There was a time when I believed that in order for an adaption to work it must stick to the source material as close as possible. More often than not an adaption failed because the director wanted to put his mark on it and disregard the very reason people love the story. However there can be times when something is adapted perfectly true to the source and yet ends up weaker all the same. This is what faces me here. This episode had two of my favorite moments in the route, them being the Lancer vs archer fight and Rin fighting castor hand to hand. There are those who claim this episode was rushed and I can see how they came to that conclusion. But the strange truth is that when you strip the descriptive text and monologues from the scenes they really are this short. So herein lies the problem, that text gave impact and significance to these scenes but there is no real way of satisfactorily transferring this to visuals. I remember reading about Rin beating up Castor was an adrenaline fueled moment but here its cut short because of it’s brevity. In terms of adaptation this is perfect as it really did happen like this in the visual novel. But the visual novel gave you time to revel in the moment and make it special. So in a strange turn of events, staying true to the source actually hurt these scenes.
The the episode starts off with a small flashback to Souichirou’s past which wasn’t in the visual novel and isn’t the best place to dive into his backstory. Again, it’s likely only there to try and get the audience to care about him before his death. There were plenty of opportunities to go into this before without it being as out as place as this and really could have been handled better. Even more shoddy is that at the end of Souichirou’s speech we cut to a distasteful shot of Saber lying suggestively on the floor. I am not going to say than fanservice has no right to be in anime but gentlemen there is a time and place for it. This was most certainly not it. The highlight of the episode was obviously the Lancer vs Archer confrontation which was longer than the visual novel but still short lived. The clash of Gae Blog and Rio Aris was a beautiful sight, you could really tell it’s where the effort went to in this episode. One has to wonder just how Fuyuki is still oblivious to the holy grail war when there is the base equivalent of a nuclear explosion happening not far from the city. It is admittedly an issue in Fate/Zero as well as it’s never really explained as to why Fuyuki is so deserted at night and ignoring explosions and light shows. One thing that might confuse people here is that the three fights, Lancer vs Archer, Rin vs Castor and Shirou vs Souichirou take place at the exact same time. However the episode shows the fights one after the other, giving the impression that they follow each order in sequence. They added small things to the fights to try and show this like the tremors or the coughing up blood but it may not be clear.
Thus does Archer betray Castor and take her out of the running. The third servant to be removed anti-climatically. I would like to say that the visual novel gave these two more character building to make this moment more meaningful but that would be a lie. There death is exactly as it was in the visual novel and just as ineffective. Fate/hollow ataraxia was the game that gave these two some better characterisation and brought in their interesting relationship that felt like two socially awkward people trying their hardest to be a loving couple. But here the fate route didn’t show anything about them(Really Castor is unceremoniously killed off the moment she shows up.) and UBW is about as much attention as they get. Yet again the episode cuts off just when things were getting really interesting and the big reveal was about to be shown. I can’t say enough how much this story is not meant to be cut up into bite sized chucks. More and more I find myself leaving each episode unsatisfied. So much so that I am beginning to question if this story is really is as good as I thought it was. It’s a rather disheartening thought but after rereading the fate route of the visual novel I can really admit that it is truly bad. So I am beginning to fear that if I reread what is my favorite route of the series that it would come up short of how I remember it. But there are still plenty of episodes left and this is far from being a bad show. Still it is a question of how they plan to fill the remainder of the season when they are this far into the story.
So herein lies the problem, that text gave impact and significance to these scenes but there is no real way of satisfactorily transferring this to visuals.
I’m feeling an expectations gap here from written form to visual form. I didn’t have a good understanding of the original VN, which I read raw years ago so I’m not affected. I did feel a difference in intensity though. I mean the last few episodes were pretty emotional, which might result in what happens after feel like something of a downer.
Even more shoddy is that at the end of Souichirou’s speech we cut to a distasteful shot of Saber lying suggestively on the floor.
Um. Is this you being disturbed by Saber still not resisting Caster’s magic, maybe? ^^; I may have been watching too much DanMachi/Shokugeki but I couldn’t find that suggestive. Personally, I was thinking: “Oh, crap. Was Saber broken already?” I mean, last we saw, she was still standing up and conscious. There might have been a real menacing meaning to Kuzuki’s order to wake Saber up. I mean, seriously, compared to stuff like High School DxD, does Saber lying down in an evening dress even do anything anymore? Not even any panchira. XD
Bigger issue for me was how Saber was still around after Caster gets destroyed. She does not have Independent Action. Not complaining. Just wondering if somebody forgot about this part of the show’s setting. At the very least, I would have liked to have seen some particles rising out of her body showing that she’s decorporealizing without a Master.
Also, I thought Archer was able to completely cancel Lancer’s Gae Bolg. Big misunderstanding cleared up?
