Video Games and Anime that turn 30 this year

I’ve kind of already talked about the importance of 1996 to Video Games when I argued it’s the start of the Silver Age of Gaming.  

But to sum it up the original Pokémon Games in Japan, the Launch of the N64, Super Mario RPG, DKC3 and Kirby Superstar as a trio of swan songs for the SNES and in the world of Japanese Bishoujo Games the birth of the Visual Novel with Shizuka and Kizuato from Leaf alongside Welcome to Pia Carrot and Kakyusei and to end of the year Otaku Culture’s Princess of Mars turned John Carter in YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World. 

Remember that Commercial for Super Mario RPG about the Elderly man rambling about the plot of the game to his Grandchildren? I was 10 for most of 96 and I consider myself possibly on the younger end of people Nostalgic for this game.  So we’re now halfway to the point of that commercial becoming real.

For Anime that turns 30 this year, due to what my focus has been lately Detective Conan is what I’ve been hearing about and talking about the most. Netflix has the earliest important episodes streaming both Dubbed and Subbed, the two part pilot at the start of the Black Organization collection and then the first five episodes of the Rivals Collection.  But there are still many important 96 episodes not there like the Moonlite Sonotata Murder Case, Kogoro’s Class Reunion Murder Case, and the Mountain Bandaged Man Murder Case. They can all be watched on Crunchyroll, and they do have English Dubs for those who know where to look. Episode 42 or 43 of the international count was the last to air in 96. 

It looks like that’s the only TV Anime to start in Winter 1996 I’ve even partially watched. Looking at what shows have their second or last cour during Winter of 96 could cement an argument for viewing Spring 95 as the start of the year that begins the Bronze Age of Anime. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gundam Wing and Wedding Peach. 

For Sailor Moon this year ends SuperS in March and then airs most of SailorStars. 

For OVAs we have Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team, the Sonic The Hedgehog OVAs which became localized as Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie, Fire Emblem which I don’t remember the details of right now, it stars Marth and I think is the first time he was voiced by who still his voices him in Smash, but that’s the Japanese VA in the English Dub he’s Spike Spencer.

I like Inma Youjo enough to break my usual resistance to mentioning Hentai in these kinds of posts.  Its second and 3rd episodes came out in 96 and the 2nd in January is possibly the one I like most,  I have a sneaking suspicion Maya’s character design from the first two episodes influenced Utena. 

In Spring we got Escaflowne, Kodocha and Slayers Next and the first Shamanic Princess OVA on a date that’s technically Summer already, the birthday of John The Baptist, I can’t find dates for its other episodes.  That exact same day is also the release date of the 2nd of the Magical Girl Pretty Sammy OVAs which is the wildest one with its early Internet plot.

For movies we have Tenchi Muyo In Love which was good and Lupin III Dead or Alive which is probably fun but I don’t remember it all that well as other lupin movies I’ve seen, Lupin’s TV Movies were better during the 90s, which we see in August with Lupin III: The Legend of The Twilight Gemini which I consider a personal favorite. The film version of Clamp’s X/1999 came out this year, but I’ve only seen the TV Anime version. 

Summer’s OVAs include the Maze OVA which is another fun hidden Gem of 90s Isekai.  But I’ve seen no TV Anime that started in Summer of 96, just continuations of prior shows. 

Fall had the Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy TV Anime once localized as Magical Project S which I do highly recommend. Another anime from Fall that’s notable but I haven’t seen yet is Martian Successor Nadesico. Those who Hunt Elves also aired out this season. 

In the OVA department the year ends with Galaxy Fraulein Yuna and Wedding Peach DX and 08th MS Team reaching its halfway point.

For Western Weebs, this year is I’m pretty sure when Sailor Moon first aired in America after the DiC Dub initially broadcast in Canada in late 95. I’m pretty sure catching broadcasts of Sailor Moon in 96 was my very first exposure to any Japanese Animation. 

Shirou Emiya is characterized just fine in the UFO Table Anime

Before I talk about anything else, I realize the main thing that vindicates the narrative that the Anime adaptations have butchered Shirou’s character are all the Anime only people who hate the character and make fun of him. 

