Summary

Humanity’s joint desire to get their wishes fulfilled can lead to scary outcomes. The Fateanimeseries follows Mages pursuing a Holy Grail by participating in Holy Grail Wars, brutal battles to the death where you make use of everything, from brute strength to lies and deceit, to make sure you come out on top. What aids these masters in their battles are servants, Heroic Spirits brought back from legend to fight for glory and honor one last time.

With what seems like an infinite amount of content, including everything from the main animated entries in the series to visual novels and even mobile gacha games, figuring out what to watch can be overwhelming. If you want to get into the Fate series without spending too much time on it and are wondering what the best Fate series is, here are some of the best Fate anime you can watch right now!

Update on July 14, 2025, by Asad Kashif: Fate/Strange Fake has finally had its first episode come out to reveal the entire cast of characters, as well as the quality fans should hope for from the rest of the series. While there have been no details of a follow-up episode’s release date, fans eagerly await the newest entry in the Fate franchise. To keep the hype up, we’ve updated Strange Fake’s entry and also added some more of the best Fate series to add to your watch list, including the origins of fan-favorite characters like Nero and Astolfo.

12Fate/Prototype

Fate/Prototype technically isn’t a full anime series, but this single episode OVA is still a treat for fans of the Fate franchise. It follows what could’ve been Fate/Stay Night, as Fate/Protype is how Nasu originally imagined the story to play out.

The single episode introduces various new characters, but they follow similar archetypes as ones we know and love. If you’ve ever wondered how Gilgamesh would be if he actually wielded a bow or if a male Saber would be just as cool as the Artoria we hold so dear, Fate/Prototype lets you catch a glimpse of an alternate world that answers all of these desires.

11Fate/Extra Last Encore

Fate/Extra Last Encore is the most confusing Fate series to have come out, a crown perhaps as difficult to hold as the Holy Grail itself. With a franchise so complicated that even its characters don’t know what specifically they’re chasing in the Root, Fate/Extra Last Encore is a show where we don’t even know who (or what) the protagonist we’re following is. This sense of mystery and thrill remains as we climb through floors to uncover what new things Chaldea has going on.

Fate/Extra Last Encore doesn’t adapt the Fate/Extra game. Instead, it shows what happens after one of the game’s endings.

The show features gorgeous animation and fight scenes and a story more complex and engaging than even other Fate entries. Even the main Saber, Nero Claudius, is beloved by the community for her contagiously upbeat personality and trademark “Umu!” that she loves to say.

However, the show’s mystery feels superficial when you learn that the adaptation starts halfway through the story, and it remains confusing till the end. Still, the fight choreography is great, the opening an absolute pleasure to watch, and seeing alternative versions of our favorite Fate characters is something fans always enjoy.

10Today’s Menu For The Emiya Family

If you’ve ever wanted to see how your favorite Fate characters would behave if they weren’t out killing each other, you don’t need any fanfiction. Today’s Menu For The Emiya Family, also called Emiya Gohan, follows the characters from Fate/Stay Nighteating delicious food togetherin a wholesome, comedic setting.

There’s no plot relevance to the wider Fate series here, and it’s not a show meant to be taken seriously, making it difficult to rank it any further. Still, if you’re a Fate fan, this adorable, lighthearted series is sure to put a smile on your face.

9Fate/Stay Night

Not to be mixed with Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, this entry is about the original anime produced by Studio Deen in 2006. Since both Stay Night and Unlimited Blade Works are based on a visual novel, they follow different routes that you can take depending on your actions.

The original version follows the Fate (or Saber) route, which is accepted by many to be the true ending. In it, Saber is the main focus instead of Emiya, showing why exactly the Saber class is called the strongest of them all. While a great show, the outdated visuals and pacing make its rework, as well as many other Fate shows, rank above it.

8Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya

Fate is a series about summoning glorious Heroic Spirits to aid you in gruesome battles to the death; a perfect setting for amagical girl anime! Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya, or Fate/Illya for short, takes place in a different universe than the main Fate/Stay Night series, and follows Illya, who is now a magical girl.

Fate/Illya can be quite fanservice-y at times. If that’s something you don’t like, but still want to experience the series, the manga is a good alternative.

