Fate/Grand Order: Shinsei Entaku Ryouiki Camelot 1 - Wandering; Agateram

What a potential waste... i played the singularity and camelot is my fav singularity so i was so hyped when i heard camelot was getting an anime adaption. I watched it and if i need to summarize it into a one sentence that would be "its absolute trash" I will start with the plot. But the problem is theres no plot to talk about, in game version the "plot" continued like go there do that go there do that until we defeat our enemy it wasnt great to begin. The movie makes it much worse and turns it into something like "teleport here do nothing teleport here" instead of traveling non stop.Most of the fight scenes were cut off and two major characters named Touta and Hassan of the Hundred Faces were cut off. Yet the studio made a freaking mash and nitocris bath scene. Yeah two hotties can have a bath scene but major characters cant get a debut. About the fights scenes they cut too much. I expected to fight scenes like where we fight ghosts and sphinxes etc were to be cut but oh boy... i was wrong they cut all of the hassans vs chaldea and ozymandias vs chaldea fights scenes which is a total bullshits cuz its IMPORTANT. And the dialogues werent that great. Camelot is the most depressing and philosophic singularity among the first 7. But we didnt even catch a glimpse of it in the movie. I would have said art was pretty good if the MALE SERVANTS WERENT ON STEROIDS. Whats the deal with the gawain and cursed arm what am i watching jojo or fate.And Bedivere's noble phantasm... Its terrifying but not for the enemies for our eyes. Every frame of it was bad. Except the male servants da vinci's mash's and gudao's character design was too much off the source. Mash literally didnt have a genuine human neck. Except the character design the art syle is pretty good. I loved how they animated the noble phantasms and the place designs. Temples were gorgeous. I think place designs did a good job reflecting the people there. The last think i will say about art is Arash's noble phantasm. I didnt expect much from the scene but its stunning. I can say the movies best part is that specific scene easily. Sound is the only thing thats great in the moviesi guess the ost's were great and the timings were great too. They are not on a masterpiece level but they are not bad. Conclusion: If u are a ozymandias/sanzang/rhongomyniad/mordred/arash fan watch this. If not its a total waste of time. Just play the game. The movie was 1.5 hours and only 4 minutes of it (which is the stella scene sanzang vs agravain scene and the speech of ozymandias) enjoyable.

TLDR: Like the previous FGO Babylon anime series, this movie was very well animated, full of visually beautiful and sometimes moving moments, with a diverse and memorable cast of characters. However, the story is its weak point, because as expected of an adaptation of a mobile game, the plot is basically just a series of events herding the main characters from Point A to Point B to Point C. Overall score: 7/10 Note: I am not a FGO player and so will not be comparing the movie to the in-game story. I heard some people complain about things being cut out, but since I do not know the game's story, it did not bother me at all. --- Having been a fan of the Fate franchise since the original Fate/Stay Night anime from Deen, it's been amazing to watch the series expand with so many spinoffs and timelines. FGO brought the franchise to the mainstream mobile gaming community, and has been credited with an above-average story (for a mobile game, or so I heard). So how does this movie, which adapts the 6th arc, hold up? In terms of everything outside of the story, pretty darn well. The story itself, not so much. Like the Babylon anime, the story follows around Ritsuka and Mash trying to recover the Holy Grail of this particular Singularity and save humanity. Along the way the meet a number of servants, including the Knights of the Round Table who serve Artoria (an alternate version of F/SN Saber), except this time, Artoria serves as an antagonist to the heroes. I went in not expecting much, but was really blown away by the visuals. The scenery is stunning, and I loved the change in art style when Bedivere reminisces about his memories of Artoria. The fight scenes were much better than expected too, with decent choreography and camera angles showing the cool swordplay from Bedivere. I absolutely recommend this movie on the animation and art element alone. However, the story is undoubtedly the weak point of the movie. Aside from being a little curious about why the Artoria of this world has become a villain, I was not too engaged with the movie's plot, which basically involved going from place to place to meet another new hero. Go to X to meet Artoria, go to Y to meet Ozymandias, go to C to meet Hassan, etc. etc. It honestly felt kind of tedious, and I was just waiting for the next scene where Bedivere did something cool. In terms of music, it was a bit generic, but did its job. Sakamoto Maaya's ending song was pretty great too, with a good buildup with the quiet intro into a cool rock song. All in all, if you loved the FGO Babylon anime, you will definitely love this movie too. If you are hoping for a Fate story closer to Fate/Zero, UBW, or HF, then you will be sorely disappointed. If you can enjoy an anime just for its visuals and action scenes without much attention to story, then this should be well worth watching. Story: 5/10 Art; 9/10 Sound; 7/10 Character: 7/10 Enjoyment: 8/10 Overall: 7/10

Forgot to write a review for this one, but the story was not as good as Babylonia since it's split into two. Now, you'd expect that since it's split into two, the story should be slow paced... right? WRONG! It's very, very fast paced and I felt it was more rushed than any anime I have ever watched. Having played the game and read the story before hand, I could still manage to catch up with it. My poor friend, on the other hand... I would put the story at 10/10 for FGO players, 7/10 for Fate lovers and maybe 4/10 for people who have no experience. This is because they do not even explain a bit of the premise of the story. If you go and watch this without at least watching First Order, you won't understand anything. As to why I give it a 10 for FGO players, it's because it's the first time in any of the animation that the perspective is shown from an entity (no spoilers) that is not from Chaldea. Art and Sound: 10/10 It doesn't feel like an anime at all. If I were to draw a comparison, this is very much like Heaven's Feel 1-3. The music, sound effects, and composition just feels very pleasing to the ears and makes your heart beat fast. The IMPACT is overwhelming. Also, there's many famous/popular VAs who have roles in the movie, so it really felt like an AAA film. From the battle scenes to the paintings of food etc, everything is meticulously drawn and animated that it's impossible to find any faults in it. You have to watch it at the theatres to get this experience. Character: 10/10 for FGO lovers, 7/10 for normal people It's hard to explain the feeling when you finally get to see your favorite characters animated. Arash for one, was very cool in the movie. He's really like the big brother. I got goosebumps from watching the different characters (yes, the same ones from the game - they didn't cut anyone out). Enjoyment: I really enjoyed it overall. For those who are still waiting for the NA release, I suggest watching every other Fate anime while waiting and make sure you catch it in the theatres because the experience is just surreal. Overall, I would recommend this movie to any Fate lovers.

