October 13th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 01 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 01
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
MATOU Sakura wakes her senpai, EMIYA Shirou, in his workshop where’d he’d fallen asleep. She goes to make breakfast for him and for their teacher, whom Shirou addresses as Fuji-nee (FUJIMURA Taiga). Taiga plays a practical joke on Shirou for addressing her by the nickname she hates before taking off for school. When Sakura and Shirou go, Sakura invites him to the dojo, but since Shirou has repair work to do for the Student Council, he has to decline. While he’s assisting his friend and Student Council President (Issei), Rin comes by, so Shirou says something to her as she leaves. During lunch, Shirou continues to make repairs on things as Issei tells Shirou he needs to learn to say no at times.
That night on the way home, Shirou encounters a young girl, who addresses him as “oniichan” after he passes her before she disappears. Shirou comes home to dinner with Sakura and Taiga. After they leave, Shirou returns to his workshop to attempt to use magic to strengthen a pipe, but fails. The following morning as Sakura makes breakfast, Shirou notices bruising on Sakura’s left hand and believes her brother Shinji is abusing her, though she denies he is the cause of this. At lunch, he eats with female Archery Club member Mitsuzuri to inquire about Sakura. He learns from her about Rin having turned Shinji down and his plans for revenge on Rin.
After a confrontation with some girls on the lookout for Shinji, Shirou learns of a recent murder from them. After checking out the house where the murder happened, Shirou recalls his hospital meeting with Kiritsugu, who adopted him. Shirou wanders around the still damaged parts of Fuyuki City before heading to work, then home, recalling times he had with his adoptive father. At home, Taiga is waiting to be fed and there’s no Sakura. Taiga says she sent Sakura home with protection. The next day, Sakura tells Shirou she won’t be around for dinner for the next few days. It is there that she notices what appears to be bruising on Shirou’s left hand, which Shirou doesn’t remember having injured.
Early evening at school, Shirou confronts Shinji, who’s flirting with two female students, about Sakura. After conceding that Sakura has not said she was abused by Shinji, Shirou agrees to clean the archery dojo for him. That night, after finishing up, Shirou hears noises and goes to see what his happening. He sees the battle between Archer and Lancer, then flees when Lancer comes after him. Lancer stabs him in the heart, but Shirou is saved by Rin, though he doesn’t know it is her. When Shirou gets home, Lancer confronts him again, where Shirou is able to turn a rolled up poster into a weapon. Shirou is about to die again when Saber arrives and forces Lancer to have to leave, thanks to his Master. Saber senses Rin and Archer and goes to attack, but Shirou accidentally uses a Command Spell to stop her. Since he wants information, Rin steps forward to greet him.
Thoughts/Review:
Whew! Another episode of goodness from ufotable.
Before I forget, I’m going to use ROT13 for this post to disguise anything that might be a spoiler of future episodes for those who’ve never watched the original Fate/stay night, nor read the original visual novel. (As an aside, I’m going to look into getting some kind of spoiler feature for the blog and comments, but work as to calm down a bit first. I barely have time to do these posts.)
In that light, watching this episode and knowing what I know has lead to an all new viewing experience on top of whatever story shifts are coming. Having watched the original Fate/stay night anime, having watched the Fate/Zero anime, and then having excellent fans provide outstanding information on the franchise have given me new eyes for the series. So while I may know what is going to happen, there’s something special about actually understanding things from the big picture perspective while watching this iteration of the anime.
As expected, the story shifts to Shirou, who is the lead character in all routes of Fate/stay night. I’ve been amused by some chatter I saw where folks expressed disappointment that Shirou and Saber were at the forefront. Since Shirou is the lead and Saber is his Servant, that’s how the story goes. The difference is in choices made, which if I recall correctly in this episode is Shirou using a Command Spell by accident to stop her from killing Archer and Rin. (Correct me if I’m wrong.)
Some of you guys had mentioned the blonde guy last episode, and for some reason, nothing clicked. That changed with this episode. When I saw Blondie, I thought, “Hey! That’s Tvytnzrfu!” Question is, why was he chatting with Sakura? I don’t recall him doing that during the original anime, but I could have forgotten.
Speaking of Sakura, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. For starters, she’s so clearly in love with Shirou, who’s seemingly oblivious to it. (“Notice me, Senpai!” is the meme I saw going around for this.) Then there’s the talk of Shinji’s abuse (which I know the full extent of from the first anime series and the discussions had there). Having watched Fate/Zero and seeing her past makes it even more tragic for me to watch now.
