There are no spoilers in this review.
Fate/Stay Night I had some mixed feelings coming into it. I've heard of it's bad reputation many times, but I was a Fate/Stay Night fan (Via the Visual Novel) before watching it.
I already knew the story and characters so I had hope that it wouldn't disappoint. I am both happy and annoyed at how it turned out. But overall I was happy on how it turned out and I cried at the ending just like I did in the Visual Novel.
Story
The anime series follows the events of the Fate route of the Visual Novel. Now it's important to note that the Fate route was meant to be the training route of the Visual Novel and it wasn't the main event and it certainly wasn't my favourite of the three. But it was the one that did move me the most.
The story panned out much as predicted being I already knew it but their were things that annoyed me about how it was executed. First thing allot of the small details where a bit messed up and where not how they were in the Visual Novel. Such as Sakura didn't always cook, and she didn't always cook alone, when she was at Shirou's house. This is a small thing but it was an important detail to me. It just needed to follow the visual novel better.
My main other annoyances was the fact that important finale scenes from Heavens Feel and other important scenes from Unlimited Blade Works [The other routes in the Visual Novel] where integrated into important points in the story. I think it was a foolish action to do this and it did take away from the real story of Fate a fair bit and if an anime adaptation of Heavens Feel was ever to be made, these scenes would probably ruin it for those who watched this anime before watching the Heavens Feel adaptation or playing the visual novel.
But I do have to say that they followed the path of the Fate route well in all other areas staying pretty true to the story. It most definitely could have been executed allot better and more closely to the visual novel and should have. But I do give props for how the ending and epilogue where handled. Even though I knew how it was going to turn out it managed to make me cry again. This meant that I finished the series on a high note and enjoyed it greatly despite some of the flaws of it.
I think that this anime deserves a reboot to take it to it's full potential as it hasn't reached it yet.
Tech
I think that the biggest flaw in the anime was the tech side. The animation was good for the time it was made, but I've seen better. That being said the action scenes where quite good and it was good to see some battle scenes play out that we didn't in the visual novel.
My biggest disappointment was the sound effects. They where bad and dated. I've seen much older anime with a better sound effect set and I think if they used the ones from the Visual Novel it would have sounded better.
They seemed fond of using the sound of a blaster deflecting off a lightsaber as the sound for jumping and deflection. The OST was average but suited the scenes well. But both of these points I think are effected mainly by the time period in which they where made, more so than negligence by the makers to be fair. I didn't like that they changed songs for the intros someway through the series. The second one was just unfitting and bad.
The art style was a bit worse than expected. I honestly think the art quality from the Visual Novels animated intro was better. But again this is a point due to the time it was made. I think this anime suffered so much by being made when it was made. I think this is another important factor why this anime needs a remake.
Characters
The characters in this where handled pretty well. They stayed true to the visual novel very well. Of course I loved all the historical characters as I do have an interest in such things. One thing is they did lack the in-depth look that the visual novel format offered of them so people who haven't read it do lack out a bit on the characters.
I did decide to watch the anime in the English dub after much thought. As I had already heard the Japanese voices allot I was used to them and they sounded better. But in the end I decided to go with the English Dub anyway. I have to say you should probably go with the Japanese voices with English subs if you watch it. They suit the characters personalities better and English Gilgamesh was a joke. Kotomine's English voice actor was good though.
Conclusion
There are allot of positives and negatives about this anime. The anime failed to match up to the standards set by the Visual Novel. It's mixing of the different story lines, the execution of the details and the tech side of things where the biggest down points of the show and did take away from the feel of the story how it should be.
But this format did have advantages of the visual novel and the action was allot better and more involved than the visual novel. My thoughts are that you should read the Fate route of the visual novel before watching this anime.
You will enjoy it allot more than people new to the Fate/ franchise do. Enjoying the story in the Visual Novel format will allow you to enjoy the story more in the Anime format and playing or watching either is critical to do before watching Fate/Zero the recent prequel anime to the events of Fate/Stay Night.
Overall Fate/Stay Night was a positive experience for me.
Score: 7/10
