Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works

Ufotable's precocious talent in bringing Type-Moon's works to the anime medium was first proven starting back in 2007, with its adaption of Kara no Kyoukai, a series of seven movies based off of Nasu's light novels bearing the same name. Four years later came Fate/Zero, an adaption of Urobuchi's prequel to what is Kinoko Nasu's best known work, Fate/Stay Night. Both are two of my absolute favourites, and considering the enormous amounts of attention garnered by Fate/Zero, it should come to no surprise that a follow-up was welcomed with open arms and eager senses.

The Fate franchise, in the anime medium, has had a bit of a precarious reputation. Studio Deen had two different attempts at bringing the visual novel to the screen, in the form of a twenty four episode series and a movie, each following a different route, both of which were received fairly poorly by fans of the franchise. And while I still stand firm in defending these adaptions against all its garnered vitriol, they still left much to be desired. Sure, the source material is great, but that means little if the execution misses the mark. The good news is, this is not the case; Ufotable's endeavours may just be the franchise's knight in shining armour.

The Holy Grail War, a war in which seven servants, figures from history, myths and legends, are summoned under seven classes according to their abilities (Saber, Archer, Lancer, Caster, Assassin, Rider, Berserker) to fight under the command of seven masters. Each pair of master and servant aim to fight for possession of the grail, an omnipotent device said to be able to make any wish a reality, which appears only when there's a single servant left standing. This series primarily focuses on our protagonist Shirou Emiya, as well as Rin Tohsaka, with their servants, Saber and Archer, respectively.

An immediately evident change this time around is the implementation of references and flashbacks to the series' prequel. Shirou's past, the root of the utilitarian methodologies, previous character relationships, and other details greater explored in Fate/Zero have been, more or less, seamlessly integrated with the route's existing story.

The setting, Kinoko Nasu's world (the Nasuverse) is fairly detailed, but Ufotable's done a commendable job with the pacing of the series, disseminating its lore and story into several, easy to understand segments. The writing is sharp, with the exception of a few minor slightly awkward nuances. So far, the world and its elements felt fleshed out and comprehensive. Meticulous in its presentation yet without a single dull moment, this series managed to oscillate between its varying tones, be it comedic, suspenseful, epic or ominous, at a consistent level of quality. Whenever progression is slow, vital information contributing to the plot and character development is fed at a speed and manner which is easy to digest; yet before grinding to a halt, the pacing is suddenly galvanized with a new revelation or action scene. Despite being armed with knowledge of how things will play out for the most part, the series still managed to envelop me in all its suspense and excitement.

The characters, in terms of core personalities, remain fairly similar as they have been in the past; Rin's attitude and acuity, Saber's adamant honour and nobility, and many others brought about a rapid shot of welcome familiarity. But there were still numerous refinements which made certain aspects of their character were more prominent. Our protagonist Shirou, an idealistic teen with an altruistic drive, has been overhauled appreciably; namely, his imprudence has been dialed down, making for a much more likable character, addressing what was a major issue for many in the previous adaptions. Despite the attention to the show's other components, character development is by no means neglected, and it's appreciable that the series distributes appropriate time and attention into steady, believable progression and back story explorations. Of course, this is an adaption of the Unlimited Blade Works route, and so character screen time and development are distributed accordingly.

Aesthetically, this show is more or less immaculate, with sharp hand-drawn visuals mixed with beautiful and effective uses of CGI. There's a great attention to detail in every scene, the colours are vibrant, and the animation is extremely fluid and elegant, which is accentuated with the gorgeously exuberant action scenes. These production values are complimented by some excellent artwork. In terms of production values, this adaption manages to one-up even Kara no Kyoukai and Fate/Zero, both of which were groundbreaking in the visuals category (and, if you ask me, most of every other category, but I don't think anybody asked me).

In terms of the series' audio, I felt that, unfortunately, the music was much less prominent than in previous entries of the franchise. It still manages to bring about the spine-tingling sensation in numerous scenes, but in retrospect, it's taken a bit of a backseat. However, the voice work, largely provided by franchise veterans, the vivid sound effects, and the opening and closing themes are all top notch. Mashiro Ayano's "Ideal White" serves as an excitement inducing introduction; "Believe", the ending theme, is yet another great piece by Kalafina and Yuki Kajiura, two of my favourite names in the anime music industry; and LiSA's cover of "This Illusion", which played during the season's concluding minutes, brought about the same hauntingly beautiful and epic sensation as it did the first time I heard the original song.

