Fate/Grand Order -First Order- is a 2016 television special based on Type-Moon’s Fate/Stay Night franchise and Fate/Grand Order mobile game. The anime is produced by studio Lay-duce with director Hitoshi Nanba, writer Ayumi Sekine, and publisher Aniplex. The special first broadcast in Japan on December 2016.
Background:
“The year AD 2017.
The last era in which magecraft still thrived.The Chaldea Security Organization was founded to ensure the continuation of human history. They survey a world which magecraft couldn’t observe and science couldn’t measure all to prevent the certain extinction of humanity.
But one day, the future that Chaldea continued to observe disappears and humanity’s extinction in 2019 becomes clear. Rather, it had already happened. The cause seems to be related to Fuyuki, a provincial town in Japan, in the year AD 2004. There, an “unobservable region” that had not existed before appears.
Based on the assumption that Fuyuki is the reason for humanity’s extinction, Chaldea issues an order to explore, investigate, and possibly destroy this singularity – a quest for the Holy Grail, the Grand Order.”
Plot Synopsis via Aniplex of America, October 2017.
The Fate franchise is known for taking historical figures from all over the world and placing them together in an anime that does various things, mostly a “battle to the death” scenario as seen with Fate/Stay Night. Along the way you do get some very interesting twists and turns.
The franchise got so popular with Fate/Stay Night that it had created so many spin-offs. One of those spin-offs is a mobile gacha game called Fate/Grand Order which is still running to this date and is one of the most popular to this date. One of the game’s appeals is the story which is split into different arcs, and eventually they decided to offer a prologue for the game with Fate/Grand Order -First Order-, a television special animated by studio Lay-duce rather than Ufotable who did the recent Fate/Stay Night adaptations.
Aniplex of America picked up the English-speaking rights for the special, provided an English dub and released it on Blu-ray in a limited edition package, which pretty much follows their usual model. MVM Entertainment and Madman Entertainment in the United Kingdom and Australia were allowed to sub-license from Aniplex to release standard edition regular Blu-rays for those regions at a lower price.
Limited Edition Contents:
Aniplex of America may be known for their expensive prices, but in return they also offer some interesting packaging for their titles. Fate/Grand Order: First Order is a strange case of replicating the design of the Japanese release.
This package is not a rigid box like other Fate box sets, but rather it’s basically a digipack protected by a clear o-card slipcase. Inside the set is also the television special’s original soundtrack CD and a deluxe booklet. The booklet is brief but it includes character artwork, and designs for the anime.
The artwork is free of any information and the sheet covers the information and specification. Aniplex titles are known for their limited quantity and sometimes re-releases with less packaging content, but currently there’s no plan for another release. The unit count for Aniplex releases is not known but it’s probably a few thousand and likely reprinted given its Fate. The SRP for this release is $89.98.
Physical Contents:
- Clear slipcase with digipack packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification
- Original Soundtrack CD
- 20-page Booklet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Aniplex of America
Released: 24th October 2017
The limited edition release for Fate/Grand Order: First Order contains the special on a single Blu-ray disc which was authored/encoded by Aniplex. The audio options available for the Aniplex of America release include Japanese with English & Spanish subtitles and a Bang Zoom! Entertainment English dub.
The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are playable to Blu-ray players set to A, B and C (basically region free, Aniplex generally don’t region lock their releases).
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B C |
| Subtitles | English, Spanish |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 1 BD-50 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
- Fate/Grand Order Game Opening
- Fate/Grand Order Announcement Trailer
- Fate/Grand Order Game Trailer
- Fate/Grand Order Saber Trailer
- Fate/Grand Order Rider Trailer
- Fate/Grand Order Assassin Trailer
- Fate/Grand Order Caster Trailer
- Fate/Grand Order Lancer Trailer
- Fate/Grand Order Berserker Trailer
- Fate/Grand Order Archer Trailer
- First Order Dub PV
- First Order Cast Interview
- Credits
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
The limited edition release of Fate/Grand Order: First Order is available to order exclusively through Rightstuf, but an affordable UK version is available through multiple retailers like Amazon.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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