Fate/strange Fake

Episode 5

With the cat out of the bag about two Holy Grail Wars happening at the same time, this episode rolls the clock back a bit to focus on three of the “True Masters” in this increasingly complex and chaotic situation.

The first of these is Sigma—a magically-altered child soldier from a conflict long past. He is another of those, like Ayaka, lacking a wish for the Holy Grail. Having his needs of food and shelter met is enough for him. This makes him the perfect kind of person for Francesca and Faldeus to use for their own ends. However, with his mindset, the big question is what kind of servant he will summon.

Of course, at this point, the Holy Grail war has become so warped by all that's going on that the summoning ritual doesn't go as planned. Instead of summoning a Lancer servant, Sigma summons “Watcher”—which in turn summons seven Shadows of legendary figures to interact with Sigma. These Shadows aren't servants (as they seem to be unable to interact with the world). Moreover, neither they nor Watcher will fight for Sigma. Rather, they are trying to guide him to become the Lancer of the True Holy Grail War—though no one seems to know what exactly that even means.

From Sigma, we move on to the summoning of Heracles and how he became the Alcides, willing to murder Tiné without a second thought. Essentially, his Master, Bazdilot, used his command seals to cause Heracles to become disillusioned with humanity's nature. Then, while under the temporary effects of the command seals, he used some of the black mud stolen from the aftermath of Fate/stay night to make the change both more dramatic and permanent—transforming him from a Greek hero into the antithesis of that.

Moreover, we learn that Alcides has a nearly unlimited supply of magic power to draw on—meaning he can use all his attacks, including his Noble Phantasm, at will. This is because Bazdilot is a high-ranking mafia man who has an interesting way of disposing of those who cross his criminal organization: kill them by turning them into mana crystals. And somehow, his crime family has done this to nearly 25,000 people, which makes the US government working with him in this Grail War even more shocking.

The final True Master we focus on in this episode is anything but new. Rather, it is the self-styled mastermind of the entire True and False Holy Grail War mess we find ourselves in: Francesca. While in the last episode, we learned she had become a Master and had her servant break up the fight between Gilgamesh, Hippolyta, and Alcides, it's now that we learn the identity of her Servant: her past self. Francesca is, in fact, François Prelati, 15th-century Italian cleric and alchemist—and friend of the Jeanne d'Arc-loving Gilles de Rais.

From Francesca's words in this episode, we gather that she has died several times—and somehow copied her soul into a new body each time. Thus, it stands to reason that the servant François Prelati is based on how she was upon her first death, and it seems the centuries have done little to change her personality, if at all.

In the end, this episode is basically nothing but character exposition—but that's not a bad thing. Rather, this episode of flashbacks is a clever way of introducing us to the handful of new characters, giving them a bit of backstory, and having a bit of action to show how big a threat they are. It even manages to finish with a great little cliffhanger by having False Assassin pop in to kill Sigma, who then runs headlong into Ayaka and Saber. So here's looking forward to next week.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• This episode implies that Maiya Hisau, Kiritsugu's Assistant in Fate/Zero, is Sigma's mother—both through François' conversation with Sigma and her own backstory in Fate/Zero.

• Interestingly, Hippolyta is absent from this episode that fleshes out the backstories for the other servants introduced last episode.

• The three people to utterly dominate Francesca in battle are:

1. Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg – Zelretch has had a hand, either directly or indirectly, in a ton of Type-Moon works. (We saw him at the end of Whispers of Dawn when he chose observe Ayaka in this timeline.) Not only is he immortal, he's also one of the three people in the modern era able to wield True Magic—which makes him one of, if not the, most powerful human in all of Fate. He was there at the creation of the Holy Grail War ritual, founded the Clock Tower, and, in one reality, created sentient wands that turn Rin and Illya into magical girls.
2. Touko “Scar Red” Aozaki – Touko is pretty much the pinnacle of what a mage can achieve without True Magic—and is all but unstoppable except by those who do have it. She is the main antagonist of the upcoming Witch of the Holy Night film and a major supporting character in The Garden of Sinners film series. She also faces off against Waver in the Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace note special episode and is the one who makes the new puppet body for Emiya at the end of Heaven's Feel.
3. Saint Germain – Likely based on the historical Count of St. Germain. His Fate counterpart is new to the franchise so we know nothing about him.

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Fate/strange Fake is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.