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REVIEW: Fate/stay night DVD 1


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britannicamoore



Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2618
Location: Out.
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:43 am Reply with quote
Intresting review.

Myabe i'll pick this one up with all the extra best buy coupons i've been getting.. (3 in counting within the past week).

Is it worth it in a long run though?
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Raven Shinobi





PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:50 am Reply with quote
I really liked the premise, the protagonist was indeed a bit dull -does anyone else find his character design reminiscent of Jr. from Xenosaga?-, but the characters around him made up for that, I think so far Rin and her servant are my favorite characters.

I had mixed feelings about the dub, I liked the performance for Rin the best, Saber sounded convincing, Raven and Sakura were also good, but Shirou could've been better and that teacher -forgot her name- sounded bad, especially in her comedic moments in the first episode.

Overall, this series has piqued my interest and it could end up being a favorite of mine if it utilized the potentials it seems to have.
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Nagisa
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Joined: 19 Aug 2003
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Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:14 am Reply with quote
britannicamoore wrote:
Is it worth it in a long run though?


Yes and no. It tells a good story, but that good story is only 1/3 of the actual, complete story and background that Fate/stay night really brings to the table. As such, character development on anyone that isn't Shirou, Saber, or to a much lesser extent Rin & Ilya is regrettably stunted (or in the case of characters like Rider, grossly misrepresented). Basically, watch the Fate/stay night anime for its own merits and its own twist on the part of the game it adapts, but also use it as a stepping stone to delve into the far richer and more fascinating story that the game (as well as sequel Fate/hollow ataraxia and newfound prequel Fate/zero) has to offer.

Bluntly, it's like the Tsukihime anime, only better, and less dull, and less out-of-character in how it depicts the cast.

Raven Shinobi wrote:
Raven


I'm confused, there's no character in Fate named "Raven."
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coffee



Joined: 28 Sep 2006
Posts: 170
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:17 am Reply with quote
I have a bone to pick with the menu setup, I cannot stand when extras are jumbled with the disc setup. I don't like how the music just blacks out so quickly, it'd be easier on the ears if it lasted longer or faded off. Also could they be anymore sparse on extras? I mean you don't even get anything with the box but the disc, I'd expect more than some sketches and trailers but oh well.
As for the story and characters, I found Shirou kinda flat with his "ooh hoo champion of justice" and how he uses the force to fix machines hasn't proved to be interesting or useful. As for the story bit, I'm enjoying it thus far and look for better things to come, as there is room for improvement, and with 5 more discs hopefully we get a more fleshed out and dimensioned series.
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Raven Shinobi





PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:26 am Reply with quote
Nagisa wrote:
Raven Shinobi wrote:
uot;]Raven


I'm confused, there's no character in Fate named "Raven."


Oops, I must've confused him with someone else, I don't have a good memory when it comes to names and I've seen alot of anime and played many video games recently, I believe there was one character in the things that I've seen lately is called Raven. Whatever Rin's servant is called then.
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Nagisa
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Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Posts: 6128
Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:35 am Reply with quote
Raven Shinobi wrote:
Whatever Rin's servant is called then.


Archer, one of the most awesome Servants in the entire scope of all things Fate, but regrettably one of the most cheated by the anime in terms of character development.
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the Rancorous



Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 2248
Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:19 am Reply with quote
yeah, I picked this one up during the Geneon 2 for 1 deal that was going on (this one along with Petite Cossette) simply because I heard alot of good things about it plus I love melee combat more than any other type of action. So far though, the action scenes and the way the Holy Grail War is executed are all that's keeping my interest. The characters do come off as being uninvolving, and Shirou's "nice-guy, I'll do anything to help anybody" attitude both annoys and bores me. I actually find Rin to be more interesting and likeable than Shirou. However, I've heard too many good things about this series to give up on the first volume, plus I have enjoyed it thus far, but it is going to have to be moved to the back of my "to buy" list of the other series' I'm currently collecting.
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Randall Miyashiro



Joined: 12 Jun 2003
Posts: 2451
Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:23 am Reply with quote
I watched the first volume of Fate/Stay around the same time as Shana and Bleach first volumes were coming out. Granted any similarities are superficial (much like the old RahXephon/Eva or Dragon Ball/Naruto threads) I will say that Fate/Stay left the strongest impression out of the lot. It might be due to the atmosphere of the series, which I agree is really helped by Kawai's amazing OST. It might be due to the fact that I loved Tsukihime, and I find the Type Moon characters really cool. Either way I went online and bought two Saber figures (an Alter, and the Enter Brain one) almost immediately after the DVD was over. My roommates laughed at me when a package which was labeled by customs as "toys" arrived at our doorstep on Christmas Eve. Needless to say I'm intending on getting the rest of Shana and Fate/Stay, although the sheer episode count (and my poor track record with Jump titles) keeps me a bit wary of Bleach.
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fighterholic



Joined: 28 Sep 2005
Posts: 9193
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:40 pm Reply with quote
I've got to finish watching the DVD, the first episode was so long and drawn out I wanted to cry. I didn't like how it was going with Shirow, rather what was going on with Archer and his master.
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S0litaire



Joined: 31 Jan 2007
Posts: 26
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:54 pm Reply with quote
I usually don't like series like this, but I really loved fate/stay night. As strange as it sounds, Rin and Shirou sort of reminded me of Asuka and Shinji from Evangelion...

