The stage is set, the actors are in place and the curtain is rising. So I can say this episode’s title was certainly apt. Unfortunately this week we have no bombastic fight scene to ogle and instead we get a heavy dose of info dumping. This is not the most exciting of episodes but the ending scene does promise to make up for the lack of action. Truly, UFOtable made a wise choice when deciding to make the first two episodes an hour long, as to get to this point in what could have been five weeks with regular twenty four minute episodes would have been a terrible slow start. Though I did think that the show was more suited to a hour long episode format but well that may be me moaning about my weekly fate/stay night being all the shorter. Well c’est la vie.
Servants, mana, the holy grail war…if you are familiar with any part of the canon then these things is something you already know about. Making this the least interesting episode for fate fans. We all know this episode needs to happen and we can thank UFOtable for getting it out of the way. Not to say there won’t be info dumping later in the series but at least it will not be quite as excessive. Let me summarize this episode, Shirou is taken inside his house to be told about the holy grail war. Then he is taken to the church where Kotomine Kirei tells him more about the holy grail war and Shirou makes the choice to fight. That is the episode in a nutshell. Like I said, not the most eventful of episodes.
One of the commenters in the previous episode review made a statement about Tohsaka Rin being a character that panders to the audience. On reading this I felt he was exaggerating a bit but upon seeing Rin berate herself for failing to summon Saber by vigorously scratching her hair, lying on the floor and then wiggling her butt in the air, I must be forced to admit that maybe this man has a point. This reaction was much more subdued in the source and I can’t see any reason for it to be this overdone other than to titillate the character fanbase. I for one would appreciate these kinds of reactions being less evident in the rest of the series. Shirou also didn’t come looking the best seeing as a lot of his lines in this episode was mainly him taking what has already been said and repeating it in the form of a question or simply asking questions. This became better as he was talking to Kirei but overall it doesn’t make his character seem all that smart when all other characters are lecturing him. And yes Kirei, definitely the highlight of the episode. Now having accepted his nature in the prequel anime he has now become a lot more, shall we say, cheerful? His antagonistic quips and small manipulations making a large infodump a lot more interesting. Things like trying to push Shirou into killing masters while omitting the information that he doesn’t need to, help get across the information better rather than simply laying it out straight. And while this may be personal preference speaking, I have always loved the tone of his voice. While his english voice actor has done a great job presenting the character, one thing I feel he could never match was the Japanese voice actors sound. A voice that is grandiose, yet hinted with malicious intent. Truly the voice of a man such as Kotomine Kirei.
The art of the series remains excellent and while the animation this week does not require much there is enough movement to show these are not motionless dolls and actually human beings talking. The environments are looking great with the fog and desolate atmosphere which should lend well to the next episode. Finally this helping ends with the formerly shown magical girl coming to attack our heroes so next episode will be quite the treat. That I promise.
I don’t know how it is in the VN, ufotable made Shirou seem more intelligent than the DEEN anime at least. I rewatched a bit of the old so I could compare when this episode airs. He was really idiotic in the DEEN anime, seriously. There were differences who says what line and how it’s said that made a big difference on how he comes across. Ufotable already improved my impression of Shirou last week and they continued it here.
I also have to agree that one Rin scene was unnecessary and mood breaking. They made her plenty cute already, and I do rather like her little outbursts, but that was just excessive pandering.
I definitely agree with the Shirou comment. Ufotable made him come off as uninformed but relatively intelligent. Compared to Deen which just made him a complete blockhead. Part of that comes from Ufotable gradually establishing his motives – angst at having to help people but sacrifice others, his own powerlessness. Ufotable definitely toned down his brash behavior but setting up motives takes it the extra mile and makes Shirou far less infuriating.
@ PSgels- I didn’t feel Shirou was dumb at all. Kotomine definitely played him but it came off as a master manipulator vs a regular Joe, not a Lelouche wannabe vs a moron. Jabbing at Shirou’s courage and desire to be a hero, then coming in with the big “What really happened 10 years ago”. He pretty much cornered Shirou philosophically and forced him to back up his beliefs with action.
That’s good. Truthfully that was more or less a nitpick. I do agree with you two that so far Shirou has been done good. Though I wish they brought up that the reason he became estranged with Shinji was because he punched him for beating Sakura. In the first episode it felt like he was being wimpy instead of controlling himself. I am being a bit harsh in that matter but I think any show of weakness on his part will likely spur on the Shirou haters.
@Synkronized, I am not psgels. Sadly just a Co-writer.
Glad you’re blogging UBW, AidanAK47! GJ! Looking forward to your future posts.
Even then, one of the only faults so far is that it still didn’t capture his intelligence in the first episode, where it looked like he just got his ass kicked to the shed, since there was no narration from him. In the original novel he was specifically planning ahead on getting there and baiting Lancer into hitting him in ways that let him safely reach it without dying. Shirou has plenty of faults and is no mastermind, but he’s far from the idiot memes portray him as based on the 2006 anime and that one line in particular.
About Rin, I am not sure know if she was created deliberately to pander the audience or if she just became that way over the years. She was created back in 2004, when the Visual Novel was first released. I believe her Tsundere stereotype wasn’t very common or popular back then. She might, in fact, have helped to define the archtype. Since them she became really popular and the anime is trying to cache in on that.
Saber is somewhat similar, I think. Pretty much every Fate/ series spin-off have a ‘saber’ even when it doesn’t make much sense. Clearly a way to pander to her fanbase. However, since part of her appeal is her stoicism, it is hard to exaggerate her for pandering purposes.
“I believe her Tsundere stereotype wasn’t very common or popular back then.”
I don’t know about that. There were certainly tsunderes before Rin. Examples like say Asuka from evangelion and Naru from love hina. She certainly is on of the characters who defined it but I cam fairly certain that the characters that shot it into mainstream it was the Rie Kugimiya Loli tsunderes. Though from info I found it seems that Kimi ga Nozomu Eien visual novel popularised it in 2001. Honestly Rin Tohsaka should have been the main inspiration as when it comes to tsunderes she the more mentally sound and rounded character. But it’s not really fair to say she was created to pander to the audience. She does have more to her than her tsundere tendecies. It’s a personality quirk, not a core defining characteristic. I just hope they tone it down a bit. Cause that moment was breaking character.
Saber has gotten ridiclous. The girl has seven different variations now.
Can’t say I don’t enjoy Rin being shown in a more moe fashion, but I do agree that some of it seems excessive. Although I can’t tell if it’s deliberate or just the animation; some of the slice of life animation actually has a lot of energy to it, but its excessively detailed in the way that one Nanoha sakuga seemed to add movement for the sake of movement. As for Shirou…well, not much you can do to sound intelligent when you’re getting an infodump besides confirming what you’re hearing. I’d say he sounded as intelligent as he could in that situation.
I don’t know. I thought the butt-shaking scene was a plot point – showing Rin dropping her “perfect girl” persona to Shirou, something she hasn’t done so far. They just did have some serious plot development – they saved each other’s lives in one night. It might be some kind of feeling of relief that Shirou has a proper bodyguard now and will be relatively safe from dangers like Lancer.
I’m wondering, perhaps hoping that there will be some kind of flashback scene showing how Rin meets Shirou and how their relationship has been like up til now. So far, all I can tell is that Rin knows Sakura cares for him and seems to have some feelings for him herself given how she reacts to him.