Rider – Shallow Dives in Anime

Anime’s ability to take any concept or idea and make it a piece of good entertainment is one of the hidden strengths of the art form. Unlike movies, TV, or even books, Anime has somehow cracked that magic formula of taking even the most mundane or insane idea and making it just…work. I said it before when I spoke about Girls und Panzer, but it bears repeating here. When other entertainment forms say “Why?” Anime is the only one that stands up and proudly says “Why not?”

For our final anime of Fatevember, we proudly continue that tradition of saying “Why not” with a cooking spinoff of the main Fate Stay Night universe. So after the cut, let’s dive into Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family.

The great thing about the original Fate Stay Night is the fact that it has three different routes. Once you have the ability to choose all three, you can pick what story you prefer and ignore the others. Don’t like Saber and Shirou as a couple? Go read or watch Unlimited Blade Works. Think Rin is just a glorified Tsundere and prefer to have your sword waifu? The Fate Route is waiting for you. And if you don’t care for both of them, you can go through door number three, and pick the final route.

This ability to choose the direction the story goes is the hidden strength of the OG Fate visual novel, and adapting each of those routes into their own series has allowed fans to have three separate servings of the characters, stories, and world that they love, and each is different enough to be its own complete entry. However, the anime journey remains incomplete, as the final route’s story has yet to be fully told. We only have a piece of it now, so after cut let’s take a dive into the first installment of Fate Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel. Presage Flower.