What if the Fate/Zero cast was really an Anime company?
(In hindsight as I finished writing I effectively made half a novella in fan fiction lol)
So I saw this picture and was like, “Wait, what if we were to remake Fate/Zero’s (and Fate/Stay Night’s) entire plot to be a more Shirobako like story?”
Here’s what I came up with:
The entire 4th Holy Grail War’s cast are working at the same Anime Development company, Heaven’s Feel Productions, based in Tokyo. Originally the company was developed by the Matou, Tohsaka and Einzbern families in the city of Fuyuki, but moved to Tokyo when their business grew larger.
Currently they are working on an Anime sequel to an old franchise called Fate that hasn’t been touched upon for years, but fans have been screaming for a sequel! Thus starts the production of Unlimited Blade Works!
- Kiritsugu and Irisviel are married and have a child. Kiritsugu is a veteran voice actor who’s original wish was to be an idol who could make everyone smile. But he has since abandoned that dream for voice acting (and terrible singing voice), and unfortunately only ever lands villain roles.
- Irisviel works as Heaven’s Feel Productions’s animation supervisor and is the daughter of the company’s original founder. Kiritsugu and Irisviel met when Iri wanted to get more inspiration for a character design that Kiri voiced, and in the end they started dating.
- Illya is inspired by the work her parents constantly do and has even started writing at such an early age! Come a few years and she might even release a Light Novel!
- Arturia, named after the great Arthur Pendragon, is a fledgling voice actress from Brittain who was hired for her talents in japanese and the need for a native english speaker in the script (Gilgamesh would absolutely NOT relent on this). She is very inspired by food and japanese samurai culture, but takes her job extremely seriously. She has already been given multiple roles from other japanese comapnies and it seems she will be staying in Japan indefinitely. She carries with her a fake katana that she has nickname Excalibur. It is her mascot and she draws it when she gives it 100%.
- Tokiomi is the current CEO of Heaven’s Feel Productions and has recently acquired the rights for producing the Fate sequel. Following his family teachings, he will make sure that the project is a perfect success. His children visit the office from time to time, but sometimes it seems he dives to deep into his work as they never really spend time with him at the office.
- Gilgamesh is the current hired producer, a foreigner known for his amazing talent (something he never stops bragging about). Tokiomi bought him in for a hefty price to prioritize this over a Hollywood movie (no idea how he pulled the strings, something about snake skin and a whole lot of wine).
- Kirei is a fellow veteran voice actor of Kiritsugu’s (they haven’t ever bneen in a project, however) who has yet to find his call in life. In the meantime he has been praised for his excellent Shounen Main Character voices and companies try to hog him like vultures over a corpse. It is also rumored that he is an alcoholic, but he vehemently denies it and no proof has been given.
- Hassan is Kirei’s childhood friend and Kirei often visits the family (how does 100 people fit in that tiny house?) for annual celebrations. Hassan recently decided to try his hand at animation and thanks to Kirei being a Kouhai of Tokiomi’s in High School he has been hired in as part of the Unlimited Blade Works animation team.
- Kariya and Lancelot are two brothers (Lancelot is adopted) who work at Heaven’s Feel Productions as Production Assistants. They manage as much outsourcing as they can and work overtime everyday because they want to help in whatever way they can. Kariya usually takes care of Rin and Sakura (especially Sakura - Rin usually walks around alone) when they come visit, and he usually works to the point of collapsing and having to take a day off every now and then.
- Lancelot works vehemently and often does others’ work for them (in their name, so as to not take theirm credit) simply out of the good of his heart. But that good nature has an evil side to it; He is the loudest and craziest everytime the employees go out for a drink, ending up in his nickname “The Mad Party Dog”.
- Gilles is the Production Manager of Heaven’s Feel Productions, and is widely known for his amazing work in the past. Unfortunately, the products he has worked on have deteriorated in quality over the years, and people speculate that he may be at the end of his ropes by now.
- Ryuunosuke is an idealistic Production Assistant who thinks that Gilles is the “most cool of cool guys ever” and never seizes to idolize him. He also has a very morbid sense of humor.
- Waver got hired as a Production Assistant by accident when he was on a trip to Japan but has stuck ever since. Many consider him to currently be “the weight” but they agree that he does have potential to be amazing. He lives with his uncle Alexander who also works at Heaven’s Feel Productions, as a Sound Director. His well-known “ORARARARARARAI” battlecry have become trademark within all Anime developed by the company. Even though Alexander is only the Sound Director he somehow has the authority of almost everyone in the company, mainly because he was former anime company Moon Princess Works’s CEO.
- Kayneth works as Screenwriter for the current project, and despite being largely an unknown and new blood in the japanese industry, has experience and is fairly known back in Brittain. Because of his alleged experience with western mythology Tokiomi searched out him specifically.
