(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Let’s talk about Fate/stay night. It’s one of the most popular franchises in the anime community having a number of spinoffs, merch, mangas, games, cosplays, and of course animes. Animes for days. Ever since I reviewed Fate/Grand Order everyone has been asking me to take a look at the main series. Even though I know a little bit about the series and have nothing against it in general, it’s one of those shows I never really found myself getting into all that much, so I wouldn’t know where to begin. I would need the help of professionals who know the series inside and out to properly review it.
(Yume and Neo): Good thing you’ve got us!
(Yume): Hello everyone, Yume here.
(Neo): And I’m Neo. It’s a pleasure to see you all again. Many people believe the Fate series is actually new and young, but in truth the series is almost 20 years old.
(Yume): The series got started as an adult visual novel in 2004 developed by the game company Type-Moon who also developed the game Melty Blood.
(Neo): The game would go on to be released on multiple platforms for all ages and would become one of the most popular visual novels of all time for its story, characters, battles, artwork, and themes.
(Nitsuj): Because of its high grossing success there were a number of animes and spinoffs based off the series and we’re going to spend all of summer looking over them. Seeing which ones were the good, the bad, and the in-between. Welcome to what I like to call the Summer of Fate. So ladies, where do we start?
(Yume): I like your enthusiasm. We’re going to start with the fan favorite, Unlimited Blade Works. Often regarded as the anime that exposed Fate/stay night to the west and is the entry point for anyone looking to get into the series as it’s considered the best.
(Neo): The anime was released in 2014 following the route of fan favorite, Rin. The anime was produced by ufotable the sleeping giants that gave us Kimestu no Yaiba. At the time of making this anime the studio was relatively unknown despite the fact that they’ve been around since 2000. While the studio always had good animation to go along with their animes, the stories of said anime just couldn’t match the greatness of the animation. Luckily, Fate came along where the story and animation elevated each other and delivered a solid anime that revolutionized what anime can look like.
(Nitsuj): Well I think you’ve guys have hyped up this anime enough. Let’s take a look at Unlimited Blade Works.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Yume): The first half’s opening is “Ideal White” by Mashiro Ayano. I didn’t like the slow start in the first half of the song, but when it picks up in the second half I really got into this song. I especially like the instrumental in this song. The open animation also does a good job showcasing all the characters. Even if this is the first Fate series you’re seeing and don’t know much about the series the opening gives you an idea of what you can expect to see from these characters.
(Neo): The first ending for this series is “believe” by Kalafina. This is hands down one of my favorite endings not just from the series but all time. The guitar riff in the beginning gets me every time and the rest of the song sounds amazing from the vocals which carry both sadness and hope for the future to the instrumental perfectly setting the mood.
Episodes 1-4
(Nitsuj): We start the anime off in a destroyed city that is burning (oh hey, it’s the roasting of Trump) where a young boy collapses in the center of the streets after taking it all in. We quickly see that this was a dream dreamt by our main character Shirou voiced by Noriaki Sugiyama (Sasuke from Naruto), your typical good-looking teenager with a good heart which earns the affection of all the ladies (why you not happen in real life?) and desires to be a champion of justice. He gets woken up by Sakura voiced by Noriko Shitaya, a junior from school who obviously has a crush on him but is too shy to confess. We see he lives by himself where Sakura stops by to visit and cook meals for him and he’s under the watchful eye of his teacher Taiga who serves as his guardian (Yume: And apparently his family was loaded. He’s got a house with a dojo and everything. You know how many people in Japan would kill to have that kind of living space?). They go to school where we see he helps out the student council president, Issei, as a repairman using his mage powers to communicate with machines to see what’s wrong with them and even reinforcing objects with his magic to make them stronger. In school we see a few other notable characters such as the distant and beautiful Rin voiced by Kana Ueda and the living asshole who you want to punch whenever he’s on screen Shinji, the older brother of Sakura and ace of the archery club who doesn’t like Shirou (Neo: I’m sure Shirou feels the same way about him). After school, he walks home late at night where he walks by a girl with white hair (you might want to get that checked out) who we find out is named Illya and warns him to summon his servant soon or he’ll die (scene here: https://youtu.be/af_uXPVRNVc). The next day he notices a bruise mark on Sakura’s hand believing it came from Shinji as he’s been known to take his anger out on her from time to time, but Sakura waves it off saying it wasn’t from him (don’t lie to us Sakura. I’ll ban you from the house if I have to). The rest of the episode goes by with nothing really happening. We do learn that Shirou was raised in an orphanage until he was adopted by a man named Kiritsugu who was also a mage and gave him the name Shirou after he couldn’t remember his name from that fire we saw at the beginning of the episode. Shirou eventually confronts Shinji about the bruise on Sakura’s hand where he dodges the accusations as there’s no evidence that says he did it and he tricks Shirou into cleaning the archery dojo for the accusation (oh my God, why do you girls hangout with this douchebag? (Neo): They’re high school girls, they have low self-esteem. (Yume): That, and they’re secretly masochists). After Shirou cleans up the dojo, he hears noises coming from the baseball field and goes to investigate where he sees two servants battling each other (scenes here: https://youtu.be/DR1k7fhB3M8 and https://youtu.be/IuXN0DYwPew). When one of the servants senses him, he tries to run away only to get stabbed in the chest and dies only to get revived by Rin (Yume: Hey, you’re spoiling episode 0. Actually, you skipped episode 0. (Nitsuj): There’s an episode 0?).
