UTS Anime Review: Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works 

I completely disagree about Shirou being a, "self insert" character, because his level of kindness felt genuine, and he fits the definition of a 3 dimensional character: general personality, inner demons/backstory, and a resolution.

I agree with some of your points but I disagree with your points of Shirou, the series greatest flaw is that it relies on all 3 routes to tell a complete story with every character getting focus and backstory laid out across them with no single route doing everything and they all fit together like a puzzle, as a VN reader I can tell you that while I did have some complaints with the anime is very largely a good adaptation and Shirou is nowhere near generic, as for your point on Shirou's growth I'd highly diagramed wth UBW as his biggest growth, his biggest change is by far in Heaven's Feel, taken as a whole I put FSN on par with Garden of Sinners, it just doesn't quite translate to an anime as well as other materials do. I gave UBW an 8

"Just because you're correct, doesn't mean you're right."~Shirou Emiya

I always thought Shirou was a very compelling character, but I admit my introduction to him was somewhat unorthodox, and thusly may have painted all his actions in a different light for me. I saw him first in a very good piece of Fanfiction, in which his (quite frankly very messed up and distorted) personality was a rather well portrayed, and so his motivations were always very dualistic to me when I read the source material right after. Shirou's selfless actions ARE, in fact, selfless. This is more horrifying then I think people give it credit for. Likewise, think how little he actually genuinely smiles. When is Shirou Happy? REALLY Happy? He's so interesting a foil/Contrast to Kotomine, a person I think is both very simalar to him and yet hopelessly different at the same time, that it's almost poetic. Likewise, Gilgamesh, as well, in that you have the epitome of ego versus the utter lack of one, but I think Kirei is a more interesting comparison. Further, if you examine the series at large, the mere fact that Shirou can have a reality marble means that his "State of Mind" can no longer be said to truly human. He's closer to a Spirit or a True Ancestor in terms of his Mind Set. He's so fucked up in the head, it's his super power. Further, the fact that what makes him messed up has manifested in what SHOULD be admirable altrustic qualities... No...I would call Shirou many things, but not Generic. Still, I can definitely understand what you mean. He's the sort've character where if he's not portrayed correctly, he can seem to be standard run of the mill shonen fodder. No question. Furthermore I think he works better when in literary form, where you can actually see inside his head and get some understanding of how twisted his thought process actually is.

First things first: This series was NEVER meant to be a starting point for Fate fans, especially considering the Fate/Zero references. Not to mention some of the points, such as some servants disappearing for long periods of time, has to do with the source material. They took 3 routes to get well flushed out and since UFOTable wanted to be loyal to the original story didn't shove new things in. Unlike the Zero and 2006 Stay/Night comparison, you are supposed to have watched at least the prequel of Fate/Zero, which i believe is clearly indicated by how it is referenced. Having that much background gives a lot more depth and weight to characters that are lacking in this series, such as Illya and Gilgamesh. Shirou does get his decent amounts of development, though falls a little short. And I disagree about the pacing. Whether either part was fast or slow, the shows transition between the pacing was fine. Going from the fight with Caster to the beginning of the second core, there really don't seem to be any issues of pacing. The ending as well I believe wasn't meant to be climactic, but oh well. Overall, and this is coming from a reader of the VN, I don't think this is a bad adaptation. It's not the best sure, and not AS good as some fans would like it to be. However I see the Fate series as a journey that stems beyond each individual series. From UBW, to Zero to even the original 2006 adaptation, every part serves its own purpose of giving you the full Fate experience. While it's a shame UBW didn't have enough changed to make it better on its own, the loyalty UFOTable had is a tribute to the story in itself.

CHANNEL UPDATE: This marks the end of Fate/Month. I'll be going back to my regular schedule with a new video coming out every Friday. I've got a pretty good idea of the next few reviews I'm going to do but am always open to suggestions. It was fun taking a look at this franchise, and you can expect a Heaven's Feel review as soon as it comes out.

Saying Rin is a basic tsundere is way to harsh, she actually has a true character that makes sense with her backstory. Also she was written before something like those classification existed. I find the pacing matches the VN ones well and conveys the feeling of the VN. It might be a bit too slow for an anime but when shit hits the fan in season 2 the fast pacing matches its narrativ. Althought I would say that second season coudl have used an additional extra long episode somewhere in there. bizzarly ther eis a lot of cut material from the second season on the Blueray.

