Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works

With the second cour of Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works upon us, I thought now to be a good time to reflect on the first half. Note that this review is strictly about the first cour, hence the second season will have no bearing on this review.

Fate/Stay Night’s story is centred around Shiro Emiya and Rin Tohsaka, two high school students and participants in the Holy Grail War, a battle-royale for an ancient artefact that can grant any wish. In this war, there are seven teams of mages and servants with their own agendas, abilities and desires. However, the core of the story lies not ... in the wishes of the masters, but the journey. The story has a variety of twists and turns, and moves along at a relatively slow pace for an action series, but this works in the favour of the battles because when they do occur, they always have purpose. This half is concerned primarily with building up the world and characters, so much of this half is shrouded in mystery, but there is still sufficient intrigue, depth and nuance to make this story riveting, provided the audience is patient. The tone of the series is handled expertly, with the slice-of-life scenes flowing naturally into the more intense, dangerous sequences thanks to sufficient build-up.

The characters in Fate/Stay Night are some of the most interesting to have come out of the fantasy genre in recent years. Shiro, the protagonist, is displayed as a good-natured, kind and selfless boy on the surface, like many shounen protagonists, though his behaviour effectively to underpin his ideal: only through sacrificing one’s self for others can one attain happiness and meaning. This ideology, heavily inherited from Kiritsugu, his guardian and role-model whom Shiro strides to one day become. These beliefs are juxtaposed by Archer’s highly utilitarian attitude, as he is more interested in long-term victory than short-term casualties. The struggle between Archer and Shiro is perhaps the defining aspect of this series, and is certainly a large part of Rin’s character.

Rin is ultimately the most conflicted individual in the series, as she must decide whether she is willing to kill and betray to win the war, like her servant, or whether she should try to win within the parameters of her ethics, like Shiro. Multiple factors play into her decision, as her ancestors would want her to be victorious regardless of the cost, yet she herself has strong morals, having lost her entire family when she was young. Due to the multitude of conflicting values she must choose between, she may come across as inconsistent if her actions are viewed out of context, though her actions are always given sufficient justification to prevent her from seeming schizophrenic. The supporting characters are fantastic, with the elegant Saber, the mysterious Illya and the scheming Caster being the most notable. Though not all the supporting characters are given too much depth in this first half, their mannerisms, voice-performances and character designs give them a strong sense of identity and individuality. Whether it be in a battle or conversation, no characters are interchangeable, and all of them mange to successfully stand out.


Aesthetically, Fate/ Stay Night is nearly flawless. The backgrounds are consistently detailed, enriched with gorgeous CGI and lighting. There is considerable diversity in the backgrounds, ranging from cold, dark graveyards to lush forests in the afternoon sun, gives the viewer a sense of scope and time. The character designs by Takashi Takeuchi, as was mentioned earlier, are memorable, unique and varied. The characters’ eyes are particularly noticeable, as they are both beautiful and reflect the character’s nature, be it Kuzuki or Archer’s cold professionalism or Shiro and Rin’s youthful naivety. In a few cases, characters smartly have their eyes concealed, giving them a sense of mystique and grandeur. The strong production values in the characters and backgrounds work well together, complementing one another instead of standing apart, and the choreography gives the viewer a sense of the distance between the characters and their direction. All of these aspects come together effectively in the stunning action sequences, which vary both in terms of colour palette and thematic tone. Episodes 3, 7 and 10 particularly stand out. Some minor artistic chinks exist in the form of the CGI monsters, though one could argue that this gives them an otherworldly presence, much like the demons in the third Berserk Movie.

The action and world are also well realised in the sound design. Every sword swing, blast of energy or punch carries appropriate weight, without seeming repetitive, melodramatic or inconsequential. From the harsh BOOM of Berserker’s club to the hollow whistle or Lancer’s spear, Ufotable seems to have a vast library of sound effects and the knowledge to masterfully apply them. The soundtrack, unfortunately, isn’t mixed into the world quite as well. The OST itself, composed by Hideyuki Furasawa, sounds fresh and exciting when listened to by itself, reminiscent of some of John William’s work, but is often too quiet, or absent, to be noticeable in the series itself. However, in the fight scenes the soundtrack does manage to reach its potential, and episodes 0, 3, 7 and 10 exemplify this. The voice acting is stellar, with Caster, Illya and Archer in particular delivering scene stealing performances and nearly every other character making the character their own, acting out their roles with familiarity and understanding.

On the whole, Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works Season 1 is an outstanding fantasy action series. It has a deliberately paced story that always knows where it wants to go and how to get there and has a striking cast of characters with huge variation and diversity in ideals and behaviour. The visuals are outstanding, assisted by professional choreography and unique designs, in spite of the occasional misstep, and the sound design is just as good, despite a slightly underused soundtrack. This first season is a strong set-up that doesn’t side-line its characters for action or devolve into an aimless high school drama; it establishes a unique tone and pace, and I could not be more excited for the second season.

One of the best anime of 2014 with breathtaking animation and a captivating plot: Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works.

Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works is definitely one of the best anime I have ever seen. I'm sort of a newcomer to the Fate Series and it was just excellent.
Ufotable has exceeded all expectation and clearly put a lot of time and effort making the beautiful atmosphere the show creates. No other anime can compare when it comes to animation and artwork. The soundtrack is also amazing, especially the final ending song, "This Illusion" Remix by LiSa. The Characters have a great amount of development and ... you truly fall in love with them. The story is truly something amazing, I can't really describe it. Overall I think the show is very enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone! It is probably the best anime of 2014 and anyone can get into it!

If you enjoyed Fate Zero, definitely watch this. It is the fifth holy grail war and it involves the children of Fate Zero

Anyways as a casual anime viewer, this may not be the most in-depth review but I can tell you that anybody can enjoy this show and it is one of the most mindblowing anime I have ever seen.

Just watch it :) You won't regret it

Oh well, long time no review! It's been a while since I last wrote a review but I guess I'm back in business.

If you plan to watch F/SN UBW, I assume you've already watched F/SN and know what this is all about. However, if you haven't, I recommend that you watch it first. After that, you have to watch Fate/Zero because it explains some things left in the shadow in F/SN and of course because it's 10 times better that its sequel. Oh, and if you didn't already know, UBW it's not a sequel to any of the series. It's just an alternative route of ... the F/SN. Now, given all these explanations I can properly begin my review.

Story: 10/10
Even though 95% percent of those who read this know what the Fate francise is about. I'll make a short summary anyway for the 5% who don't. Seven masters summon seven servants to help them fight in the 5th Holy Grail War to win the Holy Grail which grants the winner any wish. The main character, Emiya Shirou is a teenager who doesn't know anything about the war and during the series still tries to figure out what his magical power are. Luckily, he meets Rin Tohsaka who helps him during the war and saves his life several times.

The reason why I rated the story 10 is because no matter what route of F/SN I'm watching, the story is always interesting and catches my attention from the very first episode. Even though I've watched SN I'm still excited to see how UBW is going to end and how the relationships between the characters are going to evolve. Fate has this ability to make my keep my interest even if I know what is going to happen.

I"ll also make a comparison between SN and UBW regarding the story. This time, the plot is focused more on Rin Tohsaka and her servant, Archer. Of course, Shirou and Saber play a huge role, but so do Rin and Archer. Despite small differences here and there, things go quite the same way as they do in SN. And I'll stop here because I don't want to give any spoilers.

