October 26th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 03 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 03
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Ilya introduces herself and makes sure Rin knows she’s an Einzbern, something Saber reacts to as well. The invisible Archer tells Rin that Berserker could easily face the other six Servants. Rin dispatches Archer to provide ranged support as Ilya has Berserker engage. With surprising quickness, Berserker launches himself into the air and attack, easily shaking off a volley of arrows from Archer. Berserker is on Shirou in a flash, causing Saber to jump in to defend. As the two servants fight, Saber is is impressed by Berserker’s skills despite his madness. Archer lands another blow, which doesn’t affect Berserker. Rin uses her magic to trap Berserker, giving Archer another shot, but again, Berserker is not phased.
Saber moves the fight to a graveyard, where she has more cover. Ilya follows, so Rin tells Shirou to run before she follows Ilya. Shirou has a moment to deal with his fear before moving to follow, while in the church, Kirei and the blonde man have a chat about the situation. Elsewhere, Rin uses magic to attack Ilya from the rear, but she has a couple of magic-created guardian birds that block the attacks. Rin tries to destroy the birds, but to know avail considering Ilya’s massive power. Ilya uses a couple more strands of hair to produce two more birds as Rin decides to stop running and attack. She destroys two of the birds, but the third (Zelle) turns into a blade and stops her attack. The fourth bird, Degen, also turns into a blade, but Rin is saved by Archer lobbing in arrows.
Rin escapes and communes with Archer, informing him of her plans to join Saber in the fight. She runs into Shirou and gets angry at him for not fleeing since he’s not a mage and can’t offer support. The two them run to watch Saber and Berserker battle. Out of respect for Berserker, Saber announces she’s going to finish him, then manage to do so in impressive fashion. However, Archer sees that it isn’t enough as Saber sees the curse of resurrection happen. Shirou senses what Archer is about to do and pulls Saber away from Berserker. Archer’s arrow lands with a fierce explosion of energy, but it isn’t enough. Because of Archer’s attack, Ilya decides to leave, now finding Archer of interest. Shirou collapses and vomits up blood.
Thoughts/Review:
Wow! Ufotable, you are incredible! I say that because after the insanity that has been my work life of late, I spent an entire day slacking off and resting to recuperate. However, after watching this anime episode, I suddenly felt compelled to start writing ASAP! That’s how good ufotable is doing things!
When Ilya introduced herself as an Einzbern, Rin’s reaction was due to the family name and its connection to the Holy Grail War. (At least, that’s how I’m seeing it.) For Saber…
…her reaction was one of, “I have to fight an Einzbern this time when last time, I worked closely with Iri Einzbern?” Of course, that was quickly followed up with her appearing to steel herself up to do the job at hand and not let emotion get in the way.
The battle of Saber and Archer vs. Berserker was most impressive. We’ve already remarked on the impressive job that ufotable is doing with the battles, but here, things seemed even more impressive.
A big part of that goes to how Berserker fought. My memories of him from the original Fate/stay night anime aren’t of an agile Servant, but a lumbering, massively powerful giant of a Servant that was nigh unstoppable. Ufotable kept all that, but making Berserker fast and agile just made things so incredible, making him so much more awesome than imagined.
Still, I couldn’t help but recall the emphasis placed on the fact that Shirou couldn’t supply Saber with mana like other mages would have been able to. As such, as Saber battled away, I kept thinking, “So, when does she run out of gas?” Yeah, having watched the “Fate” route in the initial anime adaptation, I know this issue will be addressed, but I seem to recall Saber getting her arse kicked when she fought Berserker there.
Another thing ufotable did was make Rin and Ilya the powerhouses they were meant to be as mages. I don’t recall Ilya using the hair magic to create objects to do her bidding in the original anime adaptation. I know Iri did in Fate/Zero, so seeing Ilya do it in this episode made me quite happy.