Regarding Sakura, qvq ure unaq “vawhel” pbzr hc va gur bevtvany navzr? V xabj gung guvf znexvat vf qhr gb ure orvat Evqre’f gehr Znfgre, naq gur sberfunqbjvat bs guvf jnf ervasbeprq jura Fuvebh unq gur fnzr “vawhel” whfg cevbe gb nppvqragnyyl fhzzbavat Fnore.
I couldn’t help but laugh when Ilya showed up for her cameo in this episode. Ilya here is so vastly different from her alternate world persona in the Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya series. I wanted to say, “Hey! Where’s Magical Ruby?”
That brings me to Crunchyroll’s craptacular translations of this episode. Last episode, there were some mistakes, but they appeased me by having full usage of Japanese honorifics. For this episode, the mistakes seemed worse, and all of the Japanese honorifics were dropped, saved for Sakura’s addressing Shirou as “Senpai” and Shirou addressing Taiga as “Fuji-nee.” It was downright bizarre for me to see Ilya address Shirou as “mister” in the subtitles rather than “oniichan,” which pneevrf pregnva sberfunqbjvat ryrzragf. Someone from Crunchyroll did say that the episode isn’t being done by their usual folks and that they’d fix the errors. I’m not sure if that also will include the Japanese honorifics or not.
Beyond that, this was a really good episode.
Posted in 
Tags: 
The translations are being done by Aniplex who has licensed the anime.
Yeah, and an “awesome” job they are doing. I wasn’t sure who was translating it.
Correct. After having played the first route, Fate, you have to start the game again and play through all of it again. When Saber is about to attack Archer, you have the choice to stop her or not stop her. Stopping her leads to Shirou using his Command Spell, which leads to UBW.
It was always in the Prologue, as the Prologue (and also what I call the “common route”, the first days that are almost always the same for Shirou) left lots of foreshadowing for all routes. Guvf fprar vf veeryrinag va HOJ. Vg’f zragvbarq ntnva va US. V pna gryy lbh jung Tvy fnvq, vs lbh jnag.
Fortunately, I don’t remember much about the DEEN anime anymore. 😀 I only remember that all of this also happened in the novel…
I want to mention that Aniplex took care of the translation this time. Some other notable mistakes were stuff like “you dodged my undodgeable blow”, leaving out a sentence Saber said and translating “aka” (red) as “white”. I don’t like Hatsuyuki‘s subs and translation, but I guess I’ll use them from now on, as they are at least better than the crap Aniplex is producing. No UTW. T_T
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
So… another 45 minutes and this time for Shirou and while many people will probably find it boring, I found it necessary to establish Shirou as Fate/stay night’s protagonist. Some things just need to be established, and actually, a whole bunch of monologues and some info dump were cut out again.
As I’ve said, I don’t remember much of the DEEN anime anymore, but I know that ufotable tried to stay very faithful to the source material again and took their time to adapt important parts of the common route before it turns into Fate, UBW or HF. The pacing seems to be rather slow, but I found it well executed. Shirou does his workout, Shirou’s flashbacks with Kiritsugu, Shirou’s magic training, Shirou thinking about the inferno, Shirou’s POV complementing Rin’s POV… The only definite original scene here are the track girls confronting Shirou.
Btw, Kiritsugu telling Shirou that he is “a magician (mahou tsukai)” is a common sentence that you will hear in Nasu’s other works, too. Coincidentally, it’s always near or inside a hospital. Whenever Kiritsugu appeared, one could also hear Fate/Zero tracks again.
Of course ufotable had to cut some stuff. For instance, after Rin revived Shirou and when he woke up, he was still panicking. To calm down, he picked up a mop and scrubbed the bloodstains from the floor (strange that there isn’t much blood, eh who cares, maaggiiiic). He really loves cleaning! 😉 And then he asked himself what the hell he was doing, lol. It was both hilarious and an understandable reaction to me. What was also cut was his explanation of how he was using his magic to read structures, his usage of his magic circuit and how risky it is and how it feels as if he put a hot iron rod inside his back every time he tries to use reinforcement (and fails).
Just to mention it for the sake of it, Shirou’s house belongs to Taiga’s grandfather, who was good friends with Kiritsugu, and Taiga is Shirou’s legal guardian. Taiga is also an expert in swordsmanship (no match for Saber, but still extremely good for a normal human).
Lancer vs Shirou: The bells that you see right before Shirou dodges Lancer’s ambush are a warning system. There is a boundary field around Shirou’s house that Kiritsugu set up, which warns him when someone with hostile intention passes through it, that’s how Shirou knew immediately that something was up.
