(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Have you ever come across a series that a lot of people like yet you don’t care for it? I’ve had this happen to me a number of times throughout my years of watching anime. The first one being Bleach followed by Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Accel World and A Certain Magical Index. But the one series that shocks me the most is the Fate series. This really does baffle me. This series seems to have everything I would love to see in an anime. Historical figures fighting each other in modern times, magic, romance, action, and interesting characters. Yet, for some reason it flew over my head and I just never got into it. For years now people have been asking me to take a look at this series and unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to give a good concrete review without getting lost or confused. I would need the help of someone who’s familiar with the series and I don’t know where I could find someone like that. At least one that I could trust.
(Yume): Have you tried asking what does the fox say?
(Nitsuj): What does the fox say? Dah! Yume! Where’d you come from?
(Yume): Sneaky like a fox. I couldn’t help overhearing your talk about the Fate series and I’m here to help for I happen to be a huge fan of this series.
(Nitsuj): Really? That’s great, with your help I can finally take a look at the Fate series. So where do we start?
(Yume): Not so fast. Unfortunately for you reviewing the actual series at this time with no time to prep would be too much for you even with my help. Now Fate/Grand Order on the other hand is a different story.
(Nitsuj): Fate/Grand Order? The mobile game?
(Yume): Yep. Fate/Grand Order is a spinoff series from the original Fate series. In the game you play as a master who summons servants to save the world. The game has been a global hit worldwide with some players reportedly pouring thousands upon thousands of dollars in the game.
(Nitsuj): Wasn’t this a free to play game?
(Yume): That’s not important. The point is the game is a huge hit. So huge in fact that there have been a number of OVAs and movies based off the series as well as an anime focusing on the 7th singularity, Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia. In 2019 Cloverworks-
(Nitsuj): The same people who did Persona 5: The Animation?
(Yume): No more talking.
(Nitsuj): Sorry.
(Yume): Turned the 7th singularity into an anime where rumor has it the budget for this anime came from the players who poured money into the game. This anime is a perfect starting point before tackling the main series. Let’s get started and take a look at Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Yume): Your opening is “Phantom Joke” by Unison Square Garden. I personally did enjoy this song. It’s USG, they always turn in good songs. The opening notes do a good job getting your attention and then brings in the hook to capture you. I have to say that out of all the Fate animes I’ve watched this song might just be my favorite.
(Nitsuj): The ending is “Hoshi ga Furu Yume” by Eir Aoi. I really do like the way the song starts off and the overall emotions in it. It’s like a hero reminiscing about the journey they’ve been on and what’s led them to this point. Both the good and the bad, and how the hero doesn’t regret the choices they’ve made and finding their resolve to continue moving forward and complete their mission no matter what comes their way.
Episodes 1-5
(Nitsuj): So the anime opens up on a stormy night with fan favorite Gilgamesh holding a man who crumbles away in his hands (man everyone that man touches just crumbles away into nothing). We then go to Chaldea where our main character Ritsuka voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki (Shido from Date A Live) and his servant Mash voiced by Rie Takahashi (Megumin from Konosuba) are getting ready for their next assignment along with their furry friend Fou. Just like in the game, Ritsuka is the last master and thus has the privilege of summoning and commanding multiple servants (that’s right, he can literally summon a harem if he felt like it). Mash is one of those servants (Yume: Who may or may not have a crush on Ritsuka. They kind of have this senpai/kohai relationship. Sort of like you and Neo). She was an artificial human created to be fused with a summoned heroic spirit. This project was of course considered inhumane and abandoned (geez, I can’t imagine why) with Mash being the only result from the experiment and her body infused with the heroic spirit Galahad, a knight from King Arthur’s round table. Anyway, the two get told that the next singularity has occurred in the city of Uruk in 2600 B.C. in Mesopotamia a time when gods, monsters, and humans all coexisted. They do a rayshift to Uruk but due to the city being protected by a bounded field they instead land far away from the city where they fight off demonic beasts (scene here: https://youtu.be/nUA6iCsO8j0. (Yume): Mash showing off how shields can do more than just protect). They decide to leave before more beasts show up, but as they leave a woman comes falling from the sky and lands on Ritsuka. This is Ishtar aka Rin (one of the most popular characters from the Fate/Stay series) a goddess from Egypt who was summoned to Uruk (Yume: More on that later). Just like Rin, Ishtar displays qualities you would see in a tsundere character (scene here: https://youtu.be/scxcxJDYdtg, and stealing the show whenever she’s on screen). The group gets surrounded by demonic beasts again where Ishtar springs into action taking out a few of them all by herself with ease (scene here: https://youtu.be/KjWkW-teaAQ. (Corbin): Sorry, I didn’t pay attention on account of being distracted by her amazing ass. (Nitsuj): Yeah get used to that, this anime seems to have a slight obsession with the ass of the female characters. Hey, when you got high quality animation like this sometimes you gotta show off). She takes her leave leaving the rest up to Ritsuka and Mash where they get saved by Enkidu a servant sent by Gilgamesh to guide them to Uruk. Along the way, Enkidu explains that he knows about their mission and tells them that Mesopotamia is on the brink of extinction thanks to the 3 Goddess Alliance who are trying to kill humanity each in their own way. However, humanity built a wall to protect itself from the goddesses known as the Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia (trademark).