Have you read the VN? As someone who has, it's definitely the best adaptation of a novel I've seen. Most adaptations I generally leave thinking that I'd rather just read the book, but Ufotable's UBW successfully brought everything I wanted out of the route and more. My only real complaint is poor Shirou development pacing. Almost none in the first half, which made the 2nd half seem rushed and a bit strange.

For me this show is on the invisible line that separates very good from great

Comparing this to fate/zero is tricky. zero has the better 1st half, but they both have really good second halves. i could say more, but im too lazy

This was a really good review, and I agree with a lot of your points, but that being said I just had a blast with this series from beginning to end, its easily become my favorite anime thus far. Of course I've also read the VN and know a bunch of Type-Moon's work, so I already knew what to expect in terms of content, if I had only watched Kara no Kyoukai and Fate/Zero, then this series would've been disappointing. 5/5 for me, had a few problems with the pacing and Shirou's development was lacking at times, but they kept the core story of UBW intact, and that's all I needed. Onward to Heaven's Feel. Whenever that is.

Thanks for pointing out that this is a bad starting point for newcomers. I've seen so many people recommend it first because Zero will spoil UBW to some extent but seriously, that's bullshit. You won't even realize it's a spoiler unless you've seen UBW already. This is just all around, a terrible place to start.

I'm a sucker for the poetic idealism, so this anime will always be stuck as my favorite one, probably also due to it being one of my first anime.

I think Ufo did a good job in portraying how fucked up Shirou is in the head. Gotta read between the lines. I get alot of the monologues were cut out, but his reactions to certain situations and words said to him say alot about his character. His expressions mean thousands of words and they all connect together to create an emotionally distorted person. It frustrates me how people say he's a generic harem protagonist. Do generic MCs have a distorted sense of reality to the point where they'll throw down any worry about their lives, live only for the sake of others, but never for themselves? Only being happy when others are happy, but never happy for your own accomplishments. There are alot of shots of his face where he looks traumatized and fucked up. Does any sort of person want to be like that at all? Issei pointed out his selfless habit of helping others for no return. Mitsuzuri points out how he never genuinely smiles. Rin asks Shirou how he's not affected by the unconscious bodies of his classmates when she was. Rin noticed his lack of reaction to his hand getting impaled by Riders attack, which anybody should be crying out in pain, but instead he went hero mode and chased rider not for the sake of being a hero despite walking into a death trap with 0 chance of success, but because someones life in danger, Rin can't defend herself while saving the girl and he had to get Rider's attention away from them. Lastly Rin finally puts the final nail to the coffin where she explains to him how he's living his life is not normal. The people Shirou surrounds him with notice how abnormal his behaviour is, pointing out very human traits that he seems to lack. I gathered all this watching only the anime, I haven't read the VN at all and even I can point out all this and I haven't even started. It may not have had all of the monologues VN readers were hoping to get, but the visuals pretty much speak for itself. You gotta connect the dots with all his interactions with people that know him. Granted I'd definitely understand him even more by reading the VN, but I'm satisfied with the journey of Rin fixing his already broken mind and start to love himself more, creating a healthy balance between idealism and reality. Show less

To be honest, while Zero was amazing, the only thing that kept me watching at times was Rider's character. With UBW(my introduction to the series), I couldn't stop watching until the end. I was thoroughly engaged and the pacing was perfect for me. The only problem I had with the series was that at some points Rin's character was weakened simply because she didn't have MC status, so that Shirou could be a bit more of hero in certain moments where I felt like she could've and should've been able to handle herself.

UBW is a victim of it's source material. It's a good show but it never reaches greatness like Fate/Zero. Adapting 1/3 of a fully fleshed out story is difficult but given the fact that they chose to adapt this route, I think they deserve blame for the flaws this sort of adaptation caused. The characters are just so sub par b/c they focus on plot/action over everyone except Shirou/Archer & (kind of) Rin. Kirei had a joke of a character arc after a brilliant build up in Zero, Saber lost all of her brilliant complexity & internal struggles, Sakura is hardly even a character after being pivotal to Kariya's arc, Gilgamesh is reduced to a typical "destroy the world" villain, Rin is a solid and charming female lead but still rather shallow & generic which holds her back, & Shirou's ideals are stupid. I only really liked Rin, Archer & Lancer, and even they weren't up to Zero's standard. At the end of the spectacle, I just had a shallow feeling because the characters are all so one dimensional

God I haaaaateee the second half of UBW. Both halves of Fate are good and all of Heaven's Feel is great EDIT: Re-read the VN New scores Fate: 7/10 UBW: 9.5/10 HF: 10/10 Totally changed my mind

for me this is one of the best anime out there. i actually prefer UBW over ZERO. although i did cry with ZERO.

