English Dub Review: Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia; “Star of the Beginning, We Look Up at the Sky”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The defenders of Uruk take the rest of the night to be with each other and help find their resolve. The next day, the hasty arrival of Tiamat the next day forces them to play their hand earlier than expected, and expend much more power as well.  

Our Take

Right off the bat, Gilgamesh reminds us all once again that he is the consummate leader of Uruk. He usually carries himself with an air of grand self-importance that is half-humorous and half-unflattering. But he does often prove that he deserves his clout, as we see him encourage Mash and then later the Uruk populace at large. 

Later that night he even goes out of this way to lift the spirits of Kingu, who is still impotently limping outside of Uruk. Even after witnessing Kingu navel-gazing in the decaying body of his old friend, Gilgamesh does Kingu a favor and heals him. He almost certainly does this more because of his concealed sentimentality rather than just his bravado. 

The nighttime conversations make a comeback for the other characters as well. Fujimaru and Quetzalcoatl have a short and rote conversation where they reassure each other. Mash and Ishtar have a conversation that begins with talking about Fujimaru, but fortunately, they move away from it and any potential unnecessary romantic tension. They then have a candid talk about overcoming fear, complete with a timely flashback to what Mash learned from Leonidas. 

The war room discussion resumes the next morning. They talk about how Tiamat’s legs are too small to support the weight of the rest of her body, meaning she can only traverse by walking on her pliable black mud. This is a surprisingly realistic technicality that they point out and take advantage of. Not that it doesn’t hold water, but it’s odd to see something that’s based on real physics as opposed to the stream of magical technobabble we usually get. 

Unfortunately for them, Tiamat is getting closer to Uruk hours before they expected her to and they have to muster immediately, deciding to have Quetzalcoatl use her Noble Phantasm to stop Tiamat in her tracks. They take Quetzalcoatl’s ancient birds and meet the encroaching Tiamat and her hoards of winged Lahmu in heated, epic aerial combat. 

Then, to make a critical situation even more critical, the corrupt husk of Ushiwakamaru intrudes on the party to sabotage them once again. He certainly adds another layer of excitement to the midair battle with his acrobatic swordplay, but this is definitely not what the party needs. Fortunately, Benkei chooses the right moment to make his dramatic return; just in time to handle Ushiwaka so that the others can advance, and right before the series end and we completely forget he even existed. After a tense exchange of blows, Quetzalcoatl successfully powers up and unleashes her Noble Phantasm, a tremendous, titanic fireball with the power of a nuclear bomb. Ushiwaka and Benkei are destroyed within its blast radius, and Tiamat’s black mud hardens and halts her advance, though Quetzalcoatl must continue to constantly channel her power to keep her stopped. 

Tiamat, however, easily overcomes this and starts flying. This is obviously bad because the idea was to stop her, but evidently, this should also be impossible because a goddess of the earth shouldn’t be able to fly. Unlike all of the other nebulous particulars, this one strangely doesn’t get addressed, though I suppose that in the heat of battle isn’t the best time to exposit. 

Quetzalcoatl doesn’t give up, though, and focuses all of her power once again for her final attack, a second Noble Phantasm. This is by far the craziest Noble Phantasm yet. She jumps into outer space and descends upon Tiamat with an incredibly decisive dive kick, receiving an influx of magical power from Fujimaru’s final command spell to help seal the deal. 

All of the animation during this one sequence of Quetzalcoatl’s second Noble Phantasm might just be the best animation yet. All of the magic visual effects are on point as usual, but the highlight is definitely in the character expressions. Their faces are drawn with an absolutely visceral level of detail, all of their individual features fully shown, which excellently portrays the raw determination that all of the characters have as they fight. Additionally, Quetzalcoatl’s entire body, from her legs to every strand of her hair, is rendered with that same level of exacting granularity to display the sheer magnitude of her power as it causes her body to crumble. This level of detail and style are so particular and so specifically contained within this one sequence that I imagine that they must’ve hired one notable animator to handle its direction.  

Sadly, even two back-to-back ultimate attacks are not enough to even temporarily stop Tiamat. She gets back up after everything they throw at her like an unstoppable monolith of divine power. But Fujimaru also resolves to be unstoppable, despite having lost most of his energy helping Quetzalcoatl. Just then, Gorgon emerges from the earth right at the end and throws her snakes into the ring, appearing to be there to aid the party in some unknown capacity. 

The decisive plan to take down Tiamat definitely got started way ahead of schedule, but the results were definitely worth it and speak completely for themselves. Now with Gorgon entering the mix, the epic battle may continue even longer.