(Neo): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Welcome to the second half of our review of *sigh* Fate/stay night original.
(Yume): *Chuckles* I can tell you’re looking forward to this, Neo.
(Nitsuj): Last time, we ended with Shirou and Saber managing to defeat Rider thus bringing an end to Shinji’s run in the war, but where does he go from here? Well let’s find out as we continue our review of Fate/stay night original.
Opening Theme
(Nitsuj): For the second half of the opening we have “Kirameku Namida wa Hoshi ni” by Tainaka Sachi as the second opening. Didn’t really care for this opening. Which is a shame because it starts off really good, but then it falls shockingly into this slow and somewhat quiet pace that you quickly lose interest in. I wish they kept the momentum they had at the beginning of the song keep going. If they did the song probably would have stuck with me more.
Episodes 13-16
(Yume): The second half starts off in Shirou’s home where Rin explains that Saber’s mana is very low from using her noble phantasm and in time she’ll disappear (because Shirou sucks as a mage). Since Shirou can’t replenish her mana the only option he has left is to use a command seal and order Saber to attack humans (Neo: And her path to the dark side will begin). Shirou falls asleep and gets a glimpse into Saber’s past where he sees her pull out Caliburn and become the king of Britain (Nitsuj: Again, I can’t help but wonder how the stories would have played out if Arthur was in fact a woman). As Shirou struggles wondering what to do, Illya approaches him again and captures him (Nitsuj: He’s really bad at this Holy War thing isn’t he?). Shirou gets taken back to her manor where she wants to make him her servant (little girl saw Shirou and hit puberty wanting a piece of that pie. (Nitsuj): Which I’m sure is nice, big and hard. Hopefully not flakey). Saber wakes back up sensing Shirou in danger (Neo: You have been cursed with a troublesome master) and goes to rescue him with Rin and Archer. Back with Shirou, he finds out that Illya killed Shinji after Saber beat Rider (Nitsuj: Yes! Illya’s alright in my book) and refuses to be her servant prompting her to go out and kill Saber and Rin herself.
Episodes 14-16 give us the battle between Team Shirou and Illya and Berserker (Neo: Let the carnage begin). Shirou breaks out of his bondages and meets up with Saber and the others where they try to escape the manor only to get stopped by Illya and Berserker. Rin tells Archer to fight Berserker alone while they get away (Neo: Wow, sacrificing him. This is like asking an archer to take down an armored unit in a videogame. It’s not going to happen). Before going off to fight, Archer gives Shirou some final words of wisdom on what he needs to do in order to stop being so useless. Despite Archer’s best efforts including the use of Unlimited Blades Works where he kills Berserker five times over, it still wasn’t enough to give him the win and he dies (scene here: https://youtu.be/0452RI7CET8). Back with Shirou and the others they find some abandoned ruins to hide and rest where Rin says there’s a way to replenish Saber’s mana. If Shirou can give parts of his magic circuits to Saber, then her mana will be restored. The only downside is Shirou will never be able to perform sorcery on the level of other magicians ever (don’t think he cares about that). They perform the ritual (Neo: Giving us easily the stupidest thing in the entire series) as Shirou spiritually enters Saber (Nitsuj: This is spiritual sex isn’t it? (Neo): Yes! And it is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen! If you wanted to know why everyone dislikes this particular anime so much. Look no further than this scene) where we get the worst looking CGI dragon of all time you’d swear you were playing a PS2 game (and even then, I find that insulting to PS2 games. (Nitsuj): Yeah, you don’t give those PS2 games enough credit. Scene here: https://youtu.be/Mdol1dMEtMY). The ritual is a success as Saber recovers (and seems to have realized her feelings for Shirou) and they head out to face Illya and Berserker. Shirou and Saber take them on directly while Rin hides in the trees waiting for her chance to strike. Once again Berserker is just too powerful for them and even catches Rin where she manages to kill him but Illya reveals they have to kill him a total of twelve times in order for him to stay down (Nitsuj: He’s got more lives than a cat. (Neo): He’s worse than a vampire). Just when Saber is about to use her noble phantasm, Shirou uses his command seal to stop her and begins to focus remembering the last words of Archer where he visualizes and creates a sword powerful enough to defeat Berserker. Shirou and Saber combine their powers and thrust the sword into Berserker which kills him seven times over (Neo: The beast thus be slain. Scene here: https://youtu.be/8zLtMk4a2Fc). After the battle some time passes and we see Illya is now staying at Shirou’s place (Nitsuj: His place has become the playboy manor) where Saber and Rin aren’t happy about it (particularly Saber. Seeing as how Illya uses her cuteness to cling to Shirou. Scene here: https://youtu.be/hzuBuZ6a-1Y). After this, not much really happens. We see Saber gets embarrassed around Shirou now (even covering herself whenever she’s naked. Scene here: https://youtu.be/5VV34SLyBV0) and we get ready for the next battle as their next opponent appears to be Caster.
