Anime Review: Fate/Apocrypha Part 1 Page 1

Anime Review: Fate/Apocrypha Part 1

Fate/Apocrypha Part 1 (UK Rating: 15)

FATE fans in Japan will finally receive the anime adaptation from one of the most popular recent stories, adapting one of the best arcs from FATE/Grand Order in Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia meanwhile, fans in the west are receiving this alternative side story that helped showcase the servants of FATE/Grand Order. Setting aside the rules of the Holy Grail War, this is turning into an actual war as the forces of the Mages Association face off against the family of Yggdmillennia. Coming courtesy of MVM, this collection contains episodes 1-12 and is available from September 30th.

In this alternate reality, the Holy Grail War of Fuyuki - the third Holy Grail War - saw the winner, a Magus of Yggdmillennia take the Greater Grail and abscond with it. This resulted in the Fourth Holy Grail War never happening, and now at the time of the fifth, Yggdmillennia has other things in mind. This results in a Holy Grail War quite unlike anything that has come before. Instead of a Battle Royale of seven masters with their linked servants, a faction battle is undertaken, known as a 'Great Holy Grail War.' This battle sets out double the servants, as the 'Black Faction' of the Yggdmillennia mages has one of each servant, while the Mages Association handpicks a group of powerful mages to try and recover the Greater Grail, this group is dubbed the 'Red Faction.'

There's more to the story than a simple fight between the servants. The Black Faction is utilising their caster to prepare an army of Golems to supplement their forces and is doing so by raising Homunculi, artificial human beings created via magic, and matured to a fully grown state before being used like a magical battery. These Homunculi are also used as soldiers in this new Great Holy Grail War, but one happens to wander off. This strange being soon becomes part of a faction outside the Black and the Red as his escape unites him with a servant standing apart from the battle. Any Holy Grail War requires an adjudicator, and here it comes in the form of the Ruler class Jean de Arc. Jean finds herself summoned in a strange way, having to take the body of a young French girl, and with premonitions to how the war will play out, with this young Homunculus - who has named himself Sieg - a key part of how it will all play out.

There's no real "Good side" and "Bad side" here between Red and Black. Each faction has characters that would fall into each of these categories. The Yggdmillennia are certainly cast in a negative light to begin - after all, it's their nefarious plan, and they're the ones utilising Homunculi as batteries, but within their ranks, but the Red Faction almost immediately tries to kill Jean and it's evident there is a sinister force within the chosen of the Red Faction.

The expansive cast gives little chance for real character development, as it jumps around giving small screen time to many of those. There are some that feel at the heart of the tale, and get a little extra time. First off, there is a Master and Servant duo within the Red Faction that acts alone from the rest of their team. The Master is a badass, chain-smoking, old Necromancer named Kairi Shishigou, and he's given an interesting summoning catalyst from his leaders at the Mages Association: a shard of the round table. This causes the audience to expect the latest appearance of Saber, the most famous Saber that is, series' iconic mascot King Arthur in her signature form. Instead, Mordred materialises. Son (daughter here!) of King Arthur, the hated Knight of treachery as a brash, arrogant, chip-on-the-shoulder warrior. She has a counterpoint to her personality of a young girl that loves to eat and wants to just have fun. This combined with some glimpses of her strained relationship with her Arthur/Artoria helps make the character more endearing.

Mordred is one of the high points, not surprising, as one of the best aspects of the FATE franchise has always been how it reimagines famous characters from myth and history. The various spin-off light novels and games have provided a ton of wonderful characters and seeing them in action in an anime is great. This series includes Astolfo, one of the heroes of Charlemagne as a hyper, chippy, cross-dressing Rider, Shakespeare as a Caster with a suitably pomp and eloquent personality, quoting his famous lines and attempting to avoid any sort of conflict (he's a writer, not a fighter!), and Frankenstein as an electricity-based Berserker - like many characters from the series, gender-bent to a woman, and summoned in a beautiful white wedding dress.

This anime comes courtesy of A-1 Pictures, a studio that has produced a ton of popular series over the years, with plenty of big names, shonen series, and game adaptations, making it a decent fit here. Though, it's disappointing to see that UFOTable didn't step up for this series, and sets a considerable bar for A-1 to live up to. Where the studio impresses the most, is in the opening credits. The superb Eiyuu: Unmei no Uta theme by Jpop band Egoist plays out over some of the best visuals in the show, the Masters' faces overlaid with their servants looking wonderfully done. The quality during the show itself looks great. The art is clean and dynamic, the battles fluid and exciting. It's commendable that A-1 didn't try to mimic the UFOTable style for the combat and instead developed its own.

The visual quality is something that may confuse those who watched it when it originally aired in Japan or even the Netflix release, as it was plagued with scruffy, dark, and blurry visuals. It was a production plagued with issues, and A-1 Pictures promised to see the issues resolved. True to its word, the quality has been polished to a shine. While it cannot hold a candle to the work of UFOTable thanks to the underlying original art and choreography, it at least now lives up to its other works.

This BluRay release also brings with it an English dub. The expansive cast is filled with familiar voices, both seasoned and topped off with some hot up and coming English VAs. Mordred is voiced by Erica Lindbeck - Futaba in Persona 5, Jessie in the upcoming Final Fantasy VII remake, and Kaori from Your Lie in April. Jean is played by Erika Harlacher - another Persona 5 alumni, Panther herself, Ann Takamaki, Kirigiri from Danganronpa and the titular Violet Evergarden. Ray Chase gets to chew scenery as the grand Vlad Tepes - previously known for playing Prince Noctis in Final Fantasy XV and the master detective L in Death Note.

7/10

Very Good - Bronze Award

An enjoyable first start, and one worth watching even for those who managed to watch the original release thanks to the major upgrade in visuals here. The story progresses surprisingly far with the conclusion to these twelve episodes leaving everything feeling like it's about to all be wrapped up, then all of a sudden the truth to the Red Faction is revealed, providing a decent hook that will keep the audience interested for part two. This conclusion to the story will be coming from MVM in November.

or sign in with...

Anime Review: Fate/Apocrypha Part 1

Fate/Apocrypha Part 1 (UK Rating: 15)

Very Good - Bronze Award

Comment on this article

Comments

Subscribe to this topic