Very nice start to the beginning of the episode with the Unlimited Bladeworks chant. Sure, it has been parodied to kingdom come but I still love it and all it’s broken engrish glory. But now I can say it with certainty. This series is not suitable for being watched weekly. In watching this episode I felt like I was being treated to a spoonful of delicious cake and told to wait a day to get another. Leaving me with not enough to truly savor and fairly unsatisfied. This problem would be rectified once the full series has aired and people can go through it as they wish. But this does bring up the point that a visual novel story is not meant to be cut up into bite sized chunks but instead taken in huge helpings at a time. It’s rather aggravating to be fully immersed by episodes end only to see the ending song come up and let me know that I will have to wait yet another week. To those who have yet to watch this, it may be better to wait till it has finished airing and then marathon it. It is the method which it is closest to it’s original source after all and tailored for maximum enjoyment.
One thing I feared last week has come to pass. Shirou displayed his talent for projection with little foreshadowing to show he was capable of it. To anime only viewers this is a cheap development as it looks that Shirou just pulled the exact ability he needed straight out of nowhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started making Kirito comparisons but I hope that are not as cruel to do so. Because compared to Shirou, Kitrito pales in comparison in every area. So to most likely no ones surprise, the master of Castor turns out to be the teacher with the dead fish eyes and whom foreboding music plays every time he’s on screen. But I rather like the cut of his gib as his line of thinking mirrors my own. We didn’t get to see how he and Castor’s relationship goes as here they played the roles of antagonists. Though we know that Castor has been playing the role of his wife and kept Souichirou mainly in the dark. Souichirou on the other hand holds no interest in the war and lets Castor do as she pleases. Even if that means she is killing innocent people. Apathy looks to be the core of Souichirou’s persona.There was also the issue of neglecting to mention why Souichirou withdrew from the fight. In the original source Souichirou ordered caster to leave because Caster is no match for Saber and now that Saber had seen his fighting style she would be able to combat it instead of getting caught off guard. Bring in Shirou’s newfound ability and they were clearly at a disadvantage. But in the anime this was not made apparent. Here it looks like Souichirou retreated for no real good reason when he took out Saber so easily and had the two masters on the ropes. Honestly a minute or two of dialogue could have fixed this with ease but now to an anime only viewer it seems this happened because the plot needed it to.
This episode also brings up one of the reasons I roll my eyes when a character mentions Saber being the strongest servant. True, the human was magically enhanced by castor(Another detail that was left out here) but the fact of the matter is that Saber was very nearly defeated by a human fighter. My opinion of her skills has dropped quite drastically. We also have the appearance of the long awaited eighth servant. Shinji is delighted with him though it seems clear who holds the power in this relationship. His wish seems to have changed though as previously it was to prevent others from collecting the things he believes to be his but now seems focused on removing an excess of worthless humans from the world. I find it amusing that Shinji has no idea that he’s likely part of that category. One last thing, the snow in this episode was spellbinding. Glad to see UFOtable make use of the skills used for the Kara no Kyoukai epilogue. We are approaching the halfway point and if this is the same as Fate/zero then it seems likely that for budget reasons the second cour will air after a break. I at least hope the remaining episodes provide enough to sate our appetite till then.
Sure the comment section does not support image tagging, but here comes a try anyway…
[img]http://www.naturablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Castor-Fiber.jpg[/img]
Also, those dick worms sure gave kind of a heavenly feeling.
He didn’t ass pull that. His true ability has always been projection to begin with. He misused it to fix house appliance because he didn’t understand it’s true usefulness. Watching Archer did it several times inspired him to the same, when he’s on verge of death.
Oh, trust me. I know. The problem is that this anime didn’t show that Shirou was capable of projection. Anyone jumping into fate/stay night with this anime will likely see it as an asspull. Even though it’s established in the VN and Deen anime.
Giggles!
(can’t help but call him that).
“We are approaching the halfway point and if this is the same as Fate/zero then it seems likely that for budget reasons the second cour will air after a break.”
