English Dub Review: Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia; “Gilgamesh’s Journey”

 

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Gilgamesh arrives and gives Ritsuka and Mash a new mission personally. During it, they all take a moment to reflect and contemplate. 

Our Take

After a few episodes of him just sitting on his throne and bossing everyone around, we get to learn more about the great king Gilgamesh. 

He heads to Ritsuka and Mash’s home base himself to give them their next mission.  We learn that the mission itself is not an official royal missive, but rather a personal inquiry and Gilgamesh himself joins them. As he walks through Uruk, he encourages the city folk doing their work and plays with the children on the sides of the street. Gilgamesh is incredibly rough and haughty, but he is also deeply invested in the well-being of his subjects. 

Later on, we also see a bit more of him through brief windows into his past. He reminisces upon the journey he took and we receive small glimpses of it at the end of the episode. 

This talk of past journeys becomes the pertinent theme of this episode. Ritsuka and Mash reminisce on their adventures as well. This turns into yet another opportunity to reference a moment in the original game’s story. No doubt the series’ fans might find pleasure in this callback. 

It also, at last, allows a scene to develop Mash’s character. She joins Ristuka on his grand missions to defend him, as is her duty. However, now she begins to ponder this. No doubt saving the world is important, but otherwise, what is she getting out of this personally? She was bred and raised for this and at first, felt obligated by her intended purpose. But now that she is looking back on it, she realizes she hadn’t questioned it before.  Since it was a decision she truly wasn’t involved in making, perhaps she shouldn’t be beholden to sticking with it. 

Yet at the same time, there is a part of her that wants to stick by it. There is a part of her that wants to follow Ritsuka and protect him though she doesn’t fully understand it. This moment is very brief, but the amount of insight it gives is constructive.

This contemplative moment is then rudely interrupted by the arrival of Enkidu. Although, it might not actually be Enkidu. But everything else about him is indicative that this is the real Enkidu. This sounds confusing, but I’m just going by what I’m being told here. Is he a clone, or a zombie, or a robot? The show is determined not to tell us in certain terms right now. I can acknowledge wanting to keep something a mystery, but we don’t need to be vigorously spun in thought circles like this. All we do know for sure is that this Enkidu is determined to kill Gilgamesh, for whatever reason. 

The fight that results from this baffling exchange is neat though. In contrast to the melee-heavy fight last episode, here we are treated to an array of ranged attacks. Flying swords and magical blasts assault the air in staggering numbers, leaving lots of destruction in their wake. This does feel more like a spectacle for the sake of spectacle, rather than a battle between two enemies. It’s just a sound and light show, almost like elaborate fireworks, but it’s cool. It may not be the best yet, but it is different than what we saw before. These alternating types of battles between the episodes allow for a variety of animation overall, which I appreciate. 

For all the solid individual moments this episode provided, it didn’t move the plot forward at all. If anything it just asked more questions that need to be addressed later. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But so far, all we’ve been getting are all sorts of questions and problems and no apparent effort being made to solve any of them. 

It feels like every episode adds a new antagonist. We need to see some sort of action being taken against them soon.