Just saw it now.

As usual it has that feeling of quality that you expect from ufotable. The fight scene was fantastic - even a step up from what it was in the UBW Movie (which wasn't bad by any means).

I feel like ufotable have tried to create a slightly more serious atmosphere than the original content.

While all the same scenes and conversations happened, they were just that slightly bit different. For instance, I always remember Archer as being just that bit more of a troll when it came to his interactions with him, with a wry and sarcastic sense of humour. Or in both the VN and the DEEN adaption, I always felt like the Prologue started off by creating a bit more of a lighthearted, slightly comical "high school anime" feel before the summoning. Eg, the scenes with Ayako and Issei.

Some of it could have been that they skipped a lot of content (also noticed Rin and Archer didn't have their conversation about Reality Marbles at Fuyuki Park) and focused more on the important bits. But I think there's a conscious decision to try to make it stylistically closer to Fate Zero.

I dunno, is it just me? Or did anyone else feel it just felt that bit weird and different? Not necessarily saying it as a bad thing (though I did miss a bit of Archer's trolling), just different. As Banta said, Rin feels a bit more like a real person instead of someone just playing a tsundere role.

One thing I really didn't feel was quite up to par was soundtrack use. Fate Zero did an amazing job of using the soundtrack to give scenes impact and make them really epic. Even the DEEN anime and movie adaptions used their OST very well for setting an overall atmosphere/mood and giving the anime a darker feel (despite being a bit more simple). In this episode, didn't quite feel the music was working to enhance scenes at all, and at times it even felt just a tad out of place. I hope they improve this, because that was really a highlight of FZ to me. Really bugged me.

Yeah definitely agree with this. F/Z was very much a battle royale between 7 pairs, where every single one of the masters were portrayed as competent and skilled (well, maybe not Waver or Ryuunosuke), every single servant was portrayed as epic, and all of them had well developed back stories and memorable personalities. None of them died until toward the end of the war.

FSN in comparison is really a story of Shirou facing challenges one by one. It's very much his story alone, and you don't really get to see the perspective of any other of the combatants except as an obstacle to Shirou.

 

Just watched it today and holy fuck that fight was awesome. Makes me wonder what sort of miracle they're going to do with a movie-level budget for Heaven's Feel. The only thing that felt off for me was the soundtrack but even that was far from 'bad'.

Also, I think I'm getting used to Rin's new facial proportions.

 

Everything about this episode was freakin amazing. They were able to adapt the prologue nearly perfectly(although we missed Rin and Archer talking about the park) and even made the most boring fight in the series into a beautiful fight sequence. If this episode is indicative of how the rest of the series is gonna be then the weekly wait followed by the wait for part 2 next year is gonna be agonizing.

(Spoilers for the episode and later in the anime in spoiler text)

Spoiler

I really liked the Rin and Sakura interactions when they randomly run into each other. Especially the scene when Rin immediately stops talking with Archer so she can help Sakura pick up the papers. Archer closing the door to give them some privacy is also a great hint at his identity and his connection to both of them.

Also +1 for the Rin shooting down Shinji scene.

 

Well I watched the first episode. I've never watched anything in this series (this is a remake of some kind?) so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I thought it was cool, if a bit confusing. They gave you some exposition, but not a whole lot. My fault for jumping in on this one instead of watching any of the others I guess, but I don't even know where I should start.

 

This isn't a horrible place to start, but you could do it better. Ideally, you'd play the Fate route of the VN first, watch this (or play the UBW route if you can't wait), play the Heavens Feel route (or wait for the Heavens Feel movies to come out), then watch Fate/Zero (which is the prequel to F/SN, but has a few major spoilers since it was written after F/SN). The UBW route assumes you've played the Fate route first (since in the VN it's only unlocked once you finish Fate), so it's lighter on the lore. I'm sure ufotable will throw a few extra scenes/convos in to make sure new watchers aren't totally confused, but it may be more educational to play Fate first. Fate/Zero also does a ton of infodumping, so you could also choose to watch that first as long as you don't care about spoilers.

 

That's way too much of a time commitment for anyone that isn't already a fan, or an obsessive-compulsive nerd.

