Fate/stay night - Reviews

I had the pleasure of starting with fate/zero,one of the greatest anime series ever,it had a such great feeling from watching it,then i see this ...i know that this is the original,but i've had such a bittersweet sense to it,i couldn't stand it ,i hated it,i wanted it to just be over.

The anime itself it's good,but it's not living to my expectations after watching fate/zero,i have been warned that this would BE NOT fate/zero or anything close to it.

I still can't accept it,this anime it's just awfull in some points but it has SMALL AND RARE good points,excelent in fact.

And i know that the studio that made this didn't have enough budget for it to be fate/zero-like.

I know all this,but still i can't accept it.The story...it's just awfull,the only good thing about it is that it's in the FATE universe.

While watching this series I often found myself hoping it would end soon. I really had to push myself to actually finish it. I've seen a few episodes of Fate/Zero and really liked it, but I could not get into this show. Some of my friends told me to just skip it and watch UBW but I am a completionist so I felt like I had to watch this first. My main issue is the protagonist, Emiya Shirou. I found him annoying and unlikable. He makes the same idiotic mistakes over and over, forcing others to face the repercussions. I hope that UBW is more enjoyable. 

For the most part the animation was fine. It was made in 2006 so I think it's pretty good for that time. There was nothing particularly notable about the VAs or the soundtrack. The OPs and EDs were decent. 

I shall not be making a particularly formal review, though I would like to address specific key points from the series.

On the Story: As a person who watched the prequel, Fate/Zero, before this series, I will do my best to keep my opitions unbiased to the best of my ability. The plot of Fate/Stay Night is slow, confusing, and very disjointed. An important character is met once early on in the series, then does not appear again nor is even mentioned until the very last few episodes. The plot is very sexist, as the main character Shiro, as well as many other male characters, refers to women as needing protection or telling them off when they "do things girls shouldn't do", like fight battles, or act certain ways.

Animation: The animation generally is medium quality, my largest complaint being the characters emotionless and static expressions for the duration of the series. It takes away from important plot points and references to important events (and especially harms foreshadowing) when the characters express little to no emotion. During fight scenes, however, the animation greatly picks up, has fast pacing, and looks much more high quality.

Sound: I personally found the opening and endings of each season to be slightly off, paired with this anime. The music in the opening promised a world where there would be fights, but also mystery and intrigue. Then the title screens played haunting melodies...which continued into the overlay of many scenes and felt awkward. Hearing the same haunting melody of a music box during an expositional scene was distracting, and quickly became dull. The sudden changes to the humorous school life at Shiro's breakfast table and his school days was a sudden jolt in the wrong direction, in a series about a bloody war of mages.

Characters: As I mentioned briefly in my review of the story's plot, the male characters are rather sexist towards the female characters, the most serious offender being the male lead himself. As the series progresses, he amasses an obvious harem of women around him, each fufilling a single, static female role: a young child, the tsundere aggressor, the shy passive girl, the hyperactive girl, the sports girl, the emotionless girl, the sadist, the dependant, among others. Each is dependent on a male to be the stronger and allows him to dictate most of her actions, going so far as to sacrifice themselves for that man in several occasions. The only girl I saw who distinctly stood up to a male counterpart was quickly removed from the plot by said male's evil schemes, and was barely mentioned again. Her strong female role was quickly usurped by a surplus of weak female ones, all stereotypical caricatures of school life anime girls.

The men are just as guilty as the women in this case, as nearly all of the men are either one dimensional, extremely shallow, or emotionless. Notable examples include Caster's emotionless master who seems to have no true purpose, Rider's master who had no bite to match his bark, and especially Shiro. The main character, when not in "normal life" scenes, acts foolishly, has little meaning to many of his actions which he later gives little or poor explaination for (such as attempting to protect Saber so many times), is very unexpressive in his emotions (most of the time he is frowning and grunting, then suddenly acts without reason, and is generally very inept at being a developed, interesting character in the least. Many times his adopted father, Kiritsugu, is mentioned, but never is his family before the fire. He allows himself to be used by people around him, sets a blind goal without prospects of properly succeeding (and does not succeed, he instead has to alter his 'steadfast' plans many times), and does not listen to those with greater experience than he. Simply put, Shiro is a stock hero who doesn't even have any heroic qualities, aside from self-sacrifice (which doesn't work well anyway since he goes down so quickly).