The Fate franchise, and many of Nasu's works in general, have always enamored me by maintaining a fine equilibrium between its story, lore, characters, action and profundity. Ufotable manages to juggle all this without any sacrifices, a feat which should assuage fans with sour memories of the franchise's past adaptions. Nasu's source material has been brought about and polished, and no single element felt frivolous. This series absolutely delivers on every bit of the hype; of course, this is based solely on the first season, but if the quality, at the very least, remains consistent for the rest of its duration, this will definitely rank high on my all-time favourites. Hell, I have a feeling things are about to get even better with the later plot events, and with this season's conclusion, I'm almost certain that I'm not alone. I have little doubt that previous fans will be pleased, and if this is your first venture into the franchise's rich world, I think you're in for a treat.

Note: This review has been edited from a previous version. read more

(This has been adapted from my reddit thread)

In life, one thing is true for everyone: we all have desires. Wanting to be wealthy beyond imagining, finding the love of one's life, obtaining that dream job; there is always a goal, a wish that seems impossible to reach no matter how hard one tries. Aspirations bring about both the best and the worst in people, due to the very nature of what they bring. And if these wishes do happen to come to fruition, they affect not just the winner, but those closest, too. Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Season One is the beginning of such a literal wish-fulfillment journey.

STORY

The story begins with Emiya, a high school boy who witnesses a strange fight in a nearby courtyard. After being cornered, he somehow summons Saber, a noble woman who calls him Master. Knowingly or not, Emiya officially joins the Holy Grail War.

UBW (the acronym of choice from here on out) sits in a precarious position. It's not technically a sequel and, simultaneously, it is the first half of a two part adventure. As such, it takes the burden of introducing the characters and spearheading the world-building for what is to come. On this end, the anime holds its own. In order for the audience to completely understand what is really going on, it intersperses the battles it is known for with heavy dialogue and exposition. These moments craft the rules involved, the players of the game, the limitations, the terminology, the magic system, etc. A lot of it is mostly shoved towards the viewers because there isn't much time and the anime wants to focus on other aspects (i.e. the fighting).

The anime has a strange habit of allowing many of its characters to live through seemingly impossible situations. This type of behavior is fine if it's done within reason (no huge deus ex machina or logical reasoning exists). However, on numerous occasions, many cast members, and more specifically Shirou, are permitted to fight another day. Often times, the answer is frivolous: "this was fun, let's do it again," "you were entertaining, so leave," "I can't kill on merit, so walk." The idea is obviously not to eliminate the characters so early, since they play roles later on down the line. But without proper explanations backing their escape, the effect is lost, and it becomes an eye-roll as time and again the battles involved amount to nothing more than pomp and flash.

Beyond the world-building, past the fighting, UBW's core ideals are, in a phrase, less than ideal. Again, it's difficult: the anime is juggling multiple different facets at once, all within what is the first half. Essentially, the show looks at the idea of whether it is possible to fight for pure justice, and what that ultimately entails. What is justice to one person may be defined separately by another. How much of it is considered enough in a given situation? Who delivers the final judgement? These kinds of questions are, sadly, not looked at in-depth within UBW. It begins to present the idea, having two upholders of such morals against one another, but isn't explored enough to warrant it a conversational topic. Because, per usual, the fighting takes the spotlight, preventing any form of thematic merit.

ANIMATION

The art and animation within UBW is some of the best in the business.

Starting with the art, the scenic backdrops and amount of detail found within them are usually breathtaking. Bustling cities, panoramic bridge shots, populated parks, and eerie cemeteries are just a sampling of the beautiful art pieces that the anime dishes out.

The character designs are distinct in their lack of facial detail. This seems strange, considering what the art itself has to offer. But this is done for a reason; it provides an accentuating difference between the characters' faces and the outfits they wear. Saber's blue regalia, Rin's red and black mage attire, Archer's trench coat, Emiya's scarf, and Illya's purple winter clothes appear simple in nature, but provide each character with an iconic look that makes them memorable outside of the show.

The actual animation does not falter. UBW contains, without a doubt, some of the best, most well-choreographed fight scenes in all of anime. And it should, considering how much attention it is given. The battles are incredibly detailed, with flying swords, dazzling effects, and a superb amount of variation between the duels. One can feel the immense power that the Servants have, and it is always a spectacle to watch on-screen. Outside of the battles, the show maintains an above average amount of quality. Characters move naturally and small details like the reflection of water, nuanced hair movements, and the 3D enemies bring about more of the animation that has made ufotable famous.

CHARACTERS

As a shounen and "battle royale," the cast involved is large, with the more important among them garnering the most screen time. Reiterating myself, it is important to remember that this just the beginning of what UBW supposedly has to offer.

The most famous of Servants, Saber is a regal woman of nobility and honor. Fair in beauty, strong of will, and unrivaled in combat, she is considered by many to be the best subordinate any Master could hold. Like the other Servants, her past and namesake are shrouded in mystery, but it's unquestionable that her convictions take the form of exacting justice on the evil and bringing hope to the weak. Emiya is her Master, and their personalities fall in line hand-in-hand. She trusts him and he trusts her, bringing about a duo that, no matter the circumstances, have a bond that cannot be severed.