Just a thought, but it would be interesting to see a What-If scenario of Saber waking up under Caster’s control (ie. Saber Lily-mode). Her Alter figure kind of makes her look like a sword-wielding magical girl. I think we might actually see her performance in Fate/Grand Order. It looks like you can start with Saber Lily in your team if you preregister for the game.
It is admittedly an issue in Fate/Zero as well as it’s never really explained as to why Fuyuki is so deserted at night and ignoring explosions and light shows.
Interesting thought but doesn’t really bother me. I would imagine the city would be more deserted at night given that there have been so many murder incidents happening around the city for awhile now. And I imagine response might be a little bit slow, especially if the Church/Mage Association around to help cover up incidents like this and slow down civil service response until the smoke clears. Heck, maybe there’s a black tentacle monster running around eating witnesses. Hah!
Yet again the episode cuts off just when things were getting really interesting and the big reveal was about to be shown.
I get the feeling that things were really a work-in-progress for these two. Caster had different ambitions for the War right up to the moment she took those hits to save Kuzuki. And I get the feeling what Kuzuki meant by finishing what he started was to die so he could hopefully be with Caster in the afterlife. They didn’t really get to this point until now. If they did, I imagine Caster would have just bought two one-way tickets to Greece and hightailed it out of there with Kuzuki. Winning the Grail to go home for her would mean separating from Kuzuki forever, right?
I get the feeling Archer didn’t want to kill Kuzuki either, which is why he went for one arm at first. Then Kuzuki came at him decisively even though he had no chance to win. I have to wonder what Archer was feeling at this point. I think he was kind of hoping to get Caster and Kuzuki on their side, although he did seem motivated to kill Caster, if only to ensure that the curse she left on Taiga would be fully removed. But I’m not sure if he would be any happier to kill Kuzuki than Shirou at that point. So does this make him snap? For him, does this round seem better or worse than his own experience? In his own experience, Ilya and Kuzuki got to live. So is he kind of going “WTF?!” and blaming it all on Shirou? I mean, why go after Shirou and Saber now? He should know better than anyone there what pieces are still left in play. Or is he still playing a deeper game? Build-up!!! XD
I think the issue with Saber is just that since she’s been captured by Caster she always look like the victim of some perverted serial rapist. She’s half naked, clothes ripped, bent over in variously sexual poses. It’s pretty blatant they’re basically taking the chance to do Saber fanservice (since she’s usually way too well clad for that). But it’s kinda distracting because we’re supposed to feel bad for her, and here the animators keep trying to give us a boner at the same time.
But it’s kinda distracting because we’re supposed to feel bad for her, and here the animators keep trying to give us a boner at the same time.
I guess there was quite a bit of zettai ryouiki but….I don’t know. I just don’t see anything boner-inducing here. Maybe her blushing expression when she was first captured a few episodes ago might have worked better? I don’t know. It didn’t bother me at all. All I thought of this scene was that she wasn’t actively resisting Caster’s magic, suggesting that her resistance could have been broken. Would this scene really work better if she was in a more conservative or pitiful state? Especially considering that maybe all that stuff they did to her might not have worked at all? I mean, after coming around, she was alert enough to notice Archer’s attack and strong enough to react amazingly, even summoning Invisible Air, all this without a Master Contract to sustain her.
If you’re want fanservice, try going back to the episode where Shirou gets captured by Caster and Saber wakes up in the middle of the night to find him gone. This dress or that pose has got nothing on what Saber was wearing that night.
You talking about that one second shot of her in a shirt? Barely even a blip. You wouldn’t even notice it unless you were paying very close attention to it. Even then it’s not enough titillation to even count. There’s a big difference between a girl sitting up in bed in a shirt and a girl lying on the ground in a revealing dress with the bottom pulled up in a pose resembling a violated victim. Fanservice isn’t just about skin mate.
“There was a time when I believed that in order for an adaption to work it must stick to the source material as close as possible.”
Oh god I vehemently disagree with this. I believe most adaptations fail because they fail to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of each medium and did not change enough to adapt it to the target medium. Your examples here are a perfect reflection of this. Another one I can think of is the Persona animes where the setup of the dark hour is perfect for video games but make no sense in the structure of an anime. The enemies also make no sense nor does the method for obtaining Personas.
While yes being too faithful can lead toward adaptation death or issues, the true key is for the adapter to stick close to the source as possible while also making their own additions and changes that show creativity on their own part and make the adaptation their own, all the while keeping it, that being the original content in respect to the source.
I also found this episode rushed, yet while I’m no massive fan of this, the fights here were actually watchable, the right thing/way to go about would have been to find some way to extend them.
Looks promising. haven’t spent much time looking into new anime series lately, but this looks good. I will try to get some episodes of Fatestay when i can..