Ranked #261

Fate/stay night

Just finished this show a couple of moments ago, the hype I got before watching this was IMENSE, but after sitting trough it all I can definitely see where it comes from... for the better and the worse.

I will refrain myself from commenting on the show before I give my view on specific issues. I will try my best to refrain myself from spoilers, but rest assured, some will exist SO if you didn`t watch it yet you are better jumping straight to my conclusion.

---------------------
Animation
---------------------
In simple words it’s GORGEOUS. If you take into account it’s from 2006 it gets even better, surely nothing that year can get remotely close to it, and even for today standard’s it is top notch, specially on the color pallet department.

The backgrounds, the CGI, the still animations, the fight sequences... everything clicks beautifully, but what really shines are the character designs and the color employed on the scenes.

This show is definitely worth HD (I got the THORA release) and I wouldn`t settle for anything lower then 720p, it really deserves it.

---------------------
Sound
---------------------
I`ve tried my best to find issues with the sound, but to put it simple it’s not bad at all!

The songs are catchy in their own merits and somewhat memorable. They do come off occasionally on the wrong scenes but for the most of the time they are spot on.

Aside the soundtrack, the sound effects are also ok and fit the scenes they take part into.

The voice acting is also pretty well done, and I would like to add a special note that the English and German segments are amongst the best I have ever seen in an anime (as cheesy as they might be).

---------------------
Story
---------------------
This show reeks ambition so much it ended up being smacked down by the usual budget / time frame reality, and this is the part where we feel it the worse.

More than once I felt like I needed a manual to watch the show and it wasn`t included. Terms they use all the time never get explained and this gets in the way of understanding stuff every now and then, it’s quite annoying and you have to put up some effort to understand stuff based solo on the sentence context.

The arc`s are well staged, but again the lack of proper treating and over ambitious director leave us with some problems. It is aggravating that some important stuff that happens later on have to rely on quick flashbacks to pack any meaning and even then the results are quite bad.

This gets the most aggravating when we deal with relationships between characters, but I will write about that on the latter topic.

Overall the story is nice and has a tremendous amount of care to it, sadly the director didn`t have time to fulfill all he had in mind and it suffers a lot from it. If I had to pinpoint what areas suffered more I would have to say the romance. The action can carry itself pretty well due to the beautiful visuals and the drama focus on the “sacrifice” aspect most shounens drag from so no biggie, but the romantic relationships between Shirou and Saber are awkward to say the least, and his relation with Rin and Sakura are simply “deleted” from the plot halfway through for no apparent reason!

---------------------
Character
---------------------
All the characters are well made. They all have distinct traits, they all have particular looks, they all have background, objective and dept, but the problem is most of the time this is all crammed up so much it end up not living to the expectations.

I could go on in this subject for hours, but instead of pointing out how obviously Saber lack proper introduction about her past, or how Shirou desperately needed some more development and diversity or even how some characters like Sakura disappear from the plot after a few episodes (and we actually miss the continuation) I will just use my favorite character as an example, Rin.

Rin is an astonishing character that actually carry the show trough its worse moments all by herself, but the lack of episodes this show is plagued with (it deserved at least another season) makes some of her most interesting aspects lack and most of her relationships with other characters underdeveloped.

Why does she care so much about Sakura? Is the preach a fatherly figure to her? Does she love Shirou? I really wish all these aspects where developed, but instead they throw a few flashbacks and rush everything out to the point they don`t make the slightest sense and hurt the otherwise REALLY cool character she is.

Even her relationship with archer is crammed up to the point he barely shows his face and 5 episodes latter they kill him and we are supposed to care?! And that is another major issue, the servants have NO development AT ALL so all the cool traits they own are wasted since we don`t know who they are, why they fight for or even their origin... we don`t even get introductions to them it’s just sad.

---------------------
Value/Enjoyment & Conclusion
---------------------
From the moment the show start to the end its quite clear the director set the standard on the stratosphere but sadly got smacked down by reality mid way through it. Either lack of budget, lack of time or both the fact is, most of the show builds such a tremendous hype around itself and sadly don’t live up to it leaving many shortcomings by the end.

