Fate / Grand Order: Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia

 Time for some more Fate to watch!

While I know I`ve not been going through the sequence, which seemingly nobody knows exactly anyways, I really like the franchise and how it depicts legendary figures.  Apocrypha, with Shakespeare as a caster for instance, was really great in my mind.

And now we have the series detailing the Operation Grand Order.  After the Mage King Solomon has decimated humanity, and now it rests on the last master of the Chaldea organisation, Ritsuka Fujimaru, to travel back in time and prevent the extinction event.  Together with the semi-servant Mash Kyrielight, they travel back to long before the birth of Christ to find Uruk, the last singularity.  Together with for example Gilgamesh, they must hold back demonic beasts and solve the singularity.

And so the battle for the seventh Holy Grail, which is the artifact Solomon had sent back in time, is about to begin.  Upon arrival, they meet Ishtar (who looks a lot like Rin of other series btw), who tells them a bit about the world and the demonic beasts, and Enkidu, who apparently waited for their arrival in this era.  This kind-hearted hero is the Weapon of the Gods, originally created to return Gilgamesh back to the heavens.  He tells them the Three Goddesses Alliance are the real enemy of humanity, having taken over already 60% of Mesopotamia, but that hopes lies with the fortress of Babylonia.

But Enkidu betrays them as he turns out to be an imposter, and they are safed by Merlin and Ana whom they encountered in the woods.  Merlin is the watcher of the world, and Ana a rogue Servant, summoned by the Grail but without any Master.  Together, they arrive at Uruk, ruled by Gilgamesh.  They are granted an audience before him, and strike a deal to obtain the Grail if they defeat the Three Godesses alliance.

After finding out more of the lands, Gilgamesh joins them on a transportation job to see how the land is going.  But as he encounters Enkidu, he shows a part of his powers.  More and more Fujimaru and his companions learn about the plan that is being put in action, and try to prevent it.  This leads to a premature awakening of Tiamat, seemingly Enkidu's mother.

Being forced back by Tiamat and barely saved by the false Enkidu, called Kingu, they are send out by Gilgamesh to try and bribe the second of the Three Godesses's, Ishtar, to their cause.  They manage to convince her with the help of the Chaldea homefront.  They set out to stop Quetzalcoatl, recruiting the strange Jaguar Warrior as well to their cause, only to find out she didn`t kill anyone at all but is making them ready to become jaguar troops.

Gilgamesh "dies" from working to hard, and our heroes travel to the Underworld to find him.  Here they join forces to fight the godess Ereshkigal.  After formulating their next move, they take on Gorgon, with Ana lending their power and evolving to her second form.  Together, they confront the Gorgon, as Ana sacrifices herself to defeat the monster.  Kingu appears, confronting them, and starting a spacial timequake.  This causes a heap of strange demonic beast creatures to appear in Uruk, called Lahmu.  Kingu intervenes, but he get's attacked instead by the beasts as the Gorgon wants to revive through him.  But she has other aces in her sleeve, as a "darkened" ghost from the past arrives.  They prepare to face Tiamat herself, as she treatens all of humanity.  As long as life exists, she seemingly can`t be defeated, but the godess of the Underworld appears to help them out.

A lovely series, and while for me not as great as Fate/Stay Night, it was very captivating as odds kept stacking up and up.  The tale of how to convince the godesses to join their fight was nicely wrapped around the overgrowing arc as well, not a simple beat and join up but the seeing of reason why to save Mesopotamia.

And of course, Gilgamesh...