Please note

This review is all subjective and my own personal opinion. You do not have to agree with it, nor am I asking you to. I hope that this just helps you get an idea of what the anime I am talking about is like and form a basic and general consensus on it. The ratings I give anime and manga are mostly my personal overall enjoyment. This review will not contain unmarked spoilers. I have not read the light novel (the source material of the series). TL;DR will be at the bottom.If I have made any mistakes regarding the information I have written in this review please let me know and I will fix it.

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Introduction

Fate/strange Fake -Whispers of Dawn-, yet another entry in the ever-expanding Fate series showcases another Holy Grail War, this time set in the United States. With the location already being unusual enough, strange occurrences only further establish this war as one clearly not conventional.

A missing Servant class...

Impossible Servant summonings...
A nation shrouded in secrecy...
And a city created as a battleground.

Just what is the truth behind it all?

Feel free to skip the following section if you do not care about the Fate universe and/or Strange Fake's placement in it. #Background information Usually this is not a section I put in my reviews but given it is a part of the Fate franchise, I felt as though it was necessary to do so. For those who may not know first started as a visual novel under the name of Fate/Stay Night (although the original release was adults only, it eventually got a re-release making it for all ages). This visual novel would obtain animated adaptations for all three of its routes, however the first adaptation is not completely faithful to the first route for it includes elements of the other routes mixed in. Since then, the Fate franchise has grown, with new entries in the form of visual novels, light novels, manga, anime, etc. growing the universe. They may be a part of the Stay Night franchise or branch off into a completely different timeline. Strange Fake is one such example.

Fate's extended universe is extremely complicated, and I am certainly not the most qualified to talk about it, but I think it would be good at least to get an understanding of where Strange Fake stands in comparison to the rest of the series. To help with this, let us employ the use of this timeline constructed by the Reddit user Draconix814.

That is... a lot. This just goes to show how much the franchise has grown since its beginnings. But most of what is on there is of no relevance right now, so let’s narrow it down a little.

According to Draconix814, Fate/strange Fake placement within the main timeline is shrouded in uncertainty, with what comes before not exactly clear, seemingly after the Fifth Holy Grail War (i.e. the mainline series). This fact is upheld by the fact that Strange Fake takes elements from the preceding entries (such as Lord El-Melloi II-sei making an appearance) so it could be said Strange Fake is just an alternate timeline that branches off just after the events of Stay Night...

If only the Nasuverse was that simple...

If one were to do some more research on this one would find that it also takes elements from the Tsukihime series, which was made before Stay Night and is a part of the extended universe as a whole. According to the creator of both the Tsukihime and Fate series, Strange Fake is in its own timeline, being a mix of the aforementioned timelines. This makes sense, given that a

Spoiler, click to view

Dead Apostle is in this series, which is uncharacteristic of the Fate timelines.

Furthermore, the time it takes place in can be contested, with some challenging the year of 2014 that is within this timeline. With what came before not being exactly clear - especially given that the series is still releasing as of writing this review - the answer remains unclear.

So, with this limited knowledge I can summarise it this way; Strange Fake is a deviation from the main timeline which takes elements of both the Fate and Tsukihime universe. Hopefully that is easy enough to understand.

And really, you do not spend hours scouring through wiki pages to get even a glimmer of understanding of the series, you can enjoy it regardless.

Do I regret doing that? Uh...

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Plot
With only an hour of content to delve into, there is not too much to discuss in terms of the plot. In essence, this special is quite similar to the first episode of the Fate/Zero anime, with it being longer than the rest of the episodes and serving as an introduction to the majority of characters that will be present throughout the series. Despite the runtime of this episode, the number of characters it introduces (even disregarding all of the worldbuilding) is considerably large. Whilst this can serve to be a detriment, having to potentially rush through things more, I think in this case it actually worked in favour of the series.

See, Strange Fake is a series with its central themes focusing on mystery as well as truth and lies (at least, that is the impression I got from watching this). The limited runtime forced shorter unveiling on the cast, hence increasing the secrecy surrounding them. You do not know that much about them, but that only entices you to want to know more about them. Mystery is one of my favourite genres, and this easily got my attention from the get-go because of it.

Other than that, plot wise not too much else occurs within this one episode. Some heroic spirit summons happen, character backstories are given, and worldbuilding happens. I should touch on the worldbuilding for a moment, as it is important. For, Strange Fake is no ordinary Holy Grail war, and the worldbuilding makes that starkly clear. It tells you something is off about this war, with one class not being summoned to the odd location for the war, and yet little more is told. Once again, this feeds into the mysterious nature of this series, and only grabbed my interest even more.

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Characters
Given the nature of this anime, I will not be going into every character in detail. I will go over some of the more significant ones, as well as giving some general words surrounding the rest of the cast.

As for the cast as a whole, it looks promising. There is a wide variety of individuals boasting different personalities and alignments, which I can certainly see making for engrossing conflicts between the characters as the series goes on. There are, to no surprise, characters that reflects tropes seen within anime. There is the overly optimistic yet promising hero, the playful girl, an arrogant authority figure, the calm and stoic leader, all characteristics familiar to a wide range of media. It is too early to say whether these characters will fall too deeply into the trap of being a trope, but I am hopeful.

With a majority of the cast, there was either enough backstory or mystery surrounding them that made it enjoyable for me to watch. Some characters only got a little screentime, but I was nevertheless interested in watching them and curious as to what the future holds for them. Although some characters were admittedly a bit annoying for my tastes, it is not as bad as others I have encountered in the past. It was bearable.

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Animation
There is already action to be seen in this special, so its animation can be seen to its full extent right away.

The action scenes were accompanied with animation that made it all the more captivating to watch. Save for one scene in particular, I had no issues with the animation.

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Fate's "watch order"

Ah yes, the dreaded question. "When should I watch this? Which Fate should I watch first?". An often-asked question with many answers. Although there are many approaches you could take, using the background information explored at the beginning of this review I can arrive at an answer.

First and foremost, I would not recommend Strange Fake as your first Fate. Whilst there is certainly no problem starting with this one, others can provide a greater insight into the series and give greater enjoyment to the viewer. Other entries are more popular and central to the Fate universe as a whole. There is also the fact that in terms of anime this is all that one has to go off for now, whereas many others are already completed.

I believe that Strange Fake works best with those who already have knowledge on the Holy Grail War system, for it allows for further engrossment into what sets Strange Fake apart. If one were to start with Strange Fake, then the oddities it presents will have little impact, which is what I feel to be a major part of this series.

With this in mind, what I would personally recommend is starting with the mainline series first - being Stay/Night and Zero - and then moving onto Strange Fake if you feel like you want more Fate content. You could watch others such as Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace note to gain a greater understanding of the elements present in Strange Fake, but ultimately it is up to you. Feel free to read up on the many watch order guides to come to a decision, like this one or this.

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Conclusion and TL;DR
Ultimately, this was an introduction to the series that made me excited to see what the rest has in store. A complete anime series was announced soon after the release of Whispers of Dawn, so now all that remains is waiting for it to come out. I would be able to recommend this to fans of the Fate series. To summarise this review:

• Most of the runtime is spent introducing the cast and worldbuilding
• The limited time benefits the anime as it increases the air of mystery surrounding the series
• The mysterious elements of Strange Fake can easily be the most engrossing part of the anime

I may have spent a bit too much time talking about the extended universe, but I hope this review turned out to be a good read for you. If would like to send me feedback on my reviews, please post a comment on this thread or feel free to send me a message.

Thank you for reading!