Chapter 363: Fate/Apocrypha Teaser Premieres
"Nani?!"
Including Aoko, the young magi who had been half-asleep instantly snapped awake.
"Did they ever say there'd be a teaser?"
"No!"
"What the heck? Why did they suddenly announce it
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A teaser for a brand-new movie was actually being shown at the end of Magical Girl Illya's compilation TV film—and without a single hint beforehand.
Honestly, Shinji's move this time could only be described as outrageously bold.
Bold to the extreme.
Because there'd been no advance notice, many viewers who had come only for the newly added scenes suddenly felt like they'd struck gold.
Shinji's tactic was basically like a con artist selling someone a crutch, then casually taking their bicycle as well, all while planning to sell them a wheelchair the following year.
And the poor guy who got swindled didn't even realize it—he'd turn around and say with heartfelt sincerity, "Thanks so much!"
Of course, Fate fans were at least a little sharper than that chef. Realizing they couldn't be the only ones getting "played," they immediately began calling friends and dragging them in to share the massive pie that Shinji Matou had drawn for them.
"Hey! Stop watching the New Year show and switch channels—Fate's got a new movie teaser!"
"Yeah! The Illya movie one—what? You're already watching it? Damn it, wasted my emotions!"
"Shit, you're already asleep? Sleep my ass, get up and hype already! This is New Year's for Fate fans!"
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Fans back then hadn't seen much of the world yet. They were the easy-to-please type—just a teaser alone was enough to make them happy for a long time.
If this were fifteen years later, those "ungrateful masses" wouldn't be satisfied unless you gave them a full-blown TYPE-MOON Spring Festival Gala.
Still, because there'd been no advance announcement, many Fate fans only realized after the fact that the teaser was even airing.
Naturally, the TV station wasn't about to hit pause and wait for everyone to turn on their televisions.
So no matter how many people beat their chests in regret for missing the opening, the teaser continued to roll on.
After the familiar TYPE-MOON logo faded away, the visuals didn't continue with the five suspiciously protagonist-like characters shown earlier inside a car.
Instead, the screen showed seven magi dressed in identical white robes, gathered together. Before each of them glowed a radiant Servant-summoning magic circle.
As the incantations were completed, figures appeared one after another within the circles, accompanied by roaring winds.
At the same time, a proud, aloof female voice began to narrate the background of the story.
"The rules of this Holy Grail War are as follows. It is divided into two major factions."
The visuals began switching rapidly—fast, yet clear enough for viewers to grasp—cramming as much information as possible into the short runtime.
"The 'Red' faction, representing the Clock Tower."
"And the local power, the Yggdmillennia clan—the 'Black' faction."
"Each side possesses seven Servants."
"Fourteen Servants in total."
"Saber. Lancer. Archer. Rider. Caster. Assassin. Berserker."
Each time a class was named, two Servants of that class appeared on screen simultaneously, making it crystal clear just what kind of lineup this movie was about to unleash.
"Isn't this way too many characters?!"
Watching all those figures flash by, Aoko immediately felt her head start to spin.
The seven Master–Servant pairs in Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero had already been hard enough to keep track of.
"This new movie straight-up doubles the cast…"
"Isn't the plot going to be an absolute mess?"
Aoko voiced her concern. She genuinely couldn't imagine how a single movie could possibly fit so many characters.
In FSN and FZ, Shinji Matou had deliberately downplayed or outright ignored several less important Master–Servant pairs just to keep the story from becoming bloated.
But with this many people… the challenge was on a whole different level.
Aoko knew that this Fate/Apocrypha would definitely continue the same approach—using various narrative tricks to gloss over or outright sideline all kinds of characters.
But if that was the case, then what was even the point of setting up the Red and Black factions in the first place?
"Don't tell me it's just a gimmick?"
Staring at the endless stream of Servants flashing across the TV screen, Aoko voiced her suspicion.
Alice replied calmly, "The line between a selling point and a gimmick is paper-thin. It just depends on what angle you're looking from."
"Alice…" Aoko's lips twitched. "The standpoint behind that statement is kind of—never mind. Who do you think this movie will focus on?"
Knowing full well that Alice wouldn't engage in philosophical sparring on this topic, Aoko steered the conversation back to Fate/Apocrypha's plot.
"Hard to say."
Alice rubbed her forehead and began thinking. She always took things like this unusually seriously.
"Maybe the five characters who appeared first are the main cast?" she said, her tone far from confident.
The reason was simple: those five really didn't look like protagonists at all.
Two were basically Arturia with the same model and color palette—just different skins.
One looked like a ruthless underworld enforcer.
Another resembled Shirou Emiya, except he seemed to have suffered greatly in life and had become a young priest with issues.
The only one who really left an impression was the noisy pink-haired cutie.
