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We’ve seen Gil fight, we’ve seen Assassin in action, we’ve basically seen everyone fight already, except our main guy. And yeah, dude, they went all out here. I never, and I mean never, thought I’d see anything in Fate beat Babylonia in terms of animation, but here we are. That might honestly be THE BEST Excalibur in Fate history. NO CONTEST. The whole episode just felt amazing. The storyboards were on point, and there wasn’t a single boring shot. Every scene was interesting, if you look away for even a second, you miss something. The way they explained things this episode was so good. And now everything connects. You can really feel that this is a Narita-style story. The stuff with Arthur and Assassin from last episode especially felt straight out of Durarara. I don’t think I’ve smiled this much watching an episode in a long time. Honestly, this could already be episode of the year, and it’s only been two months. |
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| Bro really went and asked Enkidu if he wanna team up and cooperate or not lmao. Btw, since we’re still doing the groundwork for the foundation which would be the stuff we’ll see in the coming episodes, it’s actually nice to see some good old action from time to time, instead of you know.. someone waking up and summoning a servant, just because they can lol. Knew the action bit between Saber and Enkidu isn’t very long, but yeah, they really went bonkers.. this being when that Excalibur wasn’t even serious enough xD Sheesh. All of that from a single piece of tree branch, and then you’ve Enkidu blocking that with the bare minimum of effort. The assassin girl really was really brave enough to come and greet those two when like a minute ago something of such magnitude happened lol. Great direction this episode, but yeah, I’d have wanted them to cover Ayaka’s backstory to some detail. Maybe for another time.. but yeah, great to see things are coming together now. |
| EPISODE OF THE YEAR, SO FAR. Shun Miyakawa and Hirotaka Mori, we don't deserve this masterpiece just by saying it's EOTY. At the very least, I want to make this one episode that I'll remember for the rest of my life. Shun Miyakawa's debut as SB/ED. I knew about it and never expected Miyakawa to exceed my already EXTREMELY high expectations. Mori, what else can I say? His talent in this one episode speaks for itself. I'm running out of words. Words alone are enough for me to GLAZE tf out of this single masterpiece of an art, and I'm sure it will be even crazier in the next episodes. 100/10 episode. (When it comes to Episode of the Week, it has to beat Journal with Witch, because that anime feels impossible to beat in terms of how much I'm immersed in it.  |
NezuSwallowtail_8 hours ago
| Lionheart vs Enkidu was so good. I actually liked the music choice there. The action sequence itself was epic but the music made it feel more calm and grounded. Lionheart can basically use anything as excalibur, that's quite something. Mystery surrounding Ayaka intensifies. What is she actually? Btw I loled at her pulling Lionheart's hair. That interaction felt cute. She is slowly opening upto him. They formed a three way alliance. The guy works fast. |
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| Excellent animation and directing from this episode, but hell the pacing feels faster than usual here even though the usual episodes also feel fast.. Also I love that Semina apartment story reference there. I thought that red figure is a counter guardian that doesn't seem like it? |
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| When something friend shaped approaches you. Ayaka did the right thing. Saber walked through a forest and just found that stick? If he had trouble finding King Arthur's treasure, may be a skill issue, honestly. |
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Hickykissy said: R_ryo said: Amazing animation from A-1 and of course the more you look at it the more it is a masterpiece. The episode was outsourced to wit judging from the staff list It was a collab apparently. It had some A-1 guys there too. This justify the insane quality. |
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| The interesting thing about the Red Riding Hood story mentioned here is that it was first mentioned way back in 2005 in Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. Back then, it really was just a ghost story and nothing else, part of a "fake-out opening" that turns out to be just the cast telling horror stories at night. Narita took it and made it part of the character arc of one of his characters. Further evidence that anything that has been mentioned in a Fate work in the past can show up in Strange Fake, no matter how minor it was originally. BTW, the story was shortened for the sake of time, and while they did mention the important points, if anyone wants to know the full ghost story, just check Hollow Ataraxia. It's quite easy: as I mentioned, the ghost story is the opening of the Visual Novel, so find the first part of any playthrough on youtube, and there it is. |
