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EP. REVIEW: Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace note


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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 3:13 pm Reply with quote
I think this is pretty interesting so far. Nice to see more about a part of the Fate universe that is often mentioned yet not very present in many of the Fate works.

Quote:
Beyond that, a comment at the end of episode 3 suggests that Fate/stay night may eventually become relevant too, as that episode ends with a reference to two Masters already having been chosen – and while the Fifth Grail War itself is not mentioned, it's hard to imagine that this could be referring to anything else.


That it referred to the original FSN grail war and Caster / Lancer's masters was my first thought as well since this takes place before the VN. Afterwards, I began to wonder if it could mean Fate / Strange Fake, but I don't really know anything about Strange Fake.
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ThatMoonGuy



Joined: 13 Oct 2017
Posts: 364
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 4:04 pm Reply with quote
SilverTalon01 wrote:

That it referred to the original FSN grail war and Caster / Lancer's masters was my first thought as well since this takes place before the VN. Afterwards, I began to wonder if it could mean Fate / Strange Fake, but I don't really know anything about Strange Fake.


Quote:
That's exactly right. FSF isn't set on the exact same universe as this so they don't really co-occur


As an old time Nasuverse fan, it's real nice to see a side of the setting that doesn't have Servants as its main driving force. As much as I like Fate, the interplay between modernity and the magical world are what first captivated me in the setting. There's a certain special touch to the way the Nasuverse does urban fantasy that's always been very enticing and it's good to see that in full display here. And the added mysticism and magical theorycrafting is just icing on the cake.

Waver, as a character, also happens to be one of my favorites in Type Moon, both from a personality standpoint but also in his role in the 'verse at large. He's fundamentally a techer and seeing someone like that as a main character feels nice.

As for Gray's face, I guess it isn't too obvious because of the different artstyle but she's meant to be a Saberface.

Oh, and that OP? As sweet as it comes.
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Dosmundos



Joined: 03 Sep 2018
Posts: 41
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:06 pm Reply with quote
I don’t know much about the Fate franchise, only Unlimited Blade Works, and I wouldn’t mind a cameo of best girl Tohsaka, but so far it has been a great balance of likeable characters, with a Sherlock-Holmes-like professor of magic in the center, action and comedy. I am well entertained!
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18135
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:18 pm Reply with quote
ThatMoonGuy wrote:
As for Gray's face, I guess it isn't too obvious because of the different artstyle but she's meant to be a Saberface.

Can you elaborate on the bolded term? I've seen nearly all of the franchise's animated content (excepting the Prisma Illya movie), but am not familiar with that reference.
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ThatMoonGuy



Joined: 13 Oct 2017
Posts: 364
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:26 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
ThatMoonGuy wrote:
As for Gray's face, I guess it isn't too obvious because of the different artstyle but she's meant to be a Saberface.

Can you elaborate on the bolded term? I've seen nearly all of the franchise's animated content (excepting the Prisma Illya movie), but am not familiar with that reference.


That's a term that came to be in the expanded works. Takeuchi Takashi, the Type Moon illustrator, has a certain habit of drawing a lot of characters that look like Saber. Remember how in Fate/Zero Bluebeard mistook Saber for Jeanne d'Arc? That's because they're both meant to look like each other. Same as Nero, from Extra, and a lot of other Servants from FGO. So, since they all intentionally look alike, they're called Saberfaces. If you look for Gray's Light Novel art, you'll notice that she looks like Saber from Fate/Stay Night something that was lost in the anime art.
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Izanagi009



Joined: 20 Oct 2014
Posts: 464
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:29 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
ThatMoonGuy wrote:
As for Gray's face, I guess it isn't too obvious because of the different artstyle but she's meant to be a Saberface.

Can you elaborate on the bolded term? I've seen nearly all of the franchise's animated content (excepting the Prisma Illya movie), but am not familiar with that reference.


It's a running joke that the artist for Stay Night, Takeuchi, loves to use the same basic face and body type for multiple characters even those not associated with Saber from stay night such as Okita Souji in FGO/Koha Ace.

That said, Gray's resemblance to Saber in this case actually serves a narrative purpose though i'm not giving the details away as they play into parts of FGO's 6th singularity and the expanded universe

As for the show proper, it does seem to be doing an episodic format mostly with some underlying plotline but i feel that format works well. I find the animation to be well done and the character work to be excellent. Plus, Waver has a little call back line to Iskandar so that was nice
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 1993
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:33 pm Reply with quote
This show's pretty great!

The stand out episodes are definitely 0 and 2.

I love the idea of a mage Sherlock Holmes, and seeing magic cleverly intertwined with modernity. It's the kind of world-building that hasn't quite been done well. And this is why episode 0 was amazing.

I somewhat hope for the events of the rest of the Fate franchise to be as minimal and as far away in the background as possible. Minimize the fantasy to something more like a John Constantine Hellblazer level with the occasional anime action spectacle.

So much potential is here, and I like what we've gotten so far.
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Ashabel



Joined: 16 Feb 2010
Posts: 350
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:43 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
Can you elaborate on the bolded term? I've seen nearly all of the franchise's animated content (excepting the Prisma Illya movie), but am not familiar with that reference.


