Well what can I say besides, I told you so. But even though I knew what was coming this is still remarkable. Not only is this episode excellent but it may in fact have topped it’s source material. It is at times like these that it is difficult to be both a Fate fan and a reviewer, as I fear I may just gush about this episode and give a gleeful ten out of ten. So bare with me as I try to appear objective. The episode was essentially one big fight scene between Saber, Archer and Berserker. Viewers of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya may be surprised to see the former magical girl who learned about the importance of love and friendship, tell a giant behemoth to kill the people in front of her with nonchalant innocence. But to those of us who happened to see Fate/Zero we might have an idea as to why she might be full of murderous intent.
The stand outs of this episode was…the entire thing. Quite frankly the battle was phenomenal and never let up. This was a fight that would make the shounen big three green with envy. Positively jaw dropping animation with great choreography. But throughout the episode where small breathers. Those being a talk between Kirei and the blonde stranger, a small Shirou character moment and a battle between Rin and Ilya. The final of which I have confirmed to be brand new content not present in the original visual novel. This would normally be a negative point for fans but this actually managed to improve the story as a whole.
One of the biggest negative factors of Fate/stay night when compared to Fate/zero is that the masters of Zero actually got involved with the battle. In Fate/Stay night however in many cases the masters just stood at the sidelines and let the servants duke it out. Partly this was due to the inexperience of the masters of the fifth holy grail war. Here however we see Ilya putting up a fight as a master and showing that she’s more than Berserkers battery. It was a projectile based battle different from the close quarters combat of the servants and made the episode all the richer for it. Another new scene was Saber managing to cut berserker in half. I am a bit sceptical that she actually has the power to do this, however seeing as Sabers win record is rather disheartening I am willing to wave it off. Shirou’s moment was great as well, when seeing the battle between servants he is scared stiff and cursing his own powerlessness. But unlike a standard shounen protagonist who would spend a day angsting about this, Shirou quickly shakes it off and gets himself together. In the visual novel this was conveyed entirely through monologue but here it is done through a few spoken lines of dialogue and his actions. This my friends is the difference between simply shoving a story unaltered into another medium and adapting it for another medium. When you have the power to show, do not continue to tell.
If i was to truly nitpick as hard as i could I would say that some of the movement was exaggerated. In particular midair movement seems to disregard the laws of physics completely, with characters somersaulting and rolling through the air often pointlessly. But any one of you can tell me that doesn’t matter and I would gladly toss it aside as nothing. Because when the end result looks this good, who cares? UFOtable has done so far a amazing job in adapting fate/stay night. My only concern is whether they can keep up the pace. I would be solemnly worried that they wasted the budget on these first episodes. But if they can keep this level of quality…well this may be the best animated TV anime of all time.
This episode spanning fight was indeed great. I did notice some of the overdone flips though haha, well mainly Berserker’s first jump. He was spinning so much even Spinzaku would be amazed! Other than that it was a damn good adaptation, I ended up watching the fights twice.
I really liked some of UFOtable’s additions. The Rin and Illya fight being the most obvious one, but there was also Saber’s Caliburn style mini Excalibur. Berserker sure got slammed hard haha, being killed by two A rank NP’s right off the bat. That’s 2/11 lives taken! Then again he can regenerate lives, so that’s something. There’s also the fact that he becomes immune to anything that kills him once. Excalibur and Cadabolg won’t work again.
Wouldn’t call that Excalibur per se. I think that was just Saber’s prana burst.
Question mark if Archer’s shot actually took a life cos Berserker was fully regenerated when the dust cleared. Shouldn’t it take more time?
Also curious if Saber recognized Ilya. I mean, with all the time she spent with Iris, I’m pretty sure she would have recognized her name at least.
Curious also why Ilya suddenly became interested in Archer. Did she recognize him somehow? I’m trying to reconcile this with the events of Studio Deen’s Fate route, since she didn’t recognize him there, even after a long, drawn-out fight.