In episode 2 Enkidu continues to lead Ritsuka and Mash to Uruk. As they travel through the woods, they come across two cloaked figures who reveal that Enkidu is dead meaning this Enkidu is an impostor working for the Mage King. With his identity revealed, Enkidu tries to attack Ritsuka and Mash by binding them in chains (ohh~ the kinky stuff, ehh?) only to discover that they’re all fakes. The real Ritsuka and Mash got teleported to safety by the cloaked figures who reveal themselves to be Merlin a servant summoned by Gilgamesh and Ana (gothic Lolita. Nice) a rogue servant summoned by the Holy Grail (Ritsuka’s harem shall expand). We also see that Fou and Merlin have some history together and Fou doesn’t like him (okay, where did he touch you? Scene here: https://youtu.be/JRNulMvgIdk). Merlin guides Ritsuka and Mash to Uruk (where I have to admit the city does look impressive. I love the zoom out shot they did to show us just how big the city is) and tells them about the Three Goddess Alliance, a group composed of three goddesses from different eras who want the Grail for themselves and Enkidu seems to be working for one of them. They reach the throne and meet Gilgamesh (Yume: Now, in the original series he was one of the most troublesome people to deal with. Looking down on everyone around him, believing he was better than everyone, and valuing only his opinion and no else’s. He was also a psychotic rapist/murderer. Here, he’s not that bad. He actually does seem to have some humility and care for his people, but he still looks down on everyone) where rather than listen to what they have to say he fights them to get an understanding of their power.
(Yume): At the start of episode 3, Ritsuka and Mash with the help of Ana take on Gilgamesh. The fight doesn’t last long (it looks good but nothing really happens) and Gilgamesh isn’t impressed (scene here: https://youtu.be/688KfEO-nRE). He reveals that he has the Holy Grail which would explain why the Three Goddess Alliance is attacking Uruk (Nitsuj: Which means it would be best to get rid of that thing ASAP). He refuses to hand the Grail to Ritsuka saying that if he wants it he’ll have to work for it. Just then, Ishtar arrives and tries to take out Gilgamesh where she stops after seeing Ana and takes her leave (scene here: https://youtu.be/2IXm1mNwUoo. (Corbin): Call me). Ritsuka and the others take their leave where they’re given a house to stay at during their time in Uruk, put in the care of Gilgamesh’s advisor Siduri and have a welcoming party where we see some of the other servants Gilgamesh has summoned: Ushiwakamaru, Benkei, and Leonidas. The next day, Siduri gives them odd jobs around the city to help them earn favor with Gilgamesh (here’s a better idea. Tell us where his treasure vault is and we’ll just steal the grail). This goes on for a couple days until they have an off day where Ritsuka and Mash help Ana destroy some grim reapers hiding under the city who have been cursing people.
In episode 4, a month has gone by and Ritsuka and the others get called in by Gilgamesh (he knows your names, https://youtu.be/uQ8AgWNSVoo) to investigate the neighboring city Ur. During their journey Ritsuka and Merlin begin to suspect that the grail in Gilgamesh’s possession isn’t the cause for the singularity seeing as how it’s different from the other grails they’ve obtained (so what, it’s a natural grail and he came upon it by chance? (Yume): In a way, yes). They push their suspicions aside to focus on the mission in front of them. After passing through a jungle where they come across a strange woman in a jaguar suit calling herself Jaguar Warrior, they manage to reach Ur where they say everything is fine and they don’t need Gilgamesh’s protection (uhhhh~, Santa Maria! (Nitsuj): You dare~ deny the protection of Gilgamesh? Blasphemers). Merlin reveals that the village has struck a deal with a god for protection where they have to sacrifice one human a day. The citizens confirm his theory saying they had no choice, Jaguar Warrior appears revealing she’s the god they made the contract with (Nitsuj: Boy I wonder how that meeting went?). She reveals she hasn’t killed any of the sacrifices (yet), she just forced them into labor (not sure if that’s better or worse than killing?). Ana and Mash take on Jaguar Warrior who gives us honestly the best fight scene in the series so far. Despite her goofy exterior and personality, Jaguar Warrior is a divine spirit which means she houses more power than Ana and Mash (it’s like what would happen if you gave Harley Quinn superpowers). Jaguar Warrior easily beats Ana and Mash, forcing Ritsuka to call for a retreat for the time being but vowing to return and save the people of Ur (scene here: https://youtu.be/p5XUkS6Xp9o).