Character: 8/10
Now this is my favourite part because I finally get to some criticism. One of the weak points of Fate is Emiya Shirou. He is the typical character who doesn't know what is going on around him. He is weak, but still manages to beat the others. He is too naive and believes in some childish ideals snd most important, he acts bravely, gets himself injured and also puts Saber at risk. Maybe I'm a little too subjective but I've never likes these kind of characters especially when they are the main ones. During the whole series he messes things up but in the end he awakens that power in him and poof... wins the war.

As I said before, Rin Tohsaka is more important in this route, so her relationship with Shirou is also given more attention. That is one big difference from SN where in the center of attention was Saber.

Character development? Well, yeah...I won't deny that. But there is still season 2 to come out so I'll wait and see how things go.

Art & Sound: 10/10
When it comes to art, Fate never disappoints. When SN first came out in 2006 the art was not impressive but as the Frncise continued in 2011 and 2012 with Fate/Zero, everything improved and now the visual effects are simply awesome. Although the characters are not rich in details; their faces are simple but beautiful, the background views or the fight scenes are completely flawless. An amazing art + very good audio so I don't have anything to say about this.

Enjoyment: 9/10
Yep, Fate keeps you captivated for the entire series. Let's see: action, funny moments, romantic scenes, dramatical life stories, heartbreaking feelings, suspense... all checked! Both SN and UBW create a magical world with different types of characters and an unforgettable story.

Overall: 9/10
I gave it a 9 because I gave SN 8 and Zero 10. UBW is deffinately better than SN but still can't be compared to Fate/Zero which takes the Holy Grail War to a whole new level of awesomeness. This season was more than ok and what can I say, I'm patiently waiting for the second season to come out in April.

Second Note: My score is for the entire series not just season 2 or 1.

The fate franchise is a vast amount of information expanding multiple shows, movies, books, manga, and short stories. There is definitely a lot to take in for a new comer to the franchise. So first I would like to say that if you are going to start anywhere you should read the visual novel of fate/stay night first. Granted if you don’t want to do that then this anime is your next best thing. After finishing Fate Stay Night UBW it would be a good idea to watch Fate/Zero. I wouldn’t ... recommend watching Fate/Zero first because it does spoil some things for this anime and the upcoming Heaven’s Feel movie. So here is an order for you Visual Novel or UBW -> Heaven’s Feel Movie -> Fate Zero and if you want to be completions then you can watch Deens adaption of the Fate/Stay Night anywhere in the above order. Now here is the review.

Story: Fate/Stay Night’s story follows the life of an amateur magus and our protagonist Shirou Emiya. His participation in the Holy Grail War is the main focus for our story. The Holy Grail War is currently taking place in Shirou’s home town Fuyuki City. During the Holy Grail War seven magus known as masters are aided by seven beings known as servants which are the reincarnation of legendary heroes from the past, present and future. During the war it is the goal of each Master Servant pair to kill the other Masters and take possession of the Holy Grail and have their wish granted. During the Fifth Holy Grail war our protagonist is the master of the servant named Saber. One of the main themes of the story is Shirou’s wish to save everyone and become known as a hero of justice. Throughout the story Shirou’s ideals are tested and brought to question. So I don’t spoil anything I will stop here with the synopsis of the story. Now the first two episodes (0 and 1) are mostly info dumps on who is participating in the War and what the rules of the war are. Both episodes may seem to drag on for new comers and overall it might have been a better idea for them to spread out the information instead of just shoving it all into a few episodes.

In the first half of the show the story is paced rather well and I don’t have very many complaints with how it was written. I do feel some characters that have larger roles in the second half should have been given more screen time and more development. One such character is Rin the primary love interest of Shriou in this anime. For a primary love interest I feel she plays a rather small role in the first half and isn’t fully given enough time to develop. Her Tsundere personality is fine in the first half but as the relationship grows the personality is never really turned down and this makes the relationship feel a bit awkward overall. The relationship at one point will be very romantic and then at the next point Rin will be hitting Shirou over the head with a pillow.

There are also a few servants that could have been given some more development as well along with our main antagonist who up until the second half really isn’t given much screen time at all. I would go into more details but I feel I will be spoiling some things. Now, if you are wondering if it’s a good adaption of the visual novel I would have to say its ok. There are quite a few things that get cut out but overall it is better than any other adaption out there at this time. Ufotable also throws in some extra stuff that really isn’t needed in place of cannon material. One character in particular has her entire backstory replaced. I think the new backstory is ok and gives the audience a gist of what kind of character she is but in my opinion it isn’t as good as the original backstory. During the second
half I fell the pace picks up a bit too quickly. Things that should have taken a few episodes to develop are instead crammed into only one episode. Personally I feel this makes it a bit jarring overall. The pacing of the second half starts off fast but it does even out at times as well. This does make it feel like some content is sacrificed as well. It is also one of the main reasons the romantic relationship feels awkward at times and why some characters are given very little time to develop.

The final issue I have with the story occurs in season 2. There is a scene that occurs later in this season that completely breaks cannon and overall doesn’t make a lot of sense. Basically, the whole idea of how magic is inherited from person to person is disregarded during this scene. Really it was one of few problems I had with how Ufotable adapted the story of UBW.


Animation: There are only a few series that are animated as well or better then Fate/Stay Night UBW. There really isn’t much else to say other than. There are a few animated faces that do look a bit weird at times but overall the animation is rather fluid especially during the battle scenes. Really if you decided not to watch this show for the story watching it for the animation and sound is probably enough to entertain most viewers. There are some CG scenes which I feel are rather well done but some people may feel they detract from the story. I personally think the CG makes the scenes in question feel more surreal.

Sound: The sound is also great. I feel every track works well with both the show and even as standalone pieces. During the battle scenes the sound really helps bring out the intensity of the fighting. During the emotional scenes it sets the mood perfectly. There is one exception. During episode 13 there is a rather emotional scene that wasn’t given any sound at all during the broadcast (this may be fixed on the BD release) It really makes the scene seem less impactful the what it really is. Outside of the OST the voice acting is also superb. Every character’s voice fits their personality to a T.

Characters: As mentioned above some characters really aren’t given as much screen time as they needed or deserve. I have already talked about our main heroine RIn above but now I will discuss some of the other characters.

Shirou: I feel it’s hard to talk about him without mentioning the fact that in the VN most of his dialogue is internal monologues. This I do feel detracts from his character and makes him seem less interesting and some may not feel emotionally invested in his character. But, if Ufotable had gave him more inner monologues the show would have been much longer. Shirou for the most part is displayed as a man who wants to save everyone no matter the cost even if it’s his own life. He will go out of his way to save his friends and thinks about other before himself. To some this seems childish. This anime is mainly about Shriou facing his ideals and developing them over the course of the anime.

Saber: Saber is a fan favorite and a flagship character for the Type Moon franchise. Granted in this route she takes a back seat at times for other characters. I think her character does suffer a bit because of this. She is a strong willed individual and I don’t feel that is displayed as good as it could have been. In fact compared to the Saber in Fate/Zero this one seems a bit more on the cute side and her personality takes a similar turn. Ufotable took the strong willed Saber that many fans of Fate/Zero and the Fate VN and made her into a passive observer in some cases. I do think at times this can be overlooked because UBW is Shirou’s story and not Sabers. Saber still does play a part though as parts of some episodes do focus on her past and her wish as well. Saber unlike Shirou regrets her past and wants to change it and by the end of UBW this plot thread is given a satisfying conclusion.

Archer: Archer’s personality is the polar opposite of Shirou. He’s cynical and believes that everything Shirou think is wrong and childish. Archer does get a good amount of development and backstory. Throughout the series Archer is usually the person who Shirou is combating his ideals with. I think Archer is a very well written character and does a good job at playing the opposite side to Shirou’s ideals of saving everyone.

