Anime 55911

Alternative Titles

Japanese: ザ・ファブル

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 25

Status: Currently Airing

Aired: Apr 7, 2024 to ?

Premiered: Spring 2024

Broadcast: Sundays at 00:55 (JST)

Producers: VAP, Kodansha, Nippon Television Network, Audio Planning U

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Tezuka Productions

Source: Manga

Genre: Comedy

Themes: Adult Cast, Organized Crime

Demographic: Seinen

Duration: 22 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.07¹ (scored by 4,346 users)

¹ indicates a .

Ranked: #4362²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3794

Members: 34,688

Favorites: 127

Available At

Official Site

@the_fable_anime

Resources

AniDB

ANN

7.07

Ranked #4362Popularity #3794Members 34,688

Spring 2024TVTezuka Productions

PV 2

play

Synopsis

Fable is a legendary hitman who has completed numerous jobs for a variety of clients. After concluding his latest assignment, the number of people he has recently killed becomes too high, and Fable is ordered by his boss to lay low for a year. He is suggested that having to adapt to life as an ordinary citizen might prove a valuable experience for his future work.

Fable is to be accompanied by the woman who acts as his driver, and the two will assume new identities as siblings. However, their boss warns them that they will both face a deadly punishment if Fable kills anyone during his time off. Thus begins Akira and Youko Satou's joint one-year sabbatical from the underworld.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Background

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Related Anime

Adaptation:

The Fable

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Satou, Akira

Main

Okitsu, Kazuyuki
Japanese

Satou, Youko

Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki
Japanese

Ebihara, Takeshi

Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio
Japanese

Shimizu, Misaki

Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana
Japanese

Matsu

Supporting

Mizuuchi, Kiyomitsu
Japanese

Kuroshio, Ryou

Supporting

Iwasaki, Ryouta
Japanese

Master

Supporting

Ichijo, Kazuya
Japanese

Takouda, Kenjirou

Supporting

Onishi, Takeharu
Japanese

Kainuma, Etsuji

Supporting

Asahina, Takumi
Japanese

Sunagawa, Souichi

Supporting

Takahashi, Koujirou
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Director

Sound Director

Script

Script, Series Composition

Opening Theme

"Professionalism" by ALI feat. Hannya (般若)

Ending Theme

"Odd Numbers" by UmedaCypher (梅田サイファー)

Reviews

Apr 20, 2024

ShadowReacts

Recommended

Preliminary (3/25 eps)

NOTE: This review is purely for the first 3 eps of The Fable anime. I have not read the manga or watched the live action adaptation, so I won't be referencing those in this.

The Fable is an interesting anime. Here's the premise: Satou Akira, our main protagonist, is known as the infamous genius "Fable". A lot of things are easy for him, but being a normal member of society isn't. He has been given a special mission: not to kill anyone for a long period of time. Believe it or not, this may be the toughest mission he has yet to take on.

The Fable reminds ... me of a more serious version of Way of the Househusband. The MC is a badass Yakuza member, who is often oblivious to his own surroundings, and has to work with others in order not to blow his cover. Just like Househusband, Fable has very good comedy imo. It's one thing to write good comedy on paper, but delivery is just as, if not, more important imo. Saying a dumb joke with a deadpan voice might illicit a completely different reaction than if u were to say it with a cheery voice.

Characters: I enjoy the cast of The Fable a lot. Akira is a very enjoyable main character, he has that "dead inside" vibe which I tend to like with these types of shows. He's clearly tired of life, constantly making jokes about how others will outlive him and such, so he's trying to find different things to look forward to, even if it's the stupidest shit (like a certain third rate comedian that he loves). Youko Satou is also enjoyable to watch. She is disguising as Fable's sister and her lines are funny too, the main thing she is looking forward to is "a good man".

Score: 9/10

Sound: The sound in this show is very good. From the SFX to the voice acting, they have nailed this aspect down to the tee. The fights feel real and have stakes, you can feel every hit and punch. As I mentioned, the voice acting is also top tier. The cast of VA's is stacked, seeing as there are big names such as Miyuki Sawashiro, Akio Ootsuka, and Kana Hanazawa. Additionally, the chemistry between Miyuki Sawashiro (Youko) and Kazuyuki Okitsu (Akira) is very natural and smooth. Their character interactions are dynamic, quirky, and overall engaging.

Score: 10/10

Animation: I saw a lot of people complaining about this, saying that "Tezuka production ruined another great manga... blah blah blah". Look, I don't think the animation is S tier, but it's certainly not bad. In fact, it's pretty good. Even though this is the weakest part of the show, the fights still look fluid and are well composed and choreographed. The character art could be a little better, but even so, I ain't complaining.

