November 9th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 05 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 05
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Over breakfast, Sakura explains that Taiga had something to do for Kuzuki-sensei, thus leaving Sakura, Saber, and Shirou alone. However, Sakura doesn’t mind since it gave her a chance to talk with Saber, something Saber agrees with. Shirou goes to school, telling Saber to remain behind despite her protests of possible dangers. At school, Ayako is missing and Shinji is the last one to have been seen with her. Shirou starts investigating, but when school is out and everyone is immediately sent home, he’s confronted by Rin, who has decided to eliminate a defenseless Master since he’s being so stupid. Shirou flees, but during their fight, they hear a scream and discover a fellow female student near death.
Shirou senses an attack and takes the hit for Rin, who’s healing the girl. Shirou goes in pursuit, taking a rod he’s magically strengthened, and encounters a female Servant. After facing her in combat and not using a Command Spell to summon Saber, the Servant praises him for his bravery, especially since her own Master is a coward. Shirou flippantly states that as a Servant, she’s not that much. However, he soon comes to regret that as the Servant reveals she has him impaled in the hand an on a chain. She strings him up to a tree, but before she can slowly kill him, Rin comes in and attacks, forcing the Servant to flee.
After freeing Shirou, Rin binds his wound. After hearing that the female student will be OK, Shirou then takes a defensive posture, expecting Rin to start attacking again. Rin has other ideas, as she wants to go after this other Servant. As such, she extends a truce to Shirou and invites him to her house for further treatment of his wound. After bandaging him up, Shirou tells her that the only magic he knows is strengthening magic. Rin chastises him for giving up such information, but after learning about how Shirou was raised, she realizes Shirou’s father chose being a dad over being a mage and preparing his son to carry on the legacy.
Thoughts/Review:
So, we have our fight between Shirou and Rin as well as Rider’s introduction, even if not by name.
I like that Rin’s magic crest was shown in this episode and that a explanation of what it does was given. I also liked that when Rin was giving chase to Shirou, the enhancements in her legs were shown.
We’ve seen how powerful Rin is, and we got to see more of that in this episode. However, had she been truly serious, she should have nailed Shirou. After all, as soon as another Master and Servant were revealed to be in the area, she immediately wanted a truce with Shirou to go after this other Master, even though Shirou would have been the easy kill.
As for Shirou’s ill-advised fight with Rider, again, the animation showing the fight is pretty awesome. Even though I knew what was going to happen, the fight was much more interesting to me this time.
I hadn’t remembered much about Ayako from the previous anime adaptation, but her disappearance in this episode made me remember her somewhat. What I don’t remember is if she ends up dead or not. I’d hate it if she were killed.
There was a lot of exposition again in this episode, but it wasn’t a problem at all. The proper explanations, enhanced by flashbacks of a young Rin studying magecraft, help make this a better anime in my opinion.
Sadly, I don’t have time to write more thanks to my way too busy schedule, but I do look forward to reading what you guys say. This was a good episode, and I’m still impressed with ufotable’s efforts with Fate/stay night.
Posted in 
Tags: 
So… if someone is wondering “Didn’t this happen in the DEEN anime too?”, this someone would be completely right. It’s a scene from UBW though and was added in. In Fate, as mentioned before, Archer was seriously hurt by Saber, prompting Rin to propose an alliance with Shirou, since Shirou is inexperienced and Rin lacks a functioning Servant. Shirou immediately agrees.
It’s easy to understand Rin’s reaction when her and Shirou meet in school again (https://38.media.tumblr.com/c6ee0016aa6e7965300cd8b2f817e44b/tumblr_neqai2yFds1slv5gyo1_500.gif), considering how last episode ended. The fact that Rin is only using Gandr should be enough proof, that she isn’t truly seriously trying to kill him. There is a Bad End that will be triggered if Shirou chooses the wrong escape route. Rin will hit him with a Gandr and Shirou simply loses consciousness. The next day, his and Taiga’s memories are altered and he no longer has his Command Spells.
You will also get this Bad End, if Shirou refuses Rin’s offer to cooperate in Fate, as you are immediately thrown into the UBW route, even though you’re not supposed to, and have no option to dodge Rin’s Gandr shots.
