:;()$&@"\The Anime Pub/:;()$&@"

I was thinking of starting watching Fate, but... HOW?

What do I watch? In what order? There are guides with like four different paths and I can't decide lol

If you'd suggest something, that would be sweet, internet-san.

The tough part about that question is whether you should watch Fate/Stay Night or not. It's the original and main storyline, but the anime was done fairly poorly and is mediocre at best. It will give you the best understanding of the Fate world, however. So if you can endure 24(?) episodes of "meh", then it's definitely the first one to get out of the way since it's the best introduction to the world of Fate and there's nowhere to go but up from there.

If you don't want to go with "meh", I would immediately go with Unlimited Blade Works. It's an alternate ending, so you'll get most of the main storyline anyways. And it's very good.

Regardless of which you choose, the second show to watch is Fate/Zero. It's the prequel to the story, and it's my favorite out of all of them.

The third show to watch is Unlimited Blade Works if you opted to watch Fate/Stay Night.

The only other one left that might possibly be a must-watch is Heaven's Feel, since it's an alternative ending just like Unlimited Blade Works. However, I can't say for certain since I haven't watched it. I have played the visual novel, and it's pretty fuckin' dark. I'm not even sure if I want to watch it.

All the rest are spinoffs. Watch them at your own leisure.

I think there are as many opinions as to how to watch the fate series as there are seasons of it. I watched a video about that and in the end the solution was basically "You can watch zero, stay night or UBW first, but make sure you watch all of them. In the right order."

I think I'll fight my way through the meh when I get to fate... no matter how bad it is, I'm sure I've seen worse.

One could even argue that you only really NEED to watch either Fate/Stay Night or UBW to get accustomed to the world. Even in my above suggestion, feel free to stick any of the spinoffs in between if it's starting to feel like too much of a marathon.

Since the past few pages have been nothing but fantasy(esque), I'd like to throw in Giant Killing as a recommendation for sports anime if anyone's looking for a change of pace.

Well, I enjoyed Re:Zero a lot during its runtime... sorry for wasting your time with that one then.
Really makes me think that I tend to enjoy most series a lot more than the average viewer then...
I hope I get get a chance to redeem myself at some point with another "some random's" recommendation.
Well, when it comes to isekai then my favourite after konosuba would definitely be log horizon (or how I call it: what SAO could've been).

Still, I think HisoMaso (that's what it calls itself) doesn't get the attention it deserves at the moment. And yes, I know netflix isn't inherently evil, but it really doesn't help the popularity of the series they get the licenses for. Violet evergarden being the exception to the rule in this case.

Giant Killing does not dilute itself with Rom-Com or any other genre. It's a very true sports anime, and I'm fairly certain that it's enjoyable even if you know nothing about soccer. I don't really think it can be compared with any of the ones you've listed, but I think you're correct in your assessment that Yuri on Ice is its closest comparison as a real sports anime out of all of them.

In other words, if I were to choose one anime to judge the potential of sports anime as a genre, THIS is the anime that I recommend for it.

I had to re-watch the final episode to jog my memory so I can see if the ending was good. It has a very good aftertaste so I think you're safe on that part...if it ever makes it to the streaming services.

There are some scenes where you could tell the budget wasn't too high, but it's done so well that a few of these scenes are arguably better because of it. Of course, there are plenty of scenes that just looks clunky, but it's very much forgivable for me.

Edit: Actually, I don't really recall the animation being bad either now that I think about it. I think the low-budget feel is more from the art style and attention to detail.

Actually, I need to try to accurately define what I mean by "sports anime" here. What I'm talking about is スポ根(supokon),short for スポーツ根性, which can be translated to something like sports guts(as in willpower, not the intestines). This genre/word does not exist in English, now that I think about it.

The main focus of these shows is effort and overcoming adversity, to put it simply. As a generic example, it can be something like the main character with no immediately apparent special quality trying to overcome an extremely gifted and talented opponent through rigorous training. All sports anime that I know of shares this 'spokon' spirit to some extent, but a lot of it nowadays are mixed with other things to the point where you have a hard time telling if the spokon part is more important or the 'other thing'. Prince of Tennis is superpower madness, Area no Kishi is rom-com, etc. Is Cross Over a rom-com or sports manga? That sort of thing.

Yuri on Ice is a good example of a spokon anime. It's definitely mixed with some BL, but not so much that BL is the main focus of the show. The spokon element is definitely the meat of the show.

Answering the question, "What's Spokon?" is far easier to just have someone watch a show than it is to try to explain all of this like I just did. Giant Killing is spokon in the rawest form that I know of out of any anime that I've seen so far. This show is spokon.

When I think of sports anime, my first thought is of Hajime no Ippo. Ippo is gifted, but not gifted enough to make hard work unnecessary.

There is a romance arc. But, it's handled well in that Ippo's clumsiness in all things romantic serves to make him more human and relatable to those who aren't a boxer (ie: pretty much everybody). In a sense, his difficulties with being romantic shows one of the prices that Ippo pays for the level of focus he maintains on boxing.