Fate/Stay Night is an anime adaptation of one of the most renowned Visual Novels in history. It tells a tale about seven magicians who are fighting a free for all battle against each other to attain the Holy Grail. Each of them has a summoned servant - a hero from the legends of the past. Emiya Shirou, a novice mage, accidentally summons one such servant and is dragged into the ruthless conflict against his own will. Unfortunately, while the novel is nothing less of a masterpiece, anime of Fate/Stay night is nothing more than mediocre. It’s likely attributable to the short running time anime medium offers, as even after discarding most of character development and philosophy present in the novel it still barely fit to 25 episodes. Unlike the philosophical novel, anime version of Fate/Stay Night is an action flick with extra spices at best. Thus, read the novel or forget the name Fate/Stay Night, this show is nothing but an insult to the masterpiece.

What is a hero if he cannot drink that much of a curse? All the evil of this world? If you want to taint me, then bring at least triple that amount! A hero is someone that bears all the people in his sight on his shoulders. I have been shouldering all of everything in this world from ancient times!

This wasn’t the best quote from hundreds of great quotes from the novel, but it actually made it to this anime untarnished. And though it does mirror the atmosphere of Fate Stay Night TV, it doesn’t mirror the depth of its novel. Originally created as novel by the ingenious studio TYPE-MOON (Tsukihime) and written by my all time favorite writer Nasu Kinoko (Tsukihime as well) Fate Stay Night is about seven ambitions clashing with each other, about a war called the Holy Grail War. The war where seven best magicians in the world compete with each other in a deadly free for all death-match compelling both their wits and power for one single purpose - to attain the Holy Grail, a tool which will make any wish, no matter how inconceivable or crazy, into reality. However, everything is even deepened by the fact, that all seven masters summon a single all-powerful entity - servant, a hero from legends, past or present, hence not only giving the whole plot vast mythological and historical depth, but also adding seven retellings of some of the best myths humans have created in their history in form of flashbacks. The main character of this show, Emiya Shirou, is exactly one of those masters. Though against his will, he was dragged into the death-match of wizards, with little choice, but to participate. After what at the beginning seems like a spite of luck, he succeeds at summoning the so-called “strongest” servant, Saber, and enters the battle with all of the trump cards, ultimately uncovering secrets behind the grail, the order of magicians and his own dark past. Unfortunately the part with servant flashbacks is exclusive to the novel, so in anime you will only see them rending and shredding stuff apart while thinking something along the lines of “Huh? Wait, which hero was that blond guy?”.

Well, anyway, let’s go straight to the point. The medium of visual novels is by far the hardest to animate. I believe many of you are familiar with the feeling when your favorite book is turned into a mediocre movie. Yes, even the books are hard to animate. But just look at visual novel, it doesn’t even have a straight line for a plot. For example in Fate Stay Night, extremely rich and concentrated on various forms of philosophy, there are three different paths where not only the plot and the ending is different, but character development and even philosophy itself deliberately contradicts that of the other paths. Now think what happens when you put all the paths into one, cut some stuff out and let it go to television screens? Result is literally a homunculus, without soul, just a shell of its original self. It’s pretty much equivalent to constructing a plane out of a bicycle in hopes to cross the Atlantic ocean. Doesn’t sound like a fun trip, does it? Yes, anime of Fate Stay Night fails. How hard does it fail? That is what my scores are for. A magnificent creation worthy of nothing less than a perfect grade is reduced to sixes and sevens here. While it’s still a plausible anime, anyone, even with a single speck of wisdom, should read the original novel, rather than spoiling themselves with this, well, mediocrity, which is not saved by the pretty good (inspired only by the novel nonetheless) direction by Yamaguchi Yuji (Strawberry Eggs). I mean, seriously, let’s face it - making a novel which contains over 8000 pages, yes, 8000 pages, into an anime, is a task doomed to fail from the very beginning. Just do the math, if you can read one page per minute you end up spending 133 hours on the novel, while 24 episodes of anime are roughly equivalent to 8 hours.

