HOW to Watch FATE Series

Kaya
Updated on 2021-09-16
How to watch Fate is one of the questions I find the most within social networks. The anime can be viewed in the following ways. It can be seen in order of events, in charge of the issue, and finally, in narrative order.

This time I bring you an article on how to see the FATE anime, taking into account that today there is much anime and that they tell the story of the holy grail in different ways, and many wonders where to start. Since there are mainline and alternative lines, we begin with how to watch fate anime.

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How to watch Fate is one of the questions I find the most within social networks. I know that many have been told or think that it should be seen in the order of events within the main story to understand the story better, but I want to tell you that from my point of view, there are several ways of seeing this peculiar saga, and it will vary According to the tastes of each person. However, I will explain three ways in how to watch the fate anime and the one that I would commonly recommend for all those who want to delve into this story that constantly moves between various universes where the central focus is battle by the holy grail.

Fate is characterized by having various routes that I will explain shortly, and the anime is understood in Fate / Zero that tells events from the past; Fate / Stay Night is divided into FUBW and FSNHF.

3 ways to watch fate series

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The anime can be viewed in the following ways. It can be seen in order of events, in charge of the issue, and finally, in narrative order.

1. WATCH FATE in order of events

First, I start by ordering acknowledgments or chronological, which would be the systematic way to see the anime from its primary route. But before starting with this tangle of titles, I want to clarify that the fate series works with temporary routes where each event is repeated in other timelines with slight changes in circumstances and decisions that alter the entire course of history.

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Starting with Fate / Zero that initiates the events of all the consequences that we will see later affect the rest of the story and timelines.

Then we would go to see Fate / Stay Night, which occurs years after the events of Fate / Zero, repeating the fight for the holy grail.

Then we would go to see both series and film. Either order is to the liking of anyone because the timeline of Fate / Stay Night Unlimited Bladeworks is precisely the same where it is almost the same events that occur in Fate Stay Night from The perspective of Rin Toshaka and her servant Archer. In this anime, we know a little more about the character's motivations and actions that we do not see in the main fate / Stay Night anime detailing her first three days involved in the Fifth Holy Grail War.

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Then we move on to the last line that is part of the three main routes of the series called Fate / Stay Night Heaven's Feel. It's a trilogy of films where the events have a slight change of circumstances that influence a completely different offspring than Fate stay Night and Fate stay Night Unlimited Bladeworks. Films are covered in Fate / Stay Night Heaven's Feel: Presage Flower, Fate / Stay Night Heaven's Feel II: Lost Butterfly, and Fate / Stay Night Heaven's Feel III: Spring Song. 

These three routes complement the main story, so I will not mention even the rest of the adaptations that are universes wholly removed from the main line of the story, such as Fate Extra Last Encord, Fate Apocripha, Fate / kaleid liner Prisma Illya or Fate / Grand Order and the rest that I will mention later.

The Problem of this form

This would undoubtedly be the chronological order. However, it is not the way I would see it, and this is due to the maturity of each adaptation, focusing on more raw and tragic points than others, and this is what I mean by the transformation of Fate / Zero.

Why am I saying this? The first thing is that Zero changed the focus of the series, where the author Urobuchi focuses on social criticism reflecting on how everyone seeks the grail to fulfill their ambitions, doing anything as dark as it may be but does not remember why the series is called (Fate, which when translated means destiny).

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The three routes of Stay Night are more a typical story of overcoming and tragedy, which is not bad because they reflect it in their style. Here the series does not focus on war, but each route focuses on "accept your destiny, overcome your destiny and go against destiny" All this is used as a pillar of the ideals and how they are traced, this being the central axis of development history.

The problem is that when you see Fate / Zero first, it is difficult to adapt to the narrative change that the later stories have since it can be felt that the series wastes time in the conflicts and internal follies of Shirou, that in the fight of the holy grail as it happens in the adaptation of Fate / Zero, where I will not reveal anything important for those who have not yet watched it.

