Hakuno Kishinami awakens in a digital world with no
memory of how he got there or who he was before. Immedietly, he is thrust into a new
incarnation of one of the oldest magical conflicts in history: The Holy Grail
War. It is a war between hundreds of
wizards, each armed with their own skills and their own Servant, a great
warrior from history. Paired with the
energetic and confident Saber, Hakuno must discover the truth about this
strange world and discover the truth behind his own identity. Only by winning the Holy Grail can Hakuno
find all of his answers.
Fate/Stay Night.
All three of the games main route now have Anime adaptations (Fate,
Unlimited Blade Works and the ongoing Heaven’s Feel). So what more is there to do when the main
story is covered? Spin offs of course. After all, if you can think of some way to
spin it, you can make a game or an Anime out of it. Of the many that are out there, ive seen
three: Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya, Fate/Apocrypha and now this one
Fate/Extra: Last Encore. Of those three,
Fate/Extra: Last Encore might be the one that gives me the biggest headache. Which could be a shame because it looks like
it has a lot going for it the more I got into this opening set.
The first thing that comes to mind when trying to sit
through the first half of the first episode of Fate/Extra is how utterly
confusing it is. In a nutshell, this
could all be summed up as Fate/Stay Night meets Sword Art Online: the Holy
Grail War on a digital battlefield. Ok,
that’s fine but the first episode seems determined to add layer after layer
after freaking layer of heavy handed exposition that there are times I think it
totally just forgot to map everything out for people who wouldn’t be able to
keep up and just focused on sounding profound and intelligent. There is little explained about why there’s a
digital hub of human minds located on the moon, why the Holy Grail War is
continuing here and how long this has all been going on. Even inside the actual world, it’s hard to
tell who has been here longer than others.
Hakuno seems mostly numb to everything going on around him (which is one
of his many, many issues but we’ll get there).
While Rin seems calm and in full grasp of the situation. Cosistensy and proper world introduction,
this premiere set of episodes does not have, not a lot of anyway. The other two Fate spin offs I mentioned:
Apocrypha and Prisma Illya both have simpler set ups. Prisma Illya is Fate/Stay Night meets
Cardcaptor Sakura. Apocrypha is the Holy
Grail War on a doubled scale…with a crap ton of major players I couldn’t bond
with or keep track of, hence why I never kept up with it. But still, theyre both way, way easier to
jump into than Fate/Extra’s debut episode.
The world building and exposition isn’t the only thing
holding back Fate/Extra right away. The
rest of that mostly goes to the boring as all get out Hakuno. He claims to be angry for no reason but he
acts like a block of wood with nary an emotion or vocal line above the tone of
a Kevin Costner performance. Hell at
this point I think id take the whining of Shiro Emiya over this guy, at least
the kid had some emotion coming out of his mouth along with his nonsense. Not to mention theyre going the Jason Bourne
amnesiac route and God only knows what we’re going to learn. Given how much blood and senseless death got
flashed across the screen in the first couple of episodes alone, how much of it
is on Hakuno’s hands? Hakuno does have
that Bleach Hollow Form bit going for him, what I think Rin called Death
Face? At this point though, much like
Shiro, im not into this series for him.
Thankfully, where Hakuno is just…well there to be the main
character with no personality, we have Saber.
And wow this most certainly is not normal Saber. The Saber I know is clad in blue, can kick
ass but does have a bit of a stick up herself and no sense of humor. Fate/Extra Saber is the exact opposite: clad
in a red outfit with a revealing front (shows way more leg than normal saber),
can kick ass and is super cheerful about it, and she’s also got a sense of
humor and is into girls. Not gonna like,
I like this Saber a helluva lot more.
She’s way overconfident but not irritating about it. She gives off a welcoming vibe, one that
makes you know you can conquer anything that comes your way so long as she’s by
your side. This Saber flirts with Hakuno
and danger equally and she is a ton of fun to watch on screen. It makes me wonder, once again, why the hell
they don’t just make a Fate series where Saber and Rin are partnered up and run
the story themselves. Ah yes, Rin is
back too. But she isn’t the only
familiar face in Fate/Extra. Shinji,
Sakura and a shadow of Archer all appear across this opening set. Rin, Shinji and Sakura themselves are also
once again played by their voice actors from the Unlimited Blade Works English
Dub (Mela Lee, Kyle McCarley and Cristine Vee respectively), so it helps to
have that bit of familiarity in an otherwise totally different world from that
series.
Where Hakuno fails to be engaging, Rin and Shinji both
offer some interesting insights into this digital overworld the Holy Grail War
takes place in. Rin clearly has her own
agenda working with Hakuno and I cant really tell how much of her “resistance
movement” story is true or false. She
can hack the Serpah system like she’s hacking the matrix…which sort of begs the
question if we’re seeing magic portrayed through digital imagery or if its
truly legit spell work (if its anything like SAO, it’s probably the
former). Still, any way to see more Rin
is always ok in my book, even if her more leathery outfit is a bit…odd. As for Shinji, he still has the same kind of
sleaze we’ve come to know him for but there’s a little bit more going on
too. He behaves arrogantly but regrets
many of the things he’s done while ruling over the First Stratum. He doesn’t want to die but he doesn’t want to
kill anyone either. He seals off his stratum
and convinces others not to press on further into the war as a way of a
peaceful solution. It makes me wonder
just who else is out there who has been in this fight for a long time and what
kind of toll it’s taken on them. And…it
also bugs me cause I thought Hakuno and Shinji were added into the war at the
same time. But Shinji has been the Mayor
of the Stratum for what seems like a long time so why…you know what, no, Im
going to hurt my head trying to think about it.
One of the immediate things I caught about Fate/Extra was
its look. It seemed more…art-housey than
any other entry so far and more abstract than Fate/Zero’s straight up gorgeous
presentation. Well that is because we
can add Studio Shaft to a long list of Fate/Stay Night animators including
Ufotable, Studio Deen and A-1 Pictures.
For those who may not be aware, Shafts most notable projects are Puella
Magi Madoka Magica and the Monogatari series.
Both are known for their arthouse style and having pretty much a whole
separate story going on in the background.
Every piece of picture is moving and is begging to be paused and
examined. Granted Fate/Extra isn’t quite
at the level of those two project BUT it does help it stand out from other Fate
entries on that pedigree alone. It also means
we can expect some seriously trippy visuals going forward…I don’t know if that
will add or quell my confusion…probably both.
Fate/Extra got off to a shaky start thanks to a bizzare
and not adequately explained world and a very boring lead character. However, a brand new awesome Saber and the
return of some old friends from other Fate entries, gorgeous animation and some
pretty stellar action scenes can make up for a lot of the intros shortcomings. But can Fate/Extra skate by on those
alone? Pretty pictures can only get you
so far when I don’t understand the world theyre trying to show me. Maybe things will get clearer but at only ten
episodes long…Fate/Extra has got a lot of work ahead of it.
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