FATE/GRAND ORDER: SHUUKYOKU TOKUITEN - KANI JIKAN SHINDEN SOLOMON

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionFate/Grand Order: Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia
SPECIAL ActionFate/Grand Order: MOONLIGHT/LOSTROOM

REVIEWS

• 

  ameesaka

  90/100
  the perfect conclusion for the Grand Order arc and it's character (edited after blu ray)

  So... this is what it feels like for one of your favorite chapter to get so much love huh. It's like eating a good 5 star meal. Having finished the Grand Order arc months ago, I got super pumped to see how they would adapt this movie, and I was a bit relieved to see when the trailer came out, I knew the movie is gonna be beautiful and i'm glad I was not wrong. To FGO fans, this is a huge reward to you from CloverWorks and I hope you love it just like I did because it's clear that the staff cares a lot about this franchise and shown in Babylonia and this is a step up from the previous installment.

  Spoiler Alert: The staff favourite servant is Nero.

  MAJOR SPOILERS AEAD

  First off, this is an incredible adaptation and there are additional scenes that enhances the source material on another level, yet at the same time they take a different approach from the game which for me is refreshing but I think it's obvious that Corona had an effect on this movie but the movie was still quality. Though there are scenes that were cut which is the servants better but to me it is not a major cut that would ruin your experience, in fact I think it's for the better with what direction this movie is taking.

  The animation was definitely a step up from Babylonia that I don't think it was even affected by the covid situation, it was incredibly beautiful with a touch of sakuga here and there and amazing choreography. I was fighting for my life not to jump out of my seat that was how good it was. The fight scene that caught me by surprise was Vlad, Sanson and Alexander vs Lev and Nero, Mordred and Enkindu vs Goetia like shit the camera movement, the sound effect, the ost, it has hype written over it. Vlad appearance really surprised me tho, so happy to see one of my favourite servant animated and performed his NP.

  Mash, Romani and Goetia got an incredible amount of love to them, their scenes were as good, emotional and beautiful as they accompanied by the original OST from the game, yes even "She is only an ordinary girl". Ars Nova was um how do I say this, not as good as I expected but the scene itself is emotional but I like how Mash is treated here and it reminds me why she's one my favourite character in the Fate franchise. Mash shield scene, went to a different direction in terms of emotion for me at least, it rather feels hype here rather than emotional like in the movie but i'm honestly not picky about this stuff

  Fujimaru, didn't change much from but they made him likeable here, Jeanne's speech gave me goosebumps like the game but it wasn't a 1;1 from the game but i'm fine with it. Mash finally got the character development she deserved, the staff knew Mash character very well which is why she expanded more on her backstory in EP 0 and Babylonia. I could say the same for Goetia and Romani, as they were also the star of both the movie and game. Even if you find flaws in the movie, I don't think you can deny they did a great job with the main characters.

  Let's talk about Mash, her journey throughout the game, trying to find her meaning in life and her purpose despite spending around 16 years in the lab and not knowing who is the heroic spirit residing inside her until Camelot, often question about if she did her job well, have her ideal questioned and at some point doubt herself if this world is worth saving and protecting but even knowing that she wants to live up to Fujimaru's expectation and the task given to her. Mash peaked in this movie where ge got the most development, finally get to live a life full of regret and without doubt that the world is worth protecting and met her purpose in life. I find it this very beautiful, mainly because it's one of my favourite trope ever.

  I find Goetia much more excellent in the movie than the game, mainly because the conclusion he reached while fist fighting Ritsuka which I won't go into detail because I already forgotten. But with context of the later story, you can say that Goetia is right. (

  Servants have little to no dialogue, but it is understandable, they have high profilic voice actor, so to pay them just for 1 line is a waste of money.. why not just spend to make sure the quality of the movie is superb and i'm glad it went that way.

  Some minor nitpicks I have are...

