The Fable

Fable, an assassin who works in organized crime, has been raised to the legendary status of a ruthless killer capable of murdering any man within six seconds. Six years after his debut, his boss fears that Fable has started to attract too much attention from the legal authorities, and he orders him to hide in Osaka for a year. Accompanied by his driver who assumes the identity of his sister, Fable is bound by a special condition: he must act as a civilian and not murder anyone lest he and his partner lose their lives.

However, the seemingly well-deserved holiday soon takes a grim turn. Takeshi Ebihara, the second-in-command of the Osaka mafia that officially protects the assassin, sees Fable's presence as a threat and wants to remove him. Constantly monitored by the yakuza and regularly put in life-or-death situations, Fable has no other choice but to outwit Takeshi's schemes if he wants to stay alive.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Satou, Akira Main

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Satou, Youko Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Ebihara, Takeshi Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Jackal Tomioka Supporting

Fukushima, Jun Japanese

Shimizu, Misaki Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Kuroshio, Ryou Supporting

Iwasaki, Ryouta Japanese

Matsu Supporting

Mizuuchi, Kiyomitsu Japanese

Boss Supporting

Komura, Tetsuo Japanese

Saba, Hinako Supporting

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Kainuma, Etsuji Supporting

Asahina, Takumi Japanese

Onoue, Taiki Producer

Yoshio, Souta Producer

Wakabayashi, Hirokazu Producer

Shibata, Momo Producer

Reviews

Oct 4, 2024

PanzerIV-J

Recommended

Fable is a fantastic anime with one major flaw—its pacing.

There’s no doubt that Fable is an amazing anime. It’s got a unique premise, cool characters, and an awesome story. But it’s not perfect, and there are a couple of issues that stop it from being truly great.

1. Pacing:
Fable probably has the worst pacing of any anime I’ve ever watched. It's so slow, in fact, that I would even go as far as saying that multi-season TV shows like "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" handle pacing better than this. If they compacted all the filler, slow dialogue, drawn-out scenes, and cliffhangers; the producers probably could've ... made the 25 episode season into a 20 episode season. Instead, the dragged-out pacing makes the anime harder to watch, if you, perhaps, are not as interested in this anime's themes and genres and just watched out of curiosity.

2. Weekly Cliffhangers:
This somewhat ties into the pacing issues I have described previously. The cliffhangers here are by far some of the worst I’ve seen, and it feels like they’re deliberately designed to frustrate viewers. And when I say cliffhangers, I mean it, almost every episode ends on a cliffhanger, which is more aggravating than suspenseful, which makes it feel like the anime is trying to annoy its audience on purpose. This might not be as big of a deal since you won’t have to wait a week between episodes since the anime is done airing, but if you have to pause this anime to go to work or something similar, it might be tough to find a good episode to stop at.

3. Animation Quality (Minor Issue):
While the action scenes (especially the ones with Akira and Youko) look great, the rest of the animation is kind of hit-or-miss. The non-action scenes just don’t get the same level of attention, which is disappointing. It’s not bad enough to ruin the show, but considering how good the story is, I wish they’d put a little more effort into the animation overall.

Onto the good:
1. The Voice Acting is Great:
The voice acting is one of the show’s strongest points. Akira’s voice actor, in particular, absolutely nails it, making him super memorable even though he’s a quiet, odd character. The casting across the board is really solid, and the voices definitely help distract from some of the other issues, like the animation.

2. The story is a masterpiece:
If you’re wondering whether Fable has a great story, the answer is a big, resounding YES. The synopsis honestly doesn’t do it justice. It’s about a hitman who’s been raised in that life, trying to live a somewhat normal existence, but his past and present keep colliding in ways that affect everyone around him.
And if you’re asking whether there’s action—absolutely. There’s plenty of it. You get detailed weapons (knives, guns), intense hand-to-hand combat, and some pretty brutal death scenes. Despite the slow pacing and those annoying cliffhangers, the story was so good that I couldn’t help but get excited for each new episode as soon as it came out.

Overall, Fable is still one of my favorite anime this season. Sure, the pacing and cliffhangers can get annoying, but the story, voice acting, and action more than make up for it. If you plan to binge-watch, these issues might not bother you as much. Definitely worth checking out if you’ve got the time!

9/10, I greatly recommend this to anyone looking for a good watch.
[Thanks for reading!]

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 29, 2024

gingerholic

Mixed Feelings

This anime was certainly a rollercoaster ride - if my score was a reflection of how my journey went over the last six months it would be as follows:
How it began: 3
By the time it ended: 7

Let’s start with the bad: voice acting was unconventional, sleepy and sluggish. The first few episodes were so unbearable I thought the protagonist was mentally challenged (despite the premise of him being a legendary assassin), or that I had set the playback speed at 0.5x by accident. The animation felt cheap and the jokes were corny. I couldn’t drop the show fast enough.

However part of me felt that something ... ain’t right - like eating sushi for the first time at a third rated restaurant but deep down you know the same dish can potentially taste so much better at an authentic Japanese joint. Even though yakuza plotlines are a dime a dozen, a story can’t be that awful if there are two live action movies made for it right? Following that train of thought, fast forward a few weeks after dropping the anime I proceeded to watch the live action movies - boy so glad I did. None of the aforementioned issues were present in the live action movies. The casting for Akira, Yoko, and Misaki in the live action was perfect. The comedy was on point. If you’ve never read the manga like myself, highly recommend watching the live action first BEFORE diving into the anime - it’s a game changer.

Went back to watch the anime after the live action experience and everything became instantly better. Albeit still not a fan of the sluggish voice acting but it became tolerable because the story started to pick up. The Fable ended up being the casual slice of life yakuza show that I didn’t know I needed.

Oh, and Kuro-chan is the MVP.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 12, 2024

prodinuyasha

Not Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (9/25 eps)

I will start by saying I haven’t touched the manga so my review will be based solely on the anime.

The premise of the show seems really cool, a hitman that has to try to live a normal life with his fake "sister" for a year. The setup was done and explained nicely in the first episode and I genuinely enjoyed it. But it goes downhill from there.

The cast of characters is really bland, they don’t bring much to the table bar the main character which reminds me in a lot of ways of Kazuma Kiryu from the Yakuza games. The pace of the show is ... way too static and sluggish to forget how boring the characters are even if I tried to forget about that aspect and try to enjoy this anime.

After completing 9 episodes it feels like the story didn’t progress much, 5 minutes of action get interrupted with 10 of a very dry and slow dialogue that kills all the momentum of the show.

I don’t have a problem with slower paced animes, but this one seems like a wasted potential since I really like the general idea of the show.

The animation is… like the rest of the show, average. But then again, it’s hard to let the animation shine when most of the screentime is taken by very static dialogue scenes.

Would I recommend it? As of now, it’s a waste of time and for a 24 episode show not to pick up until the half of it (if it even picks up at that point) you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth your time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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