To be honest, I really enjoyed the series, and really liked Shirou here.

One of the major things that bothers me about criticism of the UBW anime as a standalone series is the issue about Sakura, Ilya & Kotomine. Within the confines of the anime itself they mostly act as agents responsible for certain events but beyond that they have little impact on the characters. Not exploring them is not a disservice o the story as exploring them in too much depth would just needlessly expand on characters that for the most part exist to forward the plot. That these characters should have greater importance is something only someone that has watched the other F/SN material would feel. Otherwise the time they get is largely proportionate to the role that they play here.

Um 'Shonen MC' 'Shonen' IT'S A SEINEN. GODDAMMIT, NOT YOU TOO.

I honestly thought this was better than Zero

Overall, I liked this review. You essentially gave it the same score that I did, with similar problems stated. You have a good voice for this and your visual presentation is stellar. However, your reasoning was a little drawn out, as you stated the same points over and over again. Perhaps elaborating on Caster or Lancer a little would help give the video a more complete and concise feel. Otherwise, I agree for the most part, but I have a far more positive feeling towards it overall.

I think Shirou had TONS of development. He just happens to be stubborn and clings to his ways. The entire show was about him questioning his ideals repeatedly, and ultimately sticking with them. I don't think high or low character development has much to do with how much the character changes. I think it's more about how much we learn about them, how much they change, and how much they consider changing, potentially change, or almost change but don't. I do think he could have changed a bit in other ways as a result of general social interactions and separate from his inner ideological strife, but we should also remember that this war is pretty short. It's basically the opposite of the problem surrounding Subaru and Emilia in Re:Zero (unrelated to Fate) - Emilia and Subaru had plenty of interactions, it's just not necessarily all on screen. Days pass by quickly in Re:Zero, unlike in Fate. Incidentally, my all-time favourite anime are Re:Zero, Fate Zero, and this. I appreciate your analysis and I'm glad you've rated Fate Zero 4.8 naked Gils out of 5. I do disagree also about the sound track of UBW, I think it was really nice, and the moments of silence were sometime fitting and intentional. But I half agree, and I also agree that original Fate had even better music (especially for its time) that gave Fate a memorable-ness and mystique like nothing else. I, too, absolutely love Brave Shine and Last Stardust, and I agree about which episode was the best. I pretty much agree with you on almost all aspects of UBW and especially Fate Zero, though I would rate UBW a fair bit higher, with Fate Zero still topping it. One really nice BGM for me in UBW was the one from season 2's first episode with Shirou before they play the new intro song (wow, double awesome I guess). Cheers

It might not be as great as an anime but it is a faithfull adaptation. I even adapted the slow paceing at the middle from the VN and on a second watch it has so many little nods in it. Saber and Ilyas backstory is given in Fate Zero and i firmly belive UBW is ment to be seen after Zero for it seems Ufotable created UBW with F/Z in the back of their heads.

