Fate/Stay Night: Setting Up for a Decade

You are missing out on a celebrated work.

It's not uncommon to be a buff of the Fate series. Nearly all parts of the franchise have already been met with critical acclaim and enormous popularity, both internationally and domestically. Thus far, there are six leading media installments and a tremendous ensemble of minor works, and with another anime series starting within the following week (along with an animated movie planned for 2015), one can't help but be in awe at the success a single visual novel has achieved over the past decade. Unlike eternally running shounen series, Fate/Stay Night outlets are not based on a constantly and presently functioning medium. The lifetime of the original Fate franchise has set bounds and is small. Yet, fate stay night forums Fate/Stay Night does not fit in the mold of other popular show that are met identically positive reception. Even Clannad, being one of the more prolific show, only has two long seasons of anime on the top of the original visual novel and the various OVA's. Just what is the key to Fate's success?

The Journey

For all those who refused to pay attention to my pleas that are earlier or require a refresher, here's a little knowledge that will prepare you for the treasures ahead. For a visual novel, Fate/Stay Night has relatively few divisions, but we shall observe that this turned out to be a key factor to its success as a media franchise. The original work was broken up into three divisions: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel, played in that arrangement. Each division emphasized interactions with Sakura Matou, Saber, Rin Tohsaka, and one heroine respectively. The game's prevalence was so successful that for Steins, publisher Nitroplus (understood in 2005; Chaos;Head and Gate) worked with Type Moon to put out a light novel collection christened Fate/Zero, a prequel to the first visual novel storyline. The light novels themselves were considered a commercial success and were commended for keeping uniformity that was great using the original work. In 2006, the anime covering the Destiny arc branded Fate/Stay Night aired. After five years and an animated picture that partly covered Unlimited Blade Works, an anime variation Fate/Zero was released and garnered praise that was enormous. And today, in 2014, an anime adaptation for Endless Blade works is planning to air for the Fall 2014 lineup.

For avoiding repetitious statements and the purposes of span, I'll primarily be focusing in the first visual novel and all past and future anime variations of the aforementioned game, alongside the fate zero animated work. Now, armed with the necessary knowledge, it's on to investigating the variables to Fate/Stay Night's long-lived success.