Animation: 3

Animation done by Studio DEEN (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Full Moon wo Sagashite) suffers from the same limitation as in their other shows - low quality. Despite having magnificent character designs made by Takeuchi Takashi (Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai) they make them inconsistent or plain ugly, after messing the proportions up. I mean, just look at Tohsaka Rin, despite being one of the coolest looking characters in the novel, worthy of my desktop, she is reduced to the mockery whose head, hair and body in many scenes are out of sync, hence making those body parts look like they don’t even belong to each other. The only characters designs which actually managed to retain some dignity are the ones of Saber and the Golden Archer. Well, their originals were ingeniously simple, yet awesome to the level where I started thinking that Saber might as well possess the best female design in any anime, novel or game I have ever lived through. So it would have actually taken a lot of effort to actually screw that design of hers. Well, anime still doesn’t possess even half of her original elegance.

Backgrounds on the other hand have a moderate level of detail. While hardly a work of art, they serve their function and serve it well. Though I found the color palette to be a little bit blurry, it might be the responsibility of my encodes, rather than the animator team. Fluidity of stuff is pretty good actually, some fights happen real time and look kind of cool. Though there is a visible drop in quality in out-of-fights movements. In the end, if you are able to stomach inconsistent character designs (if you’ve read the novel you wont) animation ends up satisfying, if average, thanks to its many faults and weaknesses canceling its good stuff.

Direction is also worth nothing, the show barely wastes any time on showing characters full screen when they are talking. There are many cool shots to the sky, to the moon and similar things. And when they try, they do succeed at making Saber elegant. For example during the scene after the summoning, her armor is illuminated by moonlight and her stature is never shown in full screen. One shot at feet, one shot at hands, one shot at breast armor and finally the face, which soon moves to show her profile. It doesn’t sound like much on paper, but, darn, it looks cool in the show.

Sound: 4

Sound is the only non messed up part in this show. For starters, sound effects are really good - clashing swords, clanging of metal armor, footsteps and all the other stuff you can hear during the fights sounds very pleasant to the ears. Don’t know about realism, but I was happy I didn’t need to turn the volume down whenever the swords clashed. It was the first time I realized that clashing swords can also be pleasing. Yeah, clash these swords Saber!.

Another strong part in sound department is the music, composed by Kawai Kenji (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Ranma ½, Gundam 00). It’s lyrical, it’s elegant and it’s dignified when the show calls for it. There were quite a few average scenes in this show turned into cool ones only thanks to his awesome music. The previously mentioned Saber summoning scene is also as cool as it is only thanks to the elegantly mysterious theme playing there. OST is worth downloading. The first opening theme disillusion sung Tainaka Saichi is the same song which is played in the novel’s opening as well, and, yeah, it is awesome. It successfully conveys all the atmosphere there is to convey about Fate/Stay Night. Ending theme Anata ga Ita Mori by Jukai is also a great piece of lyrical music. It’s melancholic, it’s relaxing, it’s good. Only the second opening theme Kirameku Namida wa Hoshi ni was slightly weak. Though fine as a piece of music, it holds too little sentimentality when compared to Fate/Stay Night’s plot. Well, but I guess, in the end, it does fit the tarnished plot the anime version presents.

Finally, by far the strongest part in the show - voice-acting. They could not make it different from the novel so, basically, they had no choice, but to make it rock. Anyway, behold - Sugiyama Noriaki (Naruto as Uchiha Sasuke, Bleach as Ishida Uryuu) voices Emiya Shirou and does a damn good job, just like everywhere else. This guy always gets important roles, and for a reason, his voice is simply different from your mediocre voice-actors, yet it’s not the type to voice villains either. Hence, if you want a character who is not evil, yet sounds different from harem cardboards - you call Sugiyama Noriaki. Behold again - my personal female favorite Kawasumi Ayako (Crest of the Stars as Lafiel - the best female character ever) voices Saber and, well, I guess there is little reason to even mention (Hello? She voiced Lafiel) that she does an awesome job and makes Saber’s voice into one of the most memorable, gallant performances in history. Just as Kinoko Nasu has written in his original novel - “<…> a voice that lights up the darkness”. Next in line is Suwabe Junichi (X TV as Monou Fuuma, Fullmetal Alchemist as Greed) outperforms himself in this show while voicing Archer. It might not strike as hard in the anime, but in the novel, his poetry and strong lines linger in my head to this day. Now let’s look at the Golden Archer who is voiced by Tomokazu Seki (Fullmetal Panic! as Sagara Sousuke, Escaflowne as Van Fanel, Nodame Contabile as Chiaki Shinichi). Tomokazu Seki sounds awesome as Sagara Sousuke, he sounds even more awesome as the Golden Archer. His hot blooded, extremely arrogant and mortifying voice makes one of the coolest characters even cooler. Add the fact that he uses ancient japanese dialect and, oh man… Shinji Matou, a really minor character in this show, is voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei as Itoshiki Nozomu, Honey & Clover as Takemoto Yuuta) who proves that his voice timbre has much potential for arrogant villains. A minor character, but I remember his cool voice to this day. Finally, for the overkill - Kotomine Kirei, the shady character and narrator, is voiced by no one other, but my favorite Nakata Jouji (Gankutsuou as Edmond Dantes, Hellsing as Alucard). His voice sounds majestic, as always. Even Koyama Rikiya (Utawarerumono as Hakuoro, Hajime no Ippo as Takamura Mamoru) has a minor role in this show. So as you can see, Fate/Stay Night spurts the seiyuu cast worthy of its novel. I’m slightly reluctant to state it, but as far as my memory serves, this show has the best voice-actor team of all the shows I have ever seen.

