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FGO 7th Anniversary Panel Becomes Gilgamesh-Fest

There is something immensely thrilling about being at a panel where the panelists are just unabashedly huge nerds of the project they're working on. It creates an electric atmosphere and sets the tone for the whole hour. The Fate Grand Order 7th Anniversary x TYPE-MOON Projects panel kicked off with trailers for some of TYPE-MOON's new releases, starting with Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon-. A remake of the 2000 doujin game, this new game reimagines the scenario with an all-new urban setting, graphics, and voice cast. Ikumi Hasegawa, who plays Arcueid Brunestud, recorded a video message for fans about how excited she was and how much she appreciated everyone's support.

However, the real fun began when the special guests were brought to the stage—Ayako Kawasumi, who voices Altria Pendragon in Fate/Grand Order, as well as Saber in Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero; Nobunaga Shimazaki, who voices Arjuna and Edmond Dantes; and Rumi Okubo, who voices Astolfo and Elizabeth Bathory.

Like many panels, the actors were first asked what they'd been doing in Los Angeles (Shimazaki described in vivid detail a mega-stuffed omelet he had two helpings of; Okubo went to Disneyland; Kawasumi went antiquing in Pasadena). They then went through some of the usual pleasantries, such as lessons they'd learned from acting in Fate/Grand Order. Kawasumi said that throughout her time playing all of the Altria Pendragons, "my relationship with myself and my love for Altria Pendragon has increased." She was also asked about her relationship with the cast and staff, to which she said that it's been great working with everyone since they'd been friends since the beginning.

Things really picked up when the moderator (F/GO localization producer Albert Kao) started asking open-ended questions like who the voice talents' favorite servant was. It turns out that all the actors are giant fans of the Fate franchise and spent much of the panel happily prattling about their favorite servants, favorite scenes, and summoning decisions they'd made in Fate/Grand Order. (A quick search on Google reveals that Shimazaki is a bit of a self-proclaimed whale.) Shimazaki's favorite servant is Gilgamesh, saying he'd been a fan even before becoming a voice actor.

"He's so cool! He's fun! He's strong! Especially in Fate/hollow ataraxia. What can I say, when he goes all out…. Wow, he's so strong! There's a map of Fuyuki in the game where, after Gilgamesh goes on a rampage, you can actually see the crater that was left. And I'm just like, 'Whoa. He's so strong. He's so awesome. Of course, he's the king!' Caster Gilgamesh makes an appearance in the Fate/Grand Order anime too. And Fujimaru, who I voice in the anime, gets to interact with him! That's where you really get to see what a good king he is up close."

Picking up on his energy, Kawasumi started chattering about her love for Gilgamesh, too. "In Fate/Zero, there's this great episode where Saber gets to interact with Gilgamesh, and you have this amazing scene. But then, in the next week's episode, you have this Waver scene, which is, of course, a great scene, but why would the next episode happen like that? And then the next week, it's even more intense! It was just this whole snowball of excitement and awesomeness."

"Ok, one last thing!" Shimazaki interjected. "At the end of Fate/Zero, there's a very… interesting scene with Gilgamesh. Ok, if you've played the game, he actually resists being engulfed by the mud. But he's getting naked, and it's so cool. Like, he's the king but resisting it because he's strong. But in the anime, I mean, it's very interesting. If you haven't seen it, you have to go see it."

Shimazaki and Kawasumi continued prattling with each other about Gilgamesh until the moderator finally stepped in, joking that the panel would be five hours long if they didn't move on. Okubo, meanwhile, shyly chimed in, "I like Gilgamesh too! But my favorite is actually Charlemagne. If I could just talk about Traum, then the panel really would be five hours." She did spend a few minutes talking about the Traum chapter, especially her love for Charlemagne ("my king") and Don Quixote. Before ending, she urged everyone to go back and revisit that chapter. "You know, people think Roland is just this guy who gets naked and strips, but if you've played it, he's actually a very super cool guy," adding that his story made her cry.

The moderator tried to usher things along, showing an illustration by Namie to celebrate the seventh anniversary of Fate/Grand Order before talking about some of the merch at the booth and asking if anyone had gotten a chance to check out the interactive Unlimited Blade Works experience at the booth where attendees could fight Gilgamesh. Predictably, the panel descended into talking about Gilgamesh again, though only briefly this time. "I can't believe I had to defeat one of my favorite servants," Okubo sighed.

The rest of the panel was more muted, as Fate/Grand Order second section director Yoshiki Kanou was introduced to the stage to talk about seventh-anniversary events and changes coming to the game. Fans of the game were excited, but considering that the international version is two years behind Japan, the updates weren't exactly a surprise. The one announcement that was a surprise, though—the introduction of Destiny Servant Order summons has been moved up a year and is now available.

While the rest of the panel was interesting and received some whoops and cheers at the introduction of new servants, the highlight was, by far and away, the spirited, candid conversations between the actors. Gilgamesh fans, they're just like us.