Warning: This review contains spoilers.

First impressions: When I first heard about this series I had very mixed feelings about it. For starters, it’s based on an erotic visual novel, at the same time though it's also a free-for-all battle series, complete with mages and historical figures fighting each other to the death over a magical all purpose macguffin. “Sounded right up my alley” I thought and this series became my gateway to Type-Moon, which has provided me with tons of entertainment and has become one of my favourite franchises, in part due to me being an amateur history buff. Plus, I think the whole idea of the Fate franchise is a very novel idea, which as of yet, I don’t seem to have grown the least bit bored of.

Story: 6/10
The story of this anime is an adaptation of the Fate route from the Fate/Stay Night visual novel, which is probably my least favourite route for various reasons which I’ll get into later. As far as battle shounen titles go, I’d say this one is in general a pretty decent one. Not only does it deliver on cool fights, but it also provides a slightly interesting, albeit shallow commentary on morality for the uninitiated. It explores the different ethical viewpoints of its characters while they're going through the holy grail war. The major problem though is that this series tries to have its cake and eat it too by juggling a serious death battle with slice of life and pseudo-harem elements, making it that much more jarring when any serious plot elements come into play. Case and point, despite the fact that Emiya is kidnapped, or even nearly killed multiple times while either at school or doing mundane things around town, as if the fact that there are people out there trying to kill him is completely a non-issue, serving to both make the show look tonally inconsistent and him look very very stupid. Even worse, quite a few of the masters who lost their servants during the war end up taking residence in his house. Including ones that tried to kill him before, who are still a potential threat. This is completely hand-waved in favour of playing out various slice of life romantic scenarios. As a result of this tonal whiplash, I stopped taking anything in the series seriously and decided to enjoy the ride for what it’s worth. Unfortunately, to me, that’s not much, as the route the anime covers is pretty vanilla when compared to the visual novel’s other routes. The anime just gives you the basics of what you need to know about the series, while leaving a lot of things so deprived of detail that the provided world and characters end up, as a whole feeling very sterile. Plus in all honesty, the plot twists in this series are iffy at best, not to mention predictable if you’ve any experience with any kind of stories that feature magic or objects that grant wishes. For example, the plot twist concerning the true nature of the holy grail isn't really that shocking when you consider that so far no one has won the holy grail and made a wish with it. The only reason the Fate route is even remotely worthwhile is due to the interest it builds for the franchise as a whole. That, and the route’s character of focus, Saber and her fascinating internal conflict in deciding whether to make her wish and redo the past or accept the past and live a normal life with Shiro. Although I feel the romance that happens between them is somewhat forced in some regards, I still find it cute and enjoyable.

Characters: 6/10
Main character Shirou Emiya is probably this series’s weakest point. At first glance he seems to be a one-note character, who’s selfless nature compels him to become a just hero, to the point that he’s willing to risk his life to protect people with no concern for his own safety, and no amount of additional glances will change that perception. Minor cynicism aside though, his major problem is his bare bones characterisation, a problem that could be supplemented with some internal monologue, but he doesn’t have any of that. This is quite the missed opportunity too, as in the visual novel he’s significantly more layered than what one would initially think, specifically because he has that one factor going for him. Additionally, he’s held back character-wise by the fact that there aren’t many tests of his character, which if existent, would allow his character to bloom into something a little more reminiscent of a human being. It’s because of this lack of trails to overcome and grow from that his outlook isn’t really validated in any meaningful sense, making him mostly just come across of the same naive, ignorant kid he was in the beginning.

Saber, the heroine of this route thankfully has at least a little depth to her Character, at least when compared to Shiro. The clash between her stoic warrior side and her feminine side, which comes out increasingly more due to her growing bond with Shiro is quite interesting, Unfortunately, she mostly just comes across as a plank of wood that only deals in extremes, taking away greatly from that aspect of her character. To emphasize my point, early on in the series there’s a scene where Shiro walks in on her in the shower and she doesn't care, as she feels that any particular emotion being inspired over such a thing unreasonable, but later into the series, during a very similar scene, she get extremely self-conscious, mainly due to her awareness of her physical appearance, to the point where she comes across as an entirely different character. What that tells me is that to properly function as a warrior and as a leader she had to sacrifice her femininity, mind, body and soul. A very interesting concept, as it shows both the strength of her resolve and the crippling effects of the momentous weight that’s been placed on her shoulders during her whole life. I will say though, I’m kinda bothered by the fact that she’s King Arthur turned female, as I think that that idea, while interesting, is rather problematic, due to seemingly being done more for fan service more than anything else. Because this is based on a what’s essentially a porn game, there have to be sex scenes, therefore there has to be a female lead, otherwise I think it would’ve ended up alienating most of the main demographic or anyone who would even bother with watching it, unless saber was a Trap.

