フェイト／ステイナイト Ep 02
Fate/stay night episode 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Rin is not pleased with herself for not having summoned the servant she wanted — Saber. She assures Archer that it isn’t against him and he assures her that with her level of power, it makes him even better. Rin wants to know other details about Archer, such as his former name but his memories are jumbled so he doesn’t know much about his past. Rin decides to let the subject go and discusses the upcoming Holy Grail War between seven mages and their servants.

Over at Shirou’s house, it is breakfast time with Sakura making lunches for Fujimura-sensei. After arriving at school, Sakura and Shirou are met by Mitsuzuri, the captain of the archery club. She wants Shirou to deal with his friend Shinji (Sakura’s brother), who’s also in the archery club but causes trouble. Complicating matters is that Rin turned down Shinji when he asked her out. This bit catches Shirou’s attention and he does see Shinji on the matter of the archery club but doesn’t confront him on anything. Further, after school, Shinji even agrees to clean the dojo for Shinji so that Shinji can go out with a group of girls.

Meanwhile, Rin and Archer have sensed an enemy and are on alert, figuring an attack to come that evening. Sure enough, a Lancer servant arrives and attacks Rin and Archer. Lancer figures he has an advantage and is not expecting Archer to suddenly produce two large swords and go into melee combat. The noise of the battle attracts Shirou’s attention and seeing the fight, explosions, and the weapons used, he things of the recent murders around town. Lancer notices Shirou and since no one outside of the mages and their summoned servants can know of the Holy Grail War, Lancer stops fighting Archer to kill Shirou. Shirou flees to the school but eventually is caught and stabbed by Lancer.

After leaving him to die, Rin and Archer find Shirou. Rin orders Archer to pursue Lancer and attempt to find Lancer’s master. Rin is horrified to see whom it was who got stabbed and she uses a jeweled pendant to heal Shirou before leaving. When he comes to, he understands he was stabbed but doesn’t know who saved him. He arrives home as Archer returns to Rin’s mansion and reminds her that once Lancer discovers Shirou is still alive, he will attempt to kill him again.

Sure enough, Lancer comes and attacks. Shirou uses his ability to strengthen a metal pipe and is able to hold off Lancer for a while. As Rin and Archer arrive, Lancer is about to make the finishing blow when a magic circle activates and a female knight emerges and forces Lancer away. She identifies herself as Servant Saber and asks Shirou if he’s her master.

Thoughts/Review:

There was a lot less comedy this time as this second episode began shaping up into a form that I expect — fights, plans, and a last second rescue. Pretty typical stuff, but I like the packaging and so on we go. ^_^

As this episode unfolded, I began to wonder about how exactly Sakura sees Shirou. Obviously she cares a great deal for him to come over every stinking day, cook and clean for the smegger. Yet she showed no sign of negative emotion when Mitsuzuri grabbed Shirou to talk with him about the archery club. So if she’s attracted to Shirou, she’s not giving the cliched signs. Then again, being that Sakura is Shinji’s younger sister, maybe she just sees Shirou as another “oniichan.” Her use of the term “senpai” when addressing Shirou doesn’t give much away either because Sakura is so proper in her speech and she addresses other upperclassmen as “senpai.” So for the moment, I’m going to assume that Sakura is not romantically interested in Shirou.

That brings me to Rin. She’s been set up as the hot idol-type girl in the high school who turns down guys, even popular ones like Shinji. She doesn’t seem the type to help a rival for the Holy Grail War, so her reaction to seeing they dying Shirou and her actions that follow suggest to me some sort of romantic interest on Rin’s part. With Shirou apparently having summoned Servant Saber without really trying, let me guess that he’ll become attracted to her and there will be this rivarly of sorts with Rin jealous that Saber went to Shirou and Rin jealous that Shirou is interested in Saber. Maybe Archer will be jealous of Rin’s being attracted to Shirou. *lol* Hey, this was adapted from an eroge, so I’m just trying to figure out how wanton sex would play into the overall story. ^_^;

Despite her cliched arrival, Saber does make a pretty cool entrance. Actually, one of the reasons I wanted to watch this anime was from having seen an image of Saber in her knight costume looking like she’s going to kick some tail. A hot looking blonde who wears full body armor and carries a big sword — what’s not to love? *lol*

One word about Shirou — man, there’s NO way any so-called friend of mine would pull off what Shinji did by dumping off a tedious chore on me. I’d suddenly find myself late for some appointment because while I don’t mind helping others, no way are you using me, y’all. ^_^

As I wrap this up, I have to take note of the music. Normally, music is what it is — a device used to strike a tone or to otherwise enhance a scene. Often, music goes mostly unnoticed — we know it is there, but it is “hidden” as we watch. Whenever music stands out to me, it is either because it is bad or it is pretty good. Here, it is the later and at times, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the music in Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice.

So while cliched in many regards, I am enjoying what I’ve seen so far in Fate/stay night. I look forward to the next episode.