New Trailer, with English subs

Also, Hulu and Crunchyroll will begin streaming the series the day it premieres. October 4th.

 

I'm pretty freaking hyped for this.

 

Srsly, this will be the first Anime I ever watch as it's released I think.

Just gotta finish rewatching Fate Zero now. I have such good memories of the Visual Novel.

 

Hopefully this will resurge fate fanfics, I can count on my hand how many decent ones we have.

 

That's my hope as well. What's more, with it being an Unlimited Blades Works adaptation, there's a good chance I'll get to see more of my favorite heroine, Rin.

 

Pretty excited for this too. Gonna follow it weekly.

 

The first two episodes will each be an hour long, according to AnimeNewsNetwork

Episode 0, "Prologue," will air October 4th and will be focused on Rin and Archer

Episode 1, "Day of Winter, Night of Destiny," will air October 11th and be focused on Shirou and Saber

 

The animation is pretty damn good so far and I really enjoyed the soundtrack for the prologue. Hype hasn't decreased one bit for this series.

 

The episode is up and subbed on Hulu for free users. Crunchyroll has it up for premium members only.

I thought the episode was great. The tone was a bit jarring at first given that my most recent Fate exposure was Fate/Zero, but I quickly got used to it.

The duo of Rin and Archer is great and makes for some great comedy. The voice acting for these two is really well done. I'll miss them when next week's episode focuses on Shirou and Saber.

 

Episode was awesome. The VA, the animation, the soundtrack, everything was great. Love Rin and love her interactions with Archer. Quite sad that Shirou is going to helm the next episode although Saber's appearance at the end should make it worth it.

Even though I knew everything that was going to happen in this episode, I was still sad that Rin didn't let Shirou die =P

 

Spent the whole episode with a ridiculous smile on my face. Rin/Archer interactions are always gold.

 

This episode was awesome. Can't wait for the Shirou perspective. That Archer vs Lancer fight was fucking badass, btw.

Oh, and not 5 minutes into the episode and Shinji appears, making you want to immediately cave his smug face in.

 

Rin's reaction to Shinji was hilarious.

 

Since I'm not from the US, I can't watch via Hulu.

Edit: Got it, cheers.

 

Whoops! Nevermind

 

I've heard people recommend a browser extension called MediaHint to bypass Hulu region lock.

 

I'm going to preface this by admitting I haven't finished Fate/Zero. To tell the truth, the only Fate property I've experienced all the way to the end was the original anime, which I hated because the character of Shirou was insufferable and that the story was a giant mess. I've tried the visual novels (which were miserable thanks to wooden dialogue and a shitty fan translation), various manga of dubious quality, a light novel when I was feeling particularly stupid, and a whole lot more. The point, I guess, is that I've tried to get into the franchise proper (the fandom is another story entirely) in a lot of different ways over the years to varying degrees of failure and apathy. So I want you to realize just how big a deal (to me) it is that I enjoyed the first episode of the new series.

I can say with certainty why this iteration worked for me, it was clear. The dialogue was succinct and punchy, character beats were shown by their actions, and the interaction was real. There isn't a drop of ”anime” to the personalities of Rin, Archer, Sakura, or any one else. I especially enjoyed the brief shot of Taiga that we got; those few seconds distilled the essence of her character.

The lack of info-dumps was something that I was happy for. What made the first episode of Fate/Zero so intolerable to me was the constant info-dumping that was being done. Yes, I get it, Masters, and Servants, and Prana, oh my! There's a limit to how much exposition I can take from talking sock-puppets, and Fate/Zero blew past that line faster than Michael Schumacher. Here, however, that doesn't happen. We got some of it between Rin and Archer, but it's understandable in the context of the scenes and the interplay between the two characters. That said, Shirou is being introduced next episode, so it might happen anyway (I hope not).

This is also the first time that I “get” Rin. Who she is, where she's coming from, and what she wants. There's an actual character here behind those twin-tails and tsundere caricature that have defined her existence for years. Her interaction with Archer is particularly strong. You can tell there is some real chemistry between the two right from the get-go, and I hope that this is how director Takahiro Miura (and whomever the hell is actually writing this thing) treats all of the remaining characters; if so, this might be the first time I'll actually “get” Shirou as well.

The only sticking point for me is that I get the feeling that this is going to be a straight sequel to Fate/Zero. I haven't read any of the press releases yet, so I might be completely wrong, but there is something wriggling in the back of mind that makes me think that is the case. It might be how Sakura and Rin interacted, it might be the mood, or something else entirely, but that feeling is there. With that in mind, I would not recommend this show to someone who isn't familiar with the Fate franchise as a whole, and Fate/Zero in particular (I guess I know what I'm finally going to watch). It's the same approach I take with most Gundam shows; watch it, you might like it, but you'll get so much more out of it if you actually know your Gundam.

I've rambled on long enough, so here's the TL;DR version: Go watch this show, it's worth it.

And yes, you are supposed to want to punch Shinji Matou in the dick. Don't worry, he get's his comeuppance.

 

Well, you are partly right, Banta. This is a sequel to Fate Zero, but the three Fate Stay Night paths predate Fate Zero so, it's a mixed bag. On one hand, yeah, you are going to recognize a lot of characters from Fate Zero and understand more but you will also lose a lot of the mystery simply by knowing who these people are, i.e. identity of the Servants, particularly Saber.

Really depends on what you like more, the cohesion or the mystery.

At this point though, most people are familiar with enough characters that there aren't many people left for whom these things are completely unknown.

Personally, I prefer knowing things, so I can appreciate character interaction more but some people might frown at missing a few twists.

 

Something to note is that the episode was almost word-for-word the actual prologue from the original game. A few things were changed a bit--the actual prologue was what, 4-6 hours long? I can't remember. Some unimportant conversations were dropped, and the visual medium allowed for a show-not-tell approach to some of the conversations and events, and some facts were explained more eloquently than in the VN (the clocks being set back an hour was just mentioned as a weird thing, as far as I can recall).

All in all, this has great potential. I'm looking forward to more.

 

I was planning to wait for all episodes before watching it, but after the first one I will probably check it regularly.

My main issue with F/SN is that its Holy Grail War is rather lacking in my opinion. F/Z has a bigger setup, more evenly matched characters with various plans and goals. In comparison in F/SN everything is smaller and half of people involved are in it by accident. Giving it more worldly feeling would be one change I would do in this adaptation.