Fate/EXTRA Last Encore

[BleachedGears]

As I've been saying, if you have 15 episodes worth of important information and 12 episodes to air it in, somethings gotta go. If an editor says they need a story that is 300 pages and they get a manuscript that's 450 after they edit out all the extra parts, that's a failure by the author not the editor. If they still have to use that story and cut it down to 300 pages, that's still a failure on the author, the editor just had to deal with it.

While they might have an unlimited budget, no one wants to waste money. They, and the channel airing the show, dont want to spend money buying an extra season's worth of time slots for less than a season's worth of content. Double episode aren't an option either, as other shows have already contracted for those time slots.

[Astroprogs]

Hahahahahahahahaha no

Isn't F/GO a shared IP between Notes and Sony Music?

As I've been saying, if you have 15 episodes worth of important information and 12 episodes to air it in, somethings gotta go. If an editor says they need a story that is 300 pages and they get a manuscript that's 450 after they edit out all the extra parts, that's a failure by the author not the editor. If they still have to use that story and cut it down to 300 pages, that's still a failure on the author, the editor just had to deal with it.

While they might have an unlimited budget, no one wants to waste money. They, and the channel airing the show, dont want to spend money buying an extra season's worth of time slots for less than a season's worth of content. Double episode aren't an option either, as other shows have already contracted for those time slots.

I think I understand the problem here. Where did the assumption that they've decided on the episode count before any of the actual content was written in the first place come from?

EDIT: Goddamn autocorrect.

[bassgs435]

As I've been saying, if you have 15 episodes worth of important information and 12 episodes to air it in, somethings gotta go. If an editor says they need a story that is 300 pages and they get a manuscript that's 450 after they edit out all the extra parts, that's a failure by the author not the editor. If they still have to use that story and cut it down to 300 pages, that's still a failure on the author, the editor just had to deal with it.

While they might have an unlimited budget, no one wants to waste money. They, and the channel airing the show, dont want to spend money buying an extra season's worth of time slots for less than a season's worth of content. Double episode aren't an option either, as other shows have already contracted for those time slots.

Look dude. Dies irae's adaptation didn't have enough budget for even 13 episodes, and still managed to get 18 episodes (I'm including episode 0 here)
A fucking adaptation of an RPG maker game (Satsuriku no Tenshi/Angels of Slaughter) has 16 episodes confirmed.
In the time of the net, when you can air your last episodes on legal streaming sites (which is what Dies did and apparently what SnT will do), I can't believe Kinoko fucking Nasu and Shaft (The studio behind the incredibly sucessful Monogatari series) can't get the number of episodes they want.

[Alternative Ice]

While they might have an unlimited budget, no one wants to waste money. They, and the channel airing the show, don't want to spend money buying an extra season's worth of time slots for less than a season's worth of content. Double episode aren't an option either, as other shows have already contracted for those time slots.

That point's a little moot considering they didn't finish the show in one season's worth of time slots and have to air a quadruple episode special months later.

[OverMaster]

For the first part, I disagree, personally. Who exactly is Last Encore aimed at?

Certainly not newcomers, who are completely clueless about way too many essential things in the show, which doesn't even do the leg work to keep them up to speed, neither with plot info nor the character exploration of the enemy Masters and Servants. Same applies to the F/GO audience.

Old fans could enjoy a new story, but not one this inconsequential to its own universe. Things like "Dead Face" and the time skip feel like they belong to a complete material book, rather than concepts to actually build an entire story on.

While I don't disagree with you, it seems to me many current anime creators overstimate a fandom's capacity to follow products related to a franchise or another even if they can't really stand on their own.

The recent UQ Holder anime comes to mind. Anyone who followed the Negima/UQ Holder fiasco will know the anime didn't stand on its own merits, narratively, artistically, or any other way, but JC Staff didn't learn the hard lessons taught to XEBEC and (ironically) Shaft from their anime takes on Negima and believed they'd hit on a motherload if they just banked on their own take to sell as long as it had Evangeline, 'Happy Material' as the OP and the obligatory finale where the last minute crisis is solved by all of Negi's students doing stupid things with magic until the threat collapses on its own.

Last Order wasn't as bad as that. It didn't pander so much (it took compromises it stuck to even though doing otherwise might have been more comercially successful, like putting Tamamo or Arcueid in even if they couldn't have thought of a good way to do so), the production values are much higher than Holder's, and there was much more of a clear creative vision, but overall I think there also was some of the old 'our Japanese otaku will faithfully buy anything as long as it mascot's face, a Special Edition, and such, no matter the price, the schedule or the narrative coherence, and so we don't need newcomers' mentality involved. It's a perception that has sunk itself hard into the anime companies' mindset.

