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dlamp-dictator · 6 years

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Allen’s End of the Year Rambling: Anime

Okay, since I’ve still gotta’ talk about video games and manga I’ll try to keep my blurbs short so I don’t mentally drain myself, but... given my tendency to hyper-extend the length of theses in edit-phase, no promises.

So, got IRL things out of the way, so now I can finally talk about some of the highlights of Allen’s Anime Experience this Year. I gotta’ say, this was an interesting year in terms of what I watched. Some things were out of my comfort zone, some things hit me in ways I didn’t expect, and I even went back to the past for a bit to clear out my queue and reminiscent on older shows of the past. All in all, it’s been an interesting year as far as anime goes.

First up is Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, probably one of the most heart-warming shows I’ve watched in awhile. This anime sparked a bigger reaction in me than I thought it would, especially in the last few episodes. I could really feel the family bonds that had been formed between Kobayashi, Toru, and Kana. It reminded me a lot of my own family, my own household in a lot of ways. For those that was a nice, feel-good anime, I highly recommend watching this, and even re-watching if you’ve already done so.

This anime was also the first time I truly saw fandom discourse. It’s been a thing since fandoms existed, but... my, the vocal critique of this show. We get it, some of you didn’t care for the fanservice.

Sorry folks... I can usually roll my eyes at things like that, but it really got to me when searching up discussion posts and gifs for this anime during the winter season.

Moving on, next up is Armed Girl’s Machiavellism. This anime gave me some Negima flashbacks, and in a good way. A pretty competent Battle Harem anime that thankfully had more action than panty shots. A lot of the battle tactics in this anime are surprisingly sound... outside of the beast tamer controlling a bear. I highly recommend this anime if you guys want to see some cute girls kicking butt and taking names, and a surprisingly likable main male character. Nomura... you are a good man, a good, well-written man given this is a harem anime.

Also, this was the first of many good anime to be held hostage on Amazon’s Anime Strike... yeah, I can’t exactly not talk about this when so many anime are being held only several other platforms now with some high price tags on them. I won’t go into whether things should be pirated or not, but... yeah, I’m not exactly happy about this either.

Speaking of Anime Strike, Princess Principal was a show I picked up last minute and ended up enjoying all throughout. Cute girl spies and a lot of action and plot twists thrown in, what’s not to love? I know was I harsh on it at first, but the show is fine. I was just a bit salty at the time for so many shows badly ending on cliffhangers. This one is fine, and you should watch it if you get the chance, at the very least, check out its OP, The Other Side of the Wall. This was a treat, through and through.

Though it’s an old anime, I did finish Sengoku Collection this year, and it almost matched the heart-warming feelings of Dragon Maid. For something that I thought was going to turn into a bad harem series, it turned out to be a fun episodic tale about gender-bent Sengoku generals. Seriously, watch episode 17 and 18 on Crunchyroll at the very least, they’re great stand alone episodes that nearly had me in tears.

And last, another blast of the past as I stopped keeping up with season anime, Absolute Duo was a fine rewatch. I honestly wouldn’t mind watching it a third or fourth time. The action was good, the story was decent, none of the characters got on my nerves, and even the male main character wasn’t too much of an OP idiot. It’s a good show, nothing outstanding, nor anything I’d say you’d need to watch immediately, but something to watch if you just need six hours of something competent.

Honorable Mentions

Akiba’s Trip: The Animation: A decent action-comedy show with a pretty good dub in my opinion. Nothing outstanding, but something I wouldn’t mind going back to again.

Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler: I’ll talk about this in depth when the dub comes out on Netflix, but I’ve got a volumes 1-3 of the manga right now and... it’s a decent read.. with a few gripes here and there, but again, I’ll talk about those later.

Kenka Bancho Otome -Girl Beats Boys-: Essentially the reverse harem version of Armed Girl’s Machiavellism. A fun anime to watch, especially with it’s 8-10 minute runtime. It stars a cute girl that knows how to fight and fight well as she takes of her delinquent-filled school to rule it... while disguised as a boy.

Symphogear AXZ: The only thing keeping me from outright recommend this one is the fact that it’s season 4 that has quite a few links to past seasons. All I will say is please watch Symphogear. All four seasons of it.

Saga of Tanya the Evil: A wild ride of an anime, with it’s only downsides in my opinion being the sequel-hooking ending, and the fact that I personally don’t think this was Monica Rial’s best work. She’s not bad by any means, but... I dunno’ something felt a little off with her voicing Tanya at times. And just to clarify, this anime is based in World War One, not Two. This is not Nazi Loli Hitler... yet, but Tanya’s character development seems like its leading her to take out God, not Europe, so...

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya Season 4: Another anime I wrapped up from my queue, but goddamn season 4 was a wild ride of feels and action. The only issues with this series is that rather boring season 1 and the overtly sexual season 2. Other than that, please give this anime a shot if you like magical girls and the Fate series. Or hell, just skip to season 4, it’s honestly the only good season in my opinion, but... that’s just my opinion.

Alright, that’s it for anime. I’m... gonna’ take a break from writing for a bit then get to work on the big guns... Video games...

#miss kobayashi's dragon maid #armed girl's machiavellism #princess principal #absolute duo #sengoku collection #your dictator is speaking

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slice-of-no-life · 6 years

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Year End Anime Roundup

Hello all. this is a list of every anime I watched this year.

