Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom

The Fate franchise is well known for being ridiculously confusing for beginners. Fate/stay night originated from a visual novel and later evolved into different mediums with varying stories and characters, as seen in a few manga, fighting games, a gacha, and the tens of anime entries you may find here on MAL. What makes it so confusing is... where to start?

While some can certainly blind pick and still enjoy the Fate franchise, I suggest this order may be better for those looking to get into Fate with minimal spoilers and maximized fun. So, here is a very basic guide I have made if you are planning on starting (and maybe completing) the Fate franchise via the anime. I will not include specials, OVAs, PVs, or recap movies unless they are their own separate series or need to be mentioned for clarification. I will also not include sequels (2nd season, for example), unless needed for further clarification.

Note: After Fate/Zero, the next anime in the Fate franchise is entirely up to you, as every other series can be watched in any order. However, I listed them in an order I have previously seen them in (at least, most of them).

A comprehensive watch order of the Fate series, which includes every entry of the Fate franchise and the Nasuverse. Courtesy of AEGC (Fate Guide): https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1866055

Since interest stacks only allow a maximum of 50 items, I'll do this one (1-50) and make another stack (part 2) which will include the remaining items that need watching (51-73)

Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/226

AEGC Interest Stack index: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2017008

A comprehensive list of the very rare Fate series anime that are better, or, more often, just about equal to their source material. If it's not on here, you're looking for whichever Light/Visual Novel/Manga/Game/etc it butchered.

You'll probably notice about 3 and a half are actually more originals with caveats. I did my best, this franchise is just cursed when it comes to getting anime. And since no doubt someone will ask, it's Fate/stay night -> Fate/hollow ataraxia -> anything down there.

Based on the gacha game for mobiles

Welcome to the Fate Universe, an introduction from the main story line and every spinoff you can imagine.

It's recommended to watch the main storyline first, then branch out to the spinoffs.

The stack is made as an easy watch order for beginners. Fate/Zero is a good introduction to the Holy Grail War, it takes it's time, it has incredible fights, character development and a brilliant ending. It spoils some details about the Fate/Stay Night characters, but not massive enough that you can't enjoy the routes of F/SN. Then you can continue with Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, which adapts the second route of the Visual Novel which is just as well made as F/Z. Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel Trilogy will end the main storyline, adapting the 3rd route of the Visual Novel, which is pretty different from UBW, but is at least as enjoyable, being praised as some of the best anime movies in the last years. There is also the original anime series Fate/Stay Night from 2006, that adapts the Fate Route (1st Route of the VN), but it isn't a good adaptation, it brought some original content and overall it's much weaker in quality than the adaptations from ufotable (F/Z, F/SN UBW, F/SN HF). I don't recommend it, especially for beginners.

For the people that want to experience Fate Series at its best story wise, they can read from the Visual Novel Fate/Stay Night the Fate Route, which is about 15-20h and introduces you into the Fate Series with more detail, it has some extra content and bad endings. Then continue with the anime serie F/SN UBW, the movie trilogy F/SN HF and end with F/Z. For a Visual Novel reader, this is the original way to experience the storyline. Knowing the ending of F/Z can bring extra weight to the character's actions and their fates, being a Greek tragedy. You can also read the rest of the F/SN Visual Novel and the Light Novel of F/Z, they are worth your time.

Web version of the Visual Novel Fate/Stay Night: https://fatestaynight.vnovel.org/

As for spinoffs, there isn't an order to watch them, you can start with anyone you like.

For each spinoff, I've put their seasons and specials in release order. They come from Carnival Phantasm, Today's Menu for the Emiya Family, Lord El-Melloi II, Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/Extra, Fate/Grand Order, Fate/Grand Carnival to Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya.

If you are reading this and are new to the Fate series, the biggest advice I can give you is to just pick the one that sounds interesting to you and start it.

I think the thing most people seem to forget is that you don't need to know every single intricate detail of the lore to be able to enjoy this franchise. Just treat each one as its own story set within this expansive world and you can experience them in any order you want.

Yes, one of the most satisfying parts of being a fan is to figure out how they all connect to one another. But that's not really something someone new to the series really needs to worry about, so just pick one, any one, and start. The only thing you will need to do is to watch entries with the same sub title together in order to get the most out of their respective stories, eg Fate/Stay Night (Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Bladeworks etc), Fate/Grand Order (Fate/Grand Order: Babylonia etc),

With that said, the following is my personal suggested order. The one last important thing to note is that Fate is only one of franchises that's set within this fictional world, it's just the most popular and most expanded upon. This shared universe is named the "Nasuverse" after it's creator, Kinoko Nasu. I have included as much of the other series in the Nasuverse in this list as well, as they really help expand upon the world building beyond what we see in just Fates Holy Grail Wars. If you are only interested in Fate itself, then feel free to skip over them, but you'd be missing out on some great stories in their own right.

