(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome Project Nitsuj. Welcome to the second half of the Summer of Fate where we’re in the middle of taking a look at Fate/Apocrypha.
(Yume): When we last left Fate/Apocrypha Shiro in a not so surprising twist reveals himself to be the villain of this anime.
(Neo): Shiro has taken the command seals of the red faction’s master and now wants to use the Holy Grail to put the entire world in a state of absolute bliss where they can’t think for themselves.
(Nitsuj): Again, just like Mementos from Persona 5. So what happens next? Let find out as we take a look at the second half of Fate/Apocrypha.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Yume): So after a disappointing first opening, they manage to redeem themselves with “Ash” By LiSA. This song is on a whole another level as it perfectly captures the intensity and action we are about to see in the second half. LiSA delivers in a big way here and shows everyone how awesome the openings of the Fate series are.
(Neo): The second opening is “Koe” by ASCA. Hands down my favorite ending from the Fate animes. If the first half of this song doesn’t pull you end then something is wrong with you. The second half of the song is also great but that first half just kills it with the violin and soft lyrics that get your attention.
Episodes 13-16
(Nitsuj): The second half starts off with Sieg reuniting with Astolfo where we see he has command seals now (Neo: A homunculi becoming a master. Will wonders never cease?). Celenike arrives where she’s tired of Astolfo giving all of his attention to Sieg and uses up all of her command seals to order him to kill Sieg. Astolfo is able to restrain himself long enough for Mordred to come in to chop Celenike’s head off and takes her leave (scene here: https://youtu.be/d0kFfXdIP48. (Yume): Thank you). With Celenike dead, Astolfo starts to disappear, but Sieg forms a contract with him and becomes his new master (scene here: https://youtu.be/DjcWL9Y_ZlU, a good pairing for Astolfo). Back in the Hanging Gardens, Shiro reveals that he has become the master of all the red servants (minus Mordred because no one can control that wild horse) and gives Avicebron and Chiron the opportunity to join him where Avicebron accepts on the condition that Roche not be harmed. Karna willingly joins Shiro’s side along with a reluctant Achilles and Atalanta (couldn’t Jeanne just use her abilities as Ruler and have all the servants stand down? (Neo): Plot hole). Jeanne and Chiron get saved by Mordred (Yume: How she got up there is beyond me. (Nitsuj): Well assuming she didn’t skip leg day, she jumped) and they retreat back to the remains of the black faction castle where they’re dealing with a homunculi rebellion (oh shit, they’re unionizing. Isis! Grab your shotgun). Sieg approaches them revealing himself to be a master and uses that as leverage to negotiate (Neo: He truly is the chosen one) with Fiore who is now in command (because God knows Gordes couldn’t lead. This place would fall apart in no time). Unfortunately, the homunculi rights will have to wait as Chiron tells them that Avicebron has defected to the other side (Yume: Damn traitor). Roche unaware of Avicebron’s betrayal meets up with him at a lake and hands him a special item he requested.
Episode 14 starts off with Avicebron’s past where we see he was distraught by the world and all the suffering people went through. Taking it no more, he vowed to bring salvation in the only way he knew how (not sure how golems will lead the world to salvation, but stranger things have happened). Returning to the present, Jeanne and Chiron arrive back at the castle where once again Sieg confirms his participation in the war she has no choice but to recognize him as a master. Meanwhile, Avicebron uses Roche as the core for Keter Malkuth, his ultimate golem in one of the most gut-wrenching scenes and betrayals in the anime (scene here: https://youtu.be/_sn1XUoCUn0). Avicebron plans to use Keter Malkuth and turn the world into the Garden of Eden (Yume: Gardens in the sky and gardens on the ground. Soon we’ll be calling ourselves the green planet. (Nitsuj): I have no complaints). Avicebron attacks the castle where Chiron kills him but it doesn’t matter, the golem has been activated and once it gets done creating a small patch of Eden it’ll be invincible. All of the remaining servants not loyal to Shiro (minus Jack the Ripper. (Yume): Yeah, where is she?) face the golem where Mordred and Siegfried combine their noble phantasms and destroy the golem in fantastic fashion (scene here: https://youtu.be/mT-d-uvVxIo).
