Thanks to the success of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works and the widely popular smartphone game Fate/Grand Order, the Fate franchise has seen a massive resurgence over the past few years–with TV specials, anime series, and feature films galore. But the real treat to come from such popularity? That even some of the most obscure corners of the Fate multiverse can get their own shot at anime glory–even the one that’s basically food porn.
Image source: 『衛宮さんちの今日のごはん』公式アカウント on Twitter
Set in the modern era, Fate/stay night is the story of seven mages, each paired with a hero from myth and legend, who fight it out to win a wish from the Holy Grail. It is a complex story with its fair share of bloody battles, dark revelations, and adult themes.
The newest Fate anime, Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family is about as far from that dark and serious story as you can get.
Image source: 『衛宮さんちの今日のごはん』公式アカウント on Twitter
Set in a strangely peaceful version of the world, it follows the everyday lives of the characters–and legendary heroes–from Fate/stay night. But more than that, it’s centered around the traditional Japanese meals that the main character, Emiya, makes for his friends and family.
Each 15-minute episode follows the same basic framework, beginning with a slice-of-life scene. In one episode, the scene is centered around the Japanese holiday “Children’s Day.” In another, Emiya helps a friend make a delivery to the local temple. These scenes inspire–or at least are directly related to–the central meal of their respective episodes.
Image source: 『衛宮さんちの今日のごはん』公式アカウント on Twitter
The second half of each episode revolves around Emiya making that meal. As if it were a cooking show, Emiya gives an abbreviated explanation of how to make each of the dishes as he does so. This is all animated beautifully by animation studio ufotable and is “food porn” in every sense of the word.
Image source: 『衛宮さんちの今日のごはん』公式アカウント on Twitter
But as a long time fan of the franchise (and a person who couldn’t care less about food porn), what captivates me is trying to unravel how exactly this timeline came to exist.
As mentioned above, the Fate franchise contains numerous timelines–even the original game has three ways for the story to possibly unfold. Sometimes, where exactly a given timeline diverged from the original Fate/stay night timeline is explained in full. Other times, it is simply left to the imagination. And while Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family is one of the later cases, just by watching the show we get hints about what has unfolded to create this timeline.
Image source: 『衛宮さんちの今日のごはん』公式アカウント on Twitter
It’s clear that at least some version of Fate/Zero occurred–as Emiya was adopted by Kiritsugu and Sakura’s hair color is purple. Likewise, we see in flashbacks that Emiya’s everyday life between Zero and the present could easily fit in the original timeline.
It also appears that the “Holy Grail War,” the battle between the Mage/Hero pairs, started off the same as it had in Fate/stay night. The big proof there is that Caster is living with Kuzuki–meaning she likely killed her first partner, just like in the original, before finding and falling in love with Kuzuki.
Image source: 『衛宮さんちの今日のごはん』公式アカウント on Twitter
But as none of the other mages/heroes are dead, this means that the war as we know it somehow ended in a stalemate just as everything was getting started. By the time of Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, all the mage/hero pairs are friendly with–or at least tolerate–each other’s existence. Likewise, many of the key character secrets–like Rin and Sakura being sisters–have been resolved.
Maybe the change to the timeline was caused by something big–like the entire Holy Grail War system being different. Or maybe it’s something small–like Sakura’s grandfather being dead already. Regardless, each episode is filled with little hints–whether it means to or not–and attempting to decipher them is endlessly entertaining for me.
Image source: 『衛宮さんちの今日のごはん』公式アカウント on Twitter
But even if there is no answer and all the time I spent mulling it over was futile, at least I’ll have the memory of watching the single most epic match of beach volleyball you can possibly imagine.
Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family can be seen with English subtitles on Crunchyroll.
Top Image Source: 『衛宮さんちの今日のごはん』公式アカウント on Twitter
Be First to Comment