Preface:
Briefly, the Holy Grail War is a proxy war waged between seven masters, and their summoned "servants"- or the spirit of a fallen legendary hero from ages past- over the Holy Grail, an omnipotent wish granting device. The last master/servant duo standing is the winner, as declared by the Holy Church. The pair is then granted a wish: that which they desire most. This is the setting for the Fate universe: an eternal struggle for power and the Holy Grail.
Artwork and Animation: 10
As with Fate Zero (FZ) before it, Unlimited Blade Works (UBW) is an incredible visual feast. Vibrant, dynamic lighting and shadow play along with particle effects rendered by the 3D beautifully. Swirling lights, darks, and brilliant displays of energy color the typically dark palettes of the show. Much of it takes place at night, and the lighting and brightness of the clashes play off the darkness and shadows. The scenery and backdrops have a tremendous level of detail and idle animation, and the quality of the character models and action never drops in the slightest throughout the entire 27 episode series. In fact- as the action rises in the plot, so does the furious attention to detail in the fight choreography.
I've maintained that Sword Art Online contains the best traditional animation, especially in its very quick-cut, fluid, and breathtaking action. However, UBW is on par with that- especially towards the end, with Shiro, Archer, and Gilgamesh's various brawls. The magical animation is some of the most flowing and crisp, however. The magic runes and swirls of power from the various spells are extremely fluid; and the various reds, purples, and golds that make up the flow of energy lend an arcane and airy, yet powerful feel to the action.
They don't call it Unlimited Budget Works for no reason. This is as good as it gets.
Sound and Voice Acting: 9.5
Industry veteran Yoshikazu Iwanami, who's done everything from Garzey's Wing to Sword Art to Jojo directed the sound in UBW, which was honestly one of the weaker elements of the show, especially compared to the fantastically dark, mystical atmospheric OST Kenji Kawai composed for Fate Stay Night (2006). The background and insert music itself was utterly forgettable, and rarely lent any feeling to the atmosphere. Moments of tension and action were scored, but it never really left an impression on me- mostly I didn't even realize it was there. This is not a bad thing however- not noticing the music. At least it wasn't actively interfering with my ability to hear characters speaking or setting up the wrong kind of mood for certain scenes. It does its job, just quietly... in the background.
A very large positive for the musical front though, was the 2nd opening song, "Brave Shine" by Aimer. A truly anthemic, powerful song that definitely got me excited to hear, if not watch the show to follow. I don't think I'm going to get tired of it, nor get it out of my head any time soon- and that's how it should be.
Characters: 9
Where Deen's Fate Stay Night 2006 faltered in fleshing out its characters in lieu of making a sort of Frankenstein's monster out of the three different Visual Novel routes; ufotable wrings out every bit of characterization from the characters in the actual route they were adapting. This route of the Visual Novel (VN) features Rin Tohsaka and her relationship to everyone's favorite ninnyboy shonen protag Shiro, as the focal point of the show.
A lot of people don't care for the tsundere kind of character, and while I dislike labeling characters by trope as their defining characteristic, Rin certainly fits the bill, but in a believable way. As a person, Rin is not the most complex of girls, being that she's one of the best and brightest (as well as good looking) students in the school. She differs from most of these "perfect human being" characters in that she's pretty much a misanthrope. Rin dislikes nearly everyone she comes into contact with, generally either because they hit on her, or are jealous of her abilities.
Where she develops though, is through her forced interactions with Shiro and the other masters in the grail war. Initially, it's much the same as in FSN- she's cold, calculating, but for some irritating reason she can't explain, has a soft spot for one Shiro Emiya. After she saves his life and learns he's a master, they form an uneasy alliance to help see the fight to the end. In UBW, the focus is on the formation of their relationship and mutual understanding after a series of traumatic events in the grail war. We see her character transform from this annoying trope of a selfish bratty girl into a multifaceted, hard headed woman with goals that she ACTS UPON- and that was what really set this route apart from the old Stay Night. I personally found Rin to be one of the best parts of the show, especially since she wasn't sidelined as a main character to form a sort of harem, and she given a real voice of her own, and made choices that were integral to the plot. She makes a great leading character without being devolved into waifu-bait or a walking fanservice machine, and grows into a character with enough depth to be interesting, and with believable motives and goals (especially ones that don't include unexplained romantic attachments to the closest person with a Y chromosome). In fact, aside from the first class visuals of the show, this one is relatively fanservice free- a rarity among anime that take place in a high school and involve magic.
We see not only the emergence and repeated utterances of some nebulously intangible goals (a staple of shonen) that Rin (and the other characters have) but see them take a real form, and taken through to the end (atypical of shonen). The characters go through complete arcs, with a defined beginning, middle, and conclusion. They had actual depth instead of just breadth- particularly in the mentality and idealistic natures of Shiro and Rin. Without delving into spoilers- there's a lot of inner turmoil and ideological clashing that occurs in the show. While it may come off preachy to some, it's much in the same vein as Fate Zero, though focused on the individual level rather than Zero's societal level, and much less of a philosophical approach to the conflict.
The biggest character growth comes from Shiro Emiya, however. It's not my place to spoil this for anyone who would see the show, but I'll leave this quote, the self conflict within Shiro that is repeatedly brought up and attacked throughout the show:
"You're driven by this ridiculous obsession with self sacrifice, blind to your own arrogance. But in the end, you're a fraud, and your hypocrisy can't save anyone. How could you, when you never knew who you should save to begin with? Look, this is the result. You could never be a savior. You never had anything to save. You became the embodiment of justice, and justice can be CRUEL!"
