For the second route(Unlimited Blade Works) there is already a movie done by Studio Deen. They also handled the adaptation of Fate/Stay Night’s first TV series and they already proved it is too much for them to handle. while that movie has good animation and great soundtracks there is no other reason to watch it if you haven’t other than to spoil yourself the important parts without any right explanation so keep that in mind if you haven’t watched that already. (on it’s own their adaptations weren’t really all that bad but when compared to the source material it really lacks the depth and lacks proper explanation so if you already read the visual Novel before watching them it can enrage you even more).
Just like Fate/zero the anime is divided into two seasons, with the first one doing all the introductions and building up and with the second one showing the results. Sadly while fate/stay night’s first half is amusing it can also get a little slow and tiring at some points but we get to that later. One of the most important parts of Fate/stay Night is Shirou’s ideals and you are treated with it’s evolution in each route. The second route brings balance to his ideals, that in real life you can’t be a shounen hero and you can’t expect to help/save everyone. Also in this route Shirou gets closer to Tohsaka and form a deeper bond with her. I was very glad to see from the very beginning Ufotable focused on Shirou’s ideals, showing fans that they know what they are doing and bring some depth to the story along with it. It is details like these that Ufotable cares about and they know we care about them as well which make their works ultimately a great experience to watch.
There are of course some problems with the story as well,(nitpicking) granted it is all subjective and this mostly has nothing to do with Ufotable as they were trying to follow the source material(they added their own things as well which i liked not saying they 100% succeeded in their adaptation but i liked it) but of course they could improve some parts if they wanted to(like pacing) so time for nitpicking. for example Archer’s convenient different “look” that helped him mask his identity always bugged me,(there is a reason for it like side effects of his Magecraft but I am not satisfied with stuff like this sadly, I rather if he had a burned face or had a mask) or one dimensional characters like Kuzuki(Caster’s master) or even Shinji (for example Shinji is also a tragic character, sadly he still lacks depth and is just In the story to ironically get manipulated by others and to piss you off). Now back to what I wrote earlier about the show being slow in the first season, it seems Ufotable’s faithful approach turned into a double edge blade for them. In this season the real deal starts only at the last episode, leaving the rest of important stuff for the second season and beside Shirou’s ideals getting discussed we only get to see a handful of events(that of course foreshadow stuff) and for those that only follow the anime it is hard to care for the stuff that happened. (granted Shirou already started growing in this season and there are some hints of what’s going on around already) Plus Ufotable tried to implement some of the comical scenes inside the atmosphere they created and in my opinion in that aspect they didn’t exactly succeed but the lighthearted scenes in the last episodes served it's purpose very well since it gave you the “calm before the storm” feeling and you actually see the start of that storm in that episode. Also while I understand that the three routes of novel are suppose to be seen as one story all together it is a shame that characters like Rider are not explored till the 3rd route. Last nitpick is the amount of all “I beat you but I won’t kill you” moments that got out of control in Fate/Stay Night. One could rename this as “Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited -Can kill you but won’t- Works” Of course there are explanations for each(like characters having their own plan for later or because of their personality) but it doesn’t mean getting lots of these moments is a good thing since it can take away from the tension. But enough about the story and the characters, these are all things of the past and Ufotable is just trying to be faithful by following them and i liked some of the things Ufotable did that added to the whole experience. I just mentioned all these so the review feels complete.
The art is as fantastic as ever, while it feels there are no real improvements in the animation it feels this time around without the previous budget limitations the true potential was realized and overall we got treated with lots of impressive scenes and thankfully there was no sudden drop in quality unlike the temporarily one in Fate/zero. The character designs are faithful to the visual novel as well as expected although some of them like Rin felt a little strange at first. This time there is no fully 3D berserker like in Fate/zero so the 3D focus shifted toward Caster’s familiars and other small things (even Rin’s hair at one point at least). The old voice actors are also back again for another Fate ride and it is enjoyable to hear their voices again. Sadly I didn’t enjoy the Opening song of this season while I enjoyed the Ending song as I expected cause…Kalafina. About the music, While the music is good and the new composer Hideyuki Fukasawa tried so hard to be unique while staying true to previous material it didn’t feel as epic as it could be but there are lots of chances in the second season to make that right with all the emotional moments.(he already got one chance in the last episode and pulled it off at least to some extent)
Now time for building up more hype for the next season. Of course without a doubt the second season is gonna be one hell of a show and I am sure everyone is eager to see it. April 2012 is gonna be repeated all over again which is awesome.(again this time Caster class is responsible for the closing act) As for this season the production value and the attention to details really held it up and turned it into an epic ride for both old and new fans. A big thanks to Ufotable and Type-moon for entertaining us with this level of quality.