I know people keep saying that you shouldn't watch the Studio Deen adaptation of the Fate route because this is out, but I highly disagree if you haven't gone through the VN. If you are an anime only watcher, Studio Deen is really only the way to start in my opinion. I know it is the worst of the bunch and not really a great show, but I feel it is necessary for people to go through the original Fate route to watch Fate/Zero, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel even if it means slogging through that show. Everything makes far more sense that way since all these shows build up on each other. They're like layers that make the whole and that's why I believe Fate has such a high barrier of entry. There are a lot of prerequisites to enjoy it as a series even more so than others. I think lots of your problems with this show lie with that. I know you've seen the original adaptation, but UBW in my honest opinion is not meant to stand on its own. You're supposed to watch it with the original Fate route actively in mind. That's why characters reappear and disappear. Gilgamesh doesn't really need more development or appearances than what is necessary because his development is covered in the original Fate adaptation and route. That's why characters like Berserker and Ilya aren't covered as deeply because they had their stories explained and shown in Fate. If you watch it with the idea that this show isn't a standalone, but something that builds off another work, it really comes together a lot better. If you look at it from that perspective, they don't focus on Kirei and Gilgamesh as much because it would be redundant. They already showed and said their piece on those characters elsewhere. It doesn't need to be repeated here. I also think that if you look at Shirou as a character that develops and grows from the previous route to who he becomes in UBW it feels far more satisfying. You see the parallels in Shirou's growth and things make sense throughout the show with the first Fate route actively in mind, but that being said, I didn't have your problems with Shirou. He's a man of ideals and carries them out fully. He's not a man of compromises and in betweens. Once he adopts a new ideal or changes his thoughts on an existing one, he quickly goes in that direction causing full 180s. It can seem jarring since it seems too fast, but for Shirou, it isn't. It's consistent with what we know about him as a person who is very extreme in his beliefs. I think he develops really well in UBW all things considering. Well, those are just my thoughts on the whole thing.

The fact that they don't give a valid reason for shirou to follow his ideas during the fight with archer leaves them to sound more like teenage stubbornness and stupidity that actual ideology leaving many viewers to think of shirou as nothing more than a stubborn brat

I mean, one thing that REALLY bugged me was the fact that they didn't even explain Shirou's projection properly. They didn't even explain what the two swords Archer and Shirou use. They didn't even explain the steps of projection. I know UBW was made mainly for VN readers, but fuck you Miura for ignoring us anime only fans. They didn't explain how his projections were inferior, they didn't explain his affiliation with swords, his origin and element being sword, how his projections are different to graduation air. The only connection they made with Shirou and Archer was their projection abilities, which wasn't even explained. There's no way all this information wasn't introduced in the UBW route of the VN. (Theres a difference between referencing information from an earlier route and introducing information to a route). So what I'm saying is, was his origin and projection introduced in the Fate route? Without explaining his origin, it's hard to analyse the connection between his character and his origin. The only thing that slightly connected it was his different Aria "I am the bone of my sword.".

I would say this show was about as good as Kara no Kyoukai. Both shows had strong episodes and some very weak ones which hurt it overall. Like you have the fantastic episode 5 and then the weak episode 6 in KnK. My biggest beef with UBW is the presentation was not done as well as it could have been. Some of the development was TOO subtle. In many cases you would only know what the development was if you had actually read the original work. Just like in KnK you have to pay very close attention to the details even though I thought it was not necessary to be so subtle about it. For example many viewers could not understand the actions Shirou took during the bridge scene with Caster where Taiga was being choked to death. It was the episode which showed Shirou at the highest moment of happiness and despair all within the same scene.

When I found out that UBW was getting animated instead of the 2006 version, I was bummed for 5 seconds, then was elated to see how it will be told. I was blown away by the animation, Yuki Kajiura's music, and the story.

Aimer ("to love" in French) is pronounced "émé".

Shirou is complex than you think just anime does not able to show it properly.

Interesting that in your Fate Stay Night review you mention that Emiya's refusal to let Saber fight seemed sexist to you. But you didn't mention that here, even though his behavior in UBW was far worse. In FSN Saber gets at least a few cool battles. In here, almost nothing. And even if she is a badass warrior, due to Shiro's behavior she's more a damsel in distress than anything else.

Now, don't quote me on this, as I haven't the ability to get my hands on the visual novel, but I feel that due to the sheer writing and exposition present in Fate/stay night, being a visual novel, it's too hard to fit it in perfectly within a 24 or so episode series. It seems all the stay night adaptations suffer the same fate... it's the same with the very less-than-Stellar Tsukihime adaptation. However fate/zero was a manga, which contains far less writing than what's essentially a book. Maybe if Fate/stay night was a much longer series, it could've been better spread out, but I'm not sure. Though, personally, I loved the whole series (2006, UBW, and Zero). Looking forward to Last Encore and Heaven's Feel.

