Reviews

Ah, the Fate franchise. One of anime’s most respected, extensive, yet oddly superfluous multiverses. Admittedly, I’ve only seen Ufotable’s now iconic translation of the main storyline (Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works) in what has become a sprawling universe of near-infinite possibility, so I have certainly no right to comment on the overall quality of any of the many, many, many spin-offs. But I can’t help but wonder; how necessary, really, is all of this? The main plot of an urban fantasy wizard death game with magical, anime-ized takes on classic figures of myth and history is a spectacular idea, and the story both of Shiro Emiya and his father as they try to maintain their morals in the midst of a chaotic, swirling mass of conflict and death is simultaneously both a better Chirsopher Nolan philosophical potboiler and a better Zach Snyder mythic spectacle than either of those filmmakers have ever actually achieved. And the framework lends itself well to repetition, seeing what new familiar public-domain entities we can transform into magic-wielding badasses to duke it out in underlit streets and abandoned buildings. But Jesus, how fucking many of these things do we need? How many additions have there been to the lore and characters that just spread further and further outward like puke on the pavement until the excellent ideas and craft at the core are buried under infinite mounds of mediocrity and superfluity? Say what you want about the MCU, at least the vast majority of its properties are incredibly well-received by critics and audiences alike.

Well, perhaps I’ll change my tune on the subject if and when I finally start diving into the endless world of Fate spinoffs myself. Sadly, if Today’s Meal for the Emiya Family is any indication, I’m not sure how likely that possibility is.

I don’t want to be too harsh on Today’s Meal for the Emiya Family- or, as it will be henceforth known, Food/Stay Night- because there’s not really anything to hate here. It’s a light, inoffensive side thing that exists for a very specific purpose and not much else. Based on a spinoff manga, it takes place in a version of the main timeline where the combatants in the war for the Holy Grail have all settled down, stopped fighting, and pretty much just become slightly annoying neighbors to each other. And the show is a series of short, 12-minute vignettes focused on Shiro’s occasionally-mentiond-in-the-OG-text passion for cooking, as he cooks up a variety of meals across the year, inviting a rotating selection of the Stay Night cast to com eat with him.

So yeah, it’s essentially a cooking show featuring the Nasuverse mainstays, a food porn diversion that also doubles as Fate fanservice of seeing all your favorite characters just hang out without the stress of a war hanging over their heads, interacting in low-key stakes and bouncing their personalities off each other. That’s all it’s really here to do, so again, there’s not really any reason to get annoyed at it. I guess my indifference toward Food/Stay Night comes from just how bare bones it is. There really is nothing more to it than Barefoot Contessa with Shiro Emiya, nothing else of substance to hang onto or invest your attention in. The pacing is slow and aimless, with oddly long pauses in the middle of conversations and fairly milquetoast dialogue. The animation is nice and fluffy, refitting the harsh atmosphere and character designs of the show proper into a warmer slice-of-life atmosphere, but it's not unique enough to be a draw on its own. If you're not already super-invested in the lives of these characters, it has nothing to offer you.

And while the Fate universe does have a lot of really great characters, I find that their incarnations here feel unnecessarily bland. Everyone's just so nice and toothless and standard, and while I am a noted defender of nice and toothless storytelling, I find myself missing these character's more engaging edges. I miss Shiro's dorky intensity, Saber's stoic compassion, Sakura's slight lilt of pain, Caster's quiet despair, Ilya's creepy kid shtick. The only two characters who survive this sandblasting unscathed are Lancer, who's bro-y demeanor has always lent itself well to low-key comedy, and Rin Tohsaka, further convincing me that she's the best character in the whole damn franchise. Seriously, her spunk and take-charge attitude is an absolute delight, and the episodes where she takes the spotlight are easily the best episodes of the bunch.

Perhaps it does come down to preference here. By now, the Fate franchise has grown so far beyond the confines of its original interpretation that assigning it to just one role may be too limiting. And it would be foolish to dismiss any new endeavor just because it doesn't suit what *I* think of as Fate. But Food/Stay Night is just too inconsequential, albeit pleasant enough in the moment, to stake much of an opinion on either way. It's a wispy, harmless spinoff that fans will enjoy and no one else will get much out of.