A Saberface is a character who canonically carries a strong resembles to Artoria Pendragon, IE the original Saber. The term has begun as a gentle heckling of Takashi Takeuchi's art style and his tendency to draw characters with identical facial features just for the heck of it, but later became more or less canonical due to cases like Jeanne, Nero and Gray where the character does have a canonical reason to resemble her.

In the case of Gray, for a variety of reasons in her background that may or may not be addressed in this series, she looks like a perfect copy of Artoria Pendragon. In fact the resemblance is so perfect that it makes Waver extremely uncomfortable due to his memories of the Fourth Grail War, thus Gray's tendency to hide her face behind the hood.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 5:59 pm Reply with quote
Ashabel wrote:
In the case of Gray, for a variety of reasons in her background that may or may not be addressed in this series, she looks like a perfect copy of Artoria Pendragon. In fact the resemblance is so perfect that it makes Waver extremely uncomfortable due to his memories of the Fourth Grail War, thus Gray's tendency to hide her face behind the hood.

Oh, okay, so she's hiding her face basically to please Waver.

Thanks to all who offered clarifications. I never got into FGO much because the phone I had when the game started struggled to handle it, and then Memoria Freeze came along and offered a big distraction in a game format I liked better anyway.
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ThatMoonGuy



Joined: 13 Oct 2017
Posts: 364
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 6:08 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:

Oh, okay, so she's hiding her face basically to please Waver.


It's a bit more complicated than that (it is Type-Moon, after all) but, yes, that's the gist of it.[/i]
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Calsolum



Joined: 11 May 2010
Posts: 898
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 6:15 pm Reply with quote
Waver and Iskander weren't my favourite characters from zero and while I totally understand why people would love them I always found Iskander annoyingly loud and waver irritatingly meek. That said I think "Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files" managed to strike a great compromise, Waver hasn't completely shed his meek nature but he's become much better at hiding it with false bravado, as episode 3 demonstrated. As for the two candidates that Luvia mentioned i'm guessing that they're spoiler[caster and lancer's original masters] there's chance it could be spoiler[rin] but if i recall correctly that person barely made the cut at the last possible moment and i think Luvia would be far more invested they were.

I loved the wrestling easter egg from Luvia, no idea who she was talking about but I'm guessing it's a nod to the anime ending of UBW.
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scowler



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 92
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 6:29 pm Reply with quote
I’m really liking the set pieces so far. The mansion in Episode 2 was absolute classic as far as spooky mansions go, there was no need for any dialogue to convince the viewers that some nefarious magecraft was afoot. The sewers and the spectacular underground temple in Episode 3. And that tea house was decorated with such splendid detail that I can absolutely understand how Waver felt incomplete without it. It’s just like his office which feels like the enclave of your favorite old doddering professor. Really just a lot of great attention to detail here.
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Jam-Kiske



Joined: 14 Dec 2012
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 7:39 pm Reply with quote
I'm thoroughly enjoying this as a fan of the light novels. I was a bit apprehensive of the first half being original content, but I think they've done a good job of maintaining the right feel even with a villain of the week style. To me, the point of this is to introduce the characters and fill you in on their relationships since you're not seeing their first meetings here.

While Fate/Zero knowledge will definitely help here, I don't know that I'd say Fate/stay night knowledge is fully necessary as this takes place beforehand and spoiler[ neither of the two representatives of the Clocktower live to make it to the main parts of FSN anyway.]

There's also plenty of Easter eggs I liked such as spoiler[ mention of Jack the Ripper which I took to be a call to Strange Fake since Flat was right there and is Jack's master in Strange Fake, but it's also reasonably a callback to Apocrypha as well since various people that play roles in that timeline are seen here.]

Also for the savvy with Japanese FGO spoiler[ young Gordes was cute to see! If you can pause to read the note around that part it shows his post which is in line with the role he ends up taking in Chaldea.]

I'm very much looking forward to what else we'll get to see from this series. Not sure if more original stuff or getting to the adapted parts excites me more at this point.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 10:12 pm Reply with quote
Caules was one of my favourite Apocrypha characters so it was nice to see him here, with a Fran posters to boot!
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 11:48 pm Reply with quote
So far I’d categorize this show as “mildly interesting.” The characters are the main draw—I saw F/Z and like Waver (who doesn’t?), and the kids seem cute, if a bit bland, but their backstories are making me curious. Flat said they’d all be on the margins of society if not for Waver, and that seems true, but *why*? What’s Flat’s deal? Svin is obviously a werewolf—born or bitten? Is the reason Waver told him to stay away from Gray the same reason he has a crush on her? Maybe werewolves are really tempted by...saberfaces? I don’t know, but I want to find out!

The mysteries are where this show is losing me, because since every mystery relies on arcane knowledge of Fate universe magic, there’s no way for most (all?) audience members to try to solve it along with Waver. Instead, every episode has an inevitable info dump of magic terminology, which isn’t very exciting. I wonder how it was handled in the book?

Also, how does Apocrypha fit into this show? Because the computer guy definitely looks like wheelchair user girl’s younger brother. And in general, what year isn’t it supposed to be?
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