Based on a light novel of the same name, Fate/strange Fake initially existed as part of the greater Fate lore because of an April Fool’s joke, but has since gone on to become a beloved entry into the massive series. The anime adaptation, which was produced by A-1 Pictures, originally released in 2023 as a 55-minute long film with a televised, episodic version set to release in December 2024. Now, though, fans of the series can watch the first episode for free on Youtube – with a pretty major catch.
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Episode 1 of Fate/strange Fake‘s English dub is available for free on Crunchyroll’s Youtube channel for one week, which started on November 23rd. As of writing, the episode already has 143,000 views and follows Ayaka Sajo as she enters Snowfield following Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s heated battle. Of course, as with every Fate series, the focus is put on the Holy Grail War, and without giving away too much of the episode’s content, does an excellent job of setting up how Ayaka will fight to survive through this war’s events.
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strange Fake Changes the Fate Formula in a Way the Franchise Desperately Needed
Fate/strange FAKE was originally written by Ryogo Narita and uploaded to his official website under Fate/states night in 2008 as an April Fool’s joke before getting re-released as an official novel through TYPE-MOON Ace 2 in 2009 featuring illustrations by Morii Shizuki. Years later, in 2014, it was announced that the story line would be receiving a proper print release with an updated novel and a serialized manga series. The story was a hit, and in 2023, A-1 Picture’s animated film adaptation, Whispers of Dawn released before it was officially announced the series would be broken up into an episodic, televised anime series. It’s clear that Fate fans love the story, and for good reason. The spinoff takes everything that makes Fate unique and changes it up in such a way that actually gives fans something new to experience.
The main story of Fate/strange Fake focuses on a Grail War that’s copied from the Third Holy Grail War that took place in Fuyuki. After the third war ended, mages from the United States took data from what happened in Fuyuki to create their own own ritual. After seventy years trying to figure out how to replicate the events of the Third Holy Grail War, the mages were unable to replicate every aspect from the ritual, which causes “strange” servants to be summoned, since the idea of what defines a hero has become blurred. Ayaka Sajo, the lead protagonist and Master of Saber – despite the iconic character looking quite different in Fate/strange Fake – is originally from Fuyuki, and has ended up in the location of the replicated war after disappearing following a rather haunting experience from her past. This story’s version of Saber, also called Lionheart, doesn’t embody the ideals of King Arthur, but instead is the “Wandering King” – one of the distorted heroes produced by the botched ritual.