Not much really happens in episode 5. Ritsuka and Mash get assigned personally by Gilgamesh to be his escorts while he travels to an observatory along the coast to inspect the water quality of the sea (I’m sure it’ll be better than the current quality of the sea). When they reach the observatory, Ritsuka and Mash go off to take a break where Mash wonders if she’s really human and Ritsuka assures her that she’s human. Enkidu soon arrives and Gilgamesh comes to their rescue (https://youtu.be/uQ8AgWNSVoo). We get a cool mage fight between the two (it’s very rare to see mage fights these days) where even though Enkidu is said to be stronger than them he retreats as he can’t bring himself to kill Gilgamesh (he may be a fake, but the memories he has are real).
Episodes 6-11
(Nitsuj): Episode 6 starts off with Ishtar. We learn later in the episode that Ishtar is different from the other goddesses. Unlike the other goddesses who were summoned by the Grail, Ishtar was summoned via ritual. Apparently, some priestesses of Uruk sacrificed a young girl (who I’m just going to assume was an ancestor of Rin) to be Ishtar’s vessel. However, something went wrong in the summoning and the two personalities of Ishtar and the young girl fused together to give us the Ishtar we see today (one who has the traits of both a god and human, but since this is Rin we’re talking about here are we sure it’s not all Rin? Scene here: https://youtu.be/8ev8qkVrD38). Ritsuka and the others are given another mission from Gilgamesh to retrieve the Tablet of Destinies, which is supposed to contain predictions of the future written by Gilgamesh (Yume: That seems like something very important. Why would he leave that behind? (Nitsuj): Fool, Gilgamesh has no need to know the future because he is the future). The tablet is located in Kutha a city considered to be cursed after the residents mysteriously died from unknown causes and is in Ishtar’s territory. Ritsuka and the others arrive in the city where along the way they hear tales of Ishtar actually protecting people from demonic beasts (well that’s nice of her. She’s alright) but also taking their money as compensation for saving him (thieving bitch). They arrive in Kutha where Ritsuka somehow gets transported to the Underworld and attacked by the dead. He gets saved by Ziusu-dra (Yume: For those of you who don’t know, Ziusu-dra is pretty much the Mesopotamian version of Noah from the Bible. When the gods of the Mesopotamian faith decided to end the world via flood, the god Enki told Ziusu-dra about this and ordered him to build an ark to survive the flood. Ziusu-dra did as he was told and survived the flood where he was given immortality for living a righteous and obedient life) and returns to the world of the living with the tablet in his hands. Ishtar shows up and attacks them. At first, they’re outmatched but once the sun begins to set her powers begin to weaken and they take her down (scene here: https://youtu.be/5RaLdG_ptX4). They tie her up and question her where she reveals that the goddesses are all competing with each other for control of the Grail in order to gain control of the singularity. Ritsuka tries to learn who the other two goddesses are, but Ishtar won’t reveal them as they’ve entered into a non-aggression pact with each other (oh come on, you can tell us. I’ll let you have one night with Ritsuka). The group soon gets attacked by undead skeletons and decides to leave. Ritsuka unties Ishtar as a thank you for being so cooperative and Ishtar returns the favor by helping the group escape and we see her beautiful black hair turn blond (just like all the Mespotamian gods).