Btw, Nasu explained that reinforcement on yourself is very easy, while reinforcing objects is a lot harder. The most difficult thing is reinforcing other people, but… well, that couldn’t really happen now of course.
Most of his thoughts in that fight aren’t shown (like him being rather calm and collected and thinking a few steps ahead, it was his intention to run to the shed), but that isn’t bad because ufotable seems to take a more show-not-tell approach. The same happened when he used his Command Spell, as he recognized Rin and Archer, which they just showed instead of him thinking it. I like this a lot.
As you already know, Lancer’s Gae Bolg reverses cause and effect and I really found it gorgeous how ufotable made the rewinding effect to correct the “mistake” of missing and the attempt to hit Saber’s heart. It looked a lot like how Silver Link portrayed Fragarach, which is not surprising, since these two are in some ways very similar. The only way to avoid Gae Bolg is either getting out of the 10 meter range (though Lancer could step forward of course) or having lots of luck (though it’s later mentioned that Saber’s instincts slightly helped). Saber has Rank B luck with Shirou (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/professorscissors/LP/fate-saber.png).
Note, that Fnore’f fgngf ner trarenyyl orggre jvgu Xvevgfhth nf ure Znfgre, ohg fur jbhyq unir qvrq ntnvafg Ynapre’f Tnr Obyt jvgu ure Enax Q Yhpx (uggc://vzt4.ubfgvatcvpf.arg/cvpf/932458SMi0300npbcl.wct). Gae Bolg’s curse of reversed causality is a usually unhealable curse and stronger than Gae Buidhe’s curse of mortality in FZ, which merely reduces the max. HP, as Gae Bolg’s damage scales with the HP of the victim. As Nasu describes it in gaming terms, it’s the HP of the victim + the damage of the spear, so being hit in the heart means certain death. Saber is still wounded by Lancer’s attack, but at least she now knows his identity.
And of course the battle overall looked wonderful. It’s good to see that ufotable correctly shows that Servants can move faster than the human eye can see, as described in the VN, something that I didn’t see in the old anime.
DEEN: http://37.media.tumblr.com/59072eac2f7704548a242e5158980e04/tumblr_n59vgumuv31ry576bo4_250.gif
ufotable: http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/7d80edb27d67e8210290a37ba5ce34591413139564_full.gif
Lots of foreshadowing in this episode, which is more blatant in the anime than in the novel, as there are now more visuals. ufotable also added a few things. For instance, Fnore’f ernpgvba jura Fuvebh vagebqhprf uvzfrys nf Rzvln (naq jura fur abgvprf gur furq) vf qvssrerag guna va gur abiry. Va gur abiry, vg’f vagragvbanyyl zragvbarq gung Fnore fubjf n cbxre snpr naq qbrfa’g ernpg jura fur urnef gur anzr (uggc://v.vzthe.pbz/DzWABx6y.wct), juvyr va gur navzr fur fubjf n abgvprnoyr ernpgvba.
I’ll mention this now before I forget it: Shirou and Shinji used to be good friends, Shinji was actually one of the few friends Shirou had. Some side material info:
Matou Shinji [Person]
[…]
Due to the gap between his “ideal world” and the world he actually lives in, his personality has become warped, but when Shirou first made his acquaintance four years ago he wasn’t nearly as bad as he is now.
As you might expect, he stumbled across Shirou doing menial tasks for people free of charge, and despite (seriously) deriding him as an idiot from behind his back, he hung around with him until he was done. At the end of the day, Shinji laughed as if he was having a good time, and exclaimed, “You may be an idiot, but you sure do good work, at least!” Perhaps Shirou appreciated Shinji’s honesty despite his foul mouth, because afterward they became friends.
Though Shinji often made fun of him, in the shadows he socially assassinated anybody that took advantage of Shirou, and frequently invited him over to his house to hang out. It seems they really were close. However, as you know, for a temperamental genius like Shinji even a friend of many years is not safe from suddenly becoming his enemy for incomprehensible reasons.
Basically, he’s the kind of person that’s reliable when he’s on your side but ends up being really troublesome if he turns on you.
Temperamental genius, lol. There was originally supposed to be an option in Fate, where you were really able to join forces with him, which they would have called the “Shinji route” (would have probably looked like this…: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM_5BtfnFeg), where one would have seen his better sides and Fate/hollow ataraxia definitely showed some scenes where he noticeable acted nicer. Maybe he would have redeemed himself in his route and become a hero like Shirou… but we’ll never find out as Type-Moon decided against it. Too bad.