I do however congratulate the director for taking the hard route and abiding itself for making a complete show instead of a “first part” that would never seen an end. Still, it hurts to see so much potential being left untouched.

I would say this show is really worth for people that like the genre, this IS a shounen after all, and even though it have many qualities that deviate from the standard and make it different, the typical affair is all here… like people never EVER getting killed, the main weak protagonist with untapped potential and the usual good = good | bad = bad ordeal where every good guy is a saint and every bad guy have snake eyes, do rough voices and have a satanic smile… so it does tick all the boxes for the standard show.

Now for other people that are not all that into shounen, I would still highly recommend this but with a warning, you WILL get disappointed. This anime was destined to be a masterpiece but it faced shortcomings that hindered expectations in every possible way. This would’ve been bad on a regular show, but the amount of greatness this anime reeks is unparalleled and this just make it all the bitter. read more

Fate/Stay Night is a shounen-based action fantasy romance drama series that centers among seven teams (one master and one servant) trying to fight each other in order to win the Holy Grail. For this series to follow the shounen genre, the results were nothing short of impressive compare to other shounen-based series.

The story begins when the male protaganist (Shirou Emiya) ends up in a dangerous situation from one of the servants participating in the Holy Grail War. He then summons a female servant (Saber) in order to defend himself. Along with a good balance of action, romance, drama, and brief comedy moments the story also brought along a few plot surprises which can certainly stun the audience. While the story contains the usual settings most shounen fans are familiar with, Fate/Stay Night brought along a good flow in these different areas which never brings any down moments in its story. One part I really enjoy about Fate/Stay Night is how the battles exist for purpose and meaning, which can be refreshing for shounen fans willing to see something worthwhile.

The characters are also an interesting cast where several provide their own ideals that make them diverse in Fate/Stay Night. Shirou Emiya is a strong-will individual that hopes to put an end to the Holy Grail War by any means necessary. Although not very talented in magic, Shirou gradually improves in that area which serves as a great benefit to several of the battles. As for Shirou's servant, Saber is usually seen as the no-nonsense fighter that often surpasses her emotions but that is not always the case. The relationship between Shirou and Saber is often worthwhile to witness, especially when it comes to the moments of being concern for one another. Other characters (especially Rin Tohsaka and Archer) also bring out good moments in the story whether it involves interactions or combat sequences in the story.

As for the animation of Fate/Stay Night, the visuals stand alone as stunning in their results. While the battle scenes are mostly easy to follow, the lightning effects (especially coming from combat techniques) really made the visuals worthwhile in its scenes. The character designs are also drawn well with no corners cut throughtout the series.

The soundtrack also does well in most of its areas. The bgms often bring out mystical or calm themes that fit well in most scenes of Fate/Stay Night. The opening and ending theme songs are generally good, even though the second opening theme may be a bit blandish at times. The sound effects certainly fit their scenes and the seiyu cast is mainly good with their character roles.

With the many good results coming from Fate/Stay Night, it also brings along a satisfying ending that concludes an enjoyable storyline. In the end, Fate/Stay Night stands out for several positive results such as the great battle scenes and interesting cast of characters. However the one part that sets this shounen-based anime to be well-achieved is how meaningful the relationship is between Shirou and Saber in both action and romantic aspects. Any shounen fan that is willing to see worthwhile results will certainly enjoy this fascinating series.








