Fate/Stay Night is a work that really grew on me as I continued to watch it. This show managed to overcome a number of flaws, and ended up working where other shows would have likely failed. Despite this it isn’t a perfect show, even though it overall was an interesting anime to watch. It took me a little while to warm up to this show, and knowing it came from a dating sim video game I initially feared that it would be poor title. Thankfully my patience was definitely rewarded, and my fears laid to rest as I continued to watch further into the series. While on the surface this show this show seem to be slow, and generic, it quickly developed an interesting story and set of characters.
One of the problems I had throughout this show was it’s animation. While the fight scenes were generally impressive, I didn’t care much for the style of animation used, and I found the quality of this animation was also often inconsistent. The animation for Fate/Stay Night has a glossy overly computerized look to it, which I occasionally found distracting. This sort of animation feels oddly un-natural looking, and seems oddly enough fake looking. I know this is a weird thing to say since most anime doesn’t really look realistic, but something about this type of style reminds me of computerized looking manga (something I often complain about), and as a result the animation felt oddly off. The other major problem I had with the animation was that it was obvious where the animation budget went into. While I was greatly impressed by the flashy fight scenes, many times the other sequences clearly only had mouth movement on top of a still images. What did catch my eye though in this shows animation was the background and shading work, which did a great job of setting up the mood and setting. While a few elements were done well in the animation field, I was generally was not impressed by the animation in Fate/Stay Night.
Soundwise this work is also a very mixed bag. I didn’t care much for the dub in Fate/Stay Night, I thought the music was pretty good for background style music, and I thought the credits were alright but not particularly memorable. Something about the dub just didn’t work for me, and I’m not sure why this is. It’s not like the cast does a terrible job in the dub, but the voice acting was just not convincing. I think it might be that the characters sounded like actors/resses, rather then actual characters that were really involved in important action and interaction. The voice cast sounded like they are kind of going through the motion of playing their characters, and no one really stood out in the cast besides maybe Liam O’Brien, Grant George and Kate Higgins. This is definitely an anime best watched in the sub, which was much stronger then the dub.
The music was relatively good in this anime, but this music never really asserted itself enough to make a great soundtrack. The music is mostly used to create a sense of mood, and to put emphasis on what is going on in the story. I especially liked the use of Mozart Lacrimosa, and the theme for a specific major villain (which will not be mentioned in this review). The music was really well done, but it was easy to forget that it was actually playing. This made most of the musical tracks sadly forgettable, and not as interesting to listen to out of context of the show. While I enjoyed the music, it would be hard for me to separate it from the actual show, and continue to find find it compelling.
The credits weren’t particularly memorable for me. I enjoyed the first opening, but I didn’t feel it was an amazing opening either. I liked this opening’s musical track alright, but this opening was one of those openings with a lot of posing and very little creative imagery. The second opening felt un-necessary (especially when the ending wasn’t ever changed), and noticeably got less visually interesting then the first, but it was still an alright opening. The ending consists of a boring shot of the main servant character Saber (more on this topic later) standing still, with a dull slow pop track. I don’t really have much to say about these credits, which really didn’t annoy me or impress me all that much.
The story for this work is slightly unusual for a shonen style work, but is for the most part fairly typical. The adopted son of a mage Shirio Emiya is fairly average kid, besides some mysterious nightmares he has about when he was child. Besides being able to look into the structural contents of an object, and reinforce them he is fairly normal person who lives a fairly normal life (at least in Shonen terms of normal). He is looked after by a girl from his school, and by a teacher who both help him out with day to day house work, and help to keep him company. Soon, however a series of mysterious incidents explained on the news as gas leaks start to occur in his town. He doesn’t realize, however that these incidents are actually the result of a once in twenty year war over the coveted and magical Holy Grail.
This grail has the power to grant a wish to whoever ends up claiming it. In this battle randomly selected Magus’s are able to summon powerful servants, who are epic heroes from the past. These servants fall into one of seven classes: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Berserk, Rider, Assassin, or Caster. Each mage and servant then are to battle in this war until only one pair remains. This remaining pair both receive a wish from the grail as a reward for their victory in this war. Rin Tosaka, a model student, idol and witch at Shiro’s school ends up summoning up a mysterious Archer type servant with no memory his past. While cleaning up after a club Shiro accidentally walks into a fight that Tosaka and Archer are having against another servant. As a result he is nearly killed by this enemy servant, since servants are obligated to kill all witnesses to their battles. He is saved by a magical gem used Tosaka, but the servant who tried to kill him quickly finds out he is alive, and soon comes back to Shiro’s home to make sure he is properly killed. Some how, however he is able to summon a saber type servant (which is supposedly the strongest servant type), and his servant is able to fend off the attempt on his life. He soon creates an uneasy pact with Tosaka and his own servant, and begins to ready himself for the dangerous task of acting as a master.