As for Rin, we’ve already seen her use magic to enhance her leg power. Here, we saw her able to seal Berserker for a short time as well as go up against Ilya and take out two of her familiars. I don’t remember anything like that from before. Even if something was there, it wasn’t impressive like it was here.
As for Shirou…
…I loved that bit of foreshadowing when he was able to sense what Archer was about to do. I do wonder how that clue plays for people who’ve not watched the original Fate/stay night.
Finally, that conversation between Kirei and Blondie. Heh!heh!heh!
I really can’t say enough good things about ufotable and the outstanding job they’ve done with Fate/stay night. This is highly impressive work. I don’t know that I’ll want to pay the outrageous amount Aniplex is likely to charge, but if they don’t go El Nutso on the price, then I’ll want this on Blu-ray for sure based on how things have been to date.
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This episode was the the most different from the original VN so far. The overall events are the same, but they really expanded it in here. Rin and Illya mage fight was the biggest thing. That didn’t happen at all originally. And Illya never once in the VN used Iris flying familiar trick. That was solely a Fate/zero reference, which was really cool.
About Saber winning when she originally lost in the first anime. They key is the terrain. Here Saber lured Berserker into a forest/graveyard which had plenty space for her to circle around and to hide under cover. In the original, they fought in an empty street, in which Saber had no option but to face him head on. This, combined with Archer being unharmed, are what made UBW become so different from the Fate route.
I like that it did happen here. It makes the Holy Grail War feel more real to me.
I thought I remembered seeing official artwork from Type Moon showing Iri doing that move. Was that solely for F/Z then? Regardless, for continuities’ sake, I love the idea that Ilya can do what her mother could do in terms of magic. It makes her so much more interesting as a character. Rin as well with her expanded magical role.
It’s a FZ addition, though Ilya by all rights should have been able to do it from the start.
The Einzbern specialty is flow and transfer of power, Ilya says her specialty is flow and transfer of power, and when she transfers someone’s consciousness around, it’s a demonstration of flow and transfer of power (CM3).
I know repetitive, but you get the point. Alchemy magic is of the same nature, but Nasu never really showed it in the novel.
*It’s taken from FZ. The alchemy familiars are first shown in FZ. This is the first time we see Ilya use them.
Which is good btw because Nasu kept talking about the Einzberns being great in alchemy, yet we never saw something of that sort in the VN besides the creation of homunculi.
I agree. I’m glad to see Ilya use this craft.
This is actually completely accurate and faithful to the novel. Berserker is fast, very fast actually. The only one who can keep up with his speed is Lancer (http://i.imgur.com/0Ddx1jR.jpg). [spoiler]And Rider with Sakura as her Master. Both are probably faster than Herakles (I refuse to use Hercules btw, he’s Greek, so I’ll use his Greek name.)[/spoiler] Look at Berserker’s stat sheet (http://i.imgur.com/sGJfvg1.jpg). His agility parameter is of the highest rank and far better than Saber (http://i.imgur.com/RVswdD0.jpg) or Archer (http://i.imgur.com/amleHRL.jpg), which Rin instantly saw (Masters can read the stats of the Servants). It was DEEN who screwed up by making Berserker look slow.
Yes, this happened in Fate because Saber was lacking backup. As you might remember, in Fate, she wasn’t stopped by Shirou’s Command Spell and hurt Archer badly, which forced Rin to send him to her house to regenerate. This time in UBW, he is around and can support Saber, which distracts Berserker and gives her enough time to change the battle area. Archer’s involvement changes all.
Yes, this is a new scene added by Nasu. The director btw likes Ilya a lot, which is why she will get more scenes in the future.
[spoiler]Probably to compensate the lack of her appearances in UBW. This wasn’t so bad in the novel, because you already saw enough of Ilya in Fate.[/spoiler]
Shinji and Taiga will also get more scenes.
