Anime Nation

[bubbleawsome]

Same as everyone else, I recommend only going for the Ufotable fates at first. So Zero->UBW->Heavens Feel

 

[dragontamer5788]

I argue that Fate/Stay Night (2006) is the only proper introduction to the series and characters.

* Emiya Shirou is as ignorant as the initial audience. Yeah, Shirou is a complete dumbass in F/SN, but that plays to the audience's advantage as they introduce the system of magic, command-spells, mage-families (Matou vs Tohsakas vs Einsberns), servant-histories. In particular: Saber's entire background before she was a hero is only in F/SN (2006) and is explored in no other series. Assassin (5th war) is also explored to a minor extent.

* Fate/Zero relies upon the relationships of the 2006 series to really explain the drama. The revelations / spoilers that

Spoiler

Sakura is the long-lost sister of Rin, as well as Illiya being the blood-daughter of Emiya Kiritsugu

are incredibly important. These scenes in Fate/Zero have absolutely no impact if you don't know the characters ahead of time. The Kiritsugu / secret daughter relationship is spoiled in the first scene of Fate/Zero... while the Tohsaka secrets are spoiled in like episode 2.

* UBWs

Spoiler

Kills off Illiya before the Shirou + Illiya adopted brother/sister relationship is revealed or explored. Saber is turned into Caster's puppet, her entire development as a character is nonexistent.

. Now obviously, UBW focuses on Archer's development as a character instead... but given the importance of Saber through Fate/Zero, I'd argue that the audience deserves some degree of her character development.

I've shown the online-recommended Fate/Zero as the "first showing" to multiple friends, and they all "don't get it" and drop the series. I'm not really certain if its the best series to start off on. Fate/Stay Night (2006) is a flawed series, with a lower-budget and weaker animation than later entires. But as far as I'm concerned, its the only one that even attempts to introduce to the audience the "system" of magic.

Finally: Because Fate/Stay Night (2006) has the weakest animation with the poorest pacing, its basically impossible to "go back" to once you're used to the stronger animation of the UFOTable series. Its a major downgrade for sure. But if you haven't seen any of the other series, Fate/Stay Night (2006) is actually just fine.

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Seriously think about Fate/Zero from a "first watch" perspective. When the random episode happens where we follow Rin Tohsaka for a full episode, what the hell is that? If Fate/Zero is your first watching, you have no idea why Rin is important. She's just randomly showing up and taking up an entire episode worth of material.

 

[djisas]

I argue that Fate/Stay Night (2006) is the only proper introduction to the series and characters.

* Emiya Shirou is as ignorant as the initial audience. Yeah, Shirou is a complete dumbass in F/SN, but that plays to the audience's advantage as they introduce the system of magic, command-spells, mage-families (Matou vs Tohsakas vs Einsberns), servant-histories. In particular: Saber's entire background before she was a hero is only in F/SN (2006) and is explored in no other series. Assassin (5th war) is also explored to a minor extent. Emiya's development of reinforcement magic -> sword summoning magic only happens in the 2006 series (and is virtually ignored in UBWs).

* Fate/Zero relies upon the relationships of the 2006 series to really explain the drama. The revelations / spoilers that

Spoiler

Sakura is the long-lost sister of Rin, as well as Illiya being the blood-daughter of Emiya Kiritsugu

are incredibly important. These scenes in Fate/Zero have absolutely no impact if you don't know the characters ahead of time. The Kiritsugu / secret daughter relationship is spoiled in the first scene of Fate/Zero... while the Tohsaka secrets are spoiled in like episode 2.

I've shown the online-recommended Fate/Zero as the "first showing" to multiple friends, and they all "don't get it" and drop the series. I'm not really certain if its the best series to start off on. Fate/Stay Night is a flawed series, with a lower-budget and weaker animation than later entries. But as far as I'm concerned, its the only one that even attempts to introduce to the audience the "system" of magic.

I tend to agree, that is the order i watched, not like there was any other since I watched everything on release.
I generally think remakes are not better than originals, they may improve in some areas but not on others.
Like FMA, I watched both and prefer the first but die hard fans will disagree, I think music and voice acting was better on the original and I personally liked the story.
Same with FSN, UBW is awesome but FSN story was good or better...

These are all my personal opinions though...

 

[dragontamer5788]

Oh, as far as spinoffs go:

* Carnival Phantasm is the best spinoff and totally worth watching, if you can find it. Half of Carnival Phantasm is Tsukihime (Lunar Princess), and the other half is Fate/Stay. If you've played "Melty Blood", you might be familiar with the Tsukihime (Lunar Princess) characters.