The only things I haven't included are some of the shorts, specials or recaps as I don't think they are absolutely essential, and this has a limit of 50 entries, so it is what it is.

This list is for people who are interested in Fate series and want to understand where to begin.


Fate series contains parent story, that I first showcase on this list. And then side stories that include: continuation-, alternate world- and other special stories. I will include info on side stories when I get more into them. I order them after the main story and don't mark all their entries for 2nd seasons or ova's if not necessary (but try to mention them). Main story list is ordered the best way to watch the series.
-------------------------------------------------------------Watch Order's-------------------------------------------------------

There are lot of opinions in what order to watch the Fate series. In my opinion there is one good way and one ok way. One is chronological order and another one (better way) is for saving plot. It's also good to give a mind for the Fate novels, -manga and -games if you are interested.

1st order (Chronological): Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night, Fate/stay night: unlimited blade works and then Fate/stay night movie trilogy Heaven's feel.

2nd order (better way for saving plot): Fate/stay night, Fate/stay night: unlimited blade works, Fate/stay night movie trilogy Heaven's feel and then last Fate/Zero.

Fate/zero tells the beginning story for the other Fate/stay routes. It's best used to piece together the open spaces of plot what Fate/stay night variations leave behind. The Fate/stay night paths tell 3 different continuation stories for Fate/Zero and give different path's for Shiro Emiya's story, while Fate/Zero tells what happened before Fate/stay night and give detail to lots of cool characters.

Fate/Zero is very epic so you might think it's best to start with and it's chronologically the 'right way'. But it's meant to be watched after Fate/stay night. FSN was first vn and was first fate product that came out from Type-Moon (company that produces Fate).
You will spoil plot and make the story developments become more boring for Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero, and both lose significance in plot reveals what are meant to intrigue you.
So Fate/stay night is better at explaining story and plot without spoilers.
Also the quality only can get better from Fate/Stay night (The first FSN route) with it's bad adaptation from onwards, for it was made first and started off the anime production.

FSN Original route is the worst out of the three. It's nice in my opinion, though lacks in all aspects what the others FSN anime adaptations bring to live. (FSN can be skipped or watched later)

FSN Unlimited Blade Works is the very cool and clear upgrade from the 'original' path. It gives lot to many main characters and build up the hero theme.

FSN The Heaven's feel trilogy gives best conclusion out of the three Fate/stay night variations. It truly is cool masterpiece and ends in wholesome ending with surprising events.

There's vn game sequel for FSN named Fate/hollow Ataraxia if you want more after FSN. Also Fate/Stay Strange is very good ln/manga if you want some good Fate content.

Fate/Zero not lot to say here without spoiling anything. It is probably my favorite or one of the many Fate series. Very good.

Conclusion: You can watch Fate/zero first if you don't care about plot. But if you want to watch whole Fate story as it's finest with interesting plot twist, start with Fate/stay night, FSN UBW, FSN HF and then finish up the plot with Fate/Zero. If you still grave more Fate content, FHA and FSS are good game/literature options and all the listed anime in list below.

Thank you for reading this! For what it helps I myself watched Fate in chronological order and enjoyed it.

i refuse to put every prisma illya entry on this list

Anime by Type-Moon sorted by release order Part 2. (NOT watch order!)
Part 1: (https://myanimelist.net/stacks/19328)

HEY Newcomer to the Fate Universe. Hop in. This will take longer than you expected.

Explanation how the anime connect to each-other, brief explanations to get the concept of the series, you'll probably discover media that you did not know were part of the Nasuverse.

Since Fate as an anime has the biggest debate on how to watch it, the release order is the way to go.

Spoiler free :)

Hope you enjoy!

PART TWO is out.

On part two I'll also explain the time line of events in the description box.

Everything here is listed in order of what I believe is the best way to navigate through the Nasuverse. Part 2 primarily covers non-mainline TYPE-MOON works (i.e. spinoffs, alternate continuities, parodies/comedy anime, etc.).