- Diarmuid as a recent addition to the animation department, and does all he can to look for a worthy challenge.
So basically Iri gets word out to Kiritsugu that he should apply for this new anime that they’re working on. He gets excited and is hoping that this might finally be his big break for roles as a good guy. In the meantime Tokiomi pulls strings to make sure that Kirei gets the lead role but Gilgamesh takes a huge interest in him and decides that Kirei is perfect as the show’s main antagonist. Tokiomi is all like “no wait dude my perfect settings” and Gil be like “I PRODUCE THIS.” so Kirei ends up, getting the role, and Kiritsugu gets cast as the lead protagonist.
The production starts off well, but the team is slightly understaffed so Hassan calls his family and suddenly they are overstaffed. Unfortunately Gilgamesh and Gilles can’t get along and find a middle ground at all, so it ends with Tokiomi firing Gilles, Ryuunosuke, Kayneth, Diarmuid and Hassan and his entire family because he sees Gilgamesh as the key to the “perfect anime” and Gilles somehow managed to develop the final episode before the fifth one had even been written. Gilgamesh takes over hiring and only accepts people who kneel to him (with some reasonable tempering from Alexander). Then he starts visiting the voice acting sessions and develops a crush on Arturia. Arturia in turn immediately turns him down before he can even have the time to ask (granted, he took his sweet time bragging first). This is the first time Gil has ever not gotten a girl from flashing his money so he is taken aback and even more infatuated.
Kirei and Gilgamesh start to hang out, and Hassan feels betrayed and cuts all contact with Kirei. For some reason Gil and Kirei’s deep talks over sake causes Kirei to turn over a new leaf, and decide to leave the voice acting industry when all of this is over. Gil also promises to keep Kirei’s collection of alcohol a secret for a bottle per week (of his own choosing, of course).
In the end the story hangs by a thin thread but somehow still flies by. The company now gets a lot of help from outsourcing and Tokiomi has fallen into a coma from overworking and the shock that his “ultimate perfect project” has fallen apart, causing Alexander and Gil to butt heads with each other for control over the company to finish the project.
One night after the last episode has been recorded, everybody go out for a drink. Kiritsugu, drunk, realizes that he forgot his keys back at the office. He fetches his keys but then reads what Gilgamesh has planned for the finale.
The plan that Gilgamesh has hatched is to cast himself as a final episode character who steals Arturia’s character from everyone and lives a happy life ever after, completely disregarding the story of the rest of the series. In a drunken rage, he lights the script and leaves them burning at the table. Realizing what he has done as he walks home, he turns back to try and fix things before the fire spreads too far. But it’s too late.
The fire has spread throughout the entire building and just as he reaches it, it collapses... On top of a young boy. Overcome with grief and drunken stupor, Kiritsugu charges into the wreckage, in search of the boy. For hours he calls out and digs in the debris, but alas, he finds nothing. Until...
There, in a small hole peeking out, he sees a small hand weakly waving around. He hurries towards the hand, grabs it, and digs the boy out. Luckily the debris had created a small pocket around him so there were no major injuries.
But the company is in ruins. The Anime had been a disaster towards the last few episodes and now there was no chance it would ever be completed. Kayneth moved back to Brittain, Arturia has moved on to become a big name within the anime industry, Gilgamesh stayed in Japan to do smaller films and most of the others have disappeared from the face of the earth. The whole event was pictured as a tragic accident that luckily had no casualties, but rumors went by that an angry employee had set the entire building on fire.
Irisviel divorced with Kiritsugu after she learned the truth from him, and Kiritsugu fled to the small city of Fuyuki (not knowing the history of the Heaven’s Feel Productions) to avoid everyone. He adopted Shirou as his own son (apparently he was an orphan living at a nearby orphanage at the time, but had been developed amnesia after the tragic event) and trained him in the arts of voice acting, as well as giving Shirou extra lessons at a local singing school. He also tells Shirou of his dream to make everyone happy through his voice, something that Shirou takes to heart. The story ends with Kiritsugu starting to work at a local convenience store so that the two can get by, but also so that he keeps a relatively low profile, and Shirou starting his training to continue Kiritsugu’s dream.
So this thing ended up being far longer than I initially expected it to, but it’s a fun idea. I’d like to hear what others think, and if I should write it out more as an actual story (or fanfic). I also have concept ideas of the three Fate routes; Fate follows Shirou becoming a voice actor, trained by Arturia (now more widely known by her stage name Saber), Unlimited Blade Works follows Shirou meeting Rin and resurrecting Heaven’s Feel Productions together with her. Finally, the Heaven’s Feel route would follow Shirou as he follows an entirely different path; Meeting Sakura and abandoning his dream to become a voice actor (maybe become a cook?). Well, tell me what you think!
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