* The UFOTable production where Emiya cooks for everyone is surprisingly decent and wholesome. Its strange that no one wants to kill each other, but I guess that's just part of the comedic setup.

EDIT: It should be noted that "Today's Menu for the Emiya Family" is a cooking show first and foremost. Its about baking Salmon inside of aluminum foil. Its about preparing Udon. Its about proper sandwich making technique. Etc. etc. The vast, vast majority of this show is cooking. The Fate/Stay characters are just along for the ride.

This is more about what the show's about:

 

[GoldenX]

The problem with Carnival Phantasm is that to fully enjoy it you need to read (no anime adaptations are valid for this) Tsukihime, Kagetsu Tohya, Fate Stay Night, Fate Zero, Hollow Ataraxia, and Melty Blood. Which I did. And it was worth it.

 

[dragontamer5788]

The problem with Carnival Phantasm is that to fully enjoy it you need to read (no anime adaptations are valid for this) Tsukihime, Kagetsu Tohya, Fate Stay Night, Fate Zero, Hollow Ataraxia, and Melty Blood. Which I did. And it was worth it.

Its better if you know the characters for sure. But a lot of the show is just good comedy.

(no anime adaptations are valid for this) Tsukihime

Wellll..... yeah... probably not a "valid" entry. This show was pretty bad all else considered.

 

[bubbleawsome]

Hm, you’ve got a good point I guess. I kind of already knew the characters before I watched zero, but Zero was my first introduction to the series. Never read the VN or anything.

 

[entropy13]

I've played the games more than a decade ago but I never watched the adaptations.

 

[GoldenX]

I've played the games more than a decade ago but I never watched the adaptations.

On the adaptations: Zero is great, Fate is terrible, Unlimited Blade Works has a strong start but a terrible second season, Heaven's Feel seems great so far.
It would be great to have a Melty Blood adaptation, but first we need a Tsukihime anime that we never had.

 

[dragontamer5788]

My favorite anime of all time is getting a remake.

The sound quality seems significantly higher. The drawing style / animation quality looks... strange. I'll have to get used to it. When they Cry was never really known for "good art", so I think its a good fit.

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EDIT: I guess for the people who don't know... When they Cry (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) is a supernatural / horror / mystery anime. Its really hard to review a mystery show without giving away spoilers. As such, I'll focus on the 1st arc, and try to minimize the spoilers of later arcs.

Kaiichi Maebara is a city-dweller who recently moved into a small town in rural Japan: Hinamizawa. The school is so small that a single room contains the entire class (of all grade levels). As such, Kaiichi starts making friends with his classmates of varying ages: Rena Ryuugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, Satako Hojo. The plot traverses a typical school-harem plotline, at least until the night of the cotton drifting festival.

You see: the cotton drifting festival has been plagued by a wave of seemingly supernatural murders. Every year, one person dies, and a 2nd person disappears, for the last 4 years in a row. (Ex: on the 4th year, a lady was found beaten to death with a baseball bat. While her nephew disappeared without a trace). The local police believe it to be a coincidence, but the various characters of the show have their own opinions. More on that later however.

Lo and behold: as the new cotton drifting festival happens, a 5th murder + 5th disappearance happens again, and the police believe that one of Kaiichi's friends are at the center of it, but aren't sure who yet. Kaiichi starts working with the police which causes.... issues... Remember those "opinions" I told you about? The murder + disappearance stresses his friends severely. Conspiracy theories involving the local Yakuza. Lovecraftian-esque "Evil Gods are dooming us all" theories start flying about. Naive optimism ("My brother disappeared last year, but he's going to come back soon"). These characters have issues, and the stress related to yet another murder + disappearance makes them start going haywire.

By now, 2 or 3 episodes have been covered, so I'll leave the plot off here. But things get pretty crazy at this point. The actions of the various characters make sense given their own conspiracy theory on the subject, and its just a blast to see all these character's opinions interact with each other. As with all good mystery plots: no singular character has all the answers. But as you learn the "bits of truth" behind all the character's opinions, you slowly unravel the greater mystery as the show progresses.

 

[djisas]

My favorite anime of all time is getting a remake.

The sound quality seems significantly higher. The drawing style / animation quality looks... strange. I'll have to get used to it. When they Cry was never really known for "good art", so I think its a good fit.