Unlike Part 1 of this interest stack, these are mostly "spinoffs" and not 100% essential to getting into the Nasuverse, so the order will be much more loose. There will, however, still be notes denoting if they're "recommended" or "optional".
Also, this interest stack is slowly running out of free spaces, so when the time comes, I will be removing unimportant entries like the recap episodes to free up spots for unique anime entries.


PLEASE view this stack in the detailed list layout to see my notes with my reasoning for placements, alternate placements, etc.

Part 1 (Main Nasuverse) can be found here: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/23650

(the title also says it's the "wider nasuverse", but everything here is still mostly just fate lol)

--Not Included--
Recaps:
Fate/stay night TV Reproduction (2 Episodes)
Fate/Zero Remix (2 Episodes)
Fate/Apocrypha Recaps (2 Episodes)
Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia Recaps (3 Episodes)

Commercials/Other:
Fate/strange Fake PV (31 sec.) (Commercial) [Watched]
Logres of Swords and Sorcery: Goddess of Ancient x Fate/Extella (15 sec.) (Commercial) [Watched]
Fate/Grand Order (15 sec.) (Commercials) [Watched Some]
Farewell to 2016 Guda Guda Order (6 min.) (Short Special)
Fate/Grand Order: Fujimaru Ritsuka Doesn't Get It (2 min.) (Short ONA)
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya: Licht Nameless Girl Mini Anime (3 min.) (Short Special)
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya Movie: Sekka no Chikai - Kuro Sakura no Heya (6 min.) (Short Special)

Nasuverse:
Lunar Legend Tsukihime (12 Episodes)
The Garden of Sinners Chapter 1: Overlooking View (Movie 1)
The Garden of Sinners Chapter 2: A Study in Murder - Part 1 (Movie 2)
The Garden of Sinners Chapter 3: Remaining Sense of Pain (Movie 3)
The Garden of Sinners Chapter 4: The Hollow Shrine (Movie 4)
The Garden of Sinners Chapter 5: Paradox Spiral (Movie 5)
The Garden of Sinners Chapter 6: Oblivion Recording (Movie 6)
The Garden of Sinners Chapter 7: A Study in Murder - Part 2 (Movie 7)
The Garden of Sinners Chapter 8: Epilogue (Special 1)
The Garden of Sinners: Future Gospel (Movie 8)
The Garden of Sinners: Future Gospel - Extra Chorus (Special 2)
Witch on the Holy Night (Movie) [Upcoming]

I will update the description boxes but I’m just lazy.