Sakura started visiting Shirou’s house some time after Kiritsugu died and if I remember correctly, Shirou eventually found out that Shinji hit Sakura. Their friendship ended when Shirou beat Shinji up, Shirou quit the archery club soon afterwards. Perhaps Shirou still regrets that he and Shinji are no longer friends. If Shinji had been blessed with more talent, he might not have developed such an inferiority complex and had become a better person. (Evqre npghnyyl bapr qrfpevorq Crefrhf, gur Terrx ureb jub riraghnyyl xvyyrq ure, nf n fhpprfshy Fuvawv.)
The OP and ED have for some strange reason… lots of Saber x Shirou in it. Okay, their relationship is a good platonic one and is still important in this route, but… ah, never mind. At least I see lots of Rin. ^_^ Still, Kalafina’s ED song sounds a lot like some of their other songs and the OP song sounds a bit too J-Pop generic to me, but I guess its lyrics fit certain characters. The OPs from the Visual Novel (both the original song and the PS Vita songs) sounded better in my opinion.
Fun stuff again:
1. This pic is a winner: http://i.imgur.com/7IyyTCB.jpg
2. Lancer’s Gae Bolg is often mocked because of the English dub (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRwy1Nu5Q2I). Even the Japanese are making fun of this now: http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/6181/gaybolg.jpg
3. Nasu was tweeting again. I don’t have a link for a translation this time, unfortunately, but the tweets are still pretty funny.
(And some are informative. Erzrzore gur uheg puvyqera va gur ubfcvgny? Fbzr crbcyr fhfcrpgrq gurfr jrer gur becunaf juvpu jrer riraghnyyl frag gb gur becunantr bs gur Shlhxv Puhepu (naq raqrq hc nf znan onggrevrf sbe Tvytnzrfu). Anfh rkcynvarq gung gurfr jrer abg whfg gur fheivibef bs gur sver.).
Personal favorite one: https://twitter.com/Fate_SN_Anime/status/520968008760434688
And again, another great and faithful episode this week. The Unlimited Blade Works route truly starts now. Next week we’ll probably get some info dump and we go back to the 20 minutes per episode format, which is a shame, but I am looking forward to it already.
To clarify (before anyone tries to correct me), you have to get out of range before Lancer calls out Gae Bolg’s name. It’s too late otherwise.
Oh, and ufotable gave Saber a new outfit in the OP. It’s an outfit Takeuchi drew a few years ago for some artbooks.
http://i.imgur.com/38PwFOV.jpg
http://anime.astronerdboy.com/wp-content/uploads/blogger/_abkMP58OLUA/S2zWJwYVxEI/AAAAAAAASQ4/QHqyvqfjjns/s400/%5BFate-stay%2Bnight%5D%2BIllyasviel%2Bvon%2BEinzbern%2BSaber%2BValentine.jpg
ufotable probably did it to appease Takeuchi’s inner fanboy. They jokingly mentioned how angry Takeuchi was because they didn’t animate Saber’s route. 😉
I always liked those images. ^_^
uggc://v.vzthe.pbz/3xD82lg.wct
Yvxr fvfgre yvxr oebgure. Lbhatre puvyqera gnxr nsgre gurve byqre fvoyvatf. 😉
Heh!heh!
Goddammit, I swear, I need an edit button…
Well… it’s basically Kuro. ^_^
Btw, I like Taiga’s new outfit. The jeans fit her.
Bonus info: EP 2 and EP 3 are confirmed to have new original scenes written by Nasu. After having seen the CMs, I can guess what Nasu will add for next week.
Yep, choosing to use the Command Seal to stop Saber from attacking Archer is what sets us down the path of UBW. Because of this, Saber no longer gets savaged by Berserker in the cemetery by the church like in the Fate route (not a spoiler, happened in another route already covered by the Deen anime), so Shirou never thinks that he needs to protect Saber instead of letting her fight as she should. Things have already changed greatly from the first anime here.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that convo plays no major role in UBW. HF, on the other hand…
As for subs, I’m going off of Commie’s, which aren’t too bad, but I agree that UTW would’ve probably been best. I also watch the Hulu version, which I’m guessing is the same subs as Crunchyroll’s, both coming from Aniplex. Oh well.
Yeah, showing Shirou cleaning up the scene of his own murder really would’ve really helped show how much of a broken person mentally he is, though I think this episode did a decent enough job of that.
You forgot to mention that Taiga’s grandfather is a major Yakuza oyabun, which is what Taiga meant when she says that she sent Sakura home with one of her guys, aka a Yakuza kobun that she gets to order around as befitting her status as a Yakuza princess.
I didn’t forget that. I’m pretty sure I mentioned that in some of the older FZ reviews already, so I left that part out. What I actually did forget to mention was the funny reversed stereotypical gender roles regarding Shirou and Taiga.
