OmOmegaSiets
November 8, 2013
Recommended
"People die if they are killed." -Shiro Emiya Truer words have never been spoken, and yet, despite how obvious this truth should be, ironically so many anime violate it on a regular basis; Fate/Stay Night being no exception to the tradition. Yes, in fact one of the characters requires being killed at least a dozen times before he is truly dead. So don't make fun of Shiro guys; he really isn't stating the obvious. Quite the contrary actually, when anime tropes are concerned. At the time of writing the latest revision to this review, there's only been a few hundred instances where a bunch of old richmen gathered together in a room and asked each other, "How can we make like, a bizillion yen really fast?" And before the question was even finished, someone immediately interrupted mid-sentence, "Another Fate/ adaptation." Indeed, with Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero, Fate/Prototype, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, and Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, for franchise newcomers there's enough slashes to cut right through your skull and watch your brains spill out. Luckily for you, I'm here to guide you back to Kotomine Church and make sense of it all. To cut straight to the chase, Fate/Stay Night is an anime adapted from a visual novel of the same name. In this VN, there are three branching story routes that depending on which one the reader chooses can wildly alter the course of events throughout the story. This anime is (primarily) an adaptation of the first route, referred to simply as "Fate" respectively. At this point in the franchise's development however, things have gotten rather complicated. There are now two anime adaptations of the second route (Unlimited Blade Works), an adaptation of the prequel story (Fate/Zero), and a planned adaptation in the works for the third route (Heaven's Feel). Furthermore, all of these adaptations so far are debatably very different in tone and feel, as well as quality, so where the hell to begin in order to get the best experience out of Fate? Well you can always start with just reading the source material first, as it is the most fleshed out and comprehensive version of the story, but I'm assuming most readers of this review are anime-only watchers, in which case I will do my best to give a recommendation for what I think is the best watch order for those who have no intention of delving into the source material.
Now that we've gotten all that prefacing out of the way, it's time for more prefacing. You might be thinking that the best route would be to start with Fate/Zero, as it takes place first chronologically in the story, but you would be wrong. The thing is, Fate/Zero was written to be a prequel, and as such, it is meant to be viewed after experiencing F/SN. Watching Fate/Zero first will spoil many key events of Fate/Stay Night. It could be likened to seeing the prequel trilogy of Star Wars first; ruining the surprise of uncovering Darth Vader's identity in the later episodes. However, it's hardly the end of the world either if you do decide to watch Fate/Zero first, and despite exaggerations by the fanbase, I'd say it's OK to start with it, but I wouldn't personally recommend it for a number of reasons in addition to spoilers. Narratively, Fate/Zero feels very different from the rest of Fate/Stay Night, and its opening episodes are rather slow and exposition-heavy, so not only would it set some unrealistic expectations when you move on to the rest of the franchise, but you may not even get that far because you thought the introductory act was too damn long and drawn out, jumps all over the place between a bunch of characters, and there's way too much technical bullshit to keep track of, so you shuffled it on to your dropped list. I think it would just give a wrong first impression of what Fate is all about. On the other hand, you could start with this anime, but that still comes with its own caveats as well. While this series should technically be the entry point for newcomers, nevertheless being that this was the first adaptation of the franchise with a very limited budget, the production values have not aged well, especially when stacked against the other adaptations, which don't just have vastly superior animation; they have some of the best animation in the industry period. On top of that, the pacing and storytelling isn't quite as polished either. And yet despite all of this, I must insist that viewers at least consider watching this series first, as it does carry some pivotal plot points and standout moments that you will not be able to see in any of the other adaptations. Fate/Stay Night may have its fair share of flaws, but I think it is a series that is still enjoyable and deserving of your time. Another viable option is to watch the more recent Unlimited Blade Works TV adaptation first, as this will most likely provide you with the most polished and best entry level experience to Fate yet, but in doing so you may spoil yourself so much with its god-tier visuals and expert storytelling that I'm afraid this series may become unwatchable for you by comparison, and you won't be able to appreciate what it offers. Hence the need for all this prefacing, because ultimately it really comes down to a toss-up between F/SN and F/SN: UBW as your first viewing, as they both have consequences on how you may view and approach the franchise going forward. Personally, I would recommend at least giving this series a shot first, as it is the first anime adaptation of Fate, and technically the "correct" watch order if you intend to follow the same format as the VN. If you can stomach some of its more drab points, I think you'll find that the emotional payoff is worth it in the end.