Fate / Zero breaks with the narrative and message surrounding Fate / Stay Night, this being the end of a new beginning, it concludes a destiny already drawn and not a new thread that is in process, as it is in the case of Fate / Stay Night.

Stay night is a story of self-exploration to the protagonist reflecting a message of fighting for what you want in an idealistic way unlike this Zero is a somewhat realistic story that reflects the evils of people as their ambitions comparing pleasure with evil with Kirei or someone looking for peace without even understanding what peace is like Kiritsugu.

2. WATCH FATE in charge of the issue

Now that we have explained these little details of seeing it in order of events chronologically and showing its pros and cons. we turn to look at it from the second way—the order of issue.

We start with Fate Stay Night. Here we will see the anime with some plot gaps on purpose, not being clear about all the elements that led the story to that point. Therefore, many things were only mentioned, but it will give us a slow development to understand the war of the holy grail. Taking it on the one hand for personal motivation towards the protagonists, but focused on the dialogues rather than on the story's action sequences. The conflict develops slowly, and many tend to get bored by it, this being the weakest anime of all, but it must be so, given that the intensity increases more and more and the series becomes more complicated with each route.

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Then we move on to the events of the Fate / Stay Night Unlimited BladeWorks movie. In UBW, Shirou goes through the same conflict as the first anime but resolves it much faster since the protagonist begins to interact with Archer from the beginning, changing the revelations of events a bit with the first anime where he realizes that this is the hero who seeks to be. This route is about overcoming that destiny even if you reach the limits of Shirou, where you have your motivation to be a hero. The main character realizes his true intentions and elements that help him find his true self, speeding up the plot much more than in Stay Night. After this second route comes the past that brought about the events of Fate Stay Night, and we already talked a little about it, so we continue. UBW returns in anime format, better addressing the story told in the film from start to finish, making a stir, that is, a narrative reconstruction of all the events of both the UBW film and the FSN anime.

And finally, the current route starts from FSN. Heaven's Feel, the story this time focuses not on Shirou but Sakura as the central axis. In this third route, Shirou abandons that ideal of being a hero "that fatal destiny that awaited him," but he doesn't do so by surrendering, but because this route reflects a Shirou who will protect what he loves and do so, he must abandon what hurts him even if this is to go against his Fate and Sakura's. This adaptation is divided into three films that will cover all the events of this new route from start to finish.

This is the second way of seeing anime, and that many of us who started visiting the adaptations since 2006 in Animax get used to seeing looking at it a little scattered.

2. WATCH FATE in narrative order

However, the following way is the one that I would recommend looking at.

We started with Fate Stay Night, then the Fate Stay Night Unlimited Bladeworks anime, and closed all three routes with Fate Stay Night Heaven's Feel to complete this main storyline with the Fate / Zero anime.

Why do I recommend this form?

As I explained initially, Fate Pero has a narrative and a different objective than the Fate Stay Night route. The latter is darker, more perverse, and crude, taking the limits between correct and immoral to its characters debating their ideals and beliefs where the emotional and ideological breaks are part of the development, making an event closure that is left with a series of consequences that are dragged onto the Fate Stay Night route. And since it was the crudest and finished completing the necessary puzzle pieces, I advise leaving it last.

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Now choose which of the three ways you would like to see the anime, whether to watch it number 1, number 2, or number 3. After this, there are other Fate titles where the same story of the search for the holy grail is told, but with different characters and even saints with the same attributes as the previous ones but with totally different personalities and ways of being.

These other anime like Fate Apocripha, Fate Extra Last Encore, or Fate Grand Order are anime you can see in the order you want since neither is related to the other. They are alternative universes. However, it is advisable to visit the mainline mentioned before looking at these others because despite the fate universe being explained again, the main route gives you the tools to understand the multiverse that surrounds the entire fate franchise.

I hope that with the explanation in a very summary and concise way, the entanglement of watching this anime has been understood a little that more than a tangle is to order how the story unfolds.

It is up to your complete criteria how to see it.