Shirou is the housewife who is in charge of the home, he cooks, cleans and also supports the income by taking a part-time job. Taiga has a career, goes to work, comes home and expects food. That’s the stereotypical situation in a Japanese family, only Taiga acts like the husband and Shirou like the housewife.
Btw, I saw CR’s v2 of the subs (https://www.diffchecker.com/pefdiljl). “Shinto” is now “New Fuyuki Business District” instead of “New City Office” (wtf, Shinto is just the name of the district).They should translate “Tokyo” as “Eastern Capital” now…
Oh, and “onii-chan” is still “mister”. They added honorifics though and the “undodgeable blow” is now a “lethal strike”.
So some improvements, some continued fails, and some new fails.
They are using the Aniplex/Crunchyroll subs.
Yeah, that’s why I’m switching over to UTW when they’re available. Spoke with the guy who does their editing now that Raze is no longer with them on the Something Awful thread, and I’ve heard good things about their plans for going over the previous translations and improving them. Their prologue episode was well handled enough, so I expect good things from them, especially after all they did during Fate/Zero.
Now that I know, I’ll be taking a gander too. Of course, I’ll probably still watch CR since I am paying for it. *chuckle*
Watching these 2 episodes, I got the feeling that this series is more for those who’s already familiar with the original VN, the previous series or movie, or with F/Z. Maybe that’s because we don’t get enough info about the Holy Grail War (probably next episode) or about magic in general (probably even later).
I’m not sure, but didn’t Taiga just start riding a motorbike at the end of the VN? That’s what was on my mind when I saw one of the scenes.
On a completely unrelated topic, I used to remember Fuji-nee whenever I heard “Taiga”. But now, the Palmtop Tiger also comes to mind. :p
That missing blood scene too. Maybe Ufotable want us to think that Rin not only healed Shirou, but also cleaned the bloodstains on the floor. As expected of a honor student. lol.
I also prefer this approach, makes more sense in my opinion ^_^
Didn’t Kiritsugu pass away 5 years ago? What you said wasn’t wrong, but “some time” and “more than 1 year passed” don’t really fit each other in my mind.
From what I remember, Sakura started visiting Shirou to take care of him after he got injured (club activity?) and continued helping in his house even after he’s healed. I don’t really remember the connection between “Shirou is injured”, “Shirou beat Shinji up”, “Shirou quits the club” events though.. Is it C because of A? C because of B? or maybe A because of B? It’s been quite a long time since I last played the VN.
I agree. Some melodies of the ED even remind me of F/Z.
At that point, ur’f grpuavpnyyl abg ure oebgure lrg gubhtu. That image’s cute btw 😀
I’m looking forward to this series mainly because of the new/original scenes and the animation, especially the (servant’s) battle parts. In my opinion, it’s excellent and better than F/Z. I still prefer the art in F/Z though..
She received her license after the war ended, that’s correct. However, that’s such a minor change, I left it out. It’s just Taiga leaving for school. Shirou didn’t talk with Mitsuzuri during lunch, either, but I’m not gonna point out every new minor thing.
The only real new scene is making the track girls appear, which I assume is fanservice, as they had maybe one appearance in the entire FSN VN.
That was me not bothering the details because who cares about Sakura… I could have elaborated that Sakura started visiting him one year before FSN after his injury, but I didn’t see it as necessary info. Also, my memory isn’t really reliable regarding this.
Shirou left the club after Shinji commented on his injury that it looks ugly and unfitting for an archery club member. Or so I remember… could be I earlier mixed up some events of the manga and the Fate route, when I thought about Shirou beating Shinji up.
At least Shirou became aware of Shinji abusing Sakura, so that was definitely the time their friendship was over. I imagine Shinji was jealous of Shirou’s skills in archery, who only missed his target once, when both joined the club.
Orvat Xvevgfhth’f nqbcgrq fba, guvf nyernql znxrf uvz ure oebgure. Gur fvoyvat obaqvat vf fbzrguvat ryfr.
What I mean is, jnf ur nyernql Xvevgfhth’f nqbcgrq fba ng gung cbvag? V gubhtug ur nqbcgrq Fuvebh nsgre Fuvebh’f bhg sebz gur ubfcvgny. Be ng yrnfg nsgre Fuvebh nterrq gb yvir jvgu uvz.
Oh, that. Sure, you’re right. Then it’s just that a certain man favors to raise children who act the same way… ^_^
*LOL* I had a similar thought, especially since I usually read a chapter of the manga before bed when I’m home.