------

EDIT: I guess for the people who don't know... When they Cry (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) is a supernatural / horror / mystery anime. Its really hard to review a mystery show without giving away spoilers. As such, I'll focus on the 1st arc, and try to minimize the spoilers of later arcs (even though everything is related).

Kaiichi Maebara is a city-dweller who recently moved into a small town in rural Japan: Hinamizawa. The school is so small that a single room contains the entire class (of all grade levels). As such, Kaiichi starts making friends with his classmates of varying ages: Rena Ryuugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, Satako Hojo. The plot traverses a typical school-harem plotline, at least until the night of the cotton drifting festival (a local town custom: where they drop cotton balls into the local river to pray for protection).

You see: the cotton drifting festival has been plagued by a wave of seemingly supernatural murders. Every year, one person dies, and a 2nd person disappears, for the last 4 years in a row. (Ex: on the 4th year, a lady was found beaten to death with a baseball bat. While her nephew disappeared without a trace). The local police believe it to be a coincidence, but the various characters of the show have their own opinions. More on that later however.

Lo and behold: as the new cotton drifting festival happens, a 5th murder + 5th disappearance happens again, and the police believe that one of Kaiichi's friends are at the center of it, but aren't sure who yet. Kaiichi starts working with the police which causes.... issues... Remember those "opinions" I told you about? The murder + disappearance stresses them out severely. Conspiracy theories against the local Yakuza. Lovecraftian-esque "Evil Gods are dooming us all" theories start flying about. Naive optimism ("My brother disappeared last year, but he's going to come back soon"). These characters have issues, and the stress related to yet another murder + disappearance makes them start going haywire.

By now, 2 or 3 episodes have been covered, so I'll leave the plot off here. But things get pretty crazy at this point. The actions of the various characters make sense given their own conspiracy theory on the subject, and its just a blast to see all these character's opinions interact with each other. As with all good mystery plots: no singular character has all the answers. But as you learn the "bits of truth" behind all the character's opinions, you slowly unravel the mystery as the show progresses.

Hmm that first season op, it sings to your very soul, beautiful...
The sweet fresh scent of torture...
I think the other anime to achieve this much was Shiki, that gets unnerving pretty quickly too, if you can get past the character design choice...

Btw speaking of Higurashi, im going to read the manga soon and see if it's as good...

 

[DemonicRyzen666]

I've got lots of things to catch up on but Grimoire of Zero was really good for something that was rated E
I'm watching A certain Scientific Railgun T right now ,I feel I spoiled my self with the other series now "A Certain Magical Railgun"
There was just too much I know now some characters with those same characters showing up in this series.
But I love how each of these series has three different perspectives. All part of one whole thing, need to have more them

Any recommendations?

 

[GoldenX]

After finishing oregairu I can finally say: Thanks for the experience, that was one of the best if not the best romcom I saw.

 

[djisas]

Sometimes i forget this exists...
Deca-dence is over, and it was great, go watch it...

 

[Mussels]

Sometimes i forget this exists...
Deca-dence is over, and it was great, go watch it...

yes daddy

 

[dragontamer5788]

But I love how each of these series has three different perspectives. All part of one whole thing, need to have more them

Most standard Shonen have a huge slew of perspectives.

DBZ for instance:
* Goku seems like the main character... but the point-of-view shifts to:
* Gohan
* Vegeta
* Krillin
* King Kai
* Piccolo
* Bulma
* Dende
* (Insert Villain here) -- DBZ Villains get a LOT of screentime: the Android 17 and Android 18 are literally driving around stealing stuff from people for at least 20 episodes. Or Capt. Ginyu's recruitment efforts, or Guldo's flashbacks.

Indeed: there are often 20+ episode stretches where Goku is incapacitated and all the other characters have to pick up the slack. If anything, I'd say that Anime in general does a very good job of exploring many different perspectives.

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As far as animes with my favorite "perspective changes", When they Cry is my #1 (as described earlier). Kaiichi is the "newcomer" and the avatar of the audience... but the various other characters have very unique points of view, and its a joy seeing their perspectives when its finally their turn.

"Puella Magi Madoka Magica" also has a strong perspective change across the 5 leads: Madoka, Sayaka, Mami, Kyoko, and Homura.

