The Divine Realm of the Round Table became one of the highlights of the year fans of the Fate franchise. Fate has been an ever growing popularity both in Japan and overseas for the extensive world building it has done over the years. Watching the two-part movie was like seeing one of the best forms of storytelling done through animation has to offer. The Divine Realm of the Round Table; Camelot Wandering and Agateram was seeing folklore retold and it was beautiful as an art.
It’s not an understatement that trying to summarize what the Fate series is would be challenging even among long term fans of the franchise. The creator of the Fate series has implied that the events are best understood when viewing the entire thing as a story telling from a multiverse perspective. And the different shows that follow are the what if or side routes. For someone going in blind watching the show, expect certain personalities known in history to have different story origins, gender bent characters, and complicated rule systems that somehow everything just mixes up fine and we’re just going to have to get over it.
I tried explaining what the Fate series is to friends as a show and it just begs more questions as I go along with the answers. The depth of the stories Nasu’s has written grew into several branches that it’s difficult to keep up especially if you can’t understand the original light novels and games the show were based from.
To me, the Fate series is like that world history book where the Divine Realm of the Round Table is a chapter to a greater saga. But the history book is kept rewritten as new content is added to the expanding story because the Fate franchise is a multiverse. Characters that exists on multiple stories of the franchise without knowing what happens with the other universes is a norm here. The Fate Grand Order is one of those universes that branched out from the original stories. It’s based off a mobile game.
There are spoilers ahead.
Plot:
[Prequel to the Movie] The organization Chaldea stationed its HQ at the ends of the Earth’s pole was tasked to ensure humanity’s survival for the next 100 years. An alarm was triggered that it forecasted the incineration of humanity stemming from the seven different Singularities that occurred throughout human history. Here several master candidates (mages) are gathered to harness the power of the spiritron system where they can time travel and summon Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes from a place beyond space and time to fight for them and correct the Singularities.
Singularities are events that force incongruence to the known panhuman history. Think of a fractured past that becomes a cancer and splits itself therefore severing its ties to the future. Due to sabotage prior to starting the first mission in correcting the first Singularity, a lot of the candidates except one (protagonist Ritsuka Fujimaru) was able to survive along with the Demi-Servant named Mash Kyrielight. So it came up to the two with the help of Director Romani Archaman and Leonardo Da Vinci to save humanity from the brink of extinction. Thus, operation Grand Order was initiated.
Note: I know I skipped explaining some details here and there but I did mention that trying to summarize what the Fate series stories was a tall order. I know some would be asking questions like is the Da Vinci mentioned here assumed to be the Da Vinci we know? Yes and no, plus gender bent and plot magic you’ll get over it.
Divine Realm of The Round Table: Camelot Wandering and Agateram
Takes place during the 6th Singularity around the era of crusades for the holy land. The Singularity happened around the time the crusaders already won in congruence to how history should have proceeded. The Knights of the Round Table summoned by the Lion King (formerly King Arthur) have wiped out crusaders and other opposing forces such as the nomadic tribes people. This Singularity has been foreshadowed to be more complex than the previous Singularities given that other servants have been summoned such as Ozymandias, a former pharaoh of Egypt who was in possession of the holy grail (will be discussed further later).
In an attempt to save humanity from complete extinction, the Lion King has initiated a screening process for those worthy of salvation. On the other hand, Ozymandias decides to move his new found Egypt away from the Lion King’s camp as a separate faction where he establishes a different method to escape humanity’s incineration. These events have already begun prior to Ritsuka, Mash, and Da Vinci’s entry into the realm. The objective was to recover the Holy Grail to fix the Singularity but this wasn’t always the case as Chaldea encounters more factors that complicate the mission.
Enter Sir Bedivere, the last loyal and wandering Knight of King Arthur in search for the late King for 1,500 years. The journey has brought him to the ends of the world at Avalon where Merlin’s tower is. The grand wizard watches over humanity and through his help restores Sir Bedivere’s body from years of wear and tear. This was to help the knight in carrying out his mission to atone for the sins he had committed which will be unraveled through the show. With a restored body, we wanders to Divine Realm of Camelot in search of the King he once lost to atone and return something which was lost.
Notes: I know I left some parts missing parts intentionally because bombarding with information overload isn’t going to help at all. I know whoever hasn't encountered the Fate franchise rabbit hole, it's difficult to absorb the plot. I tried. Again, the Fate series is a rabbit hole on its own and Fate Grand Order has been one of the biggest contributors to deepen wealth of content within the Nasuverse.
Singularities occur during Holy Grail wars where seven masters and their servants battle it out to the last one standing in order to gain the lesser Holy Grail to summon the greater Holy Grail that will grant the master and servant’s wishes. This is the basic plot of all Fate shows and everything else is added layer for subplots and character backstories. But in the context of the Fate Grand Order, the scale spans across different timelines making this installment of the franchise larger in terms of story content.
The 6th Singularity in the game was probably the most challenging level for FGO players. There were several levels that punished players for not leveling up important game characters for those niche situations and much more. Playing the 6th Singularity caught me off guard with how rich the content was in terms of story-telling compared to previous Singularities. Seeing the movie and executing some of the most iconic scenes within the game was worthwhile.
This movie isn’t ideal for those starting to explore the Fate franchise due to the amount of backstory to get the context of how and why the events unfold. When you’re watching an anime from the Fate series, the events that happen are both connected and not within their respective universes.
My hats off to the entire production team for bringing to life the story of this Singularity. While there were plenty of material that didn’t make it into the movie from the game, the show managed to make up for it by adding more life to the story beyond the limitations of what the game could convey.
Seeing the studio name Ufotable has become a reliable brand that you can expect the show is going to turn out good. Ufotable has held a solid reputation in terms of making the best fighting scenes using a blend of 2D and 3D animation in anime. This is something not a lot of studios can pull off and they have consistent as seen from their other projects like Demon Slayer.
I strongly recommend playing the game or becoming familiar with the Fate series first before watching this film because of how much dependent it is on context. It’s really meant for those fans of the show while still have something for potential audiences to enjoy. If I never played the game first, the movie can still be enjoyed but I’ll have to backtrack some of the references to keep up with what’s going on.
In terms of story and dialogue, the mobile game version wins given how much depth can be conveyed through the several scenes in the game as opposed to a limited screen time in this film. The movie brings the best parts about the written story alive and reinterpreted in its given medium without losing the message. This was a beautiful movie but my bias is brought about being familiar with the story prior. The movie has cut out scenes from the game and added more content into the film. There are missing characters from the game that weren’t shown in the film.
If you’re interested in what happens after the Divine Realm of The Round Table, the FGO:Absolute Demonic Front; Babylonia series was already out before this film and it’s set in the 7th Singularity.
If you made it this far reading, thank you for your time.