Well, the gravity spell she used on Berserker reminded me of Prisma Illya to be honest, haha. But the shield for instance was also Nasu’s idea and we already knew from previous works that she is a Gandr expect. Btw, Ilya calls the forms her familiars take “Zelle” and “Degen”, which are the German words for “cell” and a special kind of sword, the epee (kind of like a rapier).
Seems like I was wrong last week, this new additional scene by Nasu was in this episode, lol. Also to compensate lack of Kirei scenes in the VN probably.
Confirmed to be around 400$ for episode 00-12, which are around seven BD volumes in Japan. 50-60$ per volume is pretty much the standard prize in Japan. Of course there will be bonuses, too.
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So… as promised there were lots of new scenes and Nasu and ufotable definitely delivered, haha. 😉
As stated above, Berserker was always fast. His hand-to-hand combat skills were mentioned in the Complete Materials, but were never shown before in the novel. That makes a lot of sense actually, considering he and Theseus supposedly invented Pankration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration). His identity isn’t revealed that early in UBW compared to Fate, but since one was supposed to have Fate knowledge anyway, I don’t think that is an issue here. It seems like Nasu retconned Berserker having some kind of Eternal Arms Mastership, the same skill FZ-Berserker had. Makes sense actually, as FSN-Berserker can be summoned as any class besides Caster and Assassin.
It also was a welcome addition to show a bit more Ilya action, considering she was groomed to become an outstanding Master and her ridiculous magic circuits. Unlike other Masters, she is able to completely control Berserker. Always good to see some alchemy magic. ^_^
What bothers me though was how Saber was able to hurt Berserker. No, I don’t mean the sword beam, that was accurate, probably to show off God Hand’s resurrection skill. Saber’s sword inside Invisible Air is Rank C (http://i.imgur.com/u2yMh0D.jpg), which means it can’t do shit against Berserker’s NP (http://i.imgur.com/CesbIYe.jpg), which completely rejects any attack that isn’t Rank A or higher.
Archer’s shot was also Rank A and Shirou already identified the weapon as Caladbolg II (http://i.imgur.com/UNeZ5V2.jpg). I’m not gonna explain exactly what Archer did, this will probably be brought up later (next episode perhaps). However, Rin and Ilya probably realized what Archer just did, which might be the reason why Ilya retreated, as she found some interest in Archer. Archer was also a lot closer to the graveyard in the novel (http://lparchive.org/Fatestay-night/Update%20128/52-UBW03-05a-095.jpg). The arrow didn’t kill Berserker though, Berserker hit the arrow before it hit him with his sword. This seems to be the case in the anime, too, but it’s very difficult to see.
Another interesting note, Archer fires the arrow Western style, but the way he drew the bow was Japanese Kyuudo-style (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCKLGMK_3No).
I didn’t mention it last episode, but I really like Shirou’s new Justice Jacket. Impressive, how a single jacket can make him look better. As for why he spit blood, in the novel he was hit by something in the back when he covered Saber from the explosion (and Saber pulled it out, only to see Shirou’s wound automatically heal). This time it might be Caladbolg’s aftereffects, which are devastating, even if it doesn’t directly hit you.
[spoiler]Shirou also instantly saw that Archer didn’t just aim at Berserker. Which is why Shirou ran to Saber to save her. He can’t stand Archer at all.[/spoiler]
Btw, there was an option what Shirou should do when he sees the danger of Archer’s shot. Bringing back Saber (http://i.imgur.com/6Fm8i1r.gif), instead of calling her back, gives you Rin and Saber relationship points.
Fun stuff:
1. The Chinese gave Archer a new nickname: 核弹剑侠, Nuclear Missile Swordsman.
http://i.imgur.com/Dy1cBsZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/TpifkW6.jpg
2. This gif made me laugh: http://i.imgur.com/ZKBBUgo.gif
“I’m on top, Emiya-kun!”
3. This gif too: http://i.minus.com/idQ2AljPvuNAc.gif
“I looked up at the sky and the last thing I saw was…”
Especially if you have watched Carnival Phantasm Episode 5.