Rin trying to keep him alive all the time and then threatening his life is contradictory. It’s no wonder Shirou didn’t see her as an enemy, although he really acted thoughtless, when he investigated stuff about Ayako. He actually even promised Saber to come back home as soon as school was over, but the thing with Ayako made him worry and he forgot that promise. Shirou knew Rin’s heart wasn’t in her attacks though (else he would have used his Command Spell to call Saber, wouldn’t he?), considering his reaction after she saved him from Rider and treated his wound.
It’s kinda funny he didn’t realize Rider was, in fighting game terms, sandbagging the whole time.
Shirou: “Damn, I can’t see her attacks, I shouldn’t be able to block them. Huh, yet I somehow am able to do, so that means… RIGHT, PURPLE-HAIRED SERVANT UR SHIT OLOLOLOLOL!” /facepalm
(Side note, Rider is the physically strongest female Servant in this Grail War actually. Saber doesn’t count, since she buffs herself with her Mana Burst.)
Rider wanted to test Shirou here, as she thinks all Masters are despicable who think they are superior, just because they possess the Command Spells. She intentionally left Shirou’s left arm, where his Command Spells are, free. If Shirou had used his Command Spell to summon Saber, when he was hanging on that tree, Rider would have immediately cut off his arm, so that’s the second Bad/Dead End on that day. Still, the fight scenes in this episode may not show that he is a genius, but he’s quick-thinking and his reactions are top-notch.
The conversation at the end was shortened a lot, stuff like Shirou’s self-healing isn’t mentioned, although it might be there on the BDs, but the most important part, the contrast between Shirou’s and Rin’s lives as magi is still present. It’s one of the small scenes that slowly establish Shirou’s relationship with Rin, but I appreciated this approach in the novel, compared to his relationship with Saber in Fate.
One can clearly see the difference between Shirou, and how Kiritsugu reluctantly taught Shirou magic and told him to stop if he ever wants to give up, and Rin, who felt like she lived in the shadow of her “perfect” magus of a father and felt pressured by the expectations to act like a proper magus, with grace and style, as the family head of the Tohsaka family.
What Kiritsugu was, is called a spellcaster (in Japanese literally a magecraft user), compared to a magus (literally magecraft specialist). He lacks the mentality of a magus and he told Shirou to do the same, because he knew the painful and bloodstained path of a magus. As Rin said in this episode, Kiritsugu rather chose to be a father, than a magus.
It’s not clearly told in this episode, but before the OP, at the end of that dream-flashback Shirou had, after Kiritsugu closed his eyes and told Shirou that he could rest now, he died. Shirou thought Kiritsugu was merely sleeping and when he found out the next day, he was bitter, angry and cried for a long time.
Btw, as I probably years ago on this blog (lol) mentioned before, Magic Crest transplants are like organ transplants. Even if Kiritsugu wanted to (and he probably really couldn’t), it’s not easy at all to transplant a Magic Crest, especially if the two parties aren’t blood-related.
Trivia/Fun stuff:
1. Another cameo for the track team, yay. Fate/hollow ataraxia anime confirmed? Jk. 😉 Maybe if UBW and HF sell enough.
2. The obligatory DEEN/ufotable comparison:
DEEN: https://31.media.tumblr.com/08e8448bb349145e229c854576ae0b64/tumblr_inline_neqjd2oKyo1sb4lfz.gif
ufotable: https://31.media.tumblr.com/c993665b12ed23589630a7259f9047d3/tumblr_inline_neqjfgCSpX1sb4lfz.gif
ufotable seemed to approach the fight in a lot more serious tone, although they cut out that line with Shirou making fun of her, because she mentioned last episode, she had flab (http://lparchive.org/Fatestay-night/Update%20139/35-UBW05-06a-078.jpg).
Bonus comparison images:
http://i.imgur.com/EbNtWkT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/o7J0pOt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/fnXIHp5.jpg
3. More German from Rin:
“Das Schließen. Vogelkäfig, Echo.” (The closing. Bird cage. Echo.)
