I have quite a bit to say about this train wreck of an anime but I'll try to keep it brief for my own sake. Let me start off by saying this. I did enjoy it, maybe not as much as some other shows, but I enjoyed it none the less. That being said, the amount of things that ticked me off about it outweigh the things I enjoyed about it. To start off, the ENTIRE anime has undertones of sexism that make it extremely cringeworthy. I do acknowledge that it was made in 2006 but that really means little to nothing. There are more scenes than I can count in my own head that go along the lines of: Shirou and Saber are talking, Saber believes that a certain way of going about their combat strategy would work best if she is doing the fighting, Shirou throws a temper tantrum about how he's a man and it's his duty to protect a girl, even if she's a holy spirit. There is only one time I can think of where Saber actually revolts to the outrageous shit he says too, every other time it happens her and the anime just act as if it's normal. Why would you feel the need to protect a girl who can literally destroy a city with the swing of her sword?? You wouldn't. And yet they act like it's so normal. That leads me to my next point. We know Saber is perfectly capable of destroying cities. You could say "this is a different path, she could be less strong than she is in Blade works/Heaven's feel" But we see in this version she has the power to destroy not only the holy grail, but most of the destructive power of her "Excalibur" in it's entirety. We know also that she is a renowned swordsman and that she wields a sword that is unbreakable and has extreme power. Knowing ALL this, the anime still portrays Saber as a clumsy weak girl in need of saving in most scenarios. The show expects you to believe that the king of Britain, whom wields the power to destroy an omnipotent wish granting device, and once owned a scabbard that negates next to all incoming damage to the recipient, would trip on a root in the forest while running and blush at the fact Shirou grabbed her arm. This isn't only seen in Saber either, pretty much every servant, which are supposed to be extremely powerful beings summoned and breathing only to fight, are downgraded to an extent I didn't even know was possible. Now, I could go into how unheedingly sexual the show is in the way it goes about portraying Saber and Shirou's relationship, but it isn't enough to garner much criticism. There is a scene where Shirou walks in on Saber about to get into the bath, in pretty much any other self respecting anime it would just be that. An accident that is kind of funny. But instead of leaving it at that, she walks out into the hallway seemingly unfazed and there is a scene that lasts at least a full minute of her just talking to Shirou naked. Like why??? It really was just a minor detail that annoyed me but it still felt unneeded and forced. I've heard from a few different people that the story is a conglomeration of all three Fate/Stay Night paths, which I wouldn't have known before them telling me that but you can seriously tell if you pay attention. The plot feels all over the place, like it doesn't know where it wants to go and is trying to make every ending possible in the same story. Plot points that seemed like they were going to affect the story pretty greatly are usually brushed under the rug a few episodes later, only to introduce another problem that had nothing to do with the last one. There is no structure in this anime whatsoever and I mean it when I say it. You think you know what the ending is going to be, and then whatever you based that assumption on is usually gone within the next couple episodes. Let me end off by saying I think the anime as a whole had an AMAZING soundtrack, and for a 2006 anime I really wasn't extremely disappointed in the animation. Of course comparing it to it's counterparts, which are animated by Ufotable makes it pale in comparison. But it wasn't horrible either. I really enjoyed the downtime in between fights that gave us insight on what life is like for them when they aren't fighting in the holy grail war. And I really appreciated the fact that all of the voice actors stayed consistent from the more current Stay Night trilogy. They are really talented VA's and it made watching the anti climactic fight scenes a little bit more barrable. That's about all I have to say about this show, I think it would be amazing if Ufotable came back and animated Saber's path themselves and really did it justice, but I doubt that will happen. In total I think it was around a 6, no higher no lower.