Enjoyment: Even though I have played the Vn for all of its faults I still think Fate/Stay Night UBW is one of the best anime to come out this year. Its story is engaging and its animation and music is breathtaking as well. While is characters do suffer from a lack of characterization at times I feel it is a very good adaption to an excellent visual novel and would recommend it to any fan of the medium.


Score (calculated based on Story, Animation, Sound, and Characters) 8.25/10

Treading on the dark abyss can be an enormous task to take. It is a never-ending ride that can only be described in the most torturous terminology. This abyss that I am telling formed around 2006 by the name of Fate Stay Night. Not the visual novel, mind you, but the adaptation of one of the routes contained in it. It is called an abyss because it was hated by almost everybody and their mother with its boring and mind-numbingly boring presentation. All it would take to rationalize the problem is to realize that Type-Moon was lazy with giving its adaptation in the hands of ... a studio that probably didn’t have the authenticity it needed to showcase the grand scale of the Fate series. It only took Type-Moon nearly ten years to revitalize this by going on a different route with Unlimited Blade Works.

This might be controversial, but with the usual reaction by many who follow this franchise, this next iteration in the Fate series anime franchise is my favorite. Mind you. I am someone who had not touched any of the visual novels when I watched the anime. I’m making this statement based on how my experience is going through all of the anime, so no nitpicking adaptation problems from me. How Unlimited Blade Works manages to succeed in being the best one simply from how the scale of its setting and story is structured in a way where it can quickly focus on the pacing of the story and characters better. It doesn’t have the most significant issue of Fate Zero, where the scale of the setting was too big for the small amount of time it had to develop the characters. Not to say there is a lot of development in Unlimited Blade Works, as ufotable has realized that these characters have been poised into our consciousness from many Fate iterations that it’s almost pointless to do so. Some decent character moments involve the development, particularly with Archer, which I will get to later.

Instead of Saber being the main girl with Shirou back in the original Fate Stay Night, we have Rin Tohsaka filling in for that role in this one. As someone who’s always thought of Saber as a bland heroine in how they portray her in the anime, having Rin as the main focus was a breath of fresh air. Yes, she is your prototypical tsundere character falling for the main protagonist, Shirou. Still, she does manage to hold on her own as a capable character who offers more than the trope that she possesses. Shirou has always been a hit-or-miss character, but mostly a miss for many people. Fortunately, he is not as dim-witted and unlikable as in the original Fate Stay Night, even though he still is in short bursts in Unlimited Blade Works. The rest of the human characters, such as Kirei, Shinji, Kiritsugu, and Illyasvi, are all of the same quality. They have their range of pros and cons but with nothing of exceptional value to this season in particular.

I have never been interested in the actual lore of the Fate series. It is the hero characters being spiritual manifestations of past famous and infamous historical figures never clicked with me as being anything groundbreaking in the slightest. That said, Unlimited Blade Works was the first season that piqued my interest in it when it started to tell the backstory of Archer’s past life. It is explained in a somber manner and with an incredible impact on our main characters that will easily make you want to digest more of what will happen next as it paces itself forward. It is disappointing that the other heroes don’t get the same treatment as Archer and make them feel static in comparison. It makes sense from a visual novel perspective since a route only focuses on individual characters. But in anime, it feels jarring at times. However, it’s not jarring to take in from Unlimited Blade Works' perspective.

Once again, ufotable never fails to impress the fans and community by giving them a visual treat to splendor upon. If there is one thing, they succeed in pleasing everyone. If you have seen Fate Zero before going into Unlimited Blade Works, nothing has changed dramatically from their original art design and CGI. Nevertheless, that isn’t to say it is a disappointing factor since it is always more than welcome to grace us with its visual grandeur, even with no change whatsoever. The fighting scenes are just as amazing to watch as it was with Fate Zero, with the nifty camera angles following the movement of the characters and the lovely sound design of the spells being cast and swords clashing with each other. It's almost necessary to watch this on the highest quality stream or buy the Blu-Ray set to watch them at their maximum quality.

Everyone has a solid attachment to the series, and it can be a polarizing experience for some who’ve come to know the visual novels by heart. Me being one who does not fall into this category, as I’ve mentioned before, I realize that my voice might be viewed as limiting by some. I can only express how I felt going through Unlimited Blade Works as my favorite of the series. It is a nice fun ride that I hope will continue with whatever next iteration of the Fate franchise that Type-Moon is willing to whore out for pennies. Maybe it’ll be the final route of Fate Stay Night that they’ll finally do, and that will be the end of it, who knows. But that will likely not be the case, as sad as that can be.

Grade: A-

This anime, Fate/stay night unlimited blade works it's a remake of Fate/stay night with some changes, if you saw the movie "Fate/stay night Unlimited blade works" then you will now what the anime Fate ubw(unlimited blade works) is about xD.

Well the plot is the same, they just change some things in the story. Both are good so i advise you to watch both Fate/stay night and Fate/stay night unlimited blade works.


So basically, there is a competition between seven mages to get the "Sant Graal", a wish maker. It can make every single wish possible. For that, those mages summons seven servants to ... fight for them. Only one servant and one mage can survive. The servants are heroes from the past and that's why they are so strong.


I found this plot very interesting and is development also nice. Although personally fate zero has a better development then this one, but let's just focus on Fate ubw.

The art is the best thing i've ever saw in anime. The detail in the fights is so deep that make them epic, plus the nice soundtrack makes a really good action and will make you fill hooked for more.

The character design, to match up with the detail in the action, is also perfect. The glow that the characters have is unique and really nice for our eyes .. just by looking at their eyes we see how well made this anime is. We couldn´t expect less from Ufotable .. the company responsible for this anime.

We have many themes to look at, some are really well explored, others aren´t so well made but in general, all look great.

We have everything on this show ... the nice romance that we all love in some way, the action that for it self makes this anime a "god" in design and it has nice character develoment.


I recommend this show for everyone .. since it's a piece of art that has to be seen by everyone that calls himself an anime viewer

Having watched Fate/Zero (In my top 5 anime) I then watched FSN Unlimited Bladeworks the sequel to it and felt I should do a review having seen both.I am going to be comparing FSN UBW with Fate/Zero to some extent.

Story 9/10 - The story is pretty much the same as Fate/Zero as it revolves around a war over the Holy Grail in Fuyuki city with 7 Masters/Mages summoning a Heroic Spirit to do their bidding, however this time with different Masters and different Heroic Spirits (apart from 2 *wink*). I think this whole concept is brilliant as it allows for there to be many twists ... and turns due to the many rules of the Grail War, the fact that some people can break them and how it revolves around seven individuals and only one can win.This brings out the true darkness in some characters and shows how far they are willing to go to win. This is portrayed very well in the series but I feel they should have got more to the point in the first two eps and sometimes there are pointless scenes which do not add to the plot. Also the main characters spend a lot of time in high school but thankfully the show does not revolve too much around school life like every other anime.

Art 11/10 - 2 words. FUCKING AMAZING! Fate/Zero's animation was flawless and FSN UBW takes it up a notch to pretty much perfection. The art of this show really is the main selling point and I would give £100 to anyone who found a point where the animation was really derpy. The action scenes were so crisp with vibrant colours and silky smooth animation that really was a feast for the eye and I truly found myself immersed in these irresistible fight scenes. The choreography of the fight scenes was also stunning and I often found myself mesmerised while watching. The art outside the fight scenes keeps the same quality as the environment and characters look flawless. One really nit picky thing is that I find the design of the character's noses kinda weird.

