Let’s go! Next Full Season Review is Fate/Extra Last Encore

Let’s go!

Waking up in a strange virtual world with no recollection of the past, Hakuno Kishinami finds himself forced to fight for survival in a war he does not understand for a prize beyond value; the opportunity to have one’s wish granted. With only an enigmatic “Servant” by his side, Hakuno Kishinami will have to face both friends and foes in battles to the death in order to not only gain possession of a mysterious object known as the “Holy Grail”, but also to find answers regarding his identity.

Let’s get down to the main review.

Art

Continuing on from the Madoka Magica-ese style of the Nursery Rhyme/Alice floor we have a city covered in rubble stuck in an eternal rainstorm along with a blank floor with nothing more than ice and corpses.

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The 5th floor can only be described as a bleak and hopeless city which pretty much sets the stage for the events that happen on the stage. While the 6th floor is stark white at first glance only to show the cold truth that lies beneath the ice of the floor and within the structure in the middle of the floor itself.

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While the art of the episodes was the usual beauty that could be expected of Shaft, the setting and the art were set up to assist in the impact of the plot.

Story

I would have to say that while there is a small annoyance in the plot of the 5th floor, it is overall the best part of the anime so far. It ties up a lot of the lingering questions that have been over the anime since the beginning and answers them in a unique way.

We finally find out what happened to Nero’s original master and why Hakuno can transform into a Deadface. We learn the origins of Nero in a surprisingly apt way for her, being a cute little puppet show. It fits her because Nero has always been a person of the stage and showing off, and to narrate her life and legend this way is too like her.

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The 6th floor finally brings the question of what Rin and Rani are to a close and harkens back to the original game of “Who do you chose to save, Rin or Rani?” in an interesting way. Their story brings their actions at the beginning of the story more into the light. I always love to see actions like this. It makes me want to go back to the beginning of the anime and check out all of the seasons to see stuff like this.

Characters

Hakuno Kishinami

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While the male Hakuno seems to be continuing to be a passenger in his own story, the female Hakuno who appeared in episode 9 was a lot more interesting to see in her own story. She had a lot more emotion and when the truth about her origins came to light, she felt a lot more than her male counterpart did about the truth of his own origins. While both have their own merits as characters, I always personally enjoy a character that feels more and makes their own fate rather than just moving down the stream of the plot.

Nero

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Nero, as a character hasn’t really changed much but she’s always been more of a guiding and confidence giving character to Hakuno which I like. Often the time in a lot of Fate works you see the Master often helping and comforting their servant rather than the other way around. It’s nice to see it this way for once. Nero’s little play about her life was also a beautiful little act that showed both her past and her love for the theater at once.

Rin Tohsaka & Rani VIII

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While both were interesting characters, I enjoyed Rin more mostly because of the fact that she was around more but also because Kana Ueda had the ability to use more inflection in her lines as well as Rin having the line asking, nearly begging for the Master that reaches the 6th floor to save her and Rani.

Rani did not have much impact unfortunately between her minor appearance on the 5th floor and her death other than imparting Hakuno some determination to move on and continue up the floors.

So that’s all I’ve got. Fate/Extra Last Encore was seperated into two parts so the remaining three episodes will premiere in the Summer Season of 2018. So I’ll continue the review from there.

So until the next Full Season Review,
Later Days

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