FINALLY, THE EFFING WATCH ORDER:
Fate/Stay Night -> Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (Season 1) -> Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (Movie Version) -> Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel (if you have the patience to wait for its release) -> Fate/Zero -> *BONUS* Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (Season 2) -> *EXTRA BONUS* Carnival Phantasm, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, Fate/Prototype, etc. (these are all spinoff series)
(SIDE NOTE: Personally, I found the second season of Unlimited Blade Works to be a disappointment, hence why you might notice the strange-looking order here. Start with season one and then finish with the movie, which was more true to the VN and had generally better direction and fight choreography in its final acts.)
Well holy shit, if you got this far and realized that I still haven't even gotten to the synopsis of this anime yet, you should now have a good idea of what it feels like watching the first episode of Fate/Zero. I promise though, I'm actually going to talk about the anime now.
Fate/Stay Night follows the story of Shiro Emiya, who is an ordinary high school studen--wait a minute. Siiiiiigh. Isn't this the same as every other nauseating SoL setup? We haven't even gotten past the first sentence and you're already boring me to tears, reviewer. Well it's not my fault that the producers chose to fall back on the same old cliches again because they didn't have enough confidence in their story to try and sell it on its own merits. I didn't write the damn plot, so don't blame me. Wait, why am I arguing with myself? Erhmm, let's continue.
So Shiro, being your typical slice of life protagonist, goes to high school to do your typical schoolboy things. But hold on a second, there's a twist! Thank Haruhi, because I was half a centimeter away from clicking on my hentai bookmark. As it turns out, Shiro suddenly gets thrust into this super secret and dangerous conflict known as the Holy Grail War, wherein seven magi and their servants each compete for possession of the mythical Holy Grail. The Holy Grail itself apparently has a mind of its own, and it's decided that the best way to choose who is most worthy of its miracles is to have everybody kill each other. Because as we all know, might makes right, and what could possibly go wrong if a murderous sociopath obtains the power to wish for whatever he wants? Not that a person like this would have any sort of advantage in such a scenario I guess. Nope. None whatsoever. But Shiro, being our usual idealistic champion for justice, rejects violence and finds the whole thing despicable. On the other hand though, he just accidentally stumbled upon a sexy blonde chick that calls him "Master", and if he refuses to participate in the war then she will disappear. So Shiro naturally does what every horny high school student would do in this situation: vote with his dick. And thus, the fifth Holy Grail War commences.
OK, so it doesn't go exactly like that, but I'm sure you can sort out the fact from fiction in my improved synopsis, which Type Moon should totally pay me for writing.
Anyway, the first thing that really stood out to me about Fate/Stay Night was its character designs. In fact, the way I initially discovered this series was through stumbling upon some artwork of Saber online and instantly falling in love with her, which consequently prompted me to research what anime she originated from. Then I discovered Rin Tohsaka, and with me being a sucker for cute tsunderes, it didn't take any amount of time for me to warm up to her. It's really rare that I come across an anime that has not just one female character with an iconic design and a personality that is straight up waifu material, but two. Then the awesome characters just keep piling on, like the pretentious badass that is Archer, who is also the character that coined the term "gar" just for being such a manly stud. There is simply no shortage of fantastic characters in this anime. Though many of them may appear to be stock archetypes at first, when more of their backstories are elaborated upon we get to see that they are more complex than meets the eye. Although, for some characters you may need to read the visual novel to really see the full depth of the character, which brings me to my next point.
