RJ 17 said:
The next would be the Fate series. From what I've heard (from a staggering TWO SOURCES!), Fate/Stay Night is kinda "meh", but Fate/Zero is supposed to be pretty damn good. Any advice on that series? More specifically, is it better to have watched Stay Night before watching Zero? Apparently Zero came second but is meant to be a prequel, so is there anything wrong with watching them out of order?
Okay, here's the thing with Fate Zero. It spoils the FUCK out of Stay Night.
Fate Stay Night is all about this guy, Shiro, who accidentally gets involved in this big contest thing. He has no clue what is going on and much of the show revolves around him figuring out A) what is happening and B) what happened in the previous contest, as it has had a major impact on this one.
Fate Zero is set in the previous contest. It features characters who are not in the dark, who know everything up front, and who operate accordingly. Thus both of the major mysteries of Stay Night are spoiled (since learning the basic events of Zero is the main plot of Stay Night).
Also, Fate Zero operates on the assumption that you already know the ending. It doesn't hide certain things because Stay Night already "spoiled" them.
So that's the issue of spoilers.
HOWEVER... the main issue with Stay Night is not that it is meh. It is the fact that they could have done it with half as many episodes. The show starts REALLY slowly. It is a good show, but it takes a long time to get moving and never really gets up to a good speed.
Basically, it's 26 episodes, but it should have been 13.
Also, in their attempt to include multiple branches from the original game, the plot has a tendency to meander a bit.
Fate Stay Night is certainly worth watching. Just be prepared for a slow burn. Also, you probably won't need to watch it more than once.
Another benefit to watching Stay Night is this - afterwards, you can watch the Unlimited Blade Works movie. Unlimited Blade Works is the second game path. It retells the entire series in a 2 hour movie, but the plot changes direction and takes you through an entirely different version of events.
... that didn't make sense. Let me re-explain.
The Series is the first path. A specific characters is wounded in the first few episodes of the series, and this has a major impact on the plot.
Unlimited Blade works starts the same, but the character never gets injured. This character being unhurt allows that character to alter events, only mildly at first, but to a greater and greater degree until the two stories barely resemble one another - and then things take a HUGE left turn and the two branches end entirely differently.
There's a third branch which is currently being made into an anime (or maybe a movie, I forget). The third branch is my favorite and I'm thrilled to see it.
SO... to sum up.
Yes, you should watch Stay Night first.
Then you can watch Fate Zero without spoilers.
If you want to watch the series again, watch Unlimited Blade Works instead for the fast-forward version which is also far more awesome.
OR...
Plan B: If you get bored watching Stay Night, then just switch over to Unlimited Blade Works. It pulls most of the same reveals (not all), enough anyway that you should be able to follow Fate Zero.