You are giving those haters too much credit by charitably assuming they’d like or even get Shirou more if they read the VN.  The Anime community simply is filled with people who are going to hate that kind of character no matter what, they think the standard Anime Protagonist is boring and dumb, they are the Anime community counterpart to thinking Superman is unrelatable.  No amount of Fantranslated Inner Monologue Naus Prose is going to change their minds.

But I’m not gonna say there are zero people for whom this would make a difference, because I already know that this minority of people are over-represented among the kinds of people who make Fate youtube videos, they keep saying they didn’t like Shirou in the Anime but got him when they played the VN. And that makes sense, that is exactly the kind of experience with Fate that would most motivate one to want to dedicate their lives to trying to advocate for the VN to Anime Onlies. 

But I’m pretty sure those people never hated Shirou as much as the people I was mainly referring to before. 

There is an impression to many that even the majority of people who like the UBW Anime as Anime onlies hate Shirou, but I feel this is just another product of the actual majority opinion among casual Anime watchers having no representation in online discourse. Clearly lots of people unironically enjoy Solo Leveling and Rent-A-Girlfriend, but they aren’t interested in trying to push back against the hate those shows receive on YT and Twitter and Bsky.  

I watched the UFO Table TV Anime version of Unlimited Blade Works first of any Fate/Stay Night adaptation as well of any UFO Table Anime, I had no spoilers. But everything these VN fans keep saying the Anime failed to convey about Shirou’s character I got just fine.  I always liked the character.

I recently saw someone on Reddit say, and I’m paraphrasing, “Anime onlies think Shriou has some Batman level no kill rule which is clearly not in the VN” and I”m like, the Anime clearly showed Shirou being mad when Archer didn’t kill Caster.  Anyone who thinks Shirou is deadset against killing bad guys simply wasn’t engaging properly with the Anime.

The main thing however is Shirou’s survivor’s guilt, everyone insists this is something completely absent from the Anime versions of the character. To me this was an incredibly obvious aspect of his character in the Anime, it’s the last thing I even think of as even remotely benefiting from further elaboration. 

However, what I’ve noticed time and time again is that people who critique something only as an adaptation and not as a stand alone piece of art within its own medium/artform. Is that they will repeatedly confuse not conveying something in the exact same way as the source material with not conveying it at all. They aren't even considering the ways this new medium has to convey information that the source material didn’t.

The main reason I consume mediums like Anime over mediums like Manga, LNs, and most VNs and even more so generally prefer Dubs to Subs, is because I appreciate Acting as a skill and a talent and an art. VNs sometimes have voice acting but I’m pretty sure Fate didn’t originally and has still never had an English Voice Over track. It’s not impossible for me to get immersed in a performance done in a language I don't understand, but it is more difficult and with my ADD I prefer not to have to try. 

The difference between Voice Acting in a standard VN and Voice Acting in an Anime is that in an Anime the non vocal parts of an acting performance as provided by the animating of the character the voice is being projected onto. So what Anime specifically can add to Fate/Stay Night in place of all the lost Prose is not just flashy Sakuga heavy fight scenes but actual Acting. It’s because of that acting that this artform can convey with how one line is delivered as much meaning as a page of prose.

So to me to claim that Shriou’s Survivor’s Guilt is flat out not in the UBW Anime is to disrespect and insult all the work done by those artists and animators and by Bryce Papenbroke, and I’m going to optimistically assume Sugiyama Noriaki did a good job as well. 

I don’t make these videos defending Anime Adaptations of Visual Novels because I don’t respect what Visual Novels are uniquely capable of as an artform.  But because of things like my ADD they are an artform I simply can’t engage in and appreciate as intended. But I do have endless respect and appreciate how they’re responsible for such Anime I love. 

Decade Anniversary of 2016 Anime

2016 happens to be an important year in my personal history with Anime. Even though I’d had some interest in some Anime for 20 years previously, and at the end of the year still had only seen a fraction of the Anime I’ve seen now (maybe even specially a minority of what had existed up that point), it was during this year I feel I truly became an Otaku, became someone whose interest in Anime and related media took priority over all the older Nerdy interests I do still have. 

For Winter 2016. 

Grimgar of Ashes and Illusions is an Anime I didn’t finish but it’s notable to some as what a lost potential of what Isekai could have become if it’d been Darker or more Realistic and or just generally taken itself more seriously. 

Knosuba is the opposite yet also a show I never finished even the first season of as the ultimate Isekai parody.  This season also had the second cour of Gate which I’ve talked about before.

