The story of the Holy Grail is a well-known legend that already inspired numerous movies and books. Therefore, having an anime on this subject is not surprising, but it’s still an intriguing mixture of cultures. In 2004, the Japanese game company Type-Moon released the visual novel “Fate/stay night”, a very long game including 3 different versions (routes) of one story. The release was a huge success, and rapidly secured the title of the highest selling visual novel in 2004. Consequently, a lot of adaptions followed: manga, anime, light novels, video games…
Fate: Unlimited Blade Works (UBW) is the adaptation of the second route of the original game, I highly recommend watching Fate/Stay night and Fate/Zero before UBW. Since it’s another version of the same story, the story alone is understandable for the Fate neophyte but there will be references that you will not get.
The story takes place in the city of Fuyuki, Emiya Shirou is a normal hardworking student, with the exception of his heavy past: his parents died in a fire when he was a kid and he was saved by a man called Kiritsugu Emiya, which is no longer of this world. These events cause Shirou to be a very altruistic person, helping others even when it’s at his expense.
After staying late at school to clean the archery dojo, Shirou stumbles upon a battle between two magical beings called Servants. Servants are the reincarnation of heroes of all time, superhuman warriors fighting in the Holy Grail War under the command of 7 Master, sorcerers seeking the Grail. Of course Shirou didn’t know any of that when witnessing the scene and is quickly spotted despite trying to stay hidden. One of the two servants, for the sake of the secrecy of the war, goes after Shirou and pierce his heart with a spear. But Shirou didn’t die that night, his life was saved by an unknown person and he finds himself unwillingly carried in a secret war between magi.
This story is sublimated by the best animation I’ve seen for an anime TV series: everything is full of details, the scenery is a spectacle even in the most banal scenes, the movements are fluid and natural and the fight scenes incredibly rich.
Concerning the sound, the voice acting doesn’t fail the iconic characters and the music has some really good themes and even after finishing the show I like listening to the OST of UBW.
I’ve been told several times that 10 is maybe a little high for this anime, but Unlimited Blade Works really matched my expectations for the second route of the Visual novel.
