Speaking of "Fate Echo", the first thing most people think of is the anime "Fate Echo: Beat of Destiny" broadcast in 2021.
This animation is also often referred to as "reverse promotion" of IP.
At that time, it was originally regarded as a "hegemonic retrospective" animation
THIS ANIMATED SERIES CO-PRODUCED BY MAPPA AND MADHOUSE ITSELF IS STILL EXCELLENT IN PAINTING AND UNIQUE IN PERFORMANCE, AND EVERYONE'S DISSATISFACTION MAINLY COMES FROM THE PLOT NEAR THE END - THE HEROINE COSETTE WHO FOUGHT WITH THE MALE PROTAGONIST DIED AT THE END OF THE PLAY, AND HER SISTER Anna, who was previously the role of "tool man", replaced her sister at the end and became the protagonist "fate".
How did it become triangular
Such an ending trend is considered by many audiences to be a waste of the previously laid down male and female protagonist emotional line, "high open low walk" and "rotten end" have become the labels of "Fate Echo".
Popular reviews for animation
This also affected the planned follow-up content - in the two years after the anime was broadcast, the sequel mobile game gradually appeared in front of the players' eyes after several rounds of testing, and everyone found that there was no animated heroine Cosette, so they believed that the original tragic ending was purely paving the way for the plot of the mobile game, dispelling the hope of seeing the continuation of the animated plot in the game.
But things took a turn two days before the official start of the game day.
The official carried out a live broadcast program on the same day, once ranked second on the hot search of Japan, and the climax of the live broadcast was the announcement that "Cosette", who died in the animation, would return to the game.
The live broadcast barrage immediately burst into tears, and even the Cosette voice actress Wakayama Shiyin who was present had tears in her eyes
From this night, "Echo of Fate" began to rank first in the Japanese Android market and iOS download charts.
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On June 28, the hit anime "The Child I Push" (推しの子) aired the last episode of the season and released the news of the production of the second issue. As a phenomenal animation in Japan today, this became the most watched event in ACG circles that day.
Another thing in the ACG circle that could compete with it on the popularity list that day was the official launch of the "Fate Echo" mobile game. Prior to this, the number of pre-orders for the game in Japan exceeded 1.5 million.
At this time, the game had been on the download list for three days, and many Japanese players began to worry that "Fate Echo" would be "fried" on the day of the launch of the server like many popular mobile games. Fortunately, the server withstood the pressure, and most players entered the game that day.
Between players and audiences, "Echoes of Fate" and "The Child I Push" also form a subtle linkage that complements each other.
On the one hand, the protagonist of "I Push" has the iconic star eyes, which has become one of the popular symbols in Japan today.
And LAM, the popular painter in charge of the main beauty of the character in "Echoes of Fate", is also known for drawing unique pupils, and in his writing, the players in "Echoes of Fate" have eyes like stars.
"Little Star Variations" from "Echoes of Fate"
This drove the new and old characters of "Fate Echo" to attract more attention, and many viewers who were still not happy after watching "I Push" also turned out the animation of "Fate Echo" and began to make up.
On the other hand, the "players" in "Echoes of Fate" are all personifications of classical music, and they often show the style of artists and idols in their works, which is also somewhat consistent with the story background of the entertainment industry of "I Push".
After the game was launched, many players introduced and shared their favorite musicians to others in the name of "push" in the idol industry term on social networks (referring to spontaneously recommending and promoting to others), which seemed to be part of this round of idol trend.
The avatar of this netizen who shared screenshots of the plot of "Echoes of Fate" is the male protagonist of "I Push"
The two crazes converged in unexpected forms. However, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, the popularity of "Echoes of Fate" is not a coincidence.
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As a warm-up promotion to coincide with the launch of the game, the official YouTube account uploaded all 12 episodes of animation two weeks ago for new and old players to revisit and revisit.
The once-criticized episode became the most watched episode, with almost no complaints or arguments in the comment area, mostly comments like "I know the final ending, I came to challenge my tear ducts, but I lost".
Obviously, there are actually many audiences who love this ending, they are not so sensitive to the emotional lines of the characters in the plot, and they are not hesitant to express their love for the story.
For these audiences, "Echoes of Fate" is an animation that makes them feel stunned and uneasy after watching it. In the seemingly bright ending, represented by the heroine Cosette, many characters have not achieved a happy ending, and the audience's biggest hope is "fortunately, this is a multimedia project", everyone is looking forward to the opportunity to reunite with these characters, and their stories have a chance to continue.
