Anime Review: Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

There are few names as big an anime as the Fate series. Fate Zero is considered by many to be a masterpiece, and a very large fanbase was hyping up Ufotable's version of Fate Stay Night ready to attack anyone who dared to say anything negative about it. So, of course, I had to review it. After all, reviewing something popular like this right after it finished areas bound to attract some viewers. So, the question that we need to ask is, does Fate Stay Night live up to its hype, or is it just another overrated show? Let's find out. Fate Stay Night is a modern day fantasy. It tells the story of the Holy Grail War, a deathmatch between seven mages for the prize of the wish-granting Holy Grail. Each of these seven mages is given a servant, a legendary hero who fights for them. There's magic, and action, and death, and really everything I ask for in a show. Before I get any further, I need to explain how I see this show. When judging the series, I view it as a standalone. It should be told in a way where if all you see is the series, you'll get all you need to understand the story. However, I saw Fate Zero about a year ago. I kind of view Fate Stay Night as a sequel. I try to remove what I experience from Fate Zero from how I present Fate Stay Night in this review, but I figure it's best to give you this disclaimer so you know of any bias I might have. Anyway, on to the pros and cons of the story. By far, the best thing about this show is how exciting the story itself is. It really did a good job of pulling me into the story, making me want to find out more and find out what would happen next. There was a decent amount of mystery in trying to figure out what everyone's plans was and how they would try to overcome other teams who were stronger than they were. In a few ways, the story was predictable, but there are enough twists and turns throughout to keep me interested. Of course, for as exciting as the story was a lot of the time, there were also some really boring parts as well. Many of these boring moments were in the introduction where they were info-dumping how the world works with magic and everything. This might be partly because I already saw it from Fate Zero, but really, you shouldn't need to make it that boring to explain what's going on. There were some more slices of life comedy moments here, and that also really felt off considering that this was primarily an action show. The battles themselves were very exciting, but it seemed like most of the battles were broken up with dialogue, so the battles just really did not have as much impact as they could have. They had like a couple attacks back and forth, then dialogue for a minute, then more attacks, and that just hurt the show. Although, as exciting as the battles were, the thing that stood out to me most about the show is how they explored the concept of what it means to be a hero. The main character, Shiro, is a very idealistic person. He wants to be a hero of justice and make it so that no one gets hurt. This isn't really uncommon for a protagonist, but I was fine with it. This is a character I could really get behind and root for, but what makes Shiro stand out is how much that idealism is challenged. He is forced to consider why he wants to be a hero and what it would mean for him and those around him, and if it's even possible at all. This aspect of the show is what really sets it apart and makes it something that I haven't seen before. Unfortunately, it didn't feel like these questions were resolved as well as they could have been. Maybe this was intentional to leave some things up in the air for the viewer to figure out, but it felt like the show could have done better with these themes. Even so, I did like how it built off Fate Zero and the contrast between Kiritsugu and Shiro here with their desires to be a hero. Unfortunately, there were a lot of other problems with the show. One of these problems is how they just had things happen that didn't make sense. A good example of this is the magic system which seems to work in whatever way is convenient to the plot at the time. Such as Shiro randomly having self-healing magic, something that is quite useful as he seems to get injured in just about every other episode. He also ends up happening to use a type of magic he never showed any ability with before right as he needed it to save his life. While this truly is kind of justified later on, it still felt like it came out of nowhere. There's also the fact that for a death game, it took a long time for there to be any death with only one death in the first half of the show. This isn't for lack of battles either as it seems like every episode had at least one fight in it. They just normally end with both sides deciding to retreat wanting to have a rematch later on. If this is something that happened rarely, I'd be okay with it as it could add some spices you didn't know how the battle was going to end up, but with it happening all the time that's the problem. We have all this build up but then no real payoff in the end. There's also the fact that in many battles the fighters are idiots. Typically the mages are a lot weaker than the servants so it would make sense to go after them first. So things would have gone a lot smoother if Archer decided to fire his attacks at Berserker's master instead of Berserker himself. And despite the fact that it took a while for there to be much character deaths, there are characters that felt like they were barely explored before they died. One character in particular had basically no role to play when expected his appearance to change a lot in the story. But he just died like the episode after his role was revealed. And of course there's also the inconsistent tone of the show. I enjoy comedy. If I can laugh during a show that normally makes it more enjoyable. Unfortunately here the comedy just doesn't fit. VGC9 is a serious story about the death game so the lighter content doesn't really fit the mood. And this goes even more so for this romantic subplot with Shiro and Ren. Trying to cram a romance into an action shounen type show does not work as should be obvious after seeing sword art online. There's also the fact that the world itself doesn't make a lot of sense. As I've said before, magic seems to work in whatever way is convenient at that point in the story. Whether to sometimes just add a new type of magic or something right when it's needed. It also seems strange that the Holy Grail War seems to be a small scale event in the whole magical world. And this is despite the fact that there is a great danger for everyone here, not just the people fighting. Not to mention the fact that no one seemed to notice the war going on. I know they were trying to be discreet with it, but the explosions had to attract at least some attention. So, in the end, the story really did have potential, but it's slow problems made it fall so short of what it could have been. That's not to say it wasn't enjoyable, though. There were moments throughout the show when I was just drawn into the conflict and did not care about all the problems. At the end of every episode, I was really excited to see more. And seeing the end of the first core, I was really, really excited for the second one. I ended up