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Seyuu Life was one of my favorite shows to come out this past year, something that really surprised me. But I just recently saw that there was an ova out, and decided to watch it, so wanted to leave my thoughts here since there hadn't been any other reviews made.

The plot of the ova is that Futaba, Rin and Ichigo go to a hot springs. There is quite a bit of fan-service near the beginning which really wasn't needed. But then the girls are recognized as being Earphones, and are asked to put on a show for the other people there and they do. ...

There really isn't anything that special about the story, it's just a special for people who liked the original show to see a little bit more with these characters. The one thing I really like about this ova is seeing how far these girls have come thanks to their hard-work, and this was shown really well.

Character-wise there really isn't anything new here, it's just seeing more of the same likable characters as before, which I'm fine with. There really isn't any development or growth here, but that was handled well enough during the main show.

Art and sound are the same as before. The moe style is done relatively well, and the soundtrack is okay. The song at the end was cool, but that was more trying to showing how far the girls have gone than being an amazing piece of music.

So in summary...

Pluses:

I liked seeing more of these characters
I really enjoyed how they shows the success the girls have worked hard for.

Cons:

Fan-service really wasn't needed.

Verdict:

If you liked the main show, watch this. If you didn't, nothing special here. If you've never seen the main show, you really should at least give it a try.

I have found when watching anime that sometimes the most unassuming titles end up being the most impressive. Last fall I loved Ore Twintails despite the fact that no one expected anything from it. Of course, most people don’t like it as much as I do, but maybe I’m just weird. But even more obscure than Twintains, last fall there was a little known one episode OVA by the name of Zephyr.

The thing that makes Zephyr interesting is how difficult it is to find online. Apparently it was a special made for some type of special event, and even months after it came out ... on dvd, there was nowhere online to stream it. I only recently found it online, but it wasn’t in English sub. Of course, after finding some version of it after so long, I didn’t care about the lack of subs, so I decided to watch it anyway!

So yes, I’m reviewing an anime where I didn’t know what the characters were saying 90% of the time. Well, as Kamina always said, sometimes you just have to throw logic out the window and do the impossible.

So, what is the story here? Well, I’m not entirely sure myself.

It’s a music anime, focusing on these 4 band members. However, there was a great war, that caused a lot of damage, and the band stopped playing music. We see the back stories of some of the characters and what they lost, but then see them come back together and play a song at the end. While it’s hard for me to judge the story beyond just the premise, what I saw here I liked. The anime seems to be less about music itself, and more about the band members and what they have gone through, with the music just being a link that ties them together. I really think a story like this could do well as a full series, really fleshing out the characters and what they went through in this war, and perhaps using the music to show how they cope, and maybe even the power of their music to influence others. So yeah, the story is certainly much more than just cute boys doing cute music things, and that I appreciate.

Animation wise the show did look really good most of the time. I even went to get a screen shot from the one part to use as a wallpaper for my computer. Although for some reason they switched to 3d for the song which just seemed odd. The background music was good, able to accent the moods the show wanted to convey, especially with the buildup to the band playing together again, and the song at the end was cool. The voice acting also seemed to be very good, able to convey the emotions, and what the characters meant, even if I didn’t know the exact words.

And well, I guess that’s about it. I’d like to say more about this show, but there isn’t much I can say. Still, it was an interesting experience trying to follow along with the story, and when it does get subbed, I’ll watch it again, and if they end up making a full series out of the story, I’d gladly watch it. So I give Zephyr a temporary score of 6.75/10, and a rating of Worth Checking Out. The score is based only on the animation and sound, so will likely change if I ever get to see the show subbed.

As for recommendations, let’s go with Number 6. It’s a dystopia story with some shonen ai through in because why not. It’s not the greatest, but if you got excited about watching Zephyr, I get the feeling you may like Number 6 as well. If you want something more music oriented…I can’t think of much. K-On is boring, Bakamatsu Rock tires to be fun by being complete over the top, but I lost interest in it. There is Show By Rock which also takes the music genre in an interesting direction with lots of pretty colors, so yeah, go with that.

