Fate/EXTRA Last Encore 01
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
A female Master has her legs cut off and is dying. A Saber-class Servant (Nero) attacks a Buddha repeatedly, but loses and dies, as does the Master. Elsewhere, a guy named Hakuno is in class in a fancy classroom, learning about Servants and such. After class, he joins his friend Shinji and Shinji’s girlfriend Misao. From one of the school walkways, they look into a courtyard, where a chess match is going on. The loser of the chess match is stabbed with a spear, so Hakuno goes down, wondering why he feels so much hate.
At the platform, he’s joined by a girl named Rin, who helps him take the guy to the infirmary, currently staffed by a girl named Sakura. They place the guy into the last open bed. Hakuno’s vision changes, but when asked by Rin, he denies there’s anything wrong. Sakura wants to bury someone who’s died, so Hakuno takes the body to Limbo, a building full of mystery and rumors as it holds an incinerator. He drops the body off a plank, where it disappears. He then has a vision of a city on fire.
A man joins him, explaining things and that his vision is actually a childhood memory. A god named Moon Cell created this artificial paradise for them all to reside in. The man encourages Hakuno to ask “Angelica Cage” in this place his questions, but the man disappears as an announcer declares all survivors and NPCs will be purged as all selectees have been chosen. Hakuno finds Shinji and the two flee, but then Shinji repeatedly stabs Hakuno, leaving him for dead.
Exterminators come into the place and begin slaughtering students. This and Hakuno’s hatred bring him back. Hakuno makes it back to Limbo, but a thing resembling Archer (EMIYA) attacks him and sends him down the abyss. He finds himself in what appears to be a ruined theater, with a sword in a small patch of grass and flowers. He wields the sword to defend himself, but is joined by Saber (Nero), who takes the sword from him and dispatches the Archer. She then asks Hakuno if he is her Master.
Thoughts/Review:
Just when I think the Fate muli-verse cannot get any stranger, along comes Fate/EXTRA Last Encore 01 to prove me wrong.
Some Fate/stay night Crew
I knew that this series would feature Nero-Saber as the main Servant and some new dude as the MC. What I didn’t know is that we’d see Rin, Sakura, and Shinji from Fate/stay night in this weird world. And all three seem to be similar to their other incarnations that I’ve seen. Rin is still a bit haughty, but helpful.
Sakura is still doing her “Senpai” thing. So I liked that, though the new character designs will take some time to get used to.
As to Shinji, he’s still the same arsehole he always has been. However, I almost laughed out loud when he is shown to have a girlfriend in Fate/EXTRA Last Encore 01. However, who knows what Misao’s true role will be, assuming she’s even alive.
Just Weird
As I mentioned, Fate/EXTRA Last Encore 01 is not only strange, but weird and confusing. From watching this episode twice, it appears that Hakuno may have been a survivor of some terrible catastrophe on Earth, so he is allowed to “live” as a simulation inside some computer called Moon Cell. Apparently he doesn’t have memories ’cause he had to have his vision of the fire and devastation explained to him.
Within this Moon Cell, there’s something called SE.RA.PH and Angelica’s Cage and who knows what all else. Apparently, Moon Cell saved anyone capable of becoming a Master. However, it seems to put them all through the same things over an over. It seems that Hakuno had already come and wondered things, but didn’t ask his questions in time.
That said, hopefully this confusing mess will become less so over time.
Saber-Nero
It was in Fate/Grand Order that I was introduced to Saber-Nero. I liked the character in the chapter she’s introduced in (this was when I still bothered to go through the tedious, time consuming, mindless banter that passes for a story in the game), so I’m glad to see her in Fate/EXTRA Last Encore 01. I have not summoned this incarnation of Saber-Nero in the game, but I did manage to summon her bride form recently, which is pretty cool.
That aside, I’m looking forward to the latest “Saber face” in the franchise doing her thing. The confusing nature of the story makes me wonder what she was doing in the intro with that other Master in her failed attempt to beat that Buddha thing. Since this place they are at is on a lather-rinse-repeat cycle, I wonder how this affects Servants. I don’t think I’d be smiling if I were a Servant, forced to go through all this again unless Servant memories are wiped as well.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
In the end, Fate/EXTRA Last Encore 01 is a bizarre, confusing entry into the latest Fate series in the franchise. Hopefully it gets better and hopefully, I can continue to episode-blog the series.
Update: I realized I didn’t see the stuff after the ED. Kirei returns! Still confusing as all get out.
I havent commented on your blog in ages ^^
I have a few mix feelings towards the main character… but this anime is an adaptation of the Fate Extra game but seemingly its going to be completely rewritten.
Thanks for the great info! I had someone tell me that a couple of CEs in Fate/Grand Order are actually the MC(s) from Fate/EXTRA.
Correction, the name is actually Kishinami, not Kishimoto.
I played a little bit of Fate Extra so I wonder if this series will follow the plot of that at all… The Fate universe continues to churn out series all of a sudden but I don’t know if they’ll ever hit the height that UBW did. Nero is probably my favorite servant so it’s nice to see her get some more love. I suspect they’ll make her as… sultry and outgoing as they do in other games.