Story: 7
This brings me to the story section, which, as a sequel to Fate Zero, works at a fantastic level. I'm a rather unorthodox watcher of the Fate franchise in that I started with Zero, saw FSN, and now UBW. With this experience, I'm able to put Zero and FSN in a different perspective from most, and am not clouded by a surface judgement that because Stay Night is old and not done by ufotable, then it must be crap. This is simply not the case. Stay Night has its merits, but on the whole UBW is undoubtedly better on nearly all counts.
The plot here took a lot of turns and twists that as a first time, ignorant viewer, really took me by surprise. This show definitely did not pull any punches, and definitely has the power to shock, especially given that I assumed it would follow the conventions set by Fate Stay Night before it- being very shonen and afraid to kill off any characters. Since Stay Night and Unimited Blade Works both came from the original VN, I expected the writing to be on about the same level, and for the scenarios to play out similarly, but I was very wrong. Perhaps the liberties taken by Deen transformed the original into something it wasn't supposed to be, but UBW stays very true to the source material in adaptation.
This show also addressed all of the questions I had about various plot elements of Fate Stay Night as well- namely addressing the familial issues between Shiro and Illyasviel, Rin and Sakura, and Arthuria explaining to Shiro what happened 10 years prior, during the events of FZ and how he came to be Kiritsugu's son. These were all handled very well, even though two of the three aren't even necessarily related to this route, they were discussed in enough detail to have advanced each of those subplots to an acceptable level, where FSN 2006 had just glossed over them.
The reason I give the story a 7/10 though, mostly lies in the antagonist and secondary antagonist. It's not a spoiler to say that Kirei Kotomine is not a protagonist in this series, however, his role in the plot is so relegated to the sidelines that he might as well have not even been in the show- which is a shame, as he's one of the most fleshed out and awesomely self-conflicted characters in the Fate franchise. His misuse in the show was disappointing, but at least his character was not ruined.
The second major miscue was the primary antagonist. The adversary in UBW's goals are a laughable Machiavellian evil, and come off as nearly a joke. When I heard for the first time what this character's purpose was, I laughed out loud. Where Zero was more about ideology, ethics, and philosophical musings and the actual Holy Grail war itself was merely a backdrop onto which these ideas were cast, in UBW it's the Holy Grail which takes more of the spotlight... and is a weaker plot for it. The first 3/4 of the show was wholly engulfed in the character's ideals clashing , which led to a pair of great episodes where two characters are consumed in an epic struggle of 'self doubt/impossible idealism' VS self actualization and the power of a dream', similarly to Kiritsugu and Saber in Fate Zero.
I think many may have been bored by how 'talky' a series of episodes in the second half were, I think it strengthened the plot by attacking the issues the characters had been building up for half the show head on. The resolution to this was nothing short of quotable, and definitely a high point in the series, where a certain lawful stupid, headstrong, self sacrificing walking shonen trope of character actually has to come to terms with their insufferable ideals, and manages to come out a stronger and maybe even empathetic character.
Enjoyment and Overall: 10, 9
Unlimited Blade Works finally captured the real feeling of Fate for me. This is how Fate was supposed to look, sound, and feel- victorious highs, crushing lows, and some absolute shockers of surprises. Any show that gets me to react in as many different (and strong) ways as this one did has certainly left its mark on me- one I won't be forgetting anytime soon. While I certainly don't think that Fate UBW is a perfect show by any means, it sits high among the most enjoyable and addictive watches I've had the pleasure of experiencing.
The turns in the plot strongly differed from my expectations, and the expectations I had were completely and totally subverted by the time I got to the end. I laughed, I shouted, I even felt a tear welling up in a couple of softer moments. I can say that without a doubt, this was one of the most entertaining anime I've seen, period.
While there were a couple of moments that I thought Fate Stay Night 2006 tackled better, one I can attribute to being a route (of the VN) difference, where Saber was the focus of the plot, and not Rin, but the other was a moment involving Kirei I wish they had also brought over.
One moment from the very last episode that nearly ended in my death from laughter was where Shiro and Rin lampshade the moments from the beginning of the routes (or basically the entirety of Heaven's Feel) called "Cooking with Sakura". BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO COOK BREAKFAST FOR ME
NO IT'S OKAY REALLY
NO BUT YOU REALLY DON'T HAVE TO
I DON'T MIND!
For those who were like me, and real sick of that crap... it's a beautiful moment when ufotable can make fun of the source material.
Another element to the plot I thought was very well handled was the romance. Gone are the harem-esque days of Fate Stay Night 06, (this is lampshaded too, with Taiga saying "What, are you going to have a bunch of girls living with you now?") and in with a show that actually treats its characters with some grace and feeling. The romance doesn't just "happen" as in so many shonens, where the main female characters fawn over anything with a Y chromosome, it actually builds as a result of spending time with each other and sharing mutual experiences that bring them closer together. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was a more affectionate sort of portrayal of the relationship, but alas, that's something that's not in line with Japanese culture.
The Tl;Dr section (I see you skipping to this, losers)
+ Great character development (Shiro especially, but Rin too)
+ Some of the absolute best animation out there
+ Exciting, addictive watch with unexpected twists and turns
+ Dub is fantastic
+/- Forgettable music, but not bad (Brave Shine is awesome)
+/- Dio Brando level bad motives for the villain
FSN 2006 vs UBW
FSN did it better:
-Music
-Atmosphere
-Kirei
UBW did it WAY better:
-Animation
-Characterization, no harems
-Faithfulness to the source
"I found those whose happiness was destined to die and bestowed that honor on them instead. That's what a hero does. I killed one to save many, just as any hero of justice would do." - Archer
