There had been much talk on the forums of the anime club to which I pledge my allegiance, about showing a series called Fate/Stay Night.  Also....Mayama had mentioned this show in conversation before as well.  I have to admit, I hadn't really been in an anime watching mood *gasp*, so I didn't really know what the series was about.  I did know, based off my trip to the homeland, that it was one of the next big things in Japan.  So, based off of this and knowing some of the folk who were talking it up on the forum, I decided to look into it.  This was, oh, 3 months ago.  Not to say that I didn't acquire it three months ago, because I did, but my not watching anime mood carried over so very intensely, that I haven't watched ANYTHING really, let alone new stuff, for quite some time.  This morning (one of my delightful Fridays) I decided to watch something.  I was archiving old stuff that I'd already seen and removing it from the hard drive to make room for more things that I will probably not watch for a long time, and I came across the folder for Fate/Stay Night (hereby F/SN) and decided to watch it.  I'm glad I did.

The animation is spectacular so far (I only watched one episode, I have to go walk a dog soon).  I mean, I know that animation has come FAR in the last few years, but this show is seriously beautiful.  The backgrounds are amazing, the fight scenes are sharp, everything is crystal clear, the characters are well-drawn, though occasionally a bit simplistic. Major points go to Geneon for this one.   And that's key in an anime of this nature.

And what nature?  Well, I'm still not entirely sure of the story, but I can tell you what I know. The whole thing is based on a hentai game/RPG hybrid.  Which if you ask me sounds like a recipe for suck, although as you can see, it seems like F/SN is proving me wrong.  There seems to be some kind of quest for the Holy Grail.  There's a summoner named Rin and I've met her servant Archer, and Caster has been mentioned.  Rin is the schoolmate of our hero, Shiro Emiya who we first meet when he's saved from a severe head wound by a mysterious man.  The man turns out to have been a sorcerer who adopted Shiro and taught him some skills in reading and imaging things with his mind.  But Shiro says often that he knows he is not a magician, he just wants to do his best.  Shiro's biggest attribute and his biggest downfall are his desire to save everyone.  He wants to constantly help other people, to make the world a better place, the same way that his dad saved him.  I'm sure he'll come into play as the other half of the quest for the Holy Grail....the "good guys" if you will, and I will.....at some point.  He's got his friends and schoolmates to help him along his life. His teacher Fujimura-sensei (who seems to be the hapless comic relief of the show and is really the only character that's a bit over-the-top), his friend's little sister Sakura, who has dedicated herself as his caretaker and has more than an obvious crush on Shiro, and his classmate and buddy Issei....I'm not sure what his role is, but so far he's the hot guy.

So, that's my thoughts after episode 1.  I'll probably check in with another review at the midpoint and then wrap it up with my closing thoughts at the end.  So far....I love this.  I don't Fruits Basket/Bebop/FLCL/Gravi/Blood+/Host Club love it, but I'd give it a 4 out of 5 so far.  At the very least, I'm intritgued to see what will happen, and I may help try to push it through for showing in club next semester.

Posted by Yukino 12:20 PM 12.8.06