Fate/Grand Order: Camelot only recently got released in the cinemas for me hence the late review. - You do not need to play the game to watch the movie, pretty much every chapter of Fate/Grand Order is a standalone comprised of self-contained stories. However, I recommend you do at least watch the prologue Fate/Grand Order: First Order or read it via the game. - Camelot was animated after Babylonia because of a fan polling that took place 3 years ago, Babylonia was ranked first in terms of what the fans wanted to be animated followed by Camelot. - If you're wondering why they still couldn't just have Camelot animated first, I have no clue. Ask Type-moon. - I just want to put it out there that if you are hoping for the epic battles that made up most of Babylonia, try not to get your hopes up too high, for this movie lacked the intensity of fights and simply tries to encapsulate the main storyline which they did a mediocre job thus far. - The general premise of this movie is an adaptation from the Fate/Grand Order game, the two main protagonists arrive in a Singularity era where the Knights of the Round Table terrorize the Holy City of Camelot. As they try to figure out who are friends and foes, the crisis grows worse, and failing to resolve it could spell disaster for all of humanity. This is definitely a film for fans because there is so much explanation required just to understand the premise of Fate/Grand Order that the movie completely does away with it. Here's a short explainer. “FGO is set in a world where humanity is threatened by disruptions to history, known as Singularities. The players are sent to resolve said Singularities by summoning historical figures, known as Servants, to fight (your gacha). Along the way, they learn that there are other agencies that are determined to interfere with the history of humanity. The game's storyline is divided into chapters, which each center around a particular time period that has been disrupted by a Singularity.” Story - 3/10 Now, contrary to the opinions of others, I felt the movie was extremely fast-paced. If you are a completely new viewer, with the story unbeknownst to you, you may have felt it was slow-paced because the movie was drowned in a series of uneventful dialogues. Do not get me wrong though, personally, the dialogues were the only things keeping me watching this poor adaptation since it at least tried to stick as close as possible to the compelling narrative that was Fate/Grand Order: Camelot. - Simply put, the movie on one hand can be rather languid in how it progresses. While on the other hand, it rushes through events just to get you to the final battle in the climax of the movie. It doesn't provide enough exposition while having too many long-drawn-out conversations which don't get anywhere. You might see your favorite character, but you won't really feel you've met him or her, simply because it's so awkwardly put together. - Understandably, the director was trying to cram the events of an entire game's chapter into a pair of 90-minute movies. Nevertheless, there's a distinct lack of elegance or even subtlety in the storytelling. It feels like it's just plodding along with a formulaic plot (which it is, given that it's based on the game), rather than organically pushing the characters forward in a good story. - The reason I gave the story a 3/10 was because the movie skipped some chapters and made significant changes to the initial introduction and progression of the story. I felt that if they hadn't changed those subtleties, the story would have had a better pace and possibly even made amends to the enigmatic story told in the movie. - The majority of the scenes tend to bring that ephemeral atmosphere, yet, I couldn't help but notice that the dramatic scenes where we were supposed to feel something had zero repercussions from the audience. That speaks volumes on how poorly executed the scenes were. - Not to mention, the battles and supposedly epic monologues, despite how few and momentary, felt extremely anticlimactic. The ending especially, one can only be left to question... - "Was that it?" - However, let's be rational. I do not blame the studio or director for the poor execution, they were thrown a chapter from a big book and expected to animate it as a standalone with only approximately 3 hours worth of time to provide context, story, action while sticking to the written chapter which has all the context it needs from the previous chapters in the book. Imagine a studio asked to produce Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows as a standalone with there being zero other Harry Potter movies out at the time. - Granted, the movie was targeted towards fans of the franchise with a compromise to accommodate the losers sleeping on FGO. If anyone is to blame, it's not the studio. - Apart from the anticlimactic scenes and ending which actually had the whole cinema laughing as the sad OST was playing, there were many odd and untimely segues. -Mild Spoiler- Regarding the poorly executed segues and scenes which were actually so bad, I can't help but laugh at the thought. We had Lancelot coming in with his army and just swinging Arondight trying to look all cool. Xuanzang coming in at Ozy's temple with zero explanation on why she was even there (She left the Knights of the Round Table and joined Ozy, that is information left out) Ozy’s anticlimactic introduction (please compare this to Gilgamesh in Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia) Lancelot slashing Arash and afterward completely vanishing when Tristan appeared out of nowhere, this one was weird as hell, where the hell did he go Mordred yelling about the past while fighting Bedi and even using Clarent Blood Arthur but the noble phantasm wasn’t even properly animated (where was the red beam) Arash using Stella which sums up the only good scene only to be ruined with the wrong type of music and setting. Also, why the hell was Bedivere so sad, he barely even knew him in the movie I would also like to reiterate that the whole cinema was laughing when Arash was dying and the sad music was playing whilst Stella was flying into the sky to destroy Rhongomyniad… What the hell kind of music cue was that? That scene was so poorly executed despite how beautiful it was it's actually giving me cancer. You can argue that Arash is a meme that justifies the laughter BUT, you cannot deny the fact that they can make Arash end with epic music and a huge fucking bang to make the cinema go fucking wild with his death instead of that anticlimactic bullshit that will cement itself as another sad disappointing meme moment which had the potential to be brilliant. Last but not least... Where the fuck was Hundred Faces and Touta?!? You seriously telling me you replaced those 2 with a fucking bath scene even though Nito is fucking hot and Rie Takahashi being all cute with Mashu’s voice and all BUT WTF? You’re that time constricted huh? There was bad execution, skipping of many parts of the story, the omission of characters, horrible timing, and wrong type of settings which just goes to show how the studio and production lacked the knowledge about its audience and how the scene/setting should be built. Also, the context wasn’t provided very progressively although you can tell they tried. Basically, context was just being hurled here and there to give you at least some information about what was going on which just felt weird for me as someone that already knew what was going on and would go on to feel messy for others that were watching the movie with little prior knowledge of the story. - It should be duly noted that according to the storyline if they continue to progress as is, there should be cooler and way more epic fights in the upcoming second movie to this 2-Part Camelot. - On a side note, the movie was directed by Kei Suezawa who is notable for being an animation director but not a storyboard director which might explain the poor execution of the entir…

I don't know what to say. It is a very disappointing film. It's both bad as a movie and as an adaptation. The story is very rush yet slow at the same time. The dialogues of the characters aren't fleshed out and they talk as if they've already have years of friendship when they all just met for awhile. In the game, the character interactions is one of the best things and easily one of the game's highlights. Here, they butchered it with superficial dialogues that doesn't contribute to sh*t. With the slow parts, I'm talking about the dead spaces in the movie where it can be easily removed and get replaced by more fleshed out conversations. The plot itself is great, just the execution and the way the adaptation handles it makes it pretty bad. The characters for me is pretty hard to rate, because as a FGO player, I am biased to them. I love all of the cast, but do I think they were handled well in this film? Absolutely not. Hence the low score. The animation is good. It isn't exceptional by any means. There are times where the animation doesn't portray what the game is supposed to be. Like Mordred for example. To give you an insight on what is she supposed to be based on the game, she's supposed to be like Saber Alter from Heaven's Feel who spams laser beams every strike she makes. Also, the art isn't really consistent enough. It's unfortunate since this is one of the best-looking NON-UFOTABLE movies that I've seen. The music is pretty good. The OST and the ED theme is surprisingly decent, just the way they are implemented in each scenes that makes them not stand out imo. Overall, it's a mix-bag of a movie. If you're a diehard fan of Fate like me, then you'd be disappointed. Or even if you're just an anime-only Fate fan, you wouldn't be satisfied by this movie.