In the past two years, the IP promotion activities of "Echoes of Fate" have not stopped, and the Twitter account has remained open, has regular live broadcast events, participated in many exhibitions, held offline theme concerts with the participation of voice actors, and launched a series of peripheral goods.
The official Twitter also continues to update the small comics of related characters
But for many animation viewers, Cosette is still the character they miss the most, and what they want to see most is still a more direct plot development.
Their wait eventually paid off.
The news that "Cosette version of Destiny" will return at the live broadcast awakened many people's original intention of paying attention to "Echo of Fate" for a long time, and the live barrage of "I have to play now" can be seen everywhere, everyone imagines what kind of scene Cosette will be like when he reunites with Renren and his sister Anna, who has become the new "destiny", hoping that the regrets that once remained in the story can be made up for this time.
There are also many "thank you official" messages in the comment area
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For Japanese gamers, "Echoes of Fate" is not only a serious continuation of animation for a long time, but also has another important business card - this is Prince Hirooi's second time as the original game after many years, setting the basic world view and plot outline of the work.
Prince Hirai is the screenwriter of the anime "Majin Heroes" and "Demon King", and his most well-known masterpiece is naturally the "Sakura Wars" series, which has set off a craze in Japan and the world. He has designed a plot mode such as "Chuangjie Mountain", and also created an idol performance form "Hua Strike Group" that spans games, animation and real stages, which can almost be said to be the guarantee of "innovation" and "aesthetics" of his works.
On the eve of the start of the game, Prince Hirai, who has not appeared for a long time, also participated in the live broadcast program before the game was launched
The setting of "Echoes of Fate" itself is also the theme of the combination of "music" and "battle" that Prince Hirooi excels at, not only anthropomorphizing classical music on the screen, but also giving these pieces a freshness with variations, strengthening the image by voice actors, and shaping the character through the story plot to make it a more three-dimensional character, which is also the advantage of the so-called "multimedia project".
These became the reasons why "Echoes of Fate" attracted attention in Japan, and the actual performance of the subsequent work did not disappoint the followers.
Even audiences who did not recognize the plot of the previous animation did not deny that "Echoes of Fate" was unique in terms of setting and atmosphere.
In addition to the influence of Prince Hiroki, these are also inseparable from the artist LAM, who is in charge of character design, and the musician tentacle monkey who participated in the music arrangement and performance of the work, both of whom are quite popular on Japanese social networks.
The tentacle monkey himself also joined the game as soon as it started
Coupled with the veteran singer Mika Nakajima who sings the theme song, in the eyes of Japanese players, "Echo of Fate" can undoubtedly be regarded as a "hexagonal warrior" in terms of large-scale productions and audio and video performance gathered by well-known creators and new and old artists.
In terms of detail design, "Echo of Fate" after the launch of the server also surprised many players.
For example, in the card drawing interface, players can play the previous piano first, which is both innovative and in line with the setting of the game, and many people use this to pray for the corresponding character they want to get.
For example, during the interactive game "Mta Cards", the delicate expression changes of the characters have become the favorite content of Japanese players to share on social networks.
In the scene mode, the characters will act like Q villains, but the expressions and movements are still cute and changeable, and some scenes are also called "god performances" by players.
At the same time, characters of different rarities are treated equally, with the same level of dynamic standing drawing, and complete side stories and dialogues, all of which allow players to push their favorite characters with more peace of mind.
The low-rarity player "The Nutcracker" has a standing interface that is no less than any other character
Aside from that, the most unique thing about Echoes of Fate is that it allows players to resonate with classical music.
The game has modern arrangements and performances of these classic classical music, which will be used as background music when the player draws the corresponding character card, and when hearing these familiar and unfamiliar songs, many players can't help but stop and click on the finger of "skip", listen to the reverie brought by these classic plays, and feel as if they have forged a fate before meeting the character in front of them.
There are many more similar comments
Prince Hiroi once expressed in an interview that he hoped that through this work, more people would listen to and like classical music as he did, and now it seems that he has indeed done so.
epilogue
In the past, cross-media projects common in Japan usually cut the plot connections between different works, mostly "each telling its own story", and rarely really allowed the unfinished plot on one carrier to continue in another.
It is also for this reason that "Echoes of Fate", which boldly tries to take this step and tries to become a "real cross-media project", has attracted a lot of attention, and many players at home and abroad flock to the Japanese server, just to witness the moment when Cosette and Renren meet again in the game for the first time.
Even if there have been controversies and contradictions, the emotional touch left by the plot content is ultimately the closest connection between the work and the audience.