Thoughts on Fate/Stay Night
Feb. 22nd, 2008 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
40cakesKirk and I took a vacation day that happened to coincide with crazy snow day. So I've been watching Fate/Stay Night while he plays WoW.
- Honestly, the reason I started watching is because I saw so much damn merchandise for this I thought I'd at least check it out. Does it count as their marketing in action if I pirated it?
- Alright, neat concept: 7 "magicians" summon legendary Heroes to life to aid them in killing the other magicians and heroes (called "Masters" and "Servants", respectively), because if they're the last Master/Servant pair left standing, they get the Holy Grail and get to make a wish.
- Ooh, and one of the Masters, our main character high-school boy, is an unwilling entrant into the competition, and doesn't want to kill or hurt anyone, and doesn't care about the Holy Grail. And he doesn't want his servant to fight either, because he keeps friggin' interrupting or distracting her. Luckily, all the other Masters don't seem to want to spring at the opportunity that one of their competitors WON'T FIGHT BACK.
Main Character: I won't fight you!
Any other character: Oh yeah? Well just for that, I'm not gonna attack you, even though we're supposed to be in this thing TO THE DEATH!
Main Character: Even if you did attack me, I wouldn't fight back! And I make my Servant stay at home, so she couldn't protect me! TAKE THAT!
- In fact, because mostly nothing has happened, I just skipped over episodes 10 and 11 and went straight to 12, assuming that if it's halfway through the season, maybe SOMETHING will happen.
- It's nice that there's not any sexualization of the female characters (other than Rider, but I think there's a law in Japanese legislature that states every anime needs at least one female character with fetish/dominatrix character design). No panty shots or big-breasted characters falling out of their school uniforms. That being said, I get the sense that part of why the main character doesn't want his Servant to fight isn't because he doesn't want her hurt, but because she's a woman. "I can't stand by and watch a girl get hurt!" Listen, sweetie: she's a warrior, you're a cliche. I know you're fairly feminist for an anime but nonetheless, buddy.
- There's a lot of talk of using magic and magicians, but how one becomes a magician is never explained. Is it inherited? Is it learned? If the former, then who are Shirou's parents that he got magic from? If the latter, why can't he learn more and be helpful? It's like if this were a show about Iron Chef Deathmatch, and the main character can only make scrambled eggs, and no one seemed concerned, least of all the main character, who never tries to, say, move up to omelettes or anything.
- Honestly, the reason I started watching is because I saw so much damn merchandise for this I thought I'd at least check it out. Does it count as their marketing in action if I pirated it?
- Alright, neat concept: 7 "magicians" summon legendary Heroes to life to aid them in killing the other magicians and heroes (called "Masters" and "Servants", respectively), because if they're the last Master/Servant pair left standing, they get the Holy Grail and get to make a wish.
- Ooh, and one of the Masters, our main character high-school boy, is an unwilling entrant into the competition, and doesn't want to kill or hurt anyone, and doesn't care about the Holy Grail. And he doesn't want his servant to fight either, because he keeps friggin' interrupting or distracting her. Luckily, all the other Masters don't seem to want to spring at the opportunity that one of their competitors WON'T FIGHT BACK.
Main Character: I won't fight you!
Any other character: Oh yeah? Well just for that, I'm not gonna attack you, even though we're supposed to be in this thing TO THE DEATH!
Main Character: Even if you did attack me, I wouldn't fight back! And I make my Servant stay at home, so she couldn't protect me! TAKE THAT!
- In fact, because mostly nothing has happened, I just skipped over episodes 10 and 11 and went straight to 12, assuming that if it's halfway through the season, maybe SOMETHING will happen.
- It's nice that there's not any sexualization of the female characters (other than Rider, but I think there's a law in Japanese legislature that states every anime needs at least one female character with fetish/dominatrix character design). No panty shots or big-breasted characters falling out of their school uniforms. That being said, I get the sense that part of why the main character doesn't want his Servant to fight isn't because he doesn't want her hurt, but because she's a woman. "I can't stand by and watch a girl get hurt!" Listen, sweetie: she's a warrior, you're a cliche. I know you're fairly feminist for an anime but nonetheless, buddy.
- There's a lot of talk of using magic and magicians, but how one becomes a magician is never explained. Is it inherited? Is it learned? If the former, then who are Shirou's parents that he got magic from? If the latter, why can't he learn more and be helpful? It's like if this were a show about Iron Chef Deathmatch, and the main character can only make scrambled eggs, and no one seemed concerned, least of all the main character, who never tries to, say, move up to omelettes or anything.
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 08:43 pm (UTC)Ironic, since it's based on an erotic visual novel game.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 08:58 pm (UTC)1) the quiet, housewifely schoolgirl who cooks and cleans and blushes
2) the loud, boisterous young teacher
3) the taciturn warrior woman
4) the rude classmate who says "baka" but totally means it lovingly (oh, and is also supposed to KILL HIM BUT DOESN'T)
It hasn't, though, and that has surprised me.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-23 07:56 pm (UTC)Alas, when I started checking my watch halfway through the third episode, I decided it was, perhaps, just a touch boring and gave up.
Or maybe I'm just getting cranky about anime in my old age.