Animation and fight scenes similar to the Fate/stay franchise?

Overfoxed said:
Totally get what you mean, I think pretty much the same about UBW (did like the stay night story though).

So when it comes to animation: Most shows simply dont get the budget, that was available for Unlimited Budget Works. But when it comes to fighting scenes, I found some that pretty much may challenge UBW, while the overall production quality may not be as competitive.

Garden of Sinners: Just as good as fate if you ask me. Afaik some of the staff worked on fate did also work on garden of sinners.

Angel Beats: Many keyframes, great soundtrack, but slightly less detail-ish than fate.

Akatsuki no Yona: Awesome fighting scenes, not as fluently as fate, but still far above average.

Alderamin on the Sky: While the overall Animation quality might not be too well made, there are some scenes, that really shine, especially when it comes to yatori entering close combat. More stylized than fate, but imo even more entertaining.

Highschool of the Dead: High quality animations, very very fluently and nice pacing. Well, it still is somewhat borign because its your average zombie survival stuff.

Rokka no Yuusha: I did especially like the great camera-movements and viewing points. The keyframe number may not be thaaaat high, but the composition and the diversity of combat styles makes up for it.

e8 said:
Not to offend any fans of the franchise or anything, but I found the Fate/stay franchise to be pretty average and disappointing overall, especially in terms of the story.

winny1 said:


No offence taken - everyone can hold their own opinion. I'm not a big fan of the series myself - Unlimited Blade Works (2014) was much better than Deen's adaption, but you'll have a much better time just reading the visual novel, and even that can get a bit tedious as times though it is much better than any Fate TV series thus far.

Anyway, here are a few series I can think of at the top of my head that meet your criteria:

1. Sword of the Stranger: If you like bloody samurai anime, this is one for you (the other is listed below). It was released in 2007 but the animation holds up really well. I can't remember much apart from that it was gorgeous and dark. Plus it's animated by Bones.

2. Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal: This is one of my favourite anime. It's a bit old but the animation still looks amazing and it's also a really dark looking show. The action is great and used frugally - it's not a flashy show, it's more just people cutting each other up but it's so good and much more realistic (especially considering it's made by DEEN, who almost everyone hates). You'll have to watch the main TV series before watching this but it's worth it imo and the TV series, while not nearly as dark is also one of my favourites (but more shounen than seinen).

3. Soul Eater: Not too sure if it's your thing but Soul Eater is also a great action anime by Bones. I didn't list Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood since you specifically asked for sword fighting (Soul Eater has both sword and gun fights but FMA is mostly magical/alchemy).

That's all I can really think of as you've already seen others like Kara no Kyoukai and Hellsing Ultimate.

e8 said:

Soul Eater doesn't interest me at all, but Sword of the Stranger and Rurouni Kenshin sound great. (If I recall correctly, I think I've already seen a clip from Sword of the Stranger, and it looked pretty good.) Thanks!

Oh, the original Fate/stay night series was made by Deen? Now that you mention it, the animation and art style does seem very familiar. Just another reason to hate on Deen, lol. (However, I actually like a few Deen animes. Higurashi didn't have great animation or anything, but the series itself is great. The only Deen anime I've seen to have good animation would be Sakura Trick.)

Anyway, thanks again.

No worries! Deen sure does get a lot of hate but it's actually pretty impressive how well Higurashi turned out despite how generally low quality (or just "bad") the animation was. That reminds me... I have to watch the second season of Higurashi one day aha. Their adaption of Fate/stay night on the other hand was pretty terrible but, having read the visual novel myself (Fate and UBW routes), I can see why it's hard to adapt.

For all the hate Deen gets though, Trust and Betrayal is legitimately well animated and I think you will be surprised by what Deen can achieve. Just make sure you watch the Rurouni Kenshin TV series before watching the movie as it won't have the same impact, even though the movie is a prequel of sorts.

Anyway, good luck in your search! Feel free to send me a message if you need recommendations for anything :)

e8 said:


Garden of Sinners: Seen it, liked it a lot.

Angel Beats: Seen it, thought the action was pretty minimal.

Akatsuki no Yona: Never heard of it, I'll try it.

Alderamin on the Sky: Never heard of it, I'll try it.

Highschool of the Dead: Seen it, didn't like it very much. The only reason I watched it is because I like apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic stuff.

Rokka no Yuusha: Never heard of it, I"ll try it.

Thanks!

e8 said:

Yeah, you should definitely watch the second season of Higurashi! XD

You could also message me if you have any questions about the order to watch that series. There are several short OVA series, each season has a different name, etc. (There's also the related series, Umineko, but I wouldn't waste my time, tbh.)

JCAPER said:
UBW came out quite well all things considered. It must have been a nightmare translating the visual novel to anime format, most of it are monologues about what is happening. Which admittedly can be boring (especially in the beginning), but once the story picks up the pace it really picks it up. It's really good how we can see the characters evolve and how they change depending on the situation.

My personal theory about why anime-only people don't like the series as much as the ones who read the visual novel is because the animes fail to highlight the context of the situations, making the characters look stupid in some situations (like for example "people die if they are killed" or "just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right"). This is also why, supposedly, the author of F/SN is against making an official English translation for the visual novel, he says the translators would fail to translate it properly and make the reader miss the points.

Point is, there's a chance that you will enjoy the visual novel if you like to read. Not trying to be one of those "READ THE MANGA!!!" fanboys but, the animes simply don't have the "why" people enjoy the series so much.

JCAPER said:

I agree with you actually. Some people start enjoying it in UBW route because we start seeing what really makes Shirou tick, and it also has less slice-of-life compared with Fate (I think, not sure). I also agree that it also has too many kitchen scenes, they could have toned it down.

For me though, the first route caught my attention because I have a personal fascination for and seeing a completely different rendition of him doing slice-of-life things was, for me, a big selling point. And then later as I started liking and understanding what made other characters tick I started to enjoy watching them fighting and doing slice-of-life things. Idk, something about watching badasses doing normal things makes them more relatable and enjoyable.

JCAPER said:
But then again, I agree that sometimes it could get a bit too much (Fate/Stay Kitchen)