With Shiro in dire need of proper training, Rin forges an
alliance with him to teach him all she knows about magic. Even Saber decides to teach her master the
art of swordsmanship to better prepare Shiro for the trials to come. Meanwhile, Shinji Matoh makes his presence
known in the Holy Grail War with a simple ultimatum: if Rin and Shiro wont side
with them, he’ll kill them both. The
High School becomes a battleground and the lives of innocents are on the
line. But as the battle rages, a servant
with an unseen master makes her own moves to prepare for her own assault on the
other Masters and Servants. Caster and
Assassin enter the fray, but whom do they serve?
The more episodes I watch of UBW or Fate/Stay Night in
general, the harder it is to take Shiro Emiya seriously in any capacity. His dreams of becoming a “hero of justice”
are his one and only “friend” at times, as he believes in them so blindly that
he ignores when people tell him he might want to rethink his career goals. But that wont stop Shiro from trying his
damndest…even if that involves forcibly stripping his best friend in order to
see if he has Master Command Seals on his body…yep that happened.
In fact, a lot of Shiro screentime was spent being the
end of everyones joking, from Rin to Fujimura to Archer. And honestly, Rin is the only person who is
legitimately trying to help Shiro survive this war. Saber appears to be training him in swordplay
but it looks more like she’s beating the mess out of Shiro to show him how
useless he is in a fight and how she should handle every bit of combat going
forward…and I’m ok with that. And
Archer, oh man, Archer just wants Shiro dead.
But before Archer decided to try and slice Shiro to pieces, we got some
actually good banter between the white haired warrior and the wannabe
hero. I said that Rin and Archer had the
bickering of a romantic couple, but that goes double for Shiro and Archer, who
spend most of the battle with Caster trying to one up each other in
comebacks. It was actually so
entertaining that when Archer actually tried to kill Shiro, it was kind of
shocking. Finally, someone is fed up
with his crap.
In and around that twist, we got some more great action. Saber vs. Assassin is one of the best fights
ive seen so far in all of Fate/Stay Night.
Their little rivalry was one of the few things I never complained about
with the Studio Deen series but thanks to Ufotable, the dance of swords between
Arthurian Knight and Japanese Samurai has never looked more elegant. Between Assassin and an army of mindless
Gollems, Saber really got a chance to cut loose. So did Archer too for that matter as he got
to square off with the clearly OP Caster and actually knock that arrogant smirk
off of her face. All in all, my gripes
at the characters for their ever present and growing flaws aside, the action of
Fate/Stay Night can save most episodes, well most of the time.
If there is one character who is really trying my patience
besides Shiro, it’s Shinji. I’ve already
covered how his existence in the Matoh family basically negates Sakura being
sold to that family in Fate/Zero. But
his slimy smugness is starting to border the obnoxious level of Gilgamesh, only
he hasn’t started using “mongrel” in every other sentence. He’s a sick and twisted kid and it was good
to see Rin and Shiro both give him the beating her deserved after he almost
destroyed an entire school to get an edge in the war. However, you cant ignore poor Rider’s all to
brief existence. Just a couple episodes
ago she seemed like a legit threat when she almost killed Shiro. But the poor, sexily dressed warrior got
annihilated off screen (shudders at the twisted neck state, damn this show can
be graphic). As to who killed her, was
it Caster or someone else, we’ll never know.
But Shinji’s not out of the running with Rider dead. No Kirei’s giving him a new servant and I
have a pretty good idea of who that could be.
Oh Rin Tohsaka. I
would never be one to stand in her way of doing anything but the girl can do so
much better than Shiro when it comes to love interests. Ok fine, my neverending Shiro bashing aside,
Rin had some good moments with her hardheaded classmate. From lunch on the roof to fighting side by
side to forcing Shiro against a wall to hide him from Gilgamesh (lucky bastard
complaining about her chest being to close), the only reason I like this little
romance is because of Rin. Whereas Shiro
cant see two steps beyond “I MUST SUCCEED AT BEING A HERO”, Rin is the more
honest and natural reaction to this cute bit of young love. The more she sees what Shiro can endure, for
himself and for her, the more you can see how much she is growing to accept
him…except when Shiro told her what he did to Issei, that is something Rin
shouldntve just dropped. She’s scolded
Shiro over less.
One last little gripe I had at the close of this set of
episodes. Once again, Fujimura brings up
Kiritsugu and Shiro’s childhood. And
again, Saber doesn’t pull Shiro aside to say “hey I knew your dad and I think
you’re doing better than he ever did.” I
feel like this is an important part of Shiro and Saber’s partnership together
and I think it’s just wasted opportunity when Saber hears how different Shiro
is from her ex-master and how she seems to be surprised by how much Kiritsugu
had changed after they parted ways.
Connections like that can go a long way, it might even get Shiro to
rethink his priorities a little bit. At
least, once again, Rin came in for a save as we saw her checking in on Sakura
and alluded to their separation in Fate/Zero.
Though with Shinji still in the running for the Matoh’s, I cant imagine
Sakura having much to do in this series.
And after so much build up for her in Fate/Zero, that’s a shame.
Believe it or not, we’re halfway through Unlimited Blade
Works when we return next week. Expect
more Rin praise and more Shiro bashings and probably some more praise for
Ufotables production values. See ya
then.
No comments:
Post a Comment