(Yume): Okay, let’s start this from the top. There actually was a special episode called episode 0 where we see the story told from the viewpoint of Rin. In the episode we see that Rin is also a mage and summons her servant, Archer voiced by Junichi Suwabe (Dandy from Space Dandy).
(Nitsuj): Did he come from the Danger Zone?
(Yume): Not that Archer.
(Neo): In truth, Rin was trying to summon the Saber servant, but instead got the Archer servant. At first, Archer is dissatisfied with Rin, so she wastes one of her command seals to force Archer into complete obedience (scenes here: https://youtu.be/du5MInOnFGw and https://youtu.be/tCPeQAc4RnU). Rin tells Archer that she has no wish for the Holy Grail, she just wants to win and prove that she’s the strongest mage which Archer is all for. Later on, Rin senses someone setting up a magical barrier at the school and goes to investigate where they come across Lancer. Lancer and Archer swordfight each other (Nitsuj: What the hell? You can’t even trust the damn title of a servant) where Archer deduces that Lancer’s true identity is the Irish hero, Chu Chulainn (Nitsuj: I am familiar with that name thanks to Persona). This is where Shirou comes in, gets stabbed, and Rin revives him (Yume: Because she loves him. Scene here: https://youtu.be/11qE1VyJSrQ). Please continue from where you left off Nitsuj.
(Nitsuj): Alright. Getting back to the first episode. Shirou returns home where Chu Chulainn shows up trying to kill him again (Yume: I always did find it funny how Chu Chulainn looks more Asian than he does Irish). Shirou tries to fight him off but has no luck and retreats to his shed where he summons the iconic and beautiful Saber voiced by Ayako Kawasumi (Fuu from Samurai Champloo. Scene here: https://youtu.be/zTkMyEyt6Vs). Saber and Chu Chulainn fight in a well-choreographed scene (scene here: https://youtu.be/9IkRE7miK3I) where Chu Chulainn retreats after his ultimate move failed to finish her off. Saber then turns her attention to Rin and Archer (Neo: Who were coming by to check up on Shirou) where she attacks them (Archer: Geez Saber, you’re really strong) before Shirou uses one of his command seals to stop her from fighting.
Episode 2 starts with Rin bringing Shirou up to speed on what’s going on. Rin explains that Shirou is now one of seven participants in the Holy Grail War (Neo: Season 5, the biggest one yet). The goal is to either kill or defeat the servants of the other masters where the winner will receive the Holy Grail as their prize and have whatever wish they want granted. While you don’t necessarily have to kill the masters it is recommended you do as that’s the only way to make the Holy Grail. The servants themselves are actually heroes from history summoned to participate in the war. Each master gets 3 command seals which they can use to forcefully control their servant and when they’re all gone the contract with the servant is nullified. We see that because Shiro is a novice when it comes to magic, Saber isn’t at full power as of yet and has trouble getting mana to heal her body up. Rin takes them to meet Kirei the overseer of the war as well as Rin’s guardian. It’s here that we learn that the previous war was the one that caused a fire that engulfed the city, the same fire that Shirou got caught in (Yume: And now he finds himself in a similar situation). Even though a good master won the war, the Grail deemed them unworthy because of their refusal to fight (well, this kind of goes against the whole ideology of the Holy Grail. In fact, this whole war goes against the ideology) and it wound up in the hands of an evil master which caused the fire. Not wanting something like that to happen again, Shirou agrees to participate in the Holy Grail War and takes his leave from the church with Saber and Rin where as they walk home Illya appears (Neo: Not sure how they missed her. Her white hair really makes her stand out like a democrat at a republican convention) where she reveals she’s also a mage participating in the war and her servant is Berserker (funny, when you pair them together it looks like the Little Sister and Big Daddy from/ Bioshock).