I think I read on ANN or MAL that the second half will air in Spring 2015.
“True, the human was magically enhanced by castor(Another detail that was left out here) but the fact of the matter is that Saber was very nearly defeated by a human fighter.”
Believe this fact was brought up in Fate/Zero. While Saber has battle instincts that border on precognition within the series, they are ineffective against abilities and fighting styles she is unfamiliar with. Lancer from F/Z exploited this to his advantage during their first battle and I’m guessing no one in Arthur’s time knew anything about eastern martial arts.
But isn’t it sad that something so simple can trip her up so badly? Even so, there is a time when Saber was defeated by a human fighter at the height of her strength and there was no excuse. The fighter was human, had no unknown training and was very nearly dead to boot.
“But isn’t it sad that something so simple can trip her up so badly?”
Define simple? To my understanding, Saber was only raised, trained in and confronted enemies who were trained in the use of weapons to engage in combat during her time. The magical enhancement Kuzuki gained allowed him to fight at her level and she was unaccustomed to fighting a foe using unarmed fighting styles against her. It makes sense to me. I don’t get how it wouldn’t make sense to you.
“Even so, there is a time when Saber was defeated by a human fighter at the height of her strength and there was no excuse.”
Something not covered in any anime adaptation or the VN of Fate/Stay Night was that the knight who slain Saber was actually a homunculus clone of her created by Morgan le Fey to bring about her demise named Mordred. In addition to this, Avalon was stolen from Saber before that point which would make her vulnerable to fatal wounds if she received them. Mordred’s character appears in a spinoff to Stay Night called Fate/Apocrypha which takes place in an alternate world where different events transpire with the Grail War that lead to two factions of Masters and Servants to clash with one another.
I am not saying it doesn’t make sense. But keep in mind that Saber is constantly referred to as the strongest servant. Yet something puts her of her guard and she can be defeated easily. Otherwise Lancer, fought multiple opponents, using vastly different styles, in one night and got away without a scratch. So why is it that Saber is referred to as the strongest? You can’t say it’s because of Shirou not providing not enough mana because even in Zero she was of the lower tier when compared to other servants
And I was not talking about Mordred. It was a human fighter, nearly dead and technically he didn’t strike the finishing blow but even Saber admitted that he won. It’s a bad end so likely you don’t remember it but according to Nasu all Bad ends are canon as well.
“But keep in mind that Saber is constantly referred to as the strongest servant.”
She’s the strongest in terms of the attributes, parameters and skills granted to her as a Servant, but it doesn’t necessarily make her unbeatable. Understand the concept of hype?
“It was a human fighter, nearly dead and technically he didn’t strike the finishing blow but even Saber admitted that he won.”
Oh, you means the Sparks Liner High bad end? If you’re familiar with the game, you should know full well that Archer’s arm granted Shiro the Servant’s attributes and full knowledge of the weapons he is able to project. In addition, any Noble Phantasms projected by Shiro would also further strengthen his abilities. However, the fatal flaw to use of the arm was Shiro’s body and mind being overwhelmed by the continued use of Archer’s power which he kept milking during his lone battle with Saber Alter to the point where it eventually burnt him out.
“Understand the concept of hype?”
Yep. Do you understand the concept of patronizing? And Christ I already said at the start of these reviews that I wanted to keep spoilers out of the comments. Here I am being purposefully vague and you go and spell out everything. This is the most annoying thing about Nasufans. You can’t keep spoilers to yourselves to save your lives.
But you pretty much proved my point. She is not the strongest servant.
And you are wrong. The arm gave him projection power and knowledge but it did not give him the attributes of the servant. Part of his projection magic is copying the experience of the weapon. When put into action they basically swing themselves while he holds on. In that fight Shirou used a trick with Kanshou and Bakuya to get the win so Saber was essentially beaten at her best by a human, who was using a fairly low level noble phantasm.
Also if you want to continue this then move it to the shoutbox up there. I will see it and reply.