marathoning I think 11 episodes in about two days for the second core, and that was just a lot of fun. But is this enjoyment enough to outweigh the problems that the show had? I don't know the answer to this. In some ways it helps, but does it make the show good or is it bad because of all the problems? I'm not really sure. I'll leave that up to you to decide. Moving on to the characters, I've already talked about Shiro some with the themes the show presented, and that really is the highlight of his character. He's very idealistic, naive even, but this is why I'm drawn to his character. Many of the others have grown up and seen the dark sides of the world and know that being a simple hero of justice is impossible. But Shiro contrasts this, not willing to abandon a few to save many, something that stands in stark contrast to his father. He's very self-sacrificing, not caring about himself if it means helping another. This is very admirable and makes me want to see him win even if it seems like he's the underdog in any fight he's in. He gets a good deal of development too, seeing where his path could take him and having to decide if this is who he wants to be and why he wants to be this person. Shiro's servant Saber was one of the main characters in Fate Zero and one of my favorite characters from that show. Here we continue to see her noble characteristics and wanting to be an honorable warrior and do her job as a knight to protect Shiro, even if Shiro doesn't really understand the whole stay out of danger thing. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the same flair or the same convictions as before. I still like her character quite a bit, but this is more because of who I saw she was in Fate Zero more than anything she did here. I had expected Fate Stay Night to complete her character arc started back in Fate Zero, which it did to a small degree, but it wasn't presented as well as it could have been, and there's very little development if you view the show apart from Fate Zero. There's also Rin, another one of the masters and longtime friend of Shiro. She serves in many ways as Shiro's guide to the Holy Grail War. At times, I really like her. She can be very strong and knows what she wants, but she can also be easily flustered which isn't a bad thing. However, there are times when she feels like a standard Sudere, as this really is a shame as I liked her character at the start. Her feelings and actions towards Shiro seem to be all over the place from caring about him to trying to kill him to possibly being in love with him to everywhere else, and this inconsistency is her biggest flaw. She does get better throughout the series, but they really could have toned her down a bit earlier on and she would have been a great character. The last of the notable characters is Archer, Rin's servant. Archer is a very analytical character, which contrasts well to the hot-headedness of Rin and Shiro's idealistic nature. He does what needs to be done in order to accomplish his goals, and if it requires sacrificing some innocence to do so, then he's okay with this. His actions at times seem inconsistent, but once we see his backstory, then they largely make sense. And his backstory is what makes him as interesting as he is. Unfortunately, this backstory was spoiled for me before I had a chance to see the second chorus, so instead of being surprised when I found out, I was able to pick up on some of the foreshadowing before the review. I do like his backstory, but there are still some things about it that just didn't really make sense if you think about it too much. Ilusviel was another interesting character, along with her servant Berserker, once we saw her history, but the way that they handled it, it felt rushed. Unless you'd already seen Fade Zero, which considering I'm assuming you haven't with this review, then I have to count this against the show as well. There were a few other side characters like Shinji, who I really wanted to punch in the face, Caster, who was a villain for a good part of this show, but there isn't anything that notable about them or really anyone else. Well, there is that one guy, but spoilers. Moving on. Overall though, the characters were decent. I liked Shiro and Archer once I saw what they were doing with them, and the rest of the characters were okay, I'd say. The fact that Defaultable is animated in Fade's day and night means that there is not much to complain about here. The backgrounds are detailed, using bright lights or the right tone of darkness to highlight the scenes. The actual animation can be a bit lacking at times though, especially when it's just two characters talking, but this is a minor complaint. And really, this is more than made up by the fantastic looking battles, which they're just amazing. The soundtrack is good, accenting the battle with epic music, and who doesn't like epic music? There were also a couple insert songs that also accented some key scenes nicely. The first opening really did a great job pulling me in, and I think I watched it like 10 times in a row when I first saw it. However, as I was watching the show itself, I became less impressed with the opening. Still, it was well animated, had a catchy song, and got me hyped for the show, so I guess I can't ask for much more. The second opening though I ended up liking a lot better, not because of the song or animation really looking cool, but how well it matched with the theme of the show and the contrast between Shiro and Archer. So yeah, wrapping up the presentation, Ufotable lives up to their reputation of making great looking shows, possibly even surpassing their previous works. There is a good reason this show is often called Unlimited Budget Works, after all. Shortly before watching the second quarter, I was in a mood for a good shounen fantasy, and Fate Stay Night filled that desire wonderfully. Unfortunately, it was also a disappointment in a lot of ways. The show had everything it needed to fight for a spot among my favorite anime ever, but sadly it failed in too many ways to be anything great. I still like the show quite a bit, but not nearly as much as I wish I could have. And so, we move on to the final score, and I give Fate Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works a score of 6.64 out of 10 and a rating of worth checking out. If you're a fan of action shounen series, you'll probably enjoy this one despite its problems, but if you tend to prefer other genres more, then you probably won't find anything special here. As for recommendations, I have a couple shows in mind with some similar themes to Fate Stay Night. First of all, Noine. I would like to tell you why I'm recommending Noine if I can't without spoiling both shows, so just go watch it and you'll understand. Secondly, I recommend Madoka Machi. Madoka also looks to the question of being a hero in a somewhat similar way to Fate Stay Night, and then there's also the whole thing about people's wishes, so yeah, go with that one. That's the really show you should watch anyway, if I recommend it or not. And that concludes my review. Thank you very much for watching, I hope you enjoyed it, and tell me what you think about Fate Stay Night, if you think it's overrated, or the best anime ever, or something in between. And I will talk to you next time. Goodbye.