Category: Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Bladeworks

Always elegant. That is the motto of the Tohsaka household and the mask of Tohsaka Rin. The meaning clearly that no matter what you do, do it with style and grace. It is the creed which Rin upholds by playing the honor student. Though as you can see, at times cracks can appear in the facade.  We had two great action sequences today but in my opinion this were not the meat of the episode. That is because this episode has started to delve into what makes these characters who they are. Even starting the episode with the conversation that would dictate Shirou Emiya’s life. So after the last episode had Rin declaring that she would kill Shirou if he approached her while not understanding his position, the very next day Shirou does exactly that. It’s a stupid move on his part but frankly I can’t blame him. Considering how Rin has been helping and been sending him mixed signals I would likely do the same. After all she may have warned and made that point clear but often it felt insincere and hard to take seriously. But while Shirou searching for information on the now missing Ayako from the previous episode, Rin takes the opportunity to ambush him and show that she means business.

Though truth be told I doubt her heart was in it. Shirou managed to put up a great fight and Rin didn’t seem to be pulling punches. But with her warm attitude to Shirou before it’s hard to think she could really kill him. But then came the highlight of this episode. When the fight is interrupted by a scream, Rin and Shirou run to the source. Upon finding an unconscious girl Rin administers treatment but is nearly killed by a sneak attack that Shirou blocks with his arm. And then we see the mask come off. Rin sees the blood and the ever cool, collected girl panics. Seeing Rins expression to his injury really set the message home that even if she’s a master magus, Rin has never been in a kill or be killed situation. But Shirou having seen worse keeps his cool and takes control of the situation. Even if his actions are not the smartest. This is quite the interesting dynamic they have. Much like say a master tactician and a rookie soldier with front line experience. When the battle is over we much like shirou are clueless as to what Rin wants and even she herself seems to have a hard time seeing it. Her reaction to Shirou’s magic tutelage was also telling of her character. Her indignation as a mage but her jealousy as a daughter. Ending the episode on the not that Kiritsugu put being a father to Shirou ahead of being a mage. In terms of how they were raised, they are almost complete opposites.

That’s enough about Rin, what about Shirou? He certainly had moments. His reaction to Ayako’s disappearance and his quick thinking during the fights. Shirou is by no means a genius but UFOtable managed to make his character really shine here. One thing I really wish though is that they tone down the hints any time that certain character shows up. I am fairly certain that anyone watching already has an idea of this mans role thanks to the music queues and foreboding atmosphere. It’s minor and honestly not a big issue but still, subtlety would be nice. Animation remains steller with art following. Though a bit of advice. I understand that it’s just the way the characters are drawn but try not to focus on their noses. It can become quite distracting if you stare at it long enough. Well with the next episode we have yet another action scene coming so lets see if the fan name Unlimited budget works continues to hold true.

 

So after last weeks action packed episode it’s only natural that this week takes things easy. Though thankfully not by talking exposition. There was a scene with Saber explaining the class system but it was passed by fast and unlike the other infodumps so far, Shirou had a lot of input to help move things along. What surprised me is the addition of even more new material not present in the original visual novel. At the beginning we had a new scene with Illya explaining her actions to her maid which is welcome as I am sure many were asking the same questions her maid was asking. To have Illya explain herself was fine and all but I really question why this had to take place while she was taking a bath. I find it funny that this series only begins to show great faults when it starts to pander towards the fanbase. We also have a new action scene with Rin facing off against Casters dragon teeth minions in a office building. I do like the new different variations of the skeletons as opposed to the one design they had in the visual novel. But I think this scene was just to put in a little excitement to the episode as plotwise it was relatively pointless. However it does add a little more action to stop the slice of life aspects from becoming too prominent.

Otherwise the episode was about Shirou taking Saber to school and introducing Saber to Sakura and Taiga. With the episode ending on the setup for the next, that being Rin’s declaration that she will kill Shirou if he approaches her without understanding his position as a master. Does that mean this episode was uneventful? Hardly. To those who pay attention you are bound to notice foreshadowing. My personal favourite point was the archery club captain Ayaka’s talk with Shirou. She was good at probing the things that make Shirou who he is without being overly expository about it or spelling it out. I also like that they are toning down Shirou’s affection for Saber. No heavy blushes or exaggerated moves. Here’s to hoping things are kept strictly professional this time between them. He does display these actions towards Rin now but unlike with Saber it’s not in irritating love struck puppy kind of way.