[Astroprogs]

This is all very true, which is insane, considering what Nasu said after the first LE episode aired about how it's for both old fans and newcomers.

Honestly, even the fanon notion of "Nasu just wanted to do his own thing, regardless of what other people thought" doesn't make any sense to me, because what's the point of making it an anime then? It wouldn't be the first time Nasu's put stuff on his blog, so what exactly in LE warrants it to have a full-fledged anime adaptation by one of the most accomplished studios/directors in the current anime era?

This doesn't seem to me like anything other than an honest attempt by Nasu to use all the ideas he couldn't put in the final cut of the game but enclosed in the wrap of a "new original story".
LE is basically a clever way to rewrite EXTRA featuring the new concepts, without actually calling it a rewrite. Seriously, it's a true shame it turned out this way.

[Mcjon01]

I’m just glad that Nasu’s book will definitely be a limited edition Blu-ray bonus and that it will be able to be hailed as a masterpiece of the EXTRA universe for the years it goes untranslated

[Wandering Swordwoman]

I’m just glad that Nasu’s book will definitely be a limited edition Blu-ray bonus and that it will be able to be hailed as a masterpiece of the EXTRA universe for the years it goes untranslated

lmao

[BleachedGears]

Replying to a buncha stuff here.

I don't know for sure that it was decided before the script was written, but it would seem like something that would be decided early in negotiations. A lot of other factors are effected by show length, so it would likely be one of the first things to be decided. We know Nasu was given free reign to write what he wanted, which could only happen if the basic idea of the show was pretty well set, making it likely episode count was decided before Nasu wrote the story. Shaft is also an experienced studio, meaning they would understand that episode count has a major impact on how a story is written and that an author would likely want that information.

As for this being a story for him, we know he made it as an anime because he Shaft told him he could write whatever he wanted. Sure he's said he did an original work to appeal to older and newer fans, but given the final product that doesn't seems to just be a justification for him to write what he wanted. If there were a bunch of cuts like I suspect maybe the original version was much more new viewer friendly, but we can't know that. We can only judge based on what we have, and what we have feels more like a passion project than an actual attempt at creating what fans wanted. It doesn't help that fans had said what they wanted (an Extra or Extella/Zero adaptation) and it was roundly ignored.

[Astroprogs]

Well, the fact that they told Nasu to go wild should be telling of what they thought of the final episode count. SHAFT would adapt LE in as many episodes as it needs, looking at how they're handling the volumes of Monogatari, so them actively attempting to squeeze content in a few episodes as possible doesn't make sense.

We can't know for sure until any of the involved parties comes out with the sauce, but from the things they've said, many years before LE even had the subtitle LE, and the history of the studio and this director, in particular, the episode count only seem to me like a purely artistic choice.
Someone made the conscious decision to adapt this story in that exact way. No one was blindsided by the amount of content they needed to work with.

We can only judge based on what we have, and what we have feels more like a passion project than an actual attempt at creating what fans wanted.

But again, why make it an anime? Doesn't make any kind of sense for Nasu, who regularly puts stuff on his blog and/or publish side-stories in bluray booklets.
This has an unbelievable amount of talent backing (which means huge sums of money changing hands and scheduling hell for all the stars to align to get these names on board) to have been motivated solely by the whimsy of Nasu.

[bassgs435]

We won't know the answers to what happened and why LE is like this unless they decide to tell us. You can keep asking, but only the staff involved (Shaft, TM and the production comittee that gave LE green light) know those answers. No one is perfect. Either Nasu, the people at Shaft or both parties screwed up this time. Why? Again, only they know. I feel we're going in circles with the discussion here

[Astroprogs]

Well yeah, we're just trying to come up with an educated guess of the production process of the show.

[TrifoceBurn]

I’m just glad that Nasu’s book will definitely be a limited edition Blu-ray bonus and that it will be able to be hailed as a masterpiece of the EXTRA universe for the years it goes untranslated

I hope those blu-ray's sell like shit

[SentinelSaphire]

http://typemoon.com/news/2018/4xH_41

So is "Last Encore Your Score" the original book written by Nasu or just a script of the anime ?

[Marmadillo]

that was his mistake
Learn to write scenarios, Nasu. Apply yourself!

- - - Updated - - -

incidentally that would make him learn how to trim down his prose as well

[pinetree]

Great GT tells me it's the complete recording of the 13 episodes prepared by Nasu for the animation so... Maybe it's the full thing, maybe not?

[canaki]

> TVアニメの為に原作者奈須きのこが用意した全13話分の原案テキストを余すところなく完全収録！
It's the entire thing Nasu wrote, yes.

[SentinelSaphire]

Thanks !

[onepieceuc1]

There is also the drama cd in BD, is that one the voiced version of this book?

[Rafflesiac]

No, that's the rest of Amari's character growth and development.