A major contrast I have noticed is the difference in opinion between people who are fans of the anime because they read the VN before getting into the UBW anime & people who hadn't read the VN & were fans because of Fate/Zero. To the former (to which I belong) UBW meets all the hype because we already know the internal thoughts of the characters that drive them & the additional information about the characters from the other two routes, as such their actions are evaluated under that lens. But for people who are looking at this as their introduction to Fate/Stay Night the actions of some characters (especially Shirou) would make them appear generic shounen or plain stupid as their reasoning is unclear. Shirou could be considered to be a deconstruction (followed by reconstruction?) of a altruistic selfless Shounen 'untalented/average boy thrust into extraordinary circumstances' type hero. In Shirou we see just how damaged/abnormal a person has to be to maintain that sort of ridiculously selfless & optimistic outlook. If the damage/abnormality is not clear then he appears to be a generic shounen hero, but when it is clear then he becomes much more interesting as a character.

I really enjoyed UBW, since I only had seen Deen's version of the anime, this was for me sooo fuckin epic and a great change, even if Deen's work about Fate route wasn't really enjoyable I decided to give it a chance, and damn! it was the BEST decision ever! now I´m watching F/Z and after that I think I'll read the VN. 9.5/10 for me.

I am surprised you didn't talk about the sound. Dialogue is clear throughout, but somewhere along the way I realized that the fate franchise overuses the same sounds for combat to a frankly distracting extent.

I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for this but I really disliked this anime's portrayal of Rin. Rin was my favorite character in the visual novel but this anime went wayyy too tsundere with her.

Great review though. I'd give it an 8/10 overall. It's still a very good show, but it just has the unfortunate luck to being inevitably compared to Zero, which is masterful.

This the best anime series.

I thought the soundtracks by Hideyuki Fukusawa were really memorable and great :/ Every time i play one of the soundtracks from both CDs blind, i can instantly remember the scene, and it's an opinion i share with several other friends. Yuki Kajiura's work from fate/zero was bloody fantastic, but since she carries a trait of "rehashing" the kajiura meta, it felt more lack luster compared to UBW, as it didnt have a unique identity FOR fate/zero and rather more, YUKI KAJIURA. At least, that is what i think.

I loved the soundtrack far more than Kaijura's OST from Fate/Zero I'm still stunned how you mispronounced Aimer.

While I do like the Fate series including this anime and would have liked a higher rating with more complements, I have to say that I do agree with the reviewer on the points he mentioned for deducting points. I guess 'disappointing' is still a term too strong to summarize the assessment as the reviewer did in this review, but again, that opinion is does not seem to be on extreme bias as well. If I could have say anything about the review, it would be that I would have liked the reviewer to restate his reasons for the points he gave in a more concise manner. Because he already made the points clear with explanations in each section before the final thoughts, mentioning the points and giving explanations for those points all over again makes his reasons seem like an excuse for a weak argument. I don't know why but that's the impression that I got while watching the final thoughts part. I'm guessing it's because the conclusion, or final thoughts, was a "wordy" repetition of previous contents rather than a summary. In fact, I got an impulse to make an opposing claim for his summary of the assessment even when I had previously agreed to the review through out the whole video up until the final thoughts part. I only chose not to because I looked back at myself and realized the content of video before final thoughts and the contents of the final thoughts are the same. So it would not make sense for me to agree to the one but oppose the other when they are practically the same thing.

Hey Jack I have a question. I know your looking forward to Heaven's Feel next year but would you have preferred ufotable adapt it as a series rather than a movie trilogy? I mean sure there's gona be 3 movies to tell the story but you just know some content is gonna get cut out due to the format just like with the Berserk trilogy

I watched UBW before Zero knowing that it's a bad entry point for the series. I guess it's personal preference if you have decent memory like me.

I would say that UBW is actually an adaptation made for fans of the VN while maintaining its exessibility to newcomers. There are so many small details from the VN it makes my heart feel good everytime i spot a new one on rewatches. IT has great rewatchvalue even on multiple rewatches. Something you cant say about many shows.