Speaking of Emiya, he is a high school teenager who was saved by a man named Kiritsugu ten years prior to the events. Level-headed and kind, he seemingly cannot deny helping those in need, regardless of their moral status. His status as Master is considered odd. Having only the ability to strengthen objects, one of the lowest forms of magic, he can do little besides lean on Saber and her insane abilities. It's an interesting dynamic, because the one who wants to be the savior, the justice bringer, must first be helped and supported himself. And not just by Saber, too. No, a lot of aid is provided to him by a certain "tsundere."

Arguably the fan favorite of UBW, Rin is a high school girl who descends from a family of magic wielders. Having lost her father and mother, she has trained rigorously for the day the Holy Grail War would come about once more. Extremely playful yet easily embarrassed, she takes pride in not only her magic but also in her ability to manipulate Emiya so easily. Where Emiya wants nothing to do with the War but save others from it, Rin's reasons are more apt: she's in it to win it. She may put up a front, but it's only because she can't bear to lose anything precious to her any longer.

Archer is Rin's Servant. Among the whole cast, he is the most interesting of them all. Seemingly devoid of emotion, he utilizes swords instead of arrows to inflict damage to his foes. His personality is mirrored with Rin's: calm, unapproachable, and chiding. While he follows his Master's orders, he freely speaks his mind. More often than not, he clashes with Emiya, who holds contrasting beliefs. Like a typical bowman, he usually sits on the sidelines, always watching and listening, until he is ready to "fire."

These characterizations have somewhat shown a small connection: the Master's involved summon their initial Servant that best pertains to who they are as a person. Emiya has the kind and determined Saber, whereas Rin has the standoffish and direct Archer. But what of the others? Berserker's Master is menacing and cruel, Caster's goes about its business as she does, and Rider's is every bit as deranged as she is. It's as if each person's characteristics have manifested themselves in spirit form, with the ultimate victor proving just what type of human is deserving to win it all.

SOUND

The OP is good. It contains a good mix of guitar and violin, with a nice set of vocals. The falling piano playing, catchy beat, and lyrics make it great to listen to both in and out of the anime.

As for the ED, it starts off with an eerie vocal piece. What follows is very float-y instrument playing and singing that seems to invoke hope within the listener. After the halfway mark, the drums and beat do the singer little justice.

The soundtrack is a mixed bag. It is filled with mysterious arrangements for the more "hidden" scenes and acoustic guitar playing for the more relaxed ones. Guitar pieces fill the more "cool" moments, with the battles containing intense choir-like singing. As a final note, the sound effects provided are unique and add further to the overall experience.

Voice-acting wise, everyone involved gave average to above average performances. A special shout-out to Saber, voiced by Ayako Kawasumi, who continues to reprise her role as the top Servant, with the gracefulness and emotion needed during all the right moments.

ENJOYMENT

The reason you, I, or anyone else watches this anime is for the battles. The awesome, killer, amazingly detailed fights that exist at a regular interval from start to finish. I wanted there to be that next fight when the characters were sitting around talking. I wanted to see Saber's Noble Phantasm, watch Berserker crush all matter before him, and view Caster's incredible witchcraft. The fights are the highlight, and they were delivered tenfold.

During the downtime, the skirmishes gave way to talking and world-building. While it was fun to see Rin and Emiya converse, or see Saber acting as her refined yet curious self, my inner conscious was saying, "Let's get back to those fights, now shall we?" Both aspects are done well on their own, but when you are comparing the two within their own show, you really want them to ignore everything else, even if it is technically important.

For now, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Season One contains an okay story, a starting set of characters, and insanely high production value. It's actually very reminiscent of Fate/Zero's first half. The popularity of the anime and the universe it depicts is immense, but this one is still far from a masterpiece. Hopefully the second half, like the prequel before it, can pick up the remaining pieces.

SUMMARY

Story: Fine, nice world-building, too many conveniences, unrefined ideals

Animation: Great, stellar across the board

Characters: Good, Emiya and Rin begin their journey, with the Servants being more than just spirits

Sound: Good, good OP, okay ED, okay soundtrack, good VA work

Enjoyment: Good, all about the battles

Final Score: 7/10 read more

As a note, I have not read/played any of the Type Moon visual novels from which this anime is based. I did however find Fate/Zero to be excellent. Coming off of Fate/Zero I was completely pumped to jump right back into the world in Fate/Stay Night. After watching the entire first season I have to say that I'm slightly disappointed.

