Fate/Apocrypha must be one of the most flawed pieces of work I thoroughly enjoy. And not for guilty pleasure reasons, but for the genuinely good qualities of the series. Fate/Apocrypha has good characters, stunning animation, great dialogue surrounding a complex moral dilemma, and the always amazing premise that holds every Fate entry together. At the same time, Fate/Apocrypha has some horrible characters, occasional distracting animation hiccups, some awful dialogue on a generic perception of good and evil, and it exaggerates the biggest crime the Fate franchise has always committed.
The sad thing about Apocrypha’s material is that all its flaws are so much more apparent on
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the surface than its good qualities. The only thing Apocrypha has to show in its favor is when the animation becomes gorgeously stunning for the fight sequences. So, if someone tells you that Apocrypha is only a popcorn series, don’t be surprised. But I’m going to explain Apocrypha for everything it is.
Let’s just start by touching on the premise. Finally, Fate has gotten out of Japan and made the actual real world feel like it’s a part of the Holy Grail War. Apocrypha takes place in Romania. It’s a breath of fresh air at first sight and even the OP isn’t shy to show off the setting. And Apocrypha mixes up the Fate premise in a way that would seem like it adds another complex layer, but it actually streamlines Fate’s story very well.
Apocrypha is about two factions, the Mages Association and the Yggdmillennia family, facing off with seven Servants each in hopes to claim the Greater Grail and find the Root. Such phrases are familiar to Fate fans, and if you don’t understand what most of that means, this show decently keeps you informed at its pace. Servants are heroes from across history and mythology, summoned by mages to fight for them, and hopefully the last remaining duo get both of their wishes granted. For mages, it’s hardly ever complex as most just want to see the “Root” of the world in hopes that it’ll give them immense power of some kind. Servant wishes can vary more, but it rarely mattered in other entries as it was always predetermined that they’d never get their wish anyway. But here, there is no “Lesser Grail” to complicate things – just roll with what I’m telling you. It’s never explained what people mean by saying “Greater” Grail over the course of the series, but it doesn’t matter. There only is one Holy Grail with no drawbacks or complications to what it can and cannot do. So when I say the story is streamlined, I mean that the premise is what it is on the surface. Two factions, that can be easily identified, fighting to have their wishes granted. Fate/Apocrypha has twists in it, but it’s nothing that upsets the premise or the pacing of the show to deliver them – unlike the twists in Zero and Stay Night.
But to suggest whether Apocrypha is accessible is another matter. Apocrypha is an incredibly awful victim to the Fate franchise’s fetish to gender bend historical faces. Mordred, Frankenstein’s Monster and Jack the Ripper are gender bent in Apocrypha. To say the sheer quantity takes things too far is one argument, but it’s only more confusing when King Arthur in Mordred’s flashbacks is also a woman. It’s unsurprising to anyone who’s seen other Fate entries, but it raises many distracting questions as to how the supposed son/daughter of King Arthur, Mordred, was even born if she was born from two women.
That really was my biggest issue, and I don’t blame anyone if it’s too large of one. There’s also the matter of Astolfo. He’s a trap. Yes. He’s also one of the best characters in the show despite his design. I got over his design quickly because of how much he serviced the plot well. So if you can, just deal with it.
The last thing I must touch on up front is the episodes focused on Jack the Ripper in the later teens of the series. They are very poorly written episodes that try to speak on inherent good and evil within humans. They can only be described as excessive, grotesque, and tone deaf. Furthermore, there’s no reasoning as to how a serial killer got summoned as some hero in the first place. The light novels this anime is adapted from might explain it, as I did get an answer from Wikipedia; but here, you are presented with a crucial lack of important information to make sense of things as those episodes play out.
Those episodes feel nonetheless unnecessary. But you can see how they were supposed to serve as a prelude to much better discussions about good and evil near the end of the series when all the pieces fall into place and the villain makes his plan clear. The ending is a genuine battle of ideals with everyone being a reasonable good guy; and trying to decide on who’s the villain becomes much more blurred.
Once again though, people may write off that aspect because the villain is simply more likeable (and more logical). Meanwhile the main two characters, Sieg and Jeanne d’Arc, are boring, essentially lawful good, protagonists who fight with more philosophical motives. There’s solid reasons to their behavior, but they can still feel unengaging.
I’ll touch on some more of the characters, while we’re on the subject, but I’m obligated to mention the factions in this series have color codes to them. The Mages Association are the “Red” faction and the Yggdmillennia family are the “Black” faction. While these color codes are used within the series to more easily identify the factions, their intention more so is to identify what Servants are on what side. Within every Grail War in a Fate entry, the Servants are summoned into seven classes – Saber, Lancer, Archer, Caster, Rider, Berserker and Assassin. In Apocrypha’s unique case, there are two of every class – so two Sabers, two Lancers, and so on. Therefore, identifying them as Saber of Red and Saber of Black makes them easier to distinguish. That is the purpose to color coding the sides of this Grail War. But I won’t be reviewing the characters by faction. There’s a big cast wherein most characters are just plot devices to justify certain events. I’m only going to touch on those who I have something to say about – the good and the bad.