Btw, some good news: UTW has decided to pick up UBW (Prologue is out). Raze no longer translates, as he has retired from fansubbing and focuses on becoming a good doctor, but I guess he might still be involved. Still, they are in my opinion still one of the best fansubbers out there.
Praise Helix! UTW’s versions will probably be great, though that not about the prologue being based off of the Aniplex script has me a bit nervous right now… Still, if we can get better subs, I’m all for it. UTW has never steered me wrong before!
My bad about the Yakuza thing, I guess I forgot, since the F/Z posts were a while ago and remembering the comment sections are even harder. But yeah, the reversal of gender roles in the house is very amusing, but I love it for one other major reason:
All that glorious food porn! Shirou and Sakura contribute so much, it’s great. I can only hope that they keep this level of it up for HF, fvapr gur svefg pbhcyr bs qnlf unir n gba bs vg and it is glorious. Plus, this bodes well for the zncb gbsh fprar va US, which is one of my favorites in the whole VN as well.
Yeah, I think the only appearance they made in the VN were in the prologue in that one lunch scene with Rin. Oh, and one 4koma comic that I saw in the art book. I’m surprised that those three even got CGs in the VN. Still, seeing that extra scene was pretty cool, if only for the track team captain’s antics. I’m completely blanking on their names, except for the shy brunette one, who is Saegusa (and no I didn’t just look that up, I remembered the name and then checked to confirm!).
No, I think you’re remembering correctly. Shirou was too good at archery (uvagvat ng uvf cbffvoyr shgher nf Nepure) and Shinji got really jealous, as is fitting his character as the gnyragyrff fpvba bs gur bapr terng Zngbh znthf snzvyl jub jrer bar bs gur bevtvangbef bs gur Ubyl Tenvy Jne (Fate spoiler, dunno if I should’ve spoiled that, but just to be safe). After he became president of the Archery Club (or is that Mitsuzuri, I can never remember) or at least a big name there, he forced Shirou out with the excuse that his shoulder injury (which I believe he got working his part time job) disfigured him, and since in kyudo you shoot with a bared shoulder, something like that would not be aesthetically pleasing and disrupt the purity of kyudo. Shirou, being a fundamentally broken person mentally, agreed with him and allowed himself to be forced out.
Really need an edit button…
Literally too good at archery, he always hit the target and only missed once on purpose, just to see if he could miss in the first place.
But, I get higher comment numbers. ^_~
In all seriousness, I have it on the list of possible upgrades.
I’m sure that particular info about Shirou’s time in the archery club will be brought up again.
Nyy gur vasb naq gur uvagf nobhg Nepure fubhyq unccra ba gur 4gu qnl jura Fnore gntf nybat, vs V erzrzore pbeerpgyl, nygubhtu guvf fprar jnf bcgvbany.
Qrcraqf ba jurgure hsbgnoyr jvyy hfr gung fprar be nabgure.
That was the case with Fate/Zero too, though, when Aniplex took care of the niconico simulcast and it turned out well, so I’m not worried. Their name is based on UBW, they gotta live up to it. 😉
Yeah, the apprehensiveness I felt when I saw that Raze was no longer attached to UTW all but vanished when I spoke to Xythar on the Something Awful thread and he allayed my fears. I have a very good feeling about their work in this case!
Man, the edit button… (Nah, I’m just messing around. All good. ^_^)
Yeah, I mentioned their names in the comments last week already. Can’t forget their names after playing Fate/hollow ataraxia. 😉 I think Himuro’s my favorite one.
Sweet. ^_^ And I agree, they are quite good.
Will it come up in the movie?
I thought it seemed a lot shorter when it came to the aftermath of Shirou surviving Lancer’s attack.
Yeah, that’s an awesome plus on ufotable’s part.
Regarding Shinji, I think I remember someone telling me they’d been friends, but I’d forgotten the details.
Interesting.
Anyway, thanks for all the info. ^_^
Depends on how many movies they want to make and how much they will cut. I imagine it will come up in the movie, as they’ve already shown in the prologue and this episode blonde foreigner meeting Sakura.
I think I’ll just wait to see how the movie(s) go and try to remember to bring this topic up again at that time, assuming we don’t get to hear what he said in the movie.
Dunno if you;re familiar with JoJo, but I love this gif of the Saber/Lancer fight: http://i.imgur.com/FuHy9GB.gif
Seeing that gif really reminds me someone saying “Ufotable has Unlimited Budget+quality Works” or something like that..
*lol* It does fit.
Jojo is not ringing a bell.
