The Holy Grail War begins to take its toll on Shiro. Having barely survived encounters with Shinji
Matoh and Kuzuki and their servants, the young man begins to wonder if he’s
really cut out to participate in this war.
With Saber and Archer questioning Shiro’s health, Rin decides to take
her ally out on a date. However, as Rin
and Shiro’s feelings for each other begin to blossom, Caster returns, holding
someone close to Shiro as a hostage. Come
the end of this fight, the tide will change for both Shiro and Rin. Alliances will be broken and strength will be
tested like never before. Will the
growing bond between Shiro and Rin survive?
Man does it suck to be Shiro Emiya right now…well more
than usual. He’s lost his command seals,
his servant and even his would be girlfriends turned his back on him. Granted he was in a difficult spot but let’s
face it, it’s all Shiros fault he is where he is right now. Let’s backtrack shall we?
Things got off to a literal hard hitting start with the
reveal of Mr. Kuzuki being the 4th master in school. I have to say, it’s a little ironic that 2
Caster servants in 2 Holy Grail Wars have had Masters that pretty much could
care less about the Holy Grail so long as they can do their own thing…and
theyre both killers? Whereas Ryunosuke
showed nothing short of joy at the horror he reaped upon Fuyuki City, Kuzuki is
more quiet and zen about it, even down to his insane fighting style that allows
him to go toe to toe with a servant like Saber.
I couldn’t help but think of The Terminator as he plowed through Saber,
Rin and Shiro like they were nothing.
Clearly Caster is a fan of being allowed to act freely, plus she’s in
love with Kuzuki so I guess that’s a bonus?
In any case, Kuzuki and Caster have both stepped onto the board as the
greatest threats so far in the series.
Finally, at long last, Fujimura’s true purpose, what her
pointless scenes have all been building toward, was revealed in this set…to be
a hostage that leads to Shiro’s downfall.
I’d say I was worried but I wasn’t since Fujimura is and will continue
to be one of the most pointless members of this cast. Now if Caster had taken Rin hostage and
forced Shiro into his no win scenario, I’dve been a bit more worried. Nevertheless, it all came down to one poorly
timed decision on Shiro’s end that saw his philosophy thrown right back into
his face with disastrous consequences.
In order to save Fujimura, he accidentally caused Saber to stand down
and thus she was turned into Caster’s slave via the Rule Breaker blade. In truth, I feel worse for Saber being turned
against her friends rather than Shiro, who botched everything cause his hero
complex makes it impossible for him to realize even he can lose badly (like he
has throughout this whole series but has shrugged it off cause he has a Wolverine
level healing factor thanks to Saber…that’s gone now too btw).
Naturally, the person I feel the worst for at the end of
the day will always be Rin. The poor
girl went out of her way to help Shiro, both in battle and in his love
life. Aside from the battle with Kuzuki,
the big highlight from this set was the date Rin went on with Shiro, with Saber
tagging along as well. It felt like a
true outing of two kids falling for each other, though one cant wrap his head around
it cause he’s an idiot and cant see that Rin is cute and wants to be with
him…ahem im getting off on a tangent again.
And Saber wasn’t a third wheel either as Rin made sure she was included
in many of their activities, especially the batting cage scene (was also nice
to see how insync Rin and Saber were, reinforcing how awesome this show would
be if it was just them and no pesky Shiro to get in the way). It was also good to see Rin and Shiro share
why they both got into magecraft in the first place. I’ll always be wowed that Kiritsugu learned
from his massive screw ups in Fate/Zero and tried to push Shiro down a better
path rather than just continue the family legacy like Rin’s father did for his
daughter. Naturally Shiro wasn’t totally
listening but im not getting into that again.
The second big highlight was the complete 180 of how the “season finale”
began. Rin coldly turned her back on
Shiro. Knowing Rin, I doubt she means
any of the things she said but she isn’t wrong.
Shiro is now totally useless to her or anyone in the war and he’s going
to really, really, REALLY die if he keeps going. In order to keep the one she cares about the
most safest, Rin had to push Shiro away and steel her resolve. It makes her practical and logical but also
more beautiful than ever knowing her heart will not let Shiro go entirely. Once again, Shiro Emiya, you do not deserve
the awesomeness of Rin Tohsaka.
I should note that Episode 12 serves as the
aforementioned “Season Finale” of Unlimited Blade Works, the conclusion of the
first half. As such, it was extended
into another 45minute episode (that makes 3 now including the two prologues for
Rin and Shiro). I cant really see why
this had to be since there was plenty that could have either been cut or moved
to another episode. Archer and Rin’s chat,
along with Caster and Assassin’s could have been axed all together and we could
have cut to Shiro recovering before Caster took a shot at taking down Kirei
(who was finally back in action). There
were some important clues planted throughout, especially in regards to Archer’s
true identity. Overall, the extended
length was kind of a minor hinderance, I guess but I’ll still think the finale
should have been a two parter instead.
Well we got some good action, some solid character work
(except Shiro who is pretty much stationary) and even some nice humor and
romance to close out the first half of Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade
Works. With the pieces all scattered
across the board, it’ll be interesting to see how everything comes together in
the second half. We’ll see how that all
kicks off on Wednesday when the reviews continue. See you then.