So this is a 90minutes movie that covers up the first half of 6th Singularity (Camelot), If you are a Non-FGO Player or haven't watched any other fate works, probably shouldn't watch this because this movie straight up skipped explanation and a lot of things. I recommend you to watch FGO first order and FGO Initium iter first before watching this movie I write this review as a perspective from an FGO player Character 10/10: Considering how the previous fate adaptation(Extra, Apocrypha, Babylonia) This is the first time THEY ADDED A PERSONALITY TO THEIR PROTAGONIST. RITSUKA HAS A CHARACTER, ISN'T THAT GREAT? Oh and yeah some random refugees have more impactful dying moment than our beloved supporting main character This movie focused on introduction to each character and tells us their motives. Ozymandias, Lion King(vaguely), Cursed Arm, Bedivere, And the chaldeans The other character had less introduction but still their personality is the same one as in the game. XUANZANG NEEDS MORE SCREENTIME, THEY SHOWED US HER NOBLE PHANTASM BUT HER DIALOGUE IS NON EXISTENT Art 10/10 God.. I can't believe I have been tricked into those outdated trailers, In the actual movie, The art style looks more detailed and polished. I liked how well-drawn is when they showed Us the landscape outskirts of Camelot, and Ozymandias "City", You actually can see the environments about their places for example Ozymandias city that looks like an ancient Egypt civilization (I played AC:Origins so it felt similiar lol) Some of you probably notice some 3DCGI, But their CGI is actually good except for the refugees in camelot holy selection, they cant handle hundreds of refugees to be drawn 2d. Other than that its amazing. Story 10/10 They skipped alot of things (Ozymandias head, arash airline, Touta, Hundred Faces), its feel a slow-paced movie but actually very fast-paced. But still keeps the important part of the story, and I really liked that the movie has own unique scenes that isn't in part of the game. We got a flashback to the Battle of Camlann in Bedivere perspective. AND THEY DIDNT SKIPPED WHERE SERENITY KISSED RITSUKA HORRAY SERENITY BEST GIRL UMU Sound 10/10 This is the part where I liked the most. They keeps and recreate the in-game soundtrack (Lion King theme, Garden Of avalon ost, FGO main theme). And I felt nostalgia from it. Like how intense and mighty is the Lancer Artoria theme, And FGO main theme brings me back the memories when i'm still on Part 1 of the game. The sound effects is great but nothing remarkable Enjoyment and overall 9/10 Arash noble phantasm is so strong that it ends the whole movie

This will be a quick review First of all, I've never played FGO. The only thing I knew before is that this singularity happens before Babylonia, which had received a wonderful anime adaptation that I love and adore so much. My knowledge on Type moon comes from watching previous Fate installments, and Kara no Kyoukai and interacting with some fgo and fsn vn players. Aside from Ufotable aesthetic which has been synonymous to Fate, other studios such as Aniplex owned A-1 pictures and Cloverworks also has done some fate works. Various studio gave different output, not to say the plot had many differences ; but one thing remain unchanged, marvelous character design and excellent fight animation. Be it Zero or UBW or recent Babylonia, Fate franchise never ceased to amaze me with shiny, cool-looking and sexy characters fighting with their all while providing meaningful (or less) dialogue which never stops being exciting. This movie however is the exact opposite of what I think Fate is, or at least I used to think. This 90 minutes long movie took place in Arabian desert featuring 3 key locations, the holy city near Jerusalem, sun king's palace and the secret village. All of where fights between servants happened, and I regret to say, all of them sucked. From fight choreography to animation, both hand drawn or digital effect, looked so generic and dull that it might lose to any generic LN adaptation's sword fight. How they made a whole movie from one of the most popular mobile game and struggles in comparison with any typical TV anime? A simple sword fight between Mordred and Bedivere had minimal dynamism, lack of weight balance, no perspective and basically "swords clash and they flash" type things. All of the new servants had less attractive design due to a lack of details, such as Caster priest. Some focused shots on her cleavage didn’t help the fact that they looked more like a bunch of lines than a proper design. Background art looked dull, sun-king's castle is as gloomy looking as his kingdom, CG debris felt like a slice of cake rather than made of stone, and the subpar effect animation only made me sigh thinking about HF 3rd movie.I'm not a huge fan of Ufotable's overabundant use of digital effects, but I'll happily take that over this dull looking mess .Above all, this movie doesn’t look or sound fancy, might be the most disappointing thing about this movie, but hold on the plot's there. I've heard praise of Camelot's storyline, of how it's the most philosophically rich singularity. This movie put a question mark on this statement. Aside from the fact that Fate servants always required you to know who they are, this movie went beyond and failed to provide whatever they were trying to do. Not only they failed to bring out the best of the emotions servants are facing, specially Bedivere since he's a main character, it also caused me to feel nothing for his job. Like why he's so sad, acting like a heartbroken prince who just lost his kingdom. I can get behind his sadness but not throughly, it's like mourning for a random person's death. Like every death brings sadness but it becomes something special due to the person involved sharing something meaningful, a deep bond. This movie failed to provide me enough emotional context to his state of mind. It's not only limited to him,all the other characters faced same consequence, as if it lacked any heart. Poor character introduction, then being stubborn to provide at least some context of why the characters are doing something or what. The movie did a poor job in handling the buildup to the climax, to the point that every supposed big moment felt very underwhelming. Dialogue wasn’t adding much, it's clear that they were skipping huge bulk of contents within this chapter. There should have been at least one exposition scene for a non player like me. Though it's clear they weren’t intending to attract new audience so I guess I was already doomed to begin with Music wasn’t anything standalone, rather they were disappointing in a sense that they failed to bring out proper emotion to the scene. Like the ending scene where something heroic was happening, but the music they played had a sad tone and I was wondering if I should feel proud for this heroic deed or mourn for his spoiled death? I was confused hence just like rest of the movie played out I was being stoical, something I didn’t expect myself to be from a fate installment. When this movie came out and every fgo fans were losing their temper I thought like every other movie adaptation they left out a lot of contents. What I didn’t expect that it actually had left out everything good about possibly every fate installments. This doesn’t even look like Fate. Coming from the exciting TV anime adaptation of Babylonia I was expecting at least some decent fight animation, cool looking characters and a whole load of waifu. I can certainly live with all the contents left behind but I can't accept an uncool fate. This first Camelot movie didn’t have one single good character or their moments I could cheer for, it's just like a bunch of unrelated stuff conjoined together having no logic no reason and no thoughts behind. From every angle I can't imagine a single good thing I liked about this. I'm utterly disappointed and heartbroken, want to erase this from my memory.Though I have a faint hope the next camelot movie will at least be better than this.