There were some subtle clues in her facial expression – a kind of strained, pained recognition in Saber’s face at the beginning of the Episode. So, yes, I think she recognizes the daughter of the woman she considered friend.
I think Illya in many ways is a triumph of nurture over nature, as a character, if you aggregate her different personalities in Prisma Illya and Fate Stay Night. Being raised in a loving household versus believing you were abandoned and being raised in hell, would produce those radical difference. I think UBW Illya sounds deader in comparison to her Prisma Illya self – I doubt this Illya would be able to fly if she got her hands on one of Zeltretch’s Klaeidostick.
Not sure. Prisma Ilya’s alternate timeline is vastly different but it’s unclear how. Did things turn out differently during the 4th war or did changes happen even earlier? It seems like the Holy Grail War did take place at some point but stopped much earlier, to the point where even Rin is unaware of the significance of the Servant cards and Prisma Illya was born a normal girl rather than a homunculus(?). Iris is still alive too so I’m assuming she has a normal lifespan as well.
As for what UBW Ilya could do with Kaleidostick, I’m pretty sure she could do a lot more than fly. This Illya is a full fledged mage with access to the memories of all her predecessors, right up to the Einzbern from the first war, with near unlimited mana. Whether any of the Kaleidosticks would accept this Illya to be it’s Master is another matter. She’s also been an orphan for 10 years and has been trained/programmed/developed by the Einzberns into carrying out her current role. I think the Rin vs Ilya scene was meant as a reminder to the audience how different she is from her Prisma version; how far she outclasses Rin as a mage, and how nonchalant she is about dealing death.
Loved Archer’s flimsy excuse for not taking out Ilya himself. And that satisfied grin when his NP doesn’t even scratch Berserker but makes Shirou cough out blood. ^^;;; I’m surprised that Shirou sensed what Archer was doing though. Never seen that before.
Bugs me though how Berserker instinctively went after Shirou first. Could he sense that Shirou was Saber’s Master? But he would have known how Ilya felt about him so why would he target him at all? Or was there some other reason? I’m still trying to figure out who or what Shirou was/is. Where did he come from before the fire 10 years ago? Is what happens to him in hollow/ataraxia really pure coincidence?
Why so many spoillers, my friend? Why? Well, never again I will enter the comments session.
Good bye and thanks.
Mate when it comes to Type moon, fans spoil everything. If you don’t want to be spoiled on this show, Avoid every single forum or comments section to do with it. Because Nasufans cannot keep their mouths shut.
I’m not sure whether a spoiler tag function exist in this blog, but if it did, I think the two posts you had issues with would have been mostly kept under the tag.
Sorry, Momozo. mOm I really didn’t mean to spoil too much. Believe it or not, I was trying hard to only talk about material that has been covered before in other series, like Studio Deen’s Fate route and Prisma Ilya. I’ve been trying to avoid talking about the stuff in the UBW movie too, like what happens later in this route. I was trying to gather together what facts I could so fellow fans could discuss some burning points I for one haven’t figured out yet. A big part of the fun of these discussions besides just sharing impressions of how this episode went is how the story will go.
In hindsight, I guess I did go too far talking about UBW Ilya’s nature when comparing her to her Prisma version.
Aidan, psgels, if it’s too big a deal, please delete my previous post(s) here at your discretion. I’m going to try to contain my excitement and keep my posts down to impressions. ^^;; Emphasis on “try”.
Again, Momozo, I apologize.
Epic. Can’t wait to get Hollow Ataraxia for the Vita next month.
Totally buy the midair stuff. I mean, geez, this guy’s predecessor could land on a flying fighter plane in full plate mail. I’m more amazed that Saber can take all that punishment without much more than a scratch, considering she’s running in stand-alone mode.
I can only say that I look forward to getting a chance to watch Fate/Stay once I finish Fate/Zero. I had stop watching for a while to finishing watch some other shows but this review just got me interested in it again.
“So bare with me as I try to appear objective.”
Well, you gave it your best shot.
On a serious note though, it really was quite the feast for the eyes and a welcome break from the infodumping. Would be quite a feat to stay at this level.