Sound 7/10 - In Fate/Zero the sound was so well done with majestic badass choirs singing in the background with the occasional funky rock, whether it be a monologue, inner thought or an intense fight and it emphasised these moments with great effect as it made every action or event done feel like it had some great righteousness to it. The music in FSN UBW is a lot less potent and to be honest it really isn't that noticeable which is a shame. Even the opening and Ending songs aren't memorable and this is a real shame as the music is meant to make the whole occasion feel 'holy' as it is a war for the Holy Grail but this time is doesn't do that but merely just fits in with the scene. There were a few noticeable moments where the music sort of shined (When Archer charges up and fires a powerful arrow) but apart from that it didn't have much affect.

Character 8/10 - The story focuses around Emiya Shirou and Tohsaka Rin and their servants Saber and Archer. Rin is an experienced mage who has had her abilities passed down her family line. She is strong, capable, calculating and doesn't take any nonsense from anyone which was made clear in the first ep and I liked that. She does become quite shy around around the two males Archer and Shirou which is understandable as Rin is a tsundere towards Shirou as they sorta have a thing going on and Archer is a handsome man (no homo, actually full homo he is hot stuff). Shirou is quite a laid back guy on the other hand and is very selfless and altruistic. He is quite a simple guy and this has some comedic effect as he becomes caught up in the Grail War. He is very altruistic and this makes him weak at times as people take advantage of him. He too is shy around the females he knows for the same reasons as Rin (Saber is hawt). The other Heroic Spirits all have distinct personalities and this creates interesting dialogue between them as they force their ideals on each other as well as opposing Masters. The dialogue is less complex than Fate/Zero's but is always intriguing and captivating adding maturity to the show.

However the constant dialogue between Rin and Shirou can become quite stale at times as they talk and then Rin turns into TsunderRIN and Shirou likewise, or Rin has to explain something to him or ask him to express his emotions. This brings me to another point, there has not been enough screen time for the other Masters. What made Fate/Zero so interesting was seeing the story from all sides of the battle and not presenting us with a main character. I don't mind the fact that main characters have been set, but the other masters need more screentime. Also the side characters seemingly have no importance to the plot and are just 'there' for the sake of it.

Enjoyment 10/10 - Despite the negatives I've, I have enjoyed the hell out of this show. The fight scenes, the thought provoking dialogue and whole setup has been very enjoyable to watch and with the stunning animation to top it off it has been a joy to watch and has kept me on the edge of my seat (mostly). I definitely recommend watching this show and I hope season 2 picks up on some of flaws I have mentioned and hopefully this show can top Fate/Zero

Overall - 9/10

I've only watched Fate/Zero. It's like super epic and stuff and I've never read Fate/stay Night but this is so boring and the characters aren't nearly as good. I'm going to have to give it a 7 because it sucks oh well back to Fairy Tale.






Are they gone? Ok good.


As a journeyman of ALL of Type's Moons works, both in their original forms and their respective adaptions, and with clear understanding of all of Fate/Stay Night including Heavens Feel and Angry Manjew, I can tell you with sincerity that this is an excellent adaption. Most of the complaints I've seen just stem from misunderstandings involving ... Fate's 3 route process; an easily avoidable mistake if you have read the Vn. I understand some people haven't read it and simply don't want to, so I'll break it down. Nice. And. Slow.


Fate/stay night is split into 3 routes; Fate, Unlimited Blade Works and Heavens Feel. Each route has it's own entirely different story arc, character focus and development, and lore information. Some characters die almost instantly upon reveal in some routes, and live to the end to be your favorite in another. Each of the routes rely on each other like puzzle pieces to create a coherent world; Reading Heaven's Feel before the previous two is like closing your eyes in a dark room and wondering where your pants are. So here in lies the problem. The biggest challenge to any adaption of Fate/Stay Night is attempting to present all of this information in one or two cours of anime. It's really only conceivably possible to adapt one at a time, bite off more than you can chew and you end up like Studio thereisnotsukihimeanime Deen; Dead, in the gutter, wondering where your pants are.


As the second route, there is quite a bit of knowledge UBW expects you to already have gained. As a reader, you're already supposed to connect with and understand Saber, because most of her development is primarily in Fate. To someone who's never had that experience, it can seem like UBW is putting a whole lot of stress on a side character for no good reason. Sure you could blame UFOtable for not including all of that info, but as stated above though, it's truly impossible to create one anime for the two routes. If anything, UFOtable did a great job at making this anime accesible by connecting it with Fate/Zero, what with the extra Kiritsugu scenes. If you truly want to point fingers, you're just being a careless audience with no awareness of what you're getting into. If you're a casual watcher, I get that you aren't going to take the time to clue yourself in and that's fine. Enjoy yourself, grab a chair and maybe some lemonade. But if you're attempting to criticize this show for your lack of information you better find your pants sister.


So how do we adapt this correctly? Well, faithfully, which is almost exaclty what UFOtable has done. Sticking to the books in 99% of scenarios, they chose to preserve every character interaction and even the pacing of the novel itself. Slow dinner conversations were saved and the action of the story doesn't overburden and strain the characters. We don't want to end up like a particular thereisnotsukihimeanime movie, now do we? But it really helps that Unlimited Blade Works is a pretty suitable route to adapt. It isn't as simple and introductory as the first route nor as burden of knowledge as the third. It finds a middle ground between the two, revving up the engines compared to Fate with a more intricate narrative, but still a few knotches down from Heaven's Feel. Unlimited Blade Works logically make the best conclusion to Fate/Zero as a show.


And for the content of UBW itself? Well it's really hard to point out its virtues without spoiling and getting to the meat of things, but basically it's one scenario of Shirou's ideals and the path he goes with them. Archer virtually shines throughout the whole route as he becomes a fully fleshed character and single-handedly painstakingly creates many memes even though his hands will never hold anything. This is my personal favorite route for Shirou as well because he sees his ideals out to the very end without abandoning them and it pays off. And well, Rin is great!


If you like Rhinos.


Outstanding production values. In the actions sets, every move is articulated with precision and outstanding visual flare which makes the show very easy to watch. There is no obtrusive flailing but rather high speed true combat. But where the visuals exceed the soundtrack droops. It isn't bad, it's just very meh. Where is Trapped Thoughts? And saving This Illusion until the very end? How distasteful.


While it was nice that Fate/Zero was all wrapped in pretty ribbons and crafted to be accessible, it was far from perfect. You kids sure as shit didn't understand what went on inside the grail at the end without reading Heaven's Feel or being informed beforehand.


"Oh but Ginga, I don't waste my time with dumb visual novels for big dumb nerds unlike myself on this website for ANIME. I want my anime dubbed when I stream it!"


Learn to read.

After watching Fate/Zero and enjoying that thoroughly, I have to say I was disappointed by Fate/Stay night UBW.
Story- It's the holy grail war, what else did you expect? Good concept but unlike Fate/zero, while watching this I felt like sleeping most of the time. I didn't expect it to turn into a f***ing cutesy high school drama either. Was too close to a shounen this time.
Art- Same art style, it's good and all characters look fine as usual, but I hated how Shirou looked.
Animation-An especially strong point of the fate series, the animation quality remained great and action scenes were lively as ever.
Sound-Background ost's were ... nice, but the opening and ending were disappointments and did not live up to my expectations(although this is a minor point).
Characters- Why the heck did they transform Rin into a stereotypical anime chick?
Why did I hate Shirou so much? Probably because he was a generic shounen hot-headed "I'll definitely win" character. Nothing could make me feel for Shirou at all.
I wasn't eagerly clicking on "next episode" like I did with Fate/Zero, but I guess I'm used to disappointment in sequels. Whenever I saw Kiritsugu, Saber, or Archer during the series, it was like seeing an old friend. It's a bit "meh" now, but I hope 2nd season saves it.

