Fate/Stay Night volumes 5-10
Original story by
Type-Moon
Adapted by Dai
Nishiwaki
Published in English
by Tokyopop
The story takes place
in an ordinary Japanese town, Fuyuki City. Hidden from society, there has been
a deadly war going on in this town. Seven sorcerers known as
"Masters" summon a powerful familiar called "Servants" and
they all fight each other till the last one. The last one is said to attain the
Holy Grail which will grant them a wish. Only a few knows when this War started
and what the Holy Grail is, but the war was about to begin again this year.
The
main character is Emiya Shirou, who lost his parents in a fire and was adopted
by a man who called himself a sorcerer. Admiring his step father, he has been
training himself to be a sorcerer. However, he had no talent and he could
barely use one type of sorcery. His step father has already passed away, and
today he's a sorcerer without any skills or knowledge. He is involved in the
War of the Holy Grail when he accidentally summons Saber, who is said to be the
strongest servant of all... (Source: Wikipedia)
Spoiler alert: Spoilers for volumes
five through ten of the manga beyond this point! Please do not share any
spoilers past this point in the series, please!
Last time I blogged
about my reading adventures with the Fate/Stay Night manga, I had just finished
the fourth volume and the battle against Caster had ended - for now - while a
new shift began to form in Shinji, Emiya Shirou's old friend who apparently has
some dark secrets of his own. I was also wondering where the heck this Holy
Grail War would go from here.
And boy did I find
out. Because it seems like these five volumes really bring some serious story
and character development, especially if one is a fan of Shirou and Saber.
Which I am!
(Which, by the way,
I've recently learned there are anti-fan clubs dedicated to hating Shirou. Do
y'all seriously have nothing else better to do? Also - and this might be a
stretch but work with me here - I'm sure the same folks who hate Shirou also
hated Shinji in Evangelion. And any male protagonist in an action series that
isn't positively brimming with masculinity and muscles. Bleh.)
Probably the biggest
story development that has occurred since volume four is the revelation of
Saber’s true self, prompted by the unveiling of her Noble Phantasm – Excalibur.
So it becomes blindingly obvious who Saber really is. Sort of. Apparently, King
Arthur was a woman! I really adored seeing Saber as Arturia Pendragon, ruling
England and being guided by Merlin. I hope we see more of past!Saber in future
volumes. Seeing the Servants’ past lives is such an integral part of the story
and I love Saber so much, I naturally want to see more of her!
There was also a
rather major story arc regarding Shinji – who ended up being a crucial part of
the Holy Grail War than previously thought. I still wish Shirou would dump him,
though. He’s kind of a self-centered misogynistic jerk! But Shirou’s too damn
nice for his own good.
And Shinji has that
whole tragic back story going for him. I actually felt for him a little,
reading about how his family treated him and his failure to become a magus. But
it also further highlighted how incredibly effed up this War is in the first
place. Shinji lost his own feeling of self-worth because he can’t do mage craft.
These feelings turned him incredibly bitter and hostile to the girl his family
adopted for becoming the heir, a title he felt was naturally his to own. As
hereditary as this War seems to be, it’s also incredibly good at tearing
families apart. I can only imagine how awkward a Matou family reunion would be.
But you know who was
awesome? His servant, Rider. She was sexy.
And Medusa! I really liked reading her battles; her technique is impeccable.
Plus, she is the most visible link between Shinji and the adopted heir, Sakura.
I hope Sakura and Shinji’s relationship can be rebuilt now that Shinji is out
of the running for the Grail. It’s no fun being at ends with a sibling,
blood-related or otherwise (speaking from experience here).
The next major arc,
the Caster arc, has been pretty bloody and dramatic and filled with Servant
stealing galore. The kind of Servant stealing that requires every other Master
to team up. After all, Caster has like four Servants under her control. If
those aren’t unfair odds, I don’t know what is. And it means seeing Rin and
Shirou team up with the likes of Lancer. Lancer is kind of a jerk and pretty
stubborn, but he’s cute and a great fighter so I forgive him.
Also, there’s been
lots of Saber in a dress. Hngh, Saber in a dress. I approve of all this fan
service.
At this point in the
manga – volume ten – we’ve come to the end of the Caster arc, with a hell of a
bloody cliffhanger. Saber is still in the grip of Caster’s control, Shirou
seems to be down for the count, and Archer has apparently broken through his
conditioning and taken out Soichiro in the process. But it’s going to be a
while until I can continue the story, as volume ten is the last book Tokyopop
released of F/SN before shutting down – and there doesn’t seem to be any publishing
company willing to continue releasing it in English.
Oh, well. I guess
next stop is the anime. And the visual novel! It’s the summer of Type-Moon this
year, apparently.
I didn’t get to
really touch on the relationships that have really taken off since volume four,
so I’ll talk about those next week in
another post. Please look forward to it!
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