In episode 7, Ritsuka and the others head to the northern wall to help out Ushiwakamaru, Benkei, and Leonidas. The group is going on a rescue mission to Niddur to rescue any survivors. They arrive at the city only to discover that it has already fallen and the people there were used by Enkidu to create the next generation of demonic beasts. Enkidu summons a new demonic beast that Ana kills easily and gets captured by Enkidu because apparently Ana is a god killer. Her weapon as well as her eyes can kill the immortal which makes her the trump card in this whole anime. Fou manages to transport Ana to safety (don’t kill the gothic Lolita. (Baron): Can we lewd her instead?) and we finally meet Tiamat, Enkidu’s mom (clearly he takes after his father) and goddess of demonic beasts (and gotta admit they really go all out and give her a very intimidating and crazy form). She sets her sights on Ritsuka and decides to kill him (scene here: https://youtu.be/Av8ZwlSDyRI).
Episode 8 is an epic and sad episode. We get the battle of Tiamat (who is really Gorgon aka Medusa) which is an epic battle as both Ushiwakamru and Leonidas sacrifice themselves trying to take down Gorgon only to fail (Yume: Noo~, I was shipping Ritsuka with Ushiwakamru. Guess it’s back to Ritsuka and Mash). With Ushiwakamru and Leonidas defeated, Gorgon prepares to attack Uruk but Enkidu convinces her to hold off on fighting saying that killing them will end the Three Goddess Alliance and they don’t have the second generation ready yet to fend off the two goddesses. Gorgon retreats for now vowing to return in 10 days to destroy humanity and we finally learn Enkidu’s true identity, Kingu. Kingu considers himself to be the next step in human evolution (the perfect human) who will lead the world and replace humanity. In the aftermath of the battle Benkei decides to leave revealing that he’s not the real Benkei but instead Kaison Hitachibou, a man who abandoned Benkei because of his cowardice. Wanting to seek redemption, he decides to leave and head out to face the demonic beasts of the land all by himself (well Gilgamesh time to bust out the Holy Grail and summon some new servants). At the end of the episode we see that Ushiwakamru is still alive (Yume: Yes, my ship still sails) but captured by Kingu and Gorgon who plan to convert her into a demonic beast (scene here: https://youtu.be/pWhRCRJZ2ek).
(Yume): In episode 9 Gilgamesh calls for a counter plan to handle Gorgon. His first step in that plan is bringing Ishtar over to their side (yeah, let’s go bag us a goddess). Ritsuka and his team joined once again by Ana climb Mt. Ebih where Ishtar has set up base (and created a flashy temple). Ishtar attacks them for invading her home (Nitsuj: We would have knocked but you forgot to build a door) and they put their plan into motion to bring Ishtar to their side, bribery. Yep, Ishtar loves gems and Ritsuka promises to give her 25-30% of Babylon’s treasury in return for helping them out (scene here: https://youtu.be/EpbB_-GKXa8). Ishtar agrees and becomes Ritsuka’s official servant (well that was easy). That night, Ishtar confides in Ritsuka where she says the only reason she joined the Three Goddess Alliance was because she doesn’t agree with humanity’s decision to abandon the Age of the Gods. She wants humans and gods to exist side by side because that way if anything bad happens in society they can blame the gods and not blame each other for it (Nitsuj: While I admire her sacrifice to take on the burden of humanity’s hatred for bad things happening, it’s not right. Humans need to learn that bad things happen because of spiritual growth. It is through adversity that we grow stronger as people and learn to better appreciate what we have and who we have in our lives. If everything went our way, we would learn nothing and thus stop growing as people from a spiritual standpoint. In my opinion, the ideal relationship between humans and God is being able to face whatever adversity comes your way and having faith that no matter how bad things may seem as long as we put in the work, God will watch over us and provide a way for us).
