Fate/Apocrypha Episode 1 Review – “Apocrypha: The Great Holy Grail War”

Another Fate anime series, boys and girls! They’re all the rage this century!

(Spoilers in this review) 

One Sentence Summary: Instead of the typical 7 Master+Servant free-for-all struggle, this show features a 7 vs 7 team battle (thus dubbed the Great Holy Grail War) between Team Black and Team Red; this means there’s twice as many Masters and Servants!

Impression:  this first episode alone throws in several homages to the Fate franchise as a whole (and some pretty heavy spoilers, actually). Expect two Saber “clones,” the typical term used to refer to the Fate franchise’s obsession with the fabled King from Camelot to the point that she or lookalikes keep appearing in different series. One particular Saber clone is rather interesting compared to the others, however.

Nothing much happens within this episode besides the typical talk about how there’s another (Great) Holy Grail War happening soon. As a result, we get to see some Servants get summoned and whatnot.

A common complaint I hear about the Fate franchise is that there’s too many series and that they don’t really know where to start. Well, I would recommend watching Fate/Zero or Fate/Stay Night first. Could Fate/Apocrypha serve as a viewer’s first Fate series? Perhaps, since the Holy Grail War in this series is so different compared to the others, but the finer details are skimmed. Sure, the viewer gets a few explanations but the series is hoping that the viewer is already familiar with the franchise. The included homages also make it clear that this series isn’t really intended to be a viewer’s first foray into the Fate franchise. Yes, a newcomer can definitely enjoy the show, but the importance of this or that may elude his or her understanding due to lack of knowledge.

I think that this was a decent start and I look forward to seeing the chaos and destruction unfold in future episodes.