Today episode 24 for Fate Stay Night came out, marking the end of the pretty popular game-to-Anime series. Now I'm not one of those guys that will tell you that you must stick to the original manga and nothing can ever be better than that. In light of this, the Anime of Fate is a perfect example of how NOT to surpass the original work.
Unlike say, Naruto, the problem with Fate isn't filler/lack of content. Fate the game is oozing with content, probably too much. So out of the game's original 3 arcs, we throw out 2 of them and throw away the #2 through #7 most popular characters, and we're left with Saber (#1) and Shirou Emiya (#8). Now, Saber's arc, which really is just about herself and Shirou, is good enough to capture nearly half of the fan base, and it certainly shouldn't be very hard to do worse than your average hero triumphants against impossible odds story, which is what Fate is (and a romance story between Saber and Shirou, of course).
But it is, because Fate's rules basically make no sense with more than 75% of the main characters missing. The Anime was never remotely able to establish the despairingly powerfulness of the Heroes compared to mere humans, or the insumountable gap that exists for the privileged Knight classes (Saber, Lancer, and Archer) versus anyone else. To be fair, the game wasn't always good at doing this, but at least it does try to remind you whoever got Saber is not supposed to lose. In the Anime you're left wondering how anyone's supposed to win with the Saber class, who have never lost the tournament ever since it began. Fate the game's fighting rules are questionable at times. Fate the Anime's fighting rules are just downright ridiculous.
To be fair, the other two arcs do have their elements inserted purely for the coolness factor. Before the Anime started I told my friends that there's no way the Anime won't have Archer's Unlimited Blade Works or Rin's Cosmic Breaker (Welt Ende, which I believe means like World Collapse, but then given the writer of Fate has a foreign language level of understanding compared to AYB, I figure me randomly making up a name for their moves is better) because you can't have techniques that cool and not show up on an Anime even if it makes no sense whatsoever. Sure enough, the signature attacks of the other two arcs did make their apperance, but only did so for the sake of appearing.
Interesting enough, both the game and the Anime alluded to the fight of destiny between Archer and Shirou Emiya at the graveyard of swords. Both also wimped out and never actually went that far, which is disappointing because this is one point where new content could've trumped the original. This reminds me of how in the Megaman games it was always prophsized that Zero and X will fight each other some day to the death, but it never actually happens (the fight in X5 can't really be considered a serious fight). I suppose this is because there are very strong evidences toward Archer winning this fight, but Shirou as the main character is not supposed to lose either, so they just avoid it altogether.
Overall, I think if you treat the Anime like any other fighting stuff and don't really think very hard about the underlying plot, Fate is probably enjoyable. The quality of the animation in fight is not all that great, but it is worth watching for Archer versus Berserker, Saber versus Assassin, and Saber versus Archer Gold fights. Actually, Archer Gold is the only saving grace of the Anime, but since very few people actually cared about him, it's not really saying much. But for a last boss character, he gets the job done, probably even better than the game.
Unlike say, Naruto, the problem with Fate isn't filler/lack of content. Fate the game is oozing with content, probably too much. So out of the game's original 3 arcs, we throw out 2 of them and throw away the #2 through #7 most popular characters, and we're left with Saber (#1) and Shirou Emiya (#8). Now, Saber's arc, which really is just about herself and Shirou, is good enough to capture nearly half of the fan base, and it certainly shouldn't be very hard to do worse than your average hero triumphants against impossible odds story, which is what Fate is (and a romance story between Saber and Shirou, of course).
But it is, because Fate's rules basically make no sense with more than 75% of the main characters missing. The Anime was never remotely able to establish the despairingly powerfulness of the Heroes compared to mere humans, or the insumountable gap that exists for the privileged Knight classes (Saber, Lancer, and Archer) versus anyone else. To be fair, the game wasn't always good at doing this, but at least it does try to remind you whoever got Saber is not supposed to lose. In the Anime you're left wondering how anyone's supposed to win with the Saber class, who have never lost the tournament ever since it began. Fate the game's fighting rules are questionable at times. Fate the Anime's fighting rules are just downright ridiculous.
To be fair, the other two arcs do have their elements inserted purely for the coolness factor. Before the Anime started I told my friends that there's no way the Anime won't have Archer's Unlimited Blade Works or Rin's Cosmic Breaker (Welt Ende, which I believe means like World Collapse, but then given the writer of Fate has a foreign language level of understanding compared to AYB, I figure me randomly making up a name for their moves is better) because you can't have techniques that cool and not show up on an Anime even if it makes no sense whatsoever. Sure enough, the signature attacks of the other two arcs did make their apperance, but only did so for the sake of appearing.
Interesting enough, both the game and the Anime alluded to the fight of destiny between Archer and Shirou Emiya at the graveyard of swords. Both also wimped out and never actually went that far, which is disappointing because this is one point where new content could've trumped the original. This reminds me of how in the Megaman games it was always prophsized that Zero and X will fight each other some day to the death, but it never actually happens (the fight in X5 can't really be considered a serious fight). I suppose this is because there are very strong evidences toward Archer winning this fight, but Shirou as the main character is not supposed to lose either, so they just avoid it altogether.
Overall, I think if you treat the Anime like any other fighting stuff and don't really think very hard about the underlying plot, Fate is probably enjoyable. The quality of the animation in fight is not all that great, but it is worth watching for Archer versus Berserker, Saber versus Assassin, and Saber versus Archer Gold fights. Actually, Archer Gold is the only saving grace of the Anime, but since very few people actually cared about him, it's not really saying much. But for a last boss character, he gets the job done, probably even better than the game.