MAIN TERMINOLOGY:
1.NASUVERSE: It is a fan nickname referring to the shared setting of a number of TYPE-MOON (game company that produces visual novels also) works. Their works are adapted in manga form, light novels and anime.
2.Holy Grail War: A competition where in the end the Greater Holy Grail is achieved. Basically a wish-granter that uses a relic (a cup) that received the blood of Christ. 7 Masters who use magic to summon 7 servants (one for each) to fight among themselves until one pair gets left.
3.Master: They are a Magus. They do usually come from a long family lineage of magus. They participate in the Holy Grail war by forming a contract with a servant. They have 3.a) Magic Circuits (think of it like veins and arteries but for magic to flow through). A master provides magical energy for their servants.
They use a 3.b) COMMAND SPELL - Masters have three of them. If a magus uses it, the servant is obliged to fulfill any command that comes from their master. It is usually saved to command a servant to commit suicide in order to reach the root via the Greater Holy Grail.
4.Servant a.k.a Heroic Spirit: They are historical, myths or legend figures that have achieved great deeds in their lifetime and are summoned by Masters to fight alongside them in the Holy Grail
They are placed in classed
SABER , LANCER, ARCHER, RIDER, CASTER, ASSASSIN, BERSERKER. - Each of these main seven classes has a GRAND class. A GRAND servant is summoned to prevent mankind extinction.
There are extra classes. E.g.
RULER- oversees the Holy Grail War and does not have any desire for it.
AVENGER - They are founded on vengeance, born from powerful resentment that does not fade even after death.
ALTER EGO - Alter Egos are a phenomenon where one persona of a Heroic Spirit gains independence as a separate entity.
SHIELDER - They utilize shields.
Pseudo-Servants - are Servants that have manifested utilizing humans as their vessels. (The servant controls the human body)
Demi-Servants - are conceptual humans who have taken the Heroic Spirits into their bodies, functioning as Servants. (The human controls their bodies.)
After they die during a Holy Grail War, their souls are stored in the Lesser Grail.
When they die in real life their soul gets transported to the Throne of Heroes that resides outside of the World. From here servants can be summoned in different parallel timelines. When summoned the servants are just copies of their Throne of Heroes body. So if they are summoned again, or in another timeline they are just a copy with no memories of other previous holy grail wars they fought in.
5.Grail Vessel (Lesser Holy Grail): It is designed to intake defeated Servants. Up until the third Grail War, the vessel for the Grail was a literal "cup". However, during the events of the third War it was damaged. Irisvel and Illya were created to be the physical embodiment of the Lesser Grail.
6.Greater Holy Grail: The prize after the completion of the War that grants a wish. It needs mana to be activated (that is why the War usually happens every 60 years). Once the vessel is filled with seven (or six) servants, the Greater Grail opens a hole to Akasha.(see no.16)
7.Noble Phantasm: Trump card for Servants, unique for each.
8.Holy Church: a group of people who target people who insult God, kill, twist laws of nature etc. So they do get involved in the Holy Grail War to keep peace of mankind since they see it as an irregularity.
9.Mage Association: an organization formed, to hide and develop Magecraft.
10.The Root: is a metaphysical location that is the source of all events and phenomenons of the universe. It exists outside of time. It has all information, events, past, present and future. The ultimate ambition for a Magi is to reach this root to obtain all knowledge (one way which they try to reach it is via the Holy Grail).
11.Reality Marbel: A created world that is completely cut off from normal reality. It can only be used for a few minutes because the world will seek to crush it.
It is responsible for the Projection and Reinforcement abilities. Some can be activated inside the body of the user. (E.g. Emiya Shirou in Fate/HF)
12.Chaldeas - Utilized by Chaldea Security Organization in the World of Fate/Grand Order for the purpose of saving humanity. CHALDEAS can be used to look 100 years into the future. It is a form of intelligent machine with characteristics of a black hole. Humans can not go into contact with it. It recreates planet Earth in miniature which is 100 years into the future.
It is located in Chaldea Headquarters in Antarctica.
With this machine singularities can be discovered.
Laplace- Monitors the past.
Sheba- Observes in detail the information in Chaldeas and displays it in a monitor.
Fate- Summons Heroic Spirits
Trismegistus- utilized in reyshiftin (timetravel)
13.Singularities: Important for the Fate/ Grand Order anime. Singularities are unobservable regions that do not exist within Chaldea's recorded history. A Holy Grail is given to a certain individual within a key historical time period, typically someone who will use it to cause major disruption to history. The future is reduced to a mass of arbitrary possibilities. The era in which the Singularity manifests in will be destroyed completely under the strain of the impossible events that the Singularity forces into existence, causing the end of history itself.
The power of the Grails and the circumstances within the Singularities allow for the summoning of Servants and their continued existence in the world, even without a Master. Master-less servants are summoned by the Grail itself as a reaction to its abuse.
*Singularity F - that happens in Fuyuki City 2004 AD (Fate/Grand Order First Order)
First Singularity - France year 1431
Second singularity - Roman Empire Year 60
Third Singularity - Okeanos Year 1573
Fourth Singularity - London Year 1888
Fifth Singularity - North America 1784
*Sixth Singualarity - Fate/Grand Order: Divine Realm of the Round Table - Camelot 1273
*Seventh Singularity - Mesopotamia 2655 BC
*Final Singularity - Fate/Grand Order: Final Singularity - Grand Temple of Time: Solomon 2016
14.Dead Apostles: are humans that became Vampires either by the use of Magecraft or by the actions of another Vampire of similar nature.
15.Magic (Maho): It is different from Magecraft. It represents the actualization of events that are impossible to reproduce in a certain era, whether by humans or the Planet, even if given an infinite amount of time and resources. The acquisition of the capacity to perform Magic is considered the ultimate accomplishment of a Magus, and only within the grasp of those who have accessed the Swirl of the Root. Concepts like time manipulation, teleportation, spatial warping and quarantine, and the Resurrection of the dead are miracles thought to be possible only through the application of Magic.
So Magic is being able to do something that can’t be done by means of science or nature (like teleporting). Magecraft is the opposite (making flames with hands for example which can be done with science or by nature). However with the development of science, if something that can be achieved by magic turns achievable by other means, than this magic turns into magecraft.
There are 5 magics (keep the third magic in mind) :
- First Domain: Details about it are unknown. It is related to the generation of Ether(or void, part of 5 Great elemts- Wind. water, Fire, Earth) Clumps, which have been called "materialized nothing". Witches are involved in the establishment of the First Magic. (A girl magus is not necessarily a witch)
-Second Magic: Operation of Parallel Worlds
- The Third Magic: Materialization of the soul.
- The Fourth Magic: Unknown.
The Fifth Magic: Abilities related to Time Travel.
16.ALYA: The Counter Force is a safety device formed by a World (keep reading for explanation) to defend itself against extinction and is synonymous with the World it represents. They are described as passive spirals of energy that respond to threats of planet destruction or human extinction.
The World, is two types. Gaia is the will of the Earth, the planet's intrinsic wish to survive and prosper. Alaya, on the other hand, is the collective unconscious will of mankind to avoid extinction.
17. Counter Guardian: The Counter Force empowers a "normal person" in life to remove the factor that can trigger destruction. They act with no autonomy of their own and only appear in response to an event.
17.Moon Cell- It is a large computer-like construct created by an unknown civilization one hundred million years before the existence of the Earth or the Moon. It has recorded everything that has happened on the planet since its formation. It faithfully simulates all life on Earth and is capable of providing a definite prediction of the future.
18.SE.RA.PH - A part of the Moon Cell. It is a world where Souls are transformed into information. The SE.RA.PH is responsible for the summoning of the Servants during Fate/EXTRA. The SE.RA.PH restricts the exit until the tournament participants (of Fate/ Extra’s Holy Grail) are reduced to one. It is also responsible for the existence of the NPCs and all areas in the tournament.
The landscapes generated by SE.RA.PH are all independent Reality Marbles

