Fate/stay night

Shostakovich343

After going a whole summer without anime, "Fate/stay night" was the first series I watched. Not a bad choice to completely submerge myself in the genre again. Within ten minutes, we are treated to waifus, love triangles, clumsy humour, and -- most lovingly -- being late for school. It's like I've never been gone.

But let's not gloss over the set-up, because it is one of the series' better aspects. In a world where magic runs through a few ancient families, seven younglings are chosen every couple of years to fight for the Holy Grail. However, as they are usually too spoiled to fight for themselves, the seven are granted a Servant, a historical or legendary figure that will do the hard work for them (and is always of the opposite sex, it seems).

Our protagonist is Shirou Emiya, an orphan high schooler with barely any magical abilities. He is unaware of being chosen as a master, and continues his daily life as a good person, until he accidentally witnesses two servants fight and is subsequently stabbed dead.

'Down on their luck' is always a good place for a protagonist to start, and much lower than 'dead' is hardly possible. However, Shirou is resurrected by Rin, another Master, who takes a liking to him. She takes him home, patches him up and tells him the rules of the game. Shirou disapproves at first, but ultimately decides to fight in order to minimise casualties. With the help of Rin he summons his Servant, who turns out to be a sexy sword lady.

At this point I started to get "Elfen Lied" vibes. An aloof young man living alone in a big house that steadily fills up with diverse and shapely girls, don't tell me... Yes, "Fate/stay night" is a harem anime.

Bring your anime girl bingo card; all stereotypes are here: The maid, the nerd, the soldier, the psycho, the hard-to-crack one, and the one who acts like a big sister but would probably like to give her Onii-chan a good view of the bedroom ceiling. There is a reason these stereotypes are encountered invariably in second-rate anime. Not only do they bear little resemblance to actual human beings, they are fill-ins: A mould used by the writers to avoid having to come up with interesting characters of their own.

This bewildering genre shift started to make sense when I found out that "Fate/stay night" is based upon an adult game. The whole Grail Wars thing is just an excuse for these girls to gather, and the harem tones intensify as the series goes on. How often, for example, do we need to see our protagonist walk into the bathroom while his Servant is in there, naked? Saying 'your seeing me naked is nothing to worry about. Rather than being a woman I am first and foremost a Servant' improves matters little.

The high-point of the series' shamelessness must be the magic transplantation between Shirou and the aforementioned girl. In order for the procedure to work, both 'have to be flustered', which is achieved through kissing and lesbian groping, after which the 'uniting of bodies' can take place. Those who dare argue that this isn't sexual because it is part of a ritual should note that this ritual was made up in a sweaty meeting room by a committee of depressing men coming up with scenarios for naughty games.

The quality of the writing improves somewhat when the series starts focussing on monogamous romance, but now the pacing is completely off. The aftermath of your penultimate battle, during which one of the girls nearly DIED (while wearing leather panties and translucent stockings, I might add) is not a good moment to begin asking for dating advice. In an erotic game this may have been important, but in the narrative the series has established, saving the city and possibly the whole world seems like the more pressing matter at hand.

Unfortunately, the quest for the Grail is not very captivating. Fights come and go without much consideration of the larger narrative, ending in a draw more often than not, because one of the participants got bored and wandered off (that is to say: because the plot needed them to stay alive for a while longer), and most twists can be seen from outer space. Surely the arrogant classmate who is a known liar and hasn't been around for days cannot be the one killing student, right? And surely that sinister man with his black robes and deep voice can be trusted when he invites you to a remote location, at night, alone.

The overarching problem with "Fate/stay night" is that it never goes all the way. The series cannot choose whether it wants to be an action epic or a romance, whether to focus on a harem, or, well, actual romance. As a result, all aspects suffer, even if the end product wasn't as bad as it could have been. I did not feel ashamed and cheated like after watching "Elfen Lied"; just moderately unsatisfied.

And who am I kidding? I only watched "Fate/stay night" in preparation for "Fate/Zero". I am intrigued how that series' narrative will diverge from its source material. Hopefully, it lives up to its reputation. "Fate/stay night", in any case, offers even less than its mildly positive audience response suggests.

score 5/10

Shostakovich343 31 August 2019

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5091153/