Treading on the dark abyss can be an enormous task to take. It is a never-ending ride that can only be described in the most torturous terminology. This abyss that I am telling formed around 2006 by the name of Fate Stay Night. Not the visual novel, mind you, but the adaptation of one of the routes contained in it. It is called an abyss because it was hated by almost everybody and their mother with its boring and mind-numbingly boring presentation. All it would take to rationalize the problem is to realize that Type-Moon was lazy with giving its adaptation in the hands of a studio that probably didn’t have the authenticity it needed to showcase the grand scale of the Fate series. It only took Type-Moon nearly ten years to revitalize this by going on a different route with Unlimited Blade Works.
This might be controversial, but with the usual reaction by many who follow this franchise, this next iteration in the Fate series anime franchise is my favorite. Mind you. I am someone who had not touched any of the visual novels when I watched the anime. I’m making this statement based on how my experience is going through all of the anime, so no nitpicking adaptation problems from me. How Unlimited Blade Works manages to succeed in being the best one simply from how the scale of its setting and story is structured in a way where it can quickly focus on the pacing of the story and characters better. It doesn’t have the most significant issue of Fate Zero, where the scale of the setting was too big for the small amount of time it had to develop the characters. Not to say there is a lot of development in Unlimited Blade Works, as ufotable has realized that these characters have been poised into our consciousness from many Fate iterations that it’s almost pointless to do so. Some decent character moments involve the development, particularly with Archer, which I will get to later.
Instead of Saber being the main girl with Shirou back in the original Fate Stay Night, we have Rin Tohsaka filling in for that role in this one. As someone who’s always thought of Saber as a bland heroine in how they portray her in the anime, having Rin as the main focus was a breath of fresh air. Yes, she is your prototypical tsundere character falling for the main protagonist, Shirou. Still, she does manage to hold on her own as a capable character who offers more than the trope that she possesses. Shirou has always been a hit-or-miss character, but mostly a miss for many people. Fortunately, he is not as dim-witted and unlikable as in the original Fate Stay Night, even though he still is in short bursts in Unlimited Blade Works. The rest of the human characters, such as Kirei, Shinji, Kiritsugu, and Illyasvi, are all of the same quality. They have their range of pros and cons but with nothing of exceptional value to this season in particular.
I have never been interested in the actual lore of the Fate series. It is the hero characters being spiritual manifestations of past famous and infamous historical figures never clicked with me as being anything groundbreaking in the slightest. That said, Unlimited Blade Works was the first season that piqued my interest in it when it started to tell the backstory of Archer’s past life. It is explained in a somber manner and with an incredible impact on our main characters that will easily make you want to digest more of what will happen next as it paces itself forward. It is disappointing that the other heroes don’t get the same treatment as Archer and make them feel static in comparison. It makes sense from a visual novel perspective since a route only focuses on individual characters. But in anime, it feels jarring at times. However, it’s not jarring to take in from Unlimited Blade Works' perspective.
Once again, ufotable never fails to impress the fans and community by giving them a visual treat to splendor upon. If there is one thing, they succeed in pleasing everyone. If you have seen Fate Zero before going into Unlimited Blade Works, nothing has changed dramatically from their original art design and CGI. Nevertheless, that isn’t to say it is a disappointing factor since it is always more than welcome to grace us with its visual grandeur, even with no change whatsoever. The fighting scenes are just as amazing to watch as it was with Fate Zero, with the nifty camera angles following the movement of the characters and the lovely sound design of the spells being cast and swords clashing with each other. It's almost necessary to watch this on the highest quality stream or buy the Blu-Ray set to watch them at their maximum quality.
Everyone has a solid attachment to the series, and it can be a polarizing experience for some who’ve come to know the visual novels by heart. Me being one who does not fall into this category, as I’ve mentioned before, I realize that my voice might be viewed as limiting by some. I can only express how I felt going through Unlimited Blade Works as my favorite of the series. It is a nice fun ride that I hope will continue with whatever next iteration of the Fate franchise that Type-Moon is willing to whore out for pennies. Maybe it’ll be the final route of Fate Stay Night that they’ll finally do, and that will be the end of it, who knows. But that will likely not be the case, as sad as that can be.
Grade: A-
28 out of 29 users liked this review