The only problem I had with the fate/stay night series was that I really didn't enjoy the second half of the series as much as the first because it seemed to of been crammed with action. The music and animation however, were done amazingly enough however, to make me look past a lot of that.
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EVA fiend



Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 314
Location: Somewhere in the UK.
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:08 pm Reply with quote
This was my most anticipated R1 release title of last year. I've seen the first 4 episodes & I've greatly enjoyed what I've seen of the series so far. Saber is my favourite character (I have a soft spot for her seiyuu) out of the ones introduced so far.

A lot of folks I've come across online have said that they didn't enjoy the anime series as it wasn't as good or as in depth as the games (some of which are H-games IIRC); well, I have no intention or any interest in playing the games, so I intend to take most F/SN game fan opinions with a pinch of salt & make up my own mind. I don't want my anime-viewing to be biased by a game I can't even play. Razz
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frentymon
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Joined: 27 Nov 2005
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:04 pm Reply with quote
I actually thought the first volume, as well as the whole series, was heavily plot/action-driven and moved the plot at a lightning pace, with only a secondary emphasis on atmosphere and world-building. I do definitely agree that character development was lackluster, though, although I would probably have a better opinion of it were the game players not to have reiterated dozens of times how inferior the series is to the game.
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Nagisa
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Joined: 19 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:52 pm Reply with quote
frentymon wrote:
although I would probably have a better opinion of it were the game players not to have reiterated dozens of times how inferior the series is to the game.


Well, that's really the thing. It's not so much "inferior" as it just doesn't tell you the whole story. It adapted one scenario of the game, and did a very, very good job at adapting that one scenario. Short of a couple oddities (the CG dragon that replaced the infamous "mana restoration" scene and the peculiar way they extend Caster's arc being tops here), I'd call it one of the better game-to-anime adaptations around.

But in excluding Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel (the other two game scenarios), it excludes the bulk of development for characters like Archer, Rider, Caster, and Sakura. Had they written the show to include those elements (which was entirely doable), it might've turned out even better, but it's far from bad, and I'd come far short of calling it "inferior" at all. The only way it's really significantly inferior is if one views the Fate scenario itself as inferior to Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel.
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Himalayus



Joined: 30 Aug 2006
Posts: 27
Location: Oregon
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:03 pm Reply with quote
EVA fiend wrote:
Saber is my favourite character (I have a soft spot for her seiyuu)


Ah, Ayako Kawasumi... Though I never explicitly said so in the review, Saber is my favorite character as well. The blind spot I have for her seiyuu would put a black hole to shame (and places me firmly in muddle-headed fanboy territory); her presence is enough to get me to watch just about anything (although it can't make me like it. Oh the Girls Bravo trauma... and I don’t even want to remember Angel Tales).

For the record, I have never played, and am not overly familiar with the game(s).
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demon_god03



Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:43 am Reply with quote
Nagisa wrote:
But in excluding Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel (the other two game scenarios), it excludes the bulk of development for characters like Archer, Rider, Caster, and Sakura. Had they written the show to include those elements (which was entirely doable), it might've turned out even better, but it's far from bad, and I'd come far short of calling it "inferior" at all. The only way it's really significantly inferior is if one views the Fate scenario itself as inferior to Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel.


While I agree that excluding the other two scenarios pretty much leaves you with really an introductory story to the Fate/stay night story, it is not really possible to merge all three into one. Each of the scenarios could easily fit into a twenty four episode series and also the fact that the Emiya Shirou in the Fate route (the main route that the anime follows) ends up differant to the Emiya Shirou in Unlimited Blade Works and especially Heaven's Feel. While the merging of Fate and Unlimited Blade Works is possible, Heaven's Feel is really out of the question and does not fit well with the other two scenarios.

I believe that many fans of the game were disappointed with the anime, aside the lack of UBW and Heaven's Feel elements, was because while the game does a fairly through job explaining the terminology and everything, the anime often falls short and leads the viewers without prior knowledge of the game to misinterpret certain information or just fails to explain things properly. I found myself having to clear up alot of things for friends that are following the series, and the absence of certain character developments didn't really help matters either. Ofcourse Fate/stay night is one of the better game to anime conversions out there and a good anime in it's own right, but its far from perfect.
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