1yuri2's Blog

Anime Relations: Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel - I. Presage Flower, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works Prologue, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works 2nd Season, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works 2nd Season - Sunny Day, Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel - II. Lost Butterfly, Fate/stay night Movie: Heaven's Feel - III. Spring Song

I really like the ufotable's adaptations, even though I love the VN, I would say I even prefer the animes by ufotable, I won't try to change anyone's mind about it, but by saying a bunch of good things I think the anime did, maybe it can help people see a few more good things about it


First, let's start with something simple, and that is alss largely a taste thing but I prefer the soundtracks in the ufotable's adaptations Yes the soundtrack for the VN is great, but I think the soundtrack for the anime comes out on top I mean even when the anime is remixing music from the VN they put so many other small details that it elevates the ost from good to great, for example, Shirou's leitmotif (Emiya) has more thematic weight in the anime because Shirou is the only character assign with electronic music (unlike in the vn which uses electronic music it a lot).


A lot I think this is the best version of this track we had so far because Shirou's leitmotif (EMIYA) has more thematic weight in the anime since Shirou is the only character assigned with "Techno" music (unlike the visual novel which uses "Techno" sounds very often).

"Techno" music fits Shirou perfectly because:

-He has a borrowed ideal, borrowed powers from his future self, and borrowed weapons (Technomusic is commonly associated with remixes that which many times need borrowed music to be made)

-projecting causes an effect reminiscing of electricity (this one is obvious)

-his sword are "artificial" (just like electronic music is considered artificial because of the way it's made)

-archer can modify other noble phantasms (just like a remix can modify other people's music)

tl;dr: there is no rule a fake can't rival the original


Letting my dumb jokes aside for a second and being a bit more objective (as much as you can for subjective art anyway) but even the UBW ost which is the one by ufotable that a lot of people say is the most forgettable, is still by far the most complex fate score we've gotten to date.


It has over 400 individual tracks composed by Hideyuki Fukasawa; with leitmotifs given to all the servants and masters, every single little moment has unique musical support that helps elevate the scene, like that little jingle that plays in the setup before Shirou vs Gilgamesh, it is great and gets people hyped up, sadly we don't even have an official complete version (there is a very good fan-made complete fan-made version called final strength if you are curious or don't remember what I am talking about)


By the way, the reason we don't have an official release is because of aniplex (of course it is them o_o) for the longest time only had about 50 of those tracks commercially released with the BDs, just recently they released a "complete" soundtrack with an extra CD's worth of music (but we are still far from a real complete soundtrack).


With that, we're barely even scratching half the music used in the show, and so it's hard to listen to the complete version of Assassin's theme or the first Herc theme we hear, to name some examples. They're just not available to us outside the anime. also, I think a lot of the problems people have resulted from having only seen UBW back when it aired on TV with a lower volume OST (something fixed in the BDs).


And due to the complexity of the score - which is owed a lot to Fukasawa, the score doesn't get a fair representation when not presented with either a pair of great headphones or a stereo and/or surround system on a big screen. It might have also been an initial creative decision most of the music is low to cause a bigger impact when a big track starts playing at a louder volume, and to let their great sound effects also shine, but the trade off is that a lot of original instrumental pieces of the most end up forgotten even if they are golden (like Rin: my wish)


Let's not kid ourselves, a lot of people in the Western anime community watch rips on scummy streaming sites straight through their laptops for ease of use. You're not gonna be able to truly "experience" something like this through doing that. But even still, I won't lie, the truth is that most of the music in the anime is for ambiance, and that's not everyone's favorite, but I personally I am a big fan of "ambient" music ( I know I am boring ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡)