| Nice fight scene right there! |
My Candies 2024:    My Candies 2025:      |
| A bit more familiar faces this episode and some more lore drops for the characters, the Little Red Riding Hood being the most mysterious one so far, we've seen Ayaka being haunted by that thing and now we're getting more about it– in which nothing really made sense and it only brought in more questions. lol. Francesca can't see Saber anymore? yeah that guy just dodged a Clairvoyance EX and appeared out of nowhere in FGO NA! Jokes aside, that was an amazing battle, King Arthur's #1 fan turned a random stick he found into Excalibur. All these short fights are just teasers for the real thing and we're almost halfway through the season... this strange war will never end! Everyone's attention is on the black curse going around, that hospital will probably soon turn into a battlefield– and we gotta do something about that vampire. |
| Jesus that was some insane animation. When I see scenes like Lionheart vs Enkidu it makes me respect animators more and more, what they manage to do at times doesn't feel human lol. |
| People on MAL refuse to actually enjoy watching anime. Your taste in anime isn't a personality trait. Take me back to the days before MAL became infested with Twitter's favorite buzzwords. |
Probably my favorite thus far, Saber always does get a lot of mileage. What an interesting development with finding allies in servants rather than masters. Ayaka herself continues to be the biggest mystery in the show, and may prove to be the most tragic. |
| That Excalibur aint messing around. I look forward to seeing if it will be used against Gilgamesh (please). It is definitely unique that a dog and a comatose patient (I assume) can be master, but misses the servant/master usual dynamic. But I guess that's why it's called Strange for a reason. |
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| Visual masterpiece with amazing direction. I loved the depiction of horror in Ayaka's backstory and the pencil brush art style for Richard's gave it a nice whimsical tone. Also loved seeing Enkidu in action against someone other than Gil. The pacing can be a little hard to follow at times but it all still prefer this flow. Not a single frame or moment is wasted and I appreciate that. Its crazy because this still probably isn't the production peak either. |
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| The direction, animation quality and particularly storyboarding in this episode was absolutely incredible. Best of this season I have to say, one that has Jujutsu Kaisen and Oshi no Ko as a couple names to boast. Pacing was really smooth too, set up the alliance at a good pace with the Assassin, Lionheart and Enkidu. The brief action with Lionheart and Enkidu looked stunning to say the least. Shame this quality was only used for a 'test'. Great looking Excalibur in there. The story with the ghost I remembered was straight out of Hollow Ataraxia so it is interesting seeing different elements of Type Moon be shown in this show. Dead Apostles were Tsukihime-coded and now this. I would love to know more eventually about Ayaka's backstory that has clouded over her, and how someone like Lionheart can help in her development in the series and there were good signs from this episode. Even Lionheart and his story looked at in a few more details was dope. It's a very good episode that was very much elevated by its impressive visual storytelling, even beyond the action. |
| Everyone in the comment section has already said all the positives that needed to be said Keep being epic, Fate Fake, all the way to the end. That's all we can hope for as viewers. And that scene of story-telling with red-hood was really spooky |
oooo3333Yesterday, 11:06 AM
| Holy shit Richard it’s fucking ooooozing. Sawano you are insane!! The fight with Enkidu was easily the best of the series thus far not counting the episode 0 from a view years ago. Using a tree branch as a sword and nearly destroying the forest is INSANE. It’s not just the fight though, this was the best directed episode so far as well. So many cool scenes. WAIT HOLLOW ATARAXIA REFERENCE?? I haven’t read the books yet so the red hood murder story was such a cool thing to see pop up here. I haven’t finished HA yet so don’t spoil lol. I love how this brings together so many different concepts from all around the Type Moon universe! Ayaka is actually the biggest mystery here, just who is she? Her relationship with Richard is so sweet tho. Finally flat scenes again!! The anime is doing so well here in Japan btw I’m thinking this’ll get a full adaptation in no time |
