To newcomers of the series this first episode of Fate/Extra must have you thinking “Just what in the hell is going on?” but have no fear for as this sites resident Fate expect I can safely tell you that…yeah, I have no idea either. While this is Fate/Extra, it has been confirmed that Nasu is writing a brand new story for this one so while some beats of Extra may be followed, the story may end up being very different. An important thing to note is that despite familiar faces showing up here, this is indeed an entirely different world and therefore that means that even though Rin is here, she is not the same Rin who went through the events of any of the other Fate Adaptations. The same goes for Kirei though it seems that no matter what world he is in, Shinji is always Shinji. We have less animation this time around but I do admit that Shaft makes up for it with style though this episode was unfortunately dampened thanks to the dimming of action scenes due to epilepsy concerns. For a first episode this is a strong effort as while the characters are not particularly interesting yet, there is air of mystery and intrigue that keeps you sucked in. This anime appears to be building on Extra’s story and adding another layer to it as the opening starts off with the female protagonist getting decimated before changing to the male protagonist. I hope there is a greater effort to characterise him as the protagonist of Extra was very much a blank slate for the player to insert himself into and after Apocrypha I really don’t want another one of those.
However the protagonist isn’t the only one I am worried about here as this success of this series does depend on him and also on Nero, otherwise known as Red Saber. I don’t really think I need to hide her identity considering that it’s widely known and otherwise impossible to guess. But yes, the success of this series depends partly on her or to be more exact, which Nero is here. What do I mean? Well my friends let me tell you a tale of Nero from Extra. Nero was a cocky little narcissist who loved tooting her own horn and that was actually quite charming. She came across as what would happen if you injected some of Gilgamesh’s ego into Blue Saber and ended up a loveable dolt who had the kind of confidence you just wish you had. I mean the woman wears a see through dress because she thought it would be a shame to deprive the world the beauty of her thighs. What made her particular fun was when she spoke pure bullshit on her achievements and if you called her out on it she would get meek and sullen.
I actually quite liked her then but it seems I didn’t nearly like her as much as the writer Hikaru Sakurai does. The writer of Fate/Extella and the Septem section of Fate Go, Sakurai has proven that she quite likes Nero. In fact, she absolutely adores her but sadly this results in Nero undergoing a massive character shift when one plays Extella or Septem. For Fate/Extra’s Nero was a cocky loveable brat who always touted herself as the best thing since sliced bread but Fate/Extella’s Nero is not only being claimed to be just as great as she makes herself out to be but actually even underselling her godly essence. Sakurai’s Nero is a mary sue of the highest caliber and the plot does nothing but to constantly wax on about how great and magnificent Nero is that it turned my opinion on her from like to hate. With Nasu writing this instead of Sakurai I am hoping for a return of the Nero that I liked provided that Nasu isn’t getting Sakurai to ghostwrite for him.
So what exactly happened here in this episode? Well it appears to be some sort of elimination round before the holy grail war. They got a hefty amount of masters here so they are whittling them down to a certain number of masters to fight in the war. The process appears to be sticking them in some sort of school simulation and having them eliminate each other through tests? Seems like for a while that people were getting killed off and brought to the infirmary before being thrown into the incinerator. This has been going on for a while until Kirei pulls sudden death with the last masters being chosen based on whoever kills someone else first. The good news is that the school setting appears to be gone though I do believe that the series is really pushing sense of disbelief with the main characters durability. Guy was stabbed several times, fell down a hole, pierced through with an arrow and even after all that the man is still kicking.
Part of this is sort of justified by the digital looking nature of the world but still, with that level of damage the MC should have been long dead. As a last note, I really like that the stone servent that brought the main character near death before summoning a servant was Archer from Fate/Stay Night. As in Fate/Stay Night it was Cu who wounded Shirou before he summoned a Saber which is whom Archer was fighting when Shirou saw them. So it makes for a nice parallel to have Archer instead be the one to chase down the MC before he summons a Saber. Even the stone nature of the servant referring to his position as a counter guardian and that he was also a servant you could choose in Fate/Extra. Sadly like Tamamo and the alternative Female MC, he appears to have been Shafted.(Pun not intended)
Darn. Nero Saber doesn’t seem nearly as cool to me as Artoria Saber was in Fate/Zero & the first part of the Fate/Stay Night anime. That, plus me having pretty much no idea what happened in this episode until I read this review makes me wonder if I should drop this series. At least with Apocrypha I could root for Mordred & watch her be awesome. Here I don’t even like any of the new characters. 🙁
Maybe I’ll just skip this series and wait for the Heaven’s Feel movies.
Thanks for reviewing this episode though! At least it makes a bit more sense now.
If your worry is not being able to understand what’s going on I think that should change in coming episodes. I believe it was the point in this episode that the viewer is clueless to what is actually happening and it was just building mystery. If this follows the games story then things are going to get simpler. For a basic idea, it’s going to kinda be like a tournament arc.
Nero does have her charm like Mordred did. Provided of course it isn’t Extella Nero.
Hmm, maybe I’ll give it one more episode then.
Not sure if even Fate/Extra Nero would be my sort of character from the description above though. See-through dresses sound like something a horny male writer might try to justify a female Fate character wearing, and I tend to prefer stronger female characters over meeker ones in general.
Hopefully the next episode impresses me more.
I’m usually more lenient with Fate series, but I really need to find at least one character I like to want to keep a series. At least Rin is in this, and I’m hoping this series won’t give her all the fanservice scenes UBW did. Although Rin seems to have a much more minor role in this series than in past ones.
Just watched the first episode.
I get the impression they’re trying to bring together the stories of Fate Extra, CCC and Extella into a single coherent thread. Or, as coherent a thread as can be made. Maybe throw in some FGO, Apocrypha, etc so everything that comes out from here on out has some common ground. Eg. Extella’s Apo characters may have memories of their experience in Apo, etc.
I’m pretty confused as well but I get the feeling that this is a repeating loop of events, like the infamous Endless Eight, so the protagonist is getting visions from previous loops. Looks like he might change genders every loop too. Lol at the glimpse of the final Extra boss. I was wondering what they would do about putting “that” character in this show. Would it piss off Thais for example? Hmm..
This first series might wind up being the prequel. The follow up might be the following loop. Pink haired girl is new…or maybe not. She REALLY looks like a certain foxy lady.
About getting stabbed, etc and still kicking, well, they are in cyberspace. People who played Extra will remember who were real players and NPCs. I wonder how many loops they’ve gone through to make Shinji the way he is now? The guy in the suit…is that Archer? Or Master of Saver? Can’t remember. My PSPs been gathering dust.