Fate Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works Review

Before I begin this covers everything, season one and two, since I see it as the same series just split. This, if you do not already know is a sort of remake. It is a remake of the film version from 2010, and the 2006 version covered the Fate route, by the name this one covers the Unlimited Blade Works route. So although it shares a similar beginning, it is a different story with the same characters as the Fate route. I will do my best to judge it accordingly since there is too much Rin in the Rin route and not enough Saber in this fantasy series. As always with my series reviews they are relatively spoiler free.

The Plot:

Saber is best girl, I am sorry I just needed to get that out of my system at least once, and there are no promises as I type this that there will not be moments when it is brought up since it is true.

So the story is set in Fuyuki City, Shirou Emiya a boy with no memory of his life prior to ten years ago when the city was engulfed in flames. He is an amateur magus. One day he witnesses a fight unlike any other, and before he knew it he was to take part in the Fifth Holy Grail War. The winner is granted a wish. It is a war where 7 heroic spirits are summoned to fight. The heroic spirits range from beings of legend and what where thought to be of fantasy. Shirou teams up with Rin Tosaka, in an effort to win the grail to make sure the wish does not go into the wrong hands.

The Characters:

Shirou Emiya: Main character, he peruses wanting to be a hero of justice. He tends to use his magic to restore broken objects. The first seven years of his life are unknown, because of the fire that took place in the city that took the life of his parents. He was taken in by Fate/Zero’s main protagonist Kiritsugu Emiya (Fate/Zero came out after this series and can be watched before or after). His servant is Saber.

Saber: The servant of Shirou, she wields the sword covered in a mystic vale. She is best girl. More is known about her in the Fate route, I will say that. Anyway she is loyal, independent, and although appears cold she is emotional. She is very focused at times and thinks of the greater good. There is so much more I would like to say, but unfortunately that has nothing to do with this series. So here are a bunch of Saber pics.

Rin Tosaka: She is a model student and looked up to everyone. She is a Tsundere I might as well say that, she is easily the biggest Tsundere I have ever seen. She is the main heroine of this route. With there being another, but that person does not play much of a role. She uses stones that she has enchanted with mana that she can command to do various things. She was trying to summon Saber only resulted in summoning Archer.

Overall Thoughts:

Besides the obvious above statements that I made above. There is also the fact that I now label all Fate series as my number 4 instead of 5 favorite series, mostly because Bakemonogatari can be tiring at times, but this is a conversation for another day.

Anyway despite this I know this series has flaws. This series much like the other’s in the franchise are well done, even the spinoff loli filled Fate/Kalied is good in terms of action and story. Anyway I do have some problems with this series. The first tweleve episodes were good. I really enjoyed how the prologue followed the day of Rin and really established her as the main heroine. At the same time in the end I do not like Rin, so seeing her too often and seeing her do somethings seemed a little too repetitive in how she acts, but that is a tsundere for you they act in a way that can become predictable. But there are times where she did make logical choices and I support the Shirou and Rin ship.

There is also the “second season” portion with the fighting with Caster occurred. That 4 to 5 episodes, although gave great backstory to Caster, did seem a little dragged on at times. It was at that point where I stopped watching for a few weeks and started to watch them in three episode intervals. The events should have happened; personally I wish they were just done in a quicker fashion. This series is a total of 26 episodes, this is counting the prologue, but not episode 1 and 12 which were an hour long, even then those two episodes I forgot were that long since so much happened and planned out well. If the series aired continuously I do not think that dragging out problem that I felt would not have happened.

Bonus and Minus Points:

? Saber is best girl and sad face for not being able to make this a bonus point

+ Although some lines can be taken out of context and seem poorly written, they have a lot more deeper meaning when given thought

+ Story is decent and different compared to the other route

+ Still is done as well as the other works, since they kept most of the people that worked on Fate/Zero

+ Seeing the Fate route, or Fate/Zero is not necessary to see this one

? Is a much better improvement to the 2010 film version (cannot compare the two to make it a bonus point)

– Seemed a little too long at times, seemed as though they had to fill the episode length and had to drag out some of what was happened

– Caster is pulled off too much like a main villain, but is not which can be a little bit of a bother with how much time was focused on her

+ Many characters were greatly explained on and were given their own development over time.

? Poor Illya and it is no wonder why she got her own spinoff. She was also the character that I was confused for the longest time since I did not understand what loli’s were. She is 18 and a year older than Shirou by the way to not be confused with her appearance.

Overall Score: 90/100 This series although has flaws still manages to make up for it in its other departments be it in story or the deep meaning in the lines or the characters.

The dub is actually coming out soon. The series is Licensed by Aniplex of America and can be seen streamed on Crunchyroll.

Any thoughts on the series, if you saw it?

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As always I hope you enjoyed.

– Joe