Go to First Stack to fully understand the guide, which is prepared in chronological order.

Part 1 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/32601

After completing Fate/Strange Fake, the Fate Series is completely Over.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


After completing Tsuki no Sango (Coral of the Moon), the Nasuverse is Completely Over.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


After completing Nasuverse, now we are going to Type-Moon.

Canaan is currently only work of Type-Moon which is not included in Nasuverse.

For those wanting to get into the fate series.
PLEASE NOTE: this is not a watch order, but a guide. Since theres no real order to watch them in and everyone has their own opinion, I will just explain what they are and you can decide which one you want to watch :)

Fate/Nasuverse is a fan nickname for Type-Moons works that are listed below.

Can watch or read.
Fate Series
Shingetsutan Tsukihime (Lunar Legend Tsukihime)
Kara no Kyouki (The Garden of Sinners)

Only can be read.
Mahou Tsukai no Yoru (Witch on a holy night)
Tsuki no Sango (Coral of the moon)
Notes

Fate/Zero can be watched before Fate/stay night, though it contains major spoilers for the Fate/stay night series.It follows the fathers of our main "Fate/stay night" characters, but that's not the whole focus of the series.

The Garden of the Sinners and Lunar Legend Tsukihime can either be watched first if you want to get an understanding of the Fate/Nasuverse, or after you watched the Fate Series.

Disclaimer: This is a list based on my best opinion of what order it should go in. Whatever you watch is entirely up to you and this list only focuses on the (Main Series).

Optional: Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya,Carnival Phantasm,Fate/Grand Carnival.

All animated Fate/ works and Nasuverse that have been published so far. As of 2024, January. To the best of my ability and research. And yes there is a Tsukihime anime for those who didn't know.

All anime, OVAs and spinoffs created. Some ads for mobile games and crossovers were excluded since there are too many and virtually no content in them. They are organised using the "newest" auto-arrange function for Interest Stacks. No idea if they are actually chronologically organised.

Kinoko Nasu is a Japanese writer famous for creating the Fate/ series, the Fate/Grand Order game, Kara no Kyoukai and Shingetsutam Tsukihime.

His writing style is different and his more esoteric work is very niche. His most popular works are more restrained than earlier novels and short stories. He is quite prolific, to the point that even the animated portion of his work is 72 items long.

Most of his stories deal with apocalypses or magic rituals that affect the world. Most of his work has a small dab of wacky logic or comedy that finds it's way into what he does.

Find [part old] of this interest stack for the remainder of his more niche catalog of animated content. This includes the first Fate/stay night series, Tsukihime and Kara no Kyoukai series!

Based off of the articles seen on GameRant & IGN.

*streaming services listed
gamerant.com/fate-series-watch-order/
ign.com/articles/the-fate-series-in-order

Things not included are:
The Garden of Sinners movie series
Carnival Phantasm
Witch on the Holy Night (new movie, yet to be released)
Lunar Legend Tsukihime