*Please note that this review will have minor spoilers for the FGO game in Camelot, not the movie for the first part of the review. "This was the most 6/10 movie I've ever watched in my life lol" was the first thought I had when leaving the Cinema, and it basically summarizes my entire review in the simplest manner. 'Fate / Grand Order: Shinsei Entaku Ryouiki Camelot 1' is the first part of a two-part movie featuring our 'Master' Fujimaru Ritsuka with his companions or 'servants' like Mash Kyrielight, and their journey to restore the world from the 'King of mages', Solomon. In which, they find themselves in the 'Holy Land' located around Jerusalem as their sixth mission to save humanity. Art – 8/10 It was actually quite nice, way better than what I had originally expected after looking at the trailers and overall score of Camelot which was at the time "6.80", so it gave me quite a positive surprise when watching the film. An example of this would be during reminiscence scenes, the art style changes to a more "Painting-esque" style. Almost like looking at a series of historical art depicting actual history played in a smooth and seamless manner. I personally thought that those scenes were quite cool. Animation – 7.3/10 For the most part the animation was pretty nice, nothing overtly worth mentioning, so nothing amazing and nothing eye rotting. However, one of the reasons being that a lot of scenes of conflict were cut out, like the battles with Cursed arm, the infamous sphinx fight, the fight with Ozymandias etc. So a little bit of cop out, but I can kind of understand since time restraint and all but can't help feeling a bit of disappointment. However, there are certain time where the animation is pretty "hmmm" which I will go into more detail in the spoiler part of the review. Sound and Music – 9.4/10 The sound effects and background music of this film are actually very good, capable of making the viewer quite immersed in the film. If the situation called for a more dramatic track it does so and if a more melodramatic track is needed, it does so again appropriately. One particular thing I would like to especially point out, from my experience, during a 'rain scene'. For a moment, I actually thought that it was raining outside, but then the thought of "Wait, I'm in a cinema inside a big mall, how can I hear rain?" Then it hit me. That was a pleasant realisation. Next, we have another amazing song from DAVINCI CHAN. 独白 or "Dokuhaku/Monologue" by Sakamoto Maaya which arguably can be said to be the best part of the film not going to lie, in my opinion that is. Characters – 7/10 As I am an active FGO player, I love the seeing the characters from the game finally being animated seeing them moving, living and breathing is a great feeling. That being said however, because they are in a movie, they're not being used to their fullest potential I feel, with either some characters being outright cut out, like Tawara Touta and Hundred Personas. Some characters are just in and out, showing themselves for brief moments at a time and then focus on them is lost, which was quite a bit of a disappointment once again. Story – 4.7/10 To be perfectly honest, the story is the Achilles heel of this movie, a lot of scenes were pretty rushed and quite a bit was removed, so any build up and all that good stuff is just kind of eh. Instead of a journey, it just feels like a linear path instead. The order of events was also shuffled around for kind of no reason, guess they wanted their own personal touches, but to me it was just a bit confusing since I completed Camelot in the game a year ago. It also ends in a very weird and anticlimactic way that leaves the audience with a thought of "Eh? That's it?", so that's quite a big negative point there. Overall – 6/10 Honestly, because my country wasn't the first to receive this film, I had an insight on how the overall film would be from seeing the reactions of people who watched it before me, of which were pretty negative, so I went in with like a 5/10 mindset, but because of that, I actually quite enjoyed myself to a certain extent as it wasn't as bad as I had originally thought it would be, so that was nice. Can't say the same for the other two people I was with tho xD. THE FOLLOWING WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME UP TO SOLOMON AND THE MOVIE still here? Aight, here we go. Firstly, the scene with Gawain was actually pretty cool, seeing him using his blessing of the sun and overpowering absolutely everyone, especially when he turns that part of the world sunny even though it's in the middle of the night but the murder of the boy's mother could have done with a bit more impact, it was like partly forgotten almost, mash's "Lord Chaldeas" was pretty cool tho as well as Davinci fisting the door down and the burning corpses of the people not chosen. Secondly, they could've shown Davinci more, seeing that it's her first time out in a Singularity she just kind of upped and left to "Die" which was again kind of a disappointment. Thirdly, they didn't fight Nitocris, the sphinx or Oxymandias, here I was waiting for a "Dajaku! Dajaku!" but Nito and Mash bath scene ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) very nais. But I'm still salty lol. Fourth, considering that Cursed arm was supposed to protect this settlement he was very trusting of the "Outsiders" extremely quickly contrary to him in the game which made more sense, considering his heavy responsibility. Fifth, the fight with Tristan was very anticlimactic, with Tristan being like a stationary aim-bot, not moving a single step and being taken down with a single strike that he could've most likely avoided. That was a bit kind of a turn off for me. Sixth, "STELLAAAAAA!!!!" Was extremely disappointing, probably my most anticipated part of this film, was seeing Arash's NP. I was expecting an epic shot of an archer's last desperation, but what we got was a melodramatic normal shot that blew up…. a bit… yep a small bit. That was f****** anticlimactic as f***. I get that they were probably trying to make it seem like a sad moment but god damn, they didn't even accomplish that, that arrow was the embodiment of disappointment. It was akin to "I fart in your general direction". This was a massive disappointment especially since after the animation update, it looks so good in the game. It didn't even show him die, he just got forgotten and Rhongominiad went "Welp guess I'll go home." And then the movie ends. Lastly, a lot of interaction between the characters were cut out which is a bit understandable but damn. It really made the characters kind of mediocre which is sad, since I love Fate servants.