Zero and UBW was good because ufotable was faithful as well as having decent budget.
Apocrypha did really well but animation quality did drop a bit but it did really well.
Kaleid deviated a little bit so 3rei was no where near as impactful
Extra… hopefully it does good but i wish we had the female Hakuno over Male… it just felt better considering how much of a lost little lamb they were in the game.
On Apocrypha, there were a lot of things that made no sense to me. I don’t think A1 adapted most of the heart of the source material.
I wish I had the Light Novels to compare but difficult to find a copy of it translated… hoping they do officially release an english copy.
Most plot around Fate Apocrypha is vague but enough information out there to make heads and tales of the whole thing
But Fate Apocrypha being adapted by A1 was going to be bad since they skim over the finer details hence why Sword Art Online despite being one of the best Light Novels in Japan is mainly hated by western fans who dont quite get what the fuss is about.
But yeah I assume you are confused with Sieg final battle and some of the servants abilities as well as the Grails mechanics and wish granting?
True.
I didn’t know A1 did SAO. That explains a few things.
The wish granting made no sense to me. I don’t know how Shirou gets a wish granted when he hasn’t won the Greater Holy Grail War. I can understand how Red Caster could survive for a bit after Shirou left. And yeah, I don’t know how Sieg was able to get a bit of Fran-chan in him.
Yeah… because I read the novels of SAO I know a lot of material was cut out… so when they were announced to be doing Apocrypha I was a bit meh about it… battle was perfect but story telling was lacking.
to answer your question
The wish granting made no sense to me. I don’t know how Shirou gets a wish granted when he hasn’t won the Greater Holy Grail War. I can understand how Red Caster could survive for a bit after Shirou left. And yeah, I don’t know how Sieg was able to get a bit of Fran-chan in him.
Ok so… this is from as much information I have dug up and learnt without having a light novel (wish they had a official release) I’m pretty sure this is accurate or it is as accurate as I can get it… will add the spoiler tags in case
Thanks for all the great Fate/Apocrypha info. 🙂
Yeah, its funny how the Fate franchise is so hot for anime adaptations after all these years.
As to Nero-chan, well, I did like her a lot in FGO, so I hope she’s the same here.
I guess it just goes to show that one mediocre adaptation won’t ruin your franchise forever. You hear that, Ken?
Hahaha! That’s true.
Fate’s a odd series, never understood why they went through so much trouble with justifying their genderswaps when it could have been so much easier to just have the servant be altered form their original forms.
Well, since most of the people “playing” the original visual novel were men, having the man Arthur be the female Altria ended up being a massive win for TYPE-MOON since Saber-Altria is one of the most popular characters they did. Of course now, making these males actually be females covers a ton of the Servants in the Fate-multiverse, all so guys can have a “waifu.” ?
Legit it is prrtty much what you said. Part of the reason is to also balance the gender ratio… since most heroic figures were men in legends
Kinda of a low blow by showing FemHakuno just to be butchered and put MalHakuno as protagonist, considering shes far more popular than the usual “self insert” MalHakuno :/
Despite being very similar story wise some FemHakuno special interactions are pure gold, like when she trolls Emiya asking if she likes Rin and he falls off the chair or the Gil/FemHakuno dynamic that would make Rin that cry tears of happiness of getting Trollmiya instead the King of Trolls. FemHakuno is quite snarky sometimes to compensate
Is there a romance element between the MC and Saber-Nero? If so, I bet that’s the reason.
I believe there is. Nero isn’t picky about gender. In fact I think she prefers girls. I’m pretty sure she basically confesses to the MC at some point.
Nero swings both ways. On one occasion she mentions “I love both men and women. I love all humans without regard of their gender. This is another thing I wish to set straight. I do not consider gender when i devote myself to a person.”
The only one you could cast more doubts about her sexuality is Tamamo, and shes more charmed by a “pure soul” so you can say she doesnt pay much atention to the gender of her master but at his/her pure soul that gazes upon her. But since she calls her master Goshujin-sama and shes devoted to be the perfect housewife it makes more sense that her master is a male, thats why is reasonable that MalHakuno is her master on the manga.
Emiya route can go either a Rin/Archer-like dynamic with some romance sprinkled between, to a full on bromance in MalHakuno/Archer route
Maybe I can watch episode 2 tomorrow.
Nero doesn’t care about her gender considering the fact she wrestled a lion into submission whilst stark naked in a colosseum in front of everyone.
Nero treats the Master like a Master, her king and her emperor
She quite literally takes on the role of a servant who serves their lord.
Think of her as a more chrismatic and happy saber than Altria.
Tamamo basically wishes to be a good wife so she is waifu, with male she feels like those girls who come on hard… whilst female it feels more like a best girlfriend gag routine
Archer and Female Hakuno is more of a gag coupling
My experiences with Nero are limited to the chapter in FGO that she was featured in. (That was when I had time to go through the tedium of the story.) So I liked her there.
Just giving you a quick heads up that the Prisma Illya movie Oath Under the Snow blu-ray is out and is now subbed.
Kyaaaaaa! Must get that. *sob* I’m not complaining ’cause I’m glad to have the job I have, but I do sometimes miss being able to watch hours of anime a day.