A Channel 6 - Meh. Aho Girl 7 - stupid funny Akiba’s Strip 7 - this series was more fun than it had any right to be. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Alice to Zouroku 8 - I really enjoyed some parts of this but i have a personal weakness for series about adults raising children. Another 7 - Wasn’t bad but didn’t really resonate with me that much. Ansatsu Kyoushitsu S1 9 - thoroughly enjoyed this. Ansatsu Kyoushitsu S2 7 - ending was kinda meh Bakemono no Ko 8 - I really enjoyed this movie. I had seen it at walmart for ages. glad i picked it up. Blend S 9 - Ah yes the workplace Rom-Com. Always a favorite of mine. Boku no Hero Academia S2 10 - don’t look at me like you didn’t know this was gonna have a 10. Carnival Phantasm 8 - had a lot of fun with this. Castlevania 8 - Hoping for more of this Centaur no Nayami 7 - I love monster girls so this was a no brainer. Danmachi Gaiden Sword Oratoria 7 - alright as a companion to danmachi. can’t really stand on its own merits. Demi-chan wa Katartai* 10 - this was a series I looked forward to each week. I wish i could say more great things about this but if you’re a fan of SoL, you really can’t do much better than this Durarara (all of it) 8 - I really enjoyed the beginning to this. i feel like the last season or two could’ve been skipped if the friends even spoke just a little. Eromanga Sensei 10 - masterpiece. Evangelion 1.0 9 - waiting for 4.0 Evangelion 2.0 9 - ^ Evangelion 3.0 9 - ^ Fate/Apocrypha 8 - it’s a goddamn mess but i love it. Fate/Kaleid liner Prisma Illya Movie: Sekka no Chikai 8 - I love seeing heroic spirit emiya anytime I can. Fate/Zero 2nd Season 9 - dont know why i waited so long to finish this. i enjoyed it. Fuuka (updated and now finished) 6 - started out cool but got boring about midway Gabriel DropOut 8 - CGDCT cute girls subverting religious stereotypes. you have a Fail-len angel addicted to gaming, a sadistic angel, a mostly harmless prankster demon and a demon who is easily the most pleasant person in the show. would watch again Gurren Lagann 8 - don’t even know what was even happening at the end but it was cool. Hajimete no Gal 7 - it’s alright. Himouto s2 9 - i thought it fixed a lot of the problems season 1 had and it actually made umaru a tolerable character. Also bonus points for more cgdct. Hinako Note 7 - eh it was cool. Kuu-chan was bae. Howl’s Moving Castle 9 - Watched this while cooking Easter dinner. Imouto sae Ireba Il. 8 - Solid show with some of the most ridiculous parody comedy i’ve seen. Inuyashiki 8 - Super robot attack grandpa was pretty cool. Isekai shokudou 8 - I enjoyed it. Isekai wa smartphone to Tomo ni. 7 - vanilla as fuck op character in a harem. still moderately enjoyable. I like how they approached the harem scenes. Juuni Taisen 8 - fate meets the chinese zodiac. it was alright. Kakegurui 8 - i still don’t know how to categorize this. Kancolle Movie 9 - I finally got to meet all the charactersfrom the games that the weebs i follow love so much. Katanagatari 9 - so glad i finally gave this a shot. it was worth it. Kemono Friends 10 - wholesome. Kimi no Na wa. 8 - it was just alright for me. Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu 8 - that was pretty good. Kizumonogatari 3 10 - it was amazing. i got to see my favorite series on a movies budget. Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon* 10 - seeing Ms. Kobayashi’s daily life was a treat and I loved seeing how her life changed as other characters were introduced into it. Going into this show i thought it was gonna be a silly thing but it was much more serious than i anticipated. Kanna was best loli for the season and it wasn’t even close *megumin always gets honorable mentions* aoty candidate Koe no Katachi 10 - best non monogatari movie of 2017 Koi to Uso 7 - meh Konosuba2* 10 - i love it when s2 live up to a great s1. they fixed a lot of the problems with s1 but didn’t compromise what made this show magical. darkness really climbed the best girl chart this season thanks to plenty of storylines. could always use more megumin. Aoty candidate Kuzu no Honkai* 9 - wow way to make me feel emotions. i was initially turned off by all the hype i saw. im glad i gave it a try. Love Live S1-S2 8 - i really enjoyed this. Made in Abyss 10 - it was pretty. it had chibi characters. it was dark it was an anime of the year candidate. Mahouka koukou no rettousei 8 - Magic High was cool if a bit pretentious. Mahoutsukai no Yome 10 - im always a sucker for a fantasy world that didn’t feel cookie-cutter. Anime of the year candidate. Masamune-kun no Revenge 6 - protag-kun confirmed for shit taste. main girls best friend was way better and she wasnt even a route. ending was weak. will probably still get s2. Megane na Kanojo 5 - meh 4 shorts about glasses girls. Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku 8 - Lucky star spinoff that gave me lucky star vibes. Momokuri 7 - an okay rom comedy. Naruto Shippuuden 7 - wow what a trip. there was only like 70 eps of filler in the last 100 episodes. Nekopara 9 - true to the game and compelling enough to stand on its own. will probably watch again. Net-juu no Susume 9 - I really enjoyed this series. MoriMori-chan is a waifu of the year candidate New Game 2 7 - wasn’t as good as the original but it was alright. would watch a s3. NonNon Biyori 9 - enjoyed it. should start s2 at some point. Noragami s1-s2 8 - didn’t think i would like this as much as i did. Nyanko Days 6 - can’t remember shit about this One Room 7 - alright. its short episodes so it could knocked out in 40 mins. Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki 9 - really enjoyed wolf children. watched for mothers day to appreciate my own mother. OwariMonogatari s2 9 - really enjoyed this conclusion to my favorite anime. Renai Boukun 7 - meh it was entertaining for a while. Saekano s2 9 - I was gutted emotionally during the first half of the series. I still enjoy it though. Seiren 6 - i’d give arc 1 a 9, and everything else was blah. i dont even remember arc 3. Shingeki no Kyojin 2 9 - I enjoyed it. most people said there was too much flashback but i didn’t have a problem with that. Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou 8 - cool ambient cute girls. Spice and Wolf S1-S2 9 - I didn’t know i was gonna get economics lessons from an anime this year. enjoyed it. Star Fox Zero 6 - nothing important. Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale 8 - enjoyed seeing this in theaters. The iDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS Theater 7 - meh The Kings Avatar 8 - solid series that’ i’d like s2 or another series like it. The Seven Deadly Sins 9 - I see why this is the 4th most binged series on netflix. everything about it screamed quality. Tsurezure Children 7 - good enjoyable rom com shorts. i hope theres a s2 coming. Urara Meirochou 8 - solid cgdct. cute girls are fortune tellers. Koume for best girl. Yojouhan Shinwa Talkei 8 - they spoke so fast i struggled to read the subtitles. It was great though. YuGiOh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions 7 - ive never seen a theater roast a series they paid $12 for. it was everything i remember about the old show. Kaiba was hilarious. Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho 8 - solid fantasy series. Zero for potential waifu of the year

Waifu Tier characters (no previous characters for earlier years ie Megumin, Megumi Kato, Mikasa) Satou Sakie Kobayashi-San: i loved her Tohru: she’s so cute Hanabi Vigne Koume Tsuneki Hikari Zero MoriMori-chan Chise Ozen the Immovable Natsukawa Kuina Ishida Miyako Satanichia Kurumizawa McDowell Elf Yamada Shiori Shinomiya Mashu Kyrielight Astolfo Frankenstein Jeanne D’Arc

Imouto Tier Nikawa Denkigai Kanna Kamui Natsuki Momohara Sagiri Izumi Yuzuru Nishimiya Alice *spoiler character from A Sisters All You Need*

work in progress anime Boruto 20/38 Cardcaptor sakura 40/70 Dragonball Super 42/121 Sakura Quest 16/25

i’ll compile all the 8, 9, and 10 rated anime in another list and from there, I’ll choose my picks for anime of the year. I may even steal crunchyrolls categories and place what i saw into those. i reserve the right to add to this list up until the 15th of January or to change any score on it. *seriously theres like 70 series on this list and ive probably missed some.*

#harley rant #harley angry #long post #anime update #seasonal anime update

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wendiuh · 7 years

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Hey hey hey question! 😄 I've been wanting to start the fate series for awhile, and there was one I had watched some time ago, but I've realized there is multiple series? I've noticed you like it so I was hoping you could help me figure out where to start, what order to go in...? Thanks in advance dearie!

You have no idea how happy i was to see this ask omg girl I’m in Fate hell. This will get lengthy, so beware haha. If you have any other questions, feel free to come to me! If it becomes too much reading (I think it’s like 1.5k words oops) just scroll to the bottom for the summary XD. I’ll put my essay explanation under the cut:

If you’re completely new to Fate, then allow me to explain how the story is set up structure-wise. It is split into 3 separate routes that start off from the same point. Each route has a set heroine/love interest and explore different aspects of the story and characters. These routes are viewed in the order of Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven’s Feel. Fate focuses on the character Saber, UBW focuses on Tohsaka Rin, and HF focuses on Matou Sakura.

Now the first thing all faithful Fate watchers would say is to read the original visual novel. I, however, did not start with this, but it is easy to see why people recommend this first. The Nasuverse (the world of Fate and other related series, named after creater Kinoko Nasu) is a very, very detailed world that has so many aspects to it. Reading the original story will definitely provide the most helpful context. I am currently reading the VN now to get a better understanding of the universe, and it is pretty enjoyable, but can get pretty slow.

Fair warning, though. The original VN is an adult game, meaning it is somewhat gory and deals with adult themes (aka sex). There was a re-release of it without any sex scenes called Realta Nua. I wont provide any links on this post on how get the VN, but there’s definitely YouTube videos out there to help.

If sitting through 80+ hours of reading isn’t your thing, and I don’t blame you if it isn’t, then we must turn to the animes. That’s where things get complicated.

There are 3 currently accessible animes out there set in the Fate/sn universe. There’s the orginal anime from 2006 that “covers” the 1st route, Fate, and was made by Studio Deen. I’m going to refer to this as Deen/stay night. I put the word “covers” in quotes because many Fate fans view this adaptation as a disgrace. I didn’t watch it, but many say it tries too hard to cover the story of the visual novel and somewhat combines the routes. Basically, it tried to adapt all of the visual novel but under the cover of the route Fate. However, it does seem to serve as an okay introduction to the Fate universe in general since it is the first anime adaptation out there.

In terms of release date, next comes the famous adaptation of Fate/zero by ufotable. This is a prequel follows the events prior to the beginning of Fate/stay night, and is hands down a phenomenal series in general. Many view FZ as a classic and a wonderful story, but it does have a few spoilers in terms of some big revelations that happen in the Stay Night routes. If you want to watch an amazing series and you’re okay with some spoilers for the main series, start here. As for me, I didn’t start here because I wanted to save it for last because of how many people that praised it.

Finally comes the UBW anime (the series by ufotable. Not the movie!). Commonly known as Unlimited Budget Works for its beautiful animation, this series focuses on the VN’s second route. This was released after FZ, so I do think ufotable made this series thinking fans already watched the prequel. However, I did start with this series first. Though there were some confusing points, I was able to understand most of the anime and it was pretty good. It took a second watch for me to fully understand the plot, but that’s kind of how a lot of animes work. You never enjoy the full scope of the series until you rewatch it. Both this series and FZ got at least 3 times better when I rewatched it, and that is saying a lot considering how much I liked them the first time through.

So, which one do you start with and what order to watch it in? For the sake of chronology, watch Deen/stay night, then FZ, then UBW. If you want to skip Deen/stay night (which is okay to do), then it is up to you what you want to watch first.

In my opinion, watch UBW first, then FZ. This saves the more serious and dark series for last, which will make the transition to the tone of the upcoming Heaven’s Feel adaptation movies more smooth.