Hi. This time I’m actually reviewing something FGO related, so I’m gonna get this out of the way at the very start. Fate/Grand Order is a really deep and riveting story of journey to find and take back the future of humanity. I find the game’s narrative as a whole to be rather moving, so I genuinely believe that you are doing yourself and this franchise a huge disservice if you have watched or plan to watch this movie or the Babylonia anime without having at least played the game up to that point in the story. People wouldn’t suggest to others to watch the Half Blood Prince movie as an introduction to the entirety of Harry Potter, or to watch the Force Awakens as one’s first Star Wars movie, or to start watching The Office from season 7. It’s no different for Fate/Grand Order. Camelot is the 6th singularity of the first arc of FGO, and Babylonia is the 7th. There is no good reason to watch these adaptations without having played the game up to that point. If you haven’t played Fate/Grand Order, then leave; and if you don’t ever intend to, then don’t come back. This is the final warning for those who haven’t played FGO. I will be assuming from this point forward that you’ve completed the first arc of FGO, because as I already previously stated, there is no point in watching these adaptations without having played the game in full. Thus, there is no reason to continue reading this review if you have no intention of playing FGO; so, either get lost, or go install the game and get grinding. Alright, now it’s just us cultured Masters. At first, I didn’t know what to think of this movie after finishing it for the first time. Honestly, I was just a little confused because a lot of events that happened in the movie didn’t line up with what I remembered from Camelot. So, I went over to My Room and delved into the Materials section and reread the entirety of Camelot up to the point the movie ended. And then I rewatched the whole movie again. This is the reason for the whole rant in the first paragraph, because simply put, if an FGO player like me needed to revisit the original Camelot story to digest the movie, how lost would someone be if they had no idea what FGO was in the first place? On a side note, if you wanna add me, I have Skadi and Waver available as supports and I’ve grailed Nero, caster Nero, Ereshkigal, Illya, Kuro, and Miyu to lvl 100 for those that want to use them. You can add me (and feed me friend points): 917580838 Okay that’s enough account shilling, time to get to the review. After rereading the Camelot story and rewatching the movie, I conclude that this first Camelot movie was underwhelming because it deviated too much from the original story, and because it was far less entertaining and less impressive than the Babylonia anime. This doesn’t mean it was an awful or bad movie, but it simply didn’t live up to my expectations as an avid fan of FGO who witnessed the raw production value put into the Babylonia anime and who wanted the same type of passion to be put into the other contender the for the most interesting singularity of the first arc, Camelot. I’ll first talk about how the movie differed from the in-game story and why I feel those differences are problematic. During the in-game story, we rayshift into the desert where we very quickly run into Hundred Face Hassan and her group of mountain people abducting Nitocris. After saving Nitocris, she misinterprets the situation thinking that we are the kidnappers and she attacks us with a sphinx. Bedivere happens to be in the area and saves us, before going off into the desert again. After working through the misunderstandings with Nitocris, we are led to Ramesseum Tentyris and have an audience with Ozymandias. Ozy really isn’t pleased with how little awareness we have of this singularity and essentially exiles us from his domain, telling us to go see the Holy City for ourselves. Using the resources Ozy gave us, Da Vinci creates the desert vehicle and we go off to the Holy City where the “haha funny buster gorilla man at the wailing wall” happens and we flee to the mountain villages. During the movie story, we are already riding the desert vehicle. Then, we suddenly cut to this shot in a village where Arash and Bedivere are chatting and Da Vinci joins in to learn about the Holy City. Bedivere quickly leaves after being told what he wants to know and runs into the Master with Mash when he has an altercation with Rushd’s mom. This is where we go off to the Holy City for the “haha funny buster gorilla man at the wailing wall” and instead flee back towards the desert into Ozy’s domain. We’re intercepted by Nitocris and escorted to Ramesseum Tentyris (why would she escort us when we have two people dressed like Knights of the Round Table with us and we have done nothing to gain her trust?) to have an audience with Ozymandias. Ozy once again banishes us from his Egypt, but orders Sanzang (who for some reason is serving him when that doesn’t happen at all in the game?) to go with us. By some random stroke of luck we find a map etched in the gem from the pendant Rushd gives us and somehow understand that we should go into the mountains. After this part, not much differs between the game’s story and the movie’s story other than that the movie’s story omits a bunch of other (important) stuff. So the main difference at this point between the game’s story and the movie’s story is that the movie has us go to Camelot before Egypt. This really skews a lot of the interactions we’re supposed to have with some characters and really makes the narrative proceed unnaturally. By going to Egypt first, our correspondence with Ozy makes more sense because we just arrived at the singularity and don’t have much of an idea of what is going on. But since we are guests to his temple because we saved his subordinate Nitocris from the bandits, we are able to interact with him more boldly and coax him to share information about the singularity. With the movie, the interaction with Ozy is placed under a different light. We’re refugees hunted by the knights of the Holy City, forced to grovel and plead for shelter in his domain. It also just doesn’t make sense why Nitocris escorted us to Ozy’s temple in the first place, because we didn’t save her like we did in the game, and we have Bedivere with us in the movie who unmistakably is dressed as a Knight of the Round Table. At that point we already understand that the Lion King is the source of the singularity, yet for some reason Ritsuka tells Ozy that “he doesn’t know what to do.” This ignorance is excusable in the game’s version of events because we just arrived in the singularity and don’t understand the situation yet, but in the movie’s version of events this just makes Ritsuka look really cowardly and dumb. There is a similar discrepancy when it comes to Bedivere, since we first meet him in the desert when he saves us from the sphinx according to the game. But with the movie we’re somehow already zooming through the desert in Da Vinci’s vehicle (that we didn’t procure any resources to make), so don’t have a chance to encounter Bedivere in the desert. The thing is, though, we must meet Bedivere at least once before the encounter with Gawain because the narrative needs to establish that he recognizes Mash’s armor. So the movie kinda puts in this really distasteful scene where Bedivere shoves aside Rushd’s mother after she begs to him for food, and we catch her before she is slammed into the ground. Bedivere is probably lore-wise the most loyal, benevolent, and kind-hearted knight of any of King Arthur’s subordinates, so the movie storywriter forcing this scene in to cover their asses for reversing the Egypt/Camelot order really gets on my nerves. Of all the ways to introduce Bedivere to the Master and Mash, they chose something like this. It doesn’t even make sense either because as the movie goes on everyone is talking about how Bedivere is so kindhearted and lo…

I am a loyal fgo player so this may be a bit biased, the movie from the perspective of someone that haven't played fgo is quite good, but since i watched it and it's a movie, it seems very rushed if compared to the original material, I would expect the pace to be slower since it is 2 parts but this is quite the contrary, the character's don't have much time to be fully developed and some characters are cut completely from the story like Touta, and Hassan of Hundred Personas. The animation is still very good but unfortunately due to the high standards set by the Babylon anime and the Ufotable made ones, this is in my opinion, disappointing for a fate show. An example would be Tristan's fight, I have been very looking forward to it since in the game he attacks by strumming actual notes short melodies on the harp bow and arrows flies in from all directions. The casting of noble phantasms besides Stela also lacks the build up that is normally present in other shows. Small details like when Ozymandias' head slightly falls off due to reasons that would be spoilers (will be revealed in the second part hopefully) is also not included. I have no huge complaints about the sound, it uses the source materials sound track and ost so it is nice. The song by Maaya Sakamoto is also awesome love it. Like i have said in the beginning due to it being rushed character development is slightly overlooked, and some are completely removed, for new viewers that aren't loyal fans, they might be confused about the characters way of thinking and actions. Overall i enjoyed it very much simply due to the fact that they adapted a story arc from fgo, the adaptation is still very good in general and would highly recommend for people that are already familirar with the fate franchise but for new viewers this may not be your thing.