read more

This has to be one of the best animes I have seen a while. This review may come out a bit biased as I just finished the series and remain blown away by it. Fate/Stay Night (F/SN) is a seinen about a magical war between 7 magi and their powerful servants who were great heroes and demigods from across time. The Heroes are all mythological figures which give background to their motivation although only the main character's servant is ever fully explored. The story lacks in that regard but can be easily supplemented through wikipedia. The message of the story was clear by the end and even though the ending is a bit tragic, it leaves you feeling content. (Although at the time of this review I'm feeling a bit of depression at its ending. I was so enthralled by F/SN that I watched it in a relatively short period of time.) The animation fits the premise. The premise resembles that of a shounen. Magicians summoning warriors of different classes reminds oneself of pokemon, digimon, shaman king but unlike those child friendly examples death occurs in the series, servants albeit not a true corporeal form shed blood and are injured similiar to the master's themselves. Nudity is shown although not explicitly so (subject to opinion.) The servant themselves are not the typical mindless machinations or friendly buddies. Servants only serve their master because they have a common goal, to win the Holy Grail. It looks like a typical shounen epic except I never noticed any of the mistakes that comes with cutting corners. With the short ratio of boys to girls, one can mistake some scenes for a harem comedy but this may be a result of F/SN's roots as an ero-type game. Except for a very few instances, nudity or scantily clad attire is practically non-existent and do not adversely affect the plot. I enjoyed the music, j-pop/rock, and none the seiyu were out of place in the sub. I couldn't give this a perfect on character design because there were times when the actions of a character felt unjustified in the way it was portrayed but it may have been because they were fitting a much larger story into a small 24 episode series. So the character design in the anime leaves you with questions but they're easily answered thanks to the background of the series. As mentioned before I was enthralled by this series and enjoyed it so much I blew through it. I'll end up buying it when I have the time to watch it again and I recommend this title to those who like action, romance and a little meaning. Also take it down a notch if you dislike blood and pig-headed heroes. read more

I quite enjoyed this series. For anyone that knows me, I am usually very brutal in Reviewing anime and very specific when I praise an anime. This one rightfully deserves praise.

Story: 9
The story somewhat reminds me of .hack//SIGN because it can get confusing if you don't pay close attention and if you don't do your research. The plot in the beginning is very basic... that goes through the first couple of episodes... then you arrive to a rival: Rider. From then on, the plot gets more and more interesting, and it makes it so that you want to keep on watching. I know I was hitting myself near the last couple of certain people... I will not go on much more about that because then it would ruin the ending... speaking of which... the ending reminded me of Chrno Crusade to a point. The ending that is sort of foreshadowed does come to pass. I'm not sure if I liked or disliked the ending at this point in time. What I do recommend is re-watch the anime from beginning to end after you've gone on Wikipedia to learn more about the characters. It makes a lot of things much clearer.

Art: 8
I liked the art and the character design very much. Some of the fighting scenes, however, did not apease me very much (Archer vs. Beserker for example). Besides some of the fighting scenes, it was pretty enjoyable... and I wish the artists would have stayed with one eye style per character...

Sound: 8
The sound quality was very good. It also pleased me that the English (Dubbed) version did not change any of the background music. I enjoyed the Opennings very much, especially the second one. I did not like the first or last endings. However, I did enjoy the end song of the episode Archer vs. Beserker.

Character: Perfect 10
I really enjoyed the Character Development and the characters overall. They acted like real people, and they had those human quirks that you see in real people. Even though some characters are overexaggerated, Taiga for example, they make the anime more interesting. I especially enjoyed how some of the characters actually grew... if anyone knows what I mean. I see no overshowing flaws in the characters.

Enjoyment: Perfect 10
I truly enjoyed this anime. It was suspenceful with a lot of action while at times is was light and comical. I am in the process of re-watching the later episodes so I understand everything clearly, but I have no problem in doing so.

Overall: 9
There are few flaws that I saw, and I definitely recommend this anime to anyone who is willing to watch it. read more

Fate/stay night was, for lack of better words, "pretty good." It was not GREAT, nor horrendous, but it was riding the fine line of mediocrity at times. I understand that it is quite difficult to be original in a day and age where it seems like everything new and innovative has already been used. But I digress.

Much of the mediocrity found in this series is in the story itself. There were very few twists and the ones that were there have already been done many times over. A fairly useless kid is our protagonist, by the name of Emiya Shirou, who turns out to not be quite so useless. Go figure. Emiya, with the aid of his Servant, Saber, who turns out to be quite powerful (yet again, go figure) must now battle the other sorcerers in a tournament to obtain a Grail that will grant a single wish.

At this point, I kind of feel like we've heard this story before. Weak kid, strong guardian figure, an object of limitless power that they must possess after countless trials and tribulations.

With that said, I really have nothing more to add other than the story got a 5 because of the total lack of originality. Granted, the Servants at times were pretty cool, but it isn't anything we haven't all seen before.

There were some refreshing comedy moments that helped throughout the staleness of the story, in my opinion. It wasn't made to be like Shakugan no Shana, it was very serious throughout most of the series, which, when looking at it from that perspective, it kept the anime fresh simply because it wasn't another fighting anime filled to the brim with comedy.

