Extra did not disappoint as much. Why? It had a main character even better than Emiya Shirou. And that's saying something.Based off the game of the same name, Fate Extra introduces us to a character named Kishinami Hakuno who is betrayed by his friend Shinji (oh Shinji you are there every time) but escapes death and is chosen to participate in the Holy Grail war, not before getting the most powerful servant of them all, Saber (yada yada same introduction as all other Fates) but this time Saber isn't an elegant King of Knights, oh no, this new Saber is a busty mainly-for-fanservice character whose sole purpose isn't just to attract horny teenagers to get a Saber Figure but this Saber also plays an important part and thankfully unlike Unlimited Blade Works, her backstory is given a proper explanation in a later episode, further fleshing her out as a character (no pun intended).Even though we had 10 episodes we didn't see much action, it was mainly build-up, discussion, backstory and meetings. This Fate wasn't the action Fate, if you want that go to UBW, this Fate’s focus was more in world building and character introductions like Rani who play an important part in the Fate Universe (although she plays a small part in this anime). One of the things I didn't like much about this anime was that mostly adopted a 'villain of the week’ Shounen trope and to be honest it didn't bring as much development as I had hoped, although it’s portrayal was better than many Shounen anime out there it still felt somewhat lacking, either due to my dissatisfaction with the trope or because it wasn't done well. On the other hand the plot progressed smoothly, thankfully the episode number was increased from 6 to 10 mid-season this meant we got much more development especially for our main character Kishinami Hakuno.Many times (or actually every time) it is the male main character who defines an anime for what it is, Emiya Shirou defined the storyline for Fate UBW, Kiritsugu defined Fate Zero, much in the same way, Hakuno defined Fate Extra. Although he had little to no personality in episode 1 (please note that he was still better in character than Shirou, at least to me) the focus and improvement noticed in the second half is what made me increase my score from a good 7 to a great 9, Extra just felt that good that it felt equal to UBW and to a lesser extent with Zero (Fate Zero is best Fate, fight me :P). As for the other characters Saber was quite the focus as well even though her relationship with Hakuno felt more like Saber was teaching Hakuno everything instead of them both working together equally (although I must say that also changes later on) but the important fact here is that Nero got her backstory while Arturia didn't. Or at least it was much more explored. So overall for the main characters development was excellent and elegantly done.Now where does that leave the side characters? Unfortunately they didn't get enough screen time or development. Tohsaka came at convenient times and although her fight with Berserker and another friend-turned-enemy (I'm not spoiling it, watch and understand) was amazing she had little or nothing to do with the plot progression which is unfortunate since she could have done much better given the chance. Other than that I could only find Rani a recurring character that too only because she came for 2-3 episodes and not 1-2 for the villains and she didn't get development at all. Her story as well was very brief and felt like an afterthought. As for the other characters we have the villains, only some of which got development and the cameos by Shinji and Kotomine Kirei in the first episode. Pretty disappointing for the side characters but amazing for the main ones.Disappointing and amazing reminds me of the confusing yet amazing yet somewhat disappointing art style of the anime. Animated by Shaft (you know, those Monogatari people?) I made a huge mistake by expecting Ufotable-like art style and instead got an animation below average. It felt horrible at first and I couldn't get used to it at all in the first episode. Fortunately the staff themself might have realised and fixed most of the issues and after episode 3 or so the art improved considerably, especially so in the Dream Land. The Dream Land arc was my favorite since it was so dark and intriguing not to mention mysterious, the Dream Land arc might as well be the only reason Fate Extra is so amazing. If the main characters don't impress you, there's a high chance the Dream Land arc will, so I won't gloss over it much and move on. Something you should gloss over is the soundtrack, because that is amazing and my favorite part about Fate Extra apart from the main characters.As a nod to UBW, the OP started off a lot like Brave Shine and the song itself was just as amazing not to mention the visuals used. Meanwhile something I found much better was the ED sung by none other than Sayuri who sung Tsuki to Hanataba and all you need to do is to go on YouTube, search this song and listen for yourself the amazing power of Sayuri’s voice, if you haven't already heard Sora wa Sore wa Chiisana Hikari no Youna from Boku dake ga Inai Machi (ERASED) and fallen in love with her voice. On the other hand the background music used was unsurprisingly excellent, why unsurprisingly? If you've watched the Monogatari series you'll realise.All in all Fate Extra is an anime that although falls short of beating Fate Zero it does pretty much equal UBW in many aspects which says a lot about it's quality since most other Fate anime made by non-Ufotable studios were either flawed or garbage (very rarely did we see a good non-Ufotable Fate) but Fate Extra has its shortcomings and they measure up on the scale as well. Although this was a show I enjoyed a lot, I can't ignore it's flaws as well, side characters, art style and villains were problems Shaft couldn't fix for the anime and so I felt disappointed to a certain extent but also was amazed too since this quite literally is the best non-Ufotable Fate we have (apologies for repeating non-Ufotable so many times) so we can move forward. What will the next Fate be? Will it be better than UBW (arguably the most popular Fate)? Will it surpass Fate Zero in quality? These are questions only the future can answer so all we can do is wait and see what happens. As for now, enjoy this beautiful anime.Overall Rating: 7.2P.S: Hakuno x Hakuno (you won't get it unless you watch it so don't worry :P)