#fate material

this art is really beautiful, like yeah we rag on takeuchi for his issues with proportions but its still pretty great. 

the selection of which lines go in next to the scenes seems a little random like literally the only line they used next to the art of fate route kirei final battle is him saying “welcome emiya shirou.” like really? you couldnt think of any better lines to take from that scene?

they included saber getting seen in the bath and saying she didn’t think her “muscular body” would be appealing to him and all i can think is how much better the entire franchise would be if that line had any truth to it and saber was actually drawn buff, with muscles, instead of the “magic power” bs they threw in to justify her being petite and soft despite also being a warrior king. 

some of the translations of the lines feels a little awkward…?

fate route section didnt include the cg of shirou punching the dagger into kirei’s chest, 0/10 

“Everything and nothing is here. That is why this place is known as ‘Unlimited Blade Works’. It is the one and only absolute answer granted to those who have lived as a blade.” NOW THATS MORE LIKE IT, GOOD SHIT. “those who have lived as a blade” shirou/archer is literally a sword person confirmed 

they translated gilgamesh’s “zasshu” as mutt instead of mongrel nevermind this translation is heresy lmao

*reaches heaven’s feel section, hoots and hollers*

*reaches the bit where sakura is shot up with swords and covered in blood, regrets everything instantly*

damn right the sakushirou hug scene gets a two page sprea-

“I promise. I will be your personal superhero, Sakura.” S C R E A M S 

i take it all back, this translation just saved all of fate by including the word “personal” in that line, im dying 

and then they lost points again by including shirou’s “lets go home sakura” line twice and having the first one be oddly translated. this translation is an emotional whiplash but im still dead over “your personal superhero” so its fine. 

theres a few elements here that look like they weren’t in the game? like theres an alternate of the shirou tracing caliburn pic where he’s got the archer arm (and his orange hair is slicked back like archers!!) that i dont recall ever being used in hf, a sasaki face that where he’s grinning and has a few pronounced veins on his forehead that makes him look lancer-ish intense, a varient of lancer’s close up from his fight with archer in ubw where he’s got the intensity lines on his face, but he’s also grinning hugely (fang showing) and his eyes are wide, looks very scary lmao. Maybe that one was his reaction to archer’s dog line, but i dont recall seeing it in the VN…?

HF’s ending and climactic scenes get huge page spreads, thank. 

im laughing my ass off, they include the pictures where you can see saber’s naked chest when she gets walked in on bathing from fate route, a picture of rin naked from the start of her ubw h-scene, sakura’s nudity after shirou rule breaker’s her at the end of hf and then NOTHING ELSE. there is no section for all the h-scenes but there is these few nude pics scattered here and there, its like type moon wanted to clean up its image but takeuchi insisted on a few nudes still being included.

each of the servant cards get their own full page and they all look beautiful. i kinda wish the archer card lady didn’t have an ass crack showing tho…

Theres a whole publicity section from back before FSN was released that is honestly fascinating to see and read. Especially with fate being so huge now, to see how it was just one game being hyped by its creators is super interesting. Saber and Illya urging people to buy first editions of the game, art of the characters counting down to the pre order deadline and then the official release, a lot of effort was put into it to make the game a success. 

fate side material cover: a beautiful picture of sakura with her arms open wide. fate side material back cover: a chibi sakura crying happy tears over finally having gotten her own solo illustration after constantly being in the bg of pics with Saber and Rin. HARD SAME. WHERE ALL THE SOLO SAKURA ART AT

apparently they held a character popularity contest before the official release of FSN and saber won first place. i feel like this was the moment saber becoming the series icon and cashcow was set in stone lmao

theres a bunch of 4koma gag comics with interesting info. takeuchi wanting to include cat ears, bunny ears and maid uniforms into the game for the heroines is one of them. Nasu’s eggplant avatar, with an anger twitch, declares “Denied!!” …thanks nasu.

Another interesting bit is that someone on the team stanned hard for yukika saegusa to get a standing cg, and when their request was granted it set off a chain reaction of all the staff wanting to get things they wanted in the game. Apparently this possibly caused the release date of FSN to be pushed back, so what im saying is yukika is clearly a secret agent of chaos

one of the 4koma’s makes a joke that sakura puts blood into her cooking (secret ingredient! she says with an angelic smile and a heart while taiga looks on in horror) im laughing but also sakura would never sully cooking like that hdu

theres not enough sakura art… never enough sakura art…