Erased is a show I’ve watched twice and I like it, yes even its ending. 

And it had the last season of Durarara! Which was excellent. And also the last cour of Lupin III Part IV which was also good. 

Aokana is a show I’ve seen and consider pretty okay. Also the last part of Code Geass: Akito of the Exiled and the Selector Destructed Wixoss movie. 

Spring 2016 had Re:Zero, Netoge, season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal, High School Fleet, Flying Witch and the second part of Concrete Revolutio an Anime I only very recently became a fan of. That's six very solid shows right there. It also had the 20th Detective Conan film Darkest Nightmare which was good and the movie version of Gundam Thunderbolt December Sky which was very good. And the third Gundam The Origin OVA, the fourth would come out in December. 

Summer 2016 had the second half of Re:Zero season 1 but also the first half of Tales of Zestria which is a great example of how the Fantasy Anime adapted from specific Video Games often feel the least Gamey. 

New Game! was great, Prisma Illya 3wei is as well. 

The separate Anime listed on the database Websites as different Danganronpa 3s should not be watched separately but in the episode order they are placed in on Crunchyroll.  In that form they are The Godfather Part II of Anime and in my opinion even better, a true masterpiece.

For movies Summer 2016 has two of the biggest of all, Your Name and A Silent Voice, both of which are great movies. It also has the Accel World movie which I enjoyed and Pokémon: Volcanion and The Mechanical Marvel which was okay. 

For Pokémon this year was the end of the X and Y Generation which I really like, probably the last Generation of Pokémon I really got into. That also means it’s the start of Sun and Moon which I’ve always found the art style off putting.  But the Pokémon Generations ONAs were pretty good. 

Fall 2016 is a fascinating season, one of it’s biggest I’ve still never watched but conceptually do respect and want to give props to, Yuri On Ice. Another show from that season I know of but haven’t seen is Keijo. Of the six shows from this season I have watched to completion, all are shows I like.  I also recall that the second season of Sound Euphonium aired this season.

What’s special about this season is it’s my first time really following Seasonal Anime as they aired. Earlier in the year I had heard of both Re;Zero and Konosuba and maybe also Erased but didn’t follow them. I had watched Crystal season 3 on Hulu (which was Free with Ads back then) as it aired where I was also following the finishing of SailorStars being uploaded there, but I’ve always compartmentalized Sailor Moon from general seasonal Anime. 

Those six Fall 2016 shows are Izetta The Last Witch, Flip Flappers, ViVid Strike!, Lostorage Incited Wixoss, Occultic;Nine and Magical Girl Raising Project which is the only one I’ll qualify, as a defender of so called “Dark Magical Girl shows’ in general this isn’t one of the best of them but I like some of what it does.  The first two of those are the ones I actively followed at the time.

When talking about 2017's importance I have sometimes mistakenly referred to that Winter as my first time following seasonal Anime.  This is because of  three things.  I didn't watch much of Fall 2016 at the time.  I kinda just happened to be following these currently airing show not registering that this was an Anime Fan practice I was doing for the first time. And 2017 was my first full Gregorian calendar year following Seasonal Anime. 

This year was the 20th Anniversary of Detective Conan’s Anime just as current year is the show’s 30th. Which is why this year had the Episode One OVA which was an okay way to get the gist of how it started with more modern Animation, but I’d more recommend just watching the early episodes which are currently on Netflix.  

For the show proper 2016 began with two 1 hour TV Original special episodes (804-805) written by the same guy who wrote movie 11 and was pretty fun. The Darkness of the Prefectural Police (810-812) was a fun episode that introduced a new character important to the Rum saga. The Shadow Chasing Amuro (813) was a tie in episode to the movie I mentioned before. The Actress Blogger’s locked room (814-815) is the next appearance of that new character. The suspects are a Passionate Couple (822-823) is a fun episode, one of the rare modern DC episodes I’ve watched 3 times already. Ramen so Good it’s to Die For 2 (827-828) is another fun episode, it has Sera in it. The Unfriendly Girls Band (836-837) is another fun episode I’ve seen 3 times, it’s a K-On reference and builds on some important lore and has one of the most memorable ED which I suspect Yuki Yuna is A Hero fans will get a kick out of.  If I’ve seen more from 2016 I don’t remember for certain, but those are already more interesting episodes then I was expecting a single year from the Rum era to have when I started writing this. 

