November 17th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 06 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 06
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Shirou walks home, but senses Archer is there and calls him out. Archer is impressed, then explains the whole Heroic Spirit concept to Shirou and that they have no free will. Archer also has no wish to be granted. At home, Shirou goes to visit an annoyed Saber, where he tells her of his alliance with Rin and Archer. Since he says the alliance is until they smoke out the other Master at school, Saber agrees to it, then suggests they train. The next day at school. Shinji jokes about Ayako being found, irritating Shirou. After school, Shirou helps Rin sniff out the sigils around the campus, where she damages or destroys them.
After Rin goes home, Shinji shows back up, revealing that he’s also a Master. Shinji offers to partner with Shirou, who turns him down. However, Shirou agrees to not speak of this to Rin. That night, Shirou trains with Saber again, then trains on using his strengthening magic. Saber, sensing mana, peeks in on him, but leaves after she realizes she’s a distraction to his training. After he falls asleep, he’s grabbed via threads by Caster, who plans to drain him of his mana and remove his Command Spells. Saber, sensing trouble, races to the temple, where she encounters Assassin. Meanwhile, Archer comes in to save Shirou, warning him to not move since Caster is very upset over Archer’s arrival.
Thoughts/Review:
Another good episode with almost no action to be had.
I don’t remember Shirou being shown to be as competent in the original Fate/stay night anime as he is here. I could be wrong about that, but in this adaptation, Shirou is much better at things, such as helping Rin find and destroy the sigils left around campus, or in the way that he knew Archer was escorting him, even though Archer was invisible.
I liked Archer’s and Shirou’s conversation regarding Heroic Spirits. Of course, I’m assisted by knowing more about both characters, so that helped. Even without that, the information Archer imparts is invaluable. I especially liked him speculating that Saber was the only one who probably chose to enter this war. After all, it is her second time.
I can’t help but like Rin’s and Shirou’s alliance. It is one of those things were I can’t help but wish they didn’t have to be opponents. Archer and Saber make a great team, and while Shirou isn’t that great, he does have some use to the awesome Rin.
On the other side, I can’t help but dislike Shinji immensely. Even if I didn’t know more about him, I’d still want to smack him in the gulp (or however that phrase goes). In some ways, it is surprising that he allowed Shirou to leave unmolested.
I’m pretty sure that Shirou’s encounter with Caster in the original anime wasn’t through her snaring him with a puppet master ability. Archer coming in with the deus ex machina save was not unexpected, since Rin and Archer were going after Caster anyway. I’m looking forward to seeing the battle to come.
In the end, the episode had a lot more exposition to lay out, but done in a proper, interesting way. As such, we end up with another good episode despite a lack of action.
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There’s a typo in there. ^_^
He helped Rin in the DEEN anime too, but I don’t think he did it in the Fate route, actually, because most of the time he stayed at home and trained with Saber. Also, Rin asked Archer to escort Shirou home, she insisted, so Shirou knew from the beginning Archer was following him. He did feel the hostility though, because Archer made it pretty obvious he can’t stand his guts. Archer even voiced his disagreement about their cooperation quite clearly in the novel.
That is actually one of my favorite conversations in UBW, although large chunks of it were unfortunately left out. The original scene is almost 10 minutes long. It’s definitely worth checking it out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gfXPbi23rs). Archer is pretty much a mystery in the whole route and the way he speaks of heroic spirits and how he refers to the Holy Grail is quite suspicious. The way he talks of Saber is also strange.
[spoiler]He calls the Holy Grail an “evil treasure chest” that cannot fulfill his wish. That alone is a rather strange way to refer to the supposedly omnipotent Holy Grail. Also, heroic spirits being the slaves, the guardians, of humanity without a free will is a pretty cynical point of view. It’s also funny that in the novel he notes how the usual cold-blooded Rin acts absolutely immature in front of Shirou. In the original scene he called Saber a perfect guardian, literally a slave, because she supposedly like him is unlike the other Servants and has no desire to use the Grail for herself.
This is the actual reason Shirou asks Saber again about the Grail and her wish. He wanted to confirm what Archer told him and much to his chagrin accepts that it is true. The way Archer talks about Saber doesn’t seem to be speculation.
Btw, this pic here http://i.imgur.com/hZUMnm5.jpg is full of foreshadowing… might comment on it next episode again.[/spoiler]
This pic here: http://i.imgur.com/XbIhRlb.jpg
See the strings? Caster had it planned out for a while.
Btw, that scene with Saber and the explanation of Shirou’s reinforcement is new. He actually explains it in the first three days when he practices his magic. A welcome addition.
Also,
[spoiler]Archer was waiting the whole time. He didn’t barely make it in time to save Shirou, he was thinking about style, lol.[/spoiler]
What should be noted is that beside the conversation between Shirou and Archer, that was shortened, other scenes were also cut. The most notable one is
[spoiler]Rin having dreams about Archer’s past, the way Shirou experienced dreams about Saber in Fate. It helps a lot establishing Archer’s character and explains his actions, but I’m sure they will be shown, because at the start of the next days, one was able to see a dream. It’s difficult to see who is dreaming at first, Shirou or Rin, because they take turns.
4th day (episode 4): Shirou dreams about a wasteland and swords.
5th day (episode 5): Shirou dreams about Kiritsugu’s final conversation with him.
