Fate/Stay Night (anime remake by the makers of Fate/Zero, Ufotable)

[Candescence]

 

For those of you who are unaware, Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel made by Type-Moon. The original game was written by Kinoko Nasu and illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi, previously known for the Kara No Kyoukai series (originally visual novels, adapted into films) and Tsukihime (visual novel, later had a manga adaptation, there is no anime adaptation despite what Wikipedia tells you). F/SN takes place in the same universe as most of Type-Moon's other works, as Nasu has constructed a detailed and complicated setting and series of rules. The first route of the VN was adapted into an anime by Studio DEEN. That adaptation in particular wasn't great, which I'll elaborate on later. There was also a prequel, Fate/Zero, which was adapted into an anime, also by Ufotable, which was extremely well-received. It's also spoileriffic as all hell for F/SN, especially what would normally be rather important plot twists in the original VN, so anyone who has watched that already knows some details that become very important in F/SN, depending on the route.
 
The story centers around Shirou Emiya, a second-year high schooler who is also an amateur magus, whose dream is to become a superhero who can save everyone. One evening, his life is flipped upside down when he inadvertently becomes a participant in a deadly contest between magi called the "Holy Grail War", competing for a single divine wish. Each of these participants, called 'Masters', are bound to and command a familiar called a 'Servant', the manifestation of the Heroic Spirit of a legendary figure from history and legend, who are meant to do most of the fighting. If a Servant is defeated or their Master is killed, both are eliminated. There's clear guidelines and rules for how the battling is supposed to take place.

 

Of course, almost everyone proceeds to break the rules immediately, because the Grail does not truly adhere to the rules of magi, only its own. Plus, strange things are going on behind the scenes, and Shirou, depending on his actions, may be forced to confront his ideals and whether he should abandon his dream for his own happiness rather than selflessly sacrificing it for others.

 

There were three routes in the original VN, 'Fate', 'Unlimited Blade Works', and 'Heaven's Feel', each technically being choice-based routes, but they unlock in linear order, so in a sense, it's one big story in three rather than the other way round. The anime adaptation only adapted the Fate route, which, despite trying to integrate aspects of the other routes, ultimately faltered greatly, due to being a bit of a poor adaptation and literally missing out on two-thirds of the plot. There was also a movie adaptation of UBW, but the problem is, they had to cut out so much for time that it's almost nonsensical. Amazing fight scenes, though. But the vast majority of people who dislike F/SN seem to dislike it because they only watched the mediocre anime adaptation (though the stupidly out-of-context jokes about "people die when they are killed" doesn't help, good grief).

 

After the success of Fate/Zero, it seems Ufotable are going at it for another round, remaking the story that started it all.

 

So... RULES OF NATURE.

 

 

New trailer for the Fate/Stay Night remake.
 
Plus a short clip from a scene in the trailer.

 

There are heavy implications that it is either an adaptation of Heaven's Feel (Gilgamesh's meeting with Sakura early on is in the second trailer, which is only relevant in that route) or a new route that blends aspects of all three, indicated by official releases mentioning a new script penned by Nasu. Nasu and Ufotable have also stressed that this isn't being treated like a sequel to Fate/Zero, but will take on a more serious direction like it.

 

But, yeah, hopefully it'll be a more faithful adaptation, and the animation looks phenomenal. Its coming out in the fall, I think.

[Chaos Warp]

I was actually planning on watching Fate/Zero before this came out.....considering what you said in the OP, should I avoid that?

[Candescence]

Actually, my first suggestion would be getting the english patch of the original VN, then watch Fate/Zero. The former is wordy as hell (the english translation has been estimated to exceed the Lord of the Rings trilogy), but it's a fantastic read, and has great music and art, especially if you patch in the Réalta Nua content (aka the PS2/Vita version).

 

Though you can watch it online, if you know where to look, and the youtube uploads skip the sex scenes. Yeah, the original VN was an eroge, the snuff got replaced in the console versions. Or if you want to laugh at badly-written sex scenes (it's a running gag among fans that Nasu is terrible at writing sex scenes)...

 

Edit: Here we go, found the person who uploaded the clips. Start with the prologue, then Fate, then UBW, then HF. There's also hilarious omake sequences after the bad endings, too, in the form of the Tiger Dojo.

[PSI Wind]

Actually, my first suggestion would be getting the english patch of the original VN, then watch Fate/Zero. The former is wordy as hell (the english translation has been estimated to exceed the Lord of the Rings trilogy), but it's a fantastic read, and has great music and art, especially if you patch in the Réalta Nua content (aka the PS2/Vita version).

 

Though you can watch it online, if you know where to look, and the youtube uploads skip the sex scenes. Yeah, the original VN was an eroge, the snuff got replaced in the console versions. Or if you want to laugh at badly-written sex scenes (it's a running gag among fans that Nasu is terrible at writing sex scenes)...

 

Edit: Here we go, found the person who uploaded the clips.

BandicootG showed me a scene from the anime where they replaced the sex scene with a CG Dragon.

Also, this image gets me every time (Picture could be considered nsfw so linking it instead of putting it in here)

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y226/Zero47/pics/FateExtra.jpg

[Candescence]

Oh, speaking of which, some recommended reading/watching/playing for anyone interested in Fate and/or the Nasuverse:

• Carnival Phantasm: A comedy anime centered mainly around crossing over the Fate and Tsukihime casts. Features numerous in-jokes from both, but even if you're not that familiar with either, it's an absolute riot - one of the most hilarious comedies I've seen in recent memory.
• Fate/Extra: A PSP game, if you have a PSP and/or a Vita, you might enjoy this. Its an alternate take on the Holy Grail War, with alternate-universe versions of various Fate characters, and new and old Servants. There's also a sequel/expansion, Fate/Extra CCC, which adds Gilgamesh as a playable Servant, adds a new scenario alongside the original, and turns the fanservice dial up to 11. Some people have called this game 'Persona lite', which isn't necessarily a bad thing - basically, it involves balancing spending time doing social stuff with dungeon-crawling.
• Fate/Hollow Ataraxia: The 'sequel' to F/SN, takes place some time after. Has a semi-complete english translation. Also somewhat more light-hearted in many places. It also introduces Bazett, Lancer's original Master, Avenger, and Caren Hortensia.
• Fate/Unlimited Codes: A fighting game for the PS2/PSP, features pretty much every major character from F/SN, and some additional fighters, such as Leysritt, Bazett and Zero Lancer.
• Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA: An alternate universe story where Kiritsugu and Irisviel shut down the Holy Grail War before it had a chance to begin, it stars Illyasviel, who becomes a magical girl after encountering a magical wand named Kaleido Ruby, who had abandoned its previous master, Rin. As a result, she is roped by Rin into collecting the 'Class Cards'. It starts out as a parody of the magical girl genre, but becomes more of a Nasuverse story over time when things start getting more complicated. The manga even had a single-chapter crossover with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, much to Illya's delight.

[PSI Wind]

Also, Carnival Phantasm has the best version of Saber, Red Saber.

[Death the Kid]

I bumped into Fate/Zero thanks to Netflix and wound up watching both that and /Stay Night. while I wasn't all too pleased with the way the latter ended, I still enjoyed the stories of both shows either way. i'm thrilled that they're doing a remake and this simply looks like it will be amazing from what I've seen in the trailers. Here's to hoping that it'll do well. Cheers! 

 

Oh. and I watched the racing portion of Carnival Phantasm. freaking hilarious; and the way they cracked a joke at that famous shot from E.T. made me roar with laughter. XD checking out the rest now.