ufotable, as a studio, has done wonders in the animation department regarding demon slayer: kimetsu no yaiba and the fate franchise. Criticize each series all you want, you cannot deny the animation quality. Fate as a series fluctuates between and action/fantasy and a slice-of-life kind of series. As it goes along the action does become more and more frequent. I wouldn't say the series was as thrilling as a code geass or steins;gate, it kept enough suspense for the next episode.

Plot [8/10] Without a doubt the strongest element of fate so far. The watch order I am using (and have been recommended) puts fate/stay night ahead of fate/zero. So far it's been pretty intriguing. Essentially our MC gets thrown into a war in which he can't exactly refuse to participate but willfully chooses to do so anyway but the war is between like 7 people. The world building and fantasy elements are good. If you haven't already, watch the prologue to this which explains the master and servant power structure/bond. The plot undergoes various development and larger as well as smaller twists. Information is revealed in a way so that suspense and surprise is added which made for good entertainment. With that being said, it also did feel like the main characters plot armor is a little bit too strong. This made it feel like certain near-death high octane suspenseful scenes are in fact meaningless because he had a way out after all.

Characters: [7/10] I think this is where fate/stay night was weakest. The characters are really just average. There isn't a wide variety of characters introduced so far but they weren't really impressive so far. What I enjoyed are a few of the character dynamics. I like how saber and shirou interacted for example. I also thought saber was super adorable lmao. Even if characters are not the most well-written, if they are enjoyable, I have no problem scoring them high. TLDR: Characters itself are nothing special but their dynamics are good and you will probably find at least a few that you like.

Animation/Art: [9.5/10] The fight scenes were done really, really well. They felt smooth and crisp but they weren't rushed so much so that you cannot see what is going on, which is a major criticism for much of the animation these days. It was clean and crisp, but also something you can actually comprehend. Art was a little bland at times but also really clean. Great character designs and background visuals, especially during the nighttime.

Soundtrack/Voice Acting [7/10]: I thought the Voice Acting was pretty average. What I liked more is the soundtrack. I don't think the opening or ending were groundbreaking, but they were good. However some of the "epic" fight music and fast-paced orchestral music really elevated the action scenes are brought it to a new level. In pretty much every action scene, the soundtrack is brilliant.

To conclude, I would give fate a shot. While I would presume that there are better anime out there, I have seen enough from the first season of Unlimited Blade Works to convince me that Fate is a quality series, especially compared to most anime and is thus deserving of a watch. As mentioned previously, it certainly helps that ufotable is very adept in terms of their quality of adaptation. Final score: 80/100. Thanks for reading