But I think either way you watch the series will still get you a good amount of exposure to the Nasuverse. It’s complicated to start, but once you’re in, it gets better. Heck, even if you don’t fully get immersed into the universe, the 2 ufotable animes are still stellar and carry heavy messages as well as are pretty much eye candy thanks to that animation quality.

But what about all those other things with “Fate/” stamped onto it?

There are a couple of other major Fate installments out there, but they are NOT taking place in the Stay night universe. They are AUs that overall expand the lore of the Nasuverse (and also give the creators some more money lol). These include:

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA - A magical girl AU that is extremely different from Fate/sn. I think one should watch this after they finish the Stay Night series, but don’t feel forced to watch it, for it is completely non-canon.

Fate/apocrypha - This anime is currently airing as of my writing of this post. It follows a parallel universe “what if” situation. If this one certain event in history happened differently, then the events of Stay Night turn into this. This deals with completely different characters and set up. I only watched a few episodes of this anime and found it is probably most enjoyable to those familiar with the Nasuverse.

Fate/extra - Another parallel universe series coming out. Just like Apocrypha, this deals with new characters in general.

Fate/hollow ataraxia - A sequel Visual Novel to the original Stay Night story. Same characters and world, but 6 months later. It is another adult VN game, so it’s pretty much half-lore expansion and half-fanservice.

Fate/prototype - This is a 1-episode OVA of Kinoko Nasu’s first envision of the series. There are some minor differences lore-wise, and the characters are mainly the same, save for a few design differences and gender swaps.

Carnival Phantasm - Ever watch those “crack” videos on YouTube? Like “Fairy Tail Crack” or “Boku no Hero Academia Crack”? These videos take an anime and make jokes out of its content and have many, many memes. Well, Carnival Phantasm is exactly that. It combines many series of the Nasuverse (mainly the Fate/stay night series and Nasu’s other work, Tsukihime) and makes it into a joyful, cute, hilarious, and downright amazing anime. It is filled with inside jokes of the universe and has some spoilers, so save this anime for last. I did skip the Tsukihime skits simply because I didn’t get the jokes, but there’s a montage of all the Fate skits on YouTube here. This series is the source of many, many fandom memes. You don’t have to watch it, but it is so funny.

Fate/Grand Order - A 1-episode OVA that adapts the first storyline of the famous mobile game with the same name. It is another parallel universe of some sort. New characters with some familiar faces of the Stay Night universe. The game is currently released in Japan and North America on the iTunes and Google Play store. It may be a waifu and husbando collector, but it is so addicting…

To conclude, there really isn’t a right answer that I can give you. But here’s my suggestion (aka the way I watched the anime):

1. Watch the Unlimited Blade Works anime by ufotable.

2. Watch Fate/zero.

3. If you want to rewatch then watch the first season of the UBW anime again, then watch FZ again, then watch the second season of UBW. Totally optional, but a fun way to watch the 2 series imo.

4. If you are okay with spoilers for Heaven’s Feel, watch Carnival Phantasm for the Fate sketches. By spoilers I mean there are some jokes from that series that rooted from Heaven’s Feel, but you may only catch them if you squint. It never explicitly spoils the story.

5. Watch the Heaven’s Feel movies. Only 1 out of the 3 is currently out/coming out internationally in theaters, so I guess just try to watch the first 1 if it is available to you at this point?

Feel free to start the visual novel if you want. In regards to the other series I mentioned, they are optional as well.

If you watch UBW and FZ and feel that there are a lot of unanswered questions, then expect Heaven’s Feel to address those issues. Remember that even though the 3 routes are all different stories, they are written in a way that you don’t get the whole picture until you have completed all three routes (too bad the Fate route anime is completely butchered and unreliable plot-wise. But I think you can manage without it. It’s more of an introduction to the story than anything else.)

Hope you understood what I was saying! Again, please message me if you have any questions or just want to talk about the series with me! I am in absolute hell with this universe so don’t hesitate to talk to me!

#THIS WAS SO LONG SORRY I HOPE YOU STILL WANT TO WATCH FATE LOL #fate stay night #long post #asks

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rieshon · 5 years

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Spring 2019 Preview

How the hell is there another season already. I was hoping for a light load this time around, but it looks like the anime gods will not be so kind. Bonus feature this season is all the titles are links to the shows’ official websites so you can click and look at the cute girls I mention.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu: This is an adaptation of a Katsuwo manga, who is the guy who wrote the original for the brilliant Mitsuboshi Colors which ended up on my top ten of the year list last year. An all-female cast of adorable looking girls, a proven mangaka, and the usually-capable Hanada writing the scripts makes this one look like a pretty sure bet. Oh yeah it's also got a good looking deko blondenblu gaijin.

Joshikausei: I think this is a short, but all you need to really know about this show is the tagline on the website: おバカかわいい、この日常がたぶん青春. They got all my favorite words in there. Too bad it's a short, but I think it will be fifteen minutes at least.

Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san: This is one of those shows where you can probably guess exactly what it's going to be like from the title. It's cute kitsune wife (actual age: 800) and other girls in a rabukome animated by Douga Koubou... which is endorsement enough but it's also got Ayaneru as a meganekko joji anime otaku JD?? Hell yeah. The cast is actually fantastic: Waki Azumi, Mareitaso, Ayaneru and Kitaeri, and Suwabe Jun'ichi holds down the male protag fort so that should be good too. No reason to think this won't be great.

Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo Yu-No: You wanna talk about some aesthetic, this is some aesthetic. It's an adaptation of the hugely influential PC-98 eroge of the same name, which was a work that in large part helped bring us the sort of complex science fiction and fantasy stories that would shape the golden age of that medium. With how much I've been lamenting the lack of 'that eroge aesthetic' in anime as of late, it should be obvious that I'm hype for this, and it's getting two cours from based feel. at that.

Fairy gone: Not gonna lie, I was kinda mad that this new P.A. Works original looks nothing like what they typically produce, but having seen the PV, it looks pretty good. Then I learned that the scripts are being written by the author of Grimgar, and I got hype. Fantasy plus WW2-ish shit is a good aesthetic (think Youjo Senki) and it's got the considerable might of a P.A. Works production behind it. The director of Suzuki Keiichi, who doesn't have a lot of credits but worked on the first season of the Jojo anime, which was great, so this one definitely seems like it could have all the ingredients to really pop off. The girls also look hot which is very important.

Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!?: With Hina-sensei of Domekano about to leave my life this show promises a much more concentrated injection of teacher moe into my veins... In fact it is all about lewd and cute senseis and they all look good. My only worry is that, as sometimes seems to happen with shows where the lewdness is put front and center, the animation doesn't really look like it's the best. I am grateful to this show for allowing Ishigami Shizuka to play a cute girl at least, even if she is still slightly typecast as the tomboy gym teacher.

Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai: One of two shows about being a dumbass this season; in this one, everyone is a dumbass. It definitely looks like a standard harem anime, and I always need at least one of those a season to keep myself alive. The girls all look fantastic, but I'm especially excited for the pink-haired teacher character and the purple-haired loli BBA. There's also a delicious brown genki girl, a meganekko who wears kuropansuto... Yeah it's got all the good good ingredients. Oh yeah, it's also being directed by the guy who directed the extremely good Last Period anime last year, so it's got that going for it too.

Kenja no Mago: It's isekai tensei anime, and yes, it literally starts with the protagonist getting hit by truck-kun... But the PV ended up really winning me over, and I'm cautiously looking forward to this one. The premise is recycled, but there's nothing new under the sun anyway. It looks like it's got a decent sense of humor about it and the heroines look cute as hell, but it also looks like it's got some major production values being pumped into it. This show could definitely be a pleasant surprise.

Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai: One of two shows about being a dumbass this season. This one has some good-looking character art courtesy of Silver Link, and one of a couple major leading roles for up-and-coming seiyuu Waki Azumi. The main girl looks extremely adorable and is apparently a pervert so I got hopes for this one to be good.

Senryuu Girl: We actually traditional Japanese arts now (a senryuu is a kind of poem similar to a haiku) but more importantly, cute girls. Za-san takes the leading role but there's also Sumipe as a chuuni looking girl, Kuno-chan, and Paisen, among others. The direction doesn't inspire confidence (this guy was behind the shittier latter seasons of Prisma Illya) but it still looks like a cute rabukome.

One Punch Man 2nd season: How can there be a second season when he already punched last time? He's all outta punches! In all seriousness, One Punch Man was a surprisingly enjoyable romp the first time around, thanks in no small part to the spectacular (especially for TV) animation on display. There is concern over it having moved from Madhouse to J.C. Staff for this season, but if J.C. are being given enough money to rustle up the same level of talent as last time it should hopefully still be a spectacle.