I really didn’t expect anything from this show when I started watching it, only deciding to give it a try because of wanting to try as much of the new shows as possible. I was surprised that this show ended up becoming one of the more popular shows of the season, it just looked like one of those shows that would be mainly overlooked. But of course, this is anime, where fan-service, harems, and overpowered protagonists are all the fans care about. But putting aside popularity aside, let’s talk about if the show is any good.

Story + Characters

The show is very simple. There is a ... dungeon filled with monsters. Adventures go into the dungeon to fight and kill the monsters with magic and sharp objects blessed by the power of gods and goddesses. And the story focuses on one such adventurer, Bell.

Now, I really like Bell. He’s your typical shonen protagonist, a bit sheepish, very naïve with all the females falling in love with him, and he’s a generally nice guy, wanting to help and protect his friends while being willing to forgive those who hurt him. Despite the fact that his character really isn’t anything new or unique, he’s the type of person I really want to root for. I want to see him get stronger, to overcome his foes.

I really liked seeing him become respected as the show went on, overcome difficulties that seemed impossible. Yes, he does have quite a bit of plot armor, and he’s a bit overpowered, which did hurt the show, but not as badly as it could have.

We also have the goddess Hestia who is the leader of Bell’s famlia, of which Bell is the only member. At times, I really liked her. Bell and Hestia really do care about each other, will to whatever it takes to help one another, and this makes their interactions really cute. Unfortunately, Hestia is in love with Bell, and she gets jealous easily, which leads to some really cringe worthy moments. They really should have either left romance out completely, or just developed the romance between Hestia and Bell without hinting at the feelings the other girls had for him; as it was the harem elements really hurt the show.

All the other characters had something that made them interesting. From the elf who works at the local restaurant, to Lili, a girl who joins Bell as a supporter, they all have a little bit of back story that gives them depth. My favorite character is the god Hermies, but he doesn’t really play a role until the end of the show.

Looking at the plot here, it really feels very generic. Pretty much all the story elements here have been done before, so if you’re looking for some revolutionary anime, you’re not going to find it here. The genericness is something that holds the show back, but it also helps the show in a way. A lot of anime, especially of the adventure genre, try to tell some grand story, aiming for the peak of anime greatness only to fail to handle their story right and become a mess. Instead, this anime chooses to stick with something generic, but executes it in a way that’s a lot of fun.

Despite the fact that Bell is an overpowered protagonist, it never feels like he’s the strongest. His power may grow faster than anyone else, but there are a lot of people who are still way more powerful than him. Bell does get a number of moments to shine on his own, but there are also times where despite his strength, he’s not able to overcome his obstacles without the help of others.

Despite its generic nature, I found the story interesting. There were enough different conflicts to keep me engaged. Sometimes it was a monster in the dungeon that Bell had to defeat, and other times it were other people he had to overcome. Another thing I liked about the show is how it was able to contrast Bell’s naïve view of the world with the dark pasts and actions of some of the characters. The themes of what it means to be a hero are strong here, as this is Bell’s motivation for wanting to get stronger. Again, this is something that’s been seen elsewhere numerous times, but I still like what it added to the show.

Of course, despite the fact that I did enjoy this show, I can’t look past its problems. Due to the nature of the show, you know that Bell is going to be the hero and save the day. So any battle he’s in with at least something at stake, you know he’s going to win.

The fan-service and harem elements really hurt the show as well. They were oftentimes very uninteresting, and just seemed to be taking up time until something more serious happened. Some could say that they added comedy, but I didn’t find it funny at all. And really, the romance didn’t go anywhere by the end of the show. Sure, some friendships were developed, but the romance could have been taken out completely and nothing would have been lost. As for the fan-service, did having Bell fall into a lake filled with about 5 naked girls really help the show? I get that they were trying to have some lighter scenes before the end of the show, but they could have done this in better ways.

And speaking of the end of the show, it’s really not over. The final episode worked as a good enough season finale. The battle was epic and all, and it resolved that arc nicely, but it also tells the viewer there is much more story to tell. Now, will the rest of the story be animated? Possibly, with the popularity the show has gotten a second season wouldn’t surprise me. But I have to hold the fact that the story is incomplete against the show.
Overall, the best word to describe this show is generic. It does well to keep the viewer entertained most of the time, and it doesn’t take itself so seriously that it falls apart, so those are both plusses, but there isn’t anything great about the story. It’s good at being okay, which is more than I can say for a lot of other shows that came out this year.