Story: 6
The story itself is relatively generic as a battle-royale for the holy grail, but is made more complex by the interesting heroes that are summoned to fight and their interactions with their masters. This season however was quite boring. There were not nearly enough fights or interesting story elements to justify the amount of downright dull scenes of Shirou at school or at home.

Art: 9
Ufotable sure didn't skimp out on the animation for this show. Backgrounds are beautiful and character animations are solid. Fight scenes are magnificent, but too few and far between to completely showcase the animation at its finest.

Sound: 8
Sound effects are great and the Japanese voice-over is well done. Hideyuki Fukasawa's soundtrack is a bit lackluster in my opinion and lacks some of the impact that Yuki Kajiura's Fate/Zero soundtrack had, and while it certainly never detracts form the show, it isn't anything special.

Characters: 4
This is where I was truly disappointed. Shirou is one of the least interesting main characters that I've seen in an anime. While his back-story is interesting enough to make you slightly sympathetic, his idiotic ideals and brash ignorance make him incredibly boring. Equally disappointing is Saber's portrayal. While she was characterized as a complex and tragic king striving to attain the grail in F/Z, In F/SN she is now a straight-up robot with hardly any personality. Archer and Rin can be fun to watch in comparison, but neither accomplish anything in this season. The show really wants you to care about Rin and Shirou's alliance so it hardly focuses on anything else happening with the other servants. I understand that development of the other servants/masters will come with the 2nd season, but that doesn't excuse the fact that they were nearly non-existent this season.

Enjoyment: 7
My enjoyment of this show mostly came with it being a sequel to Fate/Zero and getting to see what happens after the events of F/Z. Though the characters are boring thus far, I do have hope that they will develop more throughout the 2nd season which I am greatly looking forward to. I just wasn't as attached to the show by the end of this season as I was at this point in F/Z.

Overall: 7
It's fine, but not spectacular. Can't wait for things to pick up in season 2. read more

Okay, So before I review the 1st half of this season,
I like to state that I'm not really familiar about this franchise that much to my knowledge, so this is literally my first time watching this series from this point on along with episode 0 so keep that in mind.

I've heard most people talk about this show during its airing so I decided to give it a shot.

The show starts off well enough given us introduction to the main characters including the plot about the holy grail having the power to grant any 1 wish to the master along with their servant in defeating the other 7 masters and their own servant.

In this 1st half of the show we follow our 4 main characters Rin, Archer, Shirou and Saber.
However I found this to be a problem, The main 4 characters
(well Mainly Rin and Shirou) I not saying these 2 characters are bad but their own depiction of their own personality were kinda boring and very tedious for the most part.

They pretty much have this generic chemistry between them that seems just like any other ordinary teenage couple set up like in any other anime show along the lines of a typical teen romance that has been done SO many times! which leaves me for the most part disinterested with their progression unfortunately,

Especially Shirou who seems to be quite a decent person at heart, willing to learn about magic involved in this series known as mana which is something a master must use in order to control and support their fellow servant in order to win the battle or survive. With Shirou that is just it, there is NO real unique trait upon viewing his character with this (''I'm a good guy'', I'm a hero nonsense) To me it just came off as being uninteresting and 1 dimensional for the rest of the time I was watching him on screen along with Rin also, since they both seem damaged from what happened in their past or something oh buuhoo. The process to this just seems too familiar.

The supporting cast as much as I like their character designs, they also don't really get thoroughly flushed out either which for me is a downer and its by far the weakest aspect of the 1st season I believe so far, It could of shown some knowledge and background about them rather than just
leaning towards Rin X Shirou.

But then you have both the other 2 main characters Archer and Saber that seem to hold a more depth to them and unlike the other 2, they at least show SOME interest to their personality and their character. but the sad thing is, it kinda feels overshadowed by Rin and Shirou at this point of the series which honestly didn't leave me with a good impression on the characters as a whole.

I commend the anime for having a fantastic high budget animation with great fight scenes that were pulled off amazingly in this And I tell you It looks stunning!!. The fights with the master and servants in this are just jaw-dropping and very detailed.

The music is pretty decent also for the most part, but can be quite forgettable to me at times. I also enjoyed the scenery a lot in this show displaying different locations that looked really beautiful from up close and far away.

But as much as I love the story, plot, animation and some of its soundtracks I found few of the main leads Rin and Shirou to be just tedious despite what was going on in the episodes I was watching even if there were signs of possible foreshadowing to the 2nd half of this anime it still could of used better characterisation.

The ending cliffhanger to the second half looks interesting, almost like the series will get a lot better since it generally feels like a set up and I cannot wait so hopefully it will give me some better enjoyment with the cast all round.

Overall The 1st half of this will be is a well deserve 7 out of 10 read more