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki: Hougen marudashi no joshikousei! It's cute dialects anime!! That fishing anime had good dialects but it was actually a bad show; this looks like it will have a good dialect and be a good show. It should be cute if nothing else. The main heroine's thing is that she speaks Nagoya-ben, but given that the other heroines are listed as being from Gifu and Mie, maybe we will even get many dialects. Unfortunately, though, it's probably a short, since Creators in Pack are involved.

Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma: This is also a short (ten minutes) which is too bad because these girls look cute as heck. A show with a premise like this is really gonna depend on how likable the male protagonist is, though.

Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine: Toukyou no chuusuu wa marunouchi, hibiya kouen ryougiin... Wait, wrong anime. But yes, like the venerable Taisho Yakyuu Musume of old, girls are playing baseball in anime again. This one is set in the modern day, and I have no idea if it's a fictional setting where girls all play baseball or if they're gonna do the Taisho thing and try to take down the baseball boys because the website still has no plot section. The character designs look good as hell though, coming courtesy of Noguchi Takayuki, who also did designs for Tenshi no 3P! (they were like the only good thing about that anime) and Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu (similar). Hopefully this show has more than just good girls to ogle.

Shoumetsu Toshi: Only thing I really know about this is Ayaneru is in it because I've seen her doing promo work for it. The key visual definitely doesn't do it any favors, nor does the fact that it's apparently based on a mobile game, but man some of these character designs look great. Ayaneru plays some kind of moe gumshoe detective, Mingosu is a sexy lab coat channee, actually there's multiple sexy lab coat channees... Really that's all you have to tell me, I'm fucking in there. The show will probably be crap.

Carole & Tuesday: This looks very pretentious and vaguely like they're fishing for overseas viewers (actually they definitely are because the website even defaults to English when I load the site, which offends my sensibilities), but the PV does make it looks fairly interesting. It's another music focused series from Watanabe Shinichiro, who also tried to steal the hearts of the west with Sakamichi no Apollon in 2012, which was terrible. It might be neat though I guess. It does seem to have a black girl as one of the protagonists which is cool.

Isekai Quartet: I have no idea who asked for this, but if it gives me the opportunity to hear more of Amamiya Sora as Aqua while I wait for a third season of Konosuba, it can't be all bad. I ain't never seen no Overlord though, so a quarter of this is gonna be lost on me.

Strike Witches 501 Butai Hasshin Shimasu!: The title is appropriate because this short is basically an appetizer for the coming next wave of Strike Witches content. It's a cute honobono comedy starring the Strike Witches girls, so it'll probably be good. Hopefully this can remove from my mouth some of the bad tastes Brave Witches left. It won't be until next year that we get the return of Takamura-kantoku and true Strike Witches anime, though.

Araiya-san! ~Ore to Aitsu ga Onnayu de!?~: What the hell is this? Do they really have these in Japan? It's about a dude who washes girls in the bath?? Whatever the fuck is going on here, the girls look cute and it definitely promises to be lewd, at least on ComicFesta's own streaming service. MX version will probably have nazo no hikari, so hopefully the uncensored one pops up somewhere I can watch it.

Choukadou Girl 1/6: It's definitely impossible to not think of Frame Arms Girl when looking at this series, which will probably end up being an unfair comparison. For one, it looks like we got a shitty ass male protagonist instead of a cute girl. I remember how Busou Shinki turned out... Not having high hopes for this one.

Fruits Basket: Honestly, there's no way I'd be watching this if it didnt have such a famous name on the tin. Two ikemen danshi on the key visual is too many! Fruits Basket is a legend of shoujo manga, though, and there should be a lot of resources going into this new, full adaptation of the series, so I feel vaguely obligated to check it out. People are mad about the new character designs but the girls look pretty good, especially that blonde delinquent looking girl.

Sarazanmai: Uh-oh. It's Ikuhara anime. My consternation with Ikuhara is well documented, and although I've never seen his opus of Utena, I find his works, though visually compelling, to be frustratingly obscurantist, or to put it another way, "trying too hard." Still, you gotta give the guy credit for being unique I guess, so I'll still end up watching at least an episode, whatever the fuck it turns out to be about. Unfortunately there seems to be a major lack of girls to hold my interest, not to mention none to be lesbians, so it might not last very long.

Kono Oto Tomare!: It's koto anime. You can have an anime about anything and this is one about people who play the koto. Lots of traditional Japanese arts this season for some reason. Unlike the senryuu anime though, this one only has ONE measly female character, and it doesn't even look like she's the protagonist, so I probably won't watch it. The koto is cool though.

Kimetsu no Yaiba: This show looks like a big deal just from the number of stations it's airing on and the fact that it's a rare TV anime from Ufotable... Unfortunately I have little interest in actually watching it. It's a Shounen Jump series, the art makes it look edgy, it uses the word "zetsubou" in the tagline and I already hate the Hanae Natsuki-voiced boy protagonist just after seeing his face in the key visual. There is a cute looking oni girl though.

Gonna put these down here since it feels weird to rank what are essentially ongoing shows:

Aikatsu Friends! ~Kagayaki no Jewel~: Friends is the Aikatsu series that finally really got its claws in me, so I'm chuffed that we're getting a second season, with some sexy looking space idols voiced by Hiyocchi and Oonishi at that. The fact that there will apparently be a time skip has me a little worried, but also, two years older Mio and Maika are gonna be good. I'm sure it will still be great.

Kiratto! PriChan 2nd season: Unlike Aikatsu, Prichan doesn't seem like it's getting any major changes going into its second year, but I hope they shake it up with some new idols or something. Prichan's definitely not on the level of its predecessor (though little is) and its formula is getting a little stale, so hopefully they take this as a chance to rejuvenate it. Oshamatrix full idols now goddamnit.

#Season Preview

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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The Ultimate Fate Series Beginner’s Guide

Editor's Note: This is a republication of a feature by Kevin Matyi that originally appeared on Crunchyroll News on 6/27/19.

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Fate is a strange franchise for those curious about becoming fans. Including adaptations in various mediums and multiple sequels, throughout its 15 year history there have been over 50 entries in at least six different continuities, some referencing or relying on each other for background information despite not directly connecting. Making things more difficult, many of the entries have never received an English release, including the progenitor of the franchise, the Fate/stay night visual novel.

As a result, many potential fans, myself included, asked the very simple question of where to start, and then need to stare at a flowchart of continuities and timelines, trying to make sense of names like Fate/strange fake and Fate/Grand Order -Absolute Demonic Battlefront Babylonia- before they can even attempt to get into the franchise.

Understandably, this turns many people off from Fate. With that in mind, what’s the short answer to the question? Where can a potential fan go to start watching or reading Fate property?

The absolute simplest answer is to just pick an entry and jump in while trying to avoid anything that looks like it’s clearly a sequel. With the number of different continuities and interdependencies on lore as well as the insanity inherent to some of the decisions (there is an Archer Servant who attacks with bales of rice, and that’s barely odd by Fate standards), it’s practically impossible to not be confused as a new fan, so just embrace the madness, pick something with the word “Fate” in its title and enjoy the ride.

For a more in-depth answer, get comfortable!

To start with, a bit of terminology that most of the entries use:

Master - A magic user (magi) who has successfully summoned or is in command of a Servant.

Servant - A famous person who is summoned as a soldier in the Holy Grail War. Generally one Servant per Master, classified into one of seven classes (more, in later entries) based on fighting style, weapon choice and personal history.

Holy Grail War - A battle royale between magi using Servants. The last one standing can use the Holy Grail to grant any single wish.

Holy Grail - An extradimensional magic battery of effectively infinite power. Sometimes becomes a portal to Hell, other times used to build an airport.

The simplest of the Fate continuities is probably Fate/Apocrypha. It was originally going to be a multiplayer video game with a focus on a continuing story, but eventually the idea was shelved and the setting became the basis of the Apocrypha light novels, later adapted into an ongoing manga and also into a single season anime dubbed by Aniplex of America and given a global release.

In Apocrypha, after the Third Holy Grail War in Japan the Yggdmillennia family of magi took the Holy Grail from Fuyuki City to Romania and kept it a secret for decades. At the start of Apocrypha, they have initiated a new Holy Grail War, but due to all of the Masters being from Yggdmillennia, a new set of seven Masters and Servants are chosen to oppose them, creating two factions of Masters, and the Grail summons a Ruler Servant to preside over the War.