The side characters are a really mixed bag. Most of the ones that aren't Shiro’s school friends are either one-note or multi-layered. This route is, in general, very good at characterising its cast in a very subtle show, don't tell way. Caster for example, who’s at first built up as just an evil witch, is later on showcased as having various different sides to her in a very subdued, natural way. For example, there’s a scene in which she and her master get backed into a corner by Shiro and friends, only for another heroic spirit to enter the battle and try to kill her master. It is then that she chooses to stand in the way of the attack, and die as a result. Its actions like this that some the cast have some semblance of depth, as well as add a very interesting theme, that of morality being in the eye of the observer. Even though quite a few of the cast members are supposedly evil, or commit evil actions, they are proven time and time again to have the capacity act in selfless, and in some cases even honourable ways. Thanks to this, the show manages to create very nuanced take on morally. Unfortunately, there’re still the odd characters that are so inhumanely evil that you can’t bring yourself to care about them beyond the way in which one care about a funny joke, like Shiji. Alternatively, there also characters that are so blandly good people that they’re entirely lacking in flavour, who only exist to either provide some sense of normalcy or information on what the average Joe thinks is going on in the city, like Taiga.

Art/Animation: 5/10
Considering the time this came out, the art and animation are more or less passable, maybe even above average, excluding the god-awful CGI dragon scene, which to be honest looks like it was rendered using a PS1. Although, when compared to other series like Death Note or Ergo Proxy, which look astronomically better, despite coming out during the same year. Hell, even when compared to a lot of 90’s anime, like Trigun or Cowboy Bebop, Fate/Stay Night doesn’t even come close to competing, something which is very telling of where it’s at on the totem pole. All in all, the production values aren't exactly great and definitely haven't aged well either, which I feel is the reason why quite a few people don't watch this series. This is a major problem, because it also affects how the battles look and play out. The fights often feel stiff as a corpse and to add insult to the injury, most of them are the characters just talking. This means that the entirety of a lot of confrontations is a sleep inducing few minutes of a clunky mess, preceded by an only slightly less sleep inducing dialogue. But hey, on the bright side, who needs Ambien? On a more seriously positive note though, I actually do really like the stylishly anime character designs a lot, especially in regard to how Lancer, Caster and Assassin look and feel.

Sound: 6/10
Despite how it’s been doing so far, this series at least somewhat excels in the sound department. The first and second openings are decent enough and help capture the epic feeling that goes hand in hand with the content. Unfortunately, the ending songs aren't really that noticeable or memorable, even if they fit the series well. The OST was done by Kenji Kawai, who’s worked on other series like Higurashi, Barakamon and Ghost in the Shell, among many others, so one would expect nothing less than quality from someone with such works on their profile. Unfortunately though, while on point in most scenes, is way too subdued for its own good and doesn't build on series’s strengths. One could argue that the more subdued nature of the soundtrack helps capture and amplify the emotions and feels of the characters, who in there lives have come to shoulder many burdens and regrets, in particular their heroic spirits. Now in that regard, I’ll give it points for adding some sort of narrative subtlety. However, I feel a more epic sounding one, like for Unlimited Blade Works or even Heaven’s Feel would fit this series better, given that the material it goes with is essentially about mages and fantasy heroes of old duking it out. The sub and dub are both passable, with both the versions’ voice acting teams doing quite a good job with what they had to work with and more than successfully capturing the personality of the characters they were playing.

Enjoyment: 6/10
I’m an amateur history buff, and therefore quite enjoy learning about history, I found the pseudo-historical element of this series to be very interesting. Additionally, the idea that history isn't exactly as it is written, which especially evident with the characters of Caster, Rider and Saber in particular added quite a lot of extra appeal for me, something which Fate/Stay Night managed to do a really good job of capitalizing on. Although the flip-side of this is that for the history you’re presented with, you have to have an open mind and take everything with a pretty hefty grain of salt. The fights were also quite enjoyable, because of the philosophical perspectives expressed by characters during them, lending them some much needed engagement and impact. This is because these additional aspects serve to make the fights, not just over glorified sword and club fights, but rather broader reaching ideological conflicts. It’s thanks to the aforementioned that Fate/Stay Night was, enjoyment wise at least pretty much love at first site.

Overall: 6/10
As far as battle royale series go, Fate/Stay Night is pretty decent overall. Unfortunately, it’s as deep as some would make it out to be, due to the fact that the route this anime covers is the fate route, which I said before is kinda the barebones vanilla route of the set. It only show the bare basics and doesn't really shine on its own, unless you really like the character of saber. As an introduction to the franchise and Type-Moon in general though, this series does a very good job of selling on it, even if the production values leave just a little more than a little to be desired. However, if you’re looking for more depth or generally something more extreme you're better off watching the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel adaptations, which are in all honestly are the peaks of this entire franchise. Specially since they are not only way more interesting in story and characters than Fate/Stay Night, but also feature a god tier OST and animation, not to mention being very pleasing on the eyes.

Special thanks to my paid in Yu-Gi-Oh cards editor Lonecrit.