Now I know what the first two thoughts are going to be in everyone's head. First, "Arthur is a girl...?" and second, "that's anime". The answer both of those thoughts are yes. In this adaptation of the King Arthur tale, Arthur is indeed a girl. No matter your opinions on anime, for the sake of this class please do not dismiss my summary of this show, because it is pretty epic. The show is called Fate: Stay Night, and also there is a prequel, Fate Zero (which is the better of the two). The story gives a unique spin on Arthurian legend, as most anime does when it comes to western lore.
Unfortunately, its pretty important to watch Fate Stay Night before watching Fate Zero, or else you will completely miss amazing references and your whole experience of the show will suffer. Fate Stay Night was based on a visual novel, if you don't know what that is look it up. Needless to say that gives it a bit of a seedy start, but bear with me. After the production of Fate Stay Night created an exceeding amount of revenue, the producers of the show decided to make Fate Zero which is infinitely better the the "fan service" riddled Fate Stay Night.
Fate is all about magic. the basic premise of the shows is that there is a war every sixty years called the Holy Grail Wars. During the war, Magi, or those who practice Magecraft, battle to the death in order to obtain the Holy Grail, which can grant the winning Magus any wish they want. The Grail however does not only grant the Magi a wish, but also their Servant, who the magi Master summons. the Servants are the reincarnations of legendary souls throughout time (alas,this is where Saber comes in) and belong in seven different classes: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Berserker, Rider, Assassin, and Caster . The Holy Grail is a spiritual artifact, so only astral entities, such as Servants, are capable of touching it; this restriction forces Master and Servant to cooperate with each other against rival pairs, even if a situation entails fighting to the death.
Saber ends up being the Servant to the main characters in the two series. She is the reincarnation of King Arthur, the King of Knights, and the Once and Future King. Throughout the show there are back stories to the characters, and Saber is no exception. We hear the familiar names of Merlin, Kay, and even Lancelot. I won't lie, Fate is a really strange adaptation of the Arthurian Legend, but anyone who doesn't mind anime and is interested in seeing a very different twist on everything we have been reading in class, I suggest Fate.