[spoiler] http://i.imgur.com/okOrK1D.jpg
Berserk-
*splat*[/spoiler]
4. Saber really is the playball for Berserkers in every war, lol: http://i.minus.com/iEJSsirjAchjt.gif
5. Someone added Aldnoah Zero OST to Archer’s shot: https://vt.tumblr.com/tumblr_ne0ggxPM6m1tgv45u.mp4#_=_
Excellent additions by ufotable and Nasu this time. I was really excited and surprised to see so many new scenes. Definitely looking forward to the next episode. The soundtrack was decent, but I’m not very impressed yet. (I liked the Archer theme and the Berserker dubstep, though.) Twenty minutes per episode are not enough! ^_^
I also find that change strange, that Saber was able to kill Berserker. Ilya’s comment that she is now interested in Archer, who didn’t kill Berserker, instead of Saber who did, makes less sense that way.
I took that more as Ilya no longer dismissing Archer out of hand. She knows what Saber is capable of, most likely because of info from Acht, but it appeared that she had dismissed Archer because his initial attacks were unable to get through God’s Hand, even with the help of Rin using one of her gems.
Then Archer nukes the graveyard with Caladbolg II, using a priceless Noble Phantasm as a missile, so much so that Berserker has to ignore Saber and Shirou and concentrate fully on Archer’s attack. Archer’s attack may not have killed Berserker, but it forced Ilya to reevaluate the danger posed by Archer, no longer dismissing him but seeing him as a threat to Berserker from range.
Well… she couldn’t really know Shirou would summon that Saber now, could she? 😉 But yes, she might have heard about this Saber from Acht already, which would mean she already knows everything about Saber and that isn’t interesting.
To add to what you said, Archer’s kind of attack he used was interesting on the other hand.
[spoiler]That and his willingness to blow up Saber, too. I remember a Dead End, where Shirou decides to run back home instead of watching the fight, and soon after his Command Spell disappears. Either Berserker killed Saber or Archer actually killed her. It’s up to the reader’s imagination, and we never find out because soon after Lancer returns and kills Shirou.[/spoiler]
So no one killed Berserker during the initial encounter in the UBW route of the VN?
Correct. Berserker broke Archer’s arrow in both the anime and in the novel. He reacted to the danger of Archer’s attack and defended himself against it. That, and the nature of Archer’s attack probably piqued Ilya’s interest.
Also, I’ve noticed Ilya acts more her actual age here. It didn’t seem that way in the VN in my opinion. Maybe it’s because they gave her a fight scene with Rin.
That… last sentence came out wrong. Edit buttoooooon. ^_^
Anyway, Ilya seems less childish compared to her first appearance in Fate in the VN. Which in my opinion is a good decision made by Nasu, Miura (the director) and co. I’m excited to see what new scenes they will add for her in UBW.
Yeah, that’s going to be trickier to do because of the comment plugin I’m using to allow people with WordPress, Facebook, Google+, or Twitter to log in. So I’d have to find something that would work with that.
I think her battle with Rin did help a ton.
To make that clear, the gravity spell + arrow combo is from the novel, the shield is new anime original content. I’m actually glad Rin doesn’t use more awkward German this time. She mumbles something like “weight to double” in the novel.
Now that you mention it, I do seem to recall Rin speaking German (or Germanese) in the original anime when she cast spells.
I am seriously oblivious today…
Additional info about Berserker’s NP:
[spoiler]It doesn’t matter how many lives he lost, if at all, because with the right amount of mana, he will regenerate the lives. And Ilya has a ton, so this is no issue. Worse, he gains resistances to an attack that killed him.
God Hand combined with his instincts and his Battle Continuation and Bravery skills (http://i.imgur.com/jxUuO3s.jpg), make Herakles truly a monster. He would have been even more dangerous, if he had been summoned as, his best-fitting class, Archer.[/spoiler]
As an aside, I think I need to tweak the spoiler functionality.