Warning, this review contains minor spoilers. No specifics are revealed.
The Fate series has a lot of hype surrounding it, with Fate Zero regarded by many as one of the greatest anime ever made, and it was my introduction to the series this past summer. After some encouragement from some friends, I decided to watch Fate Zero, and while it’s not as amazing as some would say, I found it to be a great show. So, I was excited to see Ufotable’s adaptation of Fate Stay Night, so much so that I put it on hold so I could marathon it when the season finished, something ... I blew through in the past two days. So, that leads to the question, was Fate Stay Night able to live up to live up to the hype, or is it just another mediocre show?

Mindset

In order to understand my thoughts on this show, you must understand the perspective I’m coming from. As I saw Fate Zero recently, I view FSN as a sequel to Fate Zero. I know that this show is meant to stand on its own, and as such must explain things that I already know. I will attempt not to hold this against the show, but as I know I am at least somewhat biased by this fact, I felt it was best to make this bias clear.
Also, this is only my review for the first season. I may redo this when the second season comes out, but well, I haven’t so far. So don’t yell at me for failing to take into account some epic scene that occurs there.
So with that out of the way, let’s move onto the story.

Story

I’m pretty sure if you’re reading reviews of the series, you already know the basic premise. Fate tells the story of a Holy Grail War, a death match between 7 mages for the prize of the wish granting Holy Grail. Each of these 7 mages is given a servant, a heroic figure from the past to fight alongside. There’s magic and action, and death, and really everything I ask for in a show.
I will say this much, the story was very gripping. Every time an episode was over, I found myself excited to watch the next one. I did enjoy the mystery of wondering who was who, and what they were all capable of. Another thing that I really like was how they explored what it meant to be a hero of justice. The main character, Shiro is very idealistic, to borrow a term from ThatAnimeSnob’s character video, he’s a Boy Scout character. This really allows him to highlight the themes of the show, contrasting with the death game he’s found himself a part of.
Unfortunately, that’s about all the good I can say about the story. Now, I really wanted to like Fate, the premise is really interesting, I really liked Fate Zero, but there were so many problems with Fate Stay Night. The first main problem I have with the show is its boring introduction. Much of the first couple episodes are showing the main characters just go through their everyday lives. Yes, I know this was to introduce them, but I found it very dull. The information dumps were really boring as well, though I will admit, part of this is because of what I knew from Fate Zero.
The second main problem were number things that didn’t make sense. A good example of this is the magic system, which seems to work in whatever ways are convenient to the plot. Such as Shirou randomly having self-healing magic, quite helpful as it seems he seems to be injured about every other episode. He also ends up just happening to use a type of magic he’d never showed any ability with in the show, right as he needed it to save his life.
There’s also the fact that for a death game, there is surprisingly little death with only one death in the first half of the show. This isn’t for lack of battles either, as it seems like each episode has at least one fight in it. They just normally end with both sides deciding to retreat, wanting to have an honorable fight at a later time or something. If this just happened rarely, then I’d be okay with it, but with it happening all the time, that’s a problem. We have all this build up, but no real payoff. There’s also the fact that in many battles, the fighters are idiots. Typically the mages are weaker than the servants, so it would makes sense to go after them first. So things would go a lot smoother if Archer decided to fire his attacks at Berserker’s master instead of Berserker early on.
And of course, there is also the inconsistent tone of the show. I enjoy comedy, if I can laugh during a show that normally makes it more enjoyable. Unless the comedy doesn’t fit. Fate Stay Night is a serious story about the death game, so this lighter content really doesn’t fit the mood, and this goes even more so for the romantic subplot with Shirou and Ren. Trying to cram a romance into an action shonen type show does not work, as should be obvious after seeing Sword Art Online
So in the end, the story really did have potential, but its slew of problems made it fall so short of what it could have been. I did enjoy it, and really want to see more, but I can’t call the story good.

Characters

I’ve already talked about Shirou some with the themes the show presented, and that really is the highlight of his character. He is very idealistic, naïve even, but this is why I’m drawn to his character. Many of the others have grown up and seen the dark sides of the world, and know that being a simple hero of justice is impossible. But Shirou contrasts this, not being willing to abandon a few to save many, something that stands in stark contrast to his father. He’s very self-sacrificing, not caring about himself if it means helping another. This is very admirable, and makes me want to see him win, even if it seems like he’s the underdog, and really doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation.
Shirou’s servant, Saber was one of the main characters in Fate Zero, and one of my favorite characters from that show. Here we see her and her noble characteristics in wanting to be an honorable warrior, and do her job as a knight to protect Shirou, even if Shirou doesn’t really understand the whole stay out of danger thing. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the same flair, the same convictions as seen before. I still like her character, but more because of who I knew her as before instead of anything she has done here. So far in FSN, she hasn’t gotten much depth or development, or any awesome moments, though that may change in season 2.
There’s also Rin, another one of the masters and a longtime friend of Shirou. She serves in many ways as Shirou’s guide to the Holy Grail War. At times I really like her, she can be very strong, knows what she wants. She can also be easily flustered, which isn’t a bad thing, however there are times she feels like a standard Tsunade, which really is a shame, as I liked her character at the start. Her feelings and actions toward Shirou seem to be all over the place, from caring about him, to trying to kill him, to possibly being in love with him, to anywhere in the middle, and this inconsistency is her biggest flaw.
The last of the notable characters is Archer, Rin’s servant. Archer is a very analytical character, which contrasts well with the hot-headedness of Rin, and Shiriou’s idealistic nature. He does what needs to be done to win, and if it requires sacrificing some innocents to do so, then he’s okay with this. His actions at time also seemed to be inconsistent, though I think there may be some reasons behind this which we will see in season 2.
There are a few other side characters, like Shinji who I really want to punch in the face, Caster, who is in many ways the villain of the show, but there isn’t anything that notable about any of them, or the other characters I haven’t mentioned yet. I do hope we get more development for the rest of the cast when season 2 comes out. One of the things I liked about Fate Zero, is that I could root for most of the teams, to a degree, while here anyone other than Rin and Shirou I don’t care about.
Shirou really is the only highlight character of the show, and I know that a lot of people don’t like him. I really do wish they’d do more with Saber and Rin, as they have a lot of potential. The other masters and servants are quite disappointing as well, though this could be comparing it to what Fate Zero was able to do.

Animation/Sound

The fact that Ufotable is animating Fate Stay Night means that there isn’t much to complain about here. The backgrounds are detailed, using bright lights or the right tone of darkness to highlight the scenes. The actual animation can be lacking at times, especially when it’s just two characters talking, but this is a minor complaint. The battles are done very well from an animation standpoint. Still, there isn’t anything that blew me away animation wise, and while this is a step up from most shows I watch, it isn’t anything amazing.
The soundtrack is good, accenting the battles with epic music, and who doesn’t like epic music? But still, the music is pretty generic, doing its job, but nothing more.
The opening did a great job of pulling me in, I think I watched it about 10 times in a row when I first saw it. However, as I was watching the show itself, I became less impressed with the opening. Still, it was well animated, had a catchy song, and got me hyped for the show, so I can’t ask for much more than that.
While I’m normally not one to criticize Japanese dubs, as I have a hard enough time doing that with English, I did have a small complaint that there were times where Shirou’s voice seemed off, which I think might have been that it sounded like another character the voice actor had done, and after doing some research, I found it was Sasuke from Naruto. A pretty small nitpick, but still one I thought mentioning.

