#Fate/strange Fake Staff, Yuki Ono Discuss Character Designs and Saber’s Personality

In Ryohgo Narita’s Fate/strange Fake, the Holy Grail War — or at least, some variation of it — lands on the shores of the United States and erupts in the city of Snowfield. Following an animated commercial for the original light novels and the more recent Whispers of Dawn TV special, a TV anime series adaptation of the light novel series is currently in production. A dubbed version of the first episode made its premiere on November 23, and the subbed version will debut on Crunchyroll on December 31.

During the Fate 20th Anniversary Event in Los Angeles, which included a physical premiere of the first Fate/strange Fake episode, Anime Trending got to hear directors Takahito Sakazume and Shun Enokido, character designer Yukei Yamada, and Saber voice actor Yuki Ono speak about their work on the show in reply to a number of media questions. Why do the character designs in the show utilize less shading? How did Ono, who narrated the commercial as Saber, land on his portrayal of the Servant? Read on to find out! 

This interview was conducted roundtable-style via interpreter and has been edited for clarity and brevity. This article only contains the questions posed by Anime Trending and the concluding question from the interpreter, omitting those from Anime News Network and Otaku Network..

For Shun Enokido and Takahito Sakazume: you’ve worked on Fate/Apocrypha as action directors and have multiple Fate/Grand Order commercials to your names, but this is your first time directing a TV animation. What can Fate fans and animation fans expect from a Mayutokage (the collective name for the Sakazume-Enokido duo)-directed series? 

Takahito Sakazume: Generally, we get to do key animation jobs more than directing. We’ve been doing the FGO CMs with the thought of, “Well, compressing a two-hour film into a 30-second commercial would let us do this much.” Now, we feel we can finally do what we want to do. The kind of works that became the foundation for PVs, including Fate/strange Fake — we’d be wondering if we could make [the adaptations of] them. 

Shun Enokido: So, my main goal is to make flashy action scenes. We wanted to do things as best as we could. Whether it’s depicting everyday scenes that further emphasize the action scenes or making a character look good through the direction, we want to achieve a result that exceeds fans’ expectations.

For Yukei Yamada: what instructions were you given for the character designs from the staff members?

Yukei Yamada: There were just too many instructions! Well, let’s start with [illustrator Shizuki] Morii-san’s [art] — I think I mentioned this a bit earlier during the panel, but it was how far I could reproduce Morii-san’s appealing art [from the manga adaptation]. This time, the challenge I faced was adopting the personality that’s present in the manga, and I tried my best to reflect it in the animation.

Plus, in the latest volume of the manga [adaptation] where certain characters who don’t appear in it, how do we convey them for the anime with the manga’s current art style? For example, Gilgamesh doesn’t show up in Volume 5. In that case, we look at Morii-san’s most current drawing at that moment and figure out how to recreate it. The directors, the producers, Morii-san, Narita-san, and various other parties would have a discussion about that.  

Takahito Sakazume: Compared to other anime, there aren’t many shadows [in Fate/strange Fake]. In these types of anime, the focus moves to the lineart. Something that was mentioned during production was how Yukei-san’s drawing power is really strong, and how you could say the direction involves relying on it. 

Shun Enokido: When we were trying to select a style that gives the impression of the manga’s art, something like the monochrome type of style of the manga — more so than illustrations with a lot of shading — became the base for the designs. That was one of the reasons we decided on that direction. 

For Yuki Ono: what directions were you given for this particular performance for Saber?

Yuki Ono: So honestly, the initial time I voiced Saber, I did it with how I felt Saber was gonna be. That’s how I did it. The other direction that I went was to try to give him a gallant tone. My image of Saber is that he is bright, cheery. As I mentioned earlier during the panel, the key word was seiren, which is translated as “pure” or something very straightforward. The first time I saw him, I thought the word seiren didn’t match that image, because it’s kind of a difficult word to understand, and I didn’t think that he actually met that image. But as I thought about it, he really was straightforward, he’s very honest with his own feelings and his actions. So as I kept voicing for him, then the word seiren kept coming up. It felt like it fit after I learned a little more about Saber.

Takahito Sakazume: Ono-san said basically what I wanted to say, but if I had something to add: Ono-san is Saber, and we just kind of let him do his approach for whom he thought was Saber. . The first couple times during recording, he didn’t have as much dialogue for Saber, and so that’s why we went with multiple different approaches to see which one fit. Ultimately, I think after him voicing a lot more, I think we’re at a good place now for what Saber is like, as far as his tone and his voice characterization. He really is Saber, and I just think he is the perfect fit.

Shun Enokido: As far as the direction goes, rather than us giving him specific directions to voice Saber, we basically let Ono-san’s great acting and his voice timbre do its job, rather than us trying to figure out the characterization of Saber. We figured that Ono-san would be able to grasp who Saber is on his own, and he was able to choose, create this character on his own, and reach that characterization. We are fortunate that Ono-san is very talented.

Finally, do you have a last message for our fans in the United States? 

Kensho Ono: I was watching the earlier stage show, [where] they all mentioned that Fate was like family. Now that I’ve joined the Fate family — and I’m actually the youngest of the family members — but from this trip, my love for Fate has deepened. Even though I’m the youngest, my passion is still great as well, just as anybody else, so I hope to bring that into my recordings for my character later on. I’m very fortunate and happy to join this great occasion of celebrating Fate’s 20th anniversary. Through Fake, I would like to learn more. I would like to grow more, with my character and the Fate franchise, and my love for Fate will grow along with it. So glad to be here!

Yukei Yamada: I might be off-topic a little bit, but as I mentioned earlier in this interview, I’ve loved the United States and overseas movies. Attending this event in the United States made me love this country even more, and because it’s set here, it’s more motivation for me to work harder so that the appeal can be conveyed through this anime. Through this team, I know that we’re making a great title, and I hope that the fans continue to look forward to this TV series.

Shun Enokido: The Fate world started with [Kinoko] Nasu-san, [Takashi] Takeuchi-san, and TYPE-MOON. From then on, the world of strange Fake [was developed] with the help of Narita-san and Morii-san. For us making an anime series based on strange/Fake, I feel like there is a great responsibility.  

But, I’m going to try to bear that responsibility and do justice to the title. But I [also] won’t forget to have fun so that the excitement of the title will still be conveyed to our fans. Hopefully, it’ll be a title that people will still enjoy and continue, and will love as the new episodes come out. I hope everybody, our fans, look forward to it and enjoy it! Thank you again for having me here today.

Takahito Sakazume: The series is continuously still in production, so the biggest thing that I want to say is to stay tuned. Just like Enokido-san said earlier, this job, what we do, is a lot of decision making But thankfully, this title has two directors, so if one of us goes into the wrong direction or a different direction, we can still balance each other out and provide a good balance for the staff. 

Also, with the help of Yukei-san and so many talented staff and cast members, we’re reflecting and bringing to life our characters. I think we are going in a great direction, and so all that requires now is how much time and passion I can bring to this plate. To bring Fate/strange Fake to our audiences. I hope everybody will  continue looking forward to this series, and I hope everybody enjoys it. Thank you again for having us and having so much energy and enthusiasm towards Fate/strange Fake!

The subbed version of Fate/strange Fake Episode 1 is set to debut on Crunchyroll on December 31.