English Dub Review: Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia; “Temple of the Sun”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Fujimaru and the gang head for Quetzacoatl’s temple, where a fierce battle with the goddess awaits them.

Our Take

(Just a brief note first. The name of the protagonist of this anime is Ritsuka Fujimaru. I’ve been calling him Ritsuka thus far because that’s his given name. But it just hit me that in the show they always refer to him as Fujimaru. So I’m just going to start calling him Fujimaru now too. Apologies for any confusion.)

Fujimaru and his retinue arrive at Quetzacoatl’s temple, finding the Axe of Marduk lodged into the side of it. The axe is gigantic, about the size of a semi-truck. It should find no trouble in slaying Gorgon, provided somebody can reliably wield it. 

Waiting for the crew in anticipation, though, is Quetzacoatl herself, ready for battle. She wastes no time, excitedly issuing her challenge and attacking. She explains her spiel right off the bat; the reason she loves fighting is that she loves humans. As a goddess, she antagonizes and threatens humanity to trigger the adversity that humans need to grow and evolve. To interpret her words a bit more elaborately, she’s the flood that necessitates the invention of the flood wall. 

Regardless of her specific reasoning, the battle with her is frantic and maniacal, another great spectacle in this anime’s growing library of them. It’s not as grand and thunderous as the battle with Gorgon, but it excels in its own right. It’s more in the same vein as the battles with Jaguar Warrior, but the goddess takes her former subordinate’s style to the next level. 

Quetzacoatl finds great joy in combat and she carries that sense of fun into the animation. She turns every engagement into a melee battle, regardless of who her opponent is. When Ana throws her chain and sickle at her, she catches it and pulls her towards her. When Ishtar fires beams at her, she runs through the volley, leaps up to her and takes her down. In every instance, she runs headfirst into her opponent’s attack and turns it against them.

Things get even crazier when her opponent also does melee combat. Even when taking on two opponents at once, Quetzacoatl adroitly dodges every attack and counters with judicious precision. The real appeal of these melee battles is the incredible sense of speed that she conveys. Her opponent will start at the furiously fast standard speed that this anime usually operates at, but then Quetzacoatl steadily and vigorously increases the pace, until the combatants turn into blurs. There are actually some instances where the characters do blur into blobs of color, which doesn’t look entirely professional, but I think they’re brief enough that they can be excused in this instance. 

Quetzacoatl’s intense battle prowess overpowers and neutralizes all of Fujimaru’s crew, even the resident goddess Ishtar. Left with few options, Fujimaru is reminded that Quetzacoatl is a goddess of good, so he’ll need to think outside the box to defeat her. He takes a moment to find his resolve and forms a plan. He has Ishtar fly him high into the sky, where he then nosedives straight into Quetzacoatl in a staggering, if questionable, display of determination.

Fujimaru’s determination is decidedly acknowledged, as he wakes up in Quetzacoatl’s lap and she joins his party as his servant. This is starting to look a bit less like a squad of warriors and more like Fujimaru’s little personal harem.  

Speaking of potential romantic attachments, Fujimaru and Ishtar have yet another campfire chat. The exact content of this conversation isn’t noteworthy, as it’s all just complimenting how hard Fujimaru has been working up until now. What this scene is really doing is slowly generating a more intimate atmosphere for Fujimaru and Ishtar, that they may grow closer. Ishtar even does the odd glowing thing, this time decked out completely in her other outfit, but still with absolutely no hints as to what’s going on. 

Additionally, Romani is potentially brought into relevancy. Romani had chided Fujiimaru about how he dealt with Quetzacoatl. Even though Fujimaru agreed with him a little bit, it was a bit tense. For some reason, this inspired Fujimaru to remember a little tidbit he had learned about Romani’s past, revealing that Romani is more involved with this Holy Grail business than he seemed. Romani’s dubious and mysterious past in conjunction with this awkward conversation serves to cast doubt on him. No speculation was made here and the notion was soon dropped; it’s hard to tell if this will come back later. Romani is their main support, and he has been very helpful and encouraging so far, so it would be rather serious if he turned on them somehow. 

Unfortunately, all the good news from the day is spoiled. When they head back to Uruk they have grim news awaiting them: Gilgamesh has died. In the stinger at the end of the episode, Gilgamesh is also upset that he is dead, though he seems more inconvenienced than in despair.

And just when things were going so smoothly, too. Now the gang has to figure out how to get Gilgamesh out of hell. I just hope it doesn’t take too long.