Fate Series (Fate/Zero & Fate/Stay Night)

The basic premise of the fate series is a tag team battle royal involving duos of mages and legendary historical/fictional heroes fighting for the grail.

Fate Zero:
Fate Zero is a really well made anime with a bunch of well rounded characters. I usually don't notice animation unless it is incredible or very bad, so i can say this show has incredible animation. The best part is almost all the characters have real motivations for wanting to win the contest making the line blurry as to who is actually going to win. Also there is no cheesy love story and IT DOES NOT TAKE PLACE IN HIGH SCHOOL! There is zero ecchi and characters don't get power boosts at any time during the series. From the moment it starts, it is clear who is stronger than who, but head on battle is not the only way to win. The down side is the beginning is dialog heavy and low action. I think overall this anime is incredibly mature and well worth a watch
Overall 8.5/10

Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade works
This version of fate stay night is a continuation of fate zero that was made by the same folks. Once again the animation is incredible and the beginning is dialog heavy. So far it seems like it could be as good as Fate Zero, but it does take place in high school, which i really don't care for and they are hinting at a love story, which i hope does not happen. At the moment of this review it is only 3 episodes in and i can say it is very good. It has movie level animation and , from what can be seen, well rounded characters.

So let's discuss Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade works episodes 0-3
Non spoiler Zone
Its clear from the beginning that this series is not as adult as Fate/Zero. You can tell simply by the fact that they are high school students. The pacing and tone are still very good and i like how they go get into slow, it just makes the action scenes cooler once they come around. Episode 0-1 fit together very well.

Spoiler Zone Eps 0-3

Spoiler:

Ive been meaning to watch this series for several months now, and now that i have heres my thoughts on it

Fate/stay night (2006):


The first half of this series is very very average, it has terrible animation and terrible action, it feels like all the characters arent really trying and are purposely performing poorly to give the main character a chance
Had bacon not said fate/zero was good (like if i had watched this on my own months ago)  i wouldve just dropped it and never looked back but i continued forward with it because bacon was right about clannad so i trusted him on this
The 2nd half is a mess of plot threads that come from no where and vanish with little to no conclusion, it was so confusing that i had to make sure fate/zero wasnt actually made before fate/stay night because it felt like i was just missing something, but no fate/zero didnt exist when this came out so i knew as much as the makers intended the audience to know
I actually rewatched an episode because i thought maybe i just wasnt focusing but no, it really is that bad

This definitely should not be watched, by anyone, ever, even if you are like me and have the need to see everything that a series has its not worth it, especially with the new series thats currently airing, although there is 1 good thing that came from this series now that im watching the new series which ill talk about in the new 2014 series section

Fate/stay night movie (2010):
The movie is much better than the show, characters feel like they are actually trying, the action is good, the story is better, it fills in a lot of those plot threads
Its not great, but its not bad

The main problem with it is the pacing, its so rushed, it only had about 2 hours to fit in so much stuff that its ridiculously fast paced, you need to have seen the 2006 series to be able to keep up with it and even then its still too fast

Fate/Zero (2011):


My god, this is incredible, its so good in fact that i will need to revise my top 10 anime list to put this at number 3
Unlike clannad where i said it didnt make the list because it wasnt consistently good since the first season really drags it down, fate/zero isnt dragged down by fate/stay night since you can watch it without seeing anything else in the series other than fate/zero and its a fantastic experience all the way through
The characters are great, the story is good, the action is epic, and the animation is some of the best ive seen

None of the characters feel like side characters, many of them feel like main characters, yet it doesnt suffer from the usual issues that happen when there actually are multiple main characters, they all have detailed back stories and desires/motivations, they feel real

The story starts off as pretty basic but doesnt go the way youd expect something like this to go, even though i knew the general outcome of it because i had seen fate/stay night, i was still surprised by the ending

Spoiler:

The action might be the most epic of any anime, there are very few that i can think of that are this epic, the abilities that the characters use are ridiculously powerful yet they are still all about equal to eachother, bacon said its clear who is stronger than who but id, they are all pretty equal in terms of strength its just that some are better at certain things than others

I recommend everyone watch it

Fate/stay night (2014):


This is significantly better than the 2006 series, the same animation studio that made fate/zero are adapting stay night, they have made many minor changes, these minor changes are starting to add up to major changes, it feels like they are re-writting the source material a bit to better fit with fate/zero
I said 1 good thing came out of watching the 2006 series, and that is seeing what was changed in the 2014 series, i love looking for tiny details like that and there are dozens throughout this (and ive only seen the first 2 episodes)
Every change has made it better so far, much better, its amazing how a few small dialog changes make everything way better
The 1 major change that is major on its own is

Spoiler:

Since these changes exist and since its the same studio that adapted fate/zero im willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and have faith that it will be good, though probably not as good as fate/zero, but fate/zero is exceptional so i wouldnt expect it to be that good anyway

Fate/Stay Night (2006)

Quote :

The first half of this series is very very average, it has terrible animation and terrible action, it feels like all the characters arent really trying and are purposely performing poorly to give the main character a chance
Had bacon not said fate/zero was good (like if i had watched this on my own months ago) i wouldve just dropped it and never looked back but i continued forward with it because bacon was right about clannad so i trusted him on this
The 2nd half is a mess of plot threads that come from no where and vanish with little to no conclusion, it was so confusing that i had to make sure fate/zero wasnt actually made before fate/stay night because it felt like i was just missing something, but no fate/zero didnt exist when this came out so i knew as much as the makers intended the audience to know
I actually rewatched an episode because i thought maybe i just wasnt focusing but no, it really is that bad

This definitely should not be watched, by anyone, ever, even if you are like me and have the need to see everything that a series has its not worth it, especially with the new series thats currently airing, although there is 1 good thing that came from this series now that im watching the new series which ill talk about in the new 2014 series section

I told you not to watch dis.

