Episode 76: Fate / Stay Night Tutorial

Topic: Fate / Stay Night Tutorial

 

Today, we dive deep in to one of my favorite Anime Franchise, the Fate series, specifically Fate Stay/Night and its prequel Fate Zero.  I know that the series is very dense and large, especially when you consider all the spin offs and media that exists out there for it.  And that’s before you get to ALL of the Sabers out there…. Let dive in!

 

 

What is it?

Fate / Stay Night, or the Fate Franchise, is a part of a large universe of characters and stories in the Nasu-verse, a fictional universe created by Kinoko Nasu of Type-Moon.  Created initially as a Visual Novel in 2004, and the third major work of Type-Moon, the series was an immediate success and quickly spawned a massive franchise that dwarfs many of Type-Moon previous and future works.

 

While the Fate Franchise is the most popular work, the Nasu-verse comprises of several series, including:

 

Kara no Kyoukai (jp: Boundary of Emptiness / eng: Garden of Sinners)

A series revolving around Shiki Ryogi, a paranormal investigator with the ability to see and cut the mystical lines of mortality in anything, and her friend, Mikiya Kokutō, a fellow assistant investigator who works alongside the powerful Sorceress Tōko Aozaki in her agency.

 

Tsukihime (eng: Lunar Princess)

Tells the story of Shiki Tohno, who like Shiki Ryogi, can see the mystical lines of mortality of anything and cut them, thus ending the their existence.  The story progress as he faces vampires and changes depending on which heroine he chooses follow throughout the story.

 

 

What is a Visual Novel?

A Visual Novel is like a Choose your own adventure in book, though typically takes the form of visuals with characters standing up against a back drop/setting and a serious of dialog boxes express what the characters are saying or doing.  Most games follow branching story lines which lead to various endings depending on the actions taken by the player.  In most games, the Player takes on the role of the lead character and is given a limited pool of options to react or respond to when presented by events or situations in the game.  An example could be a character asking if they look good, with the player being given the choice between various options to respond; and depending on the answer, will trigger a reaction from the character.

 

Visual novels are popular within Japanese media as they are relatively cheap to produce and create, as most Visual Novels rely on beautiful still art of characters, their reactions, backgrounds, and occasional splash pages, along with minimal background music, and focus more on stories.  Few visual novels rely on motion graphics or voice acting, and if they do, it is limited to an opening scene or trailer for the game.  Most games tend to lead toward a particular demographic, and offer fan service for those demographic in an effort to get them to buy the game.

 

Most Visual novels are of the Eroge, or Erotic, variety; which primarily focus on stories that have sexually explicit scenes and graphics depicting those scenes.  Eroge games can range from Teen to Adult rating, with some game being straight Hentai, while others are more titillating and offer fan service.  A popular theme among Visual novels tends to be Harem based games with a single character with multiple love interests of the opposite sex. 

 

 

 

History / Lore

Fate / Stay Night, at heart, is a story revolving around Shirou Emiya, who unwittingly joins a secret Battle Royal involving six other mages and each of their servants in the Holy Grail War.  As the name suggests, the ultimate prize is the Holy Grail, a creation of magic that can grants any wish from the winner of the War.  During the time of Fate / Stay Night, this is the fifth incarnation of the Holy Grail War within the fictional city of Fuyuki City, on the south tip of Japan.  The city was chosen for its strong ley lines, but also due to no magus or holy church involvement in the area during the First War in 1790s. 

 

 

Within the Fate / Stay Night, there are three different routes/stories that exist within the game, each of which change the nature of the story dramatically once they split off from one another.  These include:

 

·         Fate Route – Primarily Focusing on Saber and building the world/lore of the game.

·         Unlimited Blade Works Route – Primarily Focuses on Rin Tohsaka and her servant Archer, and places more development of the various cast of character than the other routes.

·         Heavens Feel Route - Primarily Focuses on Sakura Matou and her servant Rider, and focus more on the background behind the Holy Grail War, along with the darker aspects of the world that led up to the current events.

 

 One must complete each individual route in order to progress on the next route.  While each route tells a different story and aspect of the world and events, they all use the same characters, who each have the same feelings and emotions, but differing motives as the story progresses. 