And the year ended with the Fate/Grand Order: First Order OVA which was fun. 

Going back to an observation I made at the start, even most Anime from 2016 I hadn’t seen at the time.  Most stuff from the first three seasons I didn’t even know of at the time, for the movies and some shows their Dubs didn’t exist yet, and even for that last season there’s still some I didn't watch till later. 

I got into to Anime during this year watching stuff that wasn't new at the time, or at least wasn't brand new, like Yuru Yuri, Lucky Star, Haruhi, Future Diary, Selector Infected Wixoss and Selector Spread Wixoss, Fate/Zero and Stay Night, and then Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and it’s sequel A’s on Thanksgiving, and possibly some more that I’ve forgotten exactly when I first watched them. And also revisiting some of the Anime I’d already been a fan of (including being the year I watched my favorite Anime Noir Subbed for the first and still only time). I didn’t realize at the time how for some of those Anime this year was their 10th anniversary and are thus turning 20 now. 

So perhaps it’s a little silly to celebrate the Anime that actually aired this year alongside it being the anniversary of my becoming an Otaku. But every time I find out something I watched more recently is from 2016 my brain goes “that makes sense” it’s like this was meant to be the year that got me to go full Weeb. 

There is none Anime stuff from 2016 I like in a similar way. I’m still a Suicide Squad apologist with mixed feelings on both BvS and Rouge One and all the American TV shows I was watching at that time. I may have even still been reading BlackCoatPress books. But Anime became my priority and it’s stuck. 

Sub Eras of The Isekai Era

I feel like I have a unique perspective on understanding this timeline of events. 

First I’m aware there is a long history of Anime that can be described as Isekai before this era.  This is about the distinctly modern trend of Isekai as we currently know it being one of the most prolific and defining genres of the current state of Anime. 

Winter 2013 through Spring 2017 is a time when there is already a visible increase in Anime that can be described as Isekai, as well as non-Isekai Fantasy Anime becoming increasingly more beholden to JRPG Gamer logic. 

But from what I recall the English speaking fandom wasn’t using the word “Isekai” all that often yet, all the AniTube videos talking about shows we now call Isekai that I’ve seen did not use the word, it wasn’t in videos on relevant shows from TrixieTheGoldenWitch, Mother's Basement or Gigguk.

This was also an era when there not only were still Fantasy Anime without this Gamer Vibe but they weren't inherently less common either. Spring 2017 has two highly underrated Fantasy shows I would not even remotely classify as even Quasi-Isekai, Grimoire of Zero and WoldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?. It’s not that those kinds of Anime ever stopped, some like them still get made, but I do think this was the last time we got two in one season.

And almost every proper Isekai from this era is among those that most who’ve seen them consider among the good ones, whether it’s the highly popular instant classics like, Log Horizon, No Game No Life, Overlord, Konosuba, Re:Zero, and Tanya The Evil, or very distinct hidden Gems like Problem Children, Outbreak Company and Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions.  The most disliked Isekai from this era is Gate, which was so not for being seen as “generic” but for its politics, and even then Gate was still a very popular show. 

Summer 2017 was the beginning of the Isekai era in full force, In Another World With My Smartphone is the first Anime to truly have all of the vibes of a "generic Isekai” which I say as someone who unconditionally loves it. And it was while it and Restaurant to Another World and Knights and Magic were airing that I recall the English Speaking fandom first really started using the word Isekai. And that is when the state of discourse about Isekai entered the form we now know it.  

And I find it fascinating how quickly during that season the narrative became that Isekai is an overused premise people are sick of even though earlier the same year no one was complaining about it. 

I started writing this thinking Fall 2017 was the last season without an Isekai, nor did it have anything I’d call a Quasi-Isekai.  So for that reason you could argue this was still a transitional period and Deathmarch to a Parallel World Rhapsody in Winter 2018 was the start of the full non-stop Isekai bombardment. But the early part of an era can have some stumble in getting off the ground so I was still willing to start this era in Summer 2017 regardless of that.  

