Thread:Curenatsuki/@comment-5255288-20140720002157/@comment-5284898-20140822080457

The Fate franchise starts off with the visual novel Fate/stay night, where our main protagonist (who is very dumb, serves not much purpose, makes idiotic decisions and also makes statements like PEOPLE DIE IF THEY ARE KILLED) Emiya Shirou accidentally summons the heroic spirit Saber and is forced into a war called the Holy Grail War, where 7 masters and their heroic spirit servant (who is a historical figure from either actual history of myths/legends e.g. King Arthur, Gilgamesh, Alexander the Great) battle and slaughter each other in order to obtain the magical Holy Grail, which can grant any wish.

There are also prequels and spin-offs. For example, Fate/zero, the prequel of Fate/stay night telling the story of the previous Holy Grail War 10 years ago, which is one of the most beautiful (by beautiful I mean the animation) animes I've ever seen (geez, the budget must be able to, like, buy Belgium or something). There's also Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Illya, a magical girl spin off which is also very entertaining. The second season (Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei!) is currently airing.

What's really confusing about the Fate franchise is not its concept; In fact, that part's pretty easy to understand. It's basically 7 heroic figures fighting to the death to get a cup that grants all wishes. The confusing part is how everything works and the background information. This is definitely one of the animes that you will have to use your brain a lot while watching it. I'm sure my friend can explain it better than me, because I've only watched the anime but she's done a ton of research on the whole franchise.