Due to being set in Europe with an entirely new cast of characters, there is almost nothing connecting Apocrypha to other Fate properties outside of some background details about the timeline. Thanks to the global release, the anime is readily watchable in English, subbed or dubbed. However, neither the light novels nor the manga have received an English release.

The next easiest continuity is Fate/strange fake (yes, that’s seriously what it’s called). It started as an April Fool’s joke labelled Fate/states night that followed an attempt to recreate the Holy Grail War via data from a previous War but set in the United States. It was later turned into a story in a magazine, then later still adapted into an ongoing light novel and manga. Sadly, there’s no official way to read any of F/SF’s adaptations in English.

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA (or as many people know it: the one with magical girls) is the middle complexity continuity to understand, since it's something of a tangential continuity to the original F/SN, using many of the same characters and settings but in sometimes significantly different roles. Originally, ILLYA was a manga that received two sequel series (2wei! and 3rei!!), the most recent of which is ongoing. It has been adapted into a total of four anime seasons (Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, 2wei!, 2wei! Herz and 3rei!!), the final episode of which announced a movie, Oath Under Snow, licensed by Sentai Filmworks. All of the anime’s seasons are available with English subtitles, and at least to the end of season three is available dubbed in English.

In the beginning of ILLYA, Rin Tohsaka and her rival Luvia Edelfelt (both appearing in F/SN) are tasked with using special "Magic Sticks" to transform into magical girls and collect the seven Class Cards in Fuyuki, which manifest in a mirror dimension as corrupted versions of the original F/SN Servants. Due to the two constantly fighting, the sentient Sticks leave and select new users, Illya and Miyu. Later seasons expand on how the girls can use Class Cards in combat, add in Chloe, Illya's twin, and generally raise the stakes in various ways, such as having an Eighth Class Card and adding in a new magi tasked with collecting the final Card who destroys the main cast's base of operations.

ILLYA has also has a video game adaptation by the same name for the Nintendo 3DS, a two volume light novel adaptation made while the anime was airing but are not available in English, an OVA Dance at the Sports Festival (available as a special on the first season’s DVD) and an upcoming OVA Prisma Phantasm.

Then there are the more complicated continuities.

The first of these is the Extraverse, where everything is set in a virtual environment on the Moon in the future, specially around 2030, since nothing in Fate is allowed to make sense. The main Extraverse entries are: Fate/Extra (published by Aksys Games), Fate/Extra CCC, Fate/Extra CCC Fox Tail (published by Kadokawa), Fate/Extra Last Encore (licensed by Netflix), Fate/Extella (localized as Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star, published by Marvelous!) and Fate/Extella Link (also published by Marvelous!).

In Extra, humans discover a magic-based computer on the Moon called the Moon Cell Automoton, which had been built by a pre-human civilization and was observing all of human history up to that point. The Moon Cell then makes a virtual high school and starts a Holy Grail War with 128 Masters, effectively taking over the role of the Holy Grail. The main character has no memory of their past, and so must fight through the War with nothing but their Servant, Emporer Nero Claudius, to try to reach the Moon Cell to reclaim their memories. In Fox Tail, the same plot takes place, but instead of Nero, the main character's Servant is Tamamo-no-Mae, previously the main Caster Servant from Extra. Last Encore is a reimagining of the same plot, but with the main character showing up 1,000 after the start of the War.

CCC is a sequel and companion game to Extra and follows the main character as they try to escape the labyrinth on the Far Side of the Moon with their Servant. CCC also introduces advanced artificial intelligence characters, like BB and Meltryllis, as antagonists. Extella and its sequel Extella Link are set after Extra (or at least later in a closely related continuity, since a few details don't line up between the different entries). Nero is in command of the Moon Cell, the main character has been split into multiple pieces, each following a different Servant and both the Moon and Earth are under threat from an alien invasion that occurs once every 14,000 years.

The good news is that that list is all a self-contained continuity with practically no connection to other properties, and it also has some of the most recent entries in Fate. Last Encore aired in 2018, and Extella Link released earlier in 2019. Also, most of the Extraverse entries, with the exceptions of CCC and Fox Tail, have official English translations.

The bad news is that CCC and Fox Tail, which Last Encore and Extra build on, don’t have an English release, and the Extraverse isn’t consolidated into one medium or platform. Extra and CCC are on the Playstation Portable, Extella and Extella Link are on the Playstation 4, Playstation Vita, PC and Nintendo Switch. Fox Tail is a manga following CCC’s story but with a different Servant, and Last Encore is an anime set 1,000 years in the future.

For side entries, Extra as a sound drama CD, a manga and a parody manga where the masters are turned into babies and the servants need take care of them (called Fate/Ikustella), CCC has a manga adaptation and Last Encore has two drama CDs. The Last Encore CDs are bundled with volumes one and five of the show’s Blu-ray release, but otherwise the side entries of the Extraverse appear to not have any official English releases.

The next continuity is Fate/Grand Order, the mobile game, which is pretty easy to understand in a vacuum. The original idea for Apocrypha that was shelved later became the basis for F/GO: a multiplayer video game that still has a focus on a story that progresses over time. In fact, F/GO’s story is still ongoing and will likely continue with regular updates for at least the next two years.

In F/GO, the player is the last Master in Chaldea, a building complex in the mountains that uses magic and technology together to allow both the ability to directly view the past and limited time travel. After a severe incident in the prologue, you are charged with restoring humanity by fixing singularities, points in time where history has gone wrong.

The reason why F/GO is a more difficult continuity is because while its actual story is self-contained and does not rely on other Fate properties, the game has three complications. First, it has various events throughout the year for holidays, milestones and other Fate properties being released, so the main story isn’t the only content. Second, the game has become so popular that many other properties use F/GO as a basis. Finally, it expands on much of the previously established lore, which is great for fans but confusing for newcomers. For example, originally there were only seven classes of Servants in Fate lore. F/GO currently has 13 (12 in the North American release with the final class, Foreigner, releasing in December).

As a result, someone using F/GO as their introduction to Fate will get a self contained story that stands well on its own, but also a ton of other stuff to confuse them until they have an understanding of almost every other entry in the franchise.

As for the other properties connected to F/GO, Fate/Grand Order Arcade is exactly what it sounds like: F/GO but as an arcade game. Fate/Grand Order VR feat. Mash Kyrielight, published by Aniplex and available with an English dub, lets you interact Mash, one of the major characters from the game, and Altria Pendragon, the original Saber Servant from F/SN.

Fate/Grand Order x Himuro's Universe Seven Most Powerful Great Figures Chapter is an anime short made by ufotable based on the 4-koma manga Himuro's Universe Fate/school life. The same crossover also created another spinoff called Himuro March - Fuyuki Game Over. The basic premise of the original Himuro manga is simply following side characters from F/SN as they go through normal high school life, while all of the cool magic and life threatening battles are going on off screen. Unfortunately, all of the Himuro properties appear to have no official English releases.

In terms of anime, F/GO has a few adaptations, including more that are scheduled to air later this year. Fate/Grand Order -First Order- is a movie that adapted the first chapter of the game’s story, and has an English release for both subtitles and dubbed. Fate/Grand Order -Moonlight Lostroom- is a half an hour special with an original story set in the “Lostroom” of Chaldea and is available in English. In terms of story, Lostroom acts something like a prologue to part 2 of F/GO’s story, which will begin around the start of 2019 for North American players.

Fate/Grand Order -Absolute Demonic Battlefront Babylonia-, an anime adapting the final singularity of the first part of F/GO’s story, is set to air in the fall. Finally, Fate/Grand Order -The Sacred Round Table Realm Camelot- Wandering; Agateram (now THAT'S a mouthful!) and Fate/Grand Order -The Sacred Round Table Realm Camelot- Paladin; Agateram (how long could these titles possibly get?!), a two-part movie adapting the Camelot singularity in the game, is currently set to air in 2020.

Image from the official FGO Twitter

F/GO also has a few manga spin offs. Learning With Manga! and its sequel series More Learning and Even More Learning are comedy manga made by Riyo, one of the artists for the game, and officially published as a web comic on the main F/GO website. Each chapter is supposedly designed to help players understand the mechanics of the game, but generally make fun of some of F/GO's more ridiculous aspects or just joke around. Learning With Manga! also received its own anime short on the official FGO YouTube channel, however it does not have any English subtitles.

Fate/Grand Order -mortalis:stella-, published by KODANSHA COMICS, and Fate/Grand Order -turas realta- both adapt the story of the game, with mortalis adapting Mash Kyrielight’s viewpoint and turas adapting the player character’s. Of the various manga, turas is the only one with no English adaptation.