Of the few good examples of characters, I will note Kojiro and Gilgamesh as interesting and dynamic characters. Each drew my interest and was exceptional in grabbing my attentions as to why they sought their goals. I will admit my bias towards Gilgamesh here, as I greatly enjoyed his character's outstanding arrogance from Fate/Zero, and I wished to see how that would translate into Fate/Stay Night. Kojiro had a meaningful purpose, a surprising backstory, and was very nobel in his actions through and through. Though not long for the screen, he was an impressive and expressive character.

Overall, I deliver a verdict of a 5/10, a higher ranking than I would like. I personally feel the series should only receive a 2-3.5, but I allowed a bias to persuade me halfway. I initially was drawn to this series after having completed Fate/Zero, and I wished to see the continuation of that grand plot. As disappointing, embarrassing, and awkward as this anime was, I was very excited and eager to see the return of Saber and Gilgamesh. The characters from the prequel to this series were of much greater depth and dimension than the characters from Stay Night, and I was very disappointed in this series altogether. I expected something, at least plot-wise, if not animation-wise, of Fate/Zero, and I was thoroughly disappointed.

I struggled through this series until episode 19, in which I only began to enjoy myself after select characters made appearences from Fate/Zero. For anyone who had not watched Fate/Zero in advance, the sudden and startling appearence of such characters and revelations about Saber and Kiritsugu (I am certain) would be odd and uncanny; why would Saber suddenly inform Shiro about having previously engaged in the Fourth Holy War? Why didn't she tell him sooner? She was very obviously aware early on, and Shiro even took her to the place where the town burned. Shiro admitted to the pain the past brought him, and Saber never batted an eyelash until her 'big reveal', which Shiro didn't even get upset about. Like most of the exposition in the series, it was emotionless and tiresome. Like Rin and Sakura's "reunion", the scene showed flashbacks that only viewers who had previously watched Fate/Zero would understand, let alone find interesting.

I am glad I watched this series in the end, though I will admit I did not enjoy it in the least until episode 19. So my advice for people interested in this series is first to watch Fate/Zero, which has far superior plot, animation, and progression. Then watch this series, Fate/Stay Night, for cameos of those characters left at the end of Zero. You will be disappointed at first, but in the end it may be worth many hours of monotonous, annoying plot.

AFTER WATCHING 15 EPISODES OF F/SN (minor spoiler alert!!!)

i'm usually clement when it comes to reviews, and this time is no exception. So i'm gonna talk about each point of the score and explain why i put this and that grade

story 7/10: the story isn't bad or anything like that. Its actually quite interesting. The holy grail war, the servants, masters and powers are really good. But halfway throughts you may get bored, like i did. If you are reading this review and willing to start the series, i suggest you to NOT watch fate/zero before, like everyone recommends. Because the quality, the story and the characters are soo great that it will feel bad to watch the first studio Deen adaptation. I think that is why i didn't really like F/SN, as i watched F/Z before. But do as you like, i may be the only one not to have enjoyed.

animation 7/10: tbh i thought about putting a lower grade but for the effort that the studio put in this adapt i will put a 7 to 10. The effects aren't bad, and graphics weren't THAT terrible, but the character design was just horrible. but even if everything was perfect, it still doesn't hold a candle to it's successors: F/Z and F/SN: UBW animated by studio Ufotable, the genius behind demon slayer. So if you have an issue with bad animation, watch directly F:Z and pass F:SN, it isn't glorious in it's animation like ufotable or actual studio deen.

sound 8/10: yeah, i'm putting and 7.5 for this one. I didn't like the two openings. But the OST's did really fill the lack of music quality in the OP's. So this grade is quite deserved

characters 8.5: the biggest strengh of the series is it's characters. If we remove the MC (that is a complete "protect concept" stereotype character in F/SN, but becomes pretty cool in F/SN UBW) i think the characters are extremely likable, from Rin to my fav character Saber and Gilamesh (a character from F/Z and F/SN UBW)

overall 8/10: i think F/SN isn't for everyone, and that some may have a hard time enjoying it. But it's overall a good series where i didn't feel too bored and that is a good introduction to the epic second and third season (F/Z and F/SN UBW)

