Steven’s watching it now, and so far, he likes what he sees. I think that he’ll like it in the end, insofar as the quality of the show, but I do worry a bit as to how he’ll react to the ending — he’s not liked similar endings.
I thought F/SN paced things extremely well, if a bit slow at times. You generally got one fight every episode. It might carry over from the prior episode or continue into the next; occassionally it was in the middle. But even the slow exposition wasn’t too bad; it gave a depth to the show that many fail to manage.
If they’d port the original game over for the PC, I think I’d buy it, but J-List only has a non-translated Nintendo DS version. In a nutshell, that lacks (and not just English…I’d bet it even lacks the original “mana recharging” scene in the abandoned house….)
Side note: Per the wiki (don’t read, huge spoilers, so I’m not linking), there were three original story paths you could diverge into. These are the names I chose for them, based on their description:
1. Shirou (altruist), 2. Shirou (selfish), 3. Rin.
We see mainly 1, part of 3, and Shirou’s temptation by 2. After watching the series, check the Wiki out for some eye-poppers — including the identity/origin of the one Servant they never reveal. That actually spoiled the ending for me, and I felt rather negative about the show for a while as a result.