Conclusion

This show really failed to live up to the hype that I and the rest of the community had. There was so much here that they could have done with the premise, but it just fell flat next to its potential. I wanted to like this, I really did, and there were a number of moments that really made me think this was a great show. Of all the season 2’s coming out in 2015, this is definitely the one I’m looking forward to the most. But there are too many problems for me to give this much praise beyond anything more than an entertaining watch.

Pros:
Exciting story
Interesting themes about being a hero
High production values as can be expected from Ufotable

Cons:
Inconsistent tone
Things not making sense
Characters Lack Depth

Scoring

Story: 5/10
Characters: 5.2/10
Animation: 8.5/10
Sound: 7.5/10
Total Score: 5.81/10 (Note that categories are not weighed equally)

To be honest, when I first looked through the list of anime from 2014, I was expecting Fate/stay night to be near the top, if not the run-away favorite for Best Anime from 2014. I mean come on; it’s the not-really-a-sequel to Fate/Zero, one of the greatest anime of all time! It’s going to be just as amazing right!?

Wrong. Fate/stay night pretty much took everything that was amazing and a breath of fresh air from Fate/Zero and turned it back into the generic anime tropes you see in basically every show. You remember how in Fate/Zero, all the characters except for one were actually adults ... and because of this the tone and setting of the story was very mature, leading to one of the most suspenseful and serious anime you’ll ever see? Well now everyone’s in f*cking high school and 90% of the plot happens in f*cking high school! Remember how in Fate/Zero, each and every character was given equal and significant amounts of screen-time, leading to them all receiving great character development resulting in one of the richest cast you’ll ever find in any fictional work? Well kiss that good bye, since now you’ll spend all your screen-time with Generic Nice Guy Harem Protagonist #347 or with Frustrating Tsundere #288. Because that’s what we all want…right?????

None of this helped either by the fact that Type-Moon isn’t very original with their character designs. Making Fate/Zero fans say, “Hey, this is the same as the last one,” every-time a “new” character is introduced in the series. (Yes, I know that technically Fate/stay night came out first, but let me have this one joke damn it!)

Despite all these flaws, there is one saving grace to this show that makes its inclusion as one of the Top 10 or so anime of 2014 absolutely necessary. It has quite possibly the best animation you will EVER see in an anime TV series. Everything looks phenomenal in the show, from the set pieces to, backgrounds, character designs, and the action scenes, oh god the action scenes. They’re so incredible and intense that you’ll need a surgeon on hand in order to screw your jaw back into place after watching the fantastic fights in this show.

I also realize that my own personal enjoyment with this series was heavily influenced by comparing it to Fate/Zero the entire time, and for anyone whose crazy enough to have not watched that masterpiece yet, that won’t be a problem at all. The premise to the show is still great, and is good enough to keep you hooked onto the show even through all the High School BS. There are also some really awesome characters to be found in this show as well, mostly on the Servants side of things with Archer being the stand-out so far. Hell, even our female lead, Rin, can be a cool gal whenever she decides to be competent.

Mix all this in with an all-star voice-acting cast, an amazing opening, and great OST’s you end up with a really good anime. Does it live up to the reputation of Fate/Zero? No, but practically nothing can. Besides being a pretty good anime with some of the greatest action to ever grace the Silver Screen is a great thing to be on it’s on. Plus, we can always hope that the next season will rectify some of these flaws.

I've started watching the fate series since Fate/Zero and so far this has been having pacing issues. So far it seems that nothing has happened except just some character intros and the Main characters investigating other characters. Let's compare this with Fate/Zero where characters already introduced theme selves in 2 episodes and then We get two see how each of them are trying to outdo each other whereas in F/SN we usually see characters doing High School Anime tropes (or just hanging out at shirou's place eating something) for half an episode and the other half sometimes involves fighting.

Yes, there are episodes (like 3 out ... of 8) where the ball gets rolling but then we're always brought to the same stage. Except for episode 1 in fate/zero, every episode was entertaining to some degree; something was always happening whereas in this show the ball rolls but then it reverts back to this. I think these episodes needed to be 45m long because on some episodes hardly anything happens except a clue or something gets found out.

Update: Alright guys things are finally picking up at episode 10 this time around. After the creators of the show sprinkled some story and lore here and there throughout the slow pacing of things, things finally are coming around and we are now getting "dipped" in story instead of just sprinkles since various character are starting to come into light and giving us a glimpse on how they are (character development outside of "slice of life"). I hope this is how it continues now going forward with this series.

Update: The Season finally ended so it's time for my thoughts on it. Overall the season was really slow and slowly paced but it had enough to peak my interest and keep me watching it. I didn't like how the season ended in a cliffhanger though, I like to leave with a satisfying feeling instead of the show popping more questions (their other series F/Z didn't do that). Half of the show was slice of life while the other half was the interesting bit. Coming from F/Z and not liking SoL genre (unless its comedy) at all, the show made me cringe a lot in those SoL moments. Sure F/Z had some moments where they had some SoL but when they did it, they did it well and didn't concentrate too much on it.

Overall the show this season wasn't "IGN 10/10 EPC OMGZ AMAZING" but it was still really good (maybe to Visual Novel fans it might have been). I look forward to watching the rest of the series. I know they aren't going to change their stance on SoL (its like a cash cow and a lot of anime fans that like it) but the interesting bits are still interesting and make me want to watch the series.

The witch is dead the witch is dead
gigamesh died
Gigamesh got rekt
Gilgamesh finally got what he deserved 10/10
all i cared about
I pleasured my self to seeing him die

If you’ve been on the internet in the past six months, then you’ve probably heard of the all-consuming hype machine that is Unlimited Blade Works. While Studio Deen produced a movie adaptation of this route in 2010, it was little more than a glorified clip show, leaving fans of the Fate series hungry for something better. Now, the far more competent Ufotable, fresh from the runaway hit Fate/Zero, have seen it fit to create a brand-new adaptation of Fate/Stay Night’s second route, much to the delight of the anime-watching community. Being a natural-born skeptic, I needed to see for myself whether or not their excitement ... was warranted. But was it?

For all the hype it got, no. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fun ride anyway.

As our story opens, we are introduced to Shiro Emiya, a talentless mage who attends high school in Fuyuki City, Japan. Inspired by his late mentor and father figure, Kiritsugu Emiya, Shiro has devoted his life to becoming a “Hero of Justice” who always puts the needs of others above his own. As such, Shiro is frequently preoccupied helping his classmates with their various problems. However, after witnessing an intense battle outside his school Shiro is attacked and nearly killed by a spear-wielding man called Lancer. However, on the verge of death, Shirou inadvertently summons a beautiful armor-clad woman called Saber, who pledges to protect and serve him. Without knowing it, Shiro has stumbled into the Fifth Holy Grail War, a brutal fight to the death between seven masters and their seven servants for the Holy Grail, an ancient artifact that will grant a wish to the last master standing. Determined both to become a “Hero of Justice” and to stop the Grail from falling into the wrong hands, Shiro agrees to fight with Saber and achieve victory. Over the course of its 25 episodes, Unlimited Blade Works tackles some important questions about morality and the nature of justice: What is justice, anyway? Can one fight solely for justice? Who decides what is just? These questions are explored when Shiro allies with the powerful mage Rin Tosaka and her ill-tempered servant, Archer. Archer, whose past is shrouded in mystery, nevertheless harbors a hatred for Emiya and denounces his ideals as “hypocritical nonsense”. The clash between Shiro’s idealism and Archer’s cynicism forms the crux of the show’s plot, especially after Archer’s motivations are revealed.

