I really enjoyed the mainline Fate works. Fate/Zero, UBW and Heaven’s Feel. But this just doesn’t pack the same punch as those three did. Plus this isn’t done by ufotable so you can’t expect that crisp, fluid animation either.
This just feels like it took every bad thing from the previous Fate’s then just rolled them up into a single package. I’m honestly at a conjuncture about whether I should drop this or not. It’s just soo bad.
This isn’t to say there aren’t any positives. There are a few good characters. But the majority just falls through IMO. It’s not that they aren’t explored. There’s enough backstory given to them. But it doesn’t make them any more interesting than they are. I think they are better described as long-named isekai light novel characters than anything.
Then there’s the action. It just feels so formulaic. Like, you have a couple of guys in group 1 fighting a couple of guys in group 2. Then they both retreat. Rinse and repeat while adding some casualties here and there. The chemistry isn’t enough to make those encounters dramatic or memorable. They just happen. And the context you’re given isn’t enough to add enough depth for you to care about it either.
In a way, what I see wrong in the writing here is that the story is pushing a narrative of war most of the time. But it doesn’t do anything to give this a wartime vibe. All infantry are disposable homunculi or summoned creatures. There are no outside casualties so you aren’t led to think about the moral implications of the grail war. Then after pushing so hard about being a war, when two servants meet with each other, we go down an exposition rabbit hole about each’s origins and backstory. like WTF, they’re in the middle of a fight and you think that’s what I want to see right now!? You think I care about that?? I’m not saying this is a bad way to handle it, Heaven’s Feel does an absolutely fantastic job of mixing exposition with action scenes. But this… this is not the way to go about it.