Fate/strange Fake Review

Ryohgo Narita writes ensembles, which is why this branch of the Fate franchise reads differently from the rest of it. There is no single protagonist. There is a police chief, a bounty hunter, a girl raised by a church as a weapon, a doctor, an escaped monster and a dozen or so servants, and the opening two episodes throw nearly all of them at the audience inside ninety minutes. Anyone who has not read a franchise wiki will struggle, and the series makes no attempt to help.

Past that, A-1 Pictures do the best work Fate has had on television in years. Fights are staged in ordinary American geography, a stretch of highway, a casino floor, a canyon at dusk, and the camera holds a wide shot long enough for choreography to stay readable. The Gilgamesh and Enkidu material is the high point, two figures who knew each other in life meeting again inside a war neither of them takes seriously.

The writing is sharper on spectacle than on people, and several of the more interesting masters sit parked for episodes. Thirteen episodes, an obvious partial adaptation with more announced, and a first episode that went out as a New Year's Eve special back in December 2024.