Fate/Grand Order 5th Anniversary Celebrates ‘Under the Same Sky’

English-language Fate/Grand Order players are still busy farming their way through Romania, but their Japanese counterparts are likely looking forward to the Fate/Grand Order 5th Anniversary coming in July 2020. And the hype engine is getting revved up, with Aniplex is kicking off the bash through a lavish print ad campaign. With the theme of “Under the Same Sky,” the advertisements insert various Fate/Grand Order Servant characters into scenes and photos of real locations in Japan.

The ads and locations featured in each Fate/Grand Order 5th Anniversary ad differed depending on the location of the newspaper. They were also likely quite expensive; as early as 2012 buying even a single full-page color advertisement in The Yomiuri Shinbun (which ran the first ad) cost at least 56 million yen (about $525,000 USD). Eleven were published in newspapers across Japan, and another batch, with different art, will run on starting May 25, 2020.

For now, though, check out the first batch of the Fate/Grand Order 5th Anniversary ad campaign “Under the Same Sky” below. Preview images are available on the official 5th Anniversary promo site, and some information was helpfully summarized by HDKirin on social media.

Tokyo’s Yomiuri Shimbun features heroine Mash Kyrielight standing at Shibuya Sky, an elevated observation deck on the roof of the 46-story Shibuya Scramble Square building:

The Ibaraki Shimbun featured the Assassin-class Servant Katou Danzo at Kairaku-en, a famous garden park in Mito, Ibaraki prefecture’s capital:

The Joumou Shimbun featured Gunma Prefecture’s Oze National Park in its Fate/Grand Order 5th Anniversary ad, as well as the knightly Servant Bedivere (who will also appear in the upcoming Camelot films.

Though the theme is titled “Under the Same Sky,” Ereshkigal is the Mesopotamian Goddess of the Underworld, so it’s fitting that she hang out in Saitama’s Metropolitan Underground Discharge Channel. The channel, which is used to prevent floodwaters from overflowing, is an iconic piece of civil infrastructure, and spaces inspired by its concrete pillars have appeared in games like Mirror’s Edge and films like The Hunger Games.

Buddhist monk Xuanzang Sanzang appears in Tochigi prefecture not to sample its strawberries, but to stand alongside the Kegon waterfalls.

Altria Pendragon is about as classic a Fate character as they come, so going with a classic sight like Tokyo Tower suits her shoot in the Tokyo Shimbun:

Renaissance woman Leonardo Da Vinci takes a stroll outside Yokohama’s Red Brick Warehouse, a historical structure that currently houses a mall and various cultural centers.

Dragon-slayer Georgios is characterized in Fate/Grand Order as an avid photographer. That makes it appropriate to pair him with Nomizou Falls in Chiba prefecture, a site that’s gotten a lot of attention as an “Instagram-worthy” tourist spot.

Kingprotea, a Servant that’s currently not available in the English-version of the game, might be one of the only characters in the Fate universe able to enjoy the clouds near Nagano’s Mt. Yarigatake the way she can.

Pioneer Berserker Paul Bunyan towers above Mt. Fuji, but the camera’s set up near Lake Kawaguchi in Yamanashi prefecture, a spot famous for providing a “Reverse Mt. Fuji” by mirroring the famous peak on the water’s surface:

Lastly, famous artist and Foreigner-class Servant Katsushika Hokusai prepares to illustrate a thirty-seventh view of Mt. Fuji from its southern foot in Shizuoka prefecture:

Fate/Grand Order is available in Japan and globally on Apple iOS and Android devices.