Fate/stay night - Anime Review

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Yet another series I watched ages ago and never got around to reviewing. In fact, I think I watched it the same week that I watched Highschool of the Dead.

I dunno, I could be remembering wrong, but the point is, this review is happening now.

Fate/stay night Anime Review

Shirou Emiya's parents died in a fire when he was just a small child, leaving him and orphan. After that he was raised by one Kiristsugu Emiya (thus the last name) until...well, Sir Emiya died as well.

In the world of young adult novels we have a word for this, Absent Parent Syndrome (APS). It's where the guardians are either dead or always out on business and whatnot, because apparently it's just cool for teens to be fending for themselves. But this isn't a book blog, so I won't go on about that.

Sir Emiya happened to be a magus, and Shirou happened to be an Epic Failure in regards to the whole using magic thing. Good thing they didn't send him to Hogwarts (oh look another book reference).

Once he's older and in high school and Uber Mature (as all high schoolers are) he ends up seeing what MAL calls a “conflict” and I call a freaking fight. In order to protect himself, he somehow ends up summoning a being of his own, her name is Saber.

The series revolves around what is called the Holy Grail War, in which seven Masters summon their Servants to fight amongst themselves to see who wins the Holy Grail...and the Holy Grail grants your wishes.

So it's like a genie, but not blue and voiced by Robin Williams. When they fight, it isn't just messing around.

The Servants can be killed, and they don't come back. It's kind of really freaking depressing. (Depending on the Servant. Some of them are just asshats).

The Characters: Fate/stay night

Honestly, I think this cast goes on my Top Ten Anime Casts Ever. They were pretty darn awesome. I was torn on whether or not I should watch the series in English or Japanese, which is a rarity, but the English has some of the dub VAs I really like.

Japanese won out though, when I noted the presence of Junichi Suwabe and most importantly (to me) Hiroshi Kamiya. And go figure, those two voiced some of my favorite characters.

But anyway. Shirou. Definitely a good main character. He wants to do well by people and help make the world a better place, but he doesn't have the whole preachy, in-your-face, holier-than-thou thing going on. Which is beautiful. Because I hate that.

Oh, and he's good at fixing things, which isn't your typical talent, so it was a nice change of pace. I'm not going to call him the Best Male Lead in the Universe but he's such an improvement on a number of others.

Saber, the Servant he summons right off the bat? She's one of the most powerful there is. As a result, she's completely badass.

You get a lot of amusing interactions because Shirou is like, “Woman. Must protect woman.”. And Saber is like “Rawr, I am a badass!” Except he doesn't actually sound like Tarzan and she doesn't make dinosaur noises. (This is disappointing. I feel everyone should make dinosaur noises at some point). Then you have the other Master/Servant pairs.

What's interesting is that some of them kind of team up with (dare I say befriend? you bet I do). There's Rin Tohsaka and her Archer.

The two of them actually move in with Shirou, which would probably freak me out a little if I were him. I mean, you've got two people whose goal will ultimately be to take you out (or at least your Servant).

But Rin is pretty awesome, and she does get attached to Archer, even though it was her goal to summon Saber. Other pairs include Shinji Matou and his Rider.

Shinji is a douche, and also voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya. But he's the kind of guy that it sort of sucks to be sometimes so you can't really hold his douchiness against him.

Then you have Illyasviel von Einzbern (call her Illya because uh...Illyasviel? they're Russian) and her enormous Berserker. Tiny little girl of the Mildly Creepy variety + hulking monstrous...thing. Yup. Makes sense.

I'm not going to go into detail on any of these people, but seriously? They're all pretty fantastic. Except maybe the character Gilgamesh.

I declared him a douche when he'd been on-screen for like 3 seconds and really...he kept up the douchery.

The Music: Fate/stay night

Whoa. Just whoa. This is one of the few OSTs so far that I qualify as Flat-Out Spectacular. (How to earn that rating? Distract me from the anime with the music. Make it so I have to go back and read the subs over because I was so busy listening to the awesome). Seriously, I fell in love with this music right off the bat.

It was awhile ago but I'm pretty sure my best friend ended up with me going OMG THIS MUSIC YOU MUST LISTEN.

Kenji Kawai did some brilliant work (oh hey, the first time I've talked about music for a series and it's actually not Yasuharu Takanashi!) for Fate/stay night. There's a nice mix of pretty / solemn stuff, as well as more upbeat.

My favorite track is actually one of the upbeat pieces, completely opposite of what I usually fall in love with. Akogare no Yuutousei is just so peppy though! I ended up tapping my fingers along whenever it played.

Other tracks I really recommend are, Senrei, Kodoku na Junrei, Majutsushi (seriously has the creepy music box thing going on, it's fantastic), Eirei Chinkon (strings!) and...the entire OST. It's one of my absolute favorites, like put it on a CD and sleep to it favorites.

Conclusion?

I really loved watching Fate/stay night Crunchyroll. It had the perfect blend (as far I'm concerned) of good storyline, great characters, fantastic music, nice action, and was all-around a damn good series.

Especially for a VN adaptation, since a lot of them end up being kind of lame. I can say this is one where I'm really glad they left any hint of ero out, because it just wouldn't have fit it. Seriously.

Now, am I saying there were no hints of romance in the anime? No, of course not. It was pretty darn obvious that Shirou's best friend was into him (shocking isn't it? that like, never happens in anime) and it was even sorta used against him at one point (again, that never happens).

Besides that you have Rin, who just qualifies as the tsundere of the series, imagine having a harem without a tsundere! And you've got Saber, and I think in the VN Taiga may have been an option as well.

Sadly I haven't managed to play it yet. But there's definitely not a focus on the romance. So if you're into action/fantasy stuff that isn't magical girls, I highly recommend watching Fate/stay night. It's pretty darned awesome.

My rating: 10/10

Okay, there were a few places where the art was kind of awkward and maybe some tiny other things, but I choose to ignore those in favor of the fact that I really freaking loved this anime and didn't want it to end.

Fan Art: Fate/stay night

Fate/stay night
Episodes	24
Genre	Action, Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural
Aired	January 7, 2006 to June 17, 2006
Directed by	Yuji Yamaguchi
Producers	Studio Deen, Frontier Works, TBS
Opening Theme	Disillusion by Sachi Tainaka / Kirameku Namida wa Hoshi ni by Sachi Tainaka
Closing Theme	Anata ga Ita Mori by Jyukai /Hikari by Jyukai