English Dub Season Review: Fate/Apocrypha Season One Part One

Do we even want a part two?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Inspired by the light novel series and set in a parallel universe separate from Fate/Night, Fate/Apocrypha follows two factions Black and Red. Each faction encompasses seven masters who each have a servant with the Black faction deriving from Romanian Yggdmillenia by way of mages whilst the Red faction is sent from the Clock Tower. Both factions want the Holy Grail, however, the grail has servants of its own at its disposal.

Keep in mind, the events of Fate/Stay and Fate/Zero are non-canon to Fate/Apocrypha, with this franchise also consisting of numerous characters inspired by folklore that should pose familiarity to anyone watching regardless if you’ve followed the previous incarnations of the series.

Kicking things off is Sieg, a recently escaped homunculus (think Neo escaping from The Matrix). At first, Sieg really has no affiliation with either faction until Saber of Black sacrifices himself to keep Sieg alive with a heart transplant. As a result of the transplant, Sieg becomes the new Saber of Black who has a big ass sword with lots of power behind it. We also have Jeanne d’Arc, who embodies the soul of Joan of Arc as a ruler and no affiliation with either faction.

Black faction servants include the aforementioned Saber, but also the archer, a rider, a lancer, a caster, a Berserker, and an assassin, all of whom are largely inspired by the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula, Jack the Ripper, and more. Their masters consist of Darnic, Gordes, Fiore, Celenike, Roche, Caules, and Reika,

Red faction servants also include a saber as well as an archer, a rider, a lancer, a caster, a Berserker, and an assassin, all of whom are inspired by the likes of historical figures like Achilles, Spartacus, Shakespeare, and more. Masters include Shirou, Kairi, Jean, Rottweil, Feend, Cabik, and Deimlet.

Don’t worry, there are plenty of other characters like King Arthur and a slew of others coming in the second half of the story. During the first-half of Fate/Apocrypha, we are given a lot of back stories, a bunch of trash talk between both sides, and a bunch of RPG-style battles that consist of boatloads of melee, magical, and summon battles that see some characters be fought til the death.

Highlights for the characters for me were Frankenstein and Dracula, with special highlight going to how the producers presented Frankenstein as not a hulk-buster but as a Berserker with immense power and by far the most compelling of back stories and dialogue presentation. Seriously, I could watch a whole series with just this show’s take on Frankenstein because I find her compelling, torturous, and at sometimes somewhat sad. All of the other characters are a bit cliche but provide for good fodder for what is inevitably just battles to the death in order to get to the holy grail.

That said, I love the themes this series presents, classic battle archetypes between God and the right hand of Satan, classic battlers from all sorts of European and Greek stories, all turned to 11 to be as outrageous as possible for the purposes of obliteration.

Our Take

I’m actually enjoying Fate/Apocrypha, though I’d enjoy it even more if there weren’t more than a few production miscues. Clearly, there are pencil lines not cleaned up in post and there have already been more than a couple of instances of missed dialogue insertions where there is supposed to be dialogue insertions.

That said, the battles presented are hella fun, and as mentioned in the overview, the over-the-top takes on classic characters are pretty bad-ass, with intricate character designs, and exquisitely directed action sequences that are on par with anything you’d see on Funimation. In terms of vocal performances, the dialogue and plot are a bit bloated, so it hampers any amount of extended time with any one character but Zach Aguilar is the one I’m probably most impressed with in his role as “Sieg”. But, Frankenstein was, as mentioned, the character with the most layers. Giving us almost a Hulk meets Mary Shelly backstory that I’m SO mad appears to be over at this juncture.

The battles get more intense as the show goes on, most notably with Vlad’s turn to Dracula and the spread of the vampire infection that nearly takes over Earth. The ending gives me enough to chew on for now, but I’m interested to see more. With some of my favorite characters dropping off, however, will Fate/Apocrypha give me enough to play with for another 13 episodes? We’ll have to wait and see.