Fate/stay night

In the beginning of the series, the main character Shirou Emiya was enjoying his normal school life. But soon against his wish, he had to enter the Fifth Holy Grail War, where combatants fight with magic to have their desires or wishes granted. Shirou soon faced attacks by his competitors but was saved by Saber, who Shirou summoned accidentally. Saber would then resolve to be his servant and would fight beside him in the Holy Grail War. Shirou soon was determined to join the war as he realizes that if he wins the war, he could avoid many disasters.

The storyline looks simple for this kind of a theme. However, the kind of the characters that we see in the anime really suit to this theme. Whether we talk about Saber's kuudere personality or Rin's tsundere personality, they all fit very well in the story. There are multiple and various types of villains in this show. You would really enjoy the things they have to offer, whether we talk about their cool abilities or the overall action scene or their backstories. The action scenes and the animation both are mesmerizing. Perhaps, among the villains, the one that stands out is Gilgamesh. His powers, arrogance, cruelty and mad obsession for Saber would make sure that you despise this person from the core of your heart. Saber is also one of the best female characters I have ever come across. Some new Otaku may find it surprising that such female character existed even during Pre-Attack on Titan time period.

The anime also has a good soundtrack. It's been more than a decade since I have watched this and the opening and the ending songs used to be my favorite back then. I totally recommend this anime.

When I started watching the show I said "Oh, no! It's as corny as Elfen Lied and not even that bloody!". And indeed, the setup is almost identical, with the single young boy living in a big house all by himself, then suddenly getting involved into a fantastic adventure while sexy young girls come live with him.

But this is where the resemblance stops. The love story is almost as subtle and intense as the one in Inuiyasha, while the childish remarks and behaviors are very few. The magical setup is a bit corny, because it's about seven people, with seven servants, fighting for the Holy Grail, all servants being someone famous, half of all masters being from the same school, rules of engagement, etc. However, this soon dims and fades from the beauty of the drawing and of the script.

I actually watched all 24 episodes in one day and, without comparing it with animes that I liked more, but were from other genres, I have to say that I was very pleased.

Good Anime, Good Story but in my opinion something is missing that makes the anime better.

Fate Stay Night is a very entertaining anime which focuses on the survival of a young guy who, without really wanting it, takes part in this elimination tournament to get The Holy Grail.

To win, each contestant get a servant to help them. These companions are summoned from either the past, present or future and that is one of the most intriguing parts of this anime; finding out who each companion is as most do not reveal their identity until the very end.

Overall the story has a few plot holes in my opinion when it comes to the servants and some of the characters in the story don't seem very realistic, however, the battles are quite fun to watch and the ending managed to get me extremely emotional despite me not truly being attached to any of the characters.

Definitely worth watching!

VN Route Rating: 8.0

The Fate series consists of three-story routes. I am rating the source material (Visual Novel) for this route, not this anime adaptation. The Fate/stay night Fate route was great, the lore was executed well and nearly all major questions were answered. The dark undertone of the story was well done and the ending was satisfyingly realistic. It was unpredictable and there were little to no plot armors. Cons: it had a slow start, there were large wordy info dumps, there were a little too many flashbacks and it doesn't have a good anime adaptation. Other than that this is a solid story.