Animation + Sound

The animation here is okay. The show looks pretty good for the most part, there weren’t any times where it was so bad it hurt the show, or if there were, I didn’t notice them. The action scenes were where the show could have really shined, but these were too short lived for the most part to really have any impact. The most interesting thing visually about the show was the final battle where everything had a red tint to it. This really added to the intensity of the scene and the danger the character’s faced, but at times it made it hard to tell who was who, and since a lot of minor characters were involved in this battle, it made it hard to follow.

Music wise, this is another case where the show is pretty good. The battle scenes had intense music that helped. The actual sound effects felt off at times, especially with the explosions from fire magic.

The opening here is cute, does a good job of introducing the show, and even foreshadows some of the big moments later on in the show, which is all I ask for from an opening. Skippable if you want to get right to the episode, but not a bad opening at all.

Final Thoughts

This show is one of those shows that was good to watch on a weekly basis as it comes out. It’s one that you’d watch just to watch anime. It’s a generic, but fun show, and if that sounds like what you’re looking for, then this anime is for you. I really can’t see this show’s fame lasting much beyond the time it was airing, but it was fun while it lasted.

Scoring:
Story: 5.5
Characters: 5.7
Animation: 6.5
Sound: 7
Other (Excessive Fan-Service): -0.1
Total: 5.76 (note that categories are not weighed equally)

Rating: Worth Checking Out

Other Suggestions: Attack on Titan, Show by Rock

Note that this review covers both seasons.

During the start of the 2014 summer season, Tokyo Ghoul was one of the most hyped shows. This really doesn’t surprise me any as those first couple episodes were some of the most intense of any anime I’ve ever seen. I admit, I was a little leery going into this, as I’m not a fan of the horror genre, when it involves lots of violence and trying to scare me like that, so I was pleasantly surprised that instead it seemed to be a psychological horror, offering an incredibly powerful start. Of course, many shows don’t live up to ... the standard they set for themselves early on, and while I loved the start of Ghoul, I also loved the start of Black Bullet and Brynhlder in the Darkness if that tells you anything. But those aren’t the show I’m talking about today, instead, I present to you my review of both seasons of Tokyo Ghoul.

Story

Tokyo Ghoul focuses on Kaneki, a young college student, which isn’t a high school student, so that immediately earns the show some points from me. He seems to be somewhat normal, a bit shy, bit of a book worm, he likes a girl who also seems to be a bit of a book worm. So, the two of them go on a date, and then she precedes to try eating him.
Oh yeah, did I mention that the world of Tokyo Ghoul is filled with Ghouls, creatures who look like normal humans, except they eat humans. And as luck would have it, Kaneki had a crush on a Ghoul who decides he would make a good snack. Of course, due to the magic of plot, he survives barely, she’s dies, and to save Kaneki, the doctor takes some organs out of her and puts them in him, so he survives, but then becomes a half ghoul himself. Now if you can ignore the huge amounts of plot convenience there and things that aren’t ever explained, you can then move onto the good parts of the story.
We see Kaneki struggling with his new identity as a Ghoul. As I said before, Ghouls eat people, and while the instincts within him tell him that he needs to do so something that of course repulses him, and this is made worse by the fact that any other food tastes disgusting, except coffee because the plot says so. This battle within Kaneki is presently incredibly well at first, as he wants to survive, he wants to just continue his normal life as a human, but this soon proves difficult as he finds himself falling deeper into the world of the Ghouls. He finds shelter at a coffee shop run by some ghouls who have chosen to live as vegetarian, only eating the bodies of those already dead.
There are other Ghouls and organizations of ghouls that end up becoming Kaneki’s enemy, so he wants to become stronger, taking advantage of the incredible physical strength Ghouls have along with their glowing red thing that I can’t remember the name of. It’s at this point the show shifts from a physiological horror to more of an action shonen, which really was disappointing. They also introduce the CCG, a police/military force created to fight and counter the ghouls. What I like about them as that for the most part, neither the ghouls nor the CCG are pure good or evil. Amon is the main focus from this group, and I really like his character, and the battle between him and Kaneki about two thirds the way through the first season is one of the best moments in the show. Of course, when it comes to intense scenes, I have to mention episode 12. It presents the torture Kaneki goes through, getting into his mind and showing who he is and who he wants to be, all leading to one of the most satisfying battles I have ever seen.
Unfortunately, Ghoul wasn’t able to keep up its intensity throughout the show. It was very rushed at times, and this really did hurt how engaged I was able to be throughout it. It’s second season Root A then completely ignored everything that made the first season good, focusing on way too many things at once to tell a good story. While many of these side plots could have been interesting if they were explored more, it was done in a way that none of it was engaging, and left me bored most of the time. The battles became lame, making the shaky build up to them just completely fall apart. The slice of life parts just seem to get in the way of what could be an interesting action series. There were a couple moments where the show seemed to remember it’s Psychological horror roots, but these were too few and far between to make up for these problems.

Characters

The characters don’t offer anything other than a couple. Once Kaneki gets over the panic at being a ghoul, he’s mostly an observer, bounced around the world of the ghouls to show the viewer what it’s like. While I do like his character, especially once we see his backstory and his transformation, after this transformation, he’s just there. He’s the main character, but in many ways becomes detached from the story.
The characters in the CCG I found a lot more interesting. Amon is my favorite from the show, a noble hardworking person who wants to fight the ghouls to protect humanity. Meeting Kaneki though seemed to make him question his black and white view of the world. Unfortunately the show, instead it seemed to move away from this plot point until the end. There are several other interesting characters in the CCG, but the only one I can talk about without spoiling much is Juuzou, the generic crazy likes to kill things type of character, and I liked him, he was fun to watch, and once we see where he came from, his twisted worldview really does make a lot of sense. He actually gets a bit of development too in the end, making him a great supporting character. There’s also Mado, who is one of the major villains for the first season, but it’s not until the second season that he really gets fleshed out, mainly from the perspective of his daughter, which was an interesting twist, but it felt like this was only done this way due to door planning.
All the other side characters were disappointments. Touka ended up just being someone who seemed love struck for Kaneki, Himari who I liked at first, just felt like an adopted little sister to Kaneki, Hide was just Kaneki’s old best friend. When Kaneki wasn’t around these characters, they just feel like they’re going in circles, not trying to do anything about what’s going on in the world. Hide could kind of be considered an exception, though he was so far removed from season 1 that his involvement in season 2 feels kind of out of place, even if he did have a role to play in the end.
Character wise, Ghoul definitely tried doing too much. It attempted to have a large diverse cast, but instead what we got was a whole bunch of flat characters that got little to no development, and when the time was spent more on these side characters as the show went on, it just fed into the other problems the show had.

Animation + Sound

The show’s animation is probably the most noticeable difference between the two seasons. The first season was as a whole pretty good, aside from the censorship, which I admit, didn’t bother me that much. The second season everything went downhill. Even the battle scenes which should be the best animation scenes were just bland, had no impact at all. I could get into this more, but I’ll just tell you to go watch Mr. Reckless Penguin’s videos on it, he’s far better at picking apart animation than I am.
This really is disappointing, as the first season really looked good when it needed to, so it just doesn’t make any sense for it to be so bad in the second. It’s not like this is a small studio that doesn’t have any money; this is Studio Periot, the same one who does Naruto, and they’ve certainly been milking that one for all it’s worth.
The music for the show is also something that changed quite a bit between the two seasons, except this was one aspect of the show that improved. The first season’s music was largely unremarkable, able to enhance the show when needed, but nothing overly memorable. However, the second season had a couple insert songs which really did a wonderful job at conveying the tension and the uncertainty the characters felt, and these songs were so great they easily stand on their own, especially Glassy Sky and On My Own. I also like them because they’re in English, so I know what they’re saying without the need of subtitles or fandubs.
The first opening for Ghoul is one of the best I’ve seen. Of course, this is contrasted by the second season’s opening, which is one of my least favorite openings ever. Just having a picture of the main character with pretty colors changing behind him to a generic song is not how you get someone excited for the show! Well, the song was kind of fitting, for the show, and it highlighted an event at the end of the show, but still, it was very underwhelming. Of course, considering how much of it was boring the second season was to begin with…maybe it was fitting after all.
I’ve only seen one episode of the Root A dub, so my judgment of that is a bit limited. Overall I’d say it was okay, the only stand out part being Todd Habberkorn as Ayato. The rest were somewhere along decent to meh. If you really prefer dubs, I’d like to say you’d be okay with it, but considering they haven’t dubbed the first season yet, they’re not really an option unless you want to jump in half way through the show, which I wouldn’t recommend.

