If anyone is a long-term visitor to the blog they will remember way back in the day when the blog started we used to put top 5 lists on the bottom of each post. In fact the collected page of top 5 list was the most popular section of the blog for the first year of site’s history. As I was riding the train home from Manhattan yesterday I had a thought. Why not bring back ye olde top 5 lists as occasional mini-posts. People love them because they are easily digestible and they are not that hard to do. Win win. So of course I bring them back in the most predictable way possible.

This year has been a great year for Type-Moon fans. Fate/Zero on TV, Carnival Phantasm being awesome, wonderful figures being released, Fate/Extra being released in English, and so much more. I decided to take my favorite 5 moments from this year’s Type-Moon bonanza. For better or for worse they are not just pictures like this.

5. Kayura Tsurugino dresses up like Saber in the Hayate movie

The newly introduced Kayura Tsurugino is a consummate cosplayer in Hayate the Combat Butler. So in the movie she whips out several different costumes including Iron Mask from Mobile Suit Gundam F91 and Haruhi Suzumiya. But the most important outfit she has is her Saber cosplay. It was simply delightful to watch her get into hijinks at the closed space amusement park dress liked the King of Knights. Sadly when things get really bad we discover that her Excalibur is merely cardboard. Thankfully the Pink One with Masamune was there to save the day. That whole sequence  made an already delightful movie even better.

4. Fate/Apocrypha is reborn

It seemed like all was lost. Fate/Apocrypha was originally supposed to be an online game set in the Fate Universe. There were a whole slew of Servants and Masters written up by various authors and artists for the game but then it was canceled and it seems like all that work would merely be a footnote mentioned in artbooks. But the 7th Type-Moon Ace announced that Fate/Apocrypha would be reworked in a novel. Yuichiro Higashide was tapped to write the novel. He did write Bullet Butlers so I am cautiously optimistic as I have mostly heard good things about that visual novel. If nothing else it will just be good to see William Shakespeare the Caster brought to life.

3. The moment you realize exactly who Archer is in Fate/Extra

Fate/Extra is set in an alternate universe where the Holy Grail War takes place inside an alien supercomputer on the moon. So when you see a red Saber who is nothing like the traditional King of Knights, Sakura as a school nurse, and Rin being a terrorist it seems like everything you know is wrong. But then a certain Sarcastro in a red coat makes references to a Holy Grail War that also centered around a school and a similar but different Rin you suddenly realize that this Archer is the same Archer from the main Fate/Stay Night series. It is like seeing an old friend from home unexpectedly in the middle of a foreign country.

2. Rider unleashes Ionioi Hetairoi

Rider and Waver have undoubtedly become the break out duo in Fate/Zero with their Odd Couple dynamic. But the moment that most probably solidified Rider as a pure badarse was during episode 11. Rider, Saber, and Gilgamesh find themselves surround by a small army of Assassins. What seems like what will be a long battle royal quickly turns into a momentary slaughter when Rider unveils his ultimate Nobel Phantasm, the Ionioi Hetairoi. It turns out that Rider can summon all the soldiers that fought with him as minor Heroic Spirits. His men quickly make mincemeat of the Assassins earning him a place in the heart of many a Type-Moon fan.

1. Saber the Waitress

Carnival Phantasm has had so many wonderful moments this year. Kohaku being Kohaku, the many deaths of Lancer, and anything involving the Tiger Dojo were all wonderful moments. But the best moments all come from the 8th episode where Saber decides to work part-time at the Ahnenerbe. It is both a loving tribute to Saber and anyone who has had to do any sort of waiting tables. What starts of as a good sketch becomes sublime when Saber has finally had enough. You too will want to shout, “ALTER! ALTER! ALTER!”