I will hand it to the animators, they made the fight scenes in this series quite well. The art was great, continuity throughout the scenes were excellent, and the animation itself was top notch and quite beautiful. I enjoyed the color schemes, notably during the scenes in the school when Rin is battling with Shirou.

Once again, I reiterate the battle animations: They look GOOD. It is what kept me watching all the way to the end, hoping for another battle. The characters moved like liquid at times and when they fought, you could almost feel the intensity. Which does a lot for the overall score of this anime because nothing is worse when you watch a series about fighting and the fighting itself is boring.

The sounds were nothing special, pretty much what you would expect from an anime such as this; sword clashing, the sounds of flesh being destroyed by weapons, incantations, the occasional battle soundtrack, etc. The voice-overs were done well. Shirou had the typical high school voice you come to expect and his screams were well recorded. Saber's total lack of emotion in her voice throughout most of the series was pleasing, considering that her character and personality reflected the lack of emotional response unless regarding her aims for the Grail.

I was disappointed with the characterization though, in a few ways. Shirou starts off pretty spineless and soft-hearted. As the story progresses, he is given a few opportunities where he has to act and a few times, he surprised me. But ultimately, even though he made a few decisions that I did not expect, I felt he still never learned anything and never grew as a character.

Saber, on the other hand, was an amazing character. She initially comes across as a hard-as-nails, straight to business kind of character. In the later episodes, she shows a bit of her softer, more caring side which is a drastic change. And when the end credits finally roll, you realize that she is a character, despite the faults she felt she had, despite the turmoil of feelings she had, Saber stuck to her convictions, duty and purpose. You could not ask for more.

Fate/stay night was enjoyable, its animation and characters being its strong points and its story being its lowest. Overall I gave it a 7 because it could have done better, but it is worthy enough that I would recommend it to other people and would give it a second watch. I cannot say I did not enjoy quite a few parts of this, especially some of the more intense battles that took place near the end.

If you're looking for an anime that has great animation, multiple battles and strong characterization then look no further. Just be prepared to occasionally scoff at the over-used foreshadowing and plot twist techniques and being able to say "I saw that coming" more than once. read more

In an earlier review, Bluesnow talked about how despite being a good anime, F/SN has a tradition of being overrated. I pretty much agree with this sentiment. This is a good anime, but it definitely has plenty of areas that could be improved.

The plot of this series, is to be honest, pretty horrible. It's extremely linear, it's pretty boring, and there isn't really very much in terms of plot twists or suspense. And what little they had, which was more towards the end of the series, was executed rather badly with bad pacing and ass pulls galore. In mitigation, this was likely caused by the developers buckling under the twin strains of running out of budget and having to merge the three different scenarios from the visual novel together. However, it's still bad.

The saving grace of the series lies, frankly, outside. The backstory, the concepts dealt with, the underlying metaplot, the thoughts provoked - fantastic is an understatement. Sadly, in order to be able to enjoy this, reading the Visual Novel is a must. The anime simply did not have enough time to cram in all of the information, resulting in a jumbled mess.

Another strong point of this series lay in the characters. Every single character positively exudes personality - from just hearing one line, you can basically pinpoint which character it is from. However, this is coming after I've read the Visual Novel, and also all the associated mythologies of the characters. If just watching the anime itself with no prior knowledge, the Servants can be a bit... one-sided. The thing you have to remember is that you're *supposed* to know the characters beforehand, and that the development present is an expansion on preexisting perceptions of these characters.

However, there's one exception to the strong characterization - the main character. Given that this was an adaptation from an eroge (hardly a medium known for strong main characters), you wouldn't really expect much of Shirou. However, Shirou does not possess the usual blank self-insert personality typical of eroge protagonists. Quite the opposite, in fact. He has an extremely strong personality, and it's grating to the extreme. There are plenty of times where you wish you could just slap the damn child out of him, and unfortunately, the scenario where that *does* happen was not animated.

Animation quality was extremely well done, with a clean art style that's extremely refreshing, and well animated fight sequences. Sadly, this tended to suffer near the end of the series as the animators ran out of budget.