Episodes 17-20
(Nitsuj): At the start of episode 17, Shirou has a dream where he sees the past of Saber and how her subjects criticized her for her decisions that seemed to lack human compassion (politics in a nutshell). After this, the group hears about people falling into comas all over the city and believe it’s the work of Caster and her master at the temple. The group suspects that Kuzuki is Caster’s master and plan to ambush him at night. Unlike in Blade Works where they fought him on an abandoned road that led to the temple, they fight him on a market street where everything is closed (Yume: Well there’s no bar or ramen shop around, so why stay open?). Sure enough, Kuzuki is Caster’s master where this time around he does seem to be more aggressive and darker than in Blade Works (Neo: And even seems more in control of the relationship then Caster). They fight for a bit before Caster reveals that she can summon the Holy Grail, all she needs is a mage to be a suitable sacrifice. Shirou quickly figures out that she’s going after Illya, so Saber rushes back to Shirou’s house where she gets stabbed by Rule Breaker courtesy of Sakura (I knew she was an undercover yandere) who is possessed by Caster. While Sakura’s mana isn’t enough to sever the bond Saber has with Shirou it does prohibit her from using her noble phantasm. Shirou and Rin arrive back home where they see the possessed Sakura who will be used as the vessel to house the Holy Grail. Sakura gets taken away and all Shirou can do is watch (Yume: Nice house watch Illya).
Episodes 18-19 give us the fight against Caster and Kuzuki. Caster tells the group that if they want to save Sakura then come to her temple. Shirou, Rin and Saber go to the temple where they find a hidden entrance to Caster’s temple (someone had way too much time on her hands) and arrive just in time to see Caster beginning the ritual to summon the Holy Grail (and what is with that outfit they have Sakura in? Are they training her to be a dominatrix? (Neo): That’s just shameless fanservice they added in). After taking down the bone soldiers, Saber takes on Assassin whose mana is running out while Shirou and Rin go to take on Kuzuki and Caster. Rin gets forced to fight against Sakura where we discover that the two are sisters who were separated from each other when they were children. Rin manages to beat Sakura and return her to normal. Saber manages to beat Assassin (scene here: https://youtu.be/OfDUAVdUFc0) and meet up with Shirou and Rin who are surrounded and too weak to fight back (scene here: https://youtu.be/Zy5h4TCJDTo). Caster offers to spare Shirou’s life if Saber becomes her servant (Yume: Don’t do it Saber. She’ll put you in a dress, tie you up in chains, and do weird sexual stuff to you), but before she can get an answer, she and Kuzuki get taken out by Gilgamesh (Neo: Who has a look I honestly don’t like here. Thank goodness for the redesign in the later animes). In the last war he and Saber fought where she lost and he proposed to her only to get rejected (Saber: I prefer orange-haired men). In the end, he won the previous war and used the Holy Grail’s power to stick around and fight in the next war where he most likely plans to make Saber his bride whether she wants to be or not. With Caster defeated, the temple begins to collapse and the group escapes and makes it back home where Saber tells them about her battle with Gilgamesh and how she doesn’t know his identity because of his many noble phantasms. After their talk, Shirou and Saber have a private discussion where Shirou figures out that Saber wants to use the Holy Grail and rewrite history where she doesn’t become king, but Shirou says she should just use it to stay in this time period with him. Saber says that’s impossible even with the Holy Grail and believes Gilgamesh doesn’t have the previous one because it was destroyed by Kiritsugu. Saber confesses that Kiritsugu was her master in the previous war who got the Holy Grail but rejected it. He ordered Saber to destroy the Holy Grail (Yume: That’s sacrilege) which resulted in the fire destroying the town and killing a number of people. Saber vows that this time she will retrieve the Holy Grail and make her wish come true no matter what. After hearing all of this, Shirou goes to talk to Kirei where he says that if Saber drinks the water from the Holy Grail she’ll be offered a second life and be allowed to live in the world as long as Shirou is around. Shirou also asks Kirei about Gilgamesh aka the eighth servant that has appeared.