I and making good ambient music that helps relevant is an art all on its own, it might be very subtle but I appreciate it, and it made my experience with the anime way more immersive because of it


now that I ranted a bit about the music I will talk about something most people actually care more about which are the characters:


starting with the hot take I actually found Shirou a fantastic character when I watched the anime, his facial expression body language, and occasional flashbacks were enough for me to understand his character, it's just that those things are very easy to miss compared to internal monologues, but Shirou in the anime was the thing that made me read the vn, and the scenes in the anime actually got to see how Shirou ticked from the outside, so whenever we got a flashback or a PTSD it came like an actual break trough since it is established Shirou is traumatized from episode one, but we get to gradually understand the extent of that along the show, when he buried Illiya in the VN and had that mini breakdown in the VN my first thought was, finally rin couth up, we have been seen how broken is for ages know, while in the anime we knew Shirou was traumatized, but you discover more about the trauma along the series with the characters,


side note about that scene and some changes about Rin my second thought about it in the VN was that rin was actually very insensitive to someone she just saw has some serious baggage and trauma, and that although she had good intentions to try to make Shirou value his life more, still wasn't proper conduct, so I actually appreciate rin's character in the anime more and disagree they made her more moe, first she always had "moe" scenes (just look at some of her sprites in the VN), I think the anime just made her a bit cutter to seel more merch (which I am not complaining), especially since because her core is the same, they only made her is more likable in scenes where she was supposed to be likable but came her "tsun" tendencies got out of hand


for example, in the VN she was actually angry with Shirou because of his trauma during Illya's burial, which although came from worry still made a scene that was trying to make her more likable and sell their relationship feel weird

in comparison in the anime she still gets angry because she is worried (she goes and grabs Shirou by the color which is definitely what you don't need to be a psychologist to know isn't how you should deal with someone during a PTSD episode) but in the anime it clear that the first thing in her mind at that moment is that she is worried and sad for Shirou, which makes a scene that felt pretty uncomfortable in the VN (even though it was supposed to be a cute tsundere moment) feel more 10x more wholesome just by adding some adding directorial changes like cracks in rin's voice and tears in her eyes, the tone of the scene because way more compassionate because although Rin's character flaws and personality remain, her concern for Shirou is at the forefront of the scene

also, yes Shirou is a fantastically well-done protagonist, but he was always bound to be devised because of the type of character he is, he is a boy scout with a common superhero, and yes he is one that has got his motivation confronted with a variety of scenarios and perspective along his story, but at its core, he still has the common origin of the traumatized and is a boy scout that wanted to make the world a better place, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this type of character, and Shirou is an exceptionally well-done version of it, but he still is a version of it, and for some people, that type of character isn't their cup of tea (just look at how many people say they don't like superman for a similar reasons), that's why there are people who read the VN and don't like shirou, and that's why there are people who understood shirou's character in the anime and still didn't like him ( being fair when you have a fandom as big as fate's you are bound to generate every opinion possible, it's just that people who don't like shirou usually keep quit about it to avoid backlash, or just aren't super committed to the fandom)

another thing I found important to mention is that I think the reason a lot of more recurrent anime fans didn't understand Shirou's character in the anime is that anime fans are accustomed to expecting monologues to convey that type of information, (another thing that makes me believe in this theory is a personal experience, I recommended UBW to 4 people as a gateway anime, and they all perfectly understood Shirou's survivor guilt and trauma, but when I recommend it to more experienced anime fans they were more likely to miss that part of Shirou's character)

I am one of those people that benefited from having watched UBW as a gateway anime, Shirou's trauma is made very obvious in the anime based on some flashbacks and his actions, the monologues in the vn were great but they aren't necessary to understand Shirou's character in the UBW anime, for example, when I first watched the anime I could understand Shirou's character even not having read the vn yet, actually the reason I enjoyed Shirou's character in the anime so much WAS because they didn't feel the need to hold the audience's hand and explain every little thing, they were like "here is Shirou, he has survivors guilt and a bunch of other shit, figure out why he behaves the way he does base on that information we already gave you" that approach made me pay way more attention to Shirou and his actions, which made me way more engaged in the show as a whole