Not much happens in episode 15. The remaining members of the black faction (except for Jack the Ripper. (Neo): Again) along with Kairi, Mordred, and Sieg agree to a temporary truce to fight Shiro. Of course Kairi and Mordred will continue to work independently from everyone else and when the chance comes, they’ll steal the Grail. We actually do find out that Kairi’s wish is to have a descendant. We find out that his family made a deal with a devil to be strong. However, the family name would end with Kairi. He tried adopting a child and passing on his knowledge and family crest to them, but the child died during the transferring process (Yume: Give him credit, he at least tried to find a loophole in the deal). Jeanne gives two command seals to Sieg and warns him to never use the third one as they don’t know what will happen to him. We see later how she’s starting to develop feelings for him, but wonders if these feelings are really hers or Laeticia’s feelings?
Episode 16 focuses on Jack the Ripper who continues to kill mages and eat their hearts (Neo: Part of a balanced diet). We also see Sieg collapse on the group where Chiron reveals that every time he transforms into Siegfried he chips away at his life and if he continues to transform he’ll eventually die (sucks to be him). Sieg is surprisingly not bothered by this information and is willing to sacrifice his life in order to protect others (but how can you save people if you’re dead?). Getting back to Jack, Fiore sends Jeanne, Astolfo, Chiron, and Caules to Trifas to track down Jack. They examine the bodies she’s killed (Yume: She does surprisingly good work for a child), where one of the people she killed was a mage who knew how to bypass the castle’s defenses (oh shit). Sure enough, Jack attacks the castle (Neo: And they left their leader, master and a bunch of injured homunculi alone to defend themselves. What were they thinking?) and tries to kill Fiore where she narrowly escapes death thanks to Sieg who holds her off long enough for everyone to return and force her to retreat (scene here: https://youtu.be/gO44psEzELY). With the threat of Jack and knowing how dangerous she is to be left alone, the group agrees to take care of her first before going after Shiro.
Episodes 17-20
(Neo): Episodes 17-18 focuses on the battle with Jack. Sieg and Jeanne go back to Trifas and act as bait to lure out Jack. During this time Jeanne teaches Sieg how to interact with people as well as tour the town where once again she realizes her feelings for him (now, this actually is a good idea. Sieg hasn’t spent time with humans so seeing him interact with the world around him is neat and seeing Jeanne act like a normal girl is cute. Sadly, it becomes a quick montage due to time and story. If this idea had been explored sooner in the anime, I know it would have been great). They even talk about Jeanne’s past and how despite what happened to her, she has no hatred for the people who condemned her (Nitsuj: You may not, but Gilles sure does). Jack finally makes her move and covers all of Trifas in fog where she attacks Jeanne trying to kill her only to fail and lose a leg courtesy of Chiron. Reika doesn’t have much luck either as she tried to kill Sieg and failed. Reika escapes and meets up with the injured Jack where they try to escape only to get spotted by Atalanta. Reika sacrifices her life to protect Jack (scene here: https://youtu.be/1rJKjAkHqJI. (Yume): Shame. She was a little strange, but a good lady) and uses her remaining command seals to give Jack power where she uses her reality marble to transport Jeanne, Sieg, and Atalanta to Victorian London (Yume: Where it all began). It’s in this world that Sieg bears witness to the cruelty of humanity and everyone learns the true form of Jack. It turns out that Jack isn’t an actual person, but instead a collection of children spirits who were victimized and killed during the Victorian era (Nitsuj: And that’s actually a pretty interesting interpretation of Jack the Ripper. What if it wasn’t just one man or woman who committed all these murders, but instead a group of people and who better to do it then kids who were born on the streets and wouldn’t be given a second glance? I’m not saying that’s what really happened, but it is an interesting theory to play with). They try to scare Jeanne but that fails and she prepares to destroy them as that’s the only way to save them. Atalanta attacks her disagreeing with her method and instead protects the spirits, but the spirits allow themselves to be destroyed so that they can find salvation in the next life (scene here: https://youtu.be/jPjDxNNeMqI, this is actually a good scene that delivers some social commentary. Was it wrong for Jeanne to kill those kids? I don’t think so, there was nothing she could do to save them other than this. However, to someone like Atalanta who embraces the innocence of children and wants to save them all just like she was saved after being abandoned, she can’t help but feel that Jeanne is in the wrong here and hates her for what she did. There are different points of view here to the truth and it’s important to have your own view while not being blind to the truth of others just to believe your own truth). Everyone returns back to their reality where an enraged Atalanta attacks Jeanne before being chased off by Chiron and Astolfo. Jeanne goes to comfort Sieg where she says that humans can be cruel and ugly, but they can be generous and beautiful as well (Yume: You just have to look hard to find it, but when you do find it you’ll be amazed at what you see). With the Jack situation taken care of the story can now shift back to the battle with Shiro.