I just want to note something of interest:
Fate Stay Night focused heavily on what it meant to be a hero and very much less on the miracle part (except perhaps the cost of a miracle). In contrast ending of Fate/Zero basically divides the Holy Grail War into two distinct themes: what it means to be a hero, and what does a miracle mean?
Prisma Illya in contrast downplays the first question of the meaning of a hero (till the recent parts of Drei at least), and instead chooses to focus on what a miracle means.
In other words, Illya, by her very nature can only self-actualize if she existed in a world that allows her to pursue the meaning of a miracle, because she was created to be a means to a miracle. In the FSN Universe, this is impossible, but in the Fate Prisma Universe, Illya is actually able to pursue the meaning of a miracle.
But because of this, FSN Illya isn’t exactly the same person as Fate Prisma Kuro as of Drei, because the possibility of self-actualizing is very different for both. In other words, this Illya is basically a Kuro unable to truly self-actualize by circumstances and fate, unlike, say Shirou in FSN, or unlike what Kuro and Illya experiences in Prisma.
And I think it gives the introduction of this Illya great emotional and thematic significance, especially when the audience keeps in mind the Illya and Kuro of Fate Prisma. In that delivery of Illya’s introduction, is the thematic differences between Fate Prisma and Fate Stay Night distilled down into. It gives an immense amount of power to the scene. From an adaptation script-writing standpoint it’s basically UFOtable proclaiming that we aren’t going to answer in detail the meaning of a miracle that Fate/Zero’s ending asked, in this adaptation. Illya represents the possibility of pursuing such a meaning, but the possibility is every bit as dead as Illya’s voice and demeanor in this episode. It snaps the audience in Fate Prisma who went on to watch UBW this season, out of the framing of Fate Prisma, and into the frame of FSN instead.
Interesting take on this.
Man, Taiga Fujimura best teacher. http://i.imgur.com/BdVJJFX.gif http://i.imgur.com/DZLmlk0.gif http://i.imgur.com/Jv3xPJx.gif http://i.imgur.com/gPDCwpz.gif
Really wish I had the gif where Shirou tries to hit her with the rolled up poster, which she avoids and counters, it’s great.
Sakura really did have a bunch of “Notice me, senpai!” vibes coming off of her, which I guess is understandable, going off of what we see of her background in Zero. If I lived with Shinji, not knowing anything else about their relationship, I would also want to be with Shirou as much as I could…
Minor spoiler (for Fate) in the scene where Shirou summons Saber: uvf zntvp pvephvgf frrz gb fcevat sebz Ninyba orsber riraghnyyl pbaarpgvat gb Rkpnyvohe orsber Fnore cbcf hc, fubjvat gur qrrc pbaarpgvba gung ur unf jvgu gur bapr naq shgher xvat.
Fight scenes are way better animated, the quality I expected from ufotable after what they did in Zero, and a major improvement over the previous UBW movie. The way they showed Lancer activating Gae Bolg was great, and the way the attack connecting with Saber was animated was amazing. Really, being Lancer is suffering, what with his E Rank Luck. He just wants a good fight, and his Master isn’t letting him have one… He also reveals his Noble Phantasm, and therefore his identity, and doesn’t even get a kill off of it due to Saber’s insane Luck and Magic Resistance… Really sucks to be Lancer.
Oh man, that Ilya foreshadowing. I was also disappointed at how that line was translated, but as long as it gets the message across, hmm?
I also picked up the first official Fate/stay Night artbook at New York Comic Con this past weekend for 10% off (still $36, though). It’s a gorgeous book with tons of CGs and promotional artwork from the game, which looks great. Think I’ll be referring back to it a lot over the run of this show…
As for the winter clothing, I think Nasu commented on it during his live tweets, seeing as he had set the VN during February, but failed to reference how cold it was in that month.
Finally, I agree that an edit button would help a lot, but I understand it’d probably be a difficult thing to code into a comment section…
Are you talking about the Complete Material books? I was able to get the first one in English for quite a cheap price online. The first one is pretty boring though. The interesting books are CM2 and CM3.
Yeah, FSN starts on January 31 2004, one day after its release in Japan. And Nasu actually did write that the winters in Fuyuki are quite friendly and that the half-hearted cold would make it a poor hot springs resort in the novel. It was still weird that Shirou never really wore a jacket or a coat, especially at night, unlike Ilya or Rin, and they only wore them occasionally…
Yeah, that’s the one. CM1 in English, put out by Udon. I wasn’t planning on getting it, but I was checking out one my my favorite anime retailers at New York Comic Con (Anime Castle, if you’re curious, they’re pretty decent and give you 10% off of MSRP for books and stuff, and I’ve been to their physical store in Flushing, Queens; their staff there are pretty nice and friendly) and looking through their artbooks, saw it for sale, remembered that the new episode of UBW was going to come out the next day, and decided to pick it up on the spur of the moment. Might’ve been a bit expensive, but what’s the point of winning $1000 on Jeopardy if you don’t spend it at all?