Episode 3 is an action-packed episode as Shirou, Rin, Saber, and Archer take on Illya and Berserker. The whole episode is one big fight scene where I’m starting to see one of the reasons why so many people like this anime so much. The action is very good here. There’s a level of strategy to these fights. It’s not just characters swinging their blades back and forth trying to kill the other, both fighters are trying to think of a way to outthink the other and win. While Saber may be smaller, she has the better fighting style when compared to Berserker. However, Berserker is no slouch either as despite his size, he’s quite agile and does maintain his fight senses making him a very competent fighter. On top of that the animation, sound, and music is really spot on here. You really feel like you’re in the moment witnessing this fight and everything. This studio has always done fantastic animation for their fights as seen in Demon Slayer and even though this anime is 8 years old it still holds up. Anyway, we see how Archer provides support from far away but not even his arrows can harm this monster among us (Archer: How is that possible? I’m holding a bow and arrow strong enough to kill a building). Rin tries to take out Illya only to have that get thrown back in her face as Illya is strong (the kid’s got chops too. (Neo): The master of a monster is usually a monster themselves). Saber does eventually land a killing blow, but thanks to Berserker’s noble phantasm he starts to heal himself, so Archer decides to hit him with a powerful arrow as well. Shirou somehow sensed Archer getting ready to fire the arrow and pulls Saber to safety just as the arrow strikes Berserker resulting in a massive explosion (Yume: That I’m sure puts anything Michael Bay does to shame). However, not even that left a scratch on Berserker who is still standing and ready to fight (starting to think this character is broken. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/iW_f_uxPt8o and https://youtu.be/JiBe6xuLxuk). Illya decides to retreat impressed with Archer’s abilities and the episode ends with Shirou coughing up blood.
Nothing much happens in episode 4. Shirou wakes up the next morning with Rin sitting by his mattress and all of his wounds healed thanks to his self-healing. Rin takes her leave saying that the next time they meet they’ll be enemies (Yume: Yeah, I don’t think so). Shirou and Saber then talk to each other where Saber says she won’t reveal her true name to him in order to protect herself and risk exposing a weakness. After that, Shirou and Saber go to school to deliver lunch for Taiga where Saber catches the attention of Sakura and their teacher Kuzuki. Shirou walks home with Saber, Taiga and Sakura (Neo: How shameless) where Shirou says Saber will be staying with him for a while and Taiga is okay with this on the condition that she and Sakura be allowed to stay over as well. In Rin’s side of story, she and Archer investigate the recent gas leaks that have been happening all over the city where they find out it’s the work of Caster whose been absorbing the life force of workers in a building. Rin decides to pursue Caster for going after normal citizens, but Archer doesn’t like how she’s completely ignoring Shirou despite having multiple chances to kill him (Yume: We keep telling you, it’s love). However, Rin reassures him that the next time she sees him she will kill him.