With Jack the Ripper taken care of, episode 19 sees the group focus their attention on Shiro and attack the Hanging Gardens. The only way to attack would be plane, but with the Garden’s defenses they wouldn’t last long (Nitsuj: Then we shall bring the Gardens to us). Astolfo says his noble phantasm can protect them, but it will only work on a new moon which is three days away and by that time Shiro will have left Romania airspace forcing Yggdmillennia to give up almost any hope of retrieving the Grail and fulfilling their ambitions. Fiore not wanting to risk any casualties decides to wait three days making her realize that her kindness makes her a poor leader (Nitsuj: I beg to differ. Being kind doesn’t make you a weak leader, it’s just of matter of knowing when to be kind and when to set it aside). This makes her decide to transfer her magical crest to Caules (Yume: Can’t help but feel he planned all of this). The next day Sieg and Astolfo run into Mordred in town where Sieg asks her if humans are worth protecting. Mordred’s answer: there is no right or wrong answer here. Humans are good, evil, and greedy all rolled into one. All you can do is just follow your choices and believe in them. Mordred’s answer only seems to trouble Sieg even more, but he meets up with Jeanne who tells him that he’s a good person and not to give up on humanity. After this, not much happens in the episode. Everyone just prepares themselves for the final battle ahead.
In episode 20, Shiro prepares to enter the Grail to proceed with the next step of his plan (Yume: He sure took his sweet time). Before entering, he uses a command seal on Shakespeare ordering him not to write his story as a tragedy (Nitsuj: Well somebody’s not confident about his victory). Back with the others, they take off for the Hanging Gardens where Chiron and Jeanne draw the attention of Shiro’s faction, while Sieg and Astolfo sneak in and dismantle the defenses. Jeanne and Chiron take on Atalanta (still mad about the kid thing) and Achilles respectively. Achilles reveals that Shiro plans to rewrite reality to achieve his wish. Speaking of the Grail, we see Shiro resists the temptation to give in to his hate and despair and finally reaches “Heaven’s Feel” (that is some major foreshadowing for the future) and meets the physical embodiment of the Grail (Nitsuj: Who looks like Irisviel from Fate/Zero. (Yume): Actually, that’s Justeaze. The original head of the Eizbern family and the person Irisviel was cloned from) where he wishes to materialize all of mankind’s souls (scene here: https://youtu.be/MHYnnoYVzJI).
Episodes 21-25
(Yume): For episode 21, Sieg transforms into Siegfried to take on Karna while Astolfo destroys the Gardens’ defenses. Astolfo manages to destroy all of the defenses, but uses up all of his energy to do so leaving himself defenseless. When Semiramis arrives to finish him off (where even she thought Astolfo was a girl. (Neo): That’s how you know he’s a good trap) she gets attacked by Mordred. Back with Chiron and Achilles, Achilles sends them to an altered reality where their noble phantasms won’t work and they have to rely on their natural abilities to fight. They have a good old fashioned hand-to-hand fight (Nitsuj: Fisticuffs as some people like to call it. (Yume): Still, this is easily the best fight in the entire anime. The animation, the camerawork, the flow, the sounds, the impact of each punch. This is top quality work here) where despite Chiron getting some good hits in, Achilles is the one who raises his hand in the end as the victor (Neo: Even though he received the most punches, as long as he nails the right punch he has the higher chance of winning. Scene here: https://youtu.be/h_fyu3pwJxY). They return to our reality where despite losing, Chiron laid a trap for Achilles by striking his heel with an arrow from the stars which negates his immortality. Before fading away, Chiron asks Achilles to give one of his noble phantasms to a black servant (well seeing as how most are dead, the only choice he has is Astolfo) which he agrees to do and gives it to Astolfo.
