Fate/Extra: Last Encore – Oblitus Copernican Theory

Fate/Extra: Last Encore – Oblitus Copernican Theory

Fate/Extra: Last Encore - Oblitus Copernican Theory anime series cover art
Fate/Extra: Last Encore – Oblitus Copernican Theory

Series Overview (Part 1)

Fate/Extra: Last Encore – Oblitus Copernican Theory is the first 10 episodes of Fate/Extra: Last Encore. I don’t know why the last 3 episodes are a separate season, but I also don’t care enough to look up the answer. I’ll be reviewing that second part of the series later this week (I haven’t watched it yet).

Before we begin, this review is going to have spoilers, including the true names of the servants. If you don’t want to be spoiled, I suggest coming back after watching the first part of the series.

If you ask Fate series fans what the worst anime entry in the series is, you’ll probably get one of two answers. Either they’ll say it’s Apocrypha or Extra: Last Encore. Apocrypha definitely had its problems, but I enjoyed it for what it was — fan service. Extra: Last Encore is definitely the worst as far as I’m concerned.

The best way I can describe it to someone who hasn’t seen it is as such: It’s a Fate version of Sword Art Online. The entire series takes place within a virtual world created by a supercomputer known as the Moon Cell. And within this virtual world, there are seven levels the masters must climb in order to reach the Holy Grail.

But, since this is still Fate, nothing really makes sense. For example, something like 200+ masters started on level one, and they have to battle to the death in order to progress to the next level. However, only one master can progress. So once one master reaches the second level, it’s unclear how they progress further — there are no more opponents to fight.

I guess the logistics of this virtual Holy Grail War don’t really matter though because the series takes place 999 years later.

Masters and Servants

In classic Fate anime fashion, the protagonist, Hakuno Kishinami, has a cardboard personality. He’s definitely a better protagonist than Shirou from Unlimited Blade Works and Seig from Apocrypha, but he still falls short of someone like Kitisugu from Zero.

Also, obviously Illya is better in Prisma Illya.

Hakuno’s servant is Nero Claudius, a Saber. She’s often referred to as Red Saber to differentiate her from Artoria Pendragon. However, that still can cause some confusion because there’s also Saber of Red, which refers to Mordred. Ranking the three of them, I’d have to say Mordred > Nero > Artoria.

Nero has a fun personality, but that’s mainly all she has going for her. I know this is probably sacrilege, but I don’t particularly like her character design.

Francis Drake from the anime series Fate/Extra: Last Encore – Oblitus Copernican Theory
Francis Drake

The master of the first level is Shinji Matou. He has a Rider servant like always, but this time around it’s Francis Drake rather than Medusa. And also like always, his Rider servant is one-shot by the protagonist’s Saber. I like Drake, but I’ve never liked Shinji, which is a shame since I love Hiroshi Kamiya, his voice actor.

Dan Blackmore is the master of the second level. He’s a sniper who’s partnered with the Archer servant Robin Hood. I don’t really have anything else to say about them since they’re pretty straightforward.

I believe Alice and Nursery Rhyme were the master/servant combo of the third floor, though it could have been the fourth. One of the floors was skipped in the anime for some reason. There’s only seven floors, so why one of them was skipped over and simply mentioned in passing makes no sense to me.

Julius Belkisk Harwey is the master of the fifth floor with his “Berserker” servant Li Shuwen. Li is actually an Assassin class servant, but he’s been infected with madness enhancement, making him a Berserker for all intents and purposes.

And the final two masters are Rin Tohsaka and Rani VIII — both of floor six. Rin’s servant is Cu Chulainn (Lancer) while Rani’s is Lu Bu Fengxian (Berserker). What’s weird about Rin and Rani is that they don’t have separate servants; their servants are installed like in Prisma Illya.

Thoughts and Impressions (so far)

As I mentioned already, Fate/Extra: Last Encore isn’t good. The story is pretty bad (mainly because it doesn’t really make sense), the characters are generally boring with the exception of Nero, and I don’t see it getting any better in the second part.

Also, I thought best fox girl Tamamo-no-Mae was supposed to be in this series. It’s possible she could still show up in the final three episodes, but I think Netflix just lied to me.

But I think the thing that hurt this series most of all was that it just made me want more of the Fate/Grand Order singularities to be animated. For example, the whole level one part of Extra: Last Encore with Drake was pretty lackluster, but an anime for the Okeanos singularity of FGO would probably be good.

Nero Claudius from the anime series Fate/Extra: Last Encore – Oblitus Copernican Theory
Nero Claudius

I don’t want to only say bad things about Extra: Last Encore, though. So there is one thing I actually liked about this series, and that’s the historical accuracy (with regards to Nero). I never thought I’d say Fate was historically accurate.

As you probably don’t know (even though this has been relevant a few times before), I actually studied ancient Mediterranean (and Near Eastern) civilizations at university. That’s things like Greece, Rome, Egypt, Persia, etc.

The background given for Nero’s character in Extra: Last Encore is actually a lot better than in most pop culture depictions. Something Nero mentions is how she was beloved by the people, which is true. And she also mentions that although the people liked her, the Senate did not.

Besides graffiti, basically the only writings we have from that period come from the senator class of society. And for a Roman emperor, there were three main classes they needed to have on their side: the people, the military, and the Senate. If the Senate didn’t like an emperor, they generally went down in history as being bad (and some really were bad).

Conclusion

Fate/Extra: Last Encore – Oblitus Copernican Theory is a 5/10 for me. I think there’s enough entertainment value here to keep it from being a 4, but it’s pretty close. Depending on how the final three episodes go, the second part of the series may very well end up rated even lower than this one.

I’ve known the OP and ED songs for Fate/Extra: Last Encore for a long time — long before I watched the series. And I think both Bright Burning Shout and Moon & Bouquet are good songs. I might say Bright Burning Shout is slightly better. But I really didn’t like the visuals of the OP. The ED has much better visuals, so I’ll say it’s better overall.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

Leave a Comment