In episode 10 with Ishtar on their side, Gilgamesh moves on to step 2 of his master plan to defeat Gorgon, retrieve the axe of Marduk (scene here: https://youtu.be/9TkX0FhiiTQ). In the past, the axe of Marduk was used to kill Tiamat and since Gorgon has Tiamat’s authority, Gilgamesh theorizes that the axe should be effective against her. The axe is located in the city of Eridu which is just a short distance from Ur which has now become the territory of the third goddess who we find out is Quetzalcoatl (Nitsuj: The feathered-serpent of the Aztec religion. Often considered the most well-known god of Mesoamerican culture, it was believed that all people and knowledge of Mesoamerica came from him/her. In short, he’s/she’s basically the God of Mesoamerican mythology). This news shocks everyone as when you stop to think about it, she’s actually stronger than Gorgon and could easily defeat her if she felt like it. As they continue to talk, Quetzalcoatl attacks Uruk and takes out a hundred soldiers with Jaguar Warrior coming in to pick up the bodies (scene here: https://youtu.be/UlJnfOaimqs). I have to admit out of all the goddess she’s probably my favorite of the bunch. I just love what they did with her. She has a great design that matches up well with her place of origin and has a fun personality to go with it. They give her the carefree big sister personality who always smiles and does things at her own pace, but at the same time convey the fact that she is a dangerous being you don’t want to mess with. Anyway, Mash comes in to give Quetzalcoatl a swift kick through a building where she’s not even affected by it at all (she just laughs it off). She does take an interest in Ritsuka and seems to have a crush on him saying that she’ll stop attacking humans if he were to marry her (scene here: https://youtu.be/FoYQP1mjK0E. (Nitsuj): Do it man. Think of humanity). She quickly takes her leave after defeating 100 soldiers saying that she’ll return tomorrow to kill another 100 soldiers (if she’s going to destroy humanity she’s gonna destroy it in a slow and moderate pace). Ritsuka and the others are tasked with subduing Quetzalcoatl as well as retrieving the axe from her region. A task that will be very difficult as according to Ishtar who shares another moment with Ritsuka at night explains that Quetzalcoatl is the “Apex of Good” which means only attacks considered evil will harm her (Nitsuj: And we all know how subjective that is). The next morning they continue to walk through the jungle to Ur where they run into Jaguar Warrior and completely ignore her for a bit (https://youtu.be/vfmFwWRP3tM). When they do finally notice her, we find out that just like Ana she’s a rogue servant which means Ritsuka can make her his servant. He pulls out the charm and brings her to an orgasm which makes her decide to be his servant (scene here: https://youtu.be/5UWoqDAidSQ, he needs to do this more often). They arrive at a campsite where we see that all the soldiers Quetzalcoatl supposedly killed are still alive. Apparently, whenever Quetzalcoatl kills people she brings them back to life and keeps them as hostages to serve in her army when the time comes to take down Gorgon. With this information, Ritsuka concludes that Quetzalcoatl isn’t evil and that she can be convinced to join their side (just use that charm of yours and we’re golden).
It’s the fight against Quetzalcoatl in episode 11 as Ritsuka and the others reach her sun temple where she’s there waiting for them (Ritsuka, do the thing). Quetzalcoatl admits that she doesn’t want to destroy humanity, she loves humanity as her existence is dependent on them (Nitsuj: You have a funny way of showing it). However, she still loves to challenge and battle them to test their motivation and resolve. Quetzalcoatl challenges Ritsuka to reach the top of her sun temple and destroy her sun stone. If he succeeds she’ll become his servant (and if he fails, he has to marry her. (Nitsuj): This is a win-win situation for him). We get another great fight scene as everyone fights against Quetzalcoatl while Ritsuka makes his way up the sun temple (if you thought the Jaguar Warrior fight was awesome, wait till you see this fight). When Ritsuka finally reaches the top of the temple he realizes that Quetzalcoatl isn’t looking for a fight, she’s looking for humanity’s resolve and how strong it is. Taking on this challenge, Ritsuka has Ishtar fly him up into the air and he performs a leap of faith attacking Quetzalcoatl head on believing that she’ll take his attack head on and won’t let him die because she loves humans. Ritsuka blacks out only to re-awaken in the lap of Quetzalcoatl who is impressed with his resolve and agrees to become his servant (scenes here: https://youtu.be/6DUzI1c7D-c, https://youtu.be/QrKTLLieKx8, https://youtu.be/hNCpnmZ31Jw, https://youtu.be/_kOwS_Ne9sY, and https://youtu.be/1y16NDsbYBw). We get to see the axe of Marduk which is too big to carry back themselves, so they have Quetzalcoatl’s birds fly it back to Uruk for them. Ritsuka and Ishtar share another moment together where we get to see the blond Ishtar re-emerge (scene here: https://youtu.be/2ro026D_Ax4). The next day, they make it back to Uruk where Siduri says that Gilgamesh has died. After the credits, we see Gilgamesh in the underworld where he comes to a startling conclusion, he’s dead (scene here: https://youtu.be/CC0luzWSD8k. (Nitsuj): Or as Kenshiro would say: “omae wa mo shindeiru”).
*All of sudden Corbin explodes. After a few seconds his body reforms*
(Corbin): AHHHH~! Christ! When did you touch me!? You are so dead!
*Corbin gets ready to fire off an ice spell*
(Nitsuj): No. You are. Again.
*Corbin explodes once again screaming his head off*
(Yume): This seems like a good place to stop. Tune in next for the second half of Demonic Babylonia Front. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.