Episodes 5-8
(Neo): For episode 5, Shirou returns to school where he runs into Rin who wants nothing to do with him (Nitsuj: Getting her is half the fun). At lunchtime, Shirou finds out that Ayako, captain of the archery club has gone missing and Shinji is a prime suspect (Yume: Makes sense. He seems like the kind of guy who would sexually assault someone). However, nobody has been able to reach him and he’s gone MIA (suspicion levels rising). After school, all the students are told to go home, but Rin sticks around and confronts Shirou where she starts to fight him throughout the school (Nitsuj: Ah~, a good old fashion lovers’ quarrel. (Yume): It’s so romantic). Shirou does a good job defending herself from Rin’s attacks and after surviving a classroom bombing, Shirou decides it’s time to go on offense. However, the fight gets put on hold when they hear a female student scream and rush to her. We see that someone has drained her mana putting her life in danger (Nitsuj: This school gets more attacks than a public school). Rin uses her mana to restore the student’s mana where just when she’s about to get attacked from the shadows by a servant, Shirou protects her and then runs into the forest to fight the servant with a damaged hand (he’s more angry than he is in pain). We see that the servant is Rider (Nitsuj: Woah, now her I have seen. I know people like Rin and Saber, but I’m shocked not too many talk about Rider who I argue is actually prettier than Rin and Saber. (Yume): I think it’s because she doesn’t get a lot of screen time) and while she’s not as strong as the other servants we’ve seen so far she’s still more than a match for Shirou until Rin shows up and she retreats (scene here: https://youtu.be/pYnjxvyWmBM). Despite being injured and almost about to die, Shirou is more than ready to keep on fighting Rin (Nitsuj: He may not be much of a mage, but he’s as much of a man as anyone I’ve seen), but Rin says no and takes him back to her place to treat his wound (Yume: I’m sure that’s not all she’ll treat). After treating Shirou, Rin says there’s another master at their school who plans to drain the mana of everyone using a spell. She calls for a truce between her and Shirou until the third master has been dealt with and he agrees to it.
Episode 6 starts off with Shirou walking home where he can sense Archer following him (Archer: Your clothes, give them to me. *Chuckles* Just kidding. I wouldn’t be caught dead in that school uniform). The two chat for a little bit where it’s obvious they don’t like each other and Archer says he has no interest in the grail either (Archer: Yeah, I already got a Holy Grail. I use it to drink all my liquor and wine. Which is pretty much the only way I can tolerate this conversation we’re having kid). He achieved everything he wanted to achieve in life and died only to come back as a tool used in a war he didn’t want to be in (Yume: Yeah, life sucks like that. (Archer): Hey, don’t judge me. . .food). Shirou returns home where he tells Saber about his truce with Rin which she’s not against and also starts to train him in swordsmanship. The next day at school, Rin and Shirou go around weakening sigils they find at the school created by the third master who we find out is Shinji (only he would use such a cowardly method). Just like Shirou, Shinji has no mana either and has to steal it in order to have a chance in this war (Nitsuj: I just hope he’s not doing anything inappropriate to Rider. (Neo): I’m sure she has standards that Shinji could never meet). That night, Shirou gets kidnapped and taken to a temple by Caster who plans to steal his command seals and hand them over to her master to control Saber. Speaking of Saber, we see her sense Shirou in danger and go to the temple where she runs into the Assassin class servant, Sasaki Kojirō (Yume: Sasaki Kojirō? The same guy who lost to Miyamoto Musashi under controversial circumstances? (Nitsuj): What controversy? Musashi showed up late to their duel and used time to his advantage. There’s no controversy that guy straight up cheated) where she’s forced to fight him in order to progress into the temple. Back with Shirou, he gets rescued by the last person he wanted, Archer (Archer: Seriously, you have got to be the unsexist Caster of all time).
In episode 7 we get the fight between Caster and Archer (Archer: Rampage~) as well as Saber and Sasaki who we find out is an unofficial servant. Caster broke the rules and summoned him to be her servant because she lacks physical strength (Nitsuj: Automatic disqualification). Despite Saber being the stronger of the two, Sasaki holds his own and almost beats her using his famous swallow Cut technique. Archer and Caster fight where thanks to the ground seething with mana, Caster is able to heal herself (Archer: Goddamn it, what is this? A mana factory?), however, Archer manages to land a critical hit using his noble phantasm. Despite Archer having the upper hand, he allows Caster to escape angering Shirou who thinks they should have killed her off there to avoid getting other bystanders involved, but Archer doesn’t care (Archer: I’m sorry, should I? (Yume): Will you stop it with the Archer bits? (Nitsuj): Just one more). This leads to the two arguing with each other as their ideals clash with one another. Shirou wants to save everyone while Archer says that’s impossible and instead focuses his efforts on trying to save as many people as he can while willing to sacrifice others in order to save others (one is idealistic. The other is realistic). Shirou is disgusted by Archer’s ideology and this leads to Archer slashing him in the back (Archer: You might want to put some Neosporin on that. It’s like shirouschwitz back there). Shirou survives the attack and makes it outside of the temple where he falls down the stairs and gets caught by Saber. Archer tries to finish him off only to get stopped by Sasaki who has come to like Saber and wants to duel her again someday (scenes here: https://youtu.be/ABx8hy0Mcbo and https://youtu.be/TeQ9xKSjpII . Saber and Shirou escape where he vows to get stronger and not lose to a guy like Archer ever again.
