Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia (Fate/Grand Order -絶対魔獣戦線バビロニア-, Feito/Gurando Ōdā – Zettai Majuu Sensen Babironia) is a 2019 television anime series based on the mobile game series Fate/Grand Order developed by Delightworks, which is then based on Type-Moon’s Fate/Stay Night franchise. The series was produced by studio CloverWorks, and the staff credits include director Toshifumi Akai, screenplay writers Chiaki Nagai, Fūta Takei, Hikaru Sakurai, Ukyō Kodachi & Yuichiro Higashide, character designer Tomoaki Takase, and music composers Keita Haga & Ryo Kawasaki. The series first aired in Japan in October 2019.
Background:
“A seventh Singularity has been discovered in ancient Mesopotamia in the year 2655 B.C.
The land of Uruk, governed by the wise King Gilgamesh after he returned from his quest for immortality, was grand and prosperous until three goddesses and countless Demonic Beasts appeared. These enemies have brought Uruk to the brink of destruction. With a Rayshift—a method of traveling across both time and space—Fujimaru and Mash journey to the land of Uruk, where they encounter the fortress city of Uruk and the Absolute Demonic Front, where a terrible battle against the fearsome onslaught of the Demonic Beasts rages. There, the citizens of Uruk, who live their lives to the fullest despite facing an existential threat, continue to fight for their future. Deities and Demonic Beasts attack with terrifying force, and mankind pushes back with all its might… This is the era where humans and gods are destined to part ways.
Fujimaru and Mash, the pair who have fought through all six previous Singularities, embark on their final battle.”
Plot Synopsis via Aniplex of America, March 2021.
Type-Moon have worked on a few projects over the past few decades but it was Fate/Stay Night that blew it tremendously both locally and internationally. While some prefer Kara no Kyoukai or Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night was more popular and known amongst the community. The original eroge visual novel was mostly known internationally through its anime adaptation by studio Deen and then popularity resurged itself when Ufotable released their anime adaptations for both Fate/Zero and the Fate/Stay Night [Unlimited Blade Works] series.
And if you thought that was it for the franchise, Aniplex & Delightworks then decided to produce a gacha mobile game called Fate/Grand Order in 2015, expanding the franchise with tons of new storylines and characters. To summarise I would say that it’s similar in concept to Marvel’s Avengers because various Fate stories collide with this gacha. From there it is pretty much one of the most profitable games ever made and I recall it gathered billions of dollars in revenue, which is pretty impressive considering the gacha wasn’t available internationally for most of its time (the UK for instance didn’t get official access until 2022, whereas North America has had it since 2017).
Rather than adapting another version of the Fate story route or even Hollow Ataraxia, Aniplex and Type-Moon decided to adapt some of the arcs that Fate/Grand Order have to offer. Previously we saw a one-off special called Fate/Grand Order -First Order- which was a mini tease or promotion to what the gacha game has to offer, but now we have more than that.
The first one that appeared was Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, which is an adaptation of the 7th Singularity arc: Babylonia that is part of the Observer on Timeless Temple storyline. Now despite being that far into the story; Aniplex, CloverWorks, Delightworks and Type-Moon have pretty much made sure that anime only viewers are able to jump into Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia without having any prior knowledge of the previous singularity arcs. That said, I do recommend having some knowledge of the Fate/Stay Night anime to make it easier to jump in.
As you may have guessed at this point, Aniplex of America have the English speaking rights for the IP, which includes Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia and interestingly it streamed through Funimation during simulcast, before eventually being made available on Crunchyroll after a timed-window. The series did make its way onto home video and much like previous Fate titles, Aniplex of America used the premium Japanese home video style approach with their releases which means high retail costs and some interesting physical item inclusions.
Now Aniplex has no problem making their titles available to other distributors in other regions, for instance Madman was available to license and release Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia for Australia & New Zealand, but for some reason the United Kingdom & Ireland were left out. MVM Entertainment did try to license the rights but to no avail, and since then barely any Aniplex of America titles has had a chance in the UK outside of Demon Slayer‘s first season and film. Even in 2023 going into 2024, Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia has yet to receive a UK home video release.
Limited Edition Contents:
Aniplex of America are rather inconsistent when it comes to packaging designs because Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia went for the same layout that Anohana had received.
Each limited edition box set features a rigid box that houses an Amaray case as well as a special booklet. The booklets for each set offers character designs, illustration artwork, information about the world and some interviews.
The rigid box artwork is free of any information and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Aniplex limited edition releases, however there is no title on the spine for these sets which is little annoying so you will want to keep hold of the info card to help identify what it is. The SRP for the limited edition Box Set I was $149.98 while Box Set II was $124.98 as it includes a lower episode count. Both sets don’t have an exact unit count, but Aniplex tends to reprint these releases until a complete series box set is available in Japan.
I ordered the limited edition from Rightstuf during the Farewell discount code sale, which is a rare opportunity to which Aniplex of America titles were able to be discounted for a cheaper price. Aniplex of America don’t provide standard editions for their TV shows unless it’s a complete collection box set, and currently there isn’t one available by the US distributor.
Physical Contents (for each Box Set):
- Rigid Box with Amaray packaging
- Mini obi for information & specification positioned on the spine
- Box Set I: 48-page Booklet
- Box Set II: 52-page Booklet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Aniplex of America
Released: 30th March 2021 (Box Set I), 29th June 2021 (Box Set II)
The Aniplex Blu-ray releases for Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia contains episodes 0-11 across three Blu-ray releases in Box Set I, and episodes 12-21 across three Blu-ray discs in Box Set II. All the discs were authored & encoded by Aniplex. The audio options available for the Aniplex of America release include Japanese with English 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 |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | Box Set 1: 3 BD-50s Box Set 2: 3 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Box Set I – Disc 1:
- Textless Materials:
- Textless Opening “Phantom Joke”
- Textless Ending “Hoshi ga Furu Yume (星が降るユメ, Dreams in the Falling Stars)”
- Textless Ending Ver. 2
- Web Previews for Episodes 1-11
- PVs:
- Teaser PV
- PV 1
- PV 2
- Episode 0 PV
- Episode 5 Special PV
- CMs:
- CM 1
- CM 2
- Short Trailer (Chaldea Version)
- Short Trailer (Uruk Version)
- Short Trailer (Servant Version)
- 30 Second Commercial
- English Dub Trailer
Box Set I – Disc 2:
- Recap I “The Beginning of the Journey”
Box Set I – Disc 3:
- Recap II “Battle of the Souls”
Box Set II – Disc 2:
- Recap III “Final Battle”
Box Set II – Disc 3:
- Textless Materials:
- Textless Opening “Phantom Joke”
- Textless Ending “Prover”
- Episode 16 Special Ending “Tell Me”
- Web Previews for Episodes 12-21
- PVs:
- PV 3
- Special PV “Tell Me”
- CMs:
- “Fate/Grand Order – Final Singularity The Grand Temple of Time: Solomon” – Announcement
Unboxing Photos:
Box Set I:
Box Set II:
Final Notes:
Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Aniplex of America in the US & Canada territories. The limited edition Box Set I & II are both exclusive to retailer Crunchyroll Store as of October 2023.
The Normanic Vault 
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