If I have to sum up this adaptation of Ufotable then it would be ''A confused adaptation'' Its confused who it tries to mainly caters too is it the VN players ? , Fate/zero watchers ? or New viewers of the franchise ?
Fate/Stay Night as a series is one of the most complicated anime adaptations out there to review because how different it is from other Visual Novels let alone other source materials such as manga's and Light Novels .
*Fate/Stay Night as a anime simply wont give you the full experience of a typical anime that is because no matter what route from the Visual Novel gets adapted it would always feel incomplete unless you saw the other routes because you need the experience of other routes to get that complete experience of the series .Its not all Ufotable's fault because Visual novels are by far are the trickiest to be adapted of any source materials .
STORY (6)
Fate/Stay Night tells their story differently from Fate/Zero (where Fate/zero uses a ''Game of thrones style'' storytelling where it focuses on every characters) Fate/Stay Night focuses on the Main characters of the series such as Rin,Shirou and Archer .
On a War setting Fate/Zero simply works better as an anime because you get to see everyone of the masters and what their planning and doing and thus creates much more tension and more interesting since you can either root for other masters apart from Kiritisugu Emiya such as Waver and Rider unlike Fate/Stay Night which simply focus mostly on the Main characters especially Archer and Shirou later on .
The whole Main point of Unlimited Blade Works besides the Holy Grail war is the ideals of Emiya Shirou and his adventures on becoming a hero of justice . Sounds interesting indeed unfortunately not as quite executed properly by Ufotable and one of the big reasons is the pacing of the show there are scenes in the show where it feels like something is missing or how much rushed and anti climatic it feels by the end of the episode .
And another Major complaint by a lot of viewers is the used of repetition by the characters . The biggest culprit of this is Archer where he has a habit of repeating the exact same lines just told a bit different especially too Shirou . Episode 19-21 is where Archer repeat a lot of the things the viewers already know which feels dragged and simply boring too a lot of viewers .
And I mentioned this series being a ''confused adaptation'' before and its because There are episodes where they explain and info dump too much like everyone who watches this is a new watcher of the series and there are episodes where they fail to explain on what the hell is going on and expect everyone to be a VN player . There are also episodes where it has Fate/Zero flash backs and expect everyone to have watched Fate/zero first leaving new viewers confused on who is this guy ? what just happened ?.
ANIMATION(9)
The Art and Animation of this series is truly fantastic a lot of the episodes are wall paper worthy . Every episode is movie quality very few can rival UBW for this category .
The character art styles on the other hand is a preference .There are many people including me who thinks Rin and Saber looks weird compared to other Fate adaptations when they face side view sometimes they look like a Rhino with that design. Dont be ashamed to say you mostly watch this show for the animation because animation is big part of a anime after the story and characters and this show is definitely an eye pleaser .
SOUND(7)
The voice actors did a brilliant job with their characters . My favourite one's has to be Archer,Shirou and Gilgamesh every single servant did their voice perfectly you can tell the ego and arrogance of Goldy by the way he talks The suffering,age and sarcastic personality of Archer by the way he talks and Shirou's VA does a brilliant job on voicing him when he is getting desperate with his shouts .
The OST on the other hand is average especially for a FATE anime who is famous for having a brilliant OST they released all the fantastic VN OST literally in the final fight (episode 24) I dont understand why they did this since the OST is one of the reason why some important scenes lack tensions or any emotional impact . The Op Brave shine on the other hand is fantastic and perhaps the best this spring season
CHARACTERS(6)
Before I start this I want to remind people that Fate/stay Night develops their characters differently unlike any other animes . If a character is is ignored here or went out without a bang then most likely they are important and are the main characters of the other routes (for UBW the wasted characters are Rider,Sakura and Kotomine Kirei who are the main cast along with shirou in Heavens Feel.) *This is not bad writing this is how simply a Visual novel such as this works** that is why I said early on that you wont get the full experience .
I am going to talk about the Mains and the main antagonist
Shirou Emiya :
A Marmite (you either like and admire him or hate him) he divides the opinions of everyone . A lot of viewers hate him because he is a stubborn and naive young boy who wants to be a Hero of Justice despite knowing what's going to happen to him in the future yet continues to ignore everyone and pursue it .
While Some viewers admire him because in a world full of no hoper's and negativity here is a dreamer who wants the impossible to happen and save everyone a living hypocrite(who admits it ) with a borrowed dream from his late Father . A true Faker
Also as a VN player I could assure you this plays a big part in Heavens Feel and that route will test Emiya if he really want to become a Hero .
Rin:
A smart tsundere girl she is nothing really special on this adaptation she's your average tsundere who laters falls in love with the Main . She maybe a little girl but she is a powerful mage with a lot of knowledge
Archer :
A mysterious Hero with mysterious past he is one of the most popular characters in the whole Type Moon franchise and in this adaptation you could see why there is no other servants that got focused and developed as much as Archer in this series . Many argues that he is the only great character on this adaptation but can you blame them ? He got more development than Shirou emiya on his own route . Fate/Zero watchers would draw a lot of comparison from the late Kiritsugu Emiya on his Ideals and attitude .
Gilgamesh :
His story has already been established in Fate/Zero and the Fate route so he got little development here just like the VN but Ufotable did provide flash backs for him later on the episodes . He considers everyone around the series inferior to him a mere mongrel he is a incredibly powerful figther that has the ego and arrogance to match it .
Saber:
Compared to the VN she got more developed here with all the flash backs later on but she is a side character here so its understandable that Fate/zero watchers wont like saber here and new viewers thinks she got wasted by Ufotable but simply its not her route (again a problem from being a VN adaptation)
ENJOYMENT:(8)
Despite all the flaws I mentioned this is a must watch anime just dont expect a anime near the level of Fate/Zero . Ufotable could had executed a lot of scenes much better(especially the way they info dump with monologues they are too static like a robot talking just standing there with no movement ) and Paced the series better . Binge watching this anime definitely improves the experience . My expectations were realistic because I know a first person point of view Visual Novel wont translate as good as a anime compared from a Light Novel(fate/zero) adaptation or manga adaptations
The art and animation coupled with ''Hype scenes Fights '' can make this series very enjoyable to you .
Oh lasty the fights are one of my biggest gripes of this series is that most fights got their tensions killed by them talking before and in the middle of the fight . Fair enough if your moving a lot or doing something (like episode 24) but dont just stand there and start info dumping like a robot on a middle of a fight .
That's all folks I know it was long but hopefully you found my review informative .(Apologize if some of my sentence have random Capitals on it)
