I am a big fan of Type-Moon’s Fate franchise. I’ve watched everything available in the US, played the original visual novel, and have been playing the mobile app Fate/Grand Order for years. I was very excited to learn we would be getting a new anime series based off the game. You can watch the trailer below.
Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front episode 0 just released on funimation. This series is based off the 7th singularity in the game and was chosen based on fan voting. That puts it in an interesting position as they need to make an late game story accessible to both new and old fans.
In an attempt to do that, episode zero was a prologue which introduced us to Mash and Doctor Romani. Mash is an artificially created human who was bound to a heroic spirit as part of an experiment. Or in simpler terms, she is basically a self-aware homunculi with super powers. After the experiment was completed, Doctor Romani became her primary doctor and friend.
For fans, this is the first time we are shown, rather than told, their origins. That made it a fairly fresh approach. I think it failed to deliver to new audiences though. Without background knowledge we have no idea what’s happening or why we should care.
The pacing of the episode is very Inconsistent. It starts with an action scene, but the bulk of the episode is a slow paced history lesson. The end was essentially a fast forwarded glimpse of everything that happened before the 7th singularity. This is not a good way to introduce a new viewer to the series. Its as if you started watching “A Game of Thrones” during the final season without any knowledge of what came before.
Before watching episode zero I recommend watching the movie Fate/Grand Order First Order. It is currently available on crunchyroll and tells the story of the First Singularity. This will properly introduce the important characters and will answer most of the questions you have.
I enjoyed episode zero, but a new fan should start elsewhere!
Originally published at https://www.narrative.org on August 5, 2019.
