Fate/Apocrypha Anime (no spoilers)

[GundamFSN]

Yeah I was like gg Suave. Can't help to get pumped when you are given the opportunity to fight one of the greatest hero.

Hell even Koji Yusa got affected too in some bits.

[LJ3]

The voice acting of everyone involved in this episode was top notch. You could really feel it.

I'm just really happy the anime nailed all the characters in this one. I don't dislike Sieg anymore.

i forgot about Kanemoto's role as Zecchan kill me

[Rafflesiac]

yessssssssss join us

[kotelo]

Here's the Nasu written OVA with Karna's backstory -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb6WXKHzLtA

Spoiler:

[John D. Pliskin]

Rewatched Episode 22. Good Lord it was fantastic! That recent recap episode was definitely worth it if this is part of the end result.
Almost everyone is wildly praising the animation now, but some of us saw gems as early as the first Seigfried/Karna fight (which unfortunately got some of its coolest parts obscured by broadcast filters). Even so, there was so much more of that SAIIIKOOUUUUUU sakuga here that the broadcast filtered stuff were only small blip on the radar compared to all the other unfiltered scenes.

Between The Karna/Sieg fight and Ruler/Achilles/Atalante fight (perhaps moreso the Atalante fight) I got reminded lots of a certain fight from A-1's Tetsuwan Birdy Decode. But reviewing that old clip now, not only is the color palette much diverse in the Servant fights, it is overall more detailed in Apocrypha. Really feels like an upward progression from the sort of animation exhibited in Decode (which mind you is cool in of itself).



More instances of Birdy's sakuga are found here. Are there some other (better?) examples of comparable sequences that I'm missing?

---

Anyway, moving on to more story content-related matters.

The character interactions here were very lovely. They really upped the stock of Achilles and Karna in my eyes, truly earning them their monikers as "heroes" through the show itself-- Achilles in his 'saving' Atalante and provision of his noble phantasm to Astolfo, and Karna in his concern for the poisoned Masters and his entrusting of the future to the people of the present, a 'treasure'. Before, Apocrypha seemed to mostly leave the 'heroic' personality aspect up to whatever legends have said about them. It makes me look forward to when/if I ever get either of them in in FGO. (It also makes me further rethink the meme that's been made of Achilles and unfortunately stuck up until the last two episodes, that he's a 'less charming Cu' sort of character.)

(And speaking more about Achilles, I think my question resolving his struck heel--

namely, what did Chiron striking Achilles' heel at the very end signfiy, that he took away his immortality? I was surprised Achilles didn't die here; I thought I had spoiled myself earlier, as I understood that Chiron was simply going to end up killing Achilles and come away alive.)

--might have been answered. Basically, was it the proof that Achilles was 'beaten' by Chiron, and thus was obligated to give a NP of his to a Servant of Black? And/or did his bloodied heel-- shown a few times this episode-- also make him more less immortal and more vulnerable in his showdown with Atalante?)

---

Now Atalante.... her final scene with Achilles, that might've been the most touching of all. I am most pleased my hope came true as an anime-only.

I am mad excited about the episode. Presuming this is Atalante's final episode, I hope there's some sense of lucidity in her final moments; it's always sad to me when a sane and proud character dies completely mad and without any of the dignity or purity that defined them earlier.

Truly, it would've been too tragic for me any other way. If I remember right, such catharsis wasn't provided near the end of Heaven's Feel when spoilerSaber Alter was killed by Shirou (and honestly, I wouldn't mind if that character's end was adjusted a little bit in the ufotable adaptation...)

Real cool that her last lines in Episode 22 jive with what KratosIrving said and quoted from volume 4, too. (Thank you so much!) Heartrending stuff for the Red faction servant I've invested the most of myself in, aside from Mordred.

Now, assuming further clarification in-show won't be given.... is Atalante's madness and rage towards Jeanne completely due to having been 'inside' Jack and corrupted? (What did Jack/the dream world do to Atalante's arm, get it bitten?) None of this darkness, nor the boar pelt (which she decided to materialixe post-Jack...?), would've surfaced if Atalante had never encountered and 'killed' Reika/Jack the way she did in Trifas, right?

From what I remember, when Atalanta got 'swallowed up' in Jack back at that time, unlike Jeanne and Sieg she accepted the cursed souls that were part of Jack, and they found a 'home' of sorts if you will with her. As for the effect on her, think of it as being similar to the F/SN VN when Shirou gets hit by the mud at the end of the Fate route and gets confronted with the 'DIE DIE DIE' wall of text; Constant whispering in the ear of murderous impulses and the eroding of sanity. *Note: After double-checking it this is still sort of confusing, so I'll leave the translated rip from that part of Vol. 4 so that you can make your own interpretation of it.*

tagged

However, right now, Archer of Red needed to be alone.

She sat on the bed and threw off her leather gauntlets—and then she looked at her discolored right arm. There was a black bruise like a curled snake twining around the skin of her arm.

It neither hurt nor inconvenienced her movements. But Archer could tell. This was a ‘curse’ of extremely high purity. Most likely, it was from that darkness which had swallowed her up when she killed Assassin of Black’s Master.

