Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (TV) || Anime Review

Eyyy and we are back with another anime review, today we are going to tackle another Fate series called Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. It also had a movie shown back in 2010, which pretty much has the same plot. But for this post, we will be reviewing the anime itself. As we all know it is produced and created by the same people who made Fate/Zero (<--- Read the review too, please~~~ ) fellow Type-Moon and Ufotable.  It is based on the visual novel, which follows a completely different route from the first Fate/Stay Night (read that review too, *winks*) series that aired back in 2006. This time, there are different perspectives and of course, choice of love interests are far more different. Now let us move forward, shall we?

This review is spoiler free, but there will be minor spoilers from Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night.

PLOT

Okay let me break it down for you......well, the usual happens. Shirou and Rin Tohsaka join the Holy Grail War, where one can attain the Holy Grail and get whatever they want. Of course, they need to summon servants; Rin gets Archer and Shirou gets Saber. They team up together to eliminate other enemies and the Holy Grail itself, because...well, it's too...evil. Like that ever worked out for anyone, right Kiritsugu-san? (source: wall.alphacoders.com )

Okay, I will be direct with you... the story is kind of boring. But this time, the story is not as messy as compared to the first Fate/Stay Night series. There is definitely a direction happening, but what really made the overall story fall down flat for me was its pacing. It is incredibly slow, especially the gaps between the fight scenes. Whenever the story decides to tone down a bit (usually them just sitting around, eating and talking about stuff), there is a lot of exposition that only exists for the purpose to explain what is currently happening and why they were happening. That is somehow understandable, since the world of magic in this anime is obviously very different. The problem is, they just flat out explain how magic works, and what the Holy Grail war is about. So...it is pretty similar to the first anime back in 2006, only there aren't much side stories bombarding the main plot. Unlimited Blade Works is actually a simple story and the only praise I can give it is the cohesiveness in story telling. Other than that, it actually does have an interesting sequence in terms of plot. It's not confusing and you can definitely follow along. But it is very heavy with explanations, and its narration lacks creative ways in telling the plot.

The Unlimited Blade Works does not have an awful story, I must be clear with that. There are still amazing fight sequences in this anime. In fact, I think the fight sequences in Unlimited Blade Works is shown much better than the ones in Fate/Stay Night. The story is more serious and does not have much comedic tropes. It is very straight to the point with the problems and fighting that needed to be done, even if it was very slow. Storytelling was basically the main issue of this anime.  Fate/Stay Night was somehow more exciting when it came to its storytelling style, but it was just way too messy for me.

Score for Plot: 

CHARACTERS

Archer (source: moesucks.com )

Now let's talk about Shirou, the greatest character in the world. Yaaaaaaaaaaay......

No.

One thing different about this story is that most of it is seen in the perspective of Rin Tohsaka, the primary love interest for Shirou in this route. One of the hidden mysteries in the story is the identity of Rin's servant, who is Archer. One thing I expected when you have an actual skilled mage taking control of the plot, you would at least understand half of the world the anime is in. But no, Rin still runs her mouth in explaining shit especially to Shirou, who apparently was further downgraded as an audience character (the kind of person in any story, who you need to explain shit for everything, so you the audience member, can fully understand what is going on in the story). There are many slow moments happening around Rin's character and unforunately, nothing happens.

The problem with these characters is that they lack development. It is assumed that the characters are either very well skilled or self-realized, hence there is supposedly no need for development. That can sometimes work, but it falls flat in the case of this anime. For one thing, these characters were not completely challenged, in terms of skill or mindset. This is very important when the kind of character you're going for is deemed, "perfect". A perfect example would be Batman. He is skilled, tough, rich, handsome, everything. You think he has it all, but he has this idealistic belief that he can serve justice without the need to kill anyone. But of course, that belief of his was challenged every often. This is another thing Unlimited Blade Works lacked, a challenge for the characters. Rin is very skilled in magic and apparently knows what to do, but there was never a time when she doubted her own skills or when someone else did. Shirou still suffers from the need to be a hero at every opportunity. The only challenge he had was still the same; he was still very unskilled and his own stubbornness. He's supposed to be this kind of character who was firm about his beliefs, but he was never shown an instance on how wrong he could be. The villains on the other hand...well, they're there. But they are not completely there. They're more vague than typical supporting characters, ya know what I'm saying?