Final Thoughts

The show is probably the best example of wasted potential I have ever seen. It had a great start, a couple plot holes maybe, but it had the perfect setup for a great physiological horror. If they could have kept that up, added in some action from time to time, fleshed out some broken characters and really explore the themes of being a monster and hating what you are it would have been something awesome.
Instead we got…I don’t even have words for it. Actually, I have lots of words, you’ve been listening to them for a while. So let’s switch to numbers instead, since I like numbers.

Scoring

Story: 3/10
Characters: 3.6/10
Animation: 5.4/10
Sound: 8.1
Total: 4.12/10 (Note categories are not weighed equally)
Final Vote: 4/10
Recommendations
Fate Zero: A dark modern day fantasy with epic battles and some interesting thoughts on being a hero
Mononoke: The only other horror anime I’ve seen. It’s hard to describe but at least worth a try. Give it 2 episodes and see what you think.

I am likely different that most who decided to watch this ova in that this is the first Gundam series I've ever seen. I'd heard of it a number of times, but with so many different shows within the overall series, I had no idea where to start, and really no motivation to. However, I'd heard good things about this, and with it being an origin story, I figured I'd give the first OVA a try. And I have to say, it did not disappoint. Keep in mind for this review, I've only seen the first OVA, when I watch more I'll update this review.

The ... story itself isn't anything overly complex. There's a lot of political intrigue, with different families vying for power, and some murders to go along with this. It took a little bit of time to figure out who was who, but 15 minutes in and I had a pretty good idea. They didn't slow down the story to give lots of explanations, but didn't try to do so much here that it needed tons of explanations, and considering they only have 4 OVAs to tell the story they want to, this pace was good. There weren't any big surprises, but there was a lot of tension throughout the story. The opening battle was also a great way to introduce the story, and it looked wonderful even though I didn't really know what was going on. The show was also able to pull on my heartstrings with the bonds between the family as I saw the love they had for each other, even the family cat. It was these emotional moments that brought everything together, and made me want to see what was going to happen to the characters.

What really made the show stand out for me were the characters. While the show does jump around, the focus is on Casvel, a young boy, but a very determined and strong character. His desire to get what he wants is really great to see, and makes him a protagonist worth rooting for, and one that I know will be an awesome character as we get further with this story, heck, he's already had some awesome moments facing down powerful enemies. Artesia is his younger sister, and has much simpler desires, which really serves as a great contrast. All the other side characters are instantly likable with the way they're fighting for what they want, though some are certainly more noble than others. They haven't gotten much devlopment yet, but even without this they still really help to push the story forward, and I'm guessing we'll get to see them grow through the rest of these OVAs

The artwork was pretty good. The battle in the beginning was great, but that was the only really notable part. Still, there weren't any moments where the art was bad, and the style felt like the older shows, so quite fitting for Gundum. The only part of the soundtrack I can remember is the song at the end, which really did a good job of wrapping everything up, but the rest of the music was forgettable, though once again it did its job of accenting the story.

Overall, this was a fantastic start. We have a well paced gripping story, with a lot of very likable characters. The few flaws here are minor enough to not get in the way of the story. I'm looking forward to more of this one.