Score: 7/10

OP and ED: I love the op, ALI once again delivered. Visuals aren't anything out of this world, as it mainly consists of still shots of the various characters, but the song is an absolute vibe, so for that reason alone I enjoy the opening theme a lot.

The ending however leaves a lot to be desired. Not only is the song really bad (it's shitty autotune rap) but the visuals don't stand out as they just roll credits and have slideshow visuals. You can definitely skip the ED and u won't be missing out on anything.

Opening Score: 9/10
Ending Score 3/10
Combined Score: 6/10

Overall, I believe that The Fable is a very enjoyable show that anyone can enjoy. It has an excellent cast of characters, good comedy, fights, serious moments, sound design, and an overall interesting and gripping atmosphere and plot.

May 11, 2024

Eathus

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (6/25 eps)

Read the manga instead. The animation presented in this adaptation is unfortunately nearly nonexistent. This adaptation simply didn't get the budget and/or care/love it deserved. It is such a shame because the manga is truly a hidden gem with an extremely unique take on a slice-of-life meets comedy and action genre. The characters are written to feel like real people unlike the annoying anime tropes that we're all used to at this point. The humor is subtle but really hits home and the story pulls you in and gets you extremely invested in what's gonna happen next. The manga is around 240 chapters of pure ...

May 12, 2024

BadGuyBoog

Not Recommended

Preliminary (6/25 eps)

Fable is the first anime I’ve seen where I have read the manga first (though not to completion) and couldn’t help but think to myself ‘people should just read the manga instead.’ And of course, I was appropriately disgusted in myself for thinking such a thing. But then it got me thinking about the nature of adaptations and the difference between western and Japanese approaches to adaptations of previously existing works. I’ve expressed my frustration about the predominant use of manga adaptations over original works that have taken over the medium before, but my frustrations have only grown in the handling of the adaptations. Japan ... (from what I’ve gathered) seems to hold the idea that adaptations should be a one-to-one exact replica of the original and fans get angry when this rule is not followed. However, I believe that adaptations should not strive to be a one-to-one match with the source material.

Manga and anime are two very distinct genres and should be treated as such. The first and very prevalent example of this is pacing. I recently started watching Fate/stay night (2006) and it was incredibly difficult to get into because it was obvious that the first two episodes could have been easily condensed into one. I was just waiting for the story to start as I watched scenes that could have easily been cut without changing anything. Keeping all of the same character intros, all the same world building and character building; with slight tweaks to events (that don’t matter at all for the Ordinary World) and tighter writing, you could have easily cut that down to 20 minutes and it would have been so much more engaging. And that is just minor adjustments. You can do that at a large scale in the story as well. What people fail to realize is, although giving plot and characters time to grow is important, which is what manga excels at, a tighter script will ultimately help investment in those characters. If someone has a huge character moment but then it takes 6 episodes for their character to have another character moment, then by that time, I have already lost investment in that character. With manga, you don’t have to worry about this. Each chapter is created as its own thing so they can be dedicated to certain characters or story beats. With a cinematic medium however, where lines between chapters are blurred, all aspects of the story have to be moving at the same pace.

To give an example to what I mean, I believe Horimiya (2021) is the greatest manga adaptation when it comes to pacing. Although I’m glad it did happen, I really don’t believe Horimiya Piece was necessary at all. This is coming from someone who loves the manga to death and enjoys every chapter. I am so glad they decided to tell the whole story in one season, because with that time limit in mind, they could narrow the story down and cause a greater emotional impact. By picking and choosing which chapters were important: what they could cut and what needed to stay, they controlled the pacing. And it’s not like they only chose chapters that had emotional moments. There was plenty of filler in the show, but that filler was also especially chosen. By opting to choose filler chapters, they gave the characters time to breathe, and for us to both enjoy their shenanigans and let us see the fruits of their efforts. What’s the point of Miyamura growing closer with people if we don’t get to see their dynamics? It helps with pacing, with the themes of high school and with the overall emotion that is set later. By seeing their friendships, when Miyamura reflects on his life, we have seen first hand that he is in a better place and we get that emotional resonance.

