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Year: 2014-2015
Genre: Action, Tragedy, Dark fantasy
Episodes: 25
Rating: 3 out of 5
What is a hero? How would one define a hero in the world today? Are there certain traits that all heroes have that make them unique? Can anyone become a hero? The definition of a hero is a person who faces danger, combats adversity through feats of bravery, strength, and integrity while being admired or idealized for their courage, achievements, and remarkable ways.
If you could be a hero, would you take it? Would you take the opportunity to be a hero and save lives? What would be your motivation for being a hero? Would it be to save the world from itself? Would it be to gain world peace for the world? Would it just be the right thing to do?
What if you had a dream to be a hero and help people no matter what? That dream was the one dream where you sacrificed your entire life to make it happened. You give up your life and have people push you around just to see them happing and be helpful. Later in life, you make a deal where you would be a protector forever. After many years of helping people and cleaning up the world, you find out that being a hero isn’t what you thought it would be. You start to resent yourself and the life you made.
What if you could go back in the past and change what you did. The only thing is that you come back as a hero in a war to the death with other heroes from history. Will you battle with everything you have to change the future for yourself?
Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works is a squeal anime that sets up heroes against each other to fight for a prize that will grant you and your hero any wish you wanted. One hero comes back to change the future by destroying his past.
Overview
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works takes place ten years after the events of Fate/Zero detailing the events and battles of the Fifth Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City. Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works revolves around Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka. Shirou is an average student with a desire to help out anyone. He gets taken advantage of for his kindness, but in his mind, if he is a helping hand, then it is okay. He puts everyone’s happiness before him. Shirou is a below-average mage whose father taught him some magic but nothing on the level of others.
One day, while staying late at school, Shirou sees two people battling with superhuman strength. He also catches a glimpse of Rin watching over the battle. As Shirou watches, the battle intensifies until one of the fighters notices him. The fighters pursue him through the school until he is stabbed in the chest. As he lays in a pool of his own blood, he manages to see a worried Rin before dying.
The next day, Shirou wakes up completely healed. Shirou thinking it was a dream goes to school and does his usual thing. On the way home, he is attacked again by the same person. Shirou manages to make it home when a blonde woman in armor comes and protects him. Confused by the situation, Rin explains that Shirou is now part of the Holy Grail War. She explains that the Holy Grail grants any wish or desire, but to win it, he must defeat six other masters and servants.
As Shirou becomes accustomed to the war, will he be able to survive against people that have been training for this event?
Series Breakdown:
Just like many sequels, Fate/Zero: Unlimited Blade Works doesn’t live up to the height nor amazement of its predecessor. It just falls short in many areas and feels redundant. Actually, it does a disservice to its predecessor with the overall quality of animation and characters.
Fate/Zero: Unlimited Blade Works has the same story as Fate/Zero. The story is set ten years after Fate/Zero. It is the continuation of some characters. The set-up is the same with mages calling upon servants to help them win the Holy Grail. This time it is the Fifth Holy Grail War. The same rules apply. Where this story differs from the original is that Fate/Zero was dark, cruel, intense, and all business. Fate/Zero Unlimited Blade Works lacks that feeling. It is not as dark and intense. One reason I think the story is not as dark and falls short is in Fate/Zero, the mages were adults but one. When using the adults, it had the feeling that this was a war of life and death. The main characters were all business. In Fate/Zero: Unlimited Blade Works, the anime replaces the adults and puts naïve, spoiled high school kids in the roles of the mages. To me, this threw off the whole anime off, making it seem like it was serious. That the essence of life and death in the story was gone since no real character wants to kill high schoolers. The only good thing about this anime was the few fight scenes it had. They were entertaining but lack that overall feel that things were going down.
With that said, the characters are just not the same in this anime. Not even close. The main character, Shirou Emiya, is an honest, kind, good-hearted teenage boy, who always enjoys helping others and aspires to become a “hero of justice.” He gets this idea of being a “hero of justice” from his father, Kiritsugu Emiya. You read that right. The same Kiritsugu who stopped at nothing to win the previous war and was called the Magus Killer. Shirou holds tightly to his belief of helping everyone because of the look his adopted father gave him when he rescued him as the city burned all around them. This idea clashes with Archer, who just despises Shirou. The main female character is Rin Tohsaka. Rin is a model student and idol in her school. She barely talks to anyone while giving the demeanor of wanting to be left alone. She is one of the mages from one of the three main families. She desires to win the grail to uphold her family name and honor. She becomes the master of Archer, which she has a strained relationship with.
The anime completely dropped the ball on the personalities of the Servants. In Fate/Zero, Lancer was shown to be an honorable man who didn’t like to take advantage of his opponent. He stood with honor and cursed anyone who didn’t live by his code. If Fate/Zero: Unlimited Blade Works, Lancer’s personality changed. He became this arrogant person who did his mater’s wishes. Sometimes, he wasn’t even around. The anime completely ruined Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh had been roaming the world since the last war when he was given a body. He spends the next ten years hiding and feeding off the energy of half-dead orphans. The ten years must’ve drastically changed his views because, in Fate/Zero, he had a significant god complex. He called anyone and everyone a mongrel. He was grand and flashy by wanting to be the center of attention. In Fate/Zero: Unlimited Blade Works, he is more reserved. Even though he still calls people mongrels, he seems to not be as flashy. His god-complex seemed to have subdued. The anime fails in the character’s development by not giving to many backstories of the high schoolers while also lacking the strong personalities of the servants. I missed Alexander the Great in this anime.
The animation was subpar for this anime. The animation had a lighter tone as most things happened in the day time. The complete dark aspect of this anime was gone. The animation for the fight scenes wasn’t up to what it was in Fate/Zero. You could tell that not much effort was put into the animation. The only time the animation was great was when Archer activated his reality marble and went to his unlimited blade works world. Now that was a beautiful scene. The images of the thousands upon thousands of swords were nice to see. That is the only thing that was great about it.
Fate/Zero: Unlimited Blade Works fails in many areas that its predecessor excels in. If you want to continue the story of Fate/Zero, then the anime is pretty okay to watch, but it can also be skipped because you will be disappointed by it.