Warning, this review contains minor spoilers. No specifics are revealed.
The Fate series has a lot of hype surrounding it, with Fate Zero regarded by many as one of the greatest anime ever made, and it was my introduction to the series this past summer. After some encouragement from some friends, I decided to watch Fate Zero, and while it’s not as amazing as some would say, I found it to be a great show. So, I was excited to see Ufotable’s adaptation of Fate Stay Night, so much so that I put it on hold so I could marathon it when the season finished, something ... I blew through in the past two days. So, that leads to the question, was Fate Stay Night able to live up to live up to the hype, or is it just another mediocre show?

Mindset

In order to understand my thoughts on this show, you must understand the perspective I’m coming from. As I saw Fate Zero recently, I view FSN as a sequel to Fate Zero. I know that this show is meant to stand on its own, and as such must explain things that I already know. I will attempt not to hold this against the show, but as I know I am at least somewhat biased by this fact, I felt it was best to make this bias clear.
Also, this is only my review for the first season. I may redo this when the second season comes out, but well, I haven’t so far. So don’t yell at me for failing to take into account some epic scene that occurs there.
So with that out of the way, let’s move onto the story.

Story

I’m pretty sure if you’re reading reviews of the series, you already know the basic premise. Fate tells the story of a Holy Grail War, a death match between 7 mages for the prize of the wish granting Holy Grail. Each of these 7 mages is given a servant, a heroic figure from the past to fight alongside. There’s magic and action, and death, and really everything I ask for in a show.
I will say this much, the story was very gripping. Every time an episode was over, I found myself excited to watch the next one. I did enjoy the mystery of wondering who was who, and what they were all capable of. Another thing that I really like was how they explored what it meant to be a hero of justice. The main character, Shiro is very idealistic, to borrow a term from ThatAnimeSnob’s character video, he’s a Boy Scout character. This really allows him to highlight the themes of the show, contrasting with the death game he’s found himself a part of.
Unfortunately, that’s about all the good I can say about the story. Now, I really wanted to like Fate, the premise is really interesting, I really liked Fate Zero, but there were so many problems with Fate Stay Night. The first main problem I have with the show is its boring introduction. Much of the first couple episodes are showing the main characters just go through their everyday lives. Yes, I know this was to introduce them, but I found it very dull. The information dumps were really boring as well, though I will admit, part of this is because of what I knew from Fate Zero.
The second main problem were number things that didn’t make sense. A good example of this is the magic system, which seems to work in whatever ways are convenient to the plot. Such as Shirou randomly having self-healing magic, quite helpful as it seems he seems to be injured about every other episode. He also ends up just happening to use a type of magic he’d never showed any ability with in the show, right as he needed it to save his life.
There’s also the fact that for a death game, there is surprisingly little death with only one death in the first half of the show. This isn’t for lack of battles either, as it seems like each episode has at least one fight in it. They just normally end with both sides deciding to retreat, wanting to have an honorable fight at a later time or something. If this just happened rarely, then I’d be okay with it, but with it happening all the time, that’s a problem. We have all this build up, but no real payoff. There’s also the fact that in many battles, the fighters are idiots. Typically the mages are weaker than the servants, so it would makes sense to go after them first. So things would go a lot smoother if Archer decided to fire his attacks at Berserker’s master instead of Berserker early on.
And of course, there is also the inconsistent tone of the show. I enjoy comedy, if I can laugh during a show that normally makes it more enjoyable. Unless the comedy doesn’t fit. Fate Stay Night is a serious story about the death game, so this lighter content really doesn’t fit the mood, and this goes even more so for the romantic subplot with Shirou and Ren. Trying to cram a romance into an action shonen type show does not work, as should be obvious after seeing Sword Art Online
So in the end, the story really did have potential, but its slew of problems made it fall so short of what it could have been. I did enjoy it, and really want to see more, but I can’t call the story good.