For a shonen show based upon a video game, this show has no business being as good as it is. The key to why this show really stands out from the typical shonen is found in it’s execution. First off, the battles in this show really feel like they place the lead characters in danger. These conflicts make the characters really feel like they are fighting for their lives. The show goes out of it’s way to show how brutal these battles are by having the characters lose, get hurt, and/or become totally exhausted by their fights. Another element that this show really has going for it is that it has a strong female cast, unlike most shonen works that have obvious male biases. This inclusion of female cast members that are key to the show, such as Saber and Tosaka is a very welcome aspect. I enjoyed how these character prove in many cases as more useful, and intelligent then the male lead Shiro is, and are definitely a major part of the story. Another interesting feature is that this show presents some interesting moral questions for the characters. An example of one such question that often comes up is whether, or not to kill ordinary people to increase a servants power and mana supply. Lastly the story does a good job setting up suspense and mysteries, while not making these elements are overly contrived. These four features allow Fate/Stay Night to rise above average shonen works, and make the show really gripping.
Just like within the story, if the cast were handled in a average way they wouldn’t have been interesting. Thankfully, Fate/Stay does a good job handling it’s cast, and making them much more convincing then in most shonen works. Shiro is the typically heroic sort of lead character found in a shonen, except that he is always in character even when it’s unwise, makes realistic mistakes, and has strong reasons for the way he acts. He can be overly willing to put his life on the line, even when he can do nothing, and has to learn many lessons through suffering from the mistakes he makes. He grows as a character learning from these mistakes, and learns that certain sacrifices are required often on his path for success, and that other things most never be sacrificed. I wish I could go into more detail about his character, but I’d rather not spoil important plot points. Sabre is a very interesting character, because of how she interacts with Shiro, and due to how complex her goals are. While morally they have similar goals and values, Sabre is much less thrilled with Shiro’s need to help out in battle, and many times disagrees with his methods and orders. She has a very personal reason for wanting the grail, and for those who know the Arthurian back story her actions make lots of sense. She also clearly wishes to be taken seriously, and for her sex not to get in way of peoples view of her as a capable servant.
Rin is a interesting character who grows from helping Shiro. She begins the series determined to get the grail at almost any cost. She also is also initially is very distrustful, and is clearly distant from others around her. When she needs to look out for Shiro she develops more of a moral compass, and a willingness to work with others toward a central goal. She quickly realizes that despite her formal upbringing, which gives her clear power advantage as master and her mysterious servant, that she most value of friendship and should fight with Shiro. Archer likewise outwardly prefers being a loner, and he often can be a cold figure. He clearly doesn’t get along with Shiro, because of his skepticism toward Shiro’s behaviors.
The minor characters in this show range from mostly pointless except as plot points, to having very interesting motivations. The villains for the most part are a bit undeveloped, but all of the have reasons behind their actions. I like how many of the villains are portrayed as humanistic, and most have good reasons for their actions. The comedy relief minor characters were mostly pointless, though they weren’t overly annoying, and for the most part they were pushed to the side when the show started to pick up. I think the minor cast could have been developed a bit more, and the leading characters were a bit to cliched personality wise. Despite this though I feel that this show does a good job developing convincing reasons for each character’s personality traits, and for making sure the viewer really cares about even most of the villains.
Fate/Stay Night quickly grows from a cliche seeming shonen video game adaptation into a really interesting anime. While I didn’t care much for it’s animation style, the sound features aren’t perfect, and the characters and story at first glance seem cliche, this anime really has more interesting features to it then initially meets the eye. It’s execution allows it to make the character’s personalities convincing, and to create a compelling story that is stronger then in most shonen. While this anime might be on the harder side to find, I would recommend it if you can find it for a reasonable price purchasing it. Despite it’s flaws Arkada (a member of the Desudesbrigade review site) has successfully converted me toward liking this show.
