Fate/Stay-night, the less-than-stellar Type-MOON anime of the season, has many deeper meanings if one looks a bit closer. Much like its relatives Mahou Sensei Negima and Psychic Academy, it employs important life lessons to further its importance in the realm of anime. It just wouldn’t stand out enough if it was full of new frames each episode, because, after all, we humans remember things. The fact the show uses the same scene over and over again helps communicate more with the audience.

WE’VE ONLY SEEN IT WHAT, TWELVE TIMES?

Sarcasm aside, we’ve seen the same exact flashback every single episode. We’re passing Noir here in terms of flashback overuse. Unfortunately, we don’t get Melody playing in the background, and it just becomes tedious. I don’t think I would have been able to stand Noir were it not for the soundtrack. Then again, there’re some redeeming values in ALL the shows that misuse flashbacks…

Noir | redemption: Kajiura Yuki.
F/S-N | redemption: it has blood and loli and hdoujinshi to spare.
Naruto | redemption: oh wait, nevermind.

(Now to prove that Naruto and Negima are the same person, a few years, some peroxide, and some angst in between.)

While I was really impressed with Noir’s first episode (2 flashbacks, 1 flashback of a flashback, and 1 flashback of material introduced earlier in the episode… 3 x Canta Per Me) Fate not only caught up but also passed Noir. We lose the soundtrack, we lose the lilies, we lose the frames, and all for what? A Type-MOON production? That’s probably the reason I rag on Fate so much. Tsukihime set an unobtainable bar.

Someone once professed to finding Fate to be one of the best shows ever. Surely he’s tired of seeing Shirou lying bleeding in the mud? Unless, of course, my first paragraph was true, in which case we’re learning something valuable each time we see the flashback. We’re also learning that there’s a magnetic force that attracts high school boobs to high school faces and that soggy fish cakes bring good luck to reverse-loli romance.

Now, if the person who saved Shirou hadn’t been an old, grizzled wizard but had instead been a pink-haired six year old, then I could endorse the reshowing of the flashback. But we’re outta luck, and we’re stuck looking forward to a thirteenth showing of a dying shota-Shirou-kun next week.