Fate/Apocrypha Goes All in On Action-and Loses the Story in the Gamble
The action-packed spectacle that is Fate/Apocrypha knows how to put on a good show, but that’s what it spent all its time learning.
Sorry for taking a few weeks off, but things happen and I was scratching my head with writer’s block looking for an idea, but I just finished this Fate/ series after forever so I thought I’d write about this. Apologies for the wait. Anyway, let’s begin.
Note: There are a few minor spoilers in this article but nothing that takes the enjoyment away from the series. Just a little warning for you there.
The premise
“Fate/Apocrypha,” as a typical Fate/ series, involves the summoning of seven heroic spirits, or “servants” by seven mages, or “masters” who compete against each other in a battle royale known as a Holy Grail War with the winning master and servant having their wishes granted by the holy grail, a mystical item with tons of magical power. Each master is given three command spells by the grail they can use to compel their servants to obey if they are resistant.
However, what makes this situation different is that instead of seven masters and seven servants competing against each other like usual, there are two “factions” of Red (representing the Mage Association) and Black (represented by the Yggdmillennia family) each with seven masters and servants who work together, and the winning team between the two will go through a second grail war among the winning team to find an ultimate winner.
But there seems to be more to this grail war than meets the eye…
The spectacle
When we consume film and television, it’s true we do so for the stories they tell, and that’s usually what gets most of the attention in reviews. But just as importantly, if not more so, is the visuals. The experiences that blow you away. For action titles in particular, we expect grand battles, explosions, big fights, and pretty colors. Film is, after all, a visual medium. If what you make isn’t visually compelling, then why put it to film as opposed to a print?
It’s clear hardly any anime director understands this better than Yoshiyuki Asai, the director. This is only his second directorial effort after 2015’s “Charlotte,” but Asai has shown resoundingly that he knows how to set a stage.
The battles in Apocrypha really are spectacles in every sense of the word. Flashy colors, fluid choreography, even the epic music composed by Masaru Yokoyama and the stellar voice acting in both languages (note: I only watched the series in English but have since rewatched clips in Japanese). It’s all there and it all comes together masterfully.
A few favorite sequences that come to mind are the face off between everyone and Vlad III (the lancer of Black) in episode 12, Mordred (saber of Red), Jeanne, Seig, and Chiron (archer of Black) against Avicebron (caster of Black) and his golem in episode 14, and of course…Karna and Seigfried in episode 22, during the series’ glorious climax.
When it comes to visual splendor, “Apocrypha” is at the top of the pack. These sequences can’t really be explained in words. All I can do is name a few favorites. You have to experience them for yourself, and luckily, these sequences alone make the 25 episode series worth watching.
The plot
Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the story. If “Apocrypha” wins the action in the gamble, it loses the plot. Usually, in most great anime, superb animation and music exist to bolster a good story. In “Apocrypha’s” case, though, there isn’t much for the spectacle to bolster.
Most of the issues with the plot stem from how it budgets its screen time between the large cast of characters. Some get more than others when they should not and vice versa, which leads to severely underdeveloped characters, boring or unclear motivations, and a much less interesting cast as a result. When making a battle royale story like Fate/, you can generally go one of two ways; anchor the story around one fighter or a pair of fighters and make it about them like the original “Fate/stay night”, or take the route of its prequel series “Fate/Zero” and peer into all of the different sides and their various motives to make statements about fighting more broadly. “Apocrypha” tries to do both at the same time with a cast that is far too large for 25 episodes.
The cast is so large the series doesn’t even bother giving attention to several of them. The only masters of Red, of which there are seven, that get any meaningful introduction are Kairi Shishigou and Shiro Kotomine (actually revealed to be the historical Shiro Tokisada Amakusa). I actually had to look up the names of the other masters but decided they weren’t worth mentioning because we never learn anything about them. Shiro just takes all their command spells and their servants and that’s it. It’s a writing cheat that creates an excuse to include a lot of servants without needing to devote time to a lot of masters. It’s lazy and feels like the writers didn’t want to put in the effort to differentiate the masters of Red like with some of the masters of Black. It forces the story to become a struggle between not two sides, but between one side and one character.
At this point I’m going to mention some specific instances of the story squandering some of its potential with the characters. Due to the large cast, I don’t have enough time to go over them all. The shame in this is that there really are a bunch of interesting relationships between some of the characters. However, due to time constraints, I’m only going to mention those I feel are most noteworthy.
On Jack the Ripper
The story wastes time on characters who don’t get any development at all. Particularly I’m referring to the character arc of Jack the Ripper (assassin of Black). I can’t tell you anything about her because…the story never did. Yet there are three entire episodes dedicated to her character. What we do know is that Jack the Ripper (genderbent in classic Fate/ fashion), likes to eat hearts and found a new motherly figure to attach to after killing her original master of Black.
While this does make her a mysterious figure who has gone rogue away from the Black faction, we don’t have any idea *why* that happened. Why has this new motherly figure taken a liking to Jack and why does Jack like her back? How did this bond form? What’s their goal? None of these questions are answered. Instead, what we get is three episodes of…spectacle. Fighting.