Characters

I’ve already talked about Shirou some with the themes the show presented, and that really is the highlight of his character. He is very idealistic, naïve even, but this is why I’m drawn to his character. Many of the others have grown up and seen the dark sides of the world, and know that being a simple hero of justice is impossible. But Shirou contrasts this, not being willing to abandon a few to save many, something that stands in stark contrast to his father. He’s very self-sacrificing, not caring about himself if it means helping another. This is very admirable, and makes me want to see him win, even if it seems like he’s the underdog, and really doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation.
Shirou’s servant, Saber was one of the main characters in Fate Zero, and one of my favorite characters from that show. Here we see her and her noble characteristics in wanting to be an honorable warrior, and do her job as a knight to protect Shirou, even if Shirou doesn’t really understand the whole stay out of danger thing. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the same flair, the same convictions as seen before. I still like her character, but more because of who I knew her as before instead of anything she has done here. So far in FSN, she hasn’t gotten much depth or development, or any awesome moments, though that may change in season 2.
There’s also Rin, another one of the masters and a longtime friend of Shirou. She serves in many ways as Shirou’s guide to the Holy Grail War. At times I really like her, she can be very strong, knows what she wants. She can also be easily flustered, which isn’t a bad thing, however there are times she feels like a standard Tsunade, which really is a shame, as I liked her character at the start. Her feelings and actions toward Shirou seem to be all over the place, from caring about him, to trying to kill him, to possibly being in love with him, to anywhere in the middle, and this inconsistency is her biggest flaw.
The last of the notable characters is Archer, Rin’s servant. Archer is a very analytical character, which contrasts well with the hot-headedness of Rin, and Shiriou’s idealistic nature. He does what needs to be done to win, and if it requires sacrificing some innocents to do so, then he’s okay with this. His actions at time also seemed to be inconsistent, though I think there may be some reasons behind this which we will see in season 2.
There are a few other side characters, like Shinji who I really want to punch in the face, Caster, who is in many ways the villain of the show, but there isn’t anything that notable about any of them, or the other characters I haven’t mentioned yet. I do hope we get more development for the rest of the cast when season 2 comes out. One of the things I liked about Fate Zero, is that I could root for most of the teams, to a degree, while here anyone other than Rin and Shirou I don’t care about.
Shirou really is the only highlight character of the show, and I know that a lot of people don’t like him. I really do wish they’d do more with Saber and Rin, as they have a lot of potential. The other masters and servants are quite disappointing as well, though this could be comparing it to what Fate Zero was able to do.

Animation/Sound

The fact that Ufotable is animating Fate Stay Night means that there isn’t much to complain about here. The backgrounds are detailed, using bright lights or the right tone of darkness to highlight the scenes. The actual animation can be lacking at times, especially when it’s just two characters talking, but this is a minor complaint. The battles are done very well from an animation standpoint. Still, there isn’t anything that blew me away animation wise, and while this is a step up from most shows I watch, it isn’t anything amazing.
The soundtrack is good, accenting the battles with epic music, and who doesn’t like epic music? But still, the music is pretty generic, doing its job, but nothing more.
The opening did a great job of pulling me in, I think I watched it about 10 times in a row when I first saw it. However, as I was watching the show itself, I became less impressed with the opening. Still, it was well animated, had a catchy song, and got me hyped for the show, so I can’t ask for much more than that.
While I’m normally not one to criticize Japanese dubs, as I have a hard enough time doing that with English, I did have a small complaint that there were times where Shirou’s voice seemed off, which I think might have been that it sounded like another character the voice actor had done, and after doing some research, I found it was Sasuke from Naruto. A pretty small nitpick, but still one I thought mentioning.

Conclusion

This show really failed to live up to the hype that I and the rest of the community had. There was so much here that they could have done with the premise, but it just fell flat next to its potential. I wanted to like this, I really did, and there were a number of moments that really made me think this was a great show. Of all the season 2’s coming out in 2015, this is definitely the one I’m looking forward to the most. But there are too many problems for me to give this much praise beyond anything more than an entertaining watch.

Pros:
Exciting story
Interesting themes about being a hero
High production values as can be expected from Ufotable

Cons:
Inconsistent tone
Things not making sense
Characters Lack Depth

Scoring

Story: 5/10
Characters: 5.2/10
Animation: 8.5/10
Sound: 7.5/10
Total Score: 5.81/10 (Note that categories are not weighed equally)

There are some anime that leave me without words. Sometimes this is because of their wonder, how incredible the anime is able to tell it's story, and is so deep and complex that I don't know how to comprehend it.

Then there are shows like this.

I would say no one should watch it, but it's 20 minutes, and is an experience.