Aesthetically, the show is like Christmas for your eyes. Ufotable makes full use of its massive budget, crafting each and every episode into a delicious feast for the eyes. The skill of the animators is most apparent in the gloriously animated fight scenes, where the fluid motions and flashy attacks will leave viewers mesmerized. The fights between the servants are particularly strong, with each servant’s special ability having its own unique look and feel. The vibrant, colorful backgrounds and detailed character designs are only icing on the cake. The soundtrack is equally breathtaking, with the tracks “The Illusion” and “EMIYA” being particular standouts.

The strength of the Fate series has always been in its characters, which is why Unlimited Blade Works is such a disappointment in that regard. While there are well over a dozen major characters, Shiro, Rin, and Archer monopolize the screen time. Did you want to learn about Saber’s motivations? Screw you! Go watch Fate/Zero, loser. Many of the characters have vast amounts of wasted potential, to the point where some of them may as well have “Cannon Fodder” printed across their foreheads. The show is especially bad about this with its antagonists, who, with the exception of the pretty but psychotic Caster, are one-note and exist only to show how much better Shiro, Rin, Archer, and/or Saber are. The most prominent example is grade-A douchebag Shinji “McRapey” Matou, who is a jerk for no apparent reason. The final enemy, especially, feels like he is only there so that Shiro has someone to fight. However, the characters that do get actual development are almost frighteningly real. Shiro, due to his dreams of becoming a hero, at first demonstrates a constant disregard for his own safety. Examples of this include nearly sacrificing himself for someone who had tried to kill him days before and challenging opponents who are infinitely stronger than him. However, as the series continues and Shiro’s ideals are challenged, he slowly matures, learning to reconcile his ideals with the harsh nature of reality. Rin’s servant, the bitter, cynical Archer, holds a deep-seated irrational hatred for Shiro that is not explained until late in the series. When you do learn Archer’s backstory, however, it is genuinely heartbreaking as well as one of the show’s most powerful episodes. The final main character, Rin Tosaka, acts as both Shiro’s love interest and guide to this new world he’s been tossed into. The scion of one of the world’s greatest mage families, Rin fights to bring glory to her family. Rin’s often ruthless pragmatism is often at odds with Shiro’s desire for justice, but the two balance each other well and are a surprisingly effective team in battle.

While I have praised this show quite a bit, the cracks begin to show where plot is concerned. The pacing, for lack of a better word, is atrocious. In the first eleven episodes of the series, nearly nothing happens, with the various masters alternately sparring and trash-talking each other. During this time, the plot often has a penchant for putting its leads in unescapable situations, only for their enemies to let them live for no discernible reason. Fortunately, the show picks up in its second half, with every episode bringing a new plot development which the characters are forced to adapt to. These episodes are filled with betrayal, bloodshed, and heart-pounding action, peaking with the culmination of Shiro’s emotional journey in episode 21, when he finally confronts and comes to terms with his inner demons. While the final battle is interesting to watch, it never comes close the matching the raw power of Shiro’s personal climax. The second half capitalizes on the show’s inherently high-stakes premise, and giving the feeling that any of these characters could be the next to die.

Conclusion: Despite the lackluster beginning and poorly developed secondary characters, Ufotable has created a slick, emotionally charged product with mesmerizing artwork and truly inspired fight scenes. If you were expecting the next Fate/Zero, you’ll be disappointed, but Unlimited Blade Works is a strong anime in its own right.

This is a review of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works. There will be no comparisons made to the visual novel, nor Fate/Zero, and no mentions of any spoilers.

"An essential aspect to creativity, is not being afraid to fail."

Story: 3/10

Unlimited Blade Work has an issue with presenting it's story in a coherent manner. It relies on huge info dumps placed awkwardly throughout the show. Instead of explaining things naturally, and figuring out certain events as they occur, or through the story. It makes the show seem lazy with it's story telling in that regard. You are constantly being explained things rather than actually ... witnessing them. For example the first double length episode has only one purpose, and that's to explain the show to you. While you can state that getting info dumps are better than not being explained at all and being confused. All you would be doing is comparing two bad examples of storytelling.

Secondly there are largely noticeable pacing issues, and a lot of the time the reason for this is because the story needs to slow down to explain more things to you. One episode you will get a high action fight scene, with fast plot progression. Then the next episode you will be in the main character's house the entire episode forced to watch twenty minutes of talking at a dinner table about why things happened, or what is happening. Due to the poor pacing, many events seem rushed, while character motives seem unrealistic in certain situations.

What the show does well if anything. Is that it presents you a story, and finishes it with a conclusive ending. It doesn't go out of it's way to leave room for a possible third or fourth season. However there have been a number of side stories made, for the purpose of a simple cash grab. They don't directly concern the main series.

The plot also takes place in at least the first season, in what seems to be the required place in anime. A school. Why do things have to happen at school? It doesn't take away from anything, as no time is wasted actually doing normally school things, as it is simply used as a setting. However it gives of a lazy sense of story telling. It's as if the writer didn't know how else the events in the story could have happened while making sense (which a lot of them don't) without having it take place in a school.

Characters: 2/10

If the story already didn't have it's fair share of issues. By fare this show suffers the most with its cast of characters.

The main character gives off morals you won't be able to relate to. He will be constantly proven wrong with his way of thinking, but simply brush it aside not listening to anyone. For a main character who is supposed to care about others he sure doesn't listen to others in that regard.

The rest of the cast are used as simple plot devices to help, or stop the main character from victory. You don't ever feel emotion from anyone, as character development is often skipped out on to add more info dumps. You never know what a character will do, because you never really learn how a character feels and acts. That's because characters simply act how the writer wants them to. Often, nothing makes sense and you're left wondering why that character did that. Or how that character knew that.

Even the characters interactions with each other is poorly done. While dialogue happens, nothing is going on around them. They are always just sitting down talking, never doing something while they talk. Dialogue is done in the longest, and most boring way possible and feels like a chore to get through a five minute conversation. Many character sever no purpose as well, and are only there because they were in the original source material.

When you have this kind of a cast of characters. Put into a vast story as it presents, it's inevitable that issues will arise.

Art. 7/10

Everything related to art in this show is a bid of a mixed bag, but leaning towards the better end of things.

Positives:
-Fluid and smooth animation allows for kickass looking fights and an overall nice feel.
-Backgrounds are detailed and look damn good.

Negatives:
-Character designs look a little weird. While the art style looks good in all other departments. Something about the look of people mainly the face is a little weird. I know ufotable ca. look better, because they did a better job in early Kara no Kyoukai movies.
-Fight choreography isn't the best, and relies a lot on aesthetics rather than creative fighting.

Sound: 3/10

While this show doesn't have the worst soundtrack it is rather forgettable. It also often feels misused. There were moments when I was thinking why a certain song was going on, which instantly broke immersion. One of the best songs was a song borrowed from the musically superior Fate/stay night, but with the different singer it still didn't sound as good. Openings and endings were skipped due to them sounding very unoriginal. They basically sounded like any other anime opening made today, which lead to it being forgotten.

Enjoyment: 2/10

I did not enjoy watching this show. It's very bad, and gives a forgettable overall experience. By the time this was finishing I was looking forward to the end. I do praise any anime that doesn't resort to fan service. I definitely praise this show for using a very little amount. When a show starts relying on that to get the viewers attention rather than the actual show itself, you know there is a problem.

Overall: 3/10

This show plays it very safe. It could have done many things differently, but it stuck to many anime cliches because "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". While that may be true to a certain demographic. There are many people looking for creativity in anime. A story that isn't afraid to do new things and showcase an original, memorable story. Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Work is far from that.

Before you watch the anime, you can use my review as comparison to what you imagine.