Under The Scope Reviews This series is a 7.5/10 to me. Due to me being a VN reader, I had extremely high expectations because of how Ufotable did on their past TYPE-MOON works. What I didn't keep in mind was the person who was directing the show, the same person who directed Kara No Kyoukai Movie 6. Although he did a considerably better job with this series, I still feel that he shouldn't of been chosen to direct a TYPE-MOON series. He's a phenomenal episode director and he makes great game openings(he made the PS Vita openings for Fate, UBW, and Heaven's Feel,) but sadly, he's not the right fit for adapting TYPE-MOON works. Although I enjoyed this series the whole way through, it's the second season which drops the score so much for me, for the same reasons as you. The pacing was inconsistent, and while there were great moments, those weren't enough to compensate for the faults IMO. Regarding the soundtrack, they lowered the volume on purpose for the TV broadcast on purpose and kept the volume normal for the Blu-rays. Also, I don't believe this will make up for the inconsistency in character development, but they cut out a lot of scenes in season 2 due to having to fit the episode in the allotted time. A lot of Shirou's development was definitely cut out from the VN in the first season, and for no reason, even some of his actions were changed in his interactions with Rin(such as making him seem oblivious many times in the first season when he's actually messing with Rin on purpose or cutting out Shirou's infatuation with Archer's swords to make it look like Shirou's projection of Archer's swords is coming out of no where.) The first season was adapted good, but the second season was adapted poorly, except for episodes 20,24, and 25(which expanded on the visual novel's ending,) and however great episode 20 was, it differed greatly from the source material(which was a little bit better in that scene) but the same themes and message got across, so it's fine with me. I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant, I guess I'm just venting my feelings about this show. Not everything can be conveyed in a visual medium, but I believe that if they worked as hard on UBW as they worked on F/Z or Kara No Kyoukai, then they could've made a great adaptation/anime.

I honestly loved the characters, story, and progression. I didn’t understand the dislikes for this adaptation. I felt it went well with zero, the only thing being Saber’s almost amnesia from Zero. But I was happy with how everything turned out in the end and content with how it wrapped up. Left me wanting more from this series, so I’d say that’s a win.

The biggest problem with this show wasn't what was there but what was missing from the VN.

I still think the first 3-4 episodes of this adaptation are absolutely the best way to be introduced to the franchise and the Fate Stay Night series as a whole

A full episode of epilogue, to see the story of in worthy manner, reworking tracks from the original Visual Novel, bringing them in at the right time and writing an alternative ending, just because many fans of Fate wished for it... Yes, the anime has some flaws and for sure critism (especially from the VN-Readers) is justified, but still, Ufotable did a damn good job with this adaption.

I loved Fate/Zero, and this had its moments but it didn't satisfyingly pay off much at all beyond finally having someone kick Gilgamesh's ass. I ended up mostly being invested in this for the relationship between Shirou and Rin, which felt like most of what the show was really interested in. it feels like it was made at the beginning to follow up Fate/Zero but then they got too loyal to the events of the novel, when a few edits could have given certain characters better resolutions. Also, for a route focused on Rin, giving Kirei that little screentime, and then having Rin have little to do with his death feels lame. lots of baffling decisions.

archer is god tier badass, one of the best badasses in anime

While I agree with all of your criticisms, I still MASSIVELY enjoyed Ufotable Blade Works. It's not AS good as Zero to me, but it's close.

Do you think Ufotable will do the Fate route anytime since they've done the UBL and have said they're doing the heavens feel route?

Stay Night: The Realization of Ideals Unlimited Blade Works: The Challenging of Ideals Heaven's Feel: The Death of Ideals

You ever finish the VN?

I'm sorry, I'm only half way through & and this is every bit as great as ZERO. I'm on ep 14 and this does not let up, I do believe that the teenage cast set a slightly different tone to this but this is grade a anime. I reserve my final opinion when I'm finished but unless this show takes a drastic turn its a worthy Zero successor.

we all have to remember one thing ... people die when they are killed

I agree with some of your points. I personally loved it, but not even nearly as much as Zero. I mean, there's some stupid shit here and there which totally threw for a loop and not in a good way. It definitely cheats. Like (spoiler alert): Kirei's death even after he uses the command seals to kill Lancer and Archer appearing out of the blue and shooting the arrow at Gilgamesh or the fact that Gilgamesh basically didn't use his main op sword in the final fight.

What song does UTSR have playing at 7:43? It's not the last stardust song he was mentioning.

the issue with fate stay night is that as you said , there are 3 routes that complete each other both in backstory and in character development. We know for example saber's ideals and character from the fate route , so it's no need to try and paint her story again , which is why she is not as developed in UBW. Kirei doesn't have that big of a role in UBW , but he plays a bigger part in HF , and even has a couple moments in Fate as well. Thats the tragedy of trying to make a standalone anime after a single route in fsn....and this is why for most people this feels weaker then zero

Unpopular opinion. This is a good starting point for getting into fate

Feel free to make a new review (a second look) in a future, since you have more experience and understanding now, given how wrong you are on some (most) points here Haha. Pretty much every commenter disagreeing with you is far more correct.

