...

Holy shit.

So a few days ago I was using my newfound free time (winter vacation ftw!) to engage in a favorite hobby of mine - finding new anime to watch.

It was then, my friends, that I came across this jewel.

All I can say is... holy shit. This anime is very new - so new, in fact, that it only started airing in Japan on January 2006 and finished in June.

Apparently, the anime was based off a visual novel made by the same guys who created Tsukihime.

The whole story is set in the modern world and revolves around Shiro Emiya, an amateur mechanic with some limited talent at sorcery (by "limited" I mean "he sucks major ass", but this is quickly remedied just a few episodes in) who is thrust into a Battle Royale-like conflict called the "Holy Grail War" which consists of seven magicians ("Masters") fighting over, you guessed it, the holy grail, which apparently can grant any wish. Each of these magicians are aided by "Servants", familiars summoned by them who usually share the similar goal of obtaining the grail for something.

To make a long story short, Emiya stumbles on a duel between two Servants, and, in an amazing display of idiocy, yells out his surprise and runs, centering everyone's attention on him. One of the Servants breaks the duel and runs after him, but his opponent is held back by his own Master. In the end, the Servant that chased after Emiya finds him and is about to kill him, when apparently Emiya's latent sorcery activates, summoning a hot blonde bitch with a sword. She wtfpwns everything, causing the other Servant to run away. She then states that Emiya is her Master. The story kicks off from there.

I demand that you watch this anime. Seriously, the entire thing is made of win, straight from episode 1. I'm already completely hooked on it.

Alright, that post was fucking long...

 

This a very popular anime here on DLP actually. Some would say it's almost unhealthy how much some like it.

 

While I agree with you a bit on the anime, for those of use who've played the game, the animated version was mediocre at best.

Although the fight scene between Sabre and Fake Assassin is decent, it is far to short.

The Fate anime follows, unfortunately, the weakest storyline the game has to offer. The anime also doesn't show enough of the backstory of some of the main characters, almost pushing them aside as side characters to make room for Shirou, Saber and even Rin at times.

Sakura's true nature and everything involving her and Rider is completely left out. All of the backstory concerning Rider (Or her true identity Medusa, and the power of her Gorgon Eye) is never explained, and it seems as though she's been put in as canon fodder and fan service. Most of the true nature behind Archer is never revealed (Once again, unless you've played the game and catch all the anime's inside points). Although it's part of the Heaven's Feel storyline, they took the effort to show Zoken, but never what he had to do with the story.

Unless you know most of the characters histories through research or playing of the game, the anime will leave you scratching your head in so many places. I do have to tip my hat to Yuji Tamaguchi though for at least taking up the project, as capturing the essence Kinoko Nasu wrote for the characters is something very difficult.

The anime at least stays true to the arkwork and style of TYPE-Moon and Takashi Takeuchi, and that is something I also have to credit them for.

I reccomend the anime to anyone new to the series, but also suggest that you at least dig out some research on the characters, so you can catch the subtle hints that anime drops without being completely lost.


The game (and even the anime in some places) is an amazing follow up to TYPE-Moon's first release, Tsukihime (Which also rocked beyond belief). The game goes beyond much of what I've seen in terms of character personalities, depth, thought and originality.

 

Can't be any unhealthier then being happy over Fem!Pikachu tits...

 

Hey, those are there for the novelty only *looks around* SERIOUSLY THEY ARE.

 

Sakura-chan,Rider-chan,Caster-chan and Rin-chan.*giggles*.I love F/SN.

 

Hm, downloading right now. Got interested from Thal showing that Rider doll on IRC

 

^

Another convert.

Am I the only one who likes Saber here? I mean, sure, she can be a bitch, but she still pwns.

 

F/SN is great, especially all the wonderfull sex references; anime's based on H games own.

 

Not bad...just finished with the anime. And yes, certain things got me confused a bit. Well, perhaps I'll give the game a try to remedy that.
...
Ah and I think the Japanese voice actors trying to speak German might have left some lasting damage to my ears -.-

 

^ Good think I don't understand German... or Japanese for that matter. -_-

I just saw the ending, btw. 'twas awesome.

 

Just finished, and I found this to be an awesome series. i must have creamed myself a good 6 times.

 

The ending for the anime blew, hate to tell you. It was the same as in the Fate storyline in the game. Although the anime didn't quite hint at what the game did. That Sabre was still alive and at the 'tree', waiting for Shirou and Rin to come get her in their timeline.

The UBW ending was good and held an nice fight between both Shirou vs. Archer and Shirou vs. Gilgamesh (In his human form).

The Heaven's Feel ending was even better as it had an incredible fight between Shirou/Rider vs. Dark Sabre.

I was immensly displeased with the ending for the anime, as once again, it followed the weakest storyline in the entire series. The Fate scenario is really just a set up for the other two stories so I can understand why they would choose that one. Would have been difficult for viewers not familiar with the game to watch the UBW or HF stories and understand just what the hell was going on.

I'm still holding out hope that they might make an OAV or two and skip the costs of trying to air it on television or theatre's so they can cover more ground on the stories.

 

I've never actually watched the show until now, and all I can say, is that it's about fucking time.

Unfortunately, I do need my rest and have to sleep, so I can't watch all of it at once.

This is great so far, though it starts off slow.

 

Where can I get the game? If the story in the anime is as shallow as you say, I want to play the game first. That way I can understand the subtle hints in the anime.

 

Wtf! this is like Shaman King all over again. I don't understand whats so special about this.

 

Ahm...yeah...well, the multiple 'DBZ-like clash of the two super energy attacks (the evil dark beam and the good bright one) with both combatants fighting over dominance, the strength of will deciding the outcome, bla bla' moments towards the end were a bit annoying.

Still, overall, it was quite good and nowhere near the total overkill in the Shaman King anime. At least, I didn't see any transformer-like super spirits here that look like some sort of cheap plastic toy.

 

True indeed. The shaman king anime was an overkill as far i know. The manga was much better (in my opinion) even if they fucked up the anime.

I watched the anime "Fate/Stay Night" after a couple of episodes, and it caught my interest. It's pretty good.

 

The novel is better.

Rider and Saber pwn, but easilly, the best character's story: Archer. That takes balls.