Introduction
Studio DEEN's Fate Stay/Night (2006) is an adaptation of Type-Moon's visual novel by the same name. The visual novel branches into three routes - (Stay/Night, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel). This anime aims to cover the first, making it an excellent place to start if you are new to Fate.

Although the series would rise to acclaim with the help of critically received Ufotable works such as Fate/Zero and Fate Unlimited Blade Works. No other attempt has been made to cover the events of Stay/Night and from the perspective of someone who has read the VN, the adaptation is more than satisfactory.

Plot
Every few decades, a holy grail war takes place in the city of Fuyuki. The grail chooses seven magic users (masters) who fight alongside their summoned heroic spirits (servants) until only one pair is left. The last remaining master and their servant can have their wish granted by the holy grail.

The story begins when our protagonist Shirou Emiya unexpectedly finds himself involved in the 5th Holy Grail War after being chosen as one of the seven masters and summoning Saber.

Although, the story is about a Battle Royale between pairs of masters and servants, it doesn't just focus on the fighting aspects and instead chooses to dwell deeply into characters and character relationships. Who each servant or master is, what are their goals, personality, etc. As the main duo overcomes different challenges they learn not just about the opponents the are facing but also each other.

The story in the anime is mostly faithful with the Visual Novel except in a 2-3 episode mini arc starting episode 17 where it takes some liberty to change events as they took place in other routes as a subsequent spoiling them, though I would argue the change gives a more fleshed out ending to the involved characters as a result and the spoilers aren't that major so as to ruin the enjoyment of other routes in any way.

Characters
Strong characterization is one of the main selling points of Visual Novels and the anime does very well at translating that here.The way the Visual Novel is written, it chooses to focus on only a small selection of characters per route, as it's meant to be enjoyed as a whole. However I find that Fate Stay/Night has the best mix of the characters it chooses to develop among all three as is given for it being the first route.

Stay/Night chooses to focus primarily on the duo of Saber and Shirou. Both are multi faceted and rather unique characters, although you may have to spend a bit of time to get to know the deeper truths. The eventual romance which does develop between the two is done naturally and is one of the high points of the show.

Atmosphere
Given that the show is from 2006, the artstyle and animation can feel quite dated especially compared to stuff which is out today. But the dialogue heavy nature of the anime helps alleviate some of that burden. The music is also really nice borrowing some themes from the VN as well as adding new ones. Openings and Endings are quite unforgettable too.

The overall feel of the show is fairly light hearted as the route is less darker than the other ones. This helps with the comedy skits and the various hijinks of supporting characters.

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Final Thoughts
Before I watched Fate Stay/Night, people used to tell me of horror stories behind it, how it was some sort of Boogieman of bad Visual Novel adaptations, but after having seen more than a fair share of bad VN adaptations, this doesn't even come anywhere close. In fact it is mostly faithful and translates very well from the source to anime in terms of story, feel and characterization. Only parts I would dock points off are for its average to subpar action scenes.

The community outlook that FSN route should be skipped is fairly preposterous. The fate route develops and explores crucial elements which are not covered in the other routes and just it's relative low art and animation quality compared to the newer adaptations isn't enough to dismiss all its merit. Therefore, I encourage all fate fans old and new to at least give the Deen Stay/Night a chance. You never know what you are missing.