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I don't want to alarm you, Edjwald, but thanks to your post above, I'm pretty sure Fate-iverse enforcers are making their way to your location. I hear one of their punishments is re-arranging a victim's coffee filters... *shudder*

I've decided to hold off and watch this when I'm back home with my big screen. A lot of shows it doesn't matter that I'm watching them on a 13' inch Mac screen but I don't think this will be one of them.

I might be the only one who didn't know this, but it turns out that the episode on 12/31 is just a 1 shot special or appetizer, and the real series might be coming out months later, maybe at a weird fringe time that's not really part of any season.

After all, that worked great for Dead Dead Demon's et al.

What's your source of info on that, Edjwald? Crunchyroll is already carrying Fate/strange Fake - Whispers of Dawn, the 1-hour special, so I assumed December 31 was going to be the premiere for the actual series, but perhaps not. MyAnimeList is not providing a start date for the TV series so that suggests that... gasp! Edjwald may actually be right!

Stumbled across a reference while walking ass backward through the ANN front page to these forums, the same way I get most of my anime news Wink

Last edited by smurky turkey on Sun Jan 04, 2026 6:56 am; edited 1 time in total

Fate/strange Fake is my first experience with the series thus I fully expected to feel quite lost. To my surprise I enjoyed the premiere a lot despite probably missing out on tons of details. A war with great looking animation between all kinds of historical characters that have abilities is enough for me. If that makes me a heathen due to missing out on 8 movies, 7 novels and 3 games then so be it.

You're gonna' love it. If this gets you interested in the franchise a little more, at least watch the ufotable adaptations. It's pretty straightforward: Zero, then one of the two branching paths. You want more action, do Unlimited Blade Works. You want more drama/romance, do the Heaven's Feel movies. Although, to be honest, both of those get pretty action-y and dramatic to a point. But Saber takes a backseat in HF, so if you like her from watching Zero, definitely go with UBW, first.

Last edited by Tony K. on Mon Jan 05, 2026 1:45 am; edited 1 time in total

Episode 00: Whispers of Dawn
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Summary:

After the Fifth Holy Grail War, the Mage Association discovers rogue Mages orchestrating a Fake Holy Grail War in Snowfield, Nevada, led by Faldeus. Elsewhere, a concerned Mage seeks a solution to stop the war from ending the world, placing faith in an "Intruder". In Snowfield, an armored Servant asks a girl if she's his Master, but she refuses the role.
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Comments:

Way back when the Special came out, I was thinking it would be an Episode 0/preview, but thank goodness I was wrong. It is actually a prologue and required viewing to set the whole series up, so make sure to watch this before Episode 01.

That being said, having re-watched it, and then viewing Episode 01 straight afterwards, it's a nice 3-ish episode setup. It was nearly 1.5 years between the Special and the first episode, but the Special had a good deal of production value in it, so I'm kinda' glad they spread it and the first episode so far apart.

As many anime fans know, the Fate/ universe is pretty extensive and can be a bit daunting to get into. Like I mentioned in the opener, I've exclusively just kept up with the "main" Zero and stay night iterations, and that's it. I still haven't picked back up the visual novel since this came out. But maybe watching more anime of it will get me into the mood, again.

Doing some research on continuity, but not too much, so I don't spoil Fake before actually seeing it on screen, I think this series is, in a way, one of those titles that helps to extend the lore and mythos of the franchise. Much like Zero is a prequel to stay night, I feel this one might be a sequel. Again, I'm more of an anime viewer and haven't read the light novels to either, but I feel Zero was pretty awesome, and it's looking like Fake might be treading down the same path. Both seem to allude to or create nuanced details around stay night, making for some great Easter eggs.