Also, forgot to mention in my original comment (again, would love an edit button) that I just love the food porn in this series. The beginning of this episode was no exception, especially since it set up that sauce gag that Fuji-nee pulled on Shirou, plus the setup to her peeling out on her scooter. There’s a reason why when the F/sN LP was happening on the Something Awful forums (more specifically during HF), a goon bought this smilie for the series under the tag :fsn: http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-fsn.gif
Also, this made me laugh: http://i.imgur.com/lJVZeuy.jpg
More stuff (again, really need an edit button):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAK-DEkHeQI
Previews for episodes 2 and 3 from aniplex.
>Kirei explaining things to Shirou while walking in circles
>dat Bahsahka
>raincoat Seiba
so excited right now…
argh, another reaction to that preview (edit button, plz)
>dat Ilya curtsy
I wish I had a mouse right now. (It is trapped at the office.)
Anyway, thanks for the link. ^_^
Another comment I forgot about (edit button when?):
Really hope there’s a reference to some of the Tiger Dojo scenes, since the Rin ones during UBW were the best. Besides, more Fuji-nee is always appreciated!
If you didn’t already know Astro, Tiger Dojos are the humorous after scenes that you got in the VN when you hit a Bad (or Dead) End, where Taiga and Ilya (sometimes with special guests) would chide you on what you did wrong and give you a hint on what choice you made that led you to this ending, and how to get back on track. They were frequently hilarious, and I’d love to see some version of them here, even though it’s likely that won;t happen. But a man can dream, can’t they?
Thanks for the Tiger Dojo info. I don’t think I was aware of them before.
I think I mentioned the Tiger Dojos before, in relation to the Einzbern Consultation Rooms from Fate/Zero, when I recommended to you to watch the FZ BDs… ^_^
Whfg nf SM jnf SFA’f cerdhry, gur pbafhygngvba ebbzf ner gur cerdhryf gb gur Gvtre Qbwbf. Bayl Vev vf gur vafgehpgbe naq Gnvtn vf gur qvfpvcyr.
Huh, did not know that. Now I’ll have to look them up on YouTube or something, because I don’t have a BD player.
Who’s the guy?
Archer, from the FX series Archer. Hence the joke.
Ah. I haven’t watched that. ^_^;;;
Oh, that is sweet. I wish I had known I was taking a trip out east earlier so I could have dropped by NYCC.
I’ll need to research the options I have. It will be easier to get a spoiler feature, but there may be something available for the edit button.
Badges sold out in like hours though, so unless you’re willing to pay a scalper drastically inflated prices or had a hook up, you likely weren’t getting in. 150k attendees over 4 days, now officially the biggest con in the US if you believe the numbers. Not bad for a con less than 10 years old (started in 2006).
I only got in because I’ve been working for the Con for five years straight. I dunno if I would’ve been able to score a badge this year if I wasn’t accepted to work, unless I leaned hard on fellow Crew members… Even with my Jeopardy money, I wasn’t about to pay that scalper money…
Ah. Well, it was a thought. And I’m not rich enough to pay scalper prices for anything.
Absolutely loved this episode.
Yeah, it has been good stuff.
Great episode. It seems this anime will definitely be a bit more dragging than Fate/Zero since it stays so true to the VN (there will be cooking… lots of cooking!), but I like how the interaction between Shirou and Saber was handled with Saber being all business. Shirou himself is also much more likeable as a protagonist with the way he’s being portrayed here as someone who isn’t as much as a clueless kid rather than someone with strong if a bit mentally warped ideals who has chosen to participate in the holy grail war as much as he has been dragged into it. Also… this fanart seems appropriate: http://s21.postimg.org/azsnwz37r/sabernagiwall.png
Heh! Love the image of Nagi as Saber. ^_^
The episodes are a bit long and tedious but love that ufotable are going into extra detail to fully convey the UBW story with balanced out and intense action.
Sakura I can’t look at with remember what she been through :/ which is sick and disgusting.
Only thing that peeve me this episode was the aoi and akai comment which somehow translated to blue and white rather than blue and red
Yeah, that’ll be fixed very soon, I hope. UTW won’t make that mistake when they release their version.
I didn’t find it tedious, but that’s just me.
I hear ya. Knowing what I know now makes this viewing a much different experience.