S.N: i suggest you to start out with F/Z if you don't have a problem with a lower quality in F/SN, it will make you understand more the world of the FATE franchise, and the ending of F/Z won't be as predictable

INTRODUCTION:

    Fate/Stay Night is an anime series based on a Japanese Visual Novel made by TYPE-MOON that was released in Japan only on PC & PS2. As a disclaimer to this review, I have not read the original Visual Novel so I can't make any comparisons of how well the original work was adapted into an anime series. The Fate/Stay Night Visual Novel, however, is reportedly one of the best selling visual novels of all time in Japan.

     I did read some summaries of the visual novel, however, so I do know that the original visual novel had 3 storyline arcs: the "Fate" arc, the "Unlimited Blade Works" arc, and the "Heaven's Feel" arc. This anime is primarily based on the "Fate" arc, though it also casually blends in a few elements of the other arcs.

STORY: 9

    In Fate/Stay Night, the main character, Shiro Emiya, is the adopted son of a Magi, who has passed away by the start of the series. Shiro was found in the midst of a huge fire 10 years ago and was saved by his father. Despite his adopted father being a Magi, Shiro was not taught any magic. However, he has practiced a little of his own; he has the ability to re-enforce objects. Before long, Shiro is drawn into the "Holy Grail War", an event that occurs every ten years.

    In the "Holy Grail War", 7 masters are chosen that descent from the magi. Each chosen master summons a servant of one of seven classes: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. The masters and servants must face off in a series of battles that have to be fought in secret and can only be fought at night. The battles continue until only one is left standing; at this point, the holy grail will appear and grant the wish of the master and servant.

    As Shiro is drawn into the war against his will after he inadvertently summons Saber, he decides to fight to prevent anyone from dying, desiring to become a hero of justice. As the war continues, Shiro comes to find how the war relates to his past, as he was found ten years ago… in the flames of the previous war.

ANIMATION: 10

    Animation is easily the greatest strength of Fate/Stay Night. The animation is downright beautiful and you can tell that AAA quality effort was put into every last little detail of the entire series. The creators even bothered to paint a unique pattern on background of the opening Fate/Stay Night logo for each individual episode. This anime is quite possibly the most beautiful anime series I've ever seen; I wish the series was also available on Blu-Ray so that it could truly display its beauty.

SOUND/MUSIC: 9

    The music of Fate/Stay Night is excellently done; it adds a mysterious feel to the anime that helps set the mood for the events that occur. The first opening theme "disillusion" and its animation sets a great mysterious feeling for the beginning of the series in my mind. The second theme, "Kirameku Namida wa Hoshi ni" helps set a more serious mood for the second half of the series after the major turning point occurs.

CHARACTERS: 10

    Characters are a great strength of Fate/Stay Night. One of the funnest parts of watching Fate/Stay Night was trying to figure out the true identities of the servants; some are given to you, while others are left for you to figure out on your own. Archer in particular is a very fun and epic one to figure out.

    Besides the servant's identities, I liked most of the main characters. I disliked Shiro at first but began to like him in the second half of the anime due to the way his character changed as the series moved on. Rin was my favorite character out of the master's, and I loved how innocently evil Illya was too.

SUB VS. DUB?

    You could go either way with this one, but I actually really like the dub for Fate/Stay Night. While both tracks are good, the dub was very high quality for a English dub and I feel that all of the characters were sufficiently and accurately voiced. In particular, for my two favorite characters, Rin and Archer, I actually like the English voice actors better than the Japanese actors. Liam O'Brien does an excellent job as Archer and he is a perfect fit for him. However, for those who prefer subs, you can definitely go either way: as I said, both tracks are good so pick whichever one you prefer.

OVERALL:

    Fate/stay Night is an excellent anime all around; especially if you fully understand the implications of the story and how all the servants relate to their masters. Fate/stay Night kept me watching episode after episode to until the very end; I couldn't stop. I highly recommend that everyone at least give the series a shot.