Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! – Final Impressions

This particular season of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya was something I was looking forward to. Somewhat-different-but-still-best-girl, it premiered on my birthday month, for one, and I honestly couldn’t wait to see Ko-Gil in action coming off from the manga.

Unfortunately, as enjoyable as it still was for me on its own, Silver Link did a mediocre adaptation job here compared to previous seasons. A lot of it isn’t their fault, but at the very end they kind of wrote themselves into a wall, terribly so, especially compared to how the manga version of 2wei flew seamlessly into 3rei.

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works Epilogue & Sunny Day

This makes it the fourth time I’ve seen this shot

Okay, so I’m back to wrap up the Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works post I started ages ago.

Instead of squeezing in the VN’s original epilogue at the end of the previous episode, Ufotable did a great thing by producing an entire extra episode with new material depicting what happens after the original route, alongside the remaining source material. As a result, I think episode 25 in itself is worth watching for readers of the visual novel regardless if you think the rest of the show is a bad adaptation or not (I personally thought it was great, but it was certainly a bit shaky here and there).

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 24 – 「武器の貯蔵は充分か」

-I am the bone of my sword-
体は剣で出来ている。
-Steel is my body and fire is my blood-
血潮は鉄で心は硝子。
-I have created over a thousand blades-
幾たびの戦場を越えて不敗。
-Unaware of Loss-
ただの一度の敗走もなく、
-Nor aware of Gain-
ただの一度の勝利もなし。
-Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one’s arrival-
担い手はここに孤り 剣の丘で鉄を鍛つ。
-I have no regrets. This is the only path-
ならば、わが生涯に意味は不要ず
-My whole life was UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS-
この体は、無限の剣で出来ていた。

We’ve arrived at the “final” episode of Unlimited Blade Works, and thus, the real battle begins. Two owners, two “one-trick ponies”, one Faker. Was it able to satisfy me as a reader of the original visual novel? Find out after the jump.

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 23

Fake Assassin’s battle with Saber here is pretty damn disappointing, with how quickly it all went down. We didn’t even get to hear an anime rendition of Shippu no Kenshi, “Sasaki Kojirou”‘s own theme, in the anime. Dammit Ufotable.

It’s sad because this is the only route where Fake Assassin feels remotely relevant to the plot. He gets killed off-screen (most likely by Gilgamesh) in Fate and gets superseded by True Assassin (Hassan) in Heaven’s Feel. It’s a shame Ufotable didn’t give him much of a bangin’ exit.

It was cool seeing Shirou actually tracing a rain of swords in animation. I absolutely hated how DEEN screwed this up by not having him do that at all in their version of Unlimited Blade Works.

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 22 – 「 Dolphins」

Or rather, uh, sperm whales.

Losing the sex scene from the original visual novel isn’t much of a loss, in my opinion. With Realta Nua, Type-Moon likes pretending that the H-scenes in the original PC version never happened. And they honestly aren’t that necessary in Fate and Unlimited Blade Works. They only ever have a “significant” presence in Heaven’s Feel.

I just wished it was more… romantic though. Not that jackhammerin’ is very romantic, but just saying. For the record, Nasu did not write the sex scenes in Tsukihime (oysters!) or Fate/stay night. I cannot stress how annoying that misconception is. (Okay, it is kind of funny.)

Speaking of romance, love how they added Rin’s reason for falling for Shirou directly from Heaven’s Feel.

(P.S. I am being titillated by Shinji’s suffering)

Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works 21 – 「 My dream is not wrong」

And here marks the anime’s ending of Shirou’s epic therapy session. There were bumpy moments before this episode that made me doubt how they were going to handle the most emotional fight of Unlimited Blade Works, but in the end, Ufotable managed to pull through.

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 20 – 「 I am the bone of my sword」

Back-to-back EMIYA

Looks like it’s time for Shirou’s epic therapy session. Arguably the most entertaining episode yet in terms of presentation. Although I have my gripes, it was… pretty dope.

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 19 – EMIYA

Afternoon News: Sexy Red Man attempts convoluted suicide plan

After a surprisingly weak performance last week, Ufotable manages to pull somewhat of a saving throw with this episode.

I do have minor qualms with what happened this week, but for the most part, I’m extremely satisfied by Ufotable’s efforts.

RE: Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 18 – 「Rin’s contract with Saber」

Something I forgot to mention in my original post: The difference between Ufotable’s fresh Rin!Saber and Saber’s other appearances with Ufotable’s famous blue auras is miniscule to the power surge she had in the visual novel.

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VS.

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Let me give it to you straight: I love Ufotable’s animation. With Ufotable’s talents, they could have easily showed the true extent of how much of a nightmare Saber is at her full potential the minute Rin became her source of mana, but they didn’t. Even though they’ve done quite a bit to impress me so far, they didn’t really do this scene any justice and it’s a damned shame.

Although, despite all that, they managed to do one thing right. And that is: Saber’s ponytail. Now that is excellent. (y)

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 18 – Dropping the ball

I must say… this is the first episode where I’ve been truly, utterly disappointed in Ufotable. Everything about this Unlimited Blade Works episode was just a giant step down from how awesome it could have been.

Experiencing these scenes before, only done better, probably contributed to my disappointment. But it’s not like a lot of my expectations were impossible to pull off within the medium of animation. Ufotable blew my mind with almost everything before this, and to fall short when they’re just getting into the best parts of the route is kind of depressing.