There’s also the Guda Guda Ace manga and related Fate/GUDAGUDA Order. Guda Guda Ace is technically a TYPE-MOON properties (the parent company that owns Fate) that uses Fate Servants and which F/GO adapted several popular characters from, rather than an entry into the Fate franchise itself. GUDAGUDA Order is "the official Fate Grand Order support manga," according to its first chapter, but mostly it follows the same structure as Guda Guda Ace, just with more focus on F/GO. Both properties are self-referential comedy manga with a purposefully deformed art style that do not follow much in the way of an overarching narrative.

The final and most confusing continuity is the one that the most people are familiar with, which might be part of why it is so difficult to explain where to start with the franchise. This is the set of six Holy Grail Wars in Japan and includes the original Fate/stay Night. F/SN has a total of three routes: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel, each of which has some kind of anime adaptation. Studio Deen adapted Fate into an anime and Unlimited Blade Works into a movie, while ufotable adapted Unlimited Blade Works into an anime and is currently adapting Heaven’s Feel into a trilogy of movies.

The adaptations are especially important for F/SN because the original visual novel has no official English translation, but each of the routes do via their anime and movies, with the Blu-ray for the second Heaven’s Feel movie, Lost Butterfly, likely coming out later this year and the final movie, Spring Song, set to release sometime early 2020. Even the manga adaptation of F/SN is available in English thanks to Tokyopop and later Viz.

The basic plot of F/SN follows Shirou Emiya as he gets sucked into the Fifth Holy Grail War and tries to survive while challenging whether his ideals of becoming a hero of justice who saves everyone can stand up to reality. However, each of the three routes explores this differently. In the original visual novel, players needed to play Fate before they could play Unlimited Blade Works, and only after the other two they could play Heaven's Feel. This is largely because Fate explores what his ideals are, Unlimited Balde Works gives an answer to whether the ideal is possible and Heaven's Feel creates a solid application of whether such ideals are possible.

In terms of gameplay, the three routes are differentiated by which of three main heroines Shirou most closely allies himself with: Saber for Fate (technically King Arthur, but because it's Fate, she's female and her name is Artoria Pendragon), Rin for Unlimited Blade Works and Sakura Matou for Heaven's Feel.

However, F/SN is far from the only entry in the main continuity. Later, Fate/hollow ataraxia released as a sequel to F/SN. F/HA also does not have an official English release, but unlike F/SN, it also doesn’t have any anime adaptations or an English release for its manga adaptation.

After F/HA came Fate/Zero, a prequel to F/SN. F/Z started as a series of light novels, later adapted into a manga then later still into an anime licensed by Aniplex. There is also an eight volume release of F/Z in manga form available in English via Dark Horse. F/Z was popular enough to also get audio drama CDs, like The Outsiders’ Performance and Artoria Romance.

F/Z's basic story follows the Fourth Holy Grail War, set 10 years prior to the one in F/SN.F/Z largely expands on the lore of the world, with Masters from each of the three founding families of the Holy Grail War, the Einzberns (who enlist Kiritsugu Emiya, Shirou's adoptive father), Tohsakas (specifically Tokiomi Tohsaka, Rin father) and Matous (Kariya Matou, who agrees to win the Grail in exhange for Sakura's freedom), two from the Clocktower (essentially the major governing and educational body for magi in the Fate universe), as well as Kirie Kotomine, the priest from F/SN who was supposed to be the overseer of the War, and a serial killer due to no one else becoming the seventh Master. The Einzbern family has lost the three previous wars, so emlists Kiritsugu Emiya (Shirou's adoptive father) as a Master on their side. The other two founding families of the Holy Grail Wars, the Tohsakas and Matous, also send in Masters to fight for the Grail.

Then there are a few entries that are technically not in the same continuity, but are also set during the Japanese Grail Wars. First is Fate/prototype, which is set during the Second Holy Grail War and uses many of the original ideas that were going to be in F/SN but were cut during development. It was only available as an animated short that came with with the third season of the spin-off show Carnival Phantasm.

It also has a drama CD, Fate/prototype Drama CD: On-Ship Christmas Murder Case and a prequel, Fate/prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver, set during the First Holy Grail War. Fragments of Sky Silver was originally a light novel, later adapted into an audio drama, and even received its own side story called Fate/Labyrinth, a light novel set in the middle of Fragments of Sky Silver. Unfortunately, none of F/P’s properties have any official English release.

For those who want to keep track, in terms of Holy Grail Wars:

1st HGW - Fate/prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver (not available in English)

2nd HGW - Fate/prototype (not available in English)

3rd HGW - No entries.

-Different continuity-

4th HGW - Fate/Zero (anime available in English)

5th HGW - Fate/stay night (anime and movies available in English)

6th HGW - Fate/hollow ataraxia (not available in English)

That is not quite all of the entries that use F/SN’s setting and characters, however the remaining entries are all spin-offs that are designed to work as standalone properties.

Today’s Menu For the Emiya Family is one of them, originally a manga then adapted into an anime, which follows various members of the F/SN cast making (and eating!) delicious-looking food. Both the manga and anime are available in English, with the manga being licensed by Denpa.

Then there's the previously mentioned Fate/school life, which follows various minor characters from F/SN going through their normal high school life. This is the same Fate/school life that has a few spinoffs with F/GO, and does not appear to be officially available in English. Finally there's Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, which follows one of the masters from F/Z, Waver Velvet, and his apprentice as they solve various magic-based mysteries. The anime adaptation is set begin airing this summer!

After that, there are still a few entries remaining in Fate, however they don’t fit into any overarching continuity.

The aforementioned Carnival Phantasm is an anime by studio Lerche based on a Tsukihime parody manga that includes Fate characters, Tsukihime being another property in the overall universe that Fate is set in (yes, the total continuity for Fate includes even more things). Despite being a fan favorite, it's not officially available in English.

Fate/tiger colosseum is a fighting game published by Capcom for the Playstation Portable with characters from F/SN and F/HA, and had a sequel called Fate/tiger colosseum UPPER. Neither are available officially in English.

Fate/unlimited codes was much the same as tiger colosseum, even down to being published by Capcom, but for arcades, Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable. Unfortunately it was discontinued from the Playstation Store in 2012 due to an expiring license. As a result, there is no way to get the English release of the game anymore.

Fate/Requiem is a light novel set after a Holy Grail War in which everyone has a Servant. It is not available in English.

Finally, there are dozens of art, concept, reference and materials books for the various properties, many being limited offers during the initial release or anniversary of their respective properties. These include the likes of Fate/complete material, Fate/stay night Visual Collection, Fate/EXTRA CCC Void Log: Bloom Echo and Fate/prototype Tribute Phantasm.

With all of that in mind, how can a potential fan get into Fate? It honestly depends on what that fan is looking for. Currently, the ILLYA and Apocrypha manga, Prisma Phantasm, Lord El-Melloi II and Babylonia anime and the Camelot and final Heaven’s Feel movies are all ongoing, so starting with any of them will let you be a part of the current conversations more quickly.

If you want to jump in and experience things as they were released, then one of the F/SN anime or movies will be the best place. If you want something simple that isn’t connected to anything else, then Apocrypha is one of the better options. If you want less drama, action or bloodshed, then the likes of Today’s Menu For the Emiya Family is preferable.

Personally, my first experience with Fate was ufotable's Unlimited Blade Works anime. While it was airing, I was interested in watching but knew that Fate had a bunch of other entries that I knew nothing about. I went to my local anime club to ask about where to start getting into Fate, and after some nervous laughter they asked me about whether I meant just the anime entries or everything. After some discussion, they said that UBW would be a fine starting point.

It turned out that they were mostly correct. Since F/SN followed a character who doesn't know anything about Holy Grail Wars or Servants, the show fills in a lot of the details for newbies. There are some plot points that are just kind of throw at the viewer, assuming that they have experienced the Fate route of the novel or seen the anime adaptation, but even those fall more into unexplained details, rather than stories that a newcomer wouldn't be able to follow.

My advice would be to do pretty much what I did: start with a title that is currently airing or recently released and give it a try. As mentioned, in terms of anime at the moment that would probably be this summer's Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, or F/GO for the more adventurous.

Worst case scenario, there are a lot of other previous entries that you can fall back on to give the franchise a second shot. Best case scenario, it works as a starting point to learn about Fate and there are a lot of other properties to delve in to later. Either way, finally taking the first step in trying to get into Fate is more than enough to become a fan of the franchise, it just takes some guts to make the leap!

Did I miss any Fate entries? Is there a better way to understand the various continuities and relationships between entries? Do you have a better way to get into the franchise? Let me know in the comments below!