Ufotable is really something in creating such legend Franchise of Fate Series.
They bring animation into higher level. With the stunning yet beautiful animation, smooth battle transition, wonderful background in every scene make me willing to watch the remake version of Fate/Stay Night.

The character's design is really smooth, I really love the character hair when the wind plays their hair, it is really soothing my mind. lol

I enjoy the series, even though it just aired in 12 episodes, but there is the cour two, in recent season. I hope it ... is spring.

In the end, if you like Fate/Stay series, and have a lot of free time, or need to spoil your eyes with beautiful Saber, Rin Tohsaka, then you should watch this series.

A short review; this is more of an overall impression instead of detailed response. And some ranting. Most of you are gonna hate this review, because I'm not going to say anything about the standard positive point of this anime (such as the animation, drawing, bla bla bla you guys know it already). Instead I will nitpick about the small things.

tl:dr: Excellent animation, excellent source material, not-so-great director.

Long version:

This is the adaptation of my number 1 favorite VN Fate Stay Night. Considering the job ufotable did in FZ, I had some real big expectation.

And indeed, I was disappointed.

Disregarding the wonderful job the Art Director ... and Animator has done, I cannot, in good faith, say that the Main Director has done a good job adapting it. One of the subtle but most persistent problem is the pacing of this anime. The scene transitions isnt exactly smooth, and when that adds up, you felt it and mood whiplash ensues. It's a small enough problem that you can ignore it, but it still be itchy.

Among the things that I am royally pissed off at the director besides the pacing being all over the place is that many, many, MANY in universe detail about Servants battle system and ability being wrong.

I'm still fucking pissed of how they change the battle details with Berserker's invulnerability and Mad Enhancement. Fuck that part. Fuck the director. There are lots of other stuff I can nitpick about: having a dragonworm instead of a dickworm like in Zero, Assassin unleashing complete and perfect Tsubamegaeshi and yet Saber is still alive, Gae Bolg being laser lance instead of bending lance, or Caster capable of bending spcae in a Reality Marble-like. Most people would let it slide due to Rule of Cool. Not me. I know how the system works. And I fucking hate it when the system is all wrong.

Other than those in universe detail though, the animation staff adapted this Up to Eleven, and even more. The big things like frame-to-frame animation and drawing quality is excellent, but that's the given ones for ufotable. So story source and animation is not debatable anymore. The ones that really shines for me for this adaptation is the little things they added.

Among those are: People actually doing something in the background, passing scene of residual damage after battle, character actually shown wearing a different clothes.

With different location used, the changes were also obviously done with meticulous detail: Stuffs like road's crack or existing power pole or letter box in background location, the varieties of furnitures in different location, using different places with completely different background and location drawings for different scenes instead of reusing them.

Also, many subtle things like character spot of light moments, subtle shift in atmosphere followed with expression changes, and camera preposition and position changes; Christ, all that takes a lot of work and patience.

The nitpicky stuffs really, really turns me off at the beginning I even stopped watching the TV release and wait for BD instead. But those good little things adds up. It keeps the watching experience fresh and keep the atmosphere's beat.

And of course, their biggest accomplishment: unlike stupid DEEN, they managed to show that Shirou is NOT a white knight faggot, but a kid with a totally fucked up issue in his head.

Do keep in mind that I (subjectively and effectively) still dont like the director's overall works for the pacing and the little changes he made. Those are unnecessary, making it worse overall, and create inconsistencies. Those are small things, but like the above GOOD small thins, the ugliness adds up and turns me off. Those maybe small matters for some people, but for me they're serious businesses.

In conclusion: I cannot, once again, in good faith call FSN UBW 2014 an above average adaptation. The animation and art+drawing is top notch, but the same cannot be applied to the storytelling and pacing. The animation staff is this anime saving grace, practically the only ones who contributes good and positive points to this anime.

I dont know if it is all the fault of the Main Director, but until I know for sure otherwise, I am holding Miura Takahiro responsible. Fuck you, sir.

Final Score: 7/10.

After watching and enjoying Fate Zero I watched this show because at that time I didnt know that the shows are from different authors and fate zero was the first series of the fate franchise I had watched.

I still dont know why I finished this horrible show.
Maybe it was due to the cheap cliffhangers.
Maybe I couldnt accept that the continuation to the epic fate zero is such shounen trash.

One of Fate Zeros greatest strength are the different perspectives.
Here we have only one.

One of Fate Zeros greatest strength are the diverse and complex characters.
... We have a priest who secretly is a nihilist psychopath.
We have the cold maguskiller who is secretly fighting for world peace.
And so on.
Here we have only a dumb schoolboy named shirou.

I could go on and on with that.
Fate Zero is a mature show with consequences.
In UBW shirou does stupid stuff and gets saved every damn time.

Where is the story? After completing it on the strength of the animation alone, I realized Shirou has so little personality that my brain somehow achieved the unprecedented feat of learning muscle memory, as in whenever this garbage character's mouth began to animate, my brain shut off and went on a vacation to something, anything more interesting, such as summoning memories of corporate meetings with interns freshly out of university who only know how to say "synergy, win win, vis a vis, breakeven point".

I could maybe tolerate this garbage "protagonist" if the plot is actually interesting, but the plot can be described as "hack ... of a writer who has no clue how writing works reads half of the first paragraph about legendary figures on wikipedia, turns them into cute girls, and makes them put on an apron and learn how to blush at the weirdest times as if this writer has never met a girl before.

This show is the natural evolution of Evangelion's "when you have no idea what you want to write, just talk vaguely about christianity/religion and pretend like your story is deep". At least when evangelion did it, it was fresh.

"Fighting for others, but not yourself, is nothing but hypocrisy."

I could only start by saying this anime is an masterpiece, you'll know all about it throughout this humble review I'm doing as your regular every day anime fan.

Story: 8 (Very Good).

Simple as that, the story in general was amazing. However, I seemed to feel confused to be honest in the beginning to pull off the 3 or 4 episode seemed to be something hard as it was brain teasing and confusing and I haven't watched any of the previous series or adaptations or even read the manga so I was absolutely confused and I ... had felt I was an Arab invited to a Chinese wedding (No racism intended.) furthermore I had to think and think of what the story could possibly be and waiting from week to week I was still interested in knowing what would happen and I suddenly knew everything at once !! Then I realized I fell in love and point of the anime was to think and expect unexpected stuff.

Art: 10 (Outstanding)

The art added to battles is beyond description, the battles are very well detailed everything in the anime was drawn to a crisp and had amazing touch into it. I mean like even the eyes of the characters had a stories in them !! That's about it, describing it is way out of description you should watch it yourself.

Sound: 8(Very good)

The opening wasn't the best but wasn't bad either ... The music added really created moods and was sometimes playing a role in delivering feelings straight to the heart but the soundtracks seemed to be to repeatable and didn't have 1 precise meaning and that's what i didn't like.

Character: 7(Good)

Nothing too special about the characters, the hero seems to be like any other anime hero very expected (SO FAR) like a kid wants to be an hero and works hard and he has to tackle his fears and basically "starting from the bottom and now we here" ... But besides that characters were well expressed and many characters that were focused on seemed to vanish tho but the intensity of the story just removed your desire to know more about them.

Enjoyment: 9(Great!)

I personally enjoyed the anime, despite me being lost in the first few episodes but it's rather an exciting anime with amazing stuff to happen and sometimes I would just pause for a second to get deep in thought on what could possibly be next !

Overall: 9(Great)

It's an very well produced anime with great content and it represents many nice people who priotorize others lives than their own ... It had touched me so hard to be honest I was very very touched ... IT'S AN MASTERPIECE.