We have a lot of characters (again). For every pairing of Master and Servant, that's two characters to keep track of. Not to mention all the other interested parties and/or people that have a stake in the Fake Holy Grail War. To try and keep it a little more simple, I'm just gonna' make this small roster of Masters and Servants to help people keep track:

- Master: Tiné Chelc (the gothic-lolita-looking girl)
- Servant: Archer (the gold-armored arrogant prick)

- Master: Silver Wolf Chimera (the wolf)
- Servant: Lancer (the green-haired androgynous tree-hugger)

- Master: Tsubaki Kuruoka (the little girl that was in the hospital)
- Servant: Rider (the floating dark cloud of pestilence)

- Master: Orlando Reeve (the cop that dresses like a mob boss)
- Servant: Caster (the chattery guy-in-the-chair)

- Master: Jester Karture (the shapeshifting psychopath necromancer guy)
- Servant: Assassin (the dreary-looking girl dressed in a cloak)

- Master: Flat Escardos (the cheery, but sorta' absent-minded blonde mage kid)
- Servant: Berserker (who is mostly just a voice, with various physical forms, right now)

- Master: Ayaka Sajyou (the glasses girl at the end)
- Servant: Saber (the extravagantly noble knight-looking guy wielding Excalibur)

The stage isn't set, quite yet, but that's all of the Master-Servant pairings. And on the side, you've got the Mages Association (El-Melloi in London), some other rogue mages out and about, a U.S. organization, and the Holy Church. It's a lot to keep track of, but hopefully this list helps a little.
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Screen Caps:

Last edited by Tony K. on Thu Jan 15, 2026 2:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

Episode 01: The Heroic Spirit Incident
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Summary:

Ayaka Sajou arrives in Snowfield before a military lockdown is enforced due to the chaos caused by a Servant skirmish. Faldeus places her under surveillance, while also noting the disappearance of Tsubaki's parents and a surge of diseased animals. Ayaka is abducted to an opera house by a man hired by Francesca to summon a Servant and test its loyalty through murder. However, the ritual completes, summoning a Saber. She refuses to call herself his Master, and both are arrested, with Saber publicly vowing to atone for the destruction of the opera house, ruining Faldeus' plans to conceal the war. Meanwhile, the Church sends priest Hansa Cervantes to oversee the war.
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Comments:

For those new to Fate, concerning the "main" continuity (Zero and stay night) the central character is usually whoever ends up summoning Saber, as that particular servant is always ranked as the strongest of the bunch. This episode isn't exactly a backstory, but more so an introduction for our last master, Ayako, voiced by the always-lovely Kana Hanazawa. There is certainly an air of mystery to her, what with the woman in her memories and the fact that she refuses to be a Master after Saber is summoned.

The show has some great backgrounds, which I tried to take some shots of. And I love how they falsified the In-N-Out Burger franchise to In-Side-Out. Someone at A-1 knows their American burger chains, which also happens to be very popular around Nevada and the West Coast in general. The last time I visited California (the Torrance area), I counted a 4-to-1 ratio of In-N-Outs to McDonald's in a day. And pretty much every In-N-Out was always packed. It's crazy how much West Coast people like it.

Contrary to the exposure of Saber on the news, the previous Holy Grail Wars in stay night and Zero weren't publicized and were clandestine in nature. So the fact that it's all out in the open, now, makes for an interesting twist. I know a lot of stories kinda' forego "real-world implications" like, how do the authorities and people not notice a bunch of mages, fighting, explosions, and weird magical happenings? Suspension of disbelief has always been the out for this kind of thing, which could honestly be a double-edged sword, depending on where this goes. I do wonder if the original writer took note of just how much the U.S. loves to make a spectacle of things and just rolled with it, or if we'll get some deus ex machina to hide the war, after all.

The Holy Church could be a major wild card. At least, a certain priest who worked for them previously in Zero and stay night was a pretty big factor in the way the war progressed. It's funny how they paint this new one to be a kind of renegade. The last guy was rebellious in his own way, but this one feels more.. rambunctious? The harem he had waiting for him at the end just made him feel very different.