For starters, Sieg and Jeanne d’Arc are the two lawful good characters I mentioned earlier. They are essentially two characters that are one in the same. They are neutral players outside the sides of the Grail War that eventually get pulled into siding with the Black Faction most. Their respective reasons are only slightly different. For Sieg, it’s because he mostly interacts with Astolfo, whom is a Servant of Black; and makes a vow to free the homunculi produced and controlled by the Yggdmillennia family. For Jeanne, it is because she solely sets her goal on defeating Shirou Kotomine, whom is a Master of Red. There is also a romantic subplot between Sieg and Jeanne that feels out of place and underdeveloped. It isn’t convincing in the least. It’s a shame that these two characters are the protagonists and can’t be more engaging. The reasoning is solid. Sieg is a homunculus that is still developing a personality and an identity, and Jeanne d’Arc is simply a blessed and pure soul from the start. They have fine excuses to be dry when it comes to their characterization, but any audience member should still be allowed to ask for more. The only time Jeanne becomes a little more engaging is when she becomes the mouth piece for the ideals that oppose Shirou Kotomine’s at the end of the series.
Jack the Ripper, Reika Rikudous, and Celenike Icecolle Yggdmillennia are all low effort characters written to be psychotic, evil and exaggerated opposites of all the other heroes in the series. There are never characters more annoying than these three ever on screen. For Jack and her Master, Reika, they fight just about anyone without purpose other than to kill because Sieg’s and Atalanta’s character arcs couldn’t be progressed better without seeing the exploitative violence humans are capable of. And Astolfo’s Master, Celenike, is nothing more than an obstacle for him as he tries to live up to his heroic ideals. Such character relationships have been done well in this fashion before, mostly in Fate/Zero, but the execution here is far lazier and exhausting to watch.
Siegfried is cool and the character that you intentionally get drawn to the quickest. The main character, our homunculus Sieg, named himself after Siegfried with pride and for good reason.
Astolfo is remarkably charming and Sieg’s best friend in the series. He’s so much of a good guy that his Master was a poorly used plot device to keep him leashed. But Astolfo is the kind of proactive and likeable hero you dream of most ideal heroes being.
Chiron is less defined by his sole characteristics and more by his mentoring of and rivalry with Achilles. You may end up liking him more than you should, because the rivalry between him and Achilles ends up being a very engaging one. It’s an example of the show pulling off a drawn-out rivalry well, and their conclusion was extremely satisfying.
Vlad III is cool. I like his wish too. It’s to rewrite history so that his legacy was never morphed into the legend of Dracula that has stained his pride. He’s also a pimping boss that acts like the world is his domain and he is its king. That also ties into his set of powers creatively too. He’s the kind of well written douchebag that you want to see on screen more often.
Shirou Kotomine is practically the face of the entire Red Faction. The plot manages to work itself in a way where Shirou can speak for and interact with almost every Red Servant on his own, and this annihilates any need for him to interact with most of the Red Masters that we rarely ever see. And that’s a great thing. I really wish something as well done could have been done for the Black Faction, so that we didn’t have to spend as much time with those Masters. A single face to represent the whole group is a genius move on the part of the plot. That effect may have been unintentional, as he is framed to be the overall villain, and so you want to give him control to be menacing. However, he’s not menacing at all. He’s one of the most likeable characters in the entire series. He’s gentle, charming, cunning, well-spoken, has an amazing theme song, and has a plan to change the world in a way that is completely victimless and lacks any sort of dystopia. Over my course of watching the series, I caught on to why many real people were in support of Shirou’s plan and ideals over that of Jeanne’s when the time came for them to face off. His logic is not wrong even when you know what side the show itself is choosing to support.
You see in every way how Shirou is genuinely a hero trying his best to bring the world salvation in the best way he knows how. And he makes no shortcuts or sacrifices in doing so. Shirou Kotomine is one of the most engaging antagonists ever put on screen with his examples of mercy, believable romantic relationship with (Assassin of Red) Semiramis, and sincere quest for world peace. It’s amazing how he can be the source of such wonderful discussions about the good and evil of man, when nothing of such quality could be achieved before with the other characters who tried to serve the same purpose. I would suggest anyone give this show a shot just for Shirou alone.