Episode 22 starts with Jeanne struggling to fight against Atalanta. Things only get worse when Atalanta uses her noble phantasm and goes full beast mode (Nitsuj: Eww~, I prefer the other form. (Neo): You and every furry out there). Achilles intervenes and fights Atalanta to save her from going down a dark path (scene here: https://youtu.be/5b8tHKLz69k). The two fight hard where Achilles manages to return Atalanta to her original form (Nitsuj: Nice! Achilles is on fire tonight) and the two cannot fight no more as they mortally wounded each other. Achilles fades away happy knowing that he saved Atalanta, while Atalanta cries that he had to die in order to save her and admits that her dream of saving every child might have been an impossible wish (sad, but true. Scene here: https://youtu.be/6QQc79IasqU). Back with Siegfried and Karna, Siegfried returns back to Sieg but Karna doesn’t kill him (Neo: Yet). Karna makes the request to Caules (Nitsuj: Where did he come from?) to get the red faction masters to safety. Caules agrees on the condition that he won’t kill Sieg when his next transformation expires. Karna agrees to this condition and Caules manages to rescue the red faction masters. Siegfried and Karna fight where I can’t help but feel that the animators were having some contest to see who can have the coolest explosion (Neo: Yeah, seriously, almost every shot in this fight has an explosion going off. (Nitsuj): I make a Bay joke, but honestly these explosions have a purpose as opposed to Bay’s explosions). Karna finally decides to stop playing around and uses his noble phantasm where not even Siegfried can block the attack. Just when it looks like he’s about to die, he gets saved by Astolfo who comes in with Achilles’s shield and this protects them from Karna’s attack. After deflecting the attack, Siegfried finally goes in for the kill and manages to stab Karna in the chest to beat him. Karna congratulates Sieg on his victory but warns him that Shakespeare has laid a trap for Jeanne before fading away (scene here: https://youtu.be/hI0Mq1IS3RI).
We keep the fights coming in episode 23 with Mordred taking on Semiramis in her throne room. Semiramis gains the upper hand by poisoning the room which weakens Mordred. Semiramis offers to spare Mordred if she becomes her knight and kills Kairi. This causes Mordred to reflect on her past where she never wanted to become king (Neo: Yeah, no offence, but she’s really not king material. Too wild for her own good). Instead, she just wanted to save Arthur from the future that awaited him (or her. (Nitsuj): Such a good daughter). Kairi manages to break into the throne room where he administers an antidote to Mordred and she goes back on the attack with Kairi providing a distraction which allows Mordred to land the killing blow on Semiramis. Unfortunately, Kairi got fatally injured and is slowly dying. He tells Mordred to quickly form a contract with another master (there’s only like one left and Mordred burned that bridge a long time ago), but she says no and chooses to go down with her master (scene here: https://youtu.be/mBNUfc5sr54. (Nitsuj): That’s a pretty cool scene. It’s like she’s saying the only person she can accept as her master is Kairi). Jeanne manages to make it to the Grail where Shakespeare is there waiting for her (to stab or not to stab? That is the question. (Nitsuj): And you guys make fun of my jokes). Shakespeare traps Jeanne in an illusion that taunts her memories of the past and her feelings for Sieg. Speaking of Sieg, we see him and Astolfo make their way to Jeanne where Astolfo falls into a magic trap and Sieg is forced to go alone. Back with Jeanne, Shakespeare summons Gilles (Nitsuj: Oh give me a break! The Caster-class needs to be banned from the wars; they always cheat. Replace them with like the Axe or Fighter-class) where he points out the inherent contradiction in Jeanne wanting to treat all humans equally but giving Sieg special treatment above everyone else. This causes a mental breakdown in Jeanne as she just can’t seem to realize that she’s in love with Sieg.
