Customer Reviews

Fate Stay Night (Viridian Collection)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm an equal opportunity anime watcher kind of gal, and I watch both shojo and shonen anime. I'm also fond of history and mythology. So when an anime combined the two, it was, in a word, brilliant.

Fate/Stay Night is about Shirou Emiya, a naive high school boy with an odd power to intuitively determine the structure of objects and has a dream to become a Hero of Justice and save everyone. He accidently gets roped into a magical battle royale called the Holy Grail Wars in which seven Servants, historical or mythological figures from the past, are magically summoned by magi, given form, and must fight each other to obtain the legendary Holy Grail. Along the way, Shirou falls in love with his Servant, Saber, and must make difficult decisions about his own future, Saber's, and the world's as he and Saber fight to obtain the Holy Grail and thus end the war.

The big joy of this series when you first watch it is playing the guessing game of the identity of each of the Servants (and some are not who you think they are!). The action scenes can be short at times, but what they lack in time they make up in blood (oh there is blood abound). The relationship between Shirou and Saber, while short (only about a couple of weeks) feels natural and sweet and awkward at times, but this aspect of the story makes you care much more about the two of them and the ultimate fate they must face.

An ingenious idea, Fate/Stay Night is definitely for those who like anime and mythology stirred together. It is definitely one of my favorite animes of all time.

This was a good, fun anime.

Great story, amazing animation (some of the best I've seen in recent years), and good comedy.

One thing that is interesting to note is one of the most ironic modern anime tsundere characters, Rin Tohsaka is in this show, so if you're an anime fan and don't know who she is yet, then you need to watch this. And if you don't know that tsundere means, google it.

a bit slow paced but some nice battle towards the second half of the series. some nice character development. for those more interested in character then fighting.

this is one of my favorite anime. it has great characters like saber and rin ang all good fight scenes. highly recommended!

I got this while at a convention but I figured I'd review it anyway.

Fate/Stay Night is easily one of my favorite anime series, it delivers many elements I like in anime(including the amount of legends and mythology used for the Servants) and the animation is great. And I love the characters, Saber and Rin are easily two of my favorite heroines and I can somehow relate to Shirou a lot.

But truth be told I went into watching this thinking I probably wouldn't like it becuase what some fans here in the west don't know is this series was originally a visual novel game for PC and PS2 and I played it prior to watching the anime which has caused a lot of mixed feelings about the series. Fate/Stay Night the anime follows mostly the Fate route of the game's three routes, Fate being the first one you go through that focuses on Saber. I say mostly because some parts of the series are put in from the other two routes, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel. Without giving too much away some of the scenes that don't belong technically is how Archer fought Berserker(in the game you don't see how he fought him) and Caster using Sakura Matou. Actually the major thing I don't like about the series is what they did to Dark Sakura.

Before I explain let me say Fate/Stay Night's PC version was a hentai game so yes, orignally Shirou has sex with Saber.(Obviously the anime is based off the PS2 version.) But back to what I mentioned, Sakura is the main focus in the Heaven's Feel route which is the root for what Caster used her for. I honestly don't like how Type-Moon handled changing it to be less adult oriented because without the sex, Heaven's Feel is meaningless. Plus they made Dark Sakura look weak compared to her original form where she was able to kill Gilgamesh and take control of Saber and Berserker. And on a lighter note I'm also not that big on the S&M type outfit they had her wear, I prefer the black and red dress she had in the game. But what I do like about this is that they gave Caster such a bigger role in the series as opposed to the Fate route in the game where she only appeared once.

Overall still, Fate/Stay Night is a good series and fans of action anime should watch it, yes the fights are a little short and the school scenes are a little long but that's just a side-effect of taking a story from a text-based game and animating it if you ask me. And even though I'll probably get some hate mail for it I actually like the dub. I've listened to the orignal voices throughout playing the game and with the way my ears are I could draw a lot of similarities to both casts, such as Saber, Lancer, and Ilya's voices sound as close to their Japanese voices as you can get. But the lip syncing sucks compared to other dubs I've watched. Anyway on a closing note if you liked Fate/Stay Night I also suggest not only playing the orignal visual novel but also look into the movie of the Unlimited Blade Works route and you won't be disappointed in that if you want to see more of Archer and finally see Shirou have more character. And the anime of the prequel Fate/Zero which is the story of the Holy Grail War Shirou dad fought in is also airing soon so you should look into that as well.

I really want to love this anime even more, I have given it 5 stars no matter my personal feelings on it but the only thing I can say is a negative is the many School or Normal scenes. Now I normally like that kinda stuff, I consider it a break and a time to build character back stories and relationships along with personality that you can't always get in battle. It does that for sure but than the Normal scenes are just to many, there are more of the Norm than the Battles which this film/anime seem to be based apon, is the action!

Either way, I really love this anime alot. If you are a fantasy/action fan than I would suggest buying this anime.

It occurred to me after watching this that in good anime the writers create very human characters that engage us regardless of how bizarre the circumstances of the story. This series affected me almost as strongly as "Kanon", but the ending with its intertwining of love and loss, duty, honor, respect, nobility, and sacrifice left me with a feeling of almost unendurable poignancy, a powerful emotional confliction and tension that was almost as physical as it was emotional and unique in my experience. (Except in very rare instances I watch all anime in Japanese with subtitles because as anyone who's read any of my other anime reviews knows, I immensely appreciate the skill with which the voice actors/actresses bring their characters to life. Because of this I can't comment on the quality of the dub.)

well, i enjoyed it very much.
the only thing wrong with it is that, like many OVAs, it feels a bit too short.20 somethin episodes never feel enough, and what suffers is the fight scenes. they always feel too short or downgraded or compressed. since its better to cut fight scenes short rather than story/substance. it, i guess, is something that should be expected in OVAs.
thats all.
good anime regardless.

This is a solid anime, my only complaints would be some of the english dub sucks, and normal episodes of every day life are pretty boring. But the action episodes are awesome and it has great music.

Excellent series so far about battling figures from mythology. Though the dub is left to be desired...