Now Horimiya’s chapters are more episodic than most but you can take that principle and use it on more long narrative shows. By choosing which scenes are important, which can be condensed, which can be rearranged to match with other scenes and what can be dropped entirely, you create a more balanced, well paced, tighter and overall a lot more engaging story. You don’t need to match the manga one-to-one. You can add scenes, you can combine scenes, you can take out scenes entirely to make it more cinematic, and enhance the anime experience. That is what anime can offer that manga cannot. Manga can be planned out, but it is written chapter by chapter. Anime can be written with the whole picture in mind, and the whole story laid out for them. I don’t mind rewrites as long as they serve to enhance the story. The whole last episode of Horimiya, with the “what would life be like if that one coincidence didn’t happen”, was an anime original. And it was one of the best scenes in the show.

I’m not asking to ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ it and change the story entirely, I’m just saying that you can change the story to better fit the medium. A good example of this is fight scenes. You can’t show action that well in manga so when you have a medium that can, use it. Let me see better choreography instead of the still frames in manga. You can do that. That’s why I’m loving Wind Breaker (which is coming out by the time of writing this review). Because the fight scenes are shown to us. That was one of my biggest issues with Demon Slayer; we just didn’t get to see the fights all that much. What we saw were still frames of peoples faces and them explaining the fights instead of just showing us. I don’t need characters to tell me the enemy is too fast when you can just animate that and show me. I understand it’s necessary in manga, but you don’t need that shit in the adaptation. If you’re just going to tell not show, then why make it into an anime at all?

That is a good question: why are anime adaptations made at all? Pretending that it’s not because anime is run by talentless hacks who don’t have the balls to fund an original story, anime is the stories of manga with voice acting, movement, color and music. With these additions however, and the severe lack of proper funding, a lot of the detail that made manga so captivating is lost. I understand why people say the manga for One-Punch Man or Death Note was better. Because when you read the manga you see how much effort was put into every panel. The details of the drawings are incredible and by reading it, you have time to appreciate it, instead of with anime where those shots are gone in a flash. There are pros and cons to each medium. So a good adaptation will have a reason to be adapted. A reason where adding movement and music and voice acting will outweigh the loss of detail and make up for the difference in pacing. The adaptation has to add to the source material.

Two great examples of this is Love is War and Food Wars. Starting with Love is War, not including the dramatic music and superb voice acting, the amount of original visual gags that they added enhances the comedy so much that it improves the jokes of the manga. Like the cowboy standoff in the 20 questions game. The reason for making it into an anime was because by making it a more visual experience, you can add to the jokes. It’s not watered down, it’s enhanced. With Food Wars, I will admit, I have not read the manga. But I cannot imagine it working in any other way than cinematically. Food Wars works because it embraces how batshit insane it is. The operatic music, the over the top voice acting, the visual flares all create an experience so surreal that I cannot imagine just reading it. It would not have the same impact. To add to that, the presentation of food is very important to its taste. So to try to show off these insane meals without color just doesn’t work. Food Wars needed to be an anime because, although it might miss some detail on the food, the need to enhance the dramatic presentation is so much more important to the story and the aesthetic.

Not all manga needs an anime adaptation. Going back to Fable (yeah this is still a Fable review) the anime is just a watered down version of the manga. Sure the voice acting is good, but the details of the faces and the environment that made the manga feel so grounded is lost in the anime. And the voice acting just doesn’t make up for it. The music is forgettable, the fight scenes don’t play a huge role in the story and they weren’t even animated that well (due to budgeting). The addition of color doesn’t add much because it’s not important and there are animation errors. The movement is stilted and the lines of the face are so obviously drawn that we lose the realism of human interaction. There was no reason at all to make this adaptation. You have to look at the merits of the source material and decide what can be improved by adapting it. The merit of The Fable magna is how grounded it is. The characters are drawn realistically instead of stylistically. Nothing is fantastical and it is drawn and written in such a way to make you think this could happen in the real world (to an extent, it is pretty goofy at times). So if you were to adapt it, how would you do it? Well, I would drop some plot lines, choose to focus on certain characters, tweak the story and make a Live-Action movie. With a movie the themes and narrative have to be extremely focused. You lose the realism in the anime, but it would be enhanced through Live-Action. I don’t think it’s necessary, but that’s the only way an adaptation of Fable could work. What we got, and I see now that is what many manga fans have been getting, is a watered down version of the source material. I understand now what those people mean when they say ‘you should just read the manga.’ All because of the philosophy that adaptations should be one-to-one copies.
Though those people who say that shit could stop being petty assholes about it.

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Resources

Synopsis

Background

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Satou, Akira

Satou, Youko

Ebihara, Takeshi

Shimizu, Misaki

Matsu

Kuroshio, Ryou

Master

Takouda, Kenjirou

Kainuma, Etsuji

Sunagawa, Souichi

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Ending Theme

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