Story: 3

And so starts the disappointing part. Fate/Stay Night in essence was a novel which heavily resided on its philosophical nature. Analyzing various expressions of hypocrisy, responsibilities of human beings, both as individuals and as rulers, contradictions as where the one doing good things brings evil over the world, while the one doing evil things ultimately brings happiness, loyalty to one’s ideals, the value of lives and many other ideas. Probably the most essential question in the novel was: If one is born from evil and only evil, he lives like evil, does things evil and ultimately devours everything around himself. However, once left alone, will he hold his actions evil? Will he detest himself for them? If the origin of his existence is evil, there is no way he can view himself as evil, as he has no goodness to begin with. Hence, in the end, would such a thing really be evil?. This idea, and pretty much all other ideas, except for a few random thoughts about ruling kingdom, are conveniently cut out from the show. Basically, they cut the core, they’ve left the action scenes and, well, some happenings, ultimately leading to the ending which fails to deliver emotional impact. And talking about emotional impact, I was crying for two days after having finished Fate path, which this show is based on, in the novel. It’s also disappointing that they had decided to pick Fate’s path out of the three, as it is, at best, just an introduction to what Fate/Stay Night is capable of. Well, as an anime it’s lousy even as an introduction. Fate/Stay Night anime is basically the same thing as a mushroom soup, without the mushrooms.

Plot is not always consistent, many questions are left unanswered (or are answered in one or two words, when the answer demands in depth analysis), its juiciest core - philosophy is cut out. The magnificent work of art called Fate Stay Night is reduced to an action flick for teens to enjoy. Well, it’s a pretty cool action flick, but my soul still cries for the philosophy lost.

Character: 3

Heh. I believe many of you who have watched this show thought the characters are shallow, have weird developments or behave in hardly comprehensible ways. And you are right if you only take this anime into account. After all it’s an action flick, they didn’t need to delve too deep into their characters, or they would have ran out of time. Saying that, some characters are cool even in the anime, as their starting ground and potential is the same as it was in the novel. Saber didn’t lose her pride, Golden Archer didn’t lose his arrogance and Archer didn’t lose the cool air around himself. Tohsaka lost everything though, save for her explanatory role.

Okay, here I will write a line or two about the characters present in the novel and compare them to their anime counterparts. Starting with Emiya Shirou, the main character. Anime makes you believe he is a good person, that he tries his best to save others, that he wants to lead his life happily, keep his friendships and so on. Well, it’s not wrong, he is definitely like that from the first sight, but once you omit the details, the anime did omit, you can’t really see the clear picture of his character. In essence Emiya Shirou is a mentally ill man, a person who can not perceive the value of his own life. His traumas and extreme guilt he felt from the very childhood has completely destroyed his real personality. The only way he can express himself, the only way he can justify his existence is by sacrificing himself for others. His obsession with “Defender of Justice” is no childish dream either, it’s a cross passed to him from his supposedly kind father-in-law Emiya Kirutsugu. However, that cross, and that cross alone, is his only tie keeping him in touch with reality. Were he to lose that little hypocritical dream, were he to realize its absurdity he most definitely would lose everything, including his own sanity. And you bet, in novel there is a path where he actually loses it. And that’s no spoiler if you’re wondering as everything is possible in the novel. The author, Kinoko Nasu, was trying to create an anti-hero for his novel. Not a conventional anti-hero who goes “wraah, I kick ass and am badass”, but an anti-hero where that anti projected by his hypocrisy is his own goodness. Ikari Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion was also, though more obvious, a masked anti-hero, who is still bashed by countless people, unable to perceive his awesome characteristics and significance behind him being the main character. I admit I was annoyed by Emiya Shirou even when reading the novel, as the decision to turn him into a potential inmate made many plot devises impossible. But after awhile, after noticing his hypocrisy, I grew to, well, not to love him, but to respect him as an original and entertaining lead.