Ah. It shows up fine in the actual comment section, but it gets off in my internal comment section. Well, the important part is that is shows up properly on the public-facing side.
More gifs, courtesy of the Something Awful thread:
Archer’s smirk after launching Caladbolg II: http://i.imgur.com/AgD2xgx.gif
Berserker doing capoiera: http://i.imgur.com/dRYA7KE.gif
Rin’s Gandr shots, pew pew!: http://i.imgur.com/xnIVyQd.gif
Saber using Strike Air: http://i.imgur.com/L5P50Cf.gif
Regarding Rin’s Grandr shots, I want to say that she made a finger gun in the original anime to fire those. I could be wrong though.
Thanks for the images. Farray as well. ^_^
You’re right, Rin uses her finger for Gandr sometimes. If I had to guess, it’s because she uses smaller “bullets”.
[spoiler]In one of the trailers, you see Rin using her Gandr in a later scene, this time using her finger instead of her hand.[/spoiler]
Ah. Thanks for the clarification.
Pretty sure that was something done by Deen because the Gandr shots were referred to as bullets, but it was never really described in the VN how exactly she fired them except that they came from Rin’s outstretched arm.
Gandr [Sorcery]
Source: Fate/side material (2004-1-30), p.057
A curse passed down in Scandinavia. It causes a person’s health to crumble with a mere point of the index finger. Because it is necessary to take careful aim at the target, it is also known as a “Gandr Shot”.
The fact that pointing at people is considered rude has its origins in this curse. Or something like that.
Note: Sorcery means majutsu here. The translator chose majutsu = sorcery, mahou = magic.
I didn’t check whether it was described in the VN too, but Gandr is usually fired from your (index) finger. Firing it with the entire hand is new, that’s why I speculated that she just wanted to fire a bigger bullet.
Well, we’ve seen Rin fire Gandr in other media like Prisma Illya with her hand (in the anime). She might have concentrated the shot on all her fingers in this episode.
Seen this argued endlessly on numerous Type-Moon threads on different boards after this episode aired. I think the overall conclusion is that while Invisible Air is C-Rank, there is still the A(+?)-ranked Excalibur underneath that sheath, which is what penetrated God Hand. Then Saber activates Strike Air, which did the damage that killed him.
The problem here is that even if Saber’s true sword is inside Invisible Air, it can’t cut through, because that is already established in the Fate route, where Saber manages to get a few hits, but Berserker’s NP ignores any attack that isn’t Rank A.
Invisible Air gives Saber a few advantages, but since Berserker’s NP works on a rank-concept, it nerfs Saber’s attacks. Even a world-destroying attack would be ignored and outright rejected by Berserker’s NP, if it’s not Rank A or higher. I think ufotable just took some liberties here.
What Saber used to kill Berserker wasn’t Strike Air, it was clearly a golden beam. Not anti-fortress this time perhaps, it seems like an anti-unit version of her beam, but that still makes the attack Rank A++.
The only mystery left then would be… Saber doesn’t say Strike Air or her sword’s true name. That would actually explain everything and end the speculation.
I think you lost me here…if Saber had said the sword’s name (as she will later on), it would confirm that she was using a more powerful attack than Strike Air?
[spoiler]Calling out the true name of the NP activates the NP’s true power. We wouldn’t have to decide whether she uses a mana burst+Strike Air combo, or whether she used Excalibur’s beam, if ufotable had make Saber call out her attack.
Excalibur transforms mana into light and smoke came out of Berserker’s body when he was killed, so it makes more sense to me that she used Excalibur’s beam, but she didn’t say her attack out loud, which is why we are having this discussion in the first place.[/spoiler]
Gotcha. Makes sense.
Considering how Nasu is apparently working with them, could he have provided a means by which Saber’s attacks do succeed? Since Berserker wasn’t killed at this point in the VN, it seems to me that they came up with some solution to not only kill him, but to land a blow here and there.
