Anime Fate/stay night

[Dagger]

For a show whose first episode disappointed me and whose protagonist I despise, I'm enjoying this rather more than I should be...

Fate/stay night, like Tsukihime, is based on an ero-game by Type-Moon. The plot mainly deals with one cycle of a periodic war for the Holy Grail. Seven legendary heroes and warriors from throughout history are revived as the Servants of seven magic-using Masters. One of the most interesting aspects is finding out just who each Servant used to be. So part of the show is serious, with destructive and well-animated battles between different Servants--and the rest is your typical harem comedy type of stuff.

The Servants and Masters thus far, in approximate order of introduction:

1. [spoiler]Rin and Archer.[/spoiler]
2. [spoiler]An unknown Master and Lancer (the Celtic warrior Cúchulainn).[/spoiler]
3. [spoiler]Shirou and Saber. Saber has been identified as a (possibly Arthurian?) knight, but her true name remains unknown.[/spoiler]
4. [spoiler]Illya and Berserker (a rather unattractive Hercules/Herakles).[/spoiler]
5. [spoiler]Shinji and Rider.[/spoiler]
6. [spoiler]The woman at the temple and an unnamed Servant.[/spoiler]
7. ??

At the point I've watched to, there are two unknown Masters and one unnamed Master, along with one unknown Servant and one unnamed Servant. [spoiler]Shinji told Shirou that there are four Masters at school, which means that one has yet to be accounted for. This could be either Lancer's Master (that's what I'm thinking; a student seems more likely to be "cowardly" than an outsider) or a member of a completely new pair.[/spoiler]

Fate/stay night's best point is that it has a number of interesting, strong female characters. The male characters (especially Archer) aren't half bad, either--aside from Shirou, for whom I continue to nurture a healthy dislike. Rin and Saber should band together to kick him out of the series; idealism and conviction aren't necessarily negative traits, but when accompanied by persistent idiocy, they become nigh intolerable.

~Dagger~

[Fasteriskhead]

Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with the game Ges/Und Heit here is based on, so I can't at all comment on how faithful the adaption is. However, given the quality of the anime so far, I can't imagine the fans being happy with it - more than likely this recalls the Tsukihime fiasco from a few years back. If nothing else, they managed to take the wonderful, quirky orchestral drum and bass grandness of the game's theme song, This Illusion, and completely gut it (Kenji Kawai is the one responsible for this, by the way - one day I'm going to figure out how the same guy was able to do both the GITS movie soundtracks as well as any amount of totally forgettable BGM and soulless jazz-pop. But I digress).

Ges/Und Heit really isn't a [I]bad [/I] series, but it's seriously bland. The main character, when he's not being unforgivably naive and idiotic (as Dagger mentions), is a dramatic black hole, a cipher. I suppose we, the (male) viewers, are supposed to identify with him as he goes and learns about life and probably ends up saving the world or something, all while apparently rooming with at least two gorgeous women so far (the show gives just enough to the traditional harem setup that it's recognizable, but not actually made interesting). Perhaps we could do this more easily if he had any meat on him at all other than being "a nice guy." Look for him to suffer some kind of personal crisis a couple of episodes from now and come out MORE HEROIC THAN EVER, and presumably with a few more girls in his stable. The other characters shine in comparison, of course, yet they're really nothing special either for the most part: Saber and Rin are by far the most interesting of the bunch, but Saber only seems to have two expressions (firey and determined, firey and determined but sensitive) while Rin tops her at three or maybe four. Aww, but who am I kidding, I can't help but like them anyways.

The [I]design [/I] work, on the other hand, is fantastic; all of the characters are beautifully set out and very memorable, especially some of the servants (Rider is my personal favorite so far). The fights are also fairly spectacular [I]when they happen [/I] - the disclaimer being there because Ges/Und Heit, like seemingly every other action-oriented series in recent memory, can apparently only hold up to one skirmish every two episodes or so, with a major battle thrown in every half-dozen. Them's the breaks when you're doing TV anime, I guess. The plot strikes me as silly, although it's a good excuse to dig up some truly inspired character designs, and if they pushed it they could probably get a good story out of the deal. Well, we'll see what happens.

So far it's been just interesting enough to keep me watching. It's nowhere near the upper ranks of the action/adventure series currently showing: Noein crushes just about everything else in the field, Black Cat has been doing steadily better than its pedigree would indicate, Blood+ seems to just keep improving as it goes along, Solty Rei has hit some snags but remains fantastic, and despite my disappointments with Mai Otome and Shakugan no Shana they still have occasional moments (there's also Eureka Seven, but I'd have to go into a seperate post to talk about [I]that [/I] thing). I've been wrong before about shows just starting out - Blood+, for example, had a VERY rough first couple of episodes - so maybe Ges/Und Heit will surprise me. For the moment there's very little that's exciting there, but there's certainly room to work with. So here's hopin'.

[jch832001]

Anyone here seen that show? I've only just started watching it at a site (I think its illegal here to post links) and I thought its a pretty nice action packed show.

--

I wasnt expecting a long reply also I do agree that Shirou is a little annoying and Rider is awesome(special that one special move she does where she stabs her neck, bloody but cool)thanks for erasing the spoilers.

[COLOR=Navy][SIZE=1][FONT=Comic Sans MS]jch832001 please try and refrain from double posting, if you wish to add more info after your previous post please use the edit button ~Ikillion[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Guest Kayro]

hey....how many episodes are there in fate stay night anyway?
i really like the animation n the colours plus da creativity :box:
the starting isn't very interesting but i think things get heated up in da middle.......
yep, i agree that Shirou can be a little dumb at times but he is a little cute
brb

gtg

bye

:sleep: