r/fatestaynight Oct 09 '19

PSA /r/Fatestaynight's Official Viewing Order Guide v2

5.3k Upvotes

Before recommending the anime order, I urge everyone to give the Fate/Stay Night Visual Novel a chance because it's the source material and will always be better than the anime adaptations. Fate/Stay Night Remastered is now on Steam and is fully localized. However, if you have no patience for visual novels, then the anime-only order is below.


The Anime-only order:

1. Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works [2014] [(UBW Prologue) with Season 1 and Season 2].

2. Fate/stay night: Heavens Feel [Film 1, Film 2, Film 3]

3. Fate/Zero [ Season 1 & 2]

  • This series is the prequel to Fate/Stay Night. It takes place 10 years before the events of Fate/Stay Night.] (the prequel is meant to be watched after finishing Fate/Stay Night and not before! People always make a mistake of watching Fate/Zero first, but that spoils plot events in Fate/Stay Night, so make sure to watch Fate/Zero AFTER finishing all of Fate/Stay Night.)

4. Lord El-Melloi II Sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note

  • The series takes place 10 years after the events of Fate/Zero and 2 months before the events of Fate/Stay Night and revolves around the Clock Tower in the United Kingdom.

5. Others [Studio Deen's 2006 version of Fate/stay night]

  • Even though it's a pretty terrible adaptation, it still at least has some portions of the Fate route you missed. It comes before UBW in the watching order. I personally wouldn't recommend it and would recommend reading at least the Fate route from the Visual novel instead, but the choice is yours. Essentially, this focuses on Saber, and if you like her character, I sincerely recommend reading the Fate route from the Visual Novel as the anime adaptation is not remotely as good, and is basically a butchered adaptation.

6. [Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan]

  • It's a cooking show with the main cast of characters from Fate/Stay Night. It's basically a slice-of-life show. It should be watched after finishing all of Fate/Stay Night.
  • Any other OVAs can be watched after finishing the main series I covered up there.

7. Fate/Strange Fake

  • The series takes place around 2009 in the United States. The plot centers around a Grail War faultily copied from the Third Holy Grail War in Fuyuki. This isn't related to Fate/Stay Night, and It's in its own parallel universe, but it would benefit you to watch all of Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero first before watching this special so you don't feel lost. This series features some characters from Lord El-Mellio. When you do start watching Fate/Strange Fake, you should first watch episode 0 called Fate/strange Fake: Whispers of Dawn and then proceed to start the actual series.

P.S: In case you're wondering about the Deen UBW movie. You should skip the Deen Unlimited Blade Works movie because there is no point in watching it when you have the superior Ufotable UBW anime adaptation and also because the Deen UBW movie is another terrible and rushed adaptation from Studio Deen.

FGO Anime-only order:

1. Fate/Grand Order: First Order

  • FGO -First Order- is the 74-minutes movie adaptation of the first chapter of Fate/Grand Order. Fate/Grand Order is a gacha RPG mobile game. FGO is not related to Fate/Stay Night. It's set in an alternate universe and timeline to Fate/Stay Night's. You should read the anime synopsis in the MAL link to learn more about the story.

2. Fate/Grand Order: Shinsei Entaku Ryouiki Camelot - Wandering; Agateram. [Part 1, Part 2]

  • In terms of story order, it happens before Babylonia. This movie will cover the 6th singularity.

3. Fate/Grand Order: Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia [Including episode 0]

  • In all honesty, you should play FGO to get the full story of the previous singularities because the anime doesn't cover them, and their intention is not to cover most of them because these adaptations are for FGO players who played the game and are not intended for anime watchers only. This anime covers the 7th singularity.

4. Fate/Grand Order: Shuukyoku Tokuiten - Kani Jikan Shinden Solomon

  • This movie will cover the 8th and final singularity.

5. Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom

  • Is an anime short OVA original story. It serves as a transition between parts 1.5 and 2 of the game's story.

6. Fate/Grand Carnival

  • Fate/Grand Carnival is the 2021 spin-off of Fate/Grand Order, similar to 2011's OVA comedy short series Carnival Phantasm, featuring loads of characters that now make up the roster of Type-Moon's Fate/Grand Order rather than just those from Tsukihime and Fate/stay night specifically. It's basically a parody show that takes FGO characters and puts them in ridiculous situations. I don't recommend you watching this one without having played FGO because a lot of jokes won't make sense to you otherwise.

The Intended order for people who want to read the Visual Novel:

1. Fate/Stay Night [Realta Nua] Visual Novel

  • roughly 60 hours long, but 100% worth it!

[After this point, the order becomes very flexible, you can now follow the Anime-only order or this one]

2. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Visual Novel

  • [>50 hours long and is the direct sequel to Fate/Stay Night]

3. Fate/Zero [ Season 1 & 2]

  • This series is the prequel to Fate/Stay Night. It takes place 10 years before the events of Fate/Stay Night.] (the prequel is meant to be watched after finishing Fate/Stay Night and not before.)

4. Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works [2014] [Season 1 and Season 2].

5. Fate/stay night: Heavens Feel [Film 1, Film 2, Film 3]

6. Lord El-Melloi II Sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note

  • The series takes place 10 years after the events of Fate/Zero and 2 months before the events of Fate/Stay Night and revolves around the Clock Tower in the United Kingdom.

7. Others [includes OVAs, etc..]

Other Fate related Anime (In no particular order):

1. Fate/Apocrypha

  • It's not related to the main fate franchise and is set in a parallel world to Fate/Stay Night. It's recommended you at least watch Fate/Stay Night first before watching this one so you can be more familiar with how things work in the story.

2. Carnival Phantasm

  • Carnival Phantasm takes a number of characters from Type-Moon's original works and puts them in a variety of light-hearted scenarios which parody their respective series] - (It's advised that you read the Tsukihime Visual Novel or Manga and to have at least watched Fate/Stay Night as a whole to fully understand Carnival Phantasm.

3. Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya

  • This series is a Fate/stay night alternate universe spin-off that takes place in Fuyuki City and features Illya as the protagonist in an alternate timeline. You can watch the entirety of this show in release order, there is no special order for this show.

4. Fate/Extra Last Encore

  • The universe of Extra shares the events of the Fate/stay night universe until a "certain major incident" happens and diverges completely.

  • For the Fate/Extra Games the order goes this way: Fate/Extra --> Fate/Extra CCC --> Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star.

5. Kara no Kyoukai movies (8 movies in total)

  • The series is regarded as being set in an alternate parallel universe to Fate/Stay Night. They both share a lot of similarities in some of the plot elements. I won't delve into the details to avoid spoiling, but definitely check out these movies if you're interested in delving more into the Type-Moon universe.

6 Tsukihime Visual Novel

  • The events in Tsukihime take place in Misaki Town. Chronologically, the end of the story of Tsukihime takes place around the beginning of Fate/Stay Night. It shares many similarities with Kara no Kyoukai, and the two were also subtly connected. I would recommend Tsukihime as It's a great visual novel. A remake of Tsukihime was released on August 26, 2021 in Japan and in June 27, 2024, for the West. However, It's currently released only on the PS4 and the Switch. If you don't have any of those consoles, then I suggest you at least read the really good Manga adaptation for now. However, keep in mind that it only covers the first route of the original VN.

7 Witch On The Holy Night/Mahoyo

  • Taking place in the rapidly modernizing Japanese suburb of Misaki in the late 1980s, Mahoyo centers around Aoko Aozaki, a high school girl in training to be a mage. She lives in the mysterious mansion on the hill with Alice Kuonji, her magic teacher and frenemy. While tracking a rival mage who seeks to claim their territory. A lot of things happen in this story, so I won't spoil it, but it's highly recommended that you guys check it out! It takes place in the same universe as Tsukihime, and Aoko briefly shows up in Tsukihime. An anime movie adaptations for Mahoyo were announced by Ufotable some time ago, so expect a movie to be released as soon as 2026-2027.

This watch order guide will keep being updated accordingly. If you have any questions or inquiries, please make sure to ask them in the comment section.


r/fatestaynight 14d ago

Announcement 🎁 JPFans x r/fatestaynight: How to Buy Cosplay Costumes, Figures & More + Giveaway & Discount Code Inside!

15 Upvotes

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r/fatestaynight 17h ago

Official Art New HSR x Fate [UBW] Illustration! Artist: ReDrop

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1.2k Upvotes

Official Art Comissioned by Hoyo themselves.
Artist: ReDrop

Last year arts were: GILGAMESH vs. PHAINON and RIN vs CASTORICE

(GILGAMESH AND RIN BECAME PLAYABLE LOL) IS THIS FORSHADOWING?


r/fatestaynight 3h ago

OC Fanart Rider with longer hair

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96 Upvotes

Drew a scenario of Rider being bested (for now) by a tricky caster by making use of her long hair


r/fatestaynight 2h ago

UBW Spoiler UBW Anime Review: I Actually Really Enjoyed It! Spoiler

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19 Upvotes

It's no secret to me that the Fate/Stay Night fandom tends to be critical towards the anime adaptations. So I watched the UBW anime, and, to my mild surprise, I really enjoyed it!