Now let's move on to the romance, which is not a spoiler because every route in this franchise has one. This route decided to keep the love story between Rin and Shirou decided to take a backseat. They are seen more as partners in crime, and focused on handling the shit called Holy Grail War. I am down with this kind of idea, but it is important that when you tell a story, you need to give the audience a good reason why we should care about the characters. The plus side of this aspect is that the relationship between Rin and Shirou is kept realistic and less dramatic, unlike Fate/Stay Night. One thing the Fate series have made it perfectly clear is that, Shirou and Rin did not become close until the Fifth Holy Grail War. There are scenes where they imply that they are probably more than just friends, but these moments didn't give enough weight for me to care. It would have been much better if they remained good friends until the very end, without the need of loosely confronting their romantic feelings. I actually believed that they were good friends and it worked for the anime. The love story was unnecessary and the story's wavelength would remain the same without it. The romance between Saber and Shirou in Fate/Stay Night made a bit more sense, considering how much the anime showed them fighting together and Shirou's character is surprisingly has a bit more struggles when it came to his heroic beliefs because of the feelings he had for Saber. Unlimited Blade Work only showed a much more platonic relationship, that lacked interaction and strength in chemistry.

Score for Characters: 

MUSIC

The anime still had the same dramatic music, just like its two previous series. But unfortunately, there was nothing new. One of my favorites would have to be the second opening called, "Braveshine" by Aimer. It is very exciting, because you can tell things are finally going to warm up but in a dramatic way as well. 

Score for Music: 

ART

Saber's Transformation (source: kotaku.com )

Once again, Type-Moon and Ufotable's animation does not disappoint. The design and sequences further improved since Fate/Stay Night. Everything is much more detailed and not a sight of lazy chibi animation is seen here. I am glad that it is no longer focusing on a dark blue color scheme. There are plays with many different colors, especially during the fight sequences. Sometimes they are fast-paced, or they can be sneaky and slow in terms of speed. There is definitely more variety in this anime. So watching the fighting sequences can be very exciting, but they are still not the saving graces of this anime, since it only happens from time to time till the epic finale. But you will love the animation of this anime. As usual, everything looks gorgeous. 

Now this anime needed a lot of improvement, especially in storytelling. It will take some time before the real plot begins, so watching the anime itself does require patience. Nothing has changed between the characters either, since the anime is a completely separate story from the others. But if I would recommend this anime to anyone, it would be only for the visual novel fans since they know what's up. But I personally wouldn't recommend this to anyone else.

FATE/STAY NIGHT: UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS (TV) HEREBY RECEIVES:

Try watching:
1. The Movie itself - Much better compared to the anime, in my opinion
2. Fate/Zero - I still think this is the best anime of the franchise
3. Shakugan No Shana - This is a blind recommendation, because I have not seen it yet. This is an alternative anime recommendation, especially if Fate/Stay Night is not your cup of tea. It has similar elements to the series, only there are parallel universes. However, the battles for survival and love remain intact. Click on the title to learn more about the anime.

Consider this review as a way to get further hyped up for the upcoming installment, Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel, which comes later this year. If you cannot wait, you can also check out on Fate/Apocrypha, which follows a unique story on the Holy Grail War with a bunch of new characters. Thank you so much for reading. Feel free to contact me on my Instagram or Facebook Page. Or you can directly email me on my gmail located in my profile shown in the right side, for feedback or other things. Till the next post~

Previous post: Your Lie in April || Anime Review
Other Fate/Stay Night Reviews: Let's Review! Fate/Zero , Let's Review! Fate/Stay Night