~~ Intro So, just to begin, I’m a massive fan of Fate. I’ve read/experienced the larger part of the source material, and Camelot in particular is one of my favorite chapters in FGO (beaten out by Salem, and neck-and-neck with Anastasia), so for one, I have a history with the series, and two, I’ll probably be drawing comparisons to other Fate adaptations throughout this review (most specifically the FGO ones). To start, just to inform anyone, it cut two characters – Tawara Touta, a friendly Archer Class servant who tags along as “Caster’s” disciple, a decision that will have severe plot ramifications for the next movie in particular, and Hassan of the Hundred Personas, best known for her involvement in another Fate work. Normally in this chapter, she actually would get some characterization (unlike in that other work). ~~ Story: If we’re going off of pure story coverage, while I’m not sure if it’s comprehensive enough for someone who doesn’t know the source material, as someone who does, I think it does a decent job with at the very least scratching that itch. It’s kinda cool to see some of these characters that have either never been animated before, or seeing them in something else by a different studio or in a different form. That being said, the pacing of this movie is exceedingly fast. I wouldn’t say the movie itself feels rushed, but with the team only having an hour and a half of time to fill, for one of FGO’s longer chapters no less, it feels less like an adaptation, and more like a highlight reel/reinterpretation. Part of this is caused by the two lacking characters of course, but it also doesn’t start at the BEGINNING of the story. It starts close to it, but it’s more in the middle. You don’t get to see the mission set up, you only really get a taste of the original’s opening monologue, etc. etc. It expects you to know what you’re getting into. It also doesn’t really try to introduce you to the characters, which leads me to say that this isn’t really done with the uninitiated in mind – this is intended for people who are already experienced with the story in FGO. I can’t… 100% say that’s a complete issue, seeing as FGO is a mobile game that is free to play and anyone that has the capability of watching this movie probably also has the capability of playing the game, but it is still a bit of an issue. When stacked up against the Babylonia anime adaptation though… the quality of this adaptation starts to sour more in my eyes. For the most part, that series is full of fantastic action, and is relatively faithful, but here, Camelot feels like it barely hangs on. With the exception of really one character, the true main one of this movie, no one else really gets development. They speak, and you can gauge their general personality, but the movie only has so much time, so it needs to focus on the poster boy – Bedivere. He is a great character, both here and especially in FGO, but everyone else just kind of exists. Some have their moments, one moment in particular is definitely the highlight of the movie – if you’ve read Camelot, you can probably take a good guess as to which one I’m referring to – but past that, this is mostly the Bedivere show. At the very least, whenever he’s on screen, generally it’s for emotional moments, the decent action, or furthering the plot. When you see him, you can assume something interesting is going to happen - which does happen a lot. I wouldn't say it's boring - hard to be with the speed of a freight train - but it causes me to wish this was an anime, not a movie. ~~ Action: On that note – the action. This isn’t Ufotable, A-1, or Cloverworks. Generally, the movie is more focused on dialogue or emotional scenes (which only really hit hard when you know the source material), but there is some action. A lot of the fight scenes are pretty short, and I feel they ranged from hard to follow to just not that interesting. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I can get down with some of these scenes, but it’s far from something I really cared about here. ~~ Soundtrack As a minor aside, the soundtrack was alright. When it made these really nice sounding orchestral renditions of FGO tracks, or the main theme of the movie, it's some good stuff, but it generally goes for this grandiose orchestra feel - I do think some of the tracks kinda melt together. ~~ Conclusion Oh man do I wish this was an anime and not a movie... not just for the missing characters, but for all the things skipped, missed, or just plain out wiped out of existence. Maybe my disappointment is largely caused by this being one of my favorite chapters in FGO, but despite that, I don't think it's bad - just decent. In some eyes, maybe that would be even worse than being laughably bad. Camelot was the story chapter that signified the turning point of FGO's story quality, and what brought to what the game is specifically known for today - its fantastic story. The team did what they could with the time they had, but it's a shame that it's nothing more than something that can only offer me, a Fate fan and more specifically a fan of the Camelot chapter, mild enjoyment.

Tl;dr: It's fine. Visuals aren't great for being a movie, (Aside from literally the last few scenes of it.) but the VA cast is amazing. I haven't read/played FGO and with that in mind, the story and characters were meh. If you want to know a summary of what happens in this arc of the FGO story, then it's an alright watch; otherwise just play the game or a playthrough if you're really that interested. Story: 6/10 Very interesting and seems cool... BUT the movie felt very rushed and it shows with how fast the story was progressing. You've barely seen/experienced an area or event and before you know it, the movie's already in the next. Other than that, it's cool, as is par with Fate/ in general, so if you like Fate/ it's casually good enough. Art: 6/10 Just alright, like, it's okay. Not as good as I hoped it would be. If I could compare it to something, it's like the Deen movie adaptation of UBW but more modern. Definitely missing that 'movie quality' feel EXCEPT the last few scenes; that actually caught my eye and deserves some praise. It was beautiful. Sound: 5/10 Let's start with the best of the sound side which is the VA cast and their work execution. The movie is filled with a good number of VAs you know and love which did all their work exceptionally. I can personally say they're the best part of the movie in general. Now, on everything else; tbh, I don't even remember most of the soundtrack. Sfx were fine, worked as intended, nothing wrong but that's it. Nothing to write home about. Character: 4/10 The worst part of the movie. You see most of the cast for 3 minutes and that's all the development they get. Basically nothing. Benivere's the main focus and even he didn't get nearly enough development for me to care much. In the end, it's just enough to for me to see their character designs at least and know in general what they're about. Enjoyment: 6/10 As an avid Fate fan, it was fine. There was nothing spectacular about it but it's... something. At the very least I enjoyed it enough to not just dismiss it. Overall: 6/10 Seriously, all I can say is it's good enough to scratch that Fate/ itch. If I would rank it vs all the Fate/ Anime, it'd definitely be ranked on the lower half. Not visual enough vs Apocrypha or even Kaleid but not as mediocre as Deen F/SN.

I can't believe myself that I quitted watching in the middle of the movie. I was waaaaay disappointed more than what I thought I would be. - No Touta or Hassan, who are one of the big characters inside the story. - Who tf suggested Mash and Nitocris bath scene? - Even I as an FGO player, I was not able to grasp the whole movie because it was messed up. From plot A to Plot B. Jumping plots everywhere. Since the key characters were removed, it felt more empty. - Ozy and Mordred looked weird. And where's the sliding Ozy head? I even looked forward to that. It felt rushed. No, it IS rushed. I wish they made this as a series instead, so that only a few of parts should be cut. So many inaccuracy inside the movie that I decided to just quit watching. Babylonia hits the right spot, but this one just dropped.

Okay, so let me start of by saying this is just my opinion. Feel free to agree or disagree with the points I will make. Take note that I am an avid FGO player and have played through every chapter in the global server of the game. Story: 5 Okay so first off, let me tell you that FGO is a very long story. Camelot alone has 6-10 hours of read time inside the game depending on your individual reading speed. As this is a movie, 2 movies each with 1.5-2 hours of runtime, it will never be able to show every aspect of the story. The fact that this is one of the later story chapters also caused some issues. Anime only peeps will have a ton of exposition just smacked into their faces that they might not understand properly. The overall pacing was just a mess since content was cut out here and there, like the initial meeting of Nitocris with Chaldea before they go to the Holy City and fight Gawain and when Ozymadias' head slided off a bit for spoiler-ish reasons. This next one might purely be biased because I like Gawain but the movie did not portray him well. He was seen as this knight without match if he was under the sun. In the game, Bedi was barely able to match him by himself which allowed Mash and Da Vinci to break the circling formation of the guards to make an escape route in which the survivors retreated. Bedi clearly showed signs of pain stemming from the use of his arm. In the movie, Gawain was apparently knocked out by Bedi and then they make their escape. They also removed two charancters, Hassan of the hundred personas and Tawara Touta, but this was understandable because the role they took are far less important the the ones who remained. I was still pretty sad tho because I liked Hundred Personas. Art and Sound: 6 It was nothing of note about the art and sounds except the cg crowds used. I was constantly noticing it because of how out of place they look but the cg knights was actually better than what I imagined it to be. Character: 8 This is one of the best story writing the game has to offer since Nasu, the writer of the original Fate/Stay Night, is the one who wrote it. This is the best part of the movie and what made me fall in love with the game. Some parts didn't make it to the movie very well though so I put an 8 in the character. Enjoyment: 10 Okay, I'll be real here. I enjoyed the movie the most because of the portrayal of Arash's sacrifice in the last scene of the movie. It was shown as a last sacrifice where a hero stopped this all powerful goddess' verdict to destroy them in the game version of this scene. In the movie, it was shown as a sacrifice to save everyone in the village. I think the movie making it so that Arash shows up in front of everyone who is now falling to despair made is just as great as the game. Seeing one of my favorite stories in game which I have stuck with for a long period of time animated has also upped my enjoyability. Overall: 7 This movie is really catered around fans of the game in my opinion. FGO players will easily find this more enjoyable than others. As I am one of them, my score might be higher than a standard person's score. If you want a better experience, play through the game yourself or you can read the story online on youtube. I can guarantee you that the game version of Camelot will be worth your time.