Next is Saber. Through her character are expressed traits like: loyalty, responsibility, righteousness, basically the traits of a perfect yet failed ruler. Has the anime ever addressed the fact that she seems emotionless? Nope. Did it ever address that her wish she wants to attain grail for is outrageously insane? I think they did, but in an extremely blurry light, leading us viewers to go “huh?” at best. Saber is a character, a girl for that matter, who has cast away her humanity in response to serve her kingdom. She cast away emotions, cast away everything what made her human. She was a perfect and wise ruler, but has never grown above the teenager girl she was when she had cast her humanity away. That’s why, in the end, the outrageous Shirou’s claims that he will protect her start to make some sort of sense. And when you add the fact that protect in Shirou’s dictionary is sacrifice it starts to make sense even better. He is not protecting her body, he is protecting the last specks of her humanity, which still linger in her, albeit ignored. Well, in anime, of course, you are unable to learn most of that stuff (Saber’s flashbacks alone in the novel take more time that the whole running time of the anime). The anime version of Saber is pretty much the same, but without the details viewers can only view her as a loyal knight, who does her best to achieve her goals for the betterment of humanity. Her development into a real, warm human being can only be treated as awkward, as anime simply omits the essential details. Either way, Saber has probably lost the least of her personality in the rough translation of the mediums.

…What can’t be said about another great character Archer. It was tough luck as there was very little of plot taken from “Unlimated Blade Works” route in the anime. You don’t even learn who Archer is. He is a hero who has sacrificed his life to save others (surprised?). He was saving people when he was alive, and even after his death he made a pact with the universe to continue saving everyone, thus attaining immortal, but fake life. The problem lies in the fact that after many years of labor Archer realized his work is futile. He kills more people than he saves, he destroys more stuff than he protects. In the end, the only thing he does is interfering with the progress of humanity, thus protecting the universe, but not the people he aspired to. You can already guess where did that knowledge lead him in the end, right? In anime, however, he is just a cool guy, who packs a great punch, and serves almost no role whatsoever. Well, it was the Fate route animated, and it was “Unlimited Blade Works”, my favorite route, where he is the star of the novel. Well, you can as well ignore him in the anime - he has little purpose, but, well, he is still damn cool.

I guess it’s futile to even start on Tohsaka, who was stripped of all her flashbacks, 90% of characteristic traits and lost all of her coolness factors. I mean, didn’t you find it weird that she, despite being a seventeen years old girl, participates in a death-match between wizards out of her free will? Well, you have probably found it weird, and blamed it on the lame script. And lame script it is, but if you want to learn more about Tohsaka Rin, her real background, her real problems, and you bet she has problems, just read the novel.

Basically, similar faults appear in all characters in this show. Their personalities are simply way to deep to develop in a matter of eight hours this anime gives them. Be it Kotomine Kirei, the best philosopher of the novel, who succeeds only at producing “Huh, what?” reactions from the viewers of anime, or Matou Sakura, who stripped of her split personality and traumatic childhood, gets a new sexy SM like costume in this show. Quite a trade huh?. Golden Archer, though still arrogant and packing quite a few daring lines (for a mature novel reduced to a 13+ olds show, that is), still loses two thirds of his great personality in the translation. That one third still kicks ass of many lame characters in anime though.

Conclusion: And so my conclusion says - do not watch this show. Pick its novel, it is great, I can guarantee that. Lucky for you, English speakers, Mirror-Moon has, just recently, completed the English patch for the novel. So you can get the novel, download the patch from their website and indulge yourself to the reading pleasures. Just don’t forget it’s rated as adults only (anime is 13+) and it has some explicit content. If you’ve read the novel and you’ve liked it - I recommend reading Tsukihime, but strictly as a novel, as its anime is also a similar flop.