  • wish we could see one last punch between man-goeita and fujimaru before it fades away but the whole fight is amazing
  • wish there were more dialogues with the main lead servants and definitely not the guy from danganroppa
  • wish they show more of 'we'll throw everything at them' after Jeanne's speech

  Overall thoughts

  I am a very very happy man, I don't have any major problems with it. Cloverworks definitely outdid themselves here but with the situation they're in right now I don't want them to adapt Epic of Remnant or Lostbelts. Anyways, i'm looking forward to rewatch this movie again because it is a huge reward to FGO fans who have played the game, I hope you guys enjoy the movie like I did. Thank you to all the staffs involved.

  ____THOUGHTS AFTER A REWATCH____

  I have most of the same thought as before except that I notice more flaws, Ars Nova wasn't good. I was expecting them to show a 'shining' way of how Goetia loses his immortality after Ars Nova, thats why servants can injured him easily, had it been the fight between Nero, Morder etc vs Goetia takes place after Ars Nova, I can say that Goetia will probably hang dear to his life. But yeah, Ars Nova was disappointing but the talk with Fujimaru was really good I give em that.

  I can tell that Nasu had a big vision about this movie but is held back by time restraint but i'm happy with what we get I really do.

  I was wrong. It is not a step up from Babylonia in terms of animation, its still the same which is still brilliant by the way. It still has the same pacing issue like Babylonia but it was slower than I thought it originally was. Last nitpicks I have is the awkward silence when David and Scathach helped Fujimaru. Goetia at least should break up the silence or Fujimaru should at least talk.

  The lack of OST during certain scene made the movie kinds of silence especially Luminous Eternalle

  Mash sacrifice was even more beautiful upon rewatch, I really love her a lot

  Well despite I find more flaws within this movie after rewatch, I can't help myself but give it a 9/10 cause shit I just love Fate so much, so the fate bias plays a factor in my rating. But yeah, I love this movke.

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• 

  Decibelle

  10/100
  If impressive on an visual level, a lack of substance & numerous issues plague another substandard gacha adaptation.

  There's a cold, crushing type of hopelessness to the gacha anime adaptation - the type to eschew all cohesive tenants of the form in the name of a singular end product that can be marketed towards fans of said franchise in the pursuit of more profit. So it is that again and again, we see mediocre products churned out in anime to satisfy that core audience. Kantai Collection, a barely tangible story smashed up by subpar animation, needless convolution, excess of characters without any motivation to highlight more than the handful of main boats, and weak battle scenes to prop up the rest. Azur Lane, more of the same but four years later. Girls' Frontline, more of the same but two years later and with gun girls. Between the Sky and Sea, absolute nonsense in every sense. Granblue Fantasy? Granwho?

  Even the handful of exceptions to this are in their own weird spot. Princess Connect! Re:Dive makes no illusions about being a contentless show to simply get lost in its food and comedy-related shenanigans, and the animation is on-point, but it only gathers deep enjoyment from its premise by the second season. Umamusume: Pretty Derby also only evolves in its second season, with the first being more of the same generic gacha adapation staleness. And how to forget the tragedy of Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, brilliantly adapting a weird, dense, inexplicable gacha game story into a surrealist anime plotline for its first season that hilariously derails itself by the second season in a production that could only be kindly stated as "troubled"? And of course, you can like, even love gacha game anime adaptations. But there's a cynicism and coldness to nearly any of them that makes it impossible to see as anything but calculated.

  And so we get to Fate/Grand Order. Fate, a franchise already impenetrable enough with its numerous storylines and subfranchises (many set in the same universe, all sharing the same general lore), now has a gacha game thrown into the mix, one arguably surpassing the popularity of all other Fate properties to where it's perhaps what a number of people may default to thinking of when thinking of Fate. It is also no less impenetrable, and due to both its status as a gacha game and the poorness of being adapted throughout its history, is maybe even moreso. If you're an anime-only person, you've already lost with Fate/Grand Order. The first arc of the first part of F/GO's story received a very poor adaptation. Six arcs later, you have a two-part movie deal, both of which are very poor with questionable adaptation choices. But wait, the arc after that actually got adapted before that, and is a TV show (it was mediocre). And now the final arc of the first part has a movie adaptation. There's also an anime-original special that takes place between Part 1.5 and Part 2, mildly interesting on account of it being 30 minutes of nothing but talking heads. What about arcs 2 - 6 of Part 1, or anything else? No, don't worry about it.