In episode 24 Shiro emerges from the Grail (Neo: I like the new look. Though I do prefer the short hair over the long hair) where he explains that he will materialize all of humanity’s souls so that they can exist without physical bodies, therefore eliminating all conflict and achieving their salvation (https://youtu.be/BwSts2s4ba4). Jeanne manages to recover from her mental breakdown just as Sieg arrives and gives her the determination to reject Shiro’s salvation because it robs them of their potential to change (Nitsuj: That and free will. People need to struggle with good and evil to gain spiritual growth. If you eliminate the choice between good and evil then there’s point in doing anything. Our choices have to matter to some degree). Jeanne convinces Gilles to fight by her side again (wow, you know the times are desperate if we’re asking him for help) where he sacrifices his life to protect her long enough to unleash her noble phantasm where she manages to strike Shiro and destroy one of his arms. Using up all of her power, Jeanne begins to fade away and return to Laeticia where she accepts her feelings for Sieg and says that they’ll meet again (scene here: https://youtu.be/IwQbmEC3od8). An enraged Sieg fights against Shiro and holds his own where he grabs Shiro and takes him down with Frankenstein’s noble phantasm (Nitsuj: Wait what? (Neo): Remember when Sieg got hit with Frankenstein’s lightning in the earlier episodes? He absorbed some of her powers and has since then been lying dormant within him. Waiting to strike for this one moment. Scene here: https://youtu.be/D2BfbW_kDzI).
In the final episode, Shiro has been severely wounded by Sieg’s attack and gets carried to safety by Semiramis where the two accept their defeat, Shiro accepts Semiramis’s feelings for him, they kiss and die (scene here: https://youtu.be/PGhWfZj7TNI. (Neo): Their love. . .was a strange one). As for Sieg, he and Astolfo find themselves within the Grail and are declared the winners of the war (alright! Even though you joined the war halfway, congratulations). Naturally, they try to stop Shiro’s wish but aren’t allowed to do that, so Sieg instead wishes to be turned into a dragon so that he can carry the Grail to the Reverse Side of the World (Nitsuj: I’m just going to assume that’s where the spirits of servants go to rest. (Neo): Not even close. (Nitsuj): D’oh!) which will keep the world safe from the Grail’s power. He gives Astolfo his final order which is to go on living in this world for him spreading joy (oh trust me, he has). Astolfo returns and gets Caules and Laeticia out of the Hanging Gardens which has begun to collapse on them (scene here: https://youtu.be/dhOEtb4dGQ4) and Shakespeare finishes up this epic tale and takes his leave (scene here: https://youtu.be/53-QHyelInk). In the aftermath of the war, Caules gets accepted back into the Mage Association for his contribution in stopping Shiro (Nitsuj: Yeah that reminds me, why the hell didn’t they do anything?). Fiore gives up on being a mage and begins rehabilitation to start walking again. Laeticia returns to her normal life while Astolfo goes off into the world. As for Sieg and Jeanne, well Jeanne’s spirit finds him and turns him back into a human where they decide to go on a journey together and she finally confesses to him (scene here: https://youtu.be/lfKx3BnXIVM).
Final Thoughts
(Yume): Fate/Apocrypha is definitely the middle ground in the Fate series. It’s not as great as Unlimited Blade Works and Zero, but better than the first Fate anime. The idea of a team battle war was interesting as it gave us more servants and masters to focus on. Sadly, they only do this halfway right. While the servants are all interesting it’s the masters where they fall short at. The masters of the black faction are good, but they completely botch the red faction by putting them to sleep and only using two of them throughout the anime. Even if the other masters did participate, they still would have been uninteresting people to follow when compared to the black faction. I also didn’t like how the war devolves into just everyone vs Shiro who is just a boring villain for this series in my opinion. He really does nothing throughout the anime and his personality isn’t all that interesting when you compare him to past antagonists like Gilgamesh and Kirei. They were warped individuals who stuck with you because of what they believed and how they acted. Shiro doesn’t stick with me at all. I even go as far as saying Darnic fused with Vlad would have been a better antagonist than Shiro. He wants to save humanity, but his way of doing it is nothing new or anything we haven’t seen or heard before. While I don’t think their writing for this anime is pretentious, I wouldn’t call this smart, clever or important writing either.
