but that’s what it is.

        However, that’s the SETUP (in caps for emphasis) so you go with it. Fine, I can do that and it not a “deal breaker” by any means. However, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have some reservations about what was presented.

        I don’t expect everything to be presented right off the bat. Some world-building/setup, yes, but obviously not everything. That takes time, and just from a story telling perspective you can’t reveal everything at the start anyway. Good to know that they will give some explanations later (presumably anime will not short-change that). As for reading external sources – did that already to the point I’m satisfied with what I know about the background. Also a bit spoiled on some things, but that’s the risk you take. Not reading more because I don’t want to be further spoiled.

        daikama
        Reply

    2. For example, they go to the freaking UN to ask for time travel permission (“ray shifting”)!? WTF!? What happened to keeping magic secret from non-mages/general public, let alone dropping a bomb like “BTW, we got time travel”!? But it’s literally one line of “context”. Frankly, I think they were better off leaving that out.

      What gave you the idea that magic has been public? That the UN is involved? Wouldn’t it occur to you that only the UN knows of the facility as its sponsor to protect the world? And given its location is 6000 meters above sea level on top of a snowy mountain, it’s a secret facility. Plus it’s a facility to protect the future. Using magic and science together to protect it isn’t impossible if either side cannot do it on its own. It’s mentioned in the trailer. Given that the Animusphere is a prestigious family, it’s possible that they decided to combine both in order to ensure the future. And frankly, spiritron dives and rayshift border in science terminologies so it’s not as if the magecraft secret is fully divulged. And rayshift isn’t exactly time travel. Singularities are just isolated bubbles in the flow of time. They’re traveling to those places instead of actual time travel. It’s more of teleportation to the singularity. It’s just that the place is a point in time in the past so it’s akin to time travel.

      I’m also still trying to figure out what the original plan was. As presented, I got send random group of master candidates back in time -> ??? -> profit(?) I’ll just go along with somehow giving random people servants without the grail (necessary before), but they were candidates so… hope enough of them get servants – and not any evil servants at that? Seriously, what WAS the plan? Given how things played out it doesn’t matter. Clearly it’s just some reason for the story to isolate the ML (or player in the game) as the only one who can save the day. Fine, but lack of details resulting in questions didn’t help when I was trying to immerse myself in the story.

      Facility to protect the future -> future disappeared -> a singularity appeared -> maybe it’s the cause -> initiate rayshift experiment ->rayshift is sending people to the past -> send people to singularity

      It’s not difficult to understand. Olga and Mashu were saying that they needed to investigate the place. And along the way, find the cause of the singularity that threatens the future and destroy it to protect the future. It’s their job that they’ve been emphasizing since the beginning. To protect the future.
      And the people are not just random people. 38 of them are from prestigious families. 10 people were the commoner block with aptitudes, which includes Fujimaru.

      belatkuro
      Reply

      1. @belatkuro: “Wouldn’t it occur to you that only the UN knows of the facility as its sponsor to protect the world?”

        The question is “Do I believe that the UN could keep a secret as amazing as real magic and time travel to boot (A) a complete secret in this day and age for a matter of years, and potentially (B) never ever want to use said magic and/or time travel for anything else”. JMO, but for me the answer is no. Even if some country doesn’t have nefarious plans or want to make some power grab, etc., what about say natural disasters? Sorry tens of thousands who died. We could go back in time and save you, but well, secrets and all. Not buying that. Again, UN isn’t all that harmonious in RL with more “mundane” things. That’s on top of the seemingly 180 from the previous FSN stuff about the importance of keep magic a secret in general.

        Frankly, I have to wonder why they even bothered with the whole UN part in the first place. These are mages and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if some were worth billions let alone a group comes together to fund the project on their own without any multinational government involvement. Much better to keep things secret that way

        However, as I replied above, in the end it’s not that big of a deal or crucial to the plot so I’ll just go with, but sorry, it definitely takes some suspension of disbelief on my part.

        — “Facility to protect the future -> future disappeared -> a singularity appeared -> maybe it’s the cause -> initiate rayshift experiment ->rayshift is sending people to the past -> send people to singularity.”

        You’re right it’s not difficult to understand and I do fully understand that. Actually wrote as much without the “singularity” term of art. My questions concern a combination of some of the mechanics and also specific mission details on a tactical level (HOW they go about it beyond the obvious objective). First fair enough on “random” – going for effect not accuracy there so my bad. Do appreciate the clarity on the candidates.

        OK, everyone is supposed to get a servant via magic science. So there’s a magic mana generator in place of the grail to supply enough mana for forty freaking eight servants (almost 7 times what the grail supported)? Is there any control over which servants are summoned because as we know from FSN, not all servants are the loyal, good Artoria type. But OK, fine. They “perfected magic science” (for the most part – there were communication problems and Mash’s servant merging was presented as a surprise, but whatever. I won’t quibble on that). Even so, it’s a hell of a leap from FSN and thus my surprise. Regardless, again that’s the setup so gotta go with it.

        FWIW, while watching I had other non-magic science related questions about the mission, but going to omit them not just due to length, but because in the end, it does not matter. Again, this is all setup. As I wrote, the purpose here is to simply isolate the ML (or PC in the game) as the only one left to save the day/fix singularities/whatever. Speaking of the game, the magic science part fits in very well because now players can go collect a bunch of servants (it is in large part a collection game from what I understand).

        daikama
        Reply

  16. The main problem with the Fate series in general is how horrifically useless the masters are.

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20080.jpg

    I have no problem with skimpily clad over powered pokemon, but the player stand in (the master) has absolutely no role aside from standing in the sidelines while his smexy hot pokemon gets beaten to death.

