Four Reasons Why I Couldn't Get Into 'Fate/Stay Night'

Fate/Stay Night

Studio: Studio Deen
Producer: Geneon Universal Entertainment, Frontier Works, TBS,The Klock Worx, Notes
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Supernatural
Episodes: 24
Episode Length: 24 min per episode

After a mysterious inferno kills his family, Shirou is saved and adopted by Kiritsugu Emiya, who teaches him the ways of magic and justice.

One night, years after Kiritsugu's death, Shirou is cleaning at school, when he finds himself caught in the middle of a deadly encounter between two superhumans known as Servants. During his attempt to escape, the boy is caught by one of the Servants and receives a life-threatening injury. Miraculously, he survives, but the same Servant returns to finish what he started. In desperation, Shirou summons a Servant of his own, a knight named Saber. The two must now participate in the Fifth Holy Grail War, a battle royale of seven Servants and the mages who summoned them, with the grand prize being none other than the omnipotent Holy Grail itself.

Fate/stay night follows Shirou as he struggles to find the fine line between a hero and a killer, his ideals clashing with the harsh reality around him. Will the boy become a hero like his foster father, or die trying?

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Many have hailed 'Fate/zero' as this amazing anime, and Saber one of the most amazing waifus to ever walk this earth. I decided to hop on the bandwagon with this series, and I started my delightful journey with 'Fate/stay night'. 
And, man, do I disagree.

This anime is, simply, mediocre. The art is meh. The characters meh. Nothing really stands out about this show. Yet people seem to like the series (the whole Fate series. Not this show specifically. People actually seem to dislike this one.) 

Normally, mediocre shows have at least one interesting thing. This typically ends up being an interesting premise or some cool action sequence. 
But some things really made me dislike this anime. And I couldn't find any redeeming qualities.

So here are the four main things that I disliked about 'Fate/stay night'.

The Otome Game-esque Animation

I put the animation first on this list because it's one of the main factors that goes into my decision to watch an anime or not. An older style of anime (For example, 'Fate/stay night') is not as appealing to me compared to a new, brightly colored style of anime (For example, 'Hyouka'.) I thought that the characters looked like they jumped out of an otome game. (And as you know, or may not know, I kinda hate otome turned anime adaptations. They just don't sit well in my stomach.) 
Seriously, they strike poses that mimic otome character poses, and it really made me want to cry.
This funny (NOT) because the show is based off a light novel, not an otome game. Oh well. 2006 animation, right?

See? Otome game!

Lack of Interesting Plot

Sure, there's some semblance of a plot. There are fights and story arcs, but they're not well-done. We have the main characters (Emiya and Saber) who fight different people. For example, they fight Rider and her Master. This is one of the main 'arcs'. It's not much, and the fight scene isn't even good. Rider barely even uses her Rider-ness to fight. (One horse scene. ONE.) 

Rider barely uses her horse, and she fights with chains. That's it. (Well...Archer doesn't fight with a bow normally. So.)

The show basically implies a large Servant v Servant battle (Reminiscent of 'Future Diary'.) But we all we get are smaller arcs which aren't very interesting. The fight scenes were boring, and I just want the story to continue on. The last 'major' battle wasn't anything special, and I kept staring at my screen in complete confusion. Just what was happening?

As I sit at my desk and write this little list, I still have no clue how to sum up the plot.
And that shows you just how awful the plot was. 

Boring, 2-D Characters

Let's go down the list of main characters. And analyze them one by one.

Just look at his derpy face...

Emiya Shirou

He's this 'powerful' Magus (You know this because Archer helps him out with the visualization thing, and it actually works. Also, Toosaka mentions this 'special snowflake' quality of his a few times.) Honestly, he makes me mad. There was nothing special about him. If you have a character with a strong moral code, you can work with that. But Emiya was just so stubborn. I felt so annoyed listening to him talk. Even the people with the strongest morals would have backed down at times. He's supposed to be the good guy in it all, but I honestly didn't care if he won or lost a battle. I just wanted to get to the next scene, preferably without him. He was ignorant and completely childish at times. There was no character development whatsoever. 

Saber

Saber's Emiya's wonderful Servant. Who is of the Saber class. She's this strong heroine...who seems to always need Emiya. She has this really cool Noble Phantasm but passes out after using it and...you guessed it NEEDS EMIYA. The fact that show subtly adds some lovely sexist tones with Saber's character made me want to roll under my desk and hide for a million years. No, you can't say 'But that was 2006! It's 2016 now!' I'm still going to hide. Has our culture changed that much in ten years? Nope. I don't think so, but that is a topic for another time. Back to Saber. 
Not only is she a 'strong heroine', she is also as interesting as a piece of wet cardboard. Her character barely gets any interesting lines, and she has no characterization at all. I know she might get better with 'Fate/zero', but, so far, my opinion of her isn't very good.

Toosaka Rin

Toosaka might be the only interesting character in this show. She is sassy and quick to retort. But the fact of the matter is, she is really just an ally for Emiya. I know that she isn't the main main character, but she could get some characterization too. We have a hint of backstory, but it's never explored enough for me to care. I felt like she was just the more experienced Magus for Emiya to learn from. She could have been a great mentor...if she wasn't basically another girl in the Emiya Harem. (She's the smart...but sexy one. Mysterious and pushes you away. What will happen next?) Plus, in the last few episodes, she's completely ignored for the bull romance. Thanks? And it's not like I'll watch 'Unlimited Blade Works' and see her side of things. So she's forever this empty sort of harem girl in my mind.

Archer

I can't even start talking about him without cringing. For one of the main characters, Archer gets no action. He's seen maybe...three times total in the whole show. Really. And he's supposed to be one of the main characters? Uh...no. And he also gives advice to Emiya (whom he hates.) I deny your argument. I can't care about him if he is given no role in this show. So bye-bye. 

The Bull Romance

Oh, look. The lovely couple. How cute... -rolls eyes-

The second Emiya whipped out the 'I care for her' card, I wanted to slam my fist against the wall. (Which I may or may not have done.) Romance can be done right, but, normally, that's not the case. And with 'Fate/stay night', the romance was unnecessary. You can build up a great romance between friends, and that would have been fine. 
What's even worse is that you can't believe the romance. There's no indication of a crush, and the things we do get can be labeled as 'Virgin Dude Unexposed to Sex Appeal'. (Namely, the scenes where Saber stands naked in front of Emiya.) 
The romance is too forced, and it lacks the spark a normal romance does. So no. Just no.