I want to get a few things out of the way before I give my review of this movie. a) I've watched every anime release up to this point in the Fate series; b) I have never played the game and it's not really in my plans to do so. Having said that, let's begin the review! Animation: 1) the visuals are pretty 2) I like the character design 3) comparing the action/fight scenes of previous fate series, I feel this movie didn't have the same treatment. If you compare them to "regular" shows, you'll notice this movie had superior animation but other Fate films have way better looking fights. Sound: 1) the soundtrack is very Fate-like so if you have enjoyed it so far, you'll have no complaints 2) I don't think the new characters fit their seiyuus. I'm not saying the voice actors are bad (in fact I like them and their work), I'm saying that different voices would fit them better 3) sometimes the soundtrack and sound effects are too loud compared to dialog Story and characters: 1) This movie doesn't offer many chances for Ritsuka and Mash to develop their bond. In fact, this film is all about the plot and nothing else except the plot 2) I find the new characters incredibly generic and not very engaging. The story itself didn't grab me either. In conclusion, it's one of those movies where as a Fate fan, you will tell yourself to watch it but then again it's also something to watch when you're bored because if you go into this expecting something with the quality of Unlimited Blade Works, you're going to be extremely disappointed. It's a 6/10 from me.

4.75/10 ~ Better then 1st order Saying that this is better then Fate/Grand Order: First Order is a pretty low bar as First order I think was the worst Fate ive watched (so far). Both of these movies were so clearly just an add for the mobile game it was a bit painful. Lacking any real plot, the drama feeling forced and adding almost nothing. The highlights were better fights then first order, once again seeing EVIL Saber... again lol, and more Mordred (best girl). Thats it, were just here to see your favorite 2D Fate Wifu's and Husbandos duke it out, and use the Holy Grail despite everyone and their mother knowing its evil, especially the 'Greater holy grail', which is just bigger and more evil? The whole thing is just a good time to turn brain off to your 'sunk-cost fallacy' that we all seem to have for the fate universe.

Well gonna summarize the feelings, thoughts and overall experience that i had after watched this movie, and this goes without actually know the original material in which its adapted (like i always do i only watch the animated adaptations), so this its coming from the prespective of someone who doesnt knows how far this adaptations its faithful to the original source material. Even then the series could or not being completly truthful to the original (which i dont know) , that its not excuse to actually have an decent animated series with good characters and story overall. and there are more than enought examples of this in another series. In this case i dont gonna to separate the good and bad things that under my opinion were of this movie just because its gonna be really an really short explanation of it. Now one of the firts problems with not being the case only of this movie but in general of anime movies its that duration itselft its too short to actually give us an compelling and well narrated story, this format on most of the cases that i can think (with some exceptions) are one of the main problems of poor adaptations and really rushed and fast paced development with many plot holes in it and ending with characters that we cannot symphatize or even undertand the intentions or ambitoins of them because of how bad are portrayed. Even knowing that this its one of the two part of the movies that conform this story , the total of both of them combined its just 3 hours which in most of the cases its not enought deliver and decent and emotive story well narrated, this should have been released (like most of the movies adaptation that i watched ) in an format of tv series, so in that way they could have more time to actually expand on the characters and their ambitions as well as the story, because this actually its standout from the begginig with how actually unfold the events and the actions of the characters like with bedivere in a way really erratic and hurried. The animation look really good and the scenaries are beautiful, the settings are freaking awesome and have an good ost with one or two track that to me at least were exceling from the rest, really well despicted the backgrounds overall. The problem here is there are two or three events in the movie as we move forward were our protagonist with bedivere face the knights of the round table and these moments felt really rushed and take us out of context with dont even showing us all the battle as well as actually taking us from a second to another to another setting or objective without actually being closing the previous one that was taking place just a couple of second before, there is this kind of lack of conexion and cohesion with the differents events and also an really dissapointing waste of many characters that would be insteresting to deeph in that were dischardged too fast just for the sake to actually fit in those hour an half of the movie. Leaving maybe the protagonist and the girl (which to me at least dont seem nothign outstading and are just the cclasic architype that we haves seen many times) there were many interesting characters that with how actually begings the movie it get us excited us wanting to know more about them, bedivere,gawaiin,ozymandias,etc but the movie didn make justice to what could end up being really good and interesting characters. It had one or two moments that were pretty good but this format its not good to adapt this kind of stories, it bassicly impossible to fit everything in just mere hour an half, it did make some things good from my perspective in how realated some past of bedivere for example or how actually started, or how well depicted the settings were, but many things wasted. RESUME The movie follows an structure a little to convenient for the sake of being an movie which actually its gonna make us in early stages of the movie realize that were many things bad executed or wasted , i mean not everything was bad, but i keep insisting that if this could turned up being an series could be in the level of something really close to fate/zero and possibly at the same lv of fate unlimited blade works. If you can forget many of the things that sins and enjoy the overall the few things that had its could reccomend it to you, this its just my review for the part 1 , for what i could see the second part looks more promising so althought this might not be really good, you could give this one the go pass so it might redeem in the second part possibly giving us an decent ending.

quick summary as a fgo player: for ppl who played the game: its cutting and altering too much to be enjoyable. for ppl who havent played the game: its cutting too quick from scene to scene to keep up with the already meh story and the lack of exposition isnt helping much either. all in all its a watchable movie, but nothing to really look forward to. its pretty much evident that the movie is too short with its 1hr and smth runtime and being split into only 2 parts. there are some very obv not so good cgi scenes in the movie as well but all in all its visually pretty acceptable.