Not all fares well with FSN's characters. Some of the magi participating in the war don't get as much character development or focus as they should, such as Illyasviel von Einzbern who commands the servant Berserker. Furthermore, Shiro's unwavering dedication to his ideals can often lead him to making incomprehensibly stupid decisions. He is overprotective of his servant despite that Saber is perfectly capable of defending herself. In fact, it is the sole purpose of her summoning in the first place that she is supposed to fight for him, yet Shiro continually denies her the chance at every opportunity, as well as foolishly runs into the fray, which usually results in him getting severely injured because he is grossly outmatched against a battle-hardened heroic spirit. This can too often leave the viewer with the impression that Shiro is annoying and ignorant, but at the same time it is this exact trait about Shiro that provides for some of the more interesting conflicts of the series. Ironically both Shiro and Saber are so dedicated to their ideals that even though they share the same beliefs, they often cannot get along with each other. The fact that they are so determined to uphold these ideals to the point of tragedy makes for many intriguing situations throughout the series.
Part of the reason that some of the previously mentioned characters don't receive as much attention as they should is due to some prolific narrative problems throughout the anime. Namely, it spends a considerable amount of time just having the characters indulge in silly antics at Shiro's house or sitting around sipping tea while listening to tedious lectures from Tohsaka. I'm sorry Rin. I love you, and imma let you finish, but you aren't the greatest mage of all-time. Oops, did I strike a nerve? Who am I to second-guess your magical prowess I suppose. Just keep condescending to Shiro then; what with your incomplete summon of a heroic spirit that can't even remember his past, while Shiro in his amateur ways managed to summon forth a more powerful servant than you. But I digress. The point is, like my irrelevant tangent that I just finished rambling off, Fate/Stay Night's themes struggle to remain consistent at times, as it can't seem to figure out whether it wants to be a typical comedic slice of life or an epic dark fantasy tale. Couple this with its painfully slow pacing at times, and the story overall takes a huge hit due to these flaws. There really is no excuse for all these pointless and slow moments because there is so much interesting backstory from the source material that they could have otherwise drawn from. Whereas the visual novel elaborates on the summoning of Illyasviel's servant and reveals how she is able to control such a seemingly unruly heroic spirit like Berserker, the anime will in contrast waste an entire episode having Shiro and Rin repetitiously track down and dispel some sigils throughout the school, or hold a silly mock duel between Saber and Shiro's teacher, Taiga. Nearly every other episode feels like it needs to take a break from the grail war and go on vacation at Shiro's house when it should have kept the momentum moving along at a steady pace instead. Many of these types of scenes could have been trimmed in length or removed entirely in order to make way for some more important plot points that got left out.
In spite of these problems, Fate/Stay Night's story never really crosses the line into being unequivocally bad. Even the more juvenile moments at Shiro's house are at least entertaining on a superficial level for their humor, as well as minimally offer up some small amount of character development between the anime's two main protagonists, Shiro and Saber. What really sets FSN's story apart from what could have been a typical shounen series is that even though it starts out in your standard and cliche high school setting, it quickly moves away from that and takes a decidedly darker and more philosophical tone throughout the rest of the series, delving into Saber's tragic past when she was still a mortal human being, as well as exploring Shiro's stubborn determination to uphold his ideals even in the face of impossible odds. The struggles and tragic romance that these two characters go through culminate in a very emotionally fulfilling and bitter-sweet ending that will likely leave a lasting impression on you. The evolution of the main protagonists in this series is very thoroughly developed, and arguably one of the most satisfying aspects about this anime. Furthermore, the extended cast of characters and other magi get a decent amount of screentime too, and watching all the servants slowly reveal their secret abilities and identities during the course of the various battles is entertaining to see unfold. Overall, the narrative has a refreshingly dark and mysterious tone to it throughout, which keeps the viewer intrigued and always eager to uncover more of the Holy Grail War's secrets.