I hope they will release an Animation Material book (like they did with FZ), where Nasu explains this.
Nasu contradicts himself here/goes against everything he wrote before, by letting Saber wound Berserker with her sword inside Invisible Air. The kill is okay, Berserker getting wounded before, not.
Saber doesn’t even have the strength stat to hurt Berserker (mana burst reinforcement is already included). It’s nothing major honestly, but it’s a bit confusing for me.
Well, maybe we’ll get more info as the series goes on.
Well, Ghoststalker’s explanation could work though. Invisible Air amplifies the cutting power of an attack. Saber’s strength is B and her blade is indeed A Rank class. IA is still a boundary field around the actual sword though, a sheath, a very sharp one, but still a sheath made of wind, that’s why I am not entirely convinced.
That makes sense to me.
Another note (thanks BL), the dialogue with Kirei and the suspicious blonde foreigner is based on Fate/Unlimited Codes, a fighting game. Link kept in spoiler tags:
[spoiler]http://beastslairwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/48712869/Gilgamesh%20%28FUC%29[/spoiler]
Might want to add:
[spoiler]Strictly speaking, Assassin also possesses A+ rank agility, but he isn’t ever really mentioned in material books when it comes to speed unlike Lancer, Rider or Berserker. His reactions and speed are doubtlessly remarkable, though.
Not sure if ufotable will show it, but Assassin and Berserker fought, and with support from his Master, Assassin managed to hold back Berserker, until Ilya got bored. That guy is definitely awesome, too.[/spoiler]
Looking at Berserker’s stat sheet, I see the original anime had his eyes right. That being said, I think Berserker looks MUCH more impressive in the infotable version.
I remembered that Archer wasn’t around, but I couldn’t remember exactly why. Impressive though.
I like Ilya a lot too, so I’m happy for this. And I’m glad Nasu added this. It really makes things feel more real to me because in my mind, the Masters wouldn’t just let their Servants duke it out; they’d be in there battling as well.
Kirei isn’t really in the UBW route? Sorry, I’m a bit confused by what you mean by lack of scenes.
Anyway, as always, thanks for the great info. ^_^
ufotable got it right too. His left eye is yellow at first, but once he starts enraging like a proper Servant that is under the influence of Mad Enhancement (he is used to getting mad btw, so it doesn’t affect him as much as… say, FZ-Berserker), his left eye also gets red (http://lparchive.org/Fatestay-night/Update%20127/35-UBW03-04-061.jpg).
He didn’t really appear a lot. Not a lot compared to other characters or compared to his appearances in Fate and HF.
Well, with how ufotable has been adding things we might get some plot relevant scenes involving him that were glossed over in the VN because they couldn’t been seen from Shirou’s perspective.
[spoiler]I’m really anticipating the mapo tofu scene in HF, hope ufotable does a great job with it…[/spoiler]
Okay, I might have exaggerated a bit. Rin and Shirou talk more and are not that far from the church and the graveyard in UBW. In Fate, they were almost home, so Saber is considerably closer to the graveyard to retreat.
Ah. Makes sense.
I don’t think Berserker doing martial arts makes sense, okay it does for his identity but he is a Berserker class Servant and at that moment it seems he wasn’t that monstruous beast who only thinks kill kill kill, with all the spins it almost seem like he was reasoning, knowing what he was doing and isn’t supposed to be like that. Same situation with Invisible Air, it’s impossible for that attack to hurt him, unless it was actually [spoiler]Ex*****ur[/spoiler]
I’ll throw my 2-cents in, but Berserker’s fighting abilities were all from instinct from how I understand it. Farray can correct me if I’m wrong.
One thing I’d like to add (which I don’t believe is worth spoiler tagging) is that in the VN, Shirou describes the fight between Saber and Berserker as a battle between strength and technique. Techniques were invented for fighting someone stronger than yourself, but if you’re stronger than everyone else, then you can negate the need to use any techniques with sheer raw power.
Then if you have the sheer raw power, but you also use the techniques, that puts you even further up, right?
On a tangentially-related note, I just saw a light heavyweight moving up in weight get KTFO in the heavyweight division in the UFC within seconds… so yeah, I agree. My comment was on how Shirou described the fight though. I believe he used that exact analogy of techniques being invented for fighting someone stronger than yourself etc. in the VN. So Berserker’s portrayal here is a bit different seeing as he seems to be well-versed in martial arts.
By all rights, he should be well-versed in martial arts, which was confirmed in the Complete Material books. Another Berserker already used pankration before, so obviously this Berserker has to be able to do it, too. He invented it.
What Astro basically said, instincts. And to add, as I’ve stated above, Berserker fits in all classes except Caster and Assassin because of his marvelous skills in pretty much everything except magic, so retroactively allowing him to possess an ability similar to FZ-Berserker makes perfect sense.
I think this is the one route where Ilya doesn’t reveal Berserker’s identity right off the bat when she meets Shirou and Rin, which I found weird. Great callbacks to Zero with Saber’s look of regret when Ilya introduced herself as an Einzbern, and Ilya using Iri’s alchemy in that Rin fight that was added at the behest of Nasu. Poor Rin, using two of her gems and being unable to even score a kill on Berserker or do anything against Ilya, with her gem shield being shattered so easily. Einzbern hax, amirite?
The Saber Berserker fight was amazing, ufotable really does a good job with these fights. This episode really was exactly what I wanted out of the hype that the previous episode built up.
Also, apparently Saber makes an appearance at Shirou’s school next episode if we’re to take one of the comment about a foreign transfer student in the preview at face value…
Also, the UTW sub of episode 1 is finally out, if you were waiting on it…
Speaking of UTW (and subs) reminds me of blatant errors in CR’s translation. The most obvious one is this:
Rin calls Ilya a mini-mage when she was actually saying that the bird familiars are autonomously generating magical energy, which makes them like little mini-magi in their own right.
Animax’s translator sucks badly. It really is annoying, more so considering how much money those bastards want to charge for anime.
Oh yeah, she did do that in the original anime. I’d forgotten about that.
I totally agree. And the Rin-Ilya fight was icing on the cake for me.
Got it…thanks. ^_^
Interesting episode. There were definitely many several significant additions to the VN, but the outcome was more or less the same. I’m wondering how different the next episodes will be though. Not that I’m complaining. The original UBW story wasn’t exactly without its flaws. I’m definitely liking how they’re portraying Shirou here.
[spoiler]Pretty sure Ilya vs Rin didn’t happen. Aside from several additions though, I think the biggest difference here from the novels would be the disposition of the characters, especially Shirou who doesn’t act as pathetic as he did at this point in the VN. I’m surprised they didn’t make him go “I won’t run away” Shinji Ikari style.
I’m not sure how I feel about the Saber vs Berserker fight. I think omitting the part where Berserker’s blows strips off bits and pieces of Saber’s armor as the fight wore made it seem like he and Saber were fighting on even terms instead of Berserker clearly having the upper hand at first and then the tide changing when Saber deliberately moves the battle to the graveyard.
Also, the fight made Archer look rather pathetic when even his broken phantasm apparently didn’t take any of Berserker’s lives.
Finally, did Saber really use Excalibur this early? Or was that just her releasing invisible air?
As for the Rin vs Ilya fight, that was fun. I’m also wondering if she’ll meet the same fate as she did in the VN now considering how powerful she and her servant were made out to be. Although she still has to die to follow the UBW route, it might not need to be as blunt and brutal as it was in the VN.[/spoiler]
Archer’s arrow never scratched Berserker. No, not in the novel, either.
Also, Shirou doesn’t really act any different from the VN in this episode, so I don’t get where you get the impression of him acting “pathetic”. Most of what he did or said in this episode was covered in internal monologues in the novel, ufotable didn’t really change anything.