Sound is a non-sequitter. Nothing really stands out, nothing's really bad.

In conclusion, Fate/Stay Night has a marvelous backstory, beautiful characters, and a mediocre plot. In trying to shake things up from the Visual Novel, the director appears to have set too high a bar for himself to attain, running beyond the limits of himself and the budget. While the animated medium makes for a much better flow of story than the Visual Novel, which had shaking pacing at best, in the end it fell prey to the pitfall of no money. read more

Fate/Stay Night is a fabulous Romantic, Action, Adventure that will leave you amazed by the beautiful visuals and interesting fights. Just don't let the main character annoy you too much, as he did with me. ^_^

After watching just the first 3 episode you basically learned the main plot of this anime, which was the Holy Grail War and also learned how similar this anime was with others; having the same little annoyances. I personally was annoyed with the whole “my parents are dead” and I just wanted this show to be different with the parents’ still alive at least. But most of all I was annoyed by how weak and pathetic yet lucky Shirou was, which just seemed unoriginal. What made it worse was how arrogant Shirou was and how he always wanted to fight his own battles, even though his Servant could do a much better job at it. Nevertheless I didn’t allow these annoyances to get in the way of this great show and if you do the same you may enjoy it too.

This show is an Action/Adventure with elements of both Romance and Comedy, however unlike most of this genre the romance is played down that even I found it difficult to tell who Shirou would end up with. This was one of the things that helped save the show from a bad score and another was the great character developments that occurred in the story. As the story went on, even though it seemed hard to believe from the beginning but Shirou greatly improved as a Master and became lass annoying to watch. He even had some pretty interesting fights although the bulk of the fights were fought by Saber. The fights were great to watch adding a decent amount of action to the show. On the other hand some fights had a lacklustre feel it them, so if your used to being glued to the screen from a spectacular battle don’t count on that happening here often, however there’s at least some interesting fights.

One thing I like in my anime is something that was missing in this show, a decent plot twist, but this is just my opinion. If you don’t mind it sticking to one storyline all the way through to the end, then there’s no chance in you being disappointed with the story you’ve got.

Apart from Shirou the rest of the characters were OK with decent personalities but most of them weren’t developed well enough. Usually all you’re given is a few hazy moments and flashbacks of a characters past and forced to work out what’s going on by yourself. Well at least the characters were well-drawn though.

The animation quality for Fate/Stay Night was lavish with some of the best used light and shadow effects I’ve seen in a while. Even though that may sound pointless, in this anime it was significantly noticeable. The music was decent but it could have been a lot better if it used some other track from the Fate/Stay Night soundtrack. Yet the music wasn’t much of a big deal in this anime and it was only near the end that the music really made a difference.

To summarize, this anime did a great job of mixing romance and action without making either one of them overbearing, although it could of done without the comedy. Even though the comedy was used to lighten the mood at times in this show, I didn’t feel it was needed. The fights were interesting but it could have done with the charged up yelling and screaming, mostly from Saber. I was very pleased with the ending, because it wasn’t too sad and it wasn’t cheesy, but it did leave me a little confused yet I was sure it had ended. Even up until the end there was still something I didn’t like about the character Shirou and it had to do with the Japanese voice actor that I and most “Naruto” fansub watchers will notice pretty quickly as well. So try not to let this spoil the show for you because this was an remarkable anime to watch.

^_^ read more

*Under MAJOR Revision*

Fate/stay night is definitely a great anime, but it lack some "chemistry" that makes it a masterpiece level of work. That is not to say the anime is bad in any way, in fact it is a total success in my opinion. But nonetheless, I will be making comparisons with other similar themed anime as the review proceeds.

I will not go through repeating what has been said in the other reviews already. However, I want to make 2 points clear as to why I find it not as great as many claim it to be (ultimately it is these 2 points that made me give the story an 8/10).

1. The lack of information about most servants' past. That includes Saber as well. I am basing this on just the anime alone (so if the visual novel or manga has a more detailed coverage about these, I don't care). I find the story a little rushed trying to cover the main plot and somewhat "hint" to us regarding certain characters past. As a result, a lot of information I want to know were not presented in the anime (but rather in the game).