Marinate1016Yesterday, 12:48 PM
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| ITS SAKUGA FEST FOR MY EYES. PEAK SHOW RIGHT THERE. THEYRE REALLY CREATIVE FOR ANIMATED THE FIGHT BETWEEN SABER N LANCER,From Light Novel its feels like an fast fight, but theyre makin it so good. GIMME MOREEEE EPISODE |
| Man, how did they reach to make every episode with the quality of a movie ? These years of production were really worth it. Richard VS Enkidu, even if it was short, was legendary. |
| For a fake Excaliblast, that was phenomenal. I really like Ayaka's interactions with Saber. They're so cute together |
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| That fight between Richard and Enkidu was absolutely insane for what's essentially a sparring match. The best animated episode yet by far, which is saying something as it's already been pretty high-quality. It could even end up being an EOTY contender... assuming it isn't surpassed within this run. |
| 🎯 Truth Score : 9.7/10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Masterpiece) 🇺🇸 A jaw-dropping, grandiose episode featuring incredible camera angles and eye-popping animation. |
| Life's too short for mid anime/manga. Don't like it? Drop it. 📸 68,1k on IG (Main Hub): https://www.instagram.com/otakuweek?igsh=em5kY3Q4NTVtNXlh 🚀 Discord (News & Tracker): https://discord.gg/vbZrk64uH7 |
| What a spectacular episode! |
| Man I fuckin love Narita |
| Then I went back into the house and wrote: "It is midnight. The rain is beating on the windows." It was not midnight. It was not raining. |
| Is it me or did the animation quality change from good to bad to good and so on all episode? |
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| Really enjoyed Enkidu and Richard's fight ! One lightly spoilery question for Fate lore keeper though, when Enkidu referes to the black curse and the mud, Sometimes the Fate metaphors kinda go over my head haha. |
| I can't believe the commentators. Best episode?! Seriously?! There's a huge gap between episode 6 and the previous ones! What's wrong with the animation?! Have you even seen good sakuga animation? Just compare the end of the previous episode and the scene with Sigma jumping out of the window in this episode. The quality has dropped sharply! The pace of the narrative has accelerated and is very choppy, what are they rushing for?! And oh my god, they cut out the scene with the transformation into loli-Jack in the hospital, that was such a golden reference! There are a lot of cuts in general, which is not good. I have very mixed feelings(((( |
| The effort put into the animation quality for this episode felt like a Michelin-starred gourmet meal. Even for the more "normal" scenes, the storyboarding and visuals were used really well and gave off that cinema vibe that Fate/strange Fake has been delivering so consistently. Of course, the big standout has to be the short, but stunning battle between Richard and Enkidu, simply to see if Richard passes Enkidu's test to form an alliance between them. Sawano's OST was used to great effect for a fight that went hard on the sakuga while also not being a battle to the death. Richard's Excalibur from using just a stick was the standout moment for me during this fight. It also did explain the events leading up to the mansion from the previous episode from Richard and Ayaka's point of view. Seeing her dream sequence after she fainted was trippy and does raise some questions, but it was nice to see her relax more around Richard during their chat later on. Hopefully in future episodes, we should get to know more about Ayaka's past. As a slightly off-topic bonus, I'm sure that Richard is causing many FGO players a panic after his sudden appearance on the global (NA) server 11 months early. I won't be rolling for him due to other servant targets this year, but I wish the best of luck to those who do decide to roll the gacha for him! =) |
| Yey, two other characters from Lord El-Melloi II-sei no Jikenbo had cameos! I guess Richard is a bit like Alexander - the first thing he does is openly searching for allies. Also he is Arthoria/Arthur's biggest fanboy? I admit, I don't remember Ayaka being El-Melloi II's pupil...does she appear in the sources I am familiar with? Why the count of St. Germain is so steampunk-ish? |
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