“Das Schließen” means “The closing.”. However, “Schließen” could either be a noun or the second time Nasu actually used a verb. (In that case it’s written with a lower-case character. Then it would almost mean “Close that (the door/room).”, though I would have said “Schließ das hier ab.”, as weird as that sounds. “Abschließen” means “to lock”.)
“Fixierung. Eile Salve!” (Fixation. Rush/Haste barrage!)
I assume “Eile Salve” is supposed to mean “quick salvo” or “quick barrage”. Rin says this a few times, though it’s inconsistently written as “Eilesalve” in other scenes. Neither makes sense as “Eile” is a noun. Something like “Rapidsalve” or “Schnelle Salve” or “eine Salve” would have made more sense in my opinion.
4. Guess who’s there: http://i.imgur.com/uyPg9nQ.jpg
Answer: http://i.imgur.com/KUji09c.gif
A Japanese bigfoot.
Jokes aside, Shirou immediately recognized that guy in the novel. Seems like ufotable want to keep his identity hidden for now, even though of course it was obvious who it was, since one ahd to play Fate before playing UBW.
5. Rider gifs:
http://i.imgur.com/B7qokHO.gif
http://i.imgur.com/7kHJF4h.gif
Showing off her best assets as usual, I see.
6. What was Shirou thinking when he saw Rider’s… whatever?
http://i.imgur.com/kNUHgzT.png
7. Rin owns the Encyclopedia Britannica: http://i.imgur.com/o0dqNPg.pngp
Comparison: https://31.media.tumblr.com/9772c98805b5a140dd5e93644c7b88b5/tumblr_n6m64qaLhk1s27o4bo2_1280.jpg
8. I really like Fukasawa’s versatile soundtrack. It seems like every Servant gets his/her own unique kind of track. Archer has a cool guitar rift, Saber gets strings, Berserker dubstep, Lancer wind instruments and drums, and Rider techno with strings and drums. Perhaps Assassin will get Japanese instruments. I also like Rin’s theme.
9. About Ayako: We should find out more about what happened to her next week.
10. Next episode preview:
[spoiler]An Assassin statue above on the stairs facing the Saber statue and the Caster statue meeting the white pawn. Next episode will be fun.[/spoiler]
To add to what I said about Rin, I think it’s obvious she’s wearing a mask. She’s not a cold and merciless magus, even when she tries to be. When things got very serious, like when they found the dying girl or when Shirou’s arm was bleeding due to Rider’s surprise attack, she even almost panicked.
To me, it seems like Rin might have even been jealous, even though she sounded angry at first, when she listened to Shirou talking about Kiritsugu’s unorthodox philosophy, how he didn’t care about traditions and how he treated Shirou and magic in general. It might sound like an insult to the efforts of her prestigious magi family, but perhaps this is actually what her human side really wants.
I agree. I think she was jealous/envious of Shirou’s upbringing vs. her own upbringing. I think back to that one moment when she has tears in her eyes, suggesting to me that this is not what she truly wants to do, but is doing so because it is required of her. Plus, she ended up losing both of her parents and her sister.
Thanks again for all the great info, images, and such. The comparison images show just how awesome ufotable is. Granted, the Deen version was years ago, but still, ufotable rocks on every level.
I don’t have a ton of time to talk (darn real world commitments), but regarding Rin’s Magic Crest, did her father make a piece of that for her when she was born? After all, she was pretty young when he died.
I think you can transplant a magic crest off of a dead body. I remember hearing somewhere that the Magic Association has some way of preserving the Magic Crest of a mage until their heir is ready to receive it, as it is their mission to preserve magical ability or some such like that.
It’s further explained in one of the many conversations Shirou and Rin have about magic in this route (on the 7th day; this episode covered the 5th day, which btw should be a monday, if I remember correctly). Well, whatever, not a major spoiler or anything:
[spoiler]Shirou: “Huh…? Oh, when I started learning magic? Yeah, it’s been about that long. My father finally started teaching me after I begged him for two years.”
Rin: “So a total of about eight years, huh? …Your dad sure did an incomplete job. If he was going to teach you, he should have done something from the time you were born.