even said all that Shirou still is my favorite anime protagonist, and I know that I am not alone and that Shirou has its fair share of fans, but the sad reality of art is that you can't please everyone, but Shirou pleased me, and a bunch of other people, that's just doing that is impressive enough

also, my favorite scene in all of anime is an anime original scene from UBW, I am talking about the last stardust scene in the archer vs Shirou fight, that was a fantastic climax and it was one important thing among many that inspired me to not be afraid and actually try to get into med school when, even if it was going to give me a lot of future stress (and it worked out) so it personally it is one of the most important scenes I've seen in an anime and apart from the VN not having the last stardust banger during the archer vs Shirou fight, to fight also just felt way too quick, that battle of ideals was the true climax of UBW but it went by so quick I felt whiplash, some people say the anime was the one that stretched the fight more than it should but when the whole story had been leading up to that climax, I don't think it's appropriate to resolve it in only 20 minutes




Well, I think I focused a bit too much on UBW, so I'll talk about heavens fell now

honestly, I loved the whole trilogy, but being honest I actually preferred the movies over the vn (which I also love) there are two main reasons for that :

(of course, the reason why people prefer one thing over another is usually a cluster of factors) but if I had to mention two main ones they would be the pacing and tone

the pacing was a bit different to the vn, while in the vn the situation was a slow but inevitable build-up to the situation getting progressively worst, in the movies, because of the faster pacing as soon as the ritual gets twisted the cat's out the bag and it feels like the cast has to constantly scramble to keep up with the progressively worst situation which felt really tense to watch, the soundtrack in heavens fell, though made by a different composer, is still superb, the soundtrack commands the tone and vibe of the movie, even if a few tracks are similar, it works for the movie, I don't need every music to be super unique so I can add them to my playlists (although the movie still has a lot of those) but just having a type of musical style that reliably gets the job done, it didn't really hinder my enjoyment of the music

and I would partially agree that although Yuki Kajiura has a musical style with a clear signature feel to it, it still gets the job done, has a lot of unique pieces in it, and is fantastic

(also the is visuals and directing also helped give it a super immersive tone which made me more invested in the story)

some people complain that the climax was done off-screen, at most it was a bit hard to understand how Shirou came back, but they gave enough pices to people pice things together (they explained what were heavens feel, we see a soul in a cage sakura is caring, it begins to shine close to a puppet, etc), it's more than enough for viewers to find out own there own and have fun trying to piece it together, and if the audience doesn't want to spend time picking it together there is always the internet, I don't think that will ruin the movie for anyone

people also complain a lot about the cuts the anime had to make (which it's okay to do, and yes they did have to cut things to tell the story in just three movies, in my opinion, all the cut's in the series are surgically precise and I don't think a single one bothered me

let's use the Illya cuts as an example, they might have cut some scenes of her from the first two movies but the third movie made up for that, and it also felt thematically appropriate to segregate most of that story to the third movie since that's where the climax of Sakura's and Thosaka's development happened, and highlighting both sibling arcs in the same movie makes the themes of the movie be communicated very satisfactorily

and tbh I actually got more invested in her in the movies, in the anime Illya helps Shirou out because she likes how he isn't acting like Kiritsugo, but the moment Illia actually becomes Shirou's ally and puts her resentment behind is in the anime original scene where she finds out thanks to overhearing taiga that Kiritsugo never actually abandoned her, that is what makes her really starting thinking about how to be a good sister to Shirou, in the VN her progression is gradual which is nice and fits the tone of the VN, but always gave me ludonarrative dissonance when even after she is super close to Shirou, if you don't hang out with her enough she just lets you die and that's that

the movie had a lot of really good stuff like this that I think made up for the cuts, like, in the scene where Shirou asks Illya to live with him is even more heartbreaking in the anime, since in the novel she refuses but in the movie she accepts, making the ending even sadder since she ended up dying in that same night died and won't ever be able to live with her brother like she said she would (;-;)


the thing about Iliya accepting Shirou's request is a change not a lot of people got, but is definitely there