Looking at the animation of the final fight, I really believe that Ufotable burned themselves out and had to cut quality. P.S. Also. they tried to cater to both long time viewers and first timers who only knew F/Zero, which made the pacing even more akward than it already is due to a VN->Anime transition, which just hurt it even more.

Rin should have been the main character

I gotta be honest - because of time and personal struggles, I have never been able to get through even the first route in the VN. (It's quite sad though cuz I already have 30+ hours of spent time on it). Nonetheless, back in the days when the only anime available was the Deen adaption of the Fate (and UBW) route, I absolutely loved and adored it. After all, that's what originally introduced me to the franchise as a whole. And with that, the only version I ever knew of the UBW route was as well, Deen's adaption of it. And I gotta be honest - while I loved the Fate adaption, I absolutely hated the UBW one. So becase of the disgust I had for the route thanks to it, my fate- loving self was quite terrified when I got to know that Ufo would adapt just that very route, rather than Fate or Heaven's feel. - But that was precisely why. When I finally dared to give the new adaption a chance, I absolutely fell in love. Seeing (pieces of) the brilliance of what the UBW route was truly made out of, it's even firing me up to wanting to move on to UBW in the VN as well. ... now if only time and effort were actually on my side.

I was wondering what do you mean Kara no Kyoukai is in the same world?

Emiya being a sociopath doesn't make for a relatable character.

TBH, I was really disappointed by UBW's second half, especially the last few episodes. The fights seemed to devolve into two sides throwing objects at each other, and the shallow philosophical ramblings of Shirou, Archer, and Gil were a real chore to listen to. Lastly, Shirou seemed to have no common sense during the last half.

7:20 ost : Fukasawa Hideyuki - Ocean of memories

main protagonist reminds me of how dumb i was as kid so its hard for me to watch. can you name an anime series that does generic self righteous ideolistic teen main protagonist well? i would be very interested in seeing it!

Will you Review Aldnoah Zero? Please?

Did you know that the Archer class is really made of archers?

If you expect superb from ufotable every time then you are going to be disappointed.

Haha didn't take you too long to upload this after the last episode, I guess the rin vs luvia fight didn't change your review :P Although I did enjoy wavers appearance! I can agree with your points, the 2nd half did feel very rushed which is a shame considering I loved this route in the vn. I noticed that since both kara no kyoukai and fate/zero are light novels then maybe ufotable are finding it a little more difficult to adapt a visual novel....or maybe it's just the director, who knows. Even so, i enjoyed this show immensely even if it wasnt quite as good as the vn. I'm hoping they can do a better job with heavens feel and that it's progression will be on par with the animation but we'll have to see won't we! Speaking of the visual novel, have you read it or are you going into heavens feel blind?

I think the FSN 2006 op 1 is better than the OST 1 of FSN/UBW

UBW was my first fate, and I was not reallly confused

Idk why I wasn't subscribed to you. I like ur videos!!! However I do disagree with a lot of points on for this one T^T

Curious.... UBW was the first Fate/ anime I watched, and enjoyed it a lot. Would watch it aagain.

Aside from the content of your commentary, your voice seemed pretty monotonous. It felt like you were reading from a script, which isn't discouraged, but if you put more emphasis and emotion behind the key points of a sentence, it'll become far more impactful. However, you did get better as the review went on. The editing was done rather well, and I look forward to seeing more. By the way, I'm worried about Heaven's Feel. There's been talk that it'll only be one movie. I don't think that's going to be enough to fit the 15+ hours of content.

Have you read the visual novel?

If ufotoble can make animation this good, imagine a Sengoku Basara anime by ufotoble. It would be mind blowing!!!

Let's all say it together folks: The VN did it better.