From what I heard these new scenes are written by Kinoko Nasu himself so that may be a reason as to why they don’t feel like filler. But that also means that the new information at the beginning of the episode has now officially become canon. That information being that Berserker gains back one of his lives after three days. Overpowering a character who is already overpowered, yeah that does sound like Nasu’s work. It’s one of his nasty habits that tends to corner him later on in his stories, but well moving on. The new scenes have only added to the series as a whole, helping keep the pacing to a speed more suitable for an anime adaption. It also provides insight into the other masters actions when previously we only seen this from Shirous perspective. My only worry is that they may take time away from the main plot which is already a rather sizeable length. I don’t mind trimming out the more slice of life scenes from the visual novel to make way for new content. But if it cuts time away from the main story we could start having issues. However I still say, just keep doing what you are doing UFOtable, cause so far so good.

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.

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.

First things first. To those of you coming into this anime from the prequel anime Fate/zero I suggest that you do not expect another fate/zero. Fate/zero and fate/stay night are two different beasts. If I was truly pushed I would say that Fate/zero is the more mature series whereas Fate/stay night was the more shounen series. However that does not mean that the latter is weaker than the former. Both have their strengths and weaknesses and it’s best to enjoy what you get rather than lament what you don’t. If you intend to experience this as a different kind of story then you can get the most enjoyment out of it.

So to recap. This is not a remake of Studio Deens 2006 Fate/stay night. The original visual novel had three routes. These routes could be considered alternate tellings of the same story. Same characters, same setup but a different way that things turned out. The routes are named Fate, unlimited bladeworks and heavens feel. This is the unlimited bladeworks route so our main heroine has changed from Saber to Rin. To provide a simpler explanation, think of the 2006 anime as Full Metal Alchemist and this new anime is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. Both may start the same but end up completely different stories. Our episode begins to retell the events leading to the climax of the prologue. However this time from the perspective of Shirou Emiya, our main protagonist. (Yes I am sure many hoped it would stay with Rin but bear with me.) The first thirty minutes deal with Shirou’s daily life of helping fixing broken objects at school, cooking at home, and small touches foreshadowing the things to come. To new viewers this may not be very interesting but to those of you coming from the visual novel or prequel anime, the slight subtleties are bound to interest you. Then upon witnessing two figures fighting at school our main is quickly stabbed in the heart and left for dead. But thanks to mystery helper from last episode manages to heal and walk back home. But his previous killer is coming back to finish the job.

Lets talk about Shirou for a minute. He’s been called a sexist pig, a stupid idiot and a outright annoying useless whiner. To those of you coming from the source we know these things are simply not true. This is a misconception spawned by a lacking adaption and…by some questionable things in the source itself. Withhold your gasps and outcries my kin. This is coming from someone who is currently re-reading the source. And yes there are some rare questionable “stay in the kitchen” moments that no amount of monologuing justify. This moments are only present in the fate route however and seeing his actions in the other two make Shirou being sexist not add up. The reason I bring this up is because gentlemen this is UFOtables greatest hurdle. Of this anime the main, if not most important element is to fix this years held misconception of Shirou. Because this is his story and if you do not care for this character then all the pretty animation in the world won’t get you invested.

How are they doing so far? I say, fair. The fact is that a lot of his character is in monologues and those are things which do not mix well with a visual focused medium such as this. There are moments where they are attempts to turn his inner monologues in dialogue though I argue that the result is a little bit unnatural. Considering what was omitted from the visual novel I say one of the most important ones was the battle between Lancer and Shirou. This was bypassed pretty fast. A pity as it was a strong character moment. Speaking of Lancer I am fond of the business like manner displayed when killing Shirou. In another anime this would have some psycho hyena with a half moon smile yelling how awesome killing is and how he can’t wait to get home to drown kittens, punch babies and worship satan. But with Lancer there is none of this. Just a bored sense of duty firmly disappointed in having to perform the act. It’s nice and shows that he is not someone without a heart. His second attack was also notable. At first trying to end the kids life quickly but seeing him put up a fight giving him a decent chance to defend himself. I like that. And do I even need to speak on the Lancer vs Saber fight? It’s UFOtable level animation, quite frankly it speaks for itself.

Lastly, one thing I find rather irritating is that if you judged this based on the opening then you would assume that Saber is once again the main heroine. She isn’t. Sabers had her story and she shouldn’t be so prominently featured in someone elses. But once again Type moon seems reluctant to change their poster girl. By the way I know my kin well so I will say this. Guys keep the talk of future events and lore out of the comments. No spoilers, even if they are asked for. Because gentlemen we didn’t need someone at our side shouting how awesome this series is to recognise it’s value. Let them see for themselves.