Kairi Sisigou and Mordred are cool people when you meet them. They’re unique trait is being the truest to form Master-Servant relationship the show has to offer. Kairi is the single Red Master that has any lines at all besides Shirou. And that’s good because he and Mordred add levity and personality to the show, without being comic relief. But you eventually realize just how underutilized they are once you’re a significant distance into the story. These are characters who don’t do much of anything worth crediting. You’ll like them since they’re both feisty and extremely competent fighters who support each other well, but they’re only kind of just cool to look at and see fight. Mordred also has an extremely sick set of armor that never stops looking cool at any point.
Karna and Achilles are some of the best characters this series has to offer alongside my other favorites like Shirou and Astolfo. Apocrypha can feel like it has a lot of 50/50 coin tosses in whether a character can sell their likability solely on their virtuousness and nobility, but they can and do the best jobs at it. Just give an awesome hero a great design, splendid dialogue, and visually appealing powers, and you’re set to go with characters who carry charisma and demand on screen presence.
Atalanta I found kind of stale; but I somewhat think I might have liked her more in the novels to my understanding. Achilles and her also have a romantic subplot there, but theirs is the one case where the anime overlooks it. Still, while I was on a fast track to disliking her as the final act approached, she did have a very good scene with Achilles near the end that slightly won me back with her.
And last, but not least, we have William Shakespeare. WHY HAS NO ONE THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE!? He’s hysterical, and I find the idea of summoning him as a heroic spirit hysterical. His powers are important to the story, but they’re also like the best set of powers to troll people with ever. I love his theme song too. I can’t not smile at the thought of this guy. He’s a treat who’ll chew up the scenery when he’s on screen.
I made a mention of the varying quality in art at the beginning, so let me clarify that. It’s not that bad. It’s quite good most of the time. But some of the slower scenes will take obvious shortcuts wherein you’ll see some cases of recycled animation and wide shots where characters won’t have faces. The show doesn’t cleverly hide these moments, and they just look weird when it happens. But they are far fewer than the spectacle moments that the show excels in presenting. That being said, I watched this show on Netflix and I think they were still using the TV broadcast of the show. Perhaps, the BDs fix this issue. I’d encourage you to watch those just in case.
But I'm not done just yet in discussing the presentation of this series. Something I rarely ever touch on in my reviews is the topic of sound design, but Fate/Apocrypha's really stands out. Because it drops the base. Hard. Now, I for one, ever since having watched anime like Knights of Sidonia back in 2014, actually had the sound design of harsh base drops grow on me over the years. Not many anime go for something that sounds like your speakers are about to blow at any second because of some explosion; but of what few I can think of, Fate/Apocrypha takes it to a whole new level.
Lets recognize and acknowledge that Apocrypha's fight scenes are insanely over-the-top. And that means that these powerful characters are going to be hitting hard and blowing stuff up a lot. And like I said before, the animation delivers in making it all look awesome as it happens; but that isn't going to cover up the sound design. I like it, but I've seen cases of people who were really annoyed by it. If you want an example of what the show will look and sound like, the first episode does open on an in medias res sequence to try hooking the audience with. It's a practice that annoys me personally, but it can't hurt anyone just looking to give this show a try.
That’s about all I got. I’m not going to deny that Fate/Apocrypha is a mess, but it’s a mess with enough of the right elements that have me remembering it fondly. I don’t like everything about it, but there’s more to it than just surface level action scenes that I could really get behind. There’s a vision here, to take the common overlying themes of Fate, and actually do something with them instead shooting itself in the foot at the end by not committing to the concept. The happy ending is a bit forced, but the series overall works itself out to deliver something inspiring. Will I ever watch Fate/Apocrypha again? On my own, probably not. But I have been looking up some of my favorite moments on YouTube, because Apocrypha can at least deliver on those.
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Jun 23, 2018
Fate/Apocrypha
(Anime)
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Fate/Apocrypha must be one of the most flawed pieces of work I thoroughly enjoy. And not for guilty pleasure reasons, but for the genuinely good qualities of the series. Fate/Apocrypha has good characters, stunning animation, great dialogue surrounding a complex moral dilemma, and the always amazing premise that holds every Fate entry together. At the same time, Fate/Apocrypha has some horrible characters, occasional distracting animation hiccups, some awful dialogue on a generic perception of good and evil, and it exaggerates the biggest crime the Fate franchise has always committed.
The sad thing about Apocrypha’s material is that all its flaws are so much more apparent on ... 
Jun 22, 2018
The iDOLM@STER Million Live!
(Manga)
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For me, being an iDOLM@STER fan has had its challenges. It’s a set of dumb first-world problems, of course. But it can occasionally be hard to argue in favor of a 2011 anime that’s the adaption to a game series I don’t really like, in a genre that’s mostly made up of low-tier waifu bait products, while having a more popular spin-off that I loathe, kept afloat by one of the most cancerous fanbases I’ve interacted with, and simply has a lot of problems in its own right. For a while, I was convinced the iM@S franchise had nothing to offer me anymore. There are
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