if you rewatch the scene and pay attention to her dialogue and compare to the VN, you will see what I am talking about, she shakes her head to Shirou so Shirou stops talking and doesn't worry then she says with a smile on her face that she will see Shirou later and for him to come back with sakura before dawn, that is worded in a way to make Shirou and the audience think she will be with them in a happy way later, it gets recontextualized when she actually sacrifices her self which is different from the sad scene in the VN when she clearly says she won't live with Shirou with a bittersweet expression in a way that makes the audience and Shirou sad


another cut I think actually helped the story was showing less of the negative effect of the arm, I know people will disagree with me since reading how the arm was affecting Shirou's mind was admittedly very fun and rose the tension of the story, however, I believe that the arm ended up having a negative effect on the story in the VN

I expected them to do a creative thing with it but in the good ending, it has no long-lasting effect at all, and in the normal ending it just kills Shirou, which isn't anything new since Shirou dies a lot in the game him just straight up dying also doesn't implement the fact the arm scenes focused of the arm affecting Shirou's mind in any meaningful way (like they could have made him lose his memories or something like that) so I honestly think removing the disproportionate large focus on the arms affects keep the good parts of the plot point while also getting rid of the bad ones (that's just my opinion tho)

some people also say the movies don't explain anything properly but I disagree, I watched the first two movies before reading heavens feel and I could completely understand what was going on there were also some other things like how I think making the ending feel more melancholic fixed my problem with the original good ending of the vn (I tough it felt too happy in the vn but in the movie, it was more appropriate within the entire story, it felt bittersweet but optimistic)

I also thought the first Rin and Sakura confrontation was way better in the movie, that card game flashback made not only their reconciliation better but also resolved my issue with that wacky ass Zelretch sword, in the vn it felt like it came out of nowhere for no reason while in the anime they specifically made a point to use a literal plot device , I mean magic sword as another example of rin always having the better hand and I which is something that hurts sakura but also makes rin always feel guilty, which was brilliant and made the scene even better


I also just love how full of detail everything in the anime is, let's talk about another controversial adaptation from the anime,

the nine lives scene, I'll be honest, I prefer this scene in the anime than in the visual novel, and don't take me lightly when I say that, nine lives blade works is my favorite written fight ever, however, I still prefer the anime version, the extra parts with archer make the scene hit way harder for me

I also prefer the soundtrack, I love the new Emya theme and I also unpopularly prefer the fact that the music fizzles out at the end, it makes the scene where Hercules asks Shirou to protect Illya way more emotional,

seeing Hercules's memories also helped make the scene more emotional since reminding us of his motivation for protecting Illya while also making sense since Shirou in lore is literally learning from Hercules's memories (it's also a cool fan service)

I also preferred the actual fight in the anime, seeing all the strikes coming out so fast was great and felt like a pistol dual right from an old west movie,

the little details also really elevated the fight for me, like Shirou imagining a gun being loaded like in the vn or Shirou's left eyeball bleeding exactly like in the vn describes, or Shirou's body releasing a bunch of steam when preparing to fight just like a berserker did in all his other fights when he used god hand

but my favorite detail has to be Shirou's face being overlaid with Hercules's face at the end of the fight, which is not only cool but also fits the scene really well since Shirou is coping berserker's noble phantasm

(I'm also one of those sakuga nerds so the fact the fight is gorgeous also affects my opinion)

speaking of me being a sakuga nerd, that is also one of the main reasons I love the adaptations so much, visuals are extremely important in visual media, and no one can beat ufotable's visuals, lighting, direction, animation, compositing, and composition, every visual aspect of the staff's work is absurdly on point, the fact that the backgrounds that appear for only a few seconds are so good they could be used as a wallpaper or a VN background, that is the level of the art in it am talking about, even as an amateur artist that just drawns for fun, it is still very inspiring

well, I hope you guys enjoyed this goddamn dissertation of a thread, I am sorry it took so long and that it was so big, but I hope it was interesting and that you enjoyed reading it =]