While often disregarded as a mere spin-off, the show expands on a lot of lore in the Nasuverse. The magical wands that the girls use are made of Second Magic, and they use Class Cards to gain the abilities of servants we’ve seen in the past. It features some of the best fight scenes in Fate, made even more thrilling when compared with the usual cutesy, comedic tone of the series.

7Fate/Grand Order The Movie: Divine Realm Of The Round Table - Camelot

Fate/Camelot is the shortened name of a collection of two Camelot movies that make up this arc: Wandering; Agaterum and Paladin; Agaterum. The movies follow a start almost exclusive to the Fate/Grand Order gacha game, but the characters rapidly catch you up to speed without much issue.

Chaldea has sent Ritsuku Fujimura and Mash Kryelight to past events that were changed and now risk human extinction. Camelot is the Sixth Singulary among these, following our beloved Saber, Artoria Pendragon, becoming evil and creating a tyrannical regime alongside her Camelot acquaintances.

The movies can have certain pacing issues and are somewhat confusing at the start, but seeing Saber during her reign as a King, ruling alongside other strong Knights of the Round Table we’ve only ever heard of in other animated entries, is a treat to anyone into the Fate universe. The second movie especially also contains some of the best fight choreography and animation of any Fate anime as well!

6Fate/Apocrypha

The Holy Grail Wars are some of the most adrenaline-inducing contests in all of anime, boasting seven historical figures brought back to life to fight alongside their associated master, all to get a chance at fulfilling their wish through the Holy Grail. Fate/Apocrypha is what happens when we double this number of participants and have them team up against one another.

Fate/Apocrypha boasts the highest number of servants seen in any Fate show. With the masters combined, the characters engaged in battle with one another easily surpass the 30 mark. It may not follow the traditional Fate formula, but Fate/Apocrypha has some of the most continuously thrilling action of any Fate adaptation, and despite it being somewhat confusing, is a show every Fate fan should watch.

5Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia

Onto the more controversial Fate series, Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia is a part of the Fate/Grand Order series, though it functions mostly fine even as a standalone entry. The Fate/GO anime are mostly targeted toward fans who have played the Fate/Grand Order gacha game instead of being something that serves to introduce fans to a new Fate entry.

The FGO mobile game sends Ritsuka back to the Eight Singularities to save humanity from ruin, with Babylonia being the seventh. Only the sixth, seventh, and eighth Singularities have been adapted to anime form, and only Babylonia is worth watching as an anime-only.

Babylonia follows Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash Kyrielight as they’re sent back in time to Uruk to save the world from ancient Gods such as Tiamat. The show features a more mature and calm-headed version of Gilgamesh, and it is also the first time anime watchers have seen Enkidu, an extremely important character in Gilgamesh’s story. If not for anything else, the gorgeously animated fight scenes and the Rin lookalike Ishtar (and Ereshkigal) are reason enough to give this series a try.

4Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel

Heaven’s Feel takes one of the more irrelevant characters in Fate/Stay Night and turns them into a catalyst for the world’s end. Both Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade works hint at Sakura Matou’s true nature, as well as her tragic story, but the audience never pays much attention to it.

Heaven’s Feel is also the first time anime-only watchers get to see the Avenger class servant, Angra Mainyu, who’s responsible for the Grail’s corruption. Being a movie, it improves on the already stellar animation of Unlimited Blade Works and shows a world where Shirou chose Sakura instead of Rin.

3Fate/Strange Fake

The Holy Grail Wars present in the Fate series are rarely ever straightforward. Strategy, deceit, and tactics are some determining factors of each fight, as well as the grander war itself. While every Fate adaptation has its own fair share of plot twists, hidden plans, and surprises, none even come close to matching the amount of deceit involved in Fate/Strange Fake.

The Holy Grail War happening in Strange Fake is fake, where even the masters and servants alike don’t know what the truth is and what isn’t. Like Babylon, it features interactions between Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes, and Enkidu. These interactions ultimately lead to some of the most intense fights seen in all of Fate, featuring world-ending Noble Phantasms like Enuma Eilish, or EA, clashing with one another.