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Kevin Matyi is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. He's been watching anime for as long as he can remember, and his favorite shows tend to be shonen and other action series.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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kuuderekun · 7 years

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November 2017 may wind up being Magical Girl month for me

The Fall Simuldubs have started, I may post something on them once I've finished the Three Episode test. I'm hoping on Thanksgiving to continue a tradition watching Nanoha seasons 1 and 2 for it every year. It happened to be that day I watched them for the first time last year, and I quickly decided I'd like to make that a personal Thanksgiving Tradition out of it, but family obligations could make doing that complicated. Maybe it's more important I watch A's that day and watch season 1 before. The Viz Dub of Season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal just dropped, and I still need to finish the Viz Dub for Sailor Moon S. And my Isekai research may lead to me checking out Magic Knight Rayearth. Between those and my continuing to follow Yuki Yuna season 2, that's a lot of Magical Action action this month. I could throw in some PreCure time, and watch more of Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne. And hopefully the 3rd Nanoha movie and the Prisma Illya movie will go online sometime before November's over. And that could make this a pretty Magical Girl filled month. Which is a good time to remind people how strongly I recommend Twin Angel break from the Spring Season. It's also about time I finished the earlier installments of that franchise. And I also want to read some more Madoka Mangas, Maybe I'll find Tart being sold somewhere, it has a legal release but I can't find it online. I want to make a Zelda related post for Zelda month. But I'll need to get some inspiration first.

#Anime #Mahou Shoujo #Magical Girls #Nanoha #Madoka Magica #Jeanne d'Arc #Isekai #Sailor Moon S #yuki yuna is a hero

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dlamp-dictator · 7 years

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Allen Rambles about Symphogear

AKA Allen’s Ramblings XXVI. Yes I know I still need to do the Seinen ramblings, they’re coming I swear.

Ah, Symphogear, probably one the most memorable anime I’ve watched… and one of the few series I’ve kept up with throughout these last few years. I… don’t really know where to begin with this. To explain the plot of Symphogear is… like trying to explain the plot of Blazblue to a certain extent… okay, not really, but it’s still hard. In a nutshell, it’s a magical show featuring idols, singing, dancing, guns, kung fu, and over the top shounen action. As for the plot itself… at least for season 1, destructive creatures called Noise exist in the world, destroying and corrupting everything they touch. It’s up the idol duo Zwei Wing to fight them off with mysterious relics known as Symphogears, magical/ancient technology that grants its users the strength to fight back the Noise with the power of song. Literally. These girls need to sing while simultaneously fighting, and they don’t just play some pre-recorded tracks of these voice-actors singing, you can hear the grunts, growls, and forced breaths as they sing and beat up bad guys and I just find that detail cool. Anyway, that tangent aside, the plot takes off from there. Going into further detail would be spoilers, and I personally don’t like spoiling shows and games when I do these tagged Ramblings, so… moving on.

Now, I got into Symphogear right around the time season 3 was wrapping up. I think I was seeing some gifs of the main character, Hibiki, doing kung fu moves against some Noise and I was still on my martial arts girls high from finishing up Nanoha Vivid at the time, so I checked it out. Then… then I found out the show had 3 seasons. And with shows that have that much of a backlong I tend to worry about how long it’ll take for me to get to the stuff I wanna’ see, being all the cool martial arts stuff. I had the same experience when I saw a gif of that Rin vs Luvia from UBW, only to marathon all Fate-related anime material. What can I say, I like context for my fight scenes. So I marathon all the original Fate/Stay Night anime, Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA, and Unlimited Blade Works just to learn that fight scene was in an epilogue episode… then again, that turned me into a fan of the Fate universe and made Prisma Illya one of my favorite magical girl shows yet, so… I took a chance on Symphogear, praying that I got to see kung fu, singing, magical girls in season 1 and not suffer through three seasons of magical girl tropes and monster-of-week style battles before I got there.

Thankfully, I didn’t. In fact, I was really invested into the plot after episode 1. The stakes were raised from the get go and I was hooked. Throughout the first season I actually found Tsubasa to be the more interesting character at the time between her and Hibiki. She was a battle-hardened warrior that had closed her heart to others, even to her love of singing, to become a weapon that could destroy all the Noise that faced her after she witnessed her partner’s death. She was surprisingly antagonistic at first, wanting more to ground Hibiki into the dirt more than even talk to her due to her involve in said partner’s death. Well, I there go my lack of spoilers. What really hooked me though was the fact that this wasn’t a monster-of-the-week kind of magical girl show like I was expecting. I’ve said this before, but I tend to lose interest in monster-of-the-week shows very quick unless I’m really attached to the characters do the fighting. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of tropes with a lesson-of-the-day at the end of each episode. Symphogear didn’t do this, instead giving a clear antagonist, being Fine, and making the show about learning her plans and eventually stopping her. Now, I know a few other magical girl shows that do this, but most those shows tend to be a bit darker than typical magical girl shows, and Symphogear was more or less playing it straight with the magical girl stuff. It was something I appreciated.

I’d talk about Chris at this point, doing that would really spoil the first season, so I’ll just say I liked her as a villain and foil to the main duo of Hibiki and Tsubasa. The show had subverted a lot of what I had expected, and it only got crazier from there after season 1. To this day Hibiki is still my favorite character in the show, perhaps one of my favorite female characters of all time, right up there with Mikoto Misaka and Cecily Campbell. She reminds me a lot of Asuka from Senran Kagura in a wau. She’d rather not fight any battles, goes out of her way to try and resolve things peacefully, but she won’t hesitate to defend herself or fight against what she believes is wrong and evil if pushed to do so. And I have a soft spot in my heart for Kirika after season 3, but… again, spoilers, plus I’d need to rewatch the show to go into more detail and I’m already keeping up with season 4.

Speaking of, I’m hyped to be watching season 4, it’s been real good so far, and I seeing some possible development for Chris and Team Neopolitan (thank you for giving us that name AXZ). I’ve got high hopes, but… I’m curious where things go from here.

…

Y’know, I’d usually end this little essay here, but… whenever I make an “Allen Rambles about X” ramblings and tag it I tend to break down things into what I specifically like and dislike, and it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t that, so… this’ll my first time do that for anime, but let’s talk about…

The Good

The Music

When I was talking about my musical taste in my Persona 5 rambling I said anything with brass and jazz would get me to [RETRACTED] all over the soundtrack. However, a good rock song has the same effect, and all of Chris’s songs just get me pumped up. I really like how every Symphogear has they’re own kind of theme and genre. Hibiki’s has a celtic/rock/pop sort of vibe, Tsubasa’s is traditional Japanese instruments with some rock elements, Chris’s has some borderline Daisuke Ishiwatari hard rock in them (just listen to Bye-Bye Lullaby for an example), and the other Symphogears are spoilers, but Shirabe is my favorite out of the newer ones, so I’ll just leave it at that.

The Action

Seriously, this anime just does all the crazy shounen action I love so well, especially all the kung fu stuff Hibiki does in later seasons. Again, Tsubasa is probably my favorite character in season 1 not only for her interest personality and story arc, but her fighting style was so cool in season 1. A samurai that can summon swords, do demon fangs, manipulate her sword’s size, it was all so cool. And that fact that she was probably the only trained fighter up until Hibiki got training in just made watching her fight a spectacle.

The Writing

I’m not really going to go in depth about the write of a show I watch for its action, but I like how Hibiki has stayed firm on her attempts at trying to settle things peacefully before nailing people with tetsuzankos and other moves she ripped from Akira Yuki.

The Not So Good

I usually do the flaws in more of a list since I don’t like being in depth about them unless they’re really big flaws so…

Season 3 was... a little lacking, and I didn’t really care for Hibiki’s character arc when [RETRACTED DUE TO SPOILERS].

Really... season 3 is the only season I had issues with. Nothing big, but just some small holes I could poke at since season 2 was just going to be real hard to top.

Uh... I guess season 1 pails in comparison to the production values of the later seasons, but... eh, that’s like saying Sonic 1 is worse than Sonic 3, kind of an obvious thing, and even Sonic 1 wasn’t that bad to begin with.

So yeah, Symphogear is just a good action show that subverted my expectations and continues to grip me. Again, got some high hopes for Season 4 as it continues, and I hope you all get a chance to enjoy too.

#symphogear #your dictator is speaking

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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The Ultimate Fate Series Beginner's Guide

Understandably, this turns many people off from Fate. With that in mind, what’s the short answer to the question? Where can a potential fan go to start watching or reading Fate property?

For a more in-depth answer, get comfortable!

To start with, a bit of terminology that most of the entries use:

Master - A magic user (magi) who has successfully summoned or is in command of a Servant.

Holy Grail War - A battle royale between magi using Servants. The last one standing can use the Holy Grail to grant any single wish.