However I’d forgotten about Ancient Magus Bride, that show is an Isekai but is like the pre 2017 shows in how pretty highly regarded it is, though I still haven’t watched it. It’s also a Shounen Manga adaptation rather than starting as a Light Novel, so it does still feel like part of the modern Isekai discussion purely by technicality.  There was also Recovery of an MMO Junkie which is part of the undeniably connected yet distinct trend of Anime about playing an MMORPG.

And then double checking myself saw that there wasn’t an Isekai in Spring 2018, at least not among what I watched, just the somewhat JRPG like Fantasy show Last Period. 

Either way Summer 2017 was still the turning point in my opinion.

And I’d say this era continued into the start of the Pandemic.

About 2021 is when the discourse mutated into a state where some were hoping the trend must be finally almost over while others entered resigned acceptance that this being a consistent part of each season is here to stay.  It’s also in this era that Isekai’s own Sub Genres started being defined in common use even if some of the roots of them were already there. 

Ancient World Fantasy

The most common default setting for a secondary world Fantasy is a Medieval Europe inspired setting, some Fantasy Anime might have a Medieval East Asia aesthetic. 

But settings besides the Middle Ages do exist. We have Space Fantasy or Futuristic Fantasy, the kinds of Fantasy that get confused for Sci-Fi. We have Gaslamp Fantasy which is the Fantasy counterpart to SteamPunk. And Urban Fantasy refers to stories set kind of in the modern world.  And of course the settings inspired by the Ancient World also exist. 

But what I wanna talk about here is how Ancient World Fantasy so often defaults to the Bronze Age, at least in the Vibe they give off, they might be using Iron weapons but the Vibe is Bronze Age. From old Italian Sword and Sandal films, to the 90s Sam Raimi Hercules and Xena shows, the obscure 1991 OVA Majuu Senshi Luna Varga, the 2018 Isekai Anime The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar. And then the Fate/Grand Order Babylonia Anime also fits into this lineage. 

The Bronze Age is the largest age of Antiquity, it is about Two Thousand years from over 3300 to 1184 BC, Biblically that’s The Tower of Babel (or you could argue Tubal-Cain in Genesis 4) down to the end of Judges. The thing is the sub ages that can obviously be divided into are not all that distinguished by these kinds of Fantasy Stories. Those Sword and Sandal films will mix and match the Heroic Age of Greek Mythology with Sumeria and Egypt’’s Old Kingdom will look the same as the New Kingdom. 

Exceptions exist, I own some of them, but none of those have made huge impacts on Pop Culture.  At most we could have Classical Antiquity references being meshed into an otherwise Bronze Age aesthetic like 300 or all the Rome stuff in Xena, Xena’s timeline will not ever make real world sense and that’s what’s fun about it. 

One of the key early Trope Codifiers of Ancient Secondary World Fantasy was Conan The Barbarian and other works of Robert E Howard.  Howard was to Ancient World Fantasy what Tolkien is to medieval Europe Fantasy. And that includes how both were not strictly secondary worlds originally, they both technically set their stories in a prehistoric distant past of this world.  But they make a transition into modern Secondary World Fantasy because of how the detailed world building made their world seem distinct in ways prior stories doing technically the same thing more vaguely like William Morris stories could not. 

Fantasy Stories were originally drawing inspiration from the less well documented periods of human history (that’s what the term “Dark Age” originally meant, a period we don’t know much about), and the Bronze age was once even less well documented then it is now. Only once the transition to full Secondary Worlds was complete did writers of Medieval Fantasy realize they could start moving upward into the High Middle Ages and Renaissance for inspiration. But why didn’t Ancient World fantasy do the same?  

Each type of Fantasy Setting began with writers who were to some extent romanticizing the period they are drawing inspiration from, the Fantasy stories with more cynical takes on those time periods came later in response to the stories that first popularized it. 

And in the modern world the kinds of people who romanticize Classical Antiquity do so in a way that is functionally mutually exclusive with telling stories where real Supernatural stuff happens. Classic Antiquity is romanticized by principally New Atheists/Reddit Atheists who pretend the values of rationalism and empiricism were more popular in ancient Greece and Rome then they actually were, that it was a Golden Age of Science and Reason destroyed by the rise of Abrahamic Religion.