In a rather interesting turn of events, Shirou and Saber go out on a date in episode 20 (scene here: https://youtu.be/_4ZRu9oPlR8, not what I was expecting after what happened these last few episodes, but I’m totally on board with this). Now this should be a lot of fun but sadly they fast forward through the date and the stuff we get to see such as Saber admiring a stuffed lion toy, going to the aquarium, a movie (hey Star Wars exists in this universe. (Yume): It actually looks better than the sequels), and even eating out doesn’t have enough time given to it. As the sun sets they talk where Shirou calls out Saber saying she doesn’t like fighting and is trying to end the war quickly to avoid major casualties like the previous one. Shirou tries to get Saber to realize that she doesn’t have to return to the past to do things over again, she can stay here with him and live a good life. Saber turns the tables and calls Shirou out on his hypocrisy on telling Saber to prioritize herself over others when he himself does the exact opposite. The two continue to argue with each other with Saber saying the only thing that matters to her is winning and nothing else. The fight escalates to the point where Saber actually calls for their pact to be cancelled and Shirou walks away (Neo: Probably the smart move. Lest he say something he’ll regret later on). Shirou returns home to mope and then heads back out to look for Saber as she hasn’t returned home yet. He finds her where he left her as she couldn’t think of a place to go. While Shirou admits to himself that he might have been wrong, he won’t apologize for what he said to Saber because she’s too important to him and he doesn’t want to lose her (scene here: https://youtu.be/59PLalp_rlY). As they walk back, Gilgamesh shows up demanding that Shirou let go of his woman.
Episodes 21-24
(Neo): At the start of episode 21, Shirou and Saber fight against Gilgamesh (Nitsuj: They’re dead). Shirou tries to attack first where he goes down and then Saber fights him where she’s just no match for him due to her mana still recovering (Yume: Oh, that’s her excuse for everything) and gets beaten. Shirou rises back up to protect Saber where he traces a sheath for Excalibur where it’s able to repel Gilgamesh’s attack and injure him. Shirou soon passes out and gets carried away by Saber who escapes. As Shirou sleeps to heal himself he sees the past of Saber once again where she fought to the bitter end as her kingdom collapsed with her ruling it. Saber now wants to use the Holy Grail to do the king selection process all over again and find someone more fitting to rule than her (she really underestimates herself. No one could have ruled better then her). Once Shirou wakes back up he confesses his feelings to Saber and once again begs her to stay with him when the war is over. They even kiss each other, but Saber remains steadfast on the path she must follow (although she is starting to waver. Scene here: https://youtu.be/vLQW6piG_z8). The next day, Shirou goes to speak with Kirei where he gets stabbed by Lancer (Nitsuj: I forgot he was still around).
So at the start of episode 22 we see that Illya’s body is starting to fail her. Why? Well the anime skips over it, but Illya’s sole purpose was to serve as the vessel for the Holy Grail. Throughout the war her body has been amassing mana and now it’s becoming too much for her. If the war doesn’t end soon she’ll die. Getting back to the episode, Saber rushes off to the church when she finds out that Shirou left without telling them (Nitsuj: You think he would learn by now) where she finds his unconscious body, but Lancer is in the way. Kirei comes out saying that if they desire he can give them the Holy Grail now but both Shirou and Saber say they don’t want it. Saber heals Shirou by touching him (Yume: Bet his heart is going doki doki right now). Kirei finally reveals that he is Gilgamesh’s master from the previous war and is the one responsible for that fire 10 years ago. As for Lancer, he killed Lancer’s original master and took control of him. Mainly using him to scout out the other servants and get an idea of who he’s up against(scenes here: https://youtu.be/g_jA9SYFtFo and https://youtu.be/dZr04oN0gzA). Kirei takes his leave (Yume: I would like to point out that Saber had a good chance to stab him as he walked past her) ordering Lancer and Gilgamesh to kill them, but Lancer has a change of heart and fights against Gilgamesh while Shirou and Saber escape. As you would imagine Lancer gets killed (Nitsuj: If he did win that’d be a major upset), but Shirou and Saber manage to escape where they vow to destroy the Holy Grail (scene here: https://youtu.be/cFRSYzHoCxU).