Well, it’s been several years since I read the VN, but…
[spoiler]On Shirou being pathetic: It’s exactly what you said. Because Shirou simply acted on his thoughts during this episode instead of spelling them out through lines and lines of internal monologue, he doesn’t seem as pathetic. For example, his willingness to put himself on the line in order to save Saber (actually, I might be conflating this with the fate path where Saber does get hit by Berserker and Shirou remembers seeing her that way and not wanting it to happen again) which took several lines of internal monologue before he actually goes out and does it instead of him just going ahead and doing it without the internal debate. His expressions are also a lot more stoic here than I would imagine him having considering how much of a monster he describes Berserker to be.
On Archer’s arrow: I don’t think Berserker should be able to just tank that hit like it was shown in this episode since Caladbolg was it? Should be at least A rank when it’s used as a broken phantasm (not a fan of Nasuverse lore, so this might be inaccurate).
Did it really happen this way in the VN as well? All I can accurately remember (which was omitted here as well) is Shirou thinking that the shot was meant to finish off both Saber and Berserker in one go. I also might be filling in some details in my head, but I was under the impression (from the VN) that the arrow did hit Berserker and take at least one life, but he just auto regenerates and brushes it off like it was nothing and comes out looking unscathed…. that’s pretty much how I remember it anyway, so correct me if I’m wrong. I think the writing in the VN was a bit hazy on this part.
Again, my memory is hazy on that and I’m not really a huge enough fan to start up the VN again and skip to that part just to confirm. Anyway, it’s a minor detail methinks.[/spoiler]
Well… that saves some trouble. looks like someone actually posted a youtube playthrough:
[spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuHHWDUHvtA#t=14 Seems either Berserker just tanked the hit or somehow succeeded in blocking it in the VN… it’s not clear, but it’s clear that it really didn’t take any of his lives. I guess already knowing what Berserker’s noble phantasm was at this point must’ve colored my perception of this scene.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]
But he doesn’t act any different, that’s what I’m saying. There is nothing that he did differently in this episode compared to the novel, so ufotable did nothing to make him less pathetic.
What he thinks is more often shown with gestures and facial expressions is what I was saying. What else he thought in the novel, he simply said in the anime, that is all.
You are probably thinking about Fate, though the only stupid thing he did in that route in that fight (which made Ilya retreat though), is to protect Saber from Berserker’s attack, which would have killed him if not for Avalon. Like in UBW, he saved Saber. He gets hurt in both routes, though in Fate his wound was certainly more serious.
Short answer: Yes.
Read carefully what is said in the video you linked. Berserker hits Caladbolg with his axe-sword before it can touch him and Shirou notes that Berserker broke it.
To add, it was actually not Rin but Saber, a Servant of superhuman abilities, who saw that he is unharmed, so Berserker didn’t tank the A-Rank Caladbolg, the real power was never allowed to hit and thus didn’t kill him. It’s not really a block either, but Berserker’s sheer power striking down Archer’s attack.
Berserker’s Battle Continuation skill Rank A certainly helped, too. As the attack was prematurely stopped, it wasn’t fatal and therefore couldn’t kill him.
The fact that Berserker actually sensed danger from Archer’s attack and also the nature of this Noble Phantasm Archer used, which name you already used, but which should be explained next week or the week after (so I won’t tell Astro… unless ufotable leaves the explanation out), impressed Ilya so much that she decided to let them live.[/spoiler]
I’m liking how everyone is being portrayed so far, including Archer.
They doing a better job of archer than his movie counterpart.
I would not be surprised if ufotable was given the entire franchise to work on
I don’t think comparing the series with the movie is very fair, considering the first two episodes were as long as the movie. Of course the characters can and will be better portrayed in a series.
I think FSN suits ufotable, but other Fate/ works like Prisma Illya (Silver Link), EXTRA or Apocrypha fit other studios better.
I’m glad for the job ufotable is doing for sure. ^_^