Fate/Stay Night

[purplepopcorn]

It's funny how many people aren't watching this.

ps Sakura's voice is [schoolgirl]KAWAII.[/schoolgirl]

pps Saber is hawt.

[nickadeemus]

Episode 9 better be nonstop fighting to make up for these last two episodes of no action whatsoever.

[Kefit]

But this show isn't exactly an action show.

It is a character drama that uses action as a means of adding tension. The action in this show is well done, but certainly not the high energy, well animated action that marks seinen action series.

However, I will agree that this episode left me with a definite desire for the pace to be picked up a little bit. Although I never minded in the past, as I believe the show was carefully setting up all of its pieces before things began (whereas many, many people watching this show have bemoaned the pace since episode 1), at nearly a third of the way into the series I am itching for something big to happen. I'm sure that once everything is in place things will pick up, but you are right in noting that there haven't been any major conflicts in the past couple of episodes.

THAT BEING SAID

This episode was still awesome awesome awesome. I'm glad to see that my prediction that every girl in this series will end up living at Shirou's house by the end is starting to come true (that giant house of his is just begging to be filled up). And while I am not as affected by Rin's tsundere charms to the extent that the rest of the internet seems to be, my Sakura <3<3<3 grows with every episode.

The impending conflict next episode leaves me kind of dry though, since it doesn't really involve any of the established characters. Hopefully it will be more interesting than it looks.

[Kefit]

THIS JUST IN

I WIN



ps



pps no I'm not obsessed I swear

ppps more is on the way >_>

[Kefit]

Episode nine yay.

Some awesome action in this episode. It seems the animators finally decided to make some real fights. However, the technique battles kind of ruin the flow of the duel. Assassin talks way too much though. I hear he has no major bearing on the story, so I hope he goes bye bye soon.

The second half of the episode dragged on though, and for the life of me I can't seem to figure out anything significant that happened during it, unlike with other post battle talky talky scenes. Saber is going to train Shirou now, but that is about it.

But now all the pieces are in place. We have seen all of the servants, and have some vague idea of what they are all up to. Now it is time for the game to truly begin, and I can't wait for it to happen.

EDIT: HOLY **** PREVIEW PROMISES CUTE LOLI MODE ILYA YES YES YES YES YES YES YES I NOW HAVE A REASON TO LOOK FORWARD TO NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE (this episode didn't end on a cliffhanger :<)

[Kefit]

Episode 10 had some great stuff in it, but all the best stuff was spoiled by the preview (I never watch previews, but random blogs informed me of an Ilya sighting in the preview, which was too much to resist).

Naked Saber ftw

Cute loli Ilya ftw

Other than that nothing happened this episode, except for some really boring technical magic stuff with Rin and some slightly less boring Shirou assbeating by Saber. Furthermore, even the fun parts of this episode lacked the energy and directing to make them really fun (this is in direct contrast to episode 8, where all the funny harem stuff had the perfect energy and mood). This episode just plain dragged.

And to make things worse, Sakura only had about two seconds of screen time. Dammit, I need more of her :<

Gah, here's hoping that this show kicks things back up in the next episode. The subclimax should be approaching, and I am hoping that it will be ORGASMIC.

ps wtf this is my fourth post in a row other people are watching this too rite rite???

[Squeek]

I am watching it but have nothing to say that is post-worthy.

It's pretty straightforward...

~Squeek

[sleeplessdragn]

I came across this thread last night and tonight I just finished the first 10 episodes. I must say that I am very much satisfied with the way that this anime is going.

[nickadeemus]

I guess it would be satisfying if you watched them all in a chunk like that. Waiting a week for these recent episodes has been somewhat disappointing as per content. I'll stick with it and hope for the best, though.

[Kefit]

Yeah, the pacing of every individual episode isn't really a problem, but the pacing of the series as a whole spread across 26 episodes kind of is. Still, I've spent the last two years patiently waiting for every episode that I watch of fansubbed anime, so I don't mind too terribly much.

Anyway, episode 11 was awesome. Saber vs Rider was simply beautiful, and badass Shirou is always fun to watch.

Just about the only thing wrong with this episode is that there was no Sakura, but the rest was so awesome that, like with episode six, I don't mind too terribly much. Besides, I have heard that she will likely be showing up next time :3

[purplepopcorn]

ep 11 was a lot better than the previous ones. It's worth watching all of the others to get to it. the ending felt a little forced though, with saber just saying "^_^ k let's fight together" meh.

I want the next one to come out. =(

[Kefit]

Just watched episode 12.

Uh oh.

While we never actually saw Rider die, most evidence points towards a positive on this (the most damning of which is the loss of Shinji's command seals). I dunno much about the game storyline, but I do know that Rider's survival past this conflict is a key factor in there being any meaningful involvement of Sakura in this show.

