Fate: Last Encore

Fate: Last Encore, is one of the most recent incarnations of the formidable Fate franchise. It was received with mixed reviews, and viewers either loved it or hated it. Here’s my spin on what did and did not work in Fate: Last Encore.

Fate: Last Encore follows the male protagonist from the video-game Fate: Extella, and the saber class servant, Nero. The basic synopsis is that Hakuno (the protagonist) and Nero must battle their way through a multi-layered dungeon to reach the top of the “Moon Cell” and avert the total destruction of humanity. Unlike most Grail Wars, there are new rules and each time you defeat the reigning master of a floor you are immediately transported to the next level. Essentially, Fate: Last Encore retained the video-game feel from Extella and rolled with it.

Problem number one: we are ONCE AGAIN stuck with yet ANOTHER male protagonist for a Fate anime. Male Hakuno has all the usual traits of a Fate protagonist, complete with saber-face servant, whereas female Hakuno usually comes packing a Gilgamesh who’s proactively helping her . If you’re fighting to stop the end of the world, would you rather have the King of Heroes or the walking disaster that was Nero?

Apparently Last Encore thought we wanted the blank male with almost non-existent motives and killed female Hakuno off early on. Bluntly put, if Fate had let female Hakuno keep Gilgamesh in Last Encore, we wouldn’t be in the predicament we are in the first episodes. I didn’t think that Hakuno and Nero were a bad pair, but they would have been able to shine better as a side duo. Basically, they weren’t strong enough to have their own show, but Fate thought they were.

Second problem: Nero comes packing the most blatant set of plot armor I have ever seen. Fighting Sir Francis Drake, a Rider with a boat phantasm, on an immense body of water? No problem for the umu emperor! She uses imperial privilege and punches right through with no difficulty.

Robin Hood and his strange multi-faceted phantasm? If you are both invisible and kill me by exploding my blood…I’ll just leave all my blood here! Makes sense right?

Nero is NOT a horrible character, but she was so buffed up with plot armor and random pieces of nonsense that she was impossible to take seriously. Hakuno had his own set of magical powers that made him oh-so-invincible, but that was so poorly executed, and such an over-used Fate cliche, it made me lose interest even faster.

 

They even threw in giant Emiya statues and teasers of a Rin/Cu Chulainn team up! Why was Rin even in Last Encore? Still haven’t figured that out myself.

 

The final straw for me was the last major servant against servant fight. On the last floor, Hakuno and Nero come up against the servant that Nero couldn’t beat last time. The only reason she and Fem!Hakuno passed the first time was because the master allowed them to.

Gawain and Leo were both a stroke of genius and the biggest failure that Last Encore came up with. Gawain, despite being this formidable beast with a reputation for being both a trash-talker and an unforgiving opponent, was amazingly civil. He took Nero and co. to what was essentially fem!Hakuno’s grave and made everyone a cup of tea. Nero and Gawain were polite and Nero didn’t have a problem with him once she realized he wasn’t going to fight her. In fact, when she saw the damage Gawain had been carrying around since their last battle, she looked horrified and even concerned about the other Saber’s well-being. When the protagonist discovered how long Gawain had been on the final level, tending flowers and waiting for the end, he was suitably impressed.

A servant having to keep themselves materialized for that long? That just isn’t right. (Looking at you Leo)

Gawain’s objectification of himself was sad, to say the least, but once the fight started, everything went downhill.

The battle between Gawain and Nero felt like a cheap rip-off of the Karna vs Siegfried fight in Fate Apocrypha. Neither Gawain nor Nero pulled off their fight to the same degree as Sieg and Karna.

Nero’s plot armor saved the day, and Gawain was beaten with only the slightest bit of trouble. She had stated earlier that she feared Gawain’s phantasm, since she couldn’t beat him. But with her new master at her side, it wasn’t an earth-breaking problem. I had some issues with how easily she handled the fight (minus some necessary dramatic moments).

Please note that Gawain was breaking her reality marble apart, something we have never seen a servant capable of in Fate before, and she shrugged it off as though it was no big deal. (In older Fate series, Gilgamesh was stuck in a reality marble for an entire fight. Not to say that he couldn’t bust out, but that it probably took a lot of effort/strength to break down an entire phantam). The writers explained it as Gawain being tired and worn down from being around so long on the last level.

That’s all fine and good at first glance. 

Later on, (SPOILER ALERT) Gawain has to burst through part of the final boss’s defense mechanism/power circle. Gawain is able to chip of an enormous piece of it, thus enabling Nero and Hakuno to finish the job. If Gawain can break the final boss’s armor via phantasm, why wasn’t he able to incinerate Nero? And if Nero can stand up Gawain’s phantasm, she’s stronger than the boss, and shouldn’t need any help with it in the first place! (SPOILER END)

I can talk more about Gawain and Nero than the other servants because the two of them have the most screen-time. I’m still a little salty about the crap that went down with Robin Hood and Francis Drake, but since they were only one-episode beat-downs, there’s not as much material to rant about.

Last Encore does have a few things going for it. It has the pre-set universe of Fate that guarantees at  least some level of popularity. It is also surprisingly attractive, all things considered. Nero’s aesthetic is beautiful and the anime has a unique and interesting style that was interesting to watch.

That said, Fate: Last Encore, was a big let-down and probably the worst installment of the Fate series to date.

But that’s just my opinion.