FiF#2-Fate/Stay Night (2006 Series)

Ten years after surviving a disaster in Fuyuki City, Shiro Emiya is about to learn the secret behind that tragedy.  Without warning, Shiro is drawn into a seven way battle royale.  Seven mages, each with their own heroic spirit servant, match wits, weapons and tactics for a powerful, wish granting artifact called the Holy Grail.  Shiro’s servant is the beautiful swordswoman Saber.  His only other ally is the beautiful prodigy Rin Toshaka and her servant Archer.  Shiro may be the most inexperienced mage in this fight.  But he’ll have to drawn upon sources of power he never knew he had if he’s going to survive the deadliest match up of his time. 

Around mid 2015 I finally sat down to watch Fate/Zero on Netflix and ended up loving it.  Upon finishing it, I couldn’t wait to watch Fate/Stay Night and see what I was now calling “The Children’s Crusade” as the next generation took over the Holy Grail War.  Trouble was, the only series available was the ongoing Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, not the original Fate/Stay Night series.  I’ll get to UBW down the line more than likely.  But I did manage to track down the 2006 Studio Dean Fate/Stay Night series and was excited to start it.  Figured I’d dedicate the second week of my First Impression Friday’s to my thoughts on this series I’ve longed to see.

I should also say right away that I’m coming into this series having watched two prior Fate/Stay Night entires: Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works and it’s prequel, Fate/Zero.  Both of those series and the UBW movie were animated by Studio Ufotable (how the hell do you pronounce that, if anyone knows please tell me.  Otherwise I’m just going to call it U-Fo-Table).  This studio seems to be one to take a budget for a movie project and hand it off to a TV series.  Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night UBW The Series are two of the best damn looking Anime I have ever seen, even if the subject matter of both are hit and miss.  So, going back to this series, one disadvantage right off the bat is the animation quality.  There is no competition.  This animation for this series pales in comparison to Ufotable’s works.  The Fate/Stay Night series looks like an Anime of the 00’s and doesn’t really stand out from say Peacemaker or Maburaho.  Those expecting to see the awesomely polished and well choreographed fights will be disappointed as well.  The pace of how the action unfolds just isn’t as great as UBW or Fate/Zero.

I guess im being a little bit harsh on Fate/Stay Night.  On it’s own…right now it’s just ok.  I’m not disappointed but I find myself throwing in the production card a lot.  Plus, it’s a much more light hearted take on the story.  That’s not to say it doesn’t have it’s moments of intensity, oh they’re there alright.  There’s a lot more humor this time around though.  I often thought back to Tenchi Muyo seeing Shiro have to balance talking with Saber, Rin, Sakura and Fujimura all in the same scene at times.  How does one so…well Shiro, get the attention of this collection of beauties?  It definitely detracts from the seriousness that was present in other Fate entries.  It can be cute sometimes and I am curious how Shiro’s relationships with Saber and Rin will differ from what ive seen before.  Though it will be tough to top Shiro and Rin’s relationship from the UBW series, which is one of the most genuine and entertaining romances I’ve seen since Inuyasha and Kagome. 

All of the usual suspects are here: Shiro, Rin, Saber, the servants and masters.  Once again, Rin steals much of the early episodes just because she’s Rin and she’s awesome.  Saber also impressed me a bit more here, cant say why.  Shiro…I didn’t think he could get more aggravating than in Unlimited Blade Works.  Instead of monologing about his beliefs every five seconds, he’s keeping Saber from doing virtually anything after her first fight.  Granted Saber giving him fuel for his argument isn’t helping.  I was groaning a lot.  There are times I wonder if Shiro could just be exorcised from this series entirely.  It could very well survive on the strength of Rin and Saber as a team.  I’m also curious to see if Sakrua’s role will be expanded.  Fate/Zero hinted at some dark destiny in store for her and that was more or less pushed far away in UBW (along with her secret sibling relation to Rin) for the sake of developing Rin and Shiro’s romance (didn’t have a problem with that). 

So will I continue with this series?  Definitely.  Flaws and all, I am a fan of this franchise and I will see Fate/Stay Night to it’s conclusion.  Whether or not it gets better…I don’t have a good feeling.  But I’m not going to let that stop me.  So long as Rin and Saber can kick some serious ass and make up for Shiro’s lack of everything, I think I’ll be pretty content.  Take heart Fate fans, I’m in this for the long run.