Holy Grail - An extradimensional magic battery of effectively infinite power. Sometimes becomes a portal to Hell, other times used to build an airport.

Then there are the more complicated continuities.

Image from the official FGO Twitter

For those who want to keep track, in terms of Holy Grail Wars:

1st HGW - Fate/prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver (not available in English)

2nd HGW - Fate/prototype (not available in English)

3rd HGW - No entries.

-Different continuity-

4th HGW - Fate/Zero (anime available in English)

5th HGW - Fate/stay night (anime and movies available in English)

6th HGW - Fate/hollow ataraxia (not available in English)

That is not quite all of the entries that use F/SN’s setting and characters, however the remaining entries are all spin-offs that are designed to work as standalone properties.

After that, there are still a few entries remaining in Fate, however they don’t fit into any overarching continuity.

Fate/Requiem is a light novel set after a Holy Grail War in which everyone has a Servant. It is not available in English.

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Kevin Matyi is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. He's been watching anime for as long as he can remember, and his favorite shows tend to be shonen and other action series.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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kuuderekun · 7 years

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Mithrandir’s Halloween Anime Recommendations.

I’m by no means the first Otaku to provide some Halloween season Anime recommendations in October. So why care about mine?

October 31st happens to be my Birthday. So even though I’ve defined myself as not a Horror fan in the strictest sense (in that I’m not looking to be scared by any fiction I watch) I have other reasons for enjoying a lot of stuff in the Horror and Gothic genres. And I have a lot of memories of enjoying such fiction during the Halloween season.

I love the classic Universal Monster movies, I’ve also enjoyed many Hammer films. And other more obscure horror movies, like those Public Domain ones you sometimes find in DVD box sets selling 50 for only $10. Slasher films I’ve tended to not be fond of, but I do enjoy Halloween 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6. And some of my favorite episodes of Western live Action television have been Halloween specials, from NCIS episodes like Witch Hunt to Pretty Little Liars‘ epic trilogy of Halloween specials. Plus I love the first two Ghostbusters movies, and I don’t hate the reboot.

Since I’ve become mainly a Anime watcher over the last couple of years. It’s overdue that I make some Anime Halloween recommendations. Though I feel kinda like I haven’t watched enough Horror centric Anime.

I listened to about like an hour of the Podcast that Mother’s Basement did with Digibro, Gigguk and BestGuyEver about their Halloween recommendations. And really none sound like they fit what I look for this time of year, but they might for others.

One thing Gigguk said that rubbed me the wrong way, was that he doesn’t like how Anime Horror is too “aesthetically pleasing”. I don’t like how western horror in recent years is so obsessed with being Aesthetically ugly. I like the first two Saw movies as Mysteries, and that’s about it from the Torture Porn genre. And I like none of those movies that revolve chicks crawling out of caves all slimy and muddy and dirty. Classic Horror, like Universal and Hammer gave us, was very Aesthetically pleasing, it was simply a Gothic Aesthetic.

These recommendations are largely for people relatively new to Anime in general, if you have a respectable MAL already you’ve probably at least tasted all or most of these. If however you consider yourself a hardcore Otaku and you’ve missed any one of these, you need to reconcile that immediately.

Why give Halloween themed recommendations to Newbies? Maybe Horror or Gothic romance simply is your favorite genre and so Halloween fitting Anime would be the best entry point possible. Or maybe now simply is the time you decided to finally give Japanimation a shot. Or maybe you’re already at phase 2 or 3 of burrowing down the Otaku rabbit hole and are looking for new routes to dig into. Perhaps specifically saving the Horror Route for October.

One more note before I start. I haven’t watched the Castlevania series on Netflix yet. I’ve decided to wait till during this Halloween season (and thus after I’ve already posted this) to watch it. Then I might talk about it somewhere if I feel compelled to. (Turns out it’s not actually Anime.) I don’t want to include in this list something that hasn’t already stood the test of time somewhat anyway. And it gives me something new for the season to enjoy myself. It annoys me that the Godzilla Anime doesn’t drop till November.

I’ve already declared When They Cry/Higurashi the ideal Horror Anime. If you haven’t seen it yet, don't read that post past the Spoiler Warning. In summary what I’ll say here is it has very much the Japanese equivalent of a Gothic Aesthetic. And it makes an engaging mystery, with well done shocking moments. And never abuses the Jump Scare.

But one thing I forgot to mention in that post was the Score, the Music in this show is perfect at setting an eerie mood. If you can find the music on it’s own, it’d be excellent for a Haunted House.

Another note before moving on, for the numbered entries here I’m not recommending entire franchises but single series that might be part of larger franchises but still have a distinct entry on MAL or most Streaming sites. For Higurashi it’s really only season 1 I’m recommending for October viewing. Season 2 is perhaps better for early November, when you’re kinda still in a Halloween mood, but want to phase yourself out of it before Christmas. (Don’t expect Christmas recommendations BTW.)

Vampire Princess Miyu, the 4 episode 80s OVA. This would be best if you want something shorter to get your feet wet. It’s probably the only pre-2000 Anime I’ll recommend here. It similarly has the Japanese equivalent to a Gothic Aesthetic. And I really like it’s use of sound effects. I also like the 90s TV series, but that’s better watched in the context of how to make a darker Magical Girl show.

School Live I now consider the best Zombie Anime. Highschool of The Dead still has value, but if you’re gonna watch only one watch School Live. Don’t let the cuteness fool you, it gets pretty scary. And isn’t filled with tasteless fanservice.

Witch Hunter Robin. I can’t believe I haven’t talked about this on this blog more yet, since it’s about as ancient as the BeeTrain trilogy in my development as an Anime Fan. It’s use of its horror elements is pretty interesting. It's also got intrigue. And is one of the best examples of why I love the 26 episode structure.

Hellsing, (the original Anime not Ultimate). Is a satisfying Anime spin off to the legacy of Bram Stoker’s novel. While all of the above 4 have Dubs, and the Dub is what I watched, this is the only one I feel confident in calling a top tier Dub, after all Alucard is Crispin Freeman. Though I will say for Miyu not to write off the OVA’s dub on how the 90s show’s gets called one of the worst of all time, it’s a very different kind of Dub.

The only honorable mention I shall provide is the Fate/ franchise as a whole, it has Horror elements but that is not quite it’s main appeal. But since the mythology/folklore is a large part of why I’m into Horror in the first place, it does overlap well with part of why I like Fate/ so much. From the quasi Lovecraftian quality of Fate/Zero’s Caster, to the Fate/Stay Night:Unlimited Blade Works Caster’s berserk button being when she’s called a Witch. Those are as I’ve explained before the best entry points to Fate/.

Heck, Rin Tosaka is pretty much always dressed like it’s Halloween.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, is the worst entry point only appealing at all if you're really into the niche it’s made for. I am, so I enjoy even it’s much maligned Dub. But as the ultimately least dark version of the Fate/ universe, it still has some solid Halloween season material.

The Grand Order OVA’s Dub becomes available this October, so I’ll also be watching that before the month is over, I can’t comment on it before then. But on the subject of single episode OVAs, Fate/Prototype can be a spooky quick Halloween viewing experience.

But another reason I couldn’t leave Fate/ out of this post is that Fate/Apocrypha is a currently airing show that includes the characters of Vlad The Impaler and Frankenstein’s Monster, and also Jack The Ripper. So if any currently airing TV Anime this October needs to be mentioned it’s that one. The tone however doesn’t fit Halloween as well as the other shows from what I’ve seen so far, unfortunately. Maybe they’re saving the scarier bits for the Fall, either way it is again not a good entry point for Fate/.

As of episodes 8 and 9, Vlad and Frank’s characters are finally getting some good exploration. And as of episode 11 I’m very into it.

Normally a list like this doesn’t end on the honorable mention. But I organized this from the top down anyway.

It turns out this year’s October 31st will be the last day the legal streaming site www.Daisuki.Net operates, it’s being shut down. So this month is your last chance to watch any Anime there. But it has none of what I’ve recommended so that’s not actually helpful here.

Vampire Princess Miyu and Witch Hunter Robin had past legal western releases, but I can’t find them currently legally streaming anywhere.

School Live, Hellsing and Fate/ should be easy enough to find legally, between Crunchyroll, Funimation’s Website and Netflix.

Higurashi I was having trouble finding on any legal site, but then I found HIDIVE. You can watch stuff free with ads, but need a paying subscription to view the Dubs it has. For Higurashi the Dub isn’t that well received anyway, I was okay with it mostly but I can see why others wouldn’t be. School Live is also on that site. And it has some Fate/ stuff as well.

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