The action continues in episode 8 as Shirou gets invited to have lunch with Rin on the roof (https://youtu.be/SyADRSF90ts?t=31. Scene here: https://youtu.be/8Xj6uO-F8Yg). She apologizes for what Archer did last episode and reveals that she used one of her command seals to forbid Archer from harming him as long as their alliance stands. As they continue to talk, Shinji and Rider activate her sigil creating a powerful magic barrier which starts to absorb the mana of everyone except Shirou and Rin (Yume: And summons skeleton soldiers for some reason). While everyone is still breathing there’s no telling how long they can hold out. Shirou summons Saber to fight off the familiars while they go to stop Shinji who is cowering in a corner after someone killed Rider (Nitsuj: Damn it, I liked her). Rin tries to get him to say who killed Rider, but he’s too much of a coward say who did it and he escapes. Shirou and the others come to the conclusion that it was Caster and her master who killed Rider and believe that her master is someone at the school (Yume: 4 masters in one school? (Neo): What are the odds?).
Episodes 9-12
(Yume): Episode 9 picks up where episode 8 left off. Archer arrives where he gets filled in on what happened and the group reasserts their efforts on finding Caster’s master. Shinji runs to the church for safety (Nitsuj: Sanctuary! Sanctuary) where he finds out he’s the first master to have gone down in such an embarrassing way (Neo: Couldn’t have happened to a better guy) which pisses him off. Sensing his resolve to keep on fighting, Kirei allows Shinji to continue in the war and gives him a new servant. The next day at school, Rin suspects that Issei might be Caster’s master, but Shirou confirms it’s not him by strip searching him for command seals (woah, nice bod Issei. (Nitsuj): Is every high schooler in Japan slim and muscular? What kind of exercises are they doing to make them so fit?). Shirou tells Rin about this where we see she too was worried about Sakura and went to check up on her while noticing a blonde man outside scouting the place. At night, Taiga talks about Shirou and Kiritsugu and how they were the total opposites of each other. Whatever path Shirou choose he would set his mind to following it no matter what. Kiritsugu was more of a go with the flow kind of guy but would help those who were in need (Nitsuj: Interesting. So Shirou’s views were more black and white while Kiritsugu’s was gray. (Neo): That’s. . .pretty accurate. Shirou believed that there’s good and evil in the world while Kiritsugu believed there’s a middle ground. People can do bad things for good or vice versa).
In the first half of episode 10 nothing much happens. We see Rin and Archer argue with each other as he believes it would have been better teaming up with Caster than Shirou and she takes offence to that. At school, Shirou and Rin figure out that Kuzuki is Caster’s master and prepare to face him that night. The second half of the episode is where things start to pick up as Rin and Shirou confront Kuzuki and Caster where we find out that Kuzuki isn’t being controlled by Caster. Shirou asks him if he knew about Caster stealing mana from everyone and he says no (Nitsuj: He’s lying obviously, he knew), however, even if he did he wouldn’t have cared. They’re strangers to him, so why should he care if they live or die (Neo: Does the term moral compass mean anything to you?)? Saber makes a beeline for Kuzuki only for him to block her attacks and actually beats her straight up by sending her flying into a gas station (Nitsuj: Now that, was an ass-kicking. (Neo): I’d hate to be on his bad side at school). Kuzuki goes to take on Rin and Shirou where he knocks out Rin and then goes to take down Shirou where in a rather cool scene, Shirou summons Archer’s dual swords to repel Kuzuki. Shirou holds off Kuzuki long enough for Saber and Rin to regain consciousness and force him and Caster to retreat (https://youtu.be/ubr8PXl-kS8. Scene here: https://youtu.be/fR_oSnOsO3g). Shirou explains that what he did was projection magic which was the first magic he learned, however he wasn’t all that good at it and switched over to fortification magic (Nitsuj: Not good at it. Dude, you just summoned swords. I say that’s pretty impressive). In another part of the episode we get to meet Shinji’s new servant, Gilgamesh (Nitsuj: Woah, Shinji hit the jackpot. This is like opening up a pack of Smash Bros. trading cards and the first card you see is that super rare and shiny Sora card that’s worth thousands of dollars. Would you trade it in for the money or would you hang it on your wall to show how awesome you are?) where Shinji tries to get all chummy with him, but Gilgamesh could obviously care less about him and reveals that he plans to use the Holy Grail to kill most of the human population in the world (Nitsuj: Damn, don’t remember Gilgamesh being so bloodthirsty in Grand Order. (Yume): Yeah, the Gilgamesh in the main storyline is nothing short of a psychopath).
