Part of the Fate Franchise
Genre(s): Action, Magic, Modern Fantasy, Supernatural
Age-Appropriateness: 13+ (Violence, Profanity)
Platforms: Crunchyroll, Netflix
Episodes: One 1 hr 15 minute movie
TheAwersome Rating: 6.2 / 10 (A weak installment in the Fate series)
Premise: In 2015, the Chaldea Security Organization draws on experts of both the magical and mundane fields to observe the future of mankind for possible extinction events. Suddenly humanity is predicted to go extinct in 2017, with tenuous links to the events of the Fifth Holy Grail War which took place in Fuyuki City in 2004. In response, Chaldea uses an experimental means of time travel to send a new recruit, Ritsuka Fujimaru, and the mysterious girl Mash Kyrielight back to 2004 to discover how to save humanity.
TheAwersome’s Thoughts: You know what this felt like? I’ll tell you what this felt like. It felt 300% like a straight-up fanfiction. Bland, empty characters, an outlandish plot full of holes, and nearly every tropey interaction you can think of. If the outfits aren’t fan servicey, then they look like they belong in Tim Burton’s remake of Kingdom Hearts or something. It presents an interesting idea of taking an alternate timeline approach to the events of Fate/Stay Night (all routes), but is too scared to commit to anything and focuses instead on… it’s actually unclear what its focus is. Like a fanfiction, it has some dumb overly “cute” fox/Evee/cat/pokemon creature to go “Kyuu! Kyuu!” to hide the fact that there’s no content worth making a movie out of.
I guess that’s what happens when the source material is a mobile game? Man, I hope Madoka Magica’s spinoff based off a mobile game is a lot better than this one. I’d tell you to straight skip this one, but apparently Grand Order is getting a series in the fall that might be better? If it is, then pick this up, but until then just play Dragonball Xenoverse, they did a much better job with this exact plot but in the Dragonball Universe.
Now granted, I haven’t actually played the game; it doesn’t work on latest versions of Android or devices with Intel Processors (???) which is probably a good thing for how it’s the epitome of “pay real money for loot-boxes in order to have a chance to play the game” so maybe there’s a lot of stuff that I’m not getting, but come on man. This was just empty. I’m of the firm belief that the source material shouldn’t matter; an adaptation should stand on its own legs without presuming or requiring you to have previous knowledge to be enjoyable.
EDIT: I have since been able to play the game. I got halfway through the fourth story (Third Singularity) because the game up to that point is just as empty and hollow as this adaptation.
At a Glance Anime 