As the anime is based on a rather lengthy 50-hour visual novel with three major branching story arcs, it was inevitable that some cuts and alterations to the story had to be made to fit the anime's 9-hour long runtime. Studio DEEN opted to borrow some plot points from the two secondary routes (Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel respectively) while mostly sticking to the Fate route, which was the main route of the VN. Some of the alterations worked well, others were questionable. Chances are though if you haven't read the visual novel going into this, you're probably not going to notice anything particularly strange anyway, aside from a few minor plot points that don't get fully explained like they should. Nonetheless, this hasn't stopped the fanbase from thoroughly panning the series for taking the liberties that it did, but I think it's important to judge works on their own merits independent of whether they follow their source material, and while I would agree that the anime doesn't live up to the quality of the visual novel, it is still an enjoyable series for what it is.
In terms of art and animation, Fate/Stay Night is overall slightly above average for its time, though not truly great either. It has its noteworthy moments such as the duel between Saber and Assassin, which showed some pretty slick-looking and fast-paced swordplay. On the other hand, in the very same episode during another fight, we are treated to a high-detail close-up of Saber dashing forward followed by a jarringly low detail animation of her slicing away at some skeletons. There is an occasional inconsistency to the quality of the animation that can be disappointing at times, and then there was the perplexing decision to animate an awkward-looking CGI dragon at one point that would have been best left out. Regardless, it works more often than it doesn't, and the artwork effectively creates the dark atmosphere that the anime aims for. This is further complemented and enhanced by the music composed by Kenji Kawai, who I am a major fan of from listening to his other work in Gundam 00. The opening intro is accompanied by a remixed version of the song "This Illusion" from the opening of the visual novel, which sounds really good, and the animation flows very nicely with the music. This goes for the second opening too, which was very well-animated and accompanied with a quality hard rock-themed arrangement. It's just unfortunate that the animation quality for the series as a whole rarely approaches that of its opening segments.
For the English dub, the voices for the most part fit all of the characters very well, with Sam Riegel as Shiro, Kate Higgins as Saber, and Mela Lee as Rin. Kate Higgins in particular did an excellent job portraying Saber's voice with a sense of authority and stoicism befitting to her character while tempering it effectively with a more feminine and vulnerable side when the scenes called for it. Unfortunately though, all future iterations of the Fate universe never see Kate return as Saber, as the Unlimited Blade Works movie instead cast Michelle Ruff, and yet again she changed voices in Fate/Zero with Kari Wahlgren, which is a shame because Kate really is the definitive voice of Saber as far as the English version is concerned. Mela Lee's voice brings out Rin's haughty attitude quite well, though occasionally she could sound a little stiff. Liam O'Brien plays Archer and likewise delivers an impeccable portrayal of the pompous badass. Other notable performances include Stephanie Sheh as Illyasviel, who strikes a perfect balance between cute and creepy as her character is intended to be, as well as Jamieson Price as Kirei Kotomine, whose deep and somber voice is absolutely perfect for Kirei's cold and gloomy presence. I could go on, as there are plenty more veteran actors that make appearances in this series, but needless to say the English voice cast is all in all one of the better ensembles I've had the pleasure of listening to in anime. Due to a number of odd casting decisions in later installments of the Fate franchise though, some may want to opt for the subtitled version instead if you don't want to deal with continually changing voice actors. Just a fair warning.
All things considered, Fate/Stay Night gets a lot of things right, but as emotionally satisfying as I felt the anime's conclusion was, I couldn't help having a pervasive feeling that in the hands of the right artists it still could have been so much more. With a story and characters as rich as the Fate universe, this series could have easily reached legendary status as a true masterpiece if it just had the proper budget and capable studio to do it justice. Due to a bevy of pacing and consistency issues with FSN's narrative and animation however, it just doesn't quite reach greatness. However, even a mediocre attempt at adapting superb source material still rounds out to be above average overall, so if you're looking for a good entry point into the Fate universe, Fate/Stay Night is a perfectly acceptable place to start.