Compared to this circus troupe crammed into one car, characters like Black-side Saber (Siegfried) or Red-side Lancer (Karna) introduced later felt far more like proper movie protagonists.
And that was exactly where Shinji Matou's teaser-editing genius came into play.
To prevent viewers from guessing the actual story, Shinji didn't honestly introduce the Servants based on their real screen time or narrative importance in the finished film.
Instead, he deliberately made the Servants who would get wiped out early look unbelievably cool.
Take "Sumanai-san" and "Mr. Sunshine," for example.
Their introduction scenes were all heroic combat shots. Siegfried in particular—when he activated his invincibility—no, when he use his Armor of Fafnir, the scene was genuinely breathtaking.
To most viewers, this was what a true Heroic Spirit should look like.
Judging from the teaser alone, no one would ever guess that Siegfried and Karna's roles amounted to only the first few minutes of the movie.
In stark contrast, the characters who actually carried large chunks of the story were edited by Shinji to look especially goofy.
Take Astolfo, for instance. His debut shot had him wearing bunny ears and a maid outfit, cheering for teammates mid-battle—looking less like a warrior and more like a sideline cheerleader doing off-screen support.
But the moment that truly made audiences' jaws drop came after all fourteen participants had been introduced, when the female narrator added one final, special Servant.
"Additionally, this Holy Grail War includes a referee summoned by the Greater Grail itself."
"Her class is Ruler, and she is the saint of France—Jeanne d'Arc."
Despite the grandiose narration, the accompanying footage showed Miss Jeanne wearing an utterly blissful expression… while eating Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
If not for the braided hair—and a chest size utterly beyond the King of Knights' reach—everyone would have assumed this was just another Arturia variant.
She should have been the most protagonist-like character of them all, yet the teaser portrayed her as so girlish that viewers couldn't help but wonder if the TV station had accidentally aired the wrong footage.
And the scenes that followed only reinforced that suspicion.
The next sequence, shown after all characters had been introduced, featured the five-member "main team" discussing their battle plan in front of a castle—a sight that made the entire group look profoundly unreliable.
"Everyone, please stick to the plan," said Jeanne, the apparent leader, as she adjusted her armor and addressed the others.
"If we fail our mission—"
Mordred spat in irritation. "What, we'll die?"
"No."
Jeanne answered solemnly, "Humanity will be wiped out."
Kairi Sisigou let out a whistle, then patted Amakusa on the shoulder.
"Relax. Saving the world, right? No need to stress over it~"
"I'll… do my best."
Amakusa could only respond with an awkward yet polite smile.
Next, the audience saw the five-person team storming the Yggdmillennia clan's castle, while the count sat upon the throne, revealing a vicious grin.
Judging from this sequence alone, anyone would naturally assume that this bearded middle-aged man was the true final boss of the story.
After that came the standard teaser rapid-fire montage—an onslaught of quick cuts packed with flashy combat, designed purely to ignite the audience's hype.
There was the chaotic multi-Servant melee arranged for the movie's opening, the mid-film clash with the count, and even the climactic battle within the Hanging Gardens in the sky.
Yet even in this segment, Shinji stubbornly preserved the teaser's core trait: misdirection.
Taking advantage of the fact that both Yggdmillennia's castle and the Hanging Gardens were lavish Western-style structures, Shinji deliberately cross-cut the two battles together.
Unless viewers paused the video and examined each frame carefully, they would never realize the footage was actually switching back and forth between two completely different locations.
But this was a TV broadcast—no one could hit the pause button even if they wanted to.
All the audience saw was an unbroken barrage of explosions, sparks, and spectacular Servant battles.
The final shot of the montage showed the massive Hanging Gardens slowly rising from the forest.
The overwhelming presence of the colossal structure left both the characters on screen and the viewers watching from outside utterly stunned.
"Damn it—no one told me we were supposed to demolish a whole city!"
As the designated straight man of the movie, Mordred voiced her complaint toward the Hanging Gardens in an extremely displeased tone.
Then the title Fate/Apocrypha appeared on the screen, followed by the release window: Summer 2007, announcing the triumphant return of Fate, once again claiming its throne as the king of the summer blockbuster season.
The teaser's final little skit took place in a hotel room.
Astolfo, fresh out of the shower and completely naked, walked out of the bathroom.
Sisigou, lounging on the sofa with a drink in hand, instantly spat out his beer.
Jeanne and Mordred both stared wide-eyed, their jaws practically hitting the floor.
Only Amakusa remained calm, stepping forward to drape a towel over Astolfo's shoulders.
"I told you—when you're out and about, boys need to protect themselves too. You can't let others take advantage of you."
And with that, the first Fate/Apocrypha teaser officially came to an end.
Without the slightest surprise, it became the most-watched on-demand video of 2007 within a single week.
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