Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Part 2 Episodes 2-5


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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