Okay, but to be fair, I read the entirety of the F/SN VN beforehand, so I knew what to expect from the UBW anime. A larger focus on the fight scenes, a smaller focus on the character writing. But I actually found that I... didn't really mind that! Maybe because I wasn't ever expecting Ufotable to reproduce an adaptation that actually matches the quality of the UBW VN route.

Shirou is obviously the character that is the most lacking in the anime as compared to the VN. But as a VN reader, I felt like I could just fill in the gaps for his nuances and subtleties as I watched the anime, because ultimately his portrayal is consistent with what I knew about him and the evolving relationship between him and his ideals in the VN. However, he also isn't quite as snarky as he is during the VN, so he brings somewhat less to the table in the Shirou x Rin romance than in the VN. That being said, Shirou is quite a difficult character to adapt: he has so, so much internal monologue, and unlike someone like, say, Kara no Kyoukai's Shiki Ryougi, he's a very conventional and generic protagonist on a purely surface level. I think there are some on this sub who might insist that it would not be a Herculean effort for a sufficiently skilled anime director to properly adapt Shirou into an anime character, but, like, I genuinely think that the number of characters like Shirou, i.e. characters in a written medium that are so reliant on their internal monologue, that receive satisfactory adaptations in a purely visual medium, are super few and far between.

A lot of what I can say about Shirou in the UBW anime can also be applied to Archer, except for the fact that he loses less monologues compared to Shirou. The dynamic of Shirou and Archer in the UBW VN is compelling and really well-written not only because of them being conceptually complicated characters, but also because the evolution and resolution of their conflict of identities is like a beautiful poem. It's a poem whose beauty is unfortunately only partially retained by the anime, but seeing Unlimited Budget Works animated makes up for it somewhat... right?

Rin became more of a tsundere than the UBW VN. But that's really not an issue, because it's the damned UBW route. The route where her magus persona gets systematically and comprehensively dismantled thanks to Shirou (and Archer, kinda). Compared to Shirou and Archer, I think Rin's portrayal in the anime was nearly perfect. But, let's be honest, while one can argue that the character of Shirou in F/SN can be decently well-understood via his character development in the UBW VN route, the same is not true for Rin Tohsaka. For her, both UBW and Heaven's Feel (VN routes) are mandatory, and nearly equally as important for her character, for the obvious reasons. So if one were to only experience the UBW route, anime or no, they would be walking away with a wildly different conception of Rin as a character compared to those who fully play the VN.

There is pretty much nothing negative I can say about the art, animation, voice performances, or soundtrack of the UBW anime.

Finally, if there's one part of the UBW anime that I am eternally thankful for its existence, it's the Episode 25 epilogue where we see 2-years-later Shirou and Rin in London. Not only is this an amazing followup to the UBW VN True Ending and a healthy amount of fanservice, but also this is a beautiful way to illustrate and elaborate on the main thesis of the Shirou x Rin romantic relationship: the two of them complete each other and support each other on their respective journeys and goals, and ensure that they do not fall back onto their worst flaws (Shirou becoming Archer, and Rin becoming a cold magus, respectively).

So, in conclusion, the UBW anime is an understandably but undeniably incomplete adaptation, but a genuinely enjoyable experience and sendoff to Shirou, Rin, and Archer as a fan of the VN, specifically the UBW route. So I'm really grateful it exists! This yap ended up way longer than I originally intended.


r/fatestaynight 30m ago

Game/Mod Honkai: Star Rail x Fate[UBW] Collab Trailer "A Long Awaited Reunion"

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r/fatestaynight 23h ago

Discussion [Ubw x HSR collab] Gilgamesh managed to lose his key again

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678 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Defender of France (By @shokobrt23)

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2.6k Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 14h ago

Discussion Mind of steel ending question Spoiler

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72 Upvotes

Is it possible that he took either gil or archer from rin by stealing her command seals by ripping her arm off to fight berserker? It is literally impossible to fight him/kill illya without these two. Archer while he was injured took 6 live so of course he will helpfully. My main point is that you can’t kill illya because berserker and leys are protecting her


r/fatestaynight 13h ago

Question Would the heavens feel scenario still happen if Archer was Sakura's servant? Spoiler

19 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Saber (呆毛轩熠)

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400 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 13h ago

Discussion I just thought of a crazy combo.