In episode 18, the end of the character arc, Jack unleashes her noble phantasm (a special ability servants use in in relation to their identities requiring a lot of magical energy), which shapeshifts present day Romania where the story takes place, to 19th century London, and creates illusions of hopeless children to torment the characters trying to stop her.
Ironically, the end result of this battle between Jack and the other masters of Black isn’t any kind of resolution for Jack. What happens is that Jeanne lays the lost souls to rest (in a blunt way, to put it lightly), which angers the archer of Red, Atalante, whose goal with the grail is to protect all children. This sets up a later fight between the two of them in the climax. Jack is brushed aside for a *separate* conflict.
Ultimately the end result of her arc is an absurd amount of screen time relative to the other characters that accomplishes very little. It’s a waste of time that could have been used on another character.
On Jeanne d’Arc
Jeanne is the ruler class servant of this grail war. She alleges to be an impartial arbiter between the two factions but that kind of gets thrown out the window when Shiro reveals himself to be Shiro Amakusa. Jeanne decides it’s better to just side with the Black faction along with Seig, whom Seigfreid (the saber of Black) gave his heart for so the former could live a full life.
As the story progresses, Jeanne naturally develops romantic feelings for Seig for rather cliche reasons, but nothing offensive. He’s firm and fights for what he believes in, he has some zangy one-liners, and they already spent a lot of time together. It’s corny how “anime” their relationship ends up being (they even spend they day together on a date!) but it’s the good kind of corny.
As for Jeanne’s *individual* character arc…
I was interested in how Jeanne’s story played out. She makes a lot of interesting points to William Shakespeare (caster of Red) about how she doesn’t hold grudges against those who burnt her at the stake. In one interesting scene during the climactic battle, Shakespeare uses his noble phantasm to walk Jeanne through her life and the incident. At first she’s unfazed, but once Seig is brought into the picture, she comes close to breaking.
Unfortunately, while an interesting scene (even Gilles de Rais, the caster from Fate/Zero, makes an appearance as a saber) that digs into Jeanne’s character, the run time cuts into the enjoyment by speeding up the story so it can finish in a few more episodes and her internal character conflicts are resolved rather quickly once she somehow musters up the resolve to just break free from Shakespeare’s noble phantasm. This angle is worth exploring. While I haven’t read the original light novel for this series, I hope this is a more relevant part of it.
There need to be more challenges for a character like Jeanne but by the time we can explore her character and her past, the story has little time left, so the viewer hardly experiences it.
On Shiro Amakusa
Originally, the character Shiro is introduced as a priest Shiro Kotomine who is the master of assassin of Red (Semiramis). His name is a reference to other characters in the franchise; Shiro Emiya, the protagonist of “Fate/stay night,” and Kirei Kotomine, the priest and a master in “stay night” and “Zero.”
However, his actual name is Shiro Tokisada Amakusa. He reveals himself to be a ruler class servant like Jeanne and he becomes the primary antagonist throughout the second half of the series.
What’s interesting about Shiro isn’t necessarily his goal. He wishes for the salvation of humanity. That’s been a driver for many heroic protagonists and antagonists alike in anime. What’s interesting is the position he occupies and how he got there. He and Jeanne both allude to a previous grail war where Shiro fell into some kind of despair and that would become the primary motivator for his goal. He’s a complete enigma outside his goal. It helps a little to know a bit about the actual historical Shiro Amakusa. He was a Catholic who led a rebellion of other Catholics against the Shogunate of the 17th century at the time. He was later executed at age 17.
Still, though, the viewer isn’t told any of this. It might be understood more clearly among a Japanese audience more familiar with the history, but to westerners, he is probably a bit too much of an obscure figure to know.
And for those unfamiliar, that’s a problem. When a villain has a noble goal like saving humanity, part of his or her appeal is their backstory that led him or her to that goal. It gives the audience a reason to sympathize and better understand the villain. That’s what makes clashes between two sides compelling; that even if you’re rooting for the hero, you can’t help but feel bad for the villain if you don’t want them to succeed. This is only briefly hinted at in “Apocrypha.” We don’t know what kinds of perils Shiro faced in his past while he was living in the world as a servant nor why he materialized as a ruler class servant like Jeanne. Only quick shots of what is implicitly the previous grail war Jeanne and Shiro refer to.
This is perhaps the clearest example of the series showing us what could have been; a peek into more of this world that isn’t being shown to us. A little more screen time dedicated to Shiro’s past and he could have the makings of a good antagonist.
A quick note on character relationships
There are too many interesting relationships going on in the series and various characters who have great chemistry together. Some of those relationships needed more screen time to be more impactful. Here I’m going to go over very quickly some of those connections.
First, there’s berserker of Black (Frankenstein’s monster referred to simply as Frankenstein) and her master Caules. They have great chemistry together on screen, and there’s one nice moment where she gives him a flower. There’s little dialogue between the two of them because as a berserker, Frankenstein speaks in grunts and moans with the occasional scream thrown in. That makes her true feelings more blunt, as she conveys them physically instead of through words. In another scene, Caules uses all his command spells in a desperate attempt to force a victory. Without spoilers, it doesn’t go well. He regrets his actions and gets angry at himself over it, but not long after it’s back to business as usual. He just sort of hangs around offering his input for the second half of the series. Again, it’s another waste.