Nothing much really happens in episode 11. Shriou, Rin, and Saber try to come up with a plan to deal with Caster, but don’t come up with anything good. Rin tells Shirou it’s not right for him to put the happiness of others over his own happiness (Nitsuj: Debatable. I get what she’s saying, it’s alright to be selfless just don’t be too selfless that you forget to take care of yourself. However, one could say putting the happiness of others over your own could lead you to happiness as well). We see Shirou is in great pain from using projection magic which he hides from everyone until Saber notices half of his body has gone numb. Archer arrives and notices the pain Shirou is going through and helps him out. It turns out when Shirou used projection magic he activated magic circuits that had been lying in dormant for a long time (Neo: Basically, he used muscles he hadn’t used in a long time. (Yume): I’ve been there). Archer repairs Shirou’s circuits as he had this happen to him before in the past and once again warns Shirou that his ideals are meaningless and doomed to fail.
In episode 12 Rin takes Shirou on a date (Nitsuj: A girl asking a guy out on a date. Now I know this is a fantasy series. (Neo): I couldn’t agree more) with Saber tagging along. They have a good time with Rin flirting with Shirou a little bit. However, the good times end when Caster shows up and reveals that she’s taken Taiga captive and is threatening to kill her unless Shirou hands over his command seals. Caster goes on to talk about the fire that Shirou experienced as a child and says she knows of a way to summon the Holy Grail without any more fighting. All she needs is Saber’s mana to accomplish this. Wanting to save Taiga, Shirou willingly gives up his command seals (Nitsuj: Dumbass! You made a deal with a devil you can’t trust. (Yume): Yeah, this was the scene that pissed off a lot of people because Shirou just screwed himself over royally because he followed his ideals and put Saber in danger. Still, can’t really blame him for doing this. Taiga is the closest thing he has to a family. She’s done so much for him, he can’t just sacrifice her like that). Saber tries to attack Caster where Shirou stupidly uses a command seal to stop Saber allowing Caster to use her noble phantasm Rule Breaker to stab Saber in the heart allowing her to take Shirou’s remaining command seals and take control of Saber. Caster releases Taiga and orders Saber to kill Rin but, Shirou protects her from getting injured (the only good thing he’ll do all day). Saber is able to fight off Caster’s control long enough for Shirou, Rin, and Taiga to escape with Archer (Neo: Could have used you like 20 minutes ago) and they retreat back to Rin’s house where she treats Shirou’s wounds. Later on, Caster attacks Kirei and the church (Neo: Holy sacrilege) in order to get the Lesser Grail (Nitsuj: Gonna need some context for that. (Neo): We’ll get to that in Fate/Zero). Back with Shirou, he goes to Rin who is standing on top of a building (Nitsuj: I have so many questions how he knew what building she was standing on) where she tells him he no longer has a reason to fight and should go to the church for safety (*chuckles* about that). Shirou refuses to drop out and leave Saber where she’s at (and who’s fault do you think that is?), but Rin tells him he’s useless in this fight (Nitsuj: Wouldn’t even make a good meat shield). She and Archer leave where she tells him to stay out of this war or he’ll die.
(Neo): And that does it for the first half of UBW. It ends on a sour note with our heroes taking a major loss and alliances quietly broken.
(Yume): What lies next for them in the second half? Tune in next week to find out.
(Nitsuj): Until then, thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.