Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Fable’ on Hulu, A Bloody, Sneaky Funny Anime Adaptation Of A Popular Manga Title

They call him The Fable. And if he ends up killing you, it’s almost like an honor. That’s how we’re introduced to the titular contract killer of this violent, quirky anime adaptation of writer and illustrator Katsuhisa Minami’s popular manga series, source material so popular, it has also spawned two live-action films. So, the Fable is very, very good at his job. But what does a master assassin do when his boss puts his deadly skill set on pause? The Fable, directed for television by Ryōsuke Takahashi, stars the voices of Kazuyuki Okitsu, Miyuki Sawashiro, Tetsuo Komura, Jun Fukushima, Akio Otsuka, Kōji Ishii.     

THE FABLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “In baseball, soccer, martial arts, combat sports, mathematics, science, art, music, entertainment, and all categories of every field, there are geniuses. And of course, they exist in the underworld, too.” The Fable (Okitsu) isn’t modest in his voiceover. But then he proves his point by masterfully dispatching a group of criminal thugs. 

The Gist: Quickly dropping eight flights by catching each balcony’s exterior lip on the way down, Fable is there to meet a fleeing chief goon when his elevator door opens. Bang! Boom! Blammo! And the guy actually seems psyched to be getting violently snuffed out by a legend like Fable. “You people made that name up for me. I’m just a professional killer.” And thirty seconds later, with the latest job complete, he’s sitting in the limousine driven by his assistant, Yoko (Sawashiro).

With its voiceover and moody visuals, the introductory sequence of The Fable quickly establishes a noir feel to go along with the swanky vibes of its theme song “Professionalism,” by ALI featuring Hannya. But there’s also a streak of oddball humor running through its center. Fable is the biggest fan of TV comedian Jackal Tomioka (Fukushima), whose wacky antics double him over with laughter in the limo’s backseat. (Yoko, like most people, does not get Jackal’s jokes.) When they arrive at headquarters, Boss (Komura) does not seem surprised at Yoko’s report. Jackal? Again? Of course. For all of his deadly reputation, Fable is a man of simple tastes.

Maybe that kind of wiring is what inspired the Boss’s decision. “You’ve been doing this six years,” he tells his best operator. “Do you know how many you’ve killed?” In the world they inhabit, there’s plenty of wet work to go around. But Fable is overexposed. The Boss hands him a bulging duffel bag full of past wages, and orders his top team to lie low for a year. They’ll head for Osaka, where Fable will live quietly under the false identity Akira Sato, joined by Yoko as his sister. The boss has a parting warning: no killing. And if they disobey, they’ll be the ones getting killed. But as Akira, Fable is immediately aware of two things. Raised as a killer, he doesn’t really know anything about being a normal person. And in Osaka, where yakuza heavies Hamada (Ishii) and Ebihara (Otsuka) have been tasked with looking after Akira and Yoko, there are many temptations and opportunities to hit restart on his abilities. Skill set? More like kill set.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Akira and Sato’s interactions with their Boss – and his warnings that they’ll die if they fuck up – feel a lot like the vibe of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the stylish, action-packed, and very funny series from Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover that Prime Video really, really needs to renew. And this anime version of The Fable follows a live action film version of The Fable and its sequel, The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill, both of which stream on Netflix.  

Our Take: The 2023 Taiwanese action film The Pig, the Snake & the Pigeon had a black, black heart to go along with its central premise – when an infamous hitman discovers he’s only third on the country’s list of most wanted criminals, he sets about eliminating those ahead of him on the leaderboard. It’s kind of like that with The Fable, which takes a wry view of the executive decisions and business dealings that make the underworld go around. Akira Sato, The Fable, has been trained from birth to be invincible. So is that training worthless when the mission is to just be personable? Or will Akira and Yoko find new ways to apply the techniques of the contract killing world to say, a straight job in some office somewhere? 

We wouldn’t be as interested in discovering the answer to that question if The Fable immediately stranded its formidable title character in a charade of everyday life, but it works the pressure points, instead. Like early on when a gang of car thieves mistake Akira for a weak and powerless bystander. (He’s definitely a bystander. He’s definitely not weak and powerless.) But the edict from his boss – lay low, and no killing – also puts exterior pressure on Akira. Other assassins of the underworld, plus yakuza seeking glory  – it’s these kinds of people who will be tempted to provoke Akira, or even to try and take him out, all for a chance at increased status. In other words, it’s going to be fun watching Akira try to be normal. But it’ll be even more fun to see him get back into trouble.    

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode of The Fable, though there is a certain life happens at night, neon-lit mood to the whole thing, which would certainly allow space for after midnight shenanigans.

Parting Shot: The yakuza gangsters who agreed to monitor Akira while he lies low in Osaka differ on how best to do that. Isn’t a feared professional killer living in their midst a threat? Maybe, but for now, he will hide in plain sight. “Let him swim free…”

Sleeper Star: Miyuki Sawashiro is really funny in The Fable as Yoko, who is both a check on Akira’s professional impulses and the chief critic of his many personal eccentricities. 

Most Pilot-y Line: “If you learn to adapt, you’ll become an even better pro,” the Boss tells Akira before the contract killer heads to Osaka for his forced seclusion. “It’s important to be able to adapt to any environment and situation. Turn into a totally ordinary person.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. There are violent people gunning for other violent people all over the place amid the noirish shadows of The Fable. But there’s sly humor here, too, and a fun challenge at its core: can a professional killer really disguise himself as a regular, non-killer person? And if so, for how long?

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.