Fate/zero: Distant Memories

Warning: Image-heavy. Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk.

The flashback episode starts with a short view of the island where the story of Emiya Kiritsugu’s past will be explored then quickly shifts into some children playing jump-off-cliffs-into-the-sea.

Right after Kerry’s death-defying dive, a tanned teenage girl comes along to fetch him. Her name is Shirley. Wait a minute. So far we’ve been given two names which are quite unusual in Japan. However, this is anime, so we can shrug that off ‘til later.

Next we are treated to a bunch of scenes where the eerily familiar island setting is shown...

...while the two talks about the island’s name origin and how the place where Kerry currently lives is cursed. According to local legend, the island was a place where people made offerings to the sea gods. But one day, a girl, with nothing to feed her sick mother, took some of the food that had been offered. The girl got cursed and turned into a crab. What a sad story. Normally, you wouldn’t be interested...

...but what’s this? What was that? Oh, isn’t Alimango the word for crab? So this is Alimango Island. Take a guess—it’s either this little quaint place is inspired by a Spanish island, or a Filipino one. I’m leaning towards the latter, since there are obvious tell-tale signs. The children playing basketball, and the livestock, even the dress code: plain. Even the name Shirley which is quite common in the Philippines. With a little bit of research, I found out that there is an actual Alimango Island in the Philippines, somewhere in Negros Occidental, Visayas. Neat.

We learn why Kiritsugu is being called Kerry. The townsfolk couldn’t pronounce his real name and found it weird, so Shirley gave him a nickname.

Kerry, together with his father (who is rather aloof) lives in the mountaintop. His father is a mage, who is apparently cultivating flowers that never wither by altering its flow of time. Shirley is his assistant and has proven quite capable of using magic...

A priest, Reverend Simon, warns Shirley about being possessed by demons if she stays with the Emiyas, and gives her a talisman in the form of a dagger. She doesn’t seem to care that much. She even uses the dagger for cutting what seem to be huge, ripe guavas. It is now evident that this girl looks up to Kerry’s father, and finds that his research can be quite useful in treating people, healing wounds, etc. His medicines could eradicate human mortality.

Followed by some ship-tease.

The next morning, Kerry’s father warns him not to go to the village. This doesn’t bode well...

But Kerry decides to look for Shirley. You should’ve listened to your dad, kiddo.

Hearing some noise, he runs into the backyard to find some chicken with lots of blood on them and...

Shirley.

And the first Aswang in the Philippines is born! Nah, just kidding. Shirley just wanted to prove Kerry’s father’s research and so stole one of the substances and took it. It went very wrong. She begs Kerry to kill her using the dagger that the priest gave her before it’s too late, but of course he couldn’t do it. Poor children.

With this tragic unfolding of events, things start to go downhill for our main character. It appears that the condition is contagious, and now almost all the people in the island are either dead or has turned into zombie-like creatures. Not long after, there comes along hooded figures with knives and people with blue flames; they started finishing off the zombies and burning the town to the ground. They’re neither good nor bad people; they just had to do it for the sake of secrecy. These are two familiar groups in the Fateverse: The Church’s Executioners (who believe that it’s fine to slaughter people going against the will of God) and the Mage’s Association.

Obviously, these are too much for a boy of Kerry’s age. Just look at his face.

Soon Kerry is trapped, by no other than Reverend Zombie. Luckily for him, someone saves him. This awesome woman who looks like a hit-man is apparently a salesman to the Mage’s Association. She explains everything to Kerry—the zombies are actually vampires called Dead Apostles. She has to kill the bad mage who started it all, but Kerry volunteers to go himself. Of course, that bad mage is his father.

Back in their house, his father is starting to pack for their escape, burning all evidence that they were there. Kerry confronts him about his research about the Dead Apostles and Shirley, to which he coldly tells Kerry that you can’t change the past.

Kerry’s eventual answer is... stab him with Shirley’s dagger.

And mercilessly and repeatedly shoots him.

In the end, Kerry decides to go with the woman and be her apprentice of sorts. Together they leave the island and this same woman, Natalia Kaminski, will be Emiya Kiritsugu’s mentor-figure.

Over-all this episode is a 9/10 for me. The animation and the backgrounds are, as per the previous episodes, visually-stunning and the plot explained very well the downfall of Emiya Kiritsugu: how the innocent “Kerry” turned into the cold and ruthless Mage Killer we all know at present.

Episode 18 used a special ending song: Manten (The Whole Sky) by Kalafina.