    And for some unknown reason, the smexy hot pokemon falls in love with the master because of REASONS!

    Ginobi47
    Reply

      1. Ginobi47 was referring to this particular Master (Fujimaru Ritsuka), not Shirou, Bazett, etc.

        And indeed the most he’s ever done is hold Shielder’s hand at a critical moment and say “I believe in you” and somehow using up a Command Seal in the process.

        LOL voice casting though:
        Fujimaru Ritsuka –> Nobunaga Shimazaki –> Itsuka Shidou (Date a Live); Mitsuka Souji (Ore Twintail ni Narimasu)

        Leff Lynor –> Sugita Tomokazu –> Evil Kyon!!?

        Shielder –> Megumin !!

        ~

        As for Fou — after Madoka Magica we should already be suspicious of cute little critters Show Spoiler ▼

        Magnus Tancred
        Reply

      2. Magnus Tancred nailed it.

        Shiro, Bazett and Rin are awesome. However, FGO’s master (didnt even bother remembering his name) was suppose to be the commander to his overpowered pokemon army, yet the only thing he ever did was stand like an imbecile in the sidelines.

        https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20081.jpg

        This was the only thing he did, and it was still worth shlt.

        Atleast Shiro has his projections, Bazett has her fist and Rin has her twintails+tsunderin powers. This master is useless in every possible way

        Ginobi47
        Reply

  18. Not too happy seeing Olga get taken out like that. Only two people have been shown to know about “Grand Order” in the organisation. The other one’s the villain. Not really sure it’s a good idea messing around with time lines when you don’t really know what’s going on. Heck, solving one irregularity actually caused seven more to pop out. At least that is what it looks like to me.

    Hopefully they start interrogating other servants next time. They seem to know as much or more than the director. If they don’t, I really don’t know what to think.

    theirs
    Reply

    1. Olga was: red herring fluff, the character.

      Show Spoiler ▼

      Angelica
      Reply

  22. A spoiler to the servant Mashu fused with
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Anyways, regarding her name Mash….that is really the studio/director to blame because originally her name in the game was Mashu….then it turned into Matthew. Then the anime decided to go with Mash for some reason.
    Also Mashu basically keeps the roll as tank/taunter through out the game so don’t expect her to do any action outside of blocking and hitting people with her shield. Though she is one of the damn best at her job. Though if they’re going to accurate with game lore, she doesn’t receive her sword until her 3rd ascension, which comes at Camelot.

    As someone who played the game since the first month of release I can say that this adaption was….alright? I mean I and others have the advantage of knowing how things go. Though I do agree on the really bad start and info dump conversation Mashu and Gudao had at the beginning wasn’t needed….or at least should have been handled better. Animation was….okay. Some of the fights were good while some of it were bad. But ultimately the issue of this OVA/movie doesn’t lie with the source material, but how it was utilized for this. I mean I understand UFO being part of this because they’re already busy with finalizing the second season of tales, Touken Ranbu, and the 3 Heaven’s feel movies. Preferably A-1 would have been the better option (say what you will about A-1 but you can’t deny the FateGO commercials (with the exception of the London chapter) look damn good). Plus considering this company is new in-all it probably was the cheaper way to go. The way they portrayed Olga…was actually good. I mean I agree with the other person who said that Olga had more personality than the actual game…Mashu and MC are bland though….They really should have went with Gudako (the girl with the one-sided pigtail) her personality….is more unique lol (for those who played the game). Then again if they were going with their comic-lore personalities then they both would be displaying some bisexual tendencies since Gudao/our male-MC had sex with Robin Hood and Gudako doesn’t care who she harresses lol.

    Also regarding the game, I can say that its very Free-to-play friendly. I mean in the past few months they’ve becoming more generous with the free players. On the three accounts I have/had I’ve had multiple SR & SSR servants. Only time I really spent money on this game was buying a 2GB phone because of them banning computer emulators midway.

    But it’s safe to say that the actual “Fate” franchise is going to own 2017. Not in popularity, but the fact that other titles are finally getting around to be made. I was getting tired of having to explain to people that the Fate-universe exists WAY past Zero and UBW.
    Fate Grand/Order
    Fate Heaven’s Feel Trilogy
    Prisma Illya movie (about arguably one of the best versions of Shirou)
    Fate Apochrya (recently announced)
    Fate Extra Encore (though its rumored to be bumped to the winter 2017 season)

    marsh381
    Reply

  25. https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20043.jpg
    We all cheered at that

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20051.jpg
    Even with Rider cosplaying as Lancer, the low luck stats continues

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20047.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20052.jpg
    Irish child of light indeed

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20069.jpg
    People die when they are in a ratan cage…

    Velvet Scarlantina
    Reply

  26. As someone who’s played the game through all the current content, I have to say that the portrayal of Mashu is pretty accurate. The process of getting to know her is something that occurs over the course of the game. Likewise her fighting style. Mashu CAN deal damage, but she SHINES as a tank and damage mitigator.

    Also, I cannot look at Fou the same way. Ever again. And he’s voiced by Kawasumi Ayako? I guess they had to give her some role beyond Saber.

    Blue
    Reply

  28. What bugs me is Cu Chulainn’s use of runes. The guy is an Irish warrior, so a Celt. He should be using Ogham, which is the proper ancient Irish alphabet and not runes, which is Norse.

    Indicible
    Reply

  30. My very short review of Fate/Grand Order: First Order is that it was nonsense, but glorious nonsense.
    Also, Mash is not super cute, she is SUPER DUPER cute. (She may or may not have basically walked down the checklist of things that are “my type” and clicked them all)

    Some Dude
    Reply

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