Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 13 – Thoughts

Please be gentle ;_;7

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works second season aired over a dozen hours ago in Japan, but I only just watched it a couple of hours ago. 780p encodes are all this terrible computer can handle. /sadface

Anyways, I wasn’t disappointed by what I saw. But that can be attributed to me already having experienced Unlimited Blade Works through the VN and just wanting to see it done faithfully by talented animators. It’s Ufotable, so it doesn’t take much to satisfy in that regard, but I wonder if the hype was worth it for people who only ever watch anime? That was a pretty killer wait and the hypetrain was like over 100,000,000km. Well, whatever.

The OP animation is fantastic. The song itself, Brave Shine by Aimer, is an alright song. I still think “This Illusion” and “Horizon” fit better with Unlimited Blade Works than anything, but whatever.

The shots of Illya/Berserker, Lancer, Caster, and Assassin standing on water reminds me of the Heaven’s Feel Vita opening.

[spoiler]Also, prepare your heart. Literally.[/spoiler]

Silver platter

Ufotable’s been shoving Archer’s identity down the viewer’s skulls, so a newcomer has to be really, really slow if they haven’t figured it out by now. Especially since this very episode brings up the fact that two of Rin’s one-of-a-kind pendant exists.

C’mon guys.

Oh boy, we finally got the Ufotable version of the scene that started the running gag of Caster being creepily obsessed with Saber.

Have some lewdness, Saber fanboys~

Wait, in the VN, I always thought Archer warmed Rin up with the red cloak ass cape he was wearing.

However, according to the Ufotable anime, HE TRACES A RED JACKET?

Holy shit, that reminds me of DEEN/stay night…

*flashback to 2006*

[spoiler]
Ufotable Archer is DEEN Shirou, confirmed.[/spoiler]

Never speak of this again.

…!!

Ufotable’s expert keyframe transitions makes it look like Archer’s surprised by Rin’s budding lower body. A++

Note Archer’s reaction to Rin saying “Shirou will probably be able to make a new pact with Saber.”

Zerobabbies: “Why is Archer one of the most popular characters when he betrays Rin and joins Caster? Fucking jerk! Gilgamesh is a muuuuuch better Archer.”

[spoiler]Caster’s identity is deduced to be Princess Medea by Archer. Throughtout the visual novel, Shirou shows himself to be quite savvy when it comes to ancient mythologies (c’mon, what average Japanese high schooler knows crap like Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrianism devil?) and even deduced Gilgamesh’s identity before any of the Zero mofos did, so Archer could have just put the pieces together right there and then. But I personally think that he already knew her identity from his version of Fate/stay night. [/spoiler]

Assuming you haven’t seen the UBW movie, if you’re an anime-only fan of the Fate franchise, this is probably the first time you see Rin break out of her tough “ideal magus” facade.

Although, I’ve forgotten if they’ve already did so in DEEN filler…

I bet anime-only fans are shocked that a male character actually confessed their feelings to a female character.

Which will kind of perplex me since a lot of people shit on the DEEN anime, but Shirou also confesses to Saber in that one, which will make me once again question if they actually watched it and shit on it for its actual flaws or because of “lol old animation”.

[spoiler]Like people who watched the DEEN anime that still don’t know Archer’s identity, for some magical reason.[/spoiler]

Ufotable’s solid effort really shows when you compare the animated scene to the original VN. The Shirou/Rin scene in the VN was always my favorite confession scene among the three heroines, but I actually like Ufotable’s better, especially with them being given new appropriate attire.

Anywho, the next episode is called コルキスの王女 (Princess of Colchis), which will most likely be an expanded version of Caster’s background story. I’m looking forward to ufotable possibly adding their own expanded scenes, plus details from side materials. Like extra Illya’s scenes + her experiences before the 5th Holy Grail War (calling it, since Illya is strangely prominent in the Ufotable trailers), Kuzuki’s backstory as a child assassin, etc.

[SPOILER]

And last but not least, Archer’s life as Emiya Shirou post-5th Holy Grail War. Preferably his Kamen Rider days as shown in Fate/Extra CCC.[/SPOILER]