Now you may think “Christianity was born during Classical Antiquity so wouldn't Christians romanticize it?” but you'd be wrong. The world view of modern Right Wing especially High Church Christians is that Christianity was born into a broken world that needed fixing and the Medieval World was the product of Christianity fixing it.   Liberal Christians (especially Low Church Protestants) believe Christianity was born into a broken world and modern Liberal Democracy is the result of Christianity eventually slowly fixing it.  And a Leftist Christian believes Christianity was born into a Broken world and still hasn’t fixed it yet.  The point is that the context of The Gospel demands that Jesus wasn’t born into the best period of time to be alive Civilizationally speaking. The option I’ve been more willing to consider then most Christians is that there was value in the Hellenistic Civilization that was lost when it fell to the Romans, and the fall of the Hasmonean Kingdom was certainly lamentable, after all Jesus observed Hanukkah in John 10. Ultimately though I am a Leftist with Liberal characteristics.

Atheists however, not all Atheist but the really devout ones who build their personality on being Atheists, have a world view built on inverting the Catholic view and appropriating the Puritan view.

And The Bronze Age is more popular than the Iron Age because it has the quality of being what was Ancient History already to the people of Classical Antiquity.

But another factor is the Western Bias, every time I said Classical Antiquity both you and I were first and foremost thinking of the Greeks and Romans more than the Persians or Carthaginians or Parthians or Late Period Egypt or Kushites or East Asia or Mesoamerica and certainly not the “Barbarians” of Western and Northern Europe.  And when we do we kind of think of them as being aesthetically still in the Bronze Age. 

The plot twist I've been building to is that perhaps a different style of Ancient World Fantasy has been hiding in plain sight this whole time.  That Tolkien’s legendarium was actually more Ancient than Medieval all along but pop culture perception has just run with faulty assumptions. 

When early Rings of Power images started coming out I saw one person on Twitter not at all inclined to say nice things about Rings of Power say that at least its costume design is more inline with Tolkien’s actual intent then the Peter Jackson films. Peter Jackson’s costume design went all in the High Middle Ages when the Third Age of Middle Earth really was Early Middle Ages at the latest. Literally the Norman Conquest is when Tolkien felt everything went wrong.  Eomer shares a name with a 5th century king of the Angles for a reason, the Rohirrim and Rhovanion are meant to be ancestors of the pre-migration Anglo-Saxons. 

Even if the Third Age is Medieval, it’s not just Western Europe, Gondor is kind of Byzantium, the rump in South Eastern Europe of the fallen Empire of the West.

The First and Second Ages however are definitely Ancient, they are basically imagining that the Celts had a “Civilization” before the Greeks and Romans. And in so doing it results in Numenor feeling very Roman and Eregion feeling a little Athenian, and I would even call Mordor kind of Sparta how Anti-Spartan Athenians saw them. The Fall of Golodin was partly based on Troy as many have written about before. 

And capturing all of that is part of why I love Rings of Power, especially season 2. 

Biblical Israelite Fate/ Servants

There is in my view only one real Biblical Israelite Servant in Canonical Fate/ material still, that being David.

Solomon and Martha are nominally Biblical Characters but everything about who they are in Fate/ lore is defined by Extra Biblical traditions about them.  

There is nothing in The Bible to support Solomon being any kind of Mage nor does he perform any miracles. The only Biblical basis for Solomon potentially being a Caster would be the same logic by which Shakesphere and Alexandre Dumas are Casters, apparently just being a sufficiently influential writer can make you a type of Caster and Solomon is the traditional author of some of The Bible, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and two of the Psalms. Yet even that is far from what he's mainly known for.

And Martha in Fate/ is even more divorced from who she is Biblically, she’s basically a French Hero given the role she plays in FGO. I have to admit what defined her character in her Gospel appearances is being a House Wife, hard to see how taming an Ankylosaurus/Euoplocephalus naturally extends from that. But also since she’s New Testament she’s someone Jewish players of the game would feel hesitant to say represents them.

So the thought has entered my head of what if we made an effort to give the Ancient Israelites a true Servant for each Class like so many other cultures have? 

The Archer Class is the one already filled, and Archer is the correct classification for David. A slingshot being the same class of weapon as a Bow and Arrow has been burned into my thinking since Ocarina of Time. 

I would have Joshua be the Lancer.  Joshua 8:18-26 tells us he had a Spear, and one popular Christian Card Game has a Joshua’s Spear card so people besides me have considered it notable. His Noble Phantasm could be called Wall Breaker.

