December 23rd, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 11 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 11
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Coming home from the fight against Caster and Kuzuki-sensei, Shirou discovers his hand(s) are giving him grief as the magic circuits that he used to create the swords were used for the first time. The next day, Shirou skips out on meeting with Rin after school and returns home to make dinner, however he has trouble even holding small dishes. An annoyed Rin comes by and despite Shirou’s objection, comes in and strategizes with Saber. As it gets late, Rin invites herself to dinner and teases Shirou about his discomfort. When he points out Taiga will be coming by, Rin is not concerned about this. So when Taiga comes by, Rin handles Fujimura-sensei quite easily over her objections to Rin’s presence.
Shirou continues to have problems handling dishes, so Rin takes over the cleanup after dinner. Later, the two are in the courtyard of the home, where Rin admires the Bounded Field. As the two discuss magic, Rin becomes irritated when she learns that Shirou doesn’t find magic fun, nor does he do it for fun. So she decides that she’s going to give him something special she’s saved up. To that end, she has Archer bring her an overnight bag so she can spend the night. Later, Shirou is training on his reinforcement magic when Saber comes by. Archer drops by and knowing what Shirou is going through with his magic circuits, stabilizes Shirou.
Thoughts/Review:
This episode is proof that one doesn’t need to have an action-packed episode to have a very enjoyable episode.
In the Fate route that was animated by Deen, the romantic angle was between Shirou and Saber. In many ways, it seems surprising to me that there is no hint of a romance between the two in UBW. Instead, the two are partners and comrades in arms who work well together. There’s nothing wrong with that, but one would think that Shirou would have similar feelings for Saber. Yeah, I know — different route, different babe.
To that end, I am enjoying the flirtatious, but sometimes contentious relationship between Rin and Shirou. I smiled at how Rin saw Shirou’s discomfort with her being there for dinner because she is an attractive girl despite the fact that Shirou is not uncomfortable with Saber, Sakura, and Taiga being around him.
More than that, Rin is just awesome in UBW. We’ve seen her impressive mage abilities (and limitations). In this episode, we see her skillfully deal with Taiga after Rin invites herself to dinner. I admit that I couldn’t help but laugh at Rin’s tactics and success.
Of course, Rin is still a woman, getting upset with Shirou for him not understanding why she’s upset with him. *lol*
I have to admit that I liked the moment when Archer decided to help out Shirou by helping him with his magic circuits. Archer gets in his lecture and Shirou gets to reject Archer’s words. Meanwhile, Saber is ready to kick arse to defend Shirou. It was a nice scene all around for me.
In the end, we didn’t have a lot happen, but there were good character moments for Rin, Rin and Shirou’s relationship, Shirou’s and Archer’s relationship, and good aftermath as Shirou deals with his new ability, which will no doubt be of use in future episodes.
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Archer is giving me the sensation he still test and reassuring himself over his identity and positioning in time.
UBW will play out very differently from the Fate Route (majority of the first anime) for many characters. I like the interactions between the different characters the most in this route not just Shirou and Rin, but also Rin and Saber, Shirou and Archer…. Shirou and archer’s swords, Shirou and cooking… oh wait.
Yeah, that’s very clear now with the shock ending of episode 12.
Gifs, glorious gifs!
http://i.imgur.com/4YSJzbM.gif
https://38.media.tumblr.com/bc539ebded8c86d9b12167ce576b9617/tumblr_ngwbj97iSb1s5mgubo1_500.gif
https://38.media.tumblr.com/2e8dbf32d57a575cc017552c15604111/tumblr_ngwf6jl4nV1tugdt2o1_500.gif
http://i.imgur.com/jFcWEFm.gif
http://i.imgur.com/nakMdI0.gif
Also, next episode is a double length one, great to end the cour on.
Oh yeah, I remember a website “accidentally” leaked three weeks ago that episodes 1, 2, 13 and 25 are supposedly 45 minutes long. Since they probably were referring to production numbers, people assumed the (mid-)season finale, episode 12, would be twice as long. If that leak is absolutely true, I guess the last episode will be episode 24 and will also be 45 minutes long.
Anyway, ufotable confirmed that episode 12 would be double length two weeks ago, I think I even retweeted it (I hope you read all my tweets, Astro! ^_^), thanks for the reminder! 😉
I’m so glad episode 12 was a double-length episode. I would LOVE for that to be the case to start things off in April.
Thanks! ^_^
Having recently reread Fate, I think I can explain this. There is actually a perfectly reasonable explanation for the romance part. In Fate, Shirou pays a lot of his attention to Saber, after she gets almost killed by Berserker. Shirou saw her standing no chance, and therefore because of his personality, felt a strong desire to protect her. In the actual Fate route, he is most of the time “sick” and not in school, instead he trains with Saber. He is instantly smitten with Saber’s beauty and develops a little crush on her, but his feelings for her slowly developed, while he spent more time with her.
In UBW, Saber is doing fairly well against Berserker, because the terrain changed and Archer supported her. That whole “I absolutely must protect her” part is therefore gone and he also spends more time with Rin, instead of Saber. Besides, before FSN happened, Shirou already had crushes on both Sakura and Rin. It’s just that he spends more time with Rin in UBW, so his relationship with Saber doesn’t develop into something more than camaraderie. Mind you, he still spends lots of time with Saber or Rin in Fate and UBW respectively, depending on your choices and he still acts flustered and nervous around Rin in Fate, she is after all the girl he has admired for a while.
Interesting to note is that Nasu and Urobuchi see Shirou and Rin’s relationship as the most balanced one out of the three possible ones. The romantic relationship between Shirou and Saber in Fate was a bit uneven. (Nasu admitted that was a mistake on his part, as he still wrote Saber with the originally planned male Servant in mind and tried to convince himself she is a girl by letting Shirou saying stuff like “but you’re a girl” and so on.) Without spoiling much about HF, that is also the case between Shirou and Sakura’s senpai-kouhai relationship.
Shirou’s thoughts are often filled with snarks, but the only people he regularly teases are Taiga and Rin and I’m glad ufotable keeps these scenes. I find them funny and they in my opinion make me appreciate their relationship more, it doesn’t feel forced. Saber usually gets extremely pissed if you tease her and Shirou doesn’t dare teasing Sakura too much. It’s probably