As I sit down to write a review of this movie, the first thought that popped into my head is that the weirdly off-kilter and extreme reaction of what I would presume to be the Fate community is perhaps more fascinating and noteworthy than the movie itself. I could offer a tl;dr version of a review by just saying, eh, it's fine, but a notable step down from Babylonia. However, a lot of what I've seen out there prompted me to write something more substantial. Outside of Carnival Phantasm and Zero, Babylonia was interestingly enough one of my favorite Fate anime entries in spite of not being as familiar with the gacha's story as many when I first saw it. So I went into this movie with higher expectations than I probably should have for a movie based off a gacha story. Babylonia perhaps benefited from being in a longer television format and thus being able to drop more action sequences early on to break up long stretches of plot development. But with that said, I don't necessarily find that to be Camelot's problem. Rather, Camelot feels like it suffers from its incredibly brief 90 minute runtime. The movie drops a lot of plot on the viewer in a pretty rapid fashion, and while it's not impossible for a newcomer to follow, it's certainly not the easiest. That said, again I don't feel it's any worse than just about any other Fate entry in this regard, but it certainly needed at least another 15 minutes worth of runtime to better pace itself and to let certain sequences breath. In addition, it was always going to suffer with viewers coming to it from outside the gacha since sequentially it comes before Babylonia, which in turn tried to summarize 5 Singularities worth of story in under ten minutes. I would definitely recommend starting with Babylonia before seeing this for those unfamiliar with the gacha's story. One can particularly observe this effect on the movie's incredibly brief action sequences. For a series many look to for creative big-budget action sequences, there really isn't much of note in this movie that will scratch that particular itch. In addition, while I won't say the animation looks cheap, it definitely lacks a certain fluidity, especially while in motion, compared to Babylonia. I think in part they wanted the action to feel weightier than Babylonia due to the more serious tone of the story, but there are ways to do this without making it feel so slow and lifeless. Perhaps the general complaint that can be placed on the movie is it feels like the first half of a longer movie rather than having a natural break-point. The overall story will largely require the second movie to judge, but with that being said, this movie doesn't stand the best on its own like many movies would in a 2-3 part series. The climax suffers in particular, though it ends on a good story beat. But with that said, I think the rather mediocre fight sequences leading into this moment are what drag down the finale. The highlight of the movie by far was two what I would call "dream sequences," produced in part by a particularly noteworthy animator if one is familiar with the Monogotari series. Flat out, these two sequences are the two single best works of animation in the entire Fate franchise, and I would go whale the gacha to get a full movie made in this style. The cast of the movie was a mixed bag, though that in part feels like a by-product of the rushed pace. My two favorites ended up being Bedivere and Da Vinci. The movie does a good job of starting to convey to the audience just how much Bedivere has suffered throughout his journey, and I appreciate they didn't just make him a one-note "good guy" even though I have seen complaints about a certain moment in particular. Meanwhile, Da Vinci just brings a life to every scene that she's focused on. Fujimaru and Mash remain kind of nondescript gacha MCs, although there is some promise of Mash finally getting some character development in this storyline compared to Babylonia. I truly am intrigued by the Lion King and look forward to her development in the next film. Now to address a few things I had heard going into the movie that I simply didn't agree with after seeing it. First off, I've seen many complain the movie has pacing issues/fails to explain elements of the plot properly. Here's the thing: that's pretty much every Fate anime. I question if these same people saw the dozens of Reddit threads on the FSN subreddit of viewers unable to understand the ending of the third Heaven's Feel movie. Did they also agree that movie has equally as many pacing problems/lore explanation problems before rushing to award it a 9 or a 10, or is it just an issue now all of a sudden? If there's one expectation I have of every Fate anime, it's issues relating to how obtuse and needlessly complex the series' lore is and how they always struggle converting their stories from other mediums. I didn't particularly find Camelot movie 1 more egregious than say the first half of Zero or the HF movies. You will naturally have an easier time understanding it if you've played FGO before of course. This is just par for the course with the Fate franchise at this point. Second, look, not every Fate anime is going to be produced by Ufotable. With that said, I would like to think anyone who saw Babylonia can't possibly say other studios can't produce Fate anime that looks as good or roughly as good as Ufotable's work (I'll go so far as to say Babylonia has the best directed fight sequences in the franchise IMO). Rather, I would endorse others to differentiate complaints about the animation/direction related to specific scenes or sequences from those simply unhappy Ufotable didn't produce this movie. And finally, and perhaps more noteworthy, this whole "two characters were replaced by a bath scene" controversy is the silliest damn mountain of salt I've seen in some time. It's pure malarkey. For starters, it is a scene in a bath where you will see less cheek from Mash than her normal armor presents. It lasts a whopping 40 seconds, and is there to quickly establish a singular plot point. If anyone seriously believes that two characters could be established in said 40 seconds of screen time, they weren't noteworthy enough characters to worry about to begin with. Cuts happen when you move between formats. I'm sorry two characters who were favorites of some in the original story were removed, but relating it to this scene is disingenuous at best. All together, this movie is functional, though unremarkable. I don't think it will wow anyone, but it serviceable enough to set up the next film, which looks more promising. I would highly endorse seeing this one with an open-mind and lowered expectations while ignoring the zeitgeist surrounding it.

THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE! Before I get further into this review, let me just mention that I had not played FGO before so this review is coming from the perspective of someone who has only watched the various anime adaptations of the fate franchise. I don't really want to waste your time so I'll make this review as short as possible. Art/Animation: 7 Coming from a subsidiary of Production IG, the anime doesn't look bad with rather consistent and downright beautiful art from time to time. While Artoria looks different in this adaptation, it looks alright since she is supposed to be an older version compared to the FS/N series. However, the animation is another...story. There are very few fights in the anime and the animation, in general, is a bit lacking, filled with mostly dialogue-heavy scenes. Whenever there are fight scenes, it looks decent but unlike something out of Ufotable, the camera itself is very stiff and static throughout with some weird scenes that just look..off. While it won't blow your socks off, the animation is "decent" paired with stellar art. As you'll read in a bit, the animation and art is not even the Achilles' heel of this movie. Music/Sound: 7 The actual soundtracks have lots of potential which isn't really anything surprising. They sound good, amazing, and quite bombastic at times. So why is it only a 7? A few of the soundtracks are often...misused, conveying a different emotion when what you're seeing would tell you otherwise. Imagine an epic scene with sad music playing in the background. Same with the art/animation, this isn't really what I call a negative, just criticisms I have for the film. It's not unbearable, just perhaps a missed opportunity if the soundtracks were used in a better way. Story: 4 This is where everything falls apart for me. I had re-watched the film another 2-3 times to get a better idea of what it was all about and even then, I was still lost. Simply put, the story is terrible. You are only given snippets of information through short "flashback" sequences and out of context dialogue. The result was that the audience was pretty confused throughout the movie. While there's nothing wrong with dropping small hints regarding the narrative, there is something wrong when you don't drop ENOUGH of them. Characters are also sort of introduced on the fly and you barely feel any attachment to them so if/when they die, the whole thing becomes a joke. The movie tries to make you care for characters but because of the lack of development and/or screentime, it fails terribly at that. While the story might feel slow-paced for some people, the lack of development, context, and abrupt scene changes make this movie feel rushed but at least we got that Nictoris bath scene 👀. CONCLUSION: 5 The end result is a confusing, rushed, and barely developed story that fails to entertain and hook the audience. Most characters introduced end up being really one-dimensional and since you barely know who they are or what they are like, you end up not giving a shit so whenever there are emotional scenes, it's a damn joke that feels comical. With stellar art and decent but sparse animation, it really isn't enough to carry the clusterfuck of a story that this movie is. This isn't a Ufotable film and the lack of dynamic and fluid camera movement really shows. It's decent animation but not good or great like what Ufotable would usually do and because of the garbage plot, the movie overall is mediocre, not something that I would recommend.