For the Saber I am going to stretch the definition of Biblical a bit and say Judas Maccabeus.  The books of Maccabees are considered Canonical by only some Christians and no Jews, but all Jews celebrate Hanukkah so his accomplishments are revered in Judaism more than in Christianity.  1 Maccabees 3:12 refers to Judas taking the Sword of Apollonius and fighting with it for the rest of his life. And 2 Maccabees 15:15-16 refers to Maccabeus being given a Golden Sword.  

Also Judas Maccabeus is the person mentioned in this post I’d be most fine with Fate/ doing their typical Gender Bend thing with. Because I have my own theory about this Judas already being made a Judith as the title of another Deutercanonical book based on his relationship with Nicanor/Holofernes. 

Since the Berserker Class is associated with being more brawn then brains the natural choice for that one is Samson the main character of Judges 13-16. 

For the Assassin Class my first instinct was Jael from Judges 4:17-22 and 5:24.  But she’s called a Kenite meaning she might not actually count as an Israelite???  She’s clearly considered part of the Israelite tradition by most readers so she’ll work fine.

The Caster class could be given to any of the Prophets, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, the title characters of the Prophetic books. Moses is the most important obviously. 

The Rider Class is actually the most difficult. The Ancient Israelites were not known for their Calvary, that’s part of the reason they conquered the mountainous regions first while the Canaanites held out longest in the plains according to Judges 1:19, it was the Canaanites who had Horses and Chariots. It was during the Kingdom period that changed, both Solomon and Rehoboam had Chariots but that isn’t central to what they are known for. 

There is a famous Chariot linked to Elijah, but he’d be a caster first and since he never died I would argue maybe shouldn’t be in the Throne of Heroes. Jehu rides a Chariot in 2 Kings 9:16. 

That’s the seven main classes, but there are also the non standard ones to think about. 

For the Ruler Class I’d easily pick Deborah of Judges 4-5 since the initial precedent for what kind of person would be a ruler is Jeanne d’Arc.

Shielder seems to be the least well defined class besides what you can guess from the name. I’m kinda thinking of Nehemiah, who rebuilt the Walls of Jerusalem. 

Avenger feels like the most controversial class to apply to anyone. I could see the Character Arc needed to become an Avenger fitting chiefly Saul but perhaps also Jeroboam. Saul definitely feels more over all important. 

Years should begin and end around the Spring Equinox rather than the Winter Solstice.

This is as many know The Biblical Reckoning, the year begins with the month Aviv later named Nissan and ends with Adar. All the traditions about alternate New Years including the popular Tishrei New Year are Extra-Biblical, the only Biblically ordained reckoning for the year is the one that starts with Aviv. 

Weebs also eventually learns that while Japan nominally uses the Gregorian Calendar a lot about how they do things is clearly built around years that begin with April and end with March. Including their School Year. 

As a former fan of Wrestling I miss the days when the WWE’s calendar truly revolved around WrestleMania, that event in late March or early April was a culmination of many months of build up and then the Raw the day after felt like a new beginning. 

I feel like everyone intuitively, subconsciously, knows this way of thinking about years is what actually makes the most sense. 

Spring feels like a time of birth, of beginnings, or fertility. 

While Winter is poetically a time of Death, it clearly feels like the night time of the year.  Only the start of Winter is ever a time we feel like celebrating, after that it’s three months of waiting for Spring to arrive. 

For the last few years I’ve been buying Calendars built around screen shots from classic Video Games to use.  And I keep noticing that the ability to make the Levels associated with each month match the vibe of that month is hindered by the natural impulse to start with World 1-1. 

Video Games usually open with Levels that feel like the embodiment of Spring, Grass Land, Green Hill Zone, Green Greens.  Even when they aren’t named something like that just look at them, Bob-Omb’s Battlefield is a very Greek stage. 

Meanwhile Ice worlds are usually saved till late game, yes technically mainly because they are so difficult.  But it winds up creating a theme. 

This observation about Video Game design won’t pan out when applied to everything, clearly they aren’t usually consciously thinking of building the game around going through a Biblical Year.  And not all popular Level themes are as easy to pin to a time of year. I could say Desert Levels are summer because deserts are hot but also winter because they’re barren. 

The point however is that it feels natural to begin in a setting that looks like Spring.