  So let's forget the notion entirely that this is meant to appeal to anyone who is not already submerged into F/GO's story. It has everything a fan of Fate/Grand Order could love and dream of. Impressive animation, with cool CG to highlight the monstrosity of the demon pillars (itself easier to look at than the PS2-esque CG animation of Babylonia). Fight scene after fight scene. Lots of cameos! A number of those cameos even get to use their cool Noble Phantasms! Huge, emotional climatic moment after huge, emotional climatic moment! All (nearly, at least) of the plot beats in the game are matched here! It's everything that anyone could have ever asked for.

  Everything delivered in such a calculated, cynical way that it struggles to get any enjoyment out of me. Where to start? The animation is very good, but the technicality of it loses an emotional resonance that can't be achieved otherwise; compare this to even a technical masterpiece in the same franchise like the Fate/Stay Night: Heaven Feel's movies, all beyond impressive-looking but using those visuals as a driving emotional and subtextual force for its themes. The entire second half of the movie feels like one big ending scene, which is very exhausting and draining (fine for the game, terrible for this). Fight scene after fight scene might sound cool, but there's a reason very few media is able to pull it off: you need some kind of levity at some point, which this movie never offers. This leads into a broader pacing issue, something every single Fate/Grand Order movie has had, but this one suffers from especially badly, even compared to the terribly-paced Camelot movies. Most of the cameos aren't voice acted, which is a logistical issue that can't be solved realistically, but still is noticeable (leading to an unintentionally comedic moment where none of them respond to Goetia as he yells questions at everyone in anger). (Also, for being on the poster, Enkidu sure does less than literally anyone else on there.) Special mention to the audio in this film; it is somehow worse than the Babylonia TV adaptation, which itself was somehow worse than the notorious Fate/Apocrypha TV adaptation.

  The huge emotional moment after huge emotional moment aspect is particularly terrible. It works in the game, coming off of multiple arcs told through a visual novel format with increasing stakes, odds, and tension, with deep character bonds formed throughout. Without most of that, what else is in this movie but 90 moments of poorly-conveyed emotion? It's not that it's done bad, but it's so incomplete that it doesn't even matter. And when I said nearly all of the plot beats get covered? Special thanks to the atrocious way Mash's resurrection gets handled. What's done in a slightly trippy, dreamy sequence as a very brief break in the action of the story by the end is instead shoved to an awfully-done sequence in the credits, no voice acting, just text and static imagery that flashes by super quickly, thus burying one of the most confusing moments in the whole film (which itself feels like cheap writing inherent from the game, if necessarily done to keep Mash around).

  In the end though, it'll certainly appeal to many F/GO fans, perhaps even former F/GO fans, perhaps even some other Fate fans or general consumers of action films. It has done its purpose as a way to adapt an arc in the story to bring more attention to its franchise and convince more to play it, especially if you've never played the game before yet are watching all of the F/GO anime for some reason. It really doesn't matter how cynical the product is, even with the labor of love put into it. Even badly-made gacha game adaptations can still succeed in its intentions. F/GO has especially got it made, the Solomon movie succeeding in its goal of continuing to propel the cash cow franchise for years to come. As a piece of media among many to watch, nod my head along, and go "Oh huh, that was cool that they showed off Sanson's La Mort Espoir even though he's just a two-star", it is certainly among one of many pieces of media I have consumed. But is it too much to ask for these gacha adaptations to at least be better, aim for higher, be more than just Trojan horses for their franchises? Surely, if they have to exist, it must be reasonable to ask for that bare minimum.

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