Studio Deen’s Fate/Stay Night: A Boy, A Girl, A Holy Grail War

We are closing the book on a chapter here at Shallow Dives in Anime. With this post, I will have covered every Fate installment (aside from those that came out last year). I think it is only fitting that we end this milestone with the first piece of the series. An installment that has been derided and dismissed by fans. But is that to be deserved? Well as always, I am going to try to look at the series with fresh, fair and understanding eyes. With that said, let’s take a long awaited dive into the Studio Deen adaptation of Fate/Stay Night.

My thoughts on the visual novel version of the route can be found right here!

Stay the Night.

Fate Stay Night: Fate Route: Kidnapping Fetish

A few months ago I took a deep, deep dive into the world of Fate Stay Night, covering almost every single series that has been published since the visual novel hit shelves in the late 2000s. What I didn’t cover, however, was the first route of that visual novel.

The reasons for that were quite simple: the anime adaptation of the Fate route sucks. Aside from a few clips, I have not watched it but from everything I’ve seen and heard I am not missing much. The Fate route anime, done by Studio Deen in 2006 was made in a time before Fate had really established itself, and before Studio Ufotable’s one-two punch of Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works blew everyone’s mind. It was a different era, and while that can be forgiven, the amount of effort put into the Ufotable adaptations make the 2006 anime look rushed, badly animated, and just…not good. While things have gotten better for Fate fans since then, the Fate Route remains an outlier among the fandom.

With that said, and knowing that I should really look at this vital piece of the franchise I decided to spend the last few weeks slowly reading the visual novel of the route. So after the cut let’s dive into the Fate Route of Fate Stay Night. 

Fatevember: A Fate Stay Night Primer

Halloween is over, the Anime season is well underway and like I said in my last post. This November is the start of a month-long look into the entire universe of Fate Stay Night, aptly titled: Fatevember.

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of the Fate world though, I think it is important to have a bit of a primer for some easy to answer questions. Fate Stay Night is a massive franchise and its unique way of storytelling can be confusing to newcomers, especially if you are coming into the series completely unaware of what is happening. So after the cut, join me as I go over some common questions and give out some basic information for those who are looking to jump into this magical world.

I’ve watched every single series and I still don’t know why it’s called ‘Fate Stay Night