FATE/STAY
NIGHT: Amazing on some departments, not so much on others
Fate/Stay
Night tells the story of a recurring war for the Holy Grail, an artefact that
could grant any wish. It takes the perspective of Shirou Emiya, a survivor of
the previous war. Before he realizes it,
he is drawn to the current war as a primary contender for the Holy Grail, as he
accidentally summons the servant Saber.
This
premise is intriguing in itself. It immediately imposes a series of questions
to the viewers. “Who are these Servants? Why do they fight for the Holy Grail?
And what is the Holy Grail, exactly?” are just some of those questions.
What
makes the story even more intriguing is the history behind it -- the previous
war --, which is revealed little by little, as the plot progresses. Despite
this, there are still a number of threads from the history that remain to be
mysteries. This could make the foundation of the story weaker, but this is not
the case for Fate/Stay Night. It feeds the viewers with only the important plot
points in the back-story that are relevant to the current timeline, and leaves
the other details to the imagination. This makes the back-story even more
intriguing, and actually strengthens the foundation of the story instead of
weakening it.
The
back-story is but the icing of the cake. The real focus of the anime is the
current timeline -- and I must say that it is a story worth telling. What makes
it such is its uniqueness and ability to trigger emotions.
However,
it should be added that some parts could be problematic for other viewers. This
story, as a Shounen title, is not very action-packed. Other viewers could find
this problematic, for they would surely expect an action sequence on each
episode, and not witnessing one or two could make them declare that the pacing
is slow.
Personally,
this is not an issue for me. The lack of action does not necessarily translate
to bad pacing. Sure, there is a tremendous amount of explanation regarding the
Fate mythos and its technicalities, but as long as the story is going to the
right direction, and doesn’t dwell on random details to delay the events, the
pacing is fine.
If
anything, this limitation of the action scenes makes the action scenes very
satisfying when they finally arrive. Their quality just compensates for their
quantity. They are very well made. They will surely make the viewers pumped up,
especially with their incorporation of incredible soundtracks that fit
perfectly to the themes of Fate/Stay Night. Speaking of music, this anime is clearly
on top of the line. It is so powerful that it adds emotion to the story.
The
weaker part of Fate/Stay Night is its characterization. Don’t get me wrong,
some of the characters are amazing, like Arturia the Saber and Tohsaka Rin;
they are very interesting and distinct characters. However, their being well
made is somewhat overshadowed by the blandness of other characters.
Some
of the characters are just so flat that they are not very relatable, and this
prevents them from triggering emotional responses to the viewers. It is a good
thing that there are amazing characters to counterbalance this problem, for
they are able to trigger such responses.
Tohsaka Rin |
This
is only a personal matter, but I find the design of the characters pretty
mediocre as well. In fact, the art style and animation as a whole are generic
and not very appealing. Their only redeeming feature is the action scenes that
are rather flashy and very entertaining.
Overall,
Fate/Stay Night’s entertainment value lies on its story and mythos, which, I
must add, are one of the most entertaining I’ve seen in a while. Even though
most of its characters are not very fleshed-out, there are some that are, so
the characterization is compensated. The interest that has been triggered to me
by the story and some of the characters is enough for me to overlook the flaws
of the series. In fact, this interest has become so great that the Fate
franchise has really captured my attention, so I’ll be indulging myself with
the other Fate titles and review them afterwards.
Once I finished Fate/Zero I considered watching Fate/Stay Night, but since almost everyone considers it inferior to Fate/Zero and since ufotable is remaking Stay Night, I think I will wait for that. If ufotable wasn't remaking this I would probably just watch Stay Night but I am sure the new one will be much better considering how well Fate/Zero turned out.
ReplyDelete-James
I'm also really excited for the Ufotable remake! I hope they make it more mature like Fate/Zero, because this version of Fate/Stay Night has a lot of Shounen elements in it. But really, I haven't found enough data whether ufotable's project will be a remake of Fate/Stay Night itself or another Fate story route. But whatever it'll be, it's sure to be good.
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