2. I consider myself to be a rather "emo" person (I cried for the 2nd half of Mai HiME for example). But there weren't much "moving" scenes in this anime that make me either laugh too hard or cry too hard. There may be surprises occasionally, but that was it. Though at the same time the plot was interesting enough for me to keep watching episode after episode.

Another key issue about the anime are the characters. Though there are decent character developments throughout the story, the lack of information presented at the end regarding the primary characters' future kind of left it like a dangling string. Some people might like it that way, but I don't. Certainly not how they decided to end Saber's past at the end.

Overall, I find it quite enjoyable (kept me glued to the computer long enough for me to finish the anime in 2.5 days), but it just lack some "hard-to-forget" scenes. read more

This anime is considered by many fans as the best anime of 2006; while it is a good anime its popularity is often over hyped and most ignored the major flaws of the series that kept it from being a masterpiece.

The basic plot is about Shirou; a high School boy with a very righteous kind heart but has a weak character and knows little magic. By fate he falls into an epic battle over the holy grail taking on the powerful Hero Summon "Saber" as his servant. The Servants do battle with one another till only one is left then taking the Holy grail to make a wish, but this battle devastates Shirou's life and opens up the secrets to traumatic events that happened in his past. The plot primarily is action/shounen/Drama... They attempt some Romance as well~ but its a little awkward.

Story: The story is one of the main flaws of this series; it becomes clear very early that this anime is based off of a "Visual Novel" due to its linear plot~ the goal is known right away and the development is predictable. There are some shocking moments towards the end, but that doesn't make up for the rest.

Perhaps the most stifling thing about the story is it hints about Saber's and other's pasts... but in never divulged any information. While sometimes its excusable to keep a mysterious story, in the case of this anime it felt vital to the plot, and rather than add to the mood of urgency it felt more like they were trying to rush parts of the series far too much... much of the events make no sense unless you play the visual novels or look up the background info online.

On the good side the plot is fast enough to enjoy after the first few episodes, Has alot of interesting battles and antagonists, and has an interesting back story if you watch untill the end.

Art: The art is ok; the characters are well done, especially most of the servants. Overall I have no bones to pick with the animation; it just wasn't that original and the main protagonist had not impressive characteristics to make him stand out. The battle art was very good though; especially their final attacks.

Sound: The sound, like the art was acceptable. The opening and ending themes were very good and the OST was great. There was no real "Epic Battle" music that lived up to some of the great battles, but it was still good.

Characters: This was the big downfall for the series... Most of the characters are very superficial, unoriginal, and predictable. The biggest let down in Saber and several other servants; because the story focuses on the character development of the masters for the most part most of the servants pasts are never explained in any detail... so it makes it very hard to understand their development or motivation. Saber's is insinuated at the very end, but the story rushes so much it makes it impossible to truly understand the depth of her character.

Overall: This in another "Good" anime~
Its worth watching despite its unoriginality~ But don't expect a masterpiece. read more

Another computer game based anime. But it's very well done. The plot is thick, confusingly so at times. It can be quite complicated in parts and hard to follow but it is well worth the effort. I like that fact that the servants have a mythological basis even if it did become hard to remember who was who. I did watch it over a space of several months though so that could be a contributing factor to me finding it confusing and hard to follow. The animation was well done though, the character designs were great (especially thier backgrounds) and it was overall very pretty to watch. Good music too.

There was a good amount of action and fight scenes in this anime. Not so much that it got boring yet enough that it kept you thinking 'oooooo'. There were bits of humour and fanservice, which is something I really value in shows that have a lot of action. It becomes a nice break and distraction, especially in anime that has a fairly serious tone.

Despite the action and the humour I did find that this had sags in it's story line. Some times there would be lots going on and other times there would be hardly anything. That would be my main quibble about it, I wasn't at the edge of my seat the whole way through and thats something that I have come to expect and enjoy with good animes.

Overall I very much enjoyed watching this. I found the Saber/Emiya 'ship to be cute and fun, the background to be interesting and the fight scenes to be cool. Everything that you need in a decent show. Thus I will happily reccomend it to anyone who likes a bit of action and fantasy.

Nanashi Moriko *not a Fate/Stay Night fan girl but yet a fan*
21/01/08


read more