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Plot Synopsis

Fate/stay night was originally a game developed by TYPE-MOON, and is also the first creation which TYPE-MOON made after going into business (instead of being a group of "Doujinshi" people).

Seven Masters, Seven Servants. Only one can correspond to the Holy Grail

In the legend, the Holy Grail is an artifact that can make your wishes come true, in order to summon the Holy Grail, a ceremonial is required. The seven Masters chosen by the Holy Grail will be granted the seven Servants chosen by the Holy Grail: Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. The Master must prove him/herself that he or she is the only one qualified to use the Holy Grail. In other words, he or she must defeat all the other Masters to prove him/herself.

Shiro lost his parents in a fire when he was young, and was adopted by a magician, even though he denied teaching Shiro magic, the un-talented Shiro still master a little. When the magician died, Shiro remained a worthless magician. Entangled with the "War of the Holy Grail" by accident, Shiro was granted the Servant "Saber" and was chosen to be one of the seven Masters.

Credits: kulthuzard

Story & Characters

I have just finished Fate/Stay Night and it has made this day very special three-fold. One is that I have finished the long awaited second Type-Moon series (Shingetsutan Tsukihime being the first duh). The second is that this series ends the streak of terrible animes that I've seen lately. And third, and most importantly is this marks the 100th completed series in my meager existence. That my friend is reason for celebration! What? You don't care? Well screw you then, I'll celebrate after the review then.

Every ten years, seven masters are chosen to take place in the Holy Grail War. These seven masters are able to summon servants to assist in the war that also have a reason for obtaining the grail. The winner of this battle attains the holy grail and is able to have their wish as well as their servants wish granted no matter how wicked or noble that wish may be.

Enter Shiro Emiya. Shiro is a boy whose purpose in life is to be a hero of justice and make the lives of everyone around him better, many times at his own expense. One day without any knowledge he comes across a deadly battle between two of the servants in the war and is nearly killed because he witnesses this battle. After being revived by a fellow classmate and master, Rin Tohsaka, he retreats to his home all the while being followed. In desperation he finds that he has summoned a servant, Saber, and become a part of this war.

Fate/Stay Night's strengths come in its characters, drama and atmosphere. The show isn't terribly deep but the story it does have is one that is absolutely addicting and just plain fun to watch. It's hard not to cheer for this man Shiro as he tries his hardest to fight for the better of everyone and its also hard to not feel at least a bit of symphathy for the other masters. In fact this show feels a lot like "X" in that many of the characters you may like but you know that in the end they may die and six of them will lose. But that's what makes it so addicting, all the questions you have in your head will slowly get answered and many times it won't be the answer you were expecting. With that also comes a real sense of emotion throughout. I couldn't count how many times it felt like my soul sunk in the bottom of my stomach or goosebumps ran throughout my body just from the emotional impact and character attraction. It takes something special to do that.

Rating

9 (very good)

Art

Characters and action sequences are the bread and butter of Fate/Stay Night. The characters are mirror images of their bishoujo (read hentai if you must) game counterparts. They are all attractive in their own respect and to a degree quite original. While the character models themselves may lack detail, it is the clothing that gets the majority of detail. Rin is the dark-haired teenage school girl, but coupled with her gothic style red top and black skirt, she is given personality. It's also because of that that males watching this show will be more particularly pleased. Saber, Rin, Rider, and Sakura are the main female eye candy in the show and all have their own attractive traits. I'm personally a Rin fan myself so all you Saber fanboys can have at it.

Again action sequences are also a big part of the animation in this show. Fast and jerky movements add to the suspense and action. Battles aren't as fluid as one might expect for a show of this type, but instead goes for a much quicker and jerkier animation style. IE jumping around the screen and lots of sword flashes. It works out quite well in the end.

I only have a few minor quibbles overall. One is they did reuse a few animation sequences, most notably is the Saber sword swing animation. The other is that character animations do tend to lose a considerable amount of detail when they aren't as the main focal point in the scene and fall to the background. The final thing is they tried to incorporate CG animation is one sequence and boy oh boy was it ugly. That dragon looked like my Playstation 1 had resurrected and said "look at my revolutionary cut scenes." Yea, not so much PS1, go back to the garbage heap.

Rating

8 (good)

Sound

You may have never heard the name Sachi Tainaka before watching Fate/Stay Night and that's ok, I hadn't either. But her amazing work on two openings and the series closing songs have made her a household name with me. While all three songs are easily playlisters and reason enough for me to purchase her album, the second opening "Kirameku Namida wa Hoshi ni" sticks out as the best. It proves to be a song that not only amps you up for what is coming up in the next 25 minutes, but also proves to make you reflect on what has already transpired. Aside of that it is just liquid awesome in the form of a song. Background music is probably rates as one of the best scores in anime. Atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere. Music is so good at giving you the proper atmosphere that it won't be at all uncommon to be emotionally motivated (or demotivated) simply by the music alone. The variety of emotions you'll feel watching this show will be driven from music ranging from slow classical, to hard rock, all the way to pumped up techno. Not many animes can claim this degree of musical versatility.

Voice acting is outstanding all around the board. Personality was key to making each character fulfill a specific role in Fate/Stay Night, so matching vocal portions was a necessity. You have the sweet yet cocky up to ruthless Illyasviel von Einzbern (rolls off the tongue). The stern and eventually more vulnerable Saber. The pure unadulterated "I'm an uber badass" Archer. Voice acting was phenomenal all around the board, so much so that my usual best voice acting award goes to the whole cast. This is not a one person show here, it is an all around feast of pure pleasure brought on by unparalleled voice acting.

Rating

10 (excellent)

Presentation

When this show finished releasing on the internet I was seeing buzz that it wasn't up to Type-Moon par. My thought was that was quite possible when it's "par" was Tsukihime. But I must say after finishing Fate/Stay Night I find that it exceeded its predecessor in many areas including the most important thing, enjoyability. The plot was simple yet fun to see unfold. You can easily empathize with many of the characters and seeing their interaction is pure entertainment. Ear and eye candy all around to boot. There really wasn't much more that this show could have done to be any more entertaining than it was. In fact if there isn't more done with this property I will be sorely disappointed. I am even hoping that the game can catch a license, although that seems highly unlikely.

Now normally my last paragraph consists of "if you liked this or this, then you'll enjoy this show. But if you don't like this or are tired of this, than steer clear." But this time it is quite simple, if you don't like Fate/Stay Night, you are the devil or gay; whichever offends you more. Now celebrate with me: 100! 100! 100!!!

Rating

9 (very good)

Final Verdict

9.00 (very good)

Reviewed by shoujoboy, 1y 16wk ago