The Encyclopedia listed Episode 02 as airing on 1/3, but it looks like it'll be next weekend, instead. After looking up some basic info on the light novels, Zero got 25 episodes out of its 4 volumes. Fake is currently at 9 volumes, and I think I read somewhere, a while back, that it will end at volume 10. So maybe the anime will get double the episode count? 4 cours of a single Fate series sounds wild. A-1 has this, Solo Leveling, Mashle, and Sword Art Online as their major franchises, so I hope they'll do a good job in dividing the workload, so this and everything else get sporadic releases every 1-2 years.
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Screen Caps:

Last edited by Tony K. on Sun Jan 18, 2026 5:09 am; edited 2 times in total

Episode 02: Ensemble VS Pretense
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Summary:

The police interrogate Saber, who claims he is a follower of King Arthur and, later escapes the interrogation room to visit Ayaka in her cell, telling her that even though she is not his master, there is a magical connection between them. In the lobby, Hansa meets Orlando, who attempts to detain him to find out how much the Church knows about the Fake Holy Grail War, when Assassin suddenly breaks into the station. During the battle, Assassin's Master enters the station, introducing himself as the Dead Apostle Jester Karture. However, before Jester can attack Orlando, Hansa decides to intervene.
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Comments:

Okay, so Jester's not a necromancer, but a freakin' vampire. That's quite the twist. Masters are usually, at least, some person possessing magic. But this'll be the first time I've seen one that's actually a supernatural being. Introducing an element like that kinda' opens the world to a lot of other possibilities, now. I wonder if they'll explain it off as a kind of dark magic, as opposed to actual supernatural forces from the underworld or something.

Those OP credits oozed Sawano, which was pretty awesome. I think this goes without saying already, but if you want epic songs and music, hire that guy, and he'll make your anime a grand event. Listening to the soundtrack, so far, I think he's actually shown a good amount of restraint. I know it's only the second episode, but man, can't wait to see what he pulls out of the music studio once the show gets even more serious.

Ayaka's magic-induced amnesia seems interesting. The fact that there's also an Einzbern in town makes me wonder just what their role is and what Ayaka's relation is to them. While officially not a master (yet?), I liked the way Saber talked his way into a kind of unofficial pact with some technicalities and such. Compared to the previous Saber I know (from Zero and stay night), I will say his personality is the direct opposite of the much more reserved one, which I kinda' like as a change of pace; still chivalrous, but a lot more jovial.

Katsuyuki Konishi playing another eye-patch-wearing, possibly harem-wielding, supposed badass, again (most previously playing a similar role as Tengen in Demon Slayer). He was able to sneak up on Jester and throw coffee on him. And he doesn't seem the least bit hesitant to pick a fight with a vampire who just handed a bunch of people's asses to them. Shades of another holy man from a religious sect not afraid to tussle with a vampire, a la Hellsing. Even more ironic to my Hellsing reference, the last character in Zero and stay night who represented the Holy Church was voiced by Jouji Nakata, who played Alucard in the former.

I have to commend the art team on nailing the casino interior. I've only been to Vegas twice in my life and really hated my last trip there, because I contracted the flu, so I hold quite a bit of recent, long-standing resentment for the city. But what you see for that short time with Gilgamesh sitting around is exactly what those places looks like. Kudos to the artist for getting that amount of detail down.

I watched the Heaven's Feel movies not too long ago, but it felt mostly like the same thing as Unlimited Blade Works, because the characters were familiar (merely being a different story branch and all). But all these new characters in Fake with the infused lore of the previous iterations is shaping up to be really awesome. The production value continues to impress and the story is full of action and intrigue. It's really nice to a see a new Fate series with this much effort going into it. What a great Winter 2026 season, and we haven't even gotten Hell's Paradise or Frieren yet!
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Screen Caps:

I'm finding your summaries and reviews extremely useful, Tony K., thank you!

