- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080i/60 (29.970Hz)
- Audio Codec: Japanese & English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English
- Subtitles Color: Yellow/White
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: TV-14 (V)
- Run Time: 300 Mins.
- Discs: 2 (2 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: Sentai Filmworks
- Blu-ray Release Date: January 29, 2013
- List Price: $69.98
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Series
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Series
[Rating:3/5]
Fate/Stay Night (フェイト/ステイナイト) is the anime adaptation of the popular adult visual novel for PC. I’d previously reviewed the anime film, Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works, which follows a different thread from the visual novels. Here, the anime adaptation follows the “Fate” thread from the novels, though, naturally, similarities abound. The crux of the franchise is a centuries old battle of magically-endowed people and their spirit servants who fight to obtain an ancient relic known as the “Holy Grail” which will grant the person who possess it any wish. In this first collection, we are introduced to Shiro Emiya, a novice Magus whose parents died when he was young and spends his time trying to help others. Knowing nothing about the magical world, Shiro is suddenly cast into this magical battle when he is caught up in the fight between two powerful Magi and his powerful “spirit servant,” the beautiful golden-haired Saber enters into contract with him to fight to find the Holy Grail. Shiro soon finds himself allied with the beautiful Rin Tōsaka and her spirit servant Archer in this treacherous battle to the death.
Fate/Stay Night is beautifully animated and skillfully choreographed during its battle scenes and that makes it very enjoyable to take in. Rin and Saber, especially, seem to be very intricately detailed in their character designs. Backgrounds are solidly etched and the animation has a wonderful flow. With that being said, this first collection of episodes moves along like a slow river on a lazy summer day. There’s not much progression in the story line; very little arc. That leaves the episodes simply lazily lurching from one battle to the next as Shiro struggles with his newfound powers, barely increasing his aptitude. The relationship between Shiro and Rin doesn’t evolve much beyond where it began, although there are some tender moments between Shiro and Saber.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Unfortunately, the transfer for Fate/Stay Night comes to Blu-ray with a 1080i/60 AVC/MPEG-4 encodement. This is hardly the best possible resolution and while the image is passable overall, there are definitely issues with motion artifacts and judder that can be spotted. Some aliasing and combing artifacts pop up here and there, but there is still a reasonably detailed image presented.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Fate/Stay Night: Collection 1 comes to Blu-ray with the original Japanese in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit) and an English dub in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit). This seems to be the usual pattern for Sentai Filmworks, as does the problem with grammatical errors and typos in their English subtitles. That being said, the sound is as good as can be with the lack of additional surround and LFE channels. Dialogue is clean and the use of stereo panning is rather aggressive.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
There’s nothing included here except trailers for further Sentai Filmworks releases and the English disc credits.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
I haven’t yet seen this entire series, but I can only hope that things get moving along a bit more in the next set of episodes, because if Fate/Stay Night remains this slow, then it will certainly be pointless. That aside, this is a series filled with potential and lovely visual flair.
Additional Screen Captures
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Series
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
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