Friday, July 27, 2018

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Part 3 Episodes 6-9


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.

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