Fate/Stay Night never strays from Emiya's perspective. In contrast: Fate/Zero is an ensemble production, all 7 masters are deeply explored and their perspectives revealed. There is only time enough for a few servants to have their backgrounds explored (Rider/Zero probably gets the most screentime: but Saber's arc between Lancer/Zero and Berserker/Zero gets some discussion. Archer/Zero gets a fair amount of perspective too)... but we're talking about well over 15+ character's getting explored to an incredible degree in just a 26 episode series. Especially since non-masters / non-servants, like Rin, Sakura, Irisviel, Illyasviel also get a fair amount of screentime and perspective.


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It might be easier to list off good anime that do not change perspectives. Ex: Rokka of the Six Braves is a good show, but almost entirely from Adler's perspective. (Fate/Stay and Fate/UBW also are primarily Emiya-perspective only).

 

[GoldenX]

Slow season so far.

 

[Rei]

Fate/Stay Night never strays from Emiya's perspective. In contrast: Fate/Zero is an ensemble production, all 7 masters are deeply explored and their perspectives revealed. There is only time enough for a few servants to have their backgrounds explored (Rider/Zero probably gets the most screentime: but Saber's arc between Lancer/Zero and Berserker/Zero gets some discussion. Archer/Zero gets a fair amount of perspective too)... but we're talking about well over 15+ character's getting explored to an incredible degree in just a 26 episode series. Especially since non-masters / non-servants, like Rin, Sakura, Irisviel, Illyasviel also get a fair amount of screentime and perspective.

Never could get into the Fate series since I despise temperamental goodie-two-shoe characters like Emiya Shiro, so I fear the whole Fate series would somehow revolve around him. Never got past the first volume of the manga. Type-Moon's other work; Tsukihime's Tohno Shiki & Arcueid Brunstein was a total 180 though. They were cool, calm & collected. My fav type of personality. And so I was thrilled when Shiki beat Shiro in battle during the crossover.

It might be easier to list off good anime that do not change perspectives. Ex: Rokka of the Six Braves is a good show, but almost entirely from Adler's perspective. (Fate/Stay and Fate/UBW also are primarily Emiya-perspective only).

Yeah, what happened to Rokka no Yusha? Still waiting for the 2nd season after that cliffhanger(?) ending. The manga also finished off around there as well.

Used to love Pokemon till i realized its just slavery.

Pokemon has always been about slavery... And teaching kids about animal slavery & abuse & making them fight & gambling & kicking underage kids outta the house instead of sending them to school. Makes you wonder how society hasn't managed to devolve to a bunch of total degenerates.

 

[Mussels]

horriblesubs shut down, i might have to actually stream and use crunchyroll :/

edit: huh, free CR gets 1080p. not so bad after all.

 

[kurosagi01]

Nothing really sparked any interest this year to be fair,i've been watching Sailor moon R with the GF and i'm not fan of the shift into like semi-reincarnation and introducing multiverse after S1 but the show is amusing enough that the GF likes it after giving it a proper watch and hearing about it(Shes not that big into anime).

 

[GoldenX]

Never could get into the Fate series since I despise temperamental goodie-two-shoe characters like Emiya Shiro

Shirou improves a lot if you play the VN, his internal monologue shows from the start that he isn't such a nice guy. Plus he's as snarky as Rin in there, he just doesn't voice it.
100% agree with Shiki and Arcueid.

 

[nguyen]

horriblesubs shut down, i might have to actually stream and use crunchyroll :/

edit: huh, free CR gets 1080p. not so bad after all.

Dang, so who is going to pick up Attack on Titan S4 now ~_~

 

[Rei]

Shirou improves a lot if you play the VN, his internal monologue shows from the start that he isn't such a nice guy. Plus he's as snarky as Rin in there, he just doesn't voice it.
100% agree with Shiki and Arcueid.

Ah yes... I believe the VN is the most authentic version of a of any series since most anime/manga are usually based off visual novels. Unfortunately, the only VNs I've ever played is hentai games. Wasn't Tsukihime also a hentai or hentai-ish VN or something?

 

[GoldenX]

Ah yes... I believe the VN is the most authentic version of a of any series since most anime/manga are usually based off visual novels. Unfortunately, the only VNs I've ever played is hentai games. Wasn't Tsukihime also a hentai or hentai-ish VN or something?

Both Fate and Tsukihime are. But those scenes are terribly bad and add basically nothing to the story.

 

[Rei]

Both Fate and Tsukihime are. But those scenes are terribly bad and add basically nothing to the story.

Well, at least they made a popular franchise out of it. Looks like I'm gonna be looking into those VNs if I'm able to purchase them.