In the final two episodes we start with Shirou and Saber arriving back home where Illya has been kidnapped by Kirei and Rin is on her deathbed (Nitsuj: Damn, Rin and Archer got the cold treatment during this walkthrough). Before she supposedly dies, Rin hands Shirou a magic dagger and tells them to head to the temple for the final showdown. Shirou and Saber arrive at the temple where this time Saber takes on Gilgamesh while Shirou takes on Kirei (because Shirou isn’t nearly as strong in this version as he is in Unlimited Blade Works). Sadly, instead of getting a pretty epic fight to end the series on a high note, we a get a pretty underwhelming final fight. Shirou’s fight against Kirei is just talking while 95% of Saber’s fight against Gilgamesh is just her losing only to pull an upset at the end by unleashing her full power and Shirou beating Kirei by just running at him and stabbing him with the magic dagger (scene here: https://youtu.be/-_mwcjrQMQk. (Nitsuj): Yeah, that’s pretty sad given what we’ve seen so far). With Kirei and Gilgamesh defeated and Illya safe, Shirou uses his command seal and orders Saber to destroy the Holy Grail (Yume: Was that necessary? I’m sure she would have done it without his command). With the Holy Grail destroyed Saber disappears but not before telling Shirou that she loves him (a little late to the party on that one). Life returns to normal for Shirou where we see Illya is still living with him and Rin is still alive (Yume: Because God knows Studio Deen would have been facing some serious backlash if they killed her off like that). As for Saber, she returns to her time where we see Bedivere (who is also a woman. (Nitsuj): Britannia was ahead of its time) plants Saber’s sword on top of a hill while Saber slowly dies under a tree peacefully (scene here: https://youtu.be/iuUxDtmL9v0).
Final Thoughts
(Yume): And that was the original Fate/stay night. Compared to Unlimited Blade Works and Zero it’s not as good as you would have hoped.
(Neo): The animation and action aren’t that great, the music is decent, and we get some scenes that are just unbelievably hard to sit through. Some characters are used better this time around like Illya getting more screen time and developing a little sister/big brother relationship with Shirou as well as a relationship with Rin. Shinji and Rider being used more this time around as opposed to going out so easily in Unlimited Blade Works. Kirei having a bigger role as the main villain and giving Gilgamesh a more villainous persona as a guy who just wants to make Saber his property and nothing else. There’s also Shirou taking on a more active role in the war this time and not being on the sidelines so much. However, some characters get a major downgrade like Archer and his connection with Shirou getting skipped over almost entirely, Caster and Kuzuki going down rather easily, and Lancer almost having no presence in this anime whatsoever.
(Nitsuj): While the anime has a few hidden gems here and there it fails to capitalize on the majority of the major stuff. I will say I did like how they focused on the relationship between Shirou and Saber and how it slowly progressed throughout the course of the anime. Shirou is the only person who sees Saber as a lady while Saber only sees herself as a king who has duties she failed to complete and wants to restart things for the betterment of her country, but slowly starts to develop feelings for a guy for the first time in her life. It’s cute and I did think it was handled better then Shirou and Rin’s relationship in Unlimited Blade Works. This relationship took its time more, we saw how the two grew to care deeply for each other, how they argued with each other about what they believed in, and how they finally came to the conclusion that the only important thing that matters is what they feel for each other. I also did like how Rin took on a more mentor/supportive role this time around. Coaching Shirou and helping him out when he needed it the most.
Final Score
(Nitsuj): My final score for Fate/stay night is a 5.5/10.
(Yume): I’m also giving it a 5.5/10.
(Neo): I didn’t like this anime all that much, so I’m giving it a 4/10.
(Nitsuj): This brings are combined score to 15/30 which averages out to a 5/10. I wouldn’t call this anime awful, however, this definitely is the weakest series of the bunch I’ve seen so far.
(Yume): But give it credit, it did introduce anime watchers to the novels which would go on to increase the fandom and lead to the creation of Zero and Unlimited Blade Works to add more popularity. This in turn led to more animes and spinoffs being created and making Fate one of the most popular animes and visual novels in the world today.
(Neo): While I may not like this series, I do think it’s worth checking out at least once to see where the series got started and how far it’s come. If you’re looking to get yourself or your friends into the Fate series this isn’t the anime to watch. Instead, start with Unlimited Blade Works or Zero. Or better yet, Heaven’s Feel which is what we’ll be looking at down the line.
(Nitsuj): Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.