English Dub Review: Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia “Episode 0: Intium Inter”

 

 

 

Overview

A prologue that briefly sets up some of the key characters in Fate/Grand Order.

Our Take

Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia is a long title that’s a mouthful to say and has a bit of background information to unpack. So let’s talk about the Fate series really quick to know where this show stands in the grand scheme of it all. 

Anyone who has watched anime in the past 10 years has probably heard of Fate/stay night, and the myriad adaptations and side stories that have spawned from its massive success. One of those adaptations is a mobile game called Fate/Grand Order, often shortened to FGO, which launched in 2015. Like other Fate titles, it quickly became very popular, and eventually made its way to North America in 2017. Since its launch, the game has been updated with several storylines in the form of in-game series of quests to complete. 

Back in January 2018, the developers of the game decided to adapt one of those storylines into an anime and put the decision of which chapter to adapt to a popularity poll. The chapter that ended up winning is called “Order VII: The Absolute Frontline in the War Against the Demonic Beasts: Babylonia.” So as you can see this show’s long title is actually a truncated form of a longer, more obnoxious title, so I guess perhaps we should be grateful. 

I’ve played the game myself but I’ve only played the first few hours of the first storyline, so I’m only familiar with the premise of the game. Fortunately, it seems each storyline is mostly independent of the rest, so you don’t need to know everything that has happened before to understand what’s going to happen here. 

However, there are a few characters and concepts that lay at the foundation of the storylines in FGO, and that’s apparently what this episode is here for.  “Episode 0,” appropriately titled, takes place before what will be the main events of this show, and briefly introduces us to all of the people and functions of this world that we’ll need to know before we go into the actual first episode. 

A secret company, called Chaldea, is a group composed of the greatest scientists and mages in the world. Chaldea has banded together to create a machine that sees 10 years into the future, with the purpose of scouting out apocalyptic events so that they may be prevented.  The storylines in FGO revolve around observing these apocalyptic events and finding a way to stop them at their source. The source of these events always stems from some great conflict that occurred in the past. And so to go and abate these conflicts they utilize a second machine created by Chaldea, which allows people to travel through time. 

There’s a third great machine created by Chaldea as well, one that allows them to manifest the souls of real and fictitious, famous historical figures called Heroic Spirits. These Heroic Spirits manifest as Servants who are placed under a human Master and serve under their complete control. A Spirit who cannot manifest with their own body is placed into the body of another person and is called a Demi-Servant.  For example, one of the Heroic Spirits that Chaldea has called is that of Leonardo da Vinci, who has been placed into the body of a woman and is tasked with helping Chaldea in their endeavors.  

The first character they introduce us to is Dr. Romani Archaman, a physician who has traveled the world over trying to help people where he can. He has grown frustrated with all of the injuries and death he has witnessed and decides to find a more permanent place of employment where he can better help the living. He ends up getting a job at Chaldea through an old friend and there helps monitor the health of the people who will be traveling to the past and saving the world. 

One of his patients is Mash Kyrielight, a young woman who is one of the people designated to be a vessel for the Heroic Spirits that will assist them as Demi-Servants. The people who are to become vessels for Demi-Servants are actually designer babies, genetically modified since their conception to serve as fit vessels. As a result of these modifications these designer babies have very short lifespans, and Mash will probably only live to be about 18 years-old.

Beyond all of the exposition, the focus of this episode is on the relationship between Romani and Mash, and how Mash interprets what will be her very limited life. The vessels are treated humanely physically, but mentally and emotionally there seems to be a lot to be desired. All of their human interaction with the Chaldea employees is carried out remotely through glass walls and intercoms. When Romani joins, he comes in and breaks this mold by actually going into Mash’s room and speaking face-to-face with her during her checkups, as well as having casual conversations with her.

Through these conversations, Romani learns how strangely innocent Mash has stayed throughout her lifetime of experiments. Further, they have many deliberations about life itself, how one grows by interacting and learning from other people. Mash is painted as a young woman who is constantly seeking someone to look up to and learn from, as she sees herself as inadequate and immature. This gives the impression that she is intelligent, but will perhaps become a bit too emotionally dependent. 

We are very briefly introduced to our main character, Ritsuka Fujimaru, and how he and Mash meet each other and a little bit on how their partnership, as well as the plot of FGO, begins. However, the episode doesn’t actually tell us the main character’s name (I had to look it up), nor does it tell us how the Babylonia storyline begins. I suppose that will be in the actual first episode. 

All of the animations in this episode is very simple, mostly just characters moving across rooms and talking. There’s a small action sequence at the very beginning that has great motion but is a bit sloppy. My guess is they wanted to put as little of the budget as possible into this prologue episode, which is fair enough. Fate anime adaptations are known for being very well animated, so they’re probably saving all the big guns for the actual show.

This episode doesn’t seem like it will be representative of the rest of the show. As stated several times before, it’s simply a prologue intended to introduce the unfamiliar and refresh those who are. As far as that goes, it does its job just fine. Nothing fantastic, but nothing too boring. If you already know what’s up, you can probably skip this one.