Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Bladeworks – 25

And so it ends. Surprisingly the majority of this episode is anime original content as the true end of the visual novel is shown in a flashback. Overall I like it more than the original ending as I did wonder just what happened when Shirou went to the Clock tower with Rin. Fans will noticed the appearances of Luvia and Waver who show up briefly. I really love that Waver showed up to talk with Shirou about him turning down the offer but it would have been good if he mentioned his experience with the fourth holy grail war. One thing that annoys me is that part of the episode was dedicated to a fight between Luvia and Rin because now I know that part of the budget was put aside for this fight when it could have been better put to the Assassin fight or other fights that really needed it. While it is disappointing that we didn’t get to see Shirou and Rin kiss, it is great to see their love which looks to me that Rins wearing the pants in the relationship. The visit to Sabers potential grave was a nice touch as well, giving Shirou time to say goodbye. This episode was a very good conclusion, tied up the loose ends and gave us a peek into what lies ahead. Whether Shirou does become Archer or not is up to the viewer to decide though canon wise, officially he doesn’t. It was stated that Shirou’s chances of becoming Archer in any of the three routes is rather small. The route where Shirou does become Archer has been assumed to be in the Illya route which sadly never came to be. Take note that you can take that with a grain of salt as it seems this adaption is supposed to be it’s own thing so if you believe that Shirou does become Archer in the future then by all accounts you aren’t wrong.

I cannot say enough how glad I am that they didn’t decide to animate the good ending of the route. For you see this route has two endings, the true ending and the good ending. The true ending is pretty much what you saw in the flashback, Rin inviting Shirou to come to the clock tower with her after graduation and does what an ending should, tie up everything. The good ending on the other hand basically has Saber still remain in the world, Shirou still rather oblivious to Rins affections and Rin telling him that to keep Saber in the world there is going to have to be a lot of….shall we say…mana refueling? It’s stupid and only exists for the Saber fans to enjoy. I knew that the chances of it getting animated was unlikely but well there’s always a small doubt.

As the credits roll on the episode I took the time to lay back and question when was the last time I saw a genuine satisfying ending such as this to an anime series. It’s strange that with so many anime being made that a great conclusion is actually a rare thing. Too many series end with a life goes on or a to be continued for another season which may never come to be. In that regard this episode is something special, because it caps off the series. While it is certainly not the last time we will see Fate/Stay night again(After all, Heaven’s feel is coming.) at least for this incarnation of the heroes this is the end. It’s good that this series has a ending it deserves to wash away some of my discontent with some of the last episodes. But sadly let’s talk about that. Many people seem to be pointing the finger at Miura for the flaws of this second season and it is true that he shouldn’t have been given the director’s seat for this project. He was far too inexperienced with directing a series and his only real credit was what is universally agreed to be the worst Kara no Kyoukai movie. Honestly considering that this may be his first major project it’s a commendable effort but the fact of the matter is that in someone else’s hands this good series, could have been great. Other faults at hand was a lack of material for the second season causing the pacing to slow to crawl, new anime only material being mostly inconsequential, an underutilized great soundtrack, a significant reduction of action sequences and too much focus on redundant dialogue. Still with all my problems with the series aside, this is likely the best, and only, adaption of this route that we are going to get. All things considered this is very far from a failure and I feel as when time comes to rewatch the series with my expectations more grounded, I think I will regard it more highly.