As we are introduced to Shirou and his normal life, the anime often cuts over to Tohsaka Rin, and a mysterious being that she had summoned. Once the big things are eventually revealed, we learn that Tohsaka is a Master and has summoned a Servant. In her case, her Servant is Archer. The purpose is to participate in a “game” against six other Masters and their Servants to gain control of the Holy Grail.
Shirou has a slight magical ability, we see him being able to sense and restore electronics. His magic was just enough to unintentionally summon his own Servant, Saber, when he was attacked by another Servant. He’s not a typical master, preferring to protect rather than attack. The fact that he recklessly defends while spouting dialogue on how he should protect girls skirts dangerously on the line of being too naive and corny.
Shirou refuses to take on a conventional role in the Holy Grail Wars since he has an idealistic view. He wants to end it without too much bloodshed so will attack if he has to but would rather avoid it. This clash with the whole dynamic between a Master and their Servant, given the Servant is usually stronger and does the fighting. Making this worse is the uneasy alliance between Shirou and Rin. Although it’s easy to see that Shirou slowly thaws Rin’s cold and to the point demeanor.
The move moves slowly forward and is definitely too slow paced at times. It is easy to guess who some of the other Masters were. While the anime tried to keep their identities hidden, it ultimately focused too much on “random” characters for it to be a surprise. Despite the Holy Grail Wars being so important and large in scope, all the Masters end up being located around the suburbs and school that Emiya is in. Ultimately it feels that Shirou is definitely holding Saber back. You can see that Saber wants to fight but Shirou highly discourages it and actively gets in the way. Granted, he has good reasons but there are still situations where you shouldn’t run headlong into without planning ahead that Shirou often does.
Shirou is frustrating to watch since he’s weak for most of the season. He doesn’t have enough magical ability within him to make a difference. He does not have the commitment to win a war like the other Masters do. He definitely does not have any noteworthy physical abilities. It takes over half the season before he finally shows a glimpse of power that has potential and even that fizzles out. That power fits what we know about him so it felt natural when he used it, rather than something pulled out of thin air. Despite that, it does feel a bit too late as you’ll probably be annoyed with him being useless and restriction for quite a while now.
Despite Shirou’s weakness, through his generosity, he will amass quite the number of allies. Unfortunately, the plot feels shallow as a result as it will be Shirou fighting and winning against the various Masters and Servants as he gets closer to the Holy Grail. It ties back to his past and father, as well as finding out a bit more about the Holy Grail itself, but ultimately it feels like an excuse plot device. Further weakening the series is the lack of consequences or weight behind the actions. No one remarks or feels anything given that it is people that they know and interact with, that have died in this war. Characters move on without mentioning anything as if nothing was wrong.
The romantic aspect moves slowly in the background. Towards the end of the season, it suddenly jumps at the forefront with Shirou realizing his feelings and acting on it immediately. It’s weak as a result with both characters expressing their feelings after occasionally showing glimpses of obvious affection beforehand. It doesn’t feel like it had a natural gradual build up so it’s not a good payoff when the ending comes.
Overall, Fate/stay night is a mediocre anime with a bland story, and is an adaptation done wrong given that the visual novel has such popularity. The Holy Grail Wars is simple and it somehow manages to drag out what little story and events there were into 24 episodes. This is actually quite an impressive feat when you look back at the end and try to remember what exactly happened. The animation quality is of pretty low standard with a lot of the fight scenes just involving the characters yelling with streak effects. It’s a poor introduction to the Fate franchise and one that might just put you off the whole thing.
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