(Nitsuj): As far as character goes, I did like the ones we got to focus on. I like how they teased the main characters were going to be Mordred and Kairi, only to get a swerve and have the series focus on Sieg and Jeanne who were way more interesting characters. Some say that Sieg was kind of a bland character and yeah I can see where they’re coming from, but it does make sense why he doesn’t have much of a personality. He’s only been alive for a few days and doesn’t know much about the world or himself, so it makes sense that he comes across as bland in some areas. However, his growth throughout the series is well done. Sieg’s growth throughout the anime as a homunculi who gains human understanding and spends the war trying his best to figure out what it means to be a human is something I can get behind and see a homunculi doing. The homunculi from FMA: Brotherhood were kind of the same way, they too were interested in humans and wanted to be like them in some way. Sieg sees both the good and bad of humanity and uses that as a basis to form his own ideas of how he should live. We see him struggle, have doubts, worries, fears, and come to conclusions he believes are right and will benefit just like a real person. Jeanne’s story is kind of the opposite. She’s lived her life as a human and understands what it means to be human but chooses to keep people at a distance. It’s as if the mental trauma from her past is haunting her and she doesn’t want to experience something like that ever again despite putting on a brave face. However, this all changes when Sieg enters the picture and forces her to get close to another person, open her heart up to them, and restore her faith in humanity. There are some other good interactions throughout the anime as well. I like the subtle relationships Caules had with Frankenstein and Fiore. He cares a great deal for both girls and wants to protect them both. I even like how it’s hinted that he might have had feelings for Frankenstein. Making it all the more tragic and a wasted opportunity that she got defeated so early. His desire to protect Fiore may come across as an overprotective little brother bullying his older sister somewhat, but I view it as him seeing her mental fortitude and wanting to save her from doing something in the future she’ll regret. He wants to take on that burden and give Fiore a better life outside of being a mage. I did like the student-teacher relationship Chiron and Achilles had with each other throughout the war. Even though they’re enemies, there’s this level of respect they have for one another up until the end. Reika and Jack’s relationship was endearing. These two have both lived crappy lives but meeting each other made their lives a little better if only for a short time. I won’t deny it’s a little messed up, but you can tell there’s genuine care for one another. Kairi and Mordred were my favorite pairing next to Sieg and Jeanne. There’s a level of respect and trust they have with each other and I like how they have a father-daughter relationship. Their last scene together was great and solidified them as being one of best master-servant pairings in the whole Fate series. Finally, Astolfo, he was easily the best servant in this anime. He was the first to befriend Sieg and stuck with him all the way to the end. His positive attitude was great and he was the one who gave us the most laughs throughout the anime.
(Neo): The animation is good. Especially the last episodes. While I still think Ufotable had the better animation, I will say that A-1’s animation was good as well and as time went on it got better in the later animes. The earlier fights in the anime did feel short and slow but got better as the anime progressed. The two big battles near the end of the first half and final episodes were great and just like Yume said the fight between Achilles and Chiron was the best followed by Sieg and Karna. The music was meh. I didn’t really notice all that much. There are times where it does get me hyped for a scene, but at the same time it feels overused in the scenes I noticed it.
Final Score
(Yume): I give Fate/Apocrypha a 6.5/10. Like I said, this is the middle ground in the Fate series. Not too good but too bad either.
(Neo): I’m giving it a 7/10. While the anime started off slow, it picks up near the end of the first half and delivers a great second half with Sieg and Jeanne’s relationship a central focus and seeing a lot of stories get a satisfying end.
(Nitsuj): I’m giving it a 7.5/10. I liked the concept of this war and the various servants we got to see. I honestly wish there were more wars like this only with better masters to go along with it. Black faction had good masters.
(Neo): So, combining our scores we get 21/30 which averages out to 7/10. While Unlimited Blade Works and Zero are far better, I think this is also a good series to check out after watching them. It may not be the best but it’s not the worst. You’ll enjoy it for its many servants and two main characters.
(Yume): Thanks for reading and look forward to next week because we’re going into virtual reality. See you next time on Project Nitsuj.