Your body was already too mature eight years ago. He couldn’t put a Magic Crest on you, nor could he tamper with your body.”
Tohsaka says dangerous things with a serious face. Well, I know this is her part of her as a magus.
Shirou: “Yeah. But as I told you before, my father never intended to teach me magic. That’s why he didn’t go through the proper steps like you did. …Actually, what do you mean by doing something when you’re born?”
Rin: “…Um, it’s just like it sounds. The Magic Crest of a family becomes larger the more history there is behind the family.
A Magic Crest is a Magic Circuit taking shape. So engraving it into someone causes the ‘human body’ to reject it and causes serious pain. So we implant it bit by bit from the time we’re born to moderate the pain. We also drink bitter herbs and ground bones to create resistance in our bodies.
…Well, you don’t need to worry too much since it doesn’t concern you as a ‘magic user’. And it’s troublesome if you start copying it and do reckless things.”[/spoiler]
“Magic user” means spellcaster here. It seems like Shirou forgot to tell Rin he is adopted. As said above, Rin was prepared to receive the crest, since she was born. Tokiomi knew he could die soon, so he made preparations to ensure Rin would get the crest. This is from the FZ LN:
[spoiler] Her left wrist had already been carved with the Magic Crest of the Tōsaka family. Her body was still not used to the Crest that had only recently been grafted and kept on inflicting pain on her. But there was no sign of agony shown on the young girl’s face, and she endured the funeral until the very last minute. Indeed, this willpower of hers didn’t match her age.
The letter that Tokiomi wrote, which entrusted everything to the Association after his death, was almost perfect; it was truly a real portrait of the man himself. The transfer of the body and the extraction of the Crest were all entrusted to the Association’s headquarters in London by Kotomine Kirei, Rin’s guardian. The Crest was handed to Tokiomi’s friends to be guarded securely and ensure that it would be impeccably transplanted into Rin’s body in the future.
Transplanting a Crest into someone will cause a great burden to the body, therefore it was best to transplant it to the family successor before his or her secondary sexual characteristics have developed completely. However, when the previous Head suddenly passes away, many unthought-of difficulties often would occur. But Tokiomi had overcome this and made impeccable preparations. He had passed the essence of magecraft that the Tōsaka house had compiled over the generations all unto Rin without omitting a single thing. [/spoiler]
Thanks for the information. ^_^
It was transplanted after he died. Much like an organ transplant.
Also, just so you know, Rin genuinely likes being a magus, researching and practicing magic is something she genuinely enjoys, and she takes genuine pride in her heritage.
It’s the sacrifice’s that she has to make for the sake of “tradition”, and the fact that she didn’t get a choice, that she doesn’t like.
Sadly, that’s something Tokiomi himself regretted. I can’t remember if it came up in the anime, but in LN’s, one of his biggest regrets was that his daughter’s wouldn’t get the choice over whether they continue the family tradition or not, as that was a choice he himself received.
I think I mentioned the FZ LN parts in Astro’s FZ reviews.
Anyway, Tokiomi actually only had a pseudo-choice, but just thinking that he made that choice himself, filled him with pride and he became a magus without any doubt or ever going astray. Even though he felt bitter that his offspring will be forced into this, he at least wanted to give Rin that same feeling as a parting gift when he told her, paraphrased:
“Keep the Association in debt when you grow up. I’ll let you decide what to do afterwards, but the Holy Grail will appear eventually. It’s the duty of the Tohsaka family to obtain it and, if you want to be a magus, you can’t avoid it.”
Rin likes being a magus and she made that choice herself, but it’s in constant conflict with her morals and left her lonely. So meeting someone who perhaps can acknowledge and accept both sides of her and stop her if she tries too hard to act like a magus, like Shirou, is exactly what she needs. She doesn’t have to play the elegant and flawless school idol in front of Shirou.
Well, as a pure aside, Rin is just awesome in this series.
That makes sense.
And I just noticed I wrote “guitar rift“, haha.
fuckin love this series.
Why though? I categorically loathed Fate Stay Night originally.
It is quite well crafted. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
And in this case, it could be “that’s all it needs”.