 

Each Holy Grail War consists of seven Mages and their Servants.  Servants are summoned individuals known as Heroic Spirits, which take on the form of famous historical figures.  These historical figures can be real life individuals or fictional individuals that actually did exist within Nasu-verse. Most characters range from various myths and stories, but most range from stories originating within Europe primarily.  Examples of historical figures include:

 

• King Arthur
• Gilgamesh
• Alexander the Great
• Hercules
• Medea
• Medusa
• Gilles de Rais
• Lancelot

 

Each Servant being summoned may be one of seven available classes of Heroic Spirits being summoned, with only one class per War, in order to make the war fair. Each servant is referred to by their class, in order for other servants and mages to not realize who the Heroic Spirit is and thus gain a tactical advantage.  IE, might be known as Gilgamesh, but is referred to as Archer.  Each class has benefits and weakness, some are based on strength, while others are based on tactical or strategic advantages or weakness.  These classes include:

 

• Saber – A knight who uses Swords in combat, considered very desire-able class.
• Archer – A knight who uses ranged weapons, ie Bow and Arrows, guns, or any other kind of projectile.
• Lancer – A knight who uses a Lance, Spear, or Medium range weapons in combat
• Berserker – A strength based hero who dominates with overwhelming force
• Assassin – An rogue typically who is known for killing their opponents from the shadows or in a secretive manner
• Rider – An individual known for riding or driving a vehicle or creature
• Caster – A Magical Type of individual

 

Each Mage has three Command Seals upon their right or left hand, which symbolize their pact with their servants, and are laid out artfully in accordance with the Mage’s style of magic.  Each Command Seal can compel the servant to act or do as the Mage commands, with the more concrete and forward commands being the most beneficial to the Mage over more broad ranged commands. 

 

Mages and Servants may or may not work well together, as some Servant or Mage classes out right hating each other, while others are distrustful, and others are best bonds in the world.  Most servants act in accordance with their Mages, as Mages supply the very mana necessary for the Heroic Spirit to exist within the physical world.  A Mage is considered disqualified from the War if they lose their Servant and do not make a pact with a new Servant(One that has already been summoned), or dies during the war. 

 

As eluded to earlier, the true purpose of the Holy Grail War is not to grant wishes, but intended to harvest mana and magic from the servants that participate within the Holy Grail War, and then use it to activate the Greater Grail and reach a mythical origin (Root) of magic.  The system however is fundamentally flawed, as the Greater Grail can only be held by a servant, thus limiting it to only granting wishes.  However, during the 3^rd Holy Grail War, the Holy Grail itself was corrupted by a rogue servant, thus causing the Holy Grail to be tampered and would not work properly regardless of the magic absorbed in to it.

 

 

With the Main Story, includes a few notable characters:

 

·         Shirou Emiya – Lead protagonist and Master for Saber.  He has a strong sense of justice and wants to be a hero, despite little to no aptitude for magic.

·         Saber – Artoria Pendragon(King Arthur), the King of Knights, who was actually a girl.  She a stoic and knightly figure, but brushes up against Shirou, who tries to save her and sees her more as a girl than a knightly figure.

·         Rin Tohsaka – Daughter of a prestigious mage family, she is the Master of Archer, and tends to act as a Tsudere type character. (IE, acts very brash and brutish to the main character, before becoming friendly and gentle with them later.)

·         Archer – A mysterious individual who is capable of summoning sword and turning them in to Arrows to fire from his bow.  He doesn’t remember what Heroic Spirit he is suppose to be, and often act fickle and teasingly with Rin, and hostile with Shirou, who he dislikes.

·       Sakura Matou – A part of a rival Mage Family, she is a friend to Shirou and often takes care of him.  She does this as her Brother is mean and cruel to Shirou, and she does it as penance for her brother’s actions.

·        Shinji Matou – Sakura’s older brother and Master of Rider.  A chauvinistic and a narcissist, he openly treats Shirou harsh and coldly, and often takes out frustrations on his sister. 

·        Illyasviel von Einzbern – She is from a prestigious Mage family and is the Master of Berserker.  She is the youngest participant in the war, at only 12 years old.  She is actually a half- homunculi and Shirou’s step sister.  She is intended to become the Holy Grail upon the completion of the Holy Grail War, using her body as the catalyst for its creation.

 

To Date, there have been animated version of all three routes. 

• Fate / Stay Night (2006) – Studio Deen

While the original Fate Route is fully realized, many fans considered it an inferior interpretation due to its animation issues and the later releases. 

• Fate / Stay Night – Unlimited Blade Works Movie (2010) Studio Deen

A singular Movie version of the Unlimited Blade Works Route, however, much like the previous work, it is considered inferior interpretation, as it glosses over a lot of the events and details from the game.

• Fate / Stay Night – Unlimited Blade Works (2014-2015) ufotable

After the success of Fate/Zero, this is considered the superior version of the Unlimited Blade Works Route, as it more closely follows the route’s events, along with the superior arts and animation from ufotable.