 

So what would you recommend then? My recommended path requires no further commitment beyond playing the Fate route of the VN. It's a decent chunk of time (10-15 hours or so), but not really much more than watching Fate/Zero (24 eps). And he did ask what the best way to do it was.

 

I really struggled with the VN, like Banta did. Managed to force myself to get to the end of Fate, but that's it. It's just too slow and has a really boring narrative. So yeah, unless you're a real fan who wants the REAL experience (or someone who generally enjoys VNs), wouldn't be recommending that.

I reckon just watch Fate Zero.

It may give away a pretty major spoiler from the Heaven's Feel route, but good luck not having that spoiled for you anywhere else on the internet or on this thread (unless you manage to avoid any mention of any and all Fate related things until the HF movies come out). Fate Zero will also introduce you to the mechanics of the Grail War, world and magecraft. It's also well, a direct prequel.

I also reckon it's a hellova lot easier to get into than the VN.

 

I would also recommend keeping the wiki open and searching for any proper nouns you are confused by.

 

I can barely follow what you're all talking about with this Visual Novel stuff, so yeah, sounds like a plan.

 

I'd at least give the visual novel a shot. If you get an hour or two in and just aren't feeling it, go ahead and watch Fate/Zero. The only reason that isn't my first recommendation is because of the spoilers. There are quite a few, a couple of them major.

Edit: Here's a very detailed breakdown of different ways to experience the series.

 

I suspect that this anime will be self-contained mostly so people will be able to understand just by watching it. That said, this episode was quite good, though I agree the music was not super impressive. Maybe it'll impress soon though...

 

Problem is I don't really have access to it. I can stream an anime fine with the internet here, but I'd have to torrent this Visual Novel and that just doesn't seem to work very well going by previous experience. I'd have to wait until my next break to go home and download it. And I have no money to buy it, though this isn't really something I want to pay money for anyway.

I'll look around and see if I can get a hold of it though, and if I can after all I'll give it a shot.

 

Finally, a worthy anime adaption. Excellent. I'm also hoping for a renewed spark in the fandom.

Tsukihime next, please!

 

That was really, really good. That's the first time I've seen a fleshed out characterisation of Rin, since F/SN and the movie were shit and I've only seen parts of the VN. Now I hope Shirou is done right. Very easy for his character to be unbelievably irritating if not done well.

Yeah, just really excited. This and Psycho-Pass should make this season one of the best in a while.

 

Or, you know, you check this out. It's a Let's Play Archive of the game,except you don't have to listen to some random person's commentary.

In other words, it's all the text and pictures, in chronological order.

 

The VN was awesome. I guess you guys aren't just used to reading LN or VN material. I've played quite a bit of those types so it's a different feel for me.

I think F/SN VN was the game that got me into several other VNs of quality work. Anyhow, the animation on this remake was plain awesome. I feel bad for Fate route though since they won't be re-making it into something like this quality. I do like Saber as much as Rin and personally, Sakura was the weakest of the 3 heroines that I liked.

 

People who like this or Fate/Zero should also check out the Kara no Kyokai films. Its another collaboration between Ufotable and Type-Moon and the original light novels were apparently used as a prototype for the Fate series and Tsukihime. It introduces a lot of the concepts used in both, like the Root/Akasha and magecraft. I've watched the first 4 or so films and so far they've all been really good.

 

5th film though is where things go maaaaaaaaaad.

 

My only problem with the episode was Lancer's spear (unnamed for the few people who don't know who he is) being said/shown to draw on huge amounts of prana, when part of its strength, or at least this use of it, is that it was cheap cost-wise. It's a crazy OP move that won't exhaust him, is probably spammable, and serves as the viewers first introduction to the concept of "In the Nasuverse, there is no balance."
That's just insane nitpicking though, the episode managed to capture the atmosphere of the prologue perfectly, and if the entire show keeps this level of quality I'm probably going to become a buyfag.
Really hope this picks up the fanfic scene too, outside of crossovers FS/N has been sorta dead, and even then they're all gabriel blessing rehashes.