Hey, thanks for reading! I usually have a lot to say about things I really like, but don't necessarily always have people to talk to about it in-person. Hence, the big posts with a mix of commentary and trivia Razz

. I wish I had more time to talk about every other show in this amount of detail, but two jobs, the bare minimum of sleep, and big backlogs of media only allow so much output.

Last edited by Blood- on Tue Jan 27, 2026 10:21 pm; edited 1 time in total

Here's my addendum to information you've already posted, Tony K. (fun fact, my brain keeps making me type Tonky when posting your usernic!)

- Master: Tiné Chelc (the gothic-lolita-looking girl)
- Servant: Archer (the gold-armored arrogant prick)
- True Name: King Gilgamesh

- Master: Silver Wolf Chimera (the wolf)
- Servant: Lancer (the green-haired androgynous tree-hugger)
- True Name: Enkidu

- Master: Tsubaki Kuruoka (the little girl that was in the hospital)
- Servant: Rider (the floating dark cloud of pestilence)
- True Name: ?

- Master: Orlando Reeve (the cop that dresses like a mob boss)
- Servant: Caster (the chattery guy-in-the-chair)
- True Name: ?

- Master: Jester Karture (the shapeshifting psychopath vampire guy)
- Servant: Assassin (the dreary-looking girl dressed in a cloak)
- True Name: ?

- Master: Flat Escardos (the cheery, but sorta' absent-minded blonde mage kid)
- Servant: Berserker (who is mostly just a voice, with various physical forms, right now)
- True Name: Jack the Ripper

- Master: Ayaka Sajyou (the glasses girl at the end)
- Servant: Saber (the extravagantly noble knight-looking guy wielding Excalibur)
- True Name: King Richard the Lion-Hearted

The three names I've provided come from the Whispers of Dawn special as well as episodes 1 & 2. I'll fill in the others as they are revealed. If I have missed some names from episodes that have already been broadcast please let me know. If you're information is coming from source material, or Wikipedia or whatever please don't post that here until those names actually pop up in the show.

Given how powerful everyone is it seems like an utter fool's errand to even try and keep the war a secret. If half of the characters on display this week go wild the city will eventually become one big crater. Given that I am curious, is there something like a power balance between all the different contestants or is it a free for all anything is possible?

In setting, Magi have a vested interest in keeping their goings-on under wraps- if muggles (to borrow a different universe's term) find out about magecraft, then the magecraft will actively lose power. That's a bit of an oversimplification, but only by a bit. To that end, mages in authority will often cover up their escapades- using media to publicize events as mundane accidents. Gas leaks, electrical fires, etc. They started to coverrup the opera house explosion here...before Saber began his speech, anyway.

Holy Grail Wars in general are supposed to be "anything goes" affairs- but that doesn't preclude alliances being made/broken.

Of course, take all of the "typically" and "supposed to be" sort of statements...and chuck them out the window. I'm not sure anywhere in any of the Nasuverse works, has a Holy Grail War not go sideways for one reason or another. I'm not familiar with this particular story, but based on precedent...expect to go off the rails.

smurky turkey wrote:

Given that I am curious, is there something like a power balance between all the different contestants or is it a free for all anything is possible?

This isn't a rule, per say. But the way it usually works out is that a Master-Servant pairing is balanced out by the dynamic nature of the two characters. Like, Tsubaki (the sick little girl), who probably won't offer much in terms of physical capability, will likely have Rider make up for that (abilities yet to be determined, but a big cloud of pestilence sounds pretty strong, and what if it actually manifests into a physical body?). It kinda' comes down to "this Master is strong in these fields, but has these shortcomings, while the Servant's abilities/prowess make up for said inadequacies and vice-versa."

To be able to summon a Servant also usually implies some kind of worthiness or high fortitude in the Master to begin with. So after that Servant is summoned, it's just a matter of wits, motivation, proficiency, etc., from the Master. Think of it more as matching people with weapons that actually fit their personality, as opposed to a random draw. And, yeah it pretty much just becomes a free-for-all, after that.

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