• Fate / Stay Night – Heaven’s Feel (Presage Flower), (Lost Butterfly), & (Spring Song) (2017-2020) ufotable

Released as a series of three films, ufotable returned to animate the Heaven’s Feel route and knocked it out of the park. 

 

 

 

Spin Offs

The fate series to date has had a number of spin offs from the original game, some which are better documents in novels, video games, manga, anime, and/or other visual novels.

 

Fate Zero

The Prequel to Fate/ Stay Night, it tells the story of Kiritsugu Emiya, Shirou’s adopted father, along with his servant Saber, as they participate in the Fourth Holy Grail War, just 10 years prior to the events of Fate / Stay Night.  The prequel is considered a better place to start the Fate series, as it outlines the events of the Battle Royal and sets up the various Fate routes better when viewed later.  It was initially started as a light novel series before being animated by ufotable in 2011.

 

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia

A continuation of the Fate Story 6 months later, however, from the vantage point of Bazett Fraga McRemitz, a mage sent by the Magus Association to participate in the 5^th Holy Grail War.  She is the original master of Lancer before he is stolen from her.  The story takes place in the dream of Bazett and follows her and her servant, Avenger, as they replay through the events of Fate / Stay Night’s various routes.  While it is a continuation of the story, it’s not the direct continuation of any particular route, and is left to open interpretation as to the true events that actually did happen during Fate / Stay Night.

 

Fate/Prototype

Considered the original Version of the Fate / Stay Night Story, it was the initial draft and documents for the series.  It’s notable as it re-contextualizes a lot of characters, including making King Arthur a man and Shirou as a female with magical aptitude.  It has only a short animation included after Carnival Phantasm, but sparked a lot of interest from the fan community.

 

Fate/Apocrypha

A true Spin Off, it re-imagines the Holy Grail War having been stolen during the Third Holy Grail War, and pits two warring factions (Red and Black) who each summon seven servants to battle against the opposing side.  The Story primarily It’s notable as it introduces Mordred as the Saber of Red and the Son of King Arthur (despite Mordred being a girl too), but also introduces an 8^th Class of Servant known as Ruler (Joan of Arc), a neutral party that acts as a mediator and official for the Holy Grail War.  Originally a Light Novel Series, it was later animated by A-1 Pictures in 2017. 

 

Fate/EXTRA (Extella, CCC)

Another true Spin Off, it re-imagines the Holy Grail War as a tournament with where the final victor will grant a wish.  This started off as a dungeon crawling video game series in 2010-2011, with Sequels including Fate / Extella, and Fate / Extra CCC.  It’s notable for having Red Saber, the first non-Arthurian variation on Saber, despite looking similar to Artoria Saber.  She is actually Nero Claudius Caesar, the 5th Roman Emperor.  It was animated in to a single series: Fate/EXTRA: Last Encore directly to Netflix in 2018.

 

Carnival Phantasm

Existing within the Nasu-verse, this is a light hearted, comedy affair.  Carnival Phantasm re-imagines most of the characters with their personalities and faults dialed up for comedic effect, and includes various other character outside of the Fate Franchise, most notable Tsukihime.  It initially started as a manga in 2004-2005 before being animated in 2011-2012 by studio Lerche. 

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA

A magical girl variation on the Fate Franchise, this variation re-imagines Illya as a human girl who gains the powers of a Magical Girl.  The universe takes influences from the Nasu-verse, but instead of summoning heroics spirits, people equip class cards and summon heroic spirits in to themselves and fight in the war.  Illya uses her magic wand/stick to activate weapons and merge with various heroic spirits available to that class.  The series is known for being very cute looking, but heavy on fan service and heavily implied sexual harassment of various characters.  It started as a manga, and has been adapted to various seasons in anime from 2013 – 2016, with various movies after that.

 

Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan (Today's Menu for Emiya Family)

A light hearted affair, it imagines the Holy Grail War as not happening and instead various Masters and Servants living together peacefully.  Each episode focuses on preparing a meal for dinner in the Emiya house, which often includes other characters in the Fate / Stay Night story coming to visit for dinner.  Most episodes show someone cooking and going through the process to make the dinner or meal, with Saber as a self insert character having never seen most of the meals cooked.  The light hearted and warm feeling shows a different side of the characters that more homely and healing.

 

 

Home Work:

Fate Stay/Night: Unlimited Blade Works

Crunchyroll (Free, English Subtitles)

Netflix (Netflix Required, English Subtitles and English Dubs)