I've seen the first season and have just started the second season and I have gotta say this series is pretty great. I haven't seen F/Z yet so im doing this in a strange way as I saw the series so far in this order: Fate Kaleid s1-3 (This does wonders for remembering the names and personalities of all the main characters and also increases sympathy for Illya as she was literally just a tool in the main series) Seeing this first see's Illya in the main series less of a villain and more of a greek tragedy. Fate S/N Deen adaptation (atleast until episode 16. I saw the entire series long ago but forgot most of it. From my research almost everything until ep 16 is pretty faithful to the VN and I am sick of people saying that animation is crap-haven't you noticed?...the VN is just side scrolling text with a few animated panels that look exactly like a screen shot from this version!). The series falls off a cliff after ep 16 and has allot of HF and UBW spoilers. Fate S/N Ubw -current. and I am thinking of watching a lets play of the VN of heavens feel before moving on to F/Z. I do think that seeing atleast the first half of the DEEN adaption is pretty good at fleshing out Shiro's ideals to the point that when he made certain decisions in UBW it made more sense and had more emotional impact (yes he acts like a dumbass but that is because he is allot more emotional and irrational in this route as opposed to the ubw where he manages to maintain his composure allot more).

Hey guys. What Under The Scope says about some characters missing a motive, he is right. If you by any chance came here to see what the Fate Series look like, Let me give you this advice: WATCH FATE/ZERO FIRST And then I recommend you to watch Unlimited Blade Works. Fate Zero gives you the backstory of all characters, so you really know what's going on during Fate Stay Night.

I stay for Rin Tohsaka tbh cause she us best waifu! ...the animation is spectacular especially the battle scenes...it might have been an "okay" adaptation considering I havent read the VN...the decisions and actions of the characters is explained enough..yeahh just enough to see what the point is..but it didnt do justify for me as just an anime watcher of the fate series..because it is an anime and i understand that many hours of game wont fit a 24 episode anime...but still they should have exposed more of whats the thoughts, whats on the mind of the characters not just enough but guve greater justificaruon of "why" they did such decisions.. The Fate Zero does a great job to satisfy my need to know why characters did what they did.

ubw is the best anime of all time

did you know abouth the part that was cut in nasus script in ep 25 here's a summary: while luvia was reminiscing from her firstmeeting with shurou she was attacked and shirou saved her with kanshou in one hand and a bag of groceries on the other. why did ufotable cut.that scene, that scene sounds amazing T.T Nasu make a UBW sequel plssssssss

Its gonna be very hard to top Fate/ Zero but i have hopes that Heaven's Feel will surprise me

The problem with labeling Shirou's growth as "inconsistent" is...kind of unfair. UBW is actually the route where Shirou develops the least, barring his drive to not become Archer. In Fate, he abandons the idea of becoming a hero of justice using the Grail, and in Heaven's Feel, he obliterates his own dreams to stand by Sakura at all costs. UBW is the one route where he's resolute in his beliefs as a hero of justice, and uses that drive to overcome the criticisms and self-fulfilling prophecies of Archer. He just doesn't develop in the original content, so to say he doesn't develop here makes total sense.

also there is an ova coming out soon for UBW what is that about ?

what are the other versions of fate stay night??? o_O

If only Shirou Emiya was portrayed like Mikado Ryuugamine real persona then it might have been interesting

I wonder will the fate route become better if ufotable remake it

Fast pacing is one of the main flaws, eh? ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Well, fuck me, I loved Black Rock Shooter >_>

idk, for me the anime wasn't that rush, maybe becouse I'm a rusher, but I enjoined a lot watching this anime.

I think I got lucky on the whole order of the series. First did UBW first half, then fate zero and at last UBW second half. So at least I knew wtf was going on.

Am I right to be mad against ufotable for skipping every explanation of why Tohsaka and Shirou are acting a certain way during the story ? It felt so wrong to me in this adaptation as a VN reader to not even have a clear explanation of why Rin tend do be a tsundere when she is with Shirou, or why she is tilted when Shirou almost suicide himself for other even when he is not sure to save anyone and why it is a big change for her character cuz she is supposed to not be impacted by this kind of thing cuz she is a magus. Every monologue of Shirou pondering as why Tohsaka is acting the way she did have been removed in this adaptation and it lead the duo of Rin/Shirou finally being just a comical relation and not a mutual understanding of each other like in the VN when it normaly serv them both as a character to grow. Both Tohsaka and Shirou have been dumbed down in this adaptation due to the lack of monologues and the clear explanation of why things happen. I am also really sad to not have the same chemistry between the two...

I do respect your opinion and do agree that fate zero and kara no kyoukai are better but I would honestly giveIt 4.3/5