Assassin of Black’s repulsive past. The flocks of children, the grudge of the unborn fetuses. Right before Assassin of Black died and dispersed, this curse was probably engraved in Archer.

Of course, it would be easy to cut it off. Though Archer had no means to dispel curses, their group’s Assassin had the abilities of a Caster. There was also the dual Master-Servant Shirou Kotomine to rely on.

If she asked for their aid, it probably wouldn’t be hard to restore her right arm.

But—Archer couldn’t choose that option no matter what. Naturally, she didn’t want to rely on Assassin’s help. The idea of showing any weakness to that woman wasn’t even funny enough to be a joke.

And Shirou Kotomine was technically Assassin’s Master. So she was naturally reluctant to request his help.

…No, those were all excuses. Archer understood. She had to accept this curse. This curse was the resentment of the children she loved more than anything else.

Fortunately, there was little pain since it was merely the work of low-class spirits.

And she didn’t mind even if this curse brought about her own destruction. This was a punishment. A punishment she had to accept.

She wrapped bandages around her rotten-smelling right arm, and decided to leave it alone with that.



There was one thing that Archer hadn’t noticed. It was true that what possessed her right arm were low-class vengeful spirits, too weak to have any effect on Archer herself. After all, Servants were the spirits of heroes who stood at the pinnacle of all spirits.

In the first place, it had been possible for Archer to reject the possession. The moment the vengeful spirits entered her arm, she could have even devoured them as sustenance without any danger to herself.

But she had refused to do that. In other words, she wished for ‘those children’ to maintain their consciousness. Of course, these vengeful spirits did not have any high-level intellect. They simply continued whispering their wish.



We want to go back, we want to go back, we want to go back. We want to go back inside Mother’s belly.



They could only whisper. They were vengeful spirits that should have been completely harmless. But Archer of Red felt ashamed at those whispers and felt compassion and pity.

Those were feelings that one must never have when facing vengeful spirits who only made appeals for their final wish. That compassion stirred up her emotions, and gradually made her hatred swell up towards both herself, who couldn’t save them, and that holy maiden, who didn’t save them.

“I don’t care.”

But Archer of Red accepted that hatred without hesitation. She couldn’t help cherishing those ephemeral, destructive feelings.

The more she hated herself and that woman—the more she could prove and believe in her own love.

So, for now, she would sharpen her fangs. In order to kill that false saint, Archer of Red continued to earnestly nurture her hatred.

[fumei]

And/or did his bloodied heel-- shown a few times this episode-- also make him more less immortal and more vulnerable in his showdown with Atalante?

Striking his heel removes his immortality (and consequently the damage negation without divinity), and decreases his comet speed by 70%.

[castor212]

tho while dromeus kometes disappear, apparently his normal speed reduction by 70% is just for a while

[AmADo VII]

watching the episode makes me think how was Hector able to run from Achilles for a while.

[R.Lock]

watching the episode makes me think how was Hector able to run from Achilles for a while.

Ossan is just that good.

[Wandering Swordwoman]

It's a shame that Hektor just become a filler for 3 stars lancer.... Only people who don't have Eliz using him.... Heck, even Romulus will suffice as AOE Lancer

[asterism42]

watching the episode makes me think how was Hector able to run from Achilles for a while.

Disengage

[Bobin]

By spamming proof of friendship every turn.

[castor212]

what level do i need to level the skill up in order for it to have 1 turn cool down

[Lily Emilio]

I just realized that all of time Karna uses the flame version of VS he always flies up then aims it downwards at the enemy. Meanwhile when he uses the lightning version in Extella he stands on the ground and the thunderbolt shot up to the sky after hitting a bunch of enemies. Wonder if it has any implications hmmm...

[DreamsRequiem]

Wait, how did Caules transport the red masters? Was that teleportation?

[GundamFSN]

Was actually wondering how Mordred, Astolfo, and Kairi somehow got away from Semi.

But I guess they'll address in the next ep.

[asterism42]

I figured she was the one who withdrew, given that she has a massive advantage in the Throne Room.

[Qinglong]

I took away the implication she withdrew rather than them escaping


seeing how astolfo was still pretty KO'd

[GundamFSN]

Hm, so I'm gonna assume she teleported away and Mordred and Kairi is currently dungeon crawling to the Throne Chamber.

How very RPG.

[eddyak]

Just found 22. The animation in comparison to the last few fights & episodes was pretty jarring, honestly- I really liked the gackground effects and the destruction, but it might not have been worth the tradeoff in "stylistic" half-arsed character art otherwise. The animation was amazing, the art not so much.

It works at some points- the explosions, the intense moments, the ancient indian weapons that should warp spacetime and destroy worlds- but when it's Ruler just talking, or characters running, it feels incredibly out of place, especially with the weird-arse "camera" movements they did at times. There's one point in particular where I remember just going "why the fuck have they turned the scene so that it looks like achilles is running along a ceiling instead of the floor?", it looked completely pointless, and apparently was just there to make that three second timespan look like it was as action packed as the rest of the episode.

Also, Brahamastra was visually pretty disappointing- his eye lasers apparently did more damage than the NP.