6th day (supposed to be this episode): Rin dreams about the story of a knight (http://lparchive.org/Fatestay-night/Update%20145/). [/spoiler]
Additional notes:
1. I’m a bit disappointed that ufotable can’t make excitingly animated conversations. It doesn’t bother me a whole lot, but seeing a light post for 10 seconds while listening to Shirou and Archer is a bit dull.
2. Poor Ayako: http://i.imgur.com/PykhcGN.png
She looks exactly like Shiki again, lol.
http://i.imgur.com/XMTM98T.jpg
http://static2.minitokyo.net/view/32/33/424182.jpg
If you’re wondering what exactly happened to her:
[spoiler]Nothing, really. Rider sucked her blood and Ayako forgot everything that happened, that’s it. It sounds as if Shinji might have done something to her, but that is very unlikely. I’d say someone like Shinji and his inferiority complex would want to show and make his victim remember that he is the superior one.
Btw, if you remember last episode, Issei was very tired and wanted to sleep. That was of course because Caster drained his mana. She doesn’t kill her victims though.[/spoiler]
3. Look at this pic: http://i.imgur.com/PWitb1j.jpg
This is the easteregg: http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/948/fate-s10.jpg
It’s the promo pic and cover for DEEN’s UBW movie.
4. Assassin vs Saber was shown in Fate, but not in UBW even though it happened in that route, too. Since ufotable won’t animate Fate, it’s very likely they will show the fight the way it happened in Fate.
5. Add a blush and this line sounds really weird out of context:
http://i.imgur.com/cOCHNLG.jpg
6. Have some gifs:
Embarassed Rin:
http://i.imgur.com/MzZljBR.gif
http://i.imgur.com/5SPg0Du.gif
Shirou getting distracted by Saber:
http://i.imgur.com/pY2WZkF.gif
http://i.imgur.com/Wr9TU4n.gif
A very intimate moment with Caster:
http://i.imgur.com/nPIJkf1.gif
7. Speaking of Caster,
[spoiler]did you notice the flashbacks they had shown while Shirou was under hypnosis? That’s a neat addition about Caster’s past. I wonder how many people already figured out her identity.[/spoiler]
8. Caster’s territory is more terrifying than one might think at first. It nerfs the Servants and their Noble Phantasms a lot and the only way to enter the Ryuudou Temple is by passing through the gate. Caster in general, as someone from the Age of Gods, is a great magus on the level of a magician.
These are her stats that were revealed for now:
http://i.imgur.com/ZaFb2wk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/85DUGB5.jpg
Assassin’s stat sheet is revealed next episode.
9. Saber doesn’t wear pants when she sleeps?
http://i.imgur.com/Snq77g2.jpg
Btw, as I mentioned last week, Shirou actually saw Shinji, when he tried to confront the Servant that attacked Rin. That is the actual reason he asked Sakura to stay at his place, because he was worried about what Shinji, a potential Master, might do to her. Since Shinji said he is the heir and Sakura is uninvolved, Shirou agreed to not ask her to stay again.
Ah. That clears things up more.
I had to read this a few times before I actually got what was wrong. ^_^; Thanks for the alert.
I had totally missed that on the first viewing.
Cost savings. 😉
Heh!heh! It is nice of ufotable to give props like that.
Wasn’t Shirou with Saber during that fight in the Fate route?
[spoiler]I would not have been able to do so based on those images.[/spoiler]
*lol* I noticed that as well.
As always, thanks for the great info. ^_^
Yeah, I know. It’s just ufotable isn’t that good with this in general. There were a lot more conversations in Kara no Kyoukai and less fights, so their budget for them must have been higher, but conversations weren’t very excitingly animated, either. Not as many still shots, admittedly.
Only at the end. The situation is also entirely different.
In Fate,
[spoiler]Shinji tells Shirou that there is a Master at the Ryuudou Temple. Rin refuses to go there, since she suspects a trap and Shirou agrees, but Saber is pissed that Shirou doesn’t want to take any action. (It really is a trap. If Shirou decides to go with Saber, he’ll die.) In the night she sneaks out and then meets Assassin. Shirou isn’t present at first, so a third-person narrator is narrating the fight. Right before she releases Invisible Air, Shirou arrives and stops her.
In UBW, the situation is hilariously reversed with Saber going after Shirou (although Caster manipulated him). Saber also fights against Assassin, but there is no interlude chapter with a third-person narrator narrating the fight. Most scenes in FSN are told from Shirou’s POV and while Saber tries to defeat Assassin, the reader sees Archer deal with Caster. So Saber’s fight happens offscreen in UBW, since the reader already knows what will happen there more or less. [/spoiler]
Speaking of different situations, I do like Shirou’s and Saber’s relationship better in UBW. They seem to understand each other a lot more in this version than in Fate.
[spoiler]Okay, small correction. There is a small interlude in UBW with Saber meeting Assassin and desperately trying to force her way through, but the majority of the fight happens offscreen.[/spoiler]
Understood.
When Archer speculated that Saber was the only one who probably chose to enter this war, I wanted to retort “Lancer(s)”. Maybe F/Z-Lancer’s aim wasn’t exactly the grail, but he still has reason to enter the war.
Well, Archer’s point is of course that Saber is completely different compared to all Heroic Spirits.
[spoiler]Since she isn’t really a Heroic Spirit yet. She wasn’t summoned from the Throne of Heroes. Most Heroic Spirits just answer the call and are summoned. Saber is desperately waiting for the call.[/spoiler]
UBW is also known as the “Rin Route” after all. So based on your comments about this episode, I think you’re going to like how the plot plays out eventually.
I think so too. ^_^