English Dub Review: Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia; “The Congress Dances”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The party confronts Tiamat and take her out with very little trouble. Unfortunately, the real threat she poses quickly manifests and pushes everyone against the wall. 

Our Take

Fujimaru and the crew quickly arrive at Tiamat’s location in the Persian Gulf and find that her limbs are bound together for whatever reason, keeping her in place. Deciding to grasp this opportunity, they pull out the biggest gun they have. 

Fujimaru gives Ishtar another infusion of magical energy, and she unleashes her ultimate attack. It’s not specified whether or not this is her Noble Phantasm; it seems like it would be, but it could just as likely not be. It certainly has the visual gravity of a Noble Phantasm at least. Ishtar opens a portal in the sky that connects to the universe and calls down the planet Venus upon her foe. That sounds like it would be enough to take out anybody, but that’s just the opening act. The actual attack is a giant magical arrow, which at first doesn’t seem as epic as wielding a planet, but it’s big enough to destroy Tiamat and leave a gaping hole in the ocean. This anime continues to not hold back on the budget for these ultimate attacks, and it always pays off, as every time they manifest it feels as though creation itself is being undone. 

The show then goes in hard on a big and obvious fakeout. Not only do the characters celebrate, even the music decides to join in on it. This seems like this would’ve been more appropriate at the end of the last episode to lead into a cliffhanger, rather than pulling it off in the first five minutes of this episode and pretending like it’s actually over. 

It doesn’t take very long for the real Tiamat to show up and ruin everyone’s day. Her true form, which is very similar in design to her previous form, is absolutely gargantuan, as big as a skyscraper, and the biggest being we’ve witnessed as of yet.  All of the party members look minuscule next to her; the difference in scale is both astounding and terrifying, draining hope from everyone in Mesopotamia. 

What is just as intriguing as the dramatic implications of Tiamat’s real form are how she is artistically executed. Like the large-scale enemies we’ve seen before, she is animated entirely in 3D. Unlike them, however, and everything else for that matter, she is not rendered in the cel-shaded style, but rather in an almost entirely different style. It looks similar to a hyper-stylized modern 3D animated film, or like something you’d see in the background of a video game. The switch in style makes her incredibly distinct, while the retention of most of her visual features still keeps her visually similar at the same time. This makes her seem both alien and not so alien, placing her in the uncanny valley, which enhances her terrifying presence. 

Things in Uruk have become far direr than they were before. Despite erecting a gigantic breakwater structure to stop the rapidly rising ocean levels, only 500 people total have survived, effectively crippling the city entirely. Despite this though, Fujimaru is assured by everyone that if Gilgamesh survives, humanity will survive. Normally one would doubt that one person could carry an entire civilization on their back, but if that one person were Gilgamesh, it seems at least a little likely. 

The full extent of the threat that Tiamat poses is fully explored, proving to be far greater than one might’ve imagined. She is less of a beast or a god or anything like a living being, and more like a giant ark that can sustain and create life and travel in outer space. Being capable of interstellar travel seems like a bit overkill, but if her goal is to destroy and replace humanity, being equipped like that is pretty optimal. And as if that wasn’t out there enough, Tiamat is explained to also be the goddess that gave rise to all life on Earth and is linked to said life. Therefore, she cannot die unless all life on Earth also dies. If ever there was a villain that was over-explained to the point of being unbeatable, it is Tiamat. 

Not content to just give up, everyone takes part in a brainstorming session to come up with ways to defeat her. Amidst the pontificating, Ereshkigal interrupts to complain that the Underworld is getting flooded with incoming souls. Gilgamesh pulls a magic mirror out of the ground and puts Ereshkigal on ancient Sumerian Facetime. After some puttering about and thinking outside the box, Fujimaru comes up with the idea to send Tiamat to the Underworld. If her immortality is linked to all life on Earth, then they can just send her away from Earth where there is no life. If crazy, nebulous logic can make someone unkillable, it can also apparently do the opposite.  

Fujimaru has to play to her ego, but he gets Ereshkigal to agree. She can pull it off in three days, which is, unfortunately, one day after Tiamat is set to arrive. The group returns to brainstorming and Gilgamesh remembers that Ishtar has Gugalanna, an almighty beast that could get the job done. However, Ishtar lost Gugalanna a long time ago and hasn’t found it since. How you misplace something like that is beyond baffling, but, like a reverse Gilgamesh, if anyone were incompetent and scatterbrained enough to lose track of a magical beast, it would probably be Ishtar. This results in a big sobfest, with Ishtar appropriately and humorously reprimanded, being made to hold a sign like a dog who misbehaved. 

Unable to come up with anything else, Gilgamesh tells everyone to break it up and go home for now. It seems unlikely they’ll be able to stop Tiamat with what little resources they have nearby, so they’ll probably have to excavate or happen upon something completely new we’ve never heard of before like they usually do. Regardless of what that might be, this final battle with Tiamat is building up to be an epic fight, both visually and in narrative scale.