SLIGHT SPOILER WARNING

When I first read the Visual Novel of this route, I fell in love with the main characters and the servants; how could such an action-packed route be this good? For being a game made in 2004, this route became one of my favorites in terms of action, music and story.
After finishing the routes, I set foot into the anime adaptations. Just finishing Fate/Zero, I had high expectations on how studio Ufotable would adapt such an action-packed route, while not butchering the characters and the over-arching storyline. MAN, they did not disappoint.

PLOT

The story itself is fairly simple, which definitely gave space for the studio to develop on animation, world-building and give solid comedy at times. The story mainly revolves around the Fifth Holy Grail War, an event which has occurred before the set time, after the events of the Fourth Grail War (Fate/Zero). Masters must face each-other in an intense battle royale, accompanied by their selected servants. (Saber, Archer, Assassin, Rider, Berserker, Caster) to kill each-other and win the Grail, which grants any wish. High-schoolers Emiya Shirou and Rin Tohsaka, are one of those selected few masters, along with their servants, Saber and Archer, both engage in this battle, one by force and the other for pride. Both high schoolers must learn to set their differences aside to fight together, while also struggling to stay alive in this gruesome war. One of the strong aspects of the story is the beginning chemistry between servants and masters, the clashing set of ideals and morals sparks conflict in battles and it neatly develops with clever comedic touches from here and there.

CHARACTERS

This show has a very good development on characters, both masters and servants. More than the two masters previously mentioned, the secondary characters like Kirei Kotomine, Sakura and Illya and the servants like Caster and Lancer are definitely additional strong points in this show. Nevertheless, the show mostly develops these characters, while others barely get any screen-time or become episodic adversaries. While this is faithful to the original route, one is left wishing more from the rest of the characters, even if it would drag the show an unnecessary mile.

ANIMATION

This is where the show excels. As many fans like calling this anime "Unlimited Budget Works", this anime shows how advanced the studio Ufotable was at the time in terms of smooth and beautiful animation, nowadays world-wide popular for animating Kimetsu No Yaiba. This show is definitely an eye candy for most viewers, with animation that never drops in quality, whether that is in more relaxed and lighthearted moments to very fast and action packed fights, which are abundant in this show. Another thing to commend is this show's ability to flawlessly express emotions of characters, without needing voice acting for the viewer to understand the tone of certain scenes, small details like these make the show amazing to watch.

CONCLUSION

Fate UBW is probably a very good introduction to the animated Fate series if you don't wish to read the Visual Novel. The show takes advantage of the simplicity of the route to make a beautifully looking and well written show which is very faithful to the original source of this series. I recommend this anime for the fight scenes and the chemistry of both protagonists, it's very fun to watch.