Another pair I like is Chiron (archer of Black) and Achillies (rider of Red). The two are master and student, respectively, in Greek mythology, and that lore carries into the series, and even though it might be a bit cliche, master vs student relationships are always fun to see because we can see how the student has grown. We don’t get too into their back story together from the myths (which might be a bit forgivable if the viewer is somewhat familiar with this part of Greek mythology). However, to interject the spectacle again for a moment, the fight between them in the climax is excellent viewing.
One last pair I will mention here is Shishigou and Mordred. There isn’t anything *particularly* noteworthy about them. Both Mordred and Shishigou both have the minimum screen time necessary to build on their motivations and work as a team. They fit well together, and if you’ve seen “Fate/Zero” and “Fate/stay night,” it’s a nice change of pace for a master/saber pair. With Mordred acting as Saber instead of Altria (Arthur) Pendragon (a genderbent version of the king), there isn’t any typical philosophy babble about how a king should act. This series stands out well among its peers for that.
What the plot does well
I just spent a lot of time explaining how the plot could use some work by devoting more time to characters’ back stories but there is a silver lining to all of this where the plot does work. It’s easy to follow and the characters’ ideals are expressed through action rather than lengthy scenes of dialogue.
I won’t knock “Fate/Zero” too much since it’s one of my all time favorite series nor “stay night” but one aspect about those titles is that characters will often sit or stand still while they speak of their ideologies. One episode of “Zero,” “Discussing the Grail,” is plainly about three servants who were kings in life talking about what it means to be a king and how the grail would accomplish their wishes. This turns out to be an important moment for Altria and I enjoy it, but it means being patient for the action to come so some time can be set aside for the characters to verbally clash with each other. “Stay night” and “Zero” are some of the best known anime of the modern age and are by far the most known and watched of the franchise but they both insert long scenes of dialogue about the nature of humanity, what it means to be a ruler, and the costs of trying to save too many people into their action series, which can bog down that excitement for a bit in favor of something that wants you to think more on a deeper level.
In “Apocrypha,” those clashes are physical, not verbal. Shiro Amakusa has his goal, the salvation of humanity, and Seig and Jeanne have theirs, to protect the physical and mental well-being of humanity. Each of them conveys these ideals through physical clashes rather than verbal disagreements. “Fate/Apocrypha” is a very visual show, and these conflicts between the characters playing out physically through battle allows the audience to better understand the passion each of these characters feels without using any dialogue to get that across. Asai knows what he’s doing with this series, letting the characters’ body movements do all the talking. This is perhaps more of a strength in its adaptation more than its plot from the novel but there’s something nice about the simplicity of it all. It simply presents two sides to you and you can see them battle it out instead of talk it over.
The climax
I explained much of this above, so I won’t spend too much time on it here, but all of this culminates in spectacular fashion at the series’ climax, beginning with episode 20. It’s worth noting again because its merits cannot be understated. It is undoubtedly the best part of this series. It’s enjoyable to watch and consists of all the series’ greatest strengths.
It really is a grand battle worthy of being called epic. The animation and music come together beautifully to create a behemoth of a climax. There’s real excitement in the air when you watch clashes like this:
It accomplishes far more with its visual prowess and gorgeous fight choreography than it does with its plot developments. It’s too bad the glorious climax doesn’t have a solid story to precede it.
The consensus
So ultimately, does “Fate/Apocrypha” do what it sets out to do? Is it worth watching? Well, it depends on what you’re looking for. Experience-wise, it’s the best Fate/ has to offer. With Asai at the helm, it’s easy to become absorbed hearing the grand music as several heroic spirits destroy a giant golem several meters tall. So if that’s what you’re looking for, the series has you covered.
Unfortunately if you’re looking for the kind of philosophy driven story you get in other Fate/ series with in-depth discussions of ideology and explorations of character motivations and goals, you aren’t going to find much of that here. Only the bare minimum needed to actually carry the plot from point A to point B.
I can only imagine if this series had 50 episodes. Twice the run time for twice the usual amount of characters. That’s the most disappointing thing about this series. You can notice clearly all the wasted potential. That said, though, it’s still a hell of a ride, and damn fun to watch.
I didn’t see the series in its original Japanese, opting instead for the English dub, and I can safely report that the dub is well done. In particular, Erica Lindbeck’s raspy voice and rough portrayal are perfect for Mordred, while Ben Diskin goes all out on a menacing and mad Darnic (master of lancer of Black and head of the Black faction) and Ray Chase has all the intimidation necessary for Vlad III (lancer of Black).
In short, if you’re looking for a simple yet fun, well polished and animated spectacle of an action show, you can hardly do better than “Fate/Apocrypha.” But if you’re looking for something deeper, you can look elsewhere, even within the Fate/ franchise.
Fate/Apocrypha is available to stream on Netflix dubbed and subtitled in multiple languages. It is available in two limited edition Blu-ray box sets from Aniplex USA containing the Japanese and English audio and English subtitles.
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