At last, the Holy Grail War has begun again. Having accidentally summoned a servant of his
own, the beautiful knight Saber, Shiro becomes an unwilling participant in the
renewed conflict. Instantly, he becomes
the target of a psychotic child and her hulking Berserker, an unknown classmate
lurking in his school with a chain wielding servant. Even Rin and Archer have made it clear that
Shiro will be their enemy since only one can possess the Grail. Shiro’s only ally is Saber but is she really
powerful enough to fight this war against six of the most powerful heroes from
history all by herself?
Hello class and welcome to Holy Grail War 301 (I guess it
would be a Level 3 course since we’ve dealt with this topic twice
already). Today we have special guest
teachers Rin Tohsaka and Kirei Kotominei to bring everyone up to speed on how
the Holy Grail War works.
Ok all joking aside, if you’ve seen a Fate series already
then the first couple of episodes this week would mostly be skippable cause if
you’ve heard the rules once, you know what they’ll be in most iterations going
forward. Probably my biggest gripe with
this particular go around is Kirei not being a bit more gloating about how he
knew Shiro’s father in the previous Holy Grail War, his eternal rival Kiritsugu
Emiya. More so, not even Saber takes the
moment to tell Shiro, “Oh yeah I knew your dad…he was kind of a jerk.” Or even bigger than that, what about Saber
not reacting to Ilya being an enemy since she was a close friend and bodyguard
to her mother, Irisveil in Fate/Zero? I know I said last time that one could
step into Unlimited Blade Works almost seamlessly from Fate/Zero thanks to Rin
being our intro character. However, that
kind of falls flat here. Legacy was
something about the original Fate series I enjoyed when connections between the
two wars were made and, in turn, it made things all the most important going
into the final battle. Idk, feel like
theres a missed opportunity to turn Shiro’s world upside down with coming face
to face with his fathers arch nemesis.
I will give Shiro this at the very least: he’s an
annoying guy but at least he’s not all “Women shouldn’t battle” like he was in
the 2006 Fate/Stay Night series. He has
no qualms about letting Saber do her thing and he only protects Rin when it’s
most dire (you know spears almost hitting your head would be a bad thing if
someone didn’t offer an arm to take the blow). In fact, all of the femmes of Fate were on
fire this time out. Saber and Berserker
had an amazing throwdown that shows Ufotable’s battle in Fate/Zero weren’t just
a one trick pony. Saber’s elegant sword
skills weren’t the only thing on display against Fate/Stay’s Incredible Hulk
Berserker. I’ll talk a bit more about
Rin in a sec cause ive got a ton of praise for my waifu. I will talk here about the new creepiness
that is Illya. Having checked out
Fate/Zero previously, I can say that Illya, while still a creepy and annoying
brat, is probably one of the most tragic characters in this whole story. She was so sweet and innocent in Fate/Zero
but clearly losing both parents has done something to her. Plus she blames Kiritsugu, who is now dead,
so she’s gonna take out her grief (or twisted snappedness) on Shiro. See what a bit of clarification from a prior
series does for future shows? Doesn’t
change the fact that I don’t care for Illya in the original series. Here’s hoping she does improve here.
As always, Rin continues to provide at of the Fate/Stay
win in my eyes. Sure Saber might have
her own swordskills on lockdown but Rin is one of the most bad as human mages
ever. Her investigation into the
happenings around Fuyuki City and her confrontation with skeletal familiars
reinforces a thought I had from Fate/Zero: that Rin should have a series all
her own about her training to get to the Holy Grail War. She’s like a cuter Constantie without the
cigarettes and a bigger heart under all that Tsundere. It’s still early on in the show but Im sure there
will be plenty of times where I voice my wish to see Shiro removed from this
show all together and for Rin and Saber to pair up (just like Rin wants) and
take this war by storm. I will say that
the chemistry between Rin and Shiro feels legit and for every moment where Rin
cant believe how stupid Shiro to where he saves her life (and keeps making her
indebted to him in the process), there’s a natural growth in what we know is
coming: the inevitable hook up. Rin can
be cold and ruthless but it’s obvious she doesn’t really want to hurt
Shiro…well besides the battle in the school (which was a lot of fun with Rin’s
mastery of the Spirit Gun).
While Unlimited Blade Works looks and feels a lot better
than the Studio Deen Fate/Stay Night, it’s definitely not devoid of
problems. I’ve talked a lot about the
lack of connection acknowledgment with Fate/Zero and Shiro being Shiro. But there’s a couple of timeline nitpicks to
make, mostly with Sakura’s involvement.
I thought that the whole reason the Matoh’s accepted her from Tokiomi
was because they didn’t have a kid to carry on their line, so where the hell
did Shinji come from? Does this mean
Sakura will just be ignored after all that drama she went through in
Fate/Zero? Also, the harem comedy poked
it’s head into this nice little corner.
Shiro trying to balance his homelife with Saber, Sakura and Fujimura
(again how the heck does she know Kiritsugu, who I could never see being
friends with her wackiness) felt out of nowhere and unnecessary for a show
trying to take itself more seriously.
It’s not knocking it out of the park like Fate/Zero but
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works is trying its best to work with what it
has. It is hard to make characters like
Shiro more likeable given how grating he is in any entry. But Rin and improved animation and action and
a deeper connection to Illya and Saber (Thanks to Fate/Zero) are enough for now
to keep things going for the time being.
I just hope that this shows takes advantage of its connections to a
great series and puts them to good use.
Likewise, as good as it is to see Kirei back, I hope he isn’t put off to
the side and can truly take his place as the main villain he was so good at
being in Fate/Zero.
We’ll see how things keep progressing next time.
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