9 Upvotes

Gáe Bolg the trust version X Tsubame Gaeshi or you can say multi dimension refraction phenomena.

3 Spears going for the heart at the same time.


r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Rin (U-sora)

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1.0k Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 6h ago

Discussion Mori Nagayoshi.

2 Upvotes

So I am doing a list and my next randomly picked servants is Mori Nagayoshi, but I don't know where to put him, so I came here for help.

Where would you put him? From E~A rank, I know for sure he is not a top servant and I highly doubt he is on par with High ranking servants/A rank servants, or maybe I am just wrong. So if you can help me that would be great.


r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Shirou's tracksuit-wearing Rin Tohsaka (@toukan_drawing)

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904 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Discussion GREAT things about Fate/Zero Spoiler

55 Upvotes

I feel like everyone generally likes Fate/Zero quite a bit, but despite that a lot of the discussion about it boils down to the same couple of arguments about Kiritsugu, Saber, and the Banquet of Kings. So, instead, I'd like to talk about the things we really like about it! For me, it boils down to a couple of things:

  • Urban fantasy. I love urban fantasy, I love the contrast between magic and a modern setting, and Zero delivers it in spades. Fights at the docks, in the river, fighting mages with thermal imaging and sniper rifles, I just love it! Kiritsugu fighting Kayneth's mercury magic with just awesome imagery, and I absolutely love the fact that his signature attack comes out of some kind of antique pistol! I was honestly a bit disappointed with how often Stay Night funneled fights to the Church, Einzbern Castle, or Ryuudou Temple, places that invoke the past over modernity and thus don't contrast with the servants as much as I was hoping for.

  • Anachronism. Related to the above, I like how Urobouchi tries to make the servants feel anachronistic. Diarmuid cares about honor and chivalry when fighting. Iskandar is obsessed with conquest (and easily amused by modern clothes and technology). Gilles de rais yaps nonstop about God. None of these are exactly in depth examinations of these historical perspectives or ideologies, but I appreciate the attempt to make these characters feel out of time, to let them contrasts with modern thought. If I had a complaint about Nasu's writing its that characters generally all get forced into this sort of modern humanism/extentialism/utilitarianism. Like, Saber in FSN is from the 400s AD and wears armor covered in Christian iconography, but for all practical purposes thinks and acts like a modern person and doesn't even mention religion. And her views on fighting are less Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori and more 'Dulce et decorum est' by Wilfred Owens. I like that Zero gives the servants a little more room to feel out of place

  • Cool. Zero is just flat out cool. Kiritsugu has that whole 'back turned in a black trenchcoat while smoking' aesthetic, the fights are spectacular and complex with typically multiple layers of fighting going on, and the ancient warriors versus modern metropolism is just such a fun contrast. Also...

  • Saber gets a suit and a motorcycle

What parts of Zero do you guys really like?


r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Rin (by 唐刻)

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676 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Golden BB

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127 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Sakura celebrating with her mini Sakura (@Zoe_jellyfish)

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142 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Sad Sakura (@ula1356)

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184 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 1d ago

OC Fanart Arcueid

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25 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Einzbern, who look like they're from Lucky Star (art by ...)

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65 Upvotes

r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Question What Nasuverse manga/LNs have been officially translated into English and have printed volumes?

11 Upvotes

I'm looking to collect some physical Fate media (and the wider Nasuverse including Mahoyo, Tsukihime, Garden of Sinners and anything else).

So far I can see that there's:

  • 5 volumes so far of Fate/Grand Order -mortalis:stella- manga
  • 5 volumes so far of Today's Menu for the Emiya Family manga
  • Fate/Grand Order Chaldea Scrapbook which is just a single volume collection of short stories
  • 8 volumes of the Fate/Zero manga. Annoyingly Volumes 9-14 of the Fate/Zero manga were never translated into English so it's incomplete for now.

Am I missing anything? I can't find any other manga or light novels that have official, printed, English-translated volumes.


r/fatestaynight 1d ago

Fan Art Vermillion Akiha

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283 Upvotes