Lot is no stranger to all kinds of creative minds who lend their talents to the brand in all kinds of short stories, novels and screenplays, just as General Urobuchi wrote Fate Zero. But of the countless stories, Fate/Strange Nepfrom Baccano and Durarara highly talked about author Ryogo Narita, which fans have craved for an anime adaptation for ages.
Funnily enough, the story started out as an April 1 joke titled “Destiny/Statennightreferring to the story set in the United States, but became a novel and manga series as of 2014. Seven novels have been published since then and the series continues to this day, detailing the war in Snowfield, Nevada.
The “False” Grail War
Like all fate stories, it involves a holy grail capable of granting wishes, and seven masters each summoning a heroic spirit to fight in the name of claiming their wish come true. This war, however, is a complete fabrication, a duplication of the usual ritual, all performed by an American splinter group of magicians.
strange fake has been compared to Fate/Apocrypha as the concepts of both stories stem from the events of the Third Holy Grail War and its effect on current events. They are also both stories that portray two separate sides of a larger Grail War. In apocryphait was the masters and servants of black versus the masters and servants of red.
In strange fake, the imperfect recreation of the Grail War has created an even more chaotic battlefield, where battle lines are not clearly drawn. There are the participants in the Fake Grail War and those who fight in the True Grail War. This war apparently has more political and competitive motivations in it than any other Lot story.
The servants
Since there are a minimum of 26 major players in the war, not counting the supporting characters and those who are not direct participants in the war, there are many characters to keep an eye on. In a series like Apocrypha, this was already a point of contention that made it difficult to invest in all the characters. However, given Narita’s reputation as an author, a story like this fits the bill perfectly.
Narita’s work on Baccano and Durarara is exceptional, because they are such huge stories that break their complex weaves with excellent character texts. Everyone probably has a different favorite character in Durararawhere the central idea of the story is that everyone is a protagonist in their own way.
Narita is good at turning each thread into a compelling story in its own right, so getting him to write Fate, a franchise in which every Servant has an inherent knowledge behind them, is a match made in heaven. Characters like Gilgamesh return, as do characters like Enkidu, who has deep ties to Gilgamesh.
Many key figures in strange fake are notable for being in other very popular Lot to work. Gilgamesh is clear, and Enkidu was a large part of the Babylonia series, but also characters such as Waver Velvet and Flat Escados make their appearance. Not to mention the new servants and their masters.
Most notable is probably King Richard the Lionheart, the servant of the saber class of the True Grail War. His master is Ayaka Sajyou. For those who didn’t know, Ayaka was the original main character of Fate/Stay Night before Shirou Emiya was created and instead became the main character.
the anime
A1 Pictures is producing what has been described as a TV movie in which the story will be adapted, although it is unknown how long it will last. Fans eager to see what the show will look like beyond the recent short teaser will be happy to know that the staff working on it have animated it in one form or another before.
In 2019, A1 Pictures produced a 30-second ad (see above) to promote the novels, featuring music by Hiroyuki Sawano and vocals by Yosh Morita of the band Survive Said The Prophet. The ad was electric and made fans hungry for a full-length anime, and given the returning staff and Sawano returning to compose the music, the dream couldn’t be more tangible.
Since this project was only announced as a TV special, you might worry that it was a one-off OVA with no real promise of a timely continuation. After all, the novels are still going on. However, one can hope that the film will serve as a starting point for a series or more films to adapt the most exciting Lot story in years.
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