While this show doesn't need Sakura to be good, at this point it has given her enough screentime to establish her as my favorite girl by a hefty margin - she is nicely rounded character that seemingly has been molded to perfectly fit all of my personal moe tastes. Furthermore, the first eight episodes, along with this one, were filled with hints that there is more to her than meets the eye. Not only would it dissappoint me greatly if she doesn't have a role in this storyline, it would downright be bad plot construction at this point =/

Anyway, the fights in this episode were cool, but not nearly as beautiful as the last two. We finally get to see a couple more Noble Phantasms, and they seemed just a wee bit overpowered to me, at least compared to what Lancer and Assassin dished out in earlier episodes. I wonder what sort of horrifying attack our friend Berserker has in store with his.

Finally, all of you should be able to figure out who Saber is after this episode. Rider is a bit trickier, but I will give you a hint: do a bit of research on Pegasus.

[sleeplessdragn]

Hey we still haven't seen Caster, perhaps Sakura has something to do with that? Eh? Eh?

[Squeek]

wtf where did you come from

Well, the ominous "She's staring out the window and Tohsaka is watching" ending to that episode clearly indicates that she's gonna do something.

Clearly.

~Squeek

[Kefit]

Not necessarily.

Most Hgame --> anime adaptations are made mostly for an audience that has played and enjoyed the game. Often, there is far too much story packed into the different routes in a game to successfully carry them all over to an anime series. In some cases, as with F/SN, the different routes are completely and utterly incompatible with eachother. Thus, anime adaptations will often make brief nods and references to these storylines to let the fans know that these elements have not been forgotten, but otherwise spend the series developing a different route. Tsukihime, the first Type-Moon renai game --> anime adaptation is notorious for brushing aside many of its characters like this.

What I am getting at is that the F/SN anime might just be making a brief nod to Sakura's storyline (the Heaven's Feel route) with these scenes. I'm guessing at this point that the series is going to heavily focus on Saber's storyline (the Fate route), with perhaps a few scenes from Rin's storyline (Unlimited Blade Works) to satiate her rabid fans.

I could be wrong about this. Remarkably, I have managed to find out a good deal about how the storylines in this game are seperated, while completely avoiding spoilers pertaining to the storylines themselves.

Of course, the producers have said that they are incorporating elements from all three main paths into the show. Furthermore, if it does diverge from the game storylines in order to accomplish this, it certainly wouldn't be the first anime adaptation that had great differences seperating it from its source material.

So I suppose we will just have to wait and see.

[Squeek]

Why is every good anime based off a hentai game.

That's like saying every good movie that ever came out of Hollywood was originally a porn.

wtf

~Squeek

[Kefit]

To be fair, most hentai games that get adapted into anime use the hentai as a sort of bonus to everything else. The characters and storyline are what these games are really about. The games that get anime adaptations cannot really be compared to American pornography, or even typical hentai (although there are certainly a good number of hentai games which do exist purely for the pornographic aspect).

Anyway, good renai games make for good adaptation material. Unlike most mangas or novels that get adaptations (which usually start their production long before the original form of the series reaches its end), renai games are complete and entirely self-contained the moment they are released. Furthermore, the heavily textual nature of these games requires that a lot of emphasis be placed on storyline and characterization in order to entertain the player, both of which (especially the latter) are very important to the moemoe/harem anime genre. Thus, high quality hentai games (and believe me, there are a lot of low quality games that we never hear of) make an ideal source for anime adaptations.

At least that is my reasoning for it. I'm not entirely sure how accurate it is, but it makes a lot of sense to me.

Eek, this is getting kind of off topic. I shall fix this with Sakura <3<3<3

[Kefit]

O_O

I think we have our first confirmed character death in this episode. That is, if Ilya is telling the truth (although I can't see why she would lie about it). Ilya won some points with me here, but I've figured out that I really don't like her VA performance all that much. It simply comes off as flat to me.

I'm curious as to how Sakura will react to Shinji's death, but first she will have to come back into the show for that to matter at all. At this point I am going forward with the idea that she won't be doing anything significant in this series. That way I won't be as dissappointed if that turns out to be the case, and I will be doubly pleased if she surprises me.

Hmm. Looks like next week will be Archer vs Berserker. I'm curious to see what Archer is capable of when he is at full strength. I'm also curious how Shirou is going to recharge Saber's mana, and if it will come down to that after this battle (and no, I don't mean having Saber stealing the souls of random people).

[sleeplessdragn]

I'm really glad that you keep updating per episode. Otherwise I wouldn't know when to get the next one.

[ninshikou]

I <3 F/sn