Since the first episode of Juni Taisen: Zodiac War just came out I just wanted to comment on this before I began the post properly. I think most people’s reaction to the show is the same, “Oh. So this is a Fate Holy Grail War with Chinese Zodiac warriors instead of characters from history. You even have a “you get a wish if you kill off everyone else premise.” If you know anything about Nisio Isin you know that he loves to take a popular genre and twist and subvert the general premise. This leads to his work having a very polarizing effect. More than anything else this is interesting because it means that the magical Battle Royale concept has become popular enough that Nisio Isin felt obligated to make it the focus of his next title. I’m guessing his target was the Battle Royale idea in general but I think it says volumes that he set up his story in an extremely Fate like fashion.

If anything it feels like a sign that Type-Moon has finally made it. (That and all the department store tie-ins for the Heaven’s Feel movies.)

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So ends the first half of Fate/Apocrypha. You can tell this for two reasons. The first is that after this they had a recap episode. I really appreciated that because it let me catch up with my posts for this show. But the real halfway moment was Jeanne and Shiro finally meeting face to face. Shiro and the story itself have been keeping the two Rulers from meeting face to face because that is when the shenanigans behind the War are revealed. It also finally pays off all the hints about Shiro that the series has been dropping all this time. It is a signal that the story has shifted to anyone who figured out the truth and finally gives an answer to everyone else who was wondering what was going on with this guy.

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