Spoiler:

Fate/Zero

Quote :

because bacon was right

So i suppose i was right again SO I'm now 2-0 Good Game.

Quote :

fate/zero isnt dragged down by fate/stay

I feel like the ending was a little dragged down by fate/stay night, but not in any major way.

Spoiler:

Quote :

None of the characters feel like side characters, many of them feel like main characters, yet it doesnt suffer from the usual issues that happen when there actually are multiple main characters, they all have detailed back stories and desires/motivations, they feel real

Dis is so true. I actually felt like the guy who had the most reason to win was Kariya.

Quote :

I recommend everyone watch it

I don't know if it is really for everyone, the start can be pretty slow IMO, it spends a lot of time developping characters without any action, which can feel boring to some.

Spoiler:

Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works

Quote :

This is significantly better than the 2006 series, the same animation studio that made fate/zero are adapting stay night, they have made many minor changes, these minor changes are starting to add up to major changes, it feels like they are re-writting the source material a bit to better fit with fate/zero

I think you know this, but this series takes a different path from the visual novel. I heard they are going to make a movie at the end of this series showing the final path, Heaven's Gate i think its called.

Spoiler:

What? This doesn't happen?

Spoiler:

I thought so too, but after episode 4, it really just seems like she is your average highschool chick

Quote :

Since these changes exist and since its the same studio that adapted fate/zero im willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and have faith that it will be good, though probably not as good as fate/zero, but fate/zero is exceptional so i wouldnt expect it to be that good anyway

I feel like they are doing an amazing job with the terribly script they have. My friend told me a lil about the visual novel, and it seems so terrible. I kinda wish they just made a new Fate series with all new chars and spirits. That would have been sick, or even a Fate/Stay Night that isn't attached to any paths in the VN

Eat_bacon_daily wrote:

I feel like the ending was a little dragged down by fate/stay night, but not in any major way.

Spoiler:

I think its fine

Spoiler:

Eat_bacon_daily wrote:

I don't know if it is really for everyone, the start can be pretty slow IMO, it spends a lot of time developping characters without any action, which can feel boring to some.

Spoiler:

Thats not a reason to not watch it, if someone doesnt watch it for that reason then they are being dumb
I dont think anyone here just wants mindless action

Spoiler:

Eat_bacon_daily wrote:

I think you know this, but this series takes a different path from the visual novel. I heard they are going to make a movie at the end of this series showing the final path, Heaven's Gate i think its called.

It doesnt take a different path from the VN, the VN has 3 paths, the fate path, the unlimited blade works path and the heavens feel path
The 2006 series takes the fate path where you basically learn nothing (in the game its the first play through you do)
The 2010 movie takes the unlimited bladeworks path which reveals a good amount
The 2014 series seems to be combining a few elements of heavens feel into the unlimited blade path, probably to make it tie into the movie that could come out
The heavens feel path reveals everything (in the game its the final play through you get after unlocking everything in the other 2 paths)

Eat_bacon_daily wrote:

Spoiler:

What? This doesn't happen?

Yeah it does

Spoiler:

Eat_bacon_daily wrote:

I feel like they are doing an amazing job with the terribly script they have. My friend told me a lil about the visual novel, and it seems so terrible. I kinda wish they just made a new Fate series with all new chars and spirits. That would have been sick, or even a Fate/Stay Night that isn't attached to any paths in the VN

The fate path is the only path that is terrible which is the one most people will play as unlocking the other paths takes a few play throughs, the heavens feel path is the one that people say is the best (but takes a huge amount of effort to unlock), and the unlimited blade works path is pretty good
And i think that matches up pretty well with the adaptations, 2006 series of the fate path is bad, the movie has a good story, just would be better as a show to resolve the pacing issues, the 2014 show should resolve that, and if theres a movie after this show based on the final path it should be great

You're not going to like it though because you spoiled yourself on a main part of the story
Super spoilers that only people that saw the 2006 series and the 2010 movie, or bacon would know, dont read this if youve only seen fate/zero and the current airing series unless you also significantly spoiled yourself

Spoiler:

This is just a quick post, because i'm at school. But pat!

Spoiler:

UBW Ep 10 (and some 8-9)

Spoiler:

UBW ep 12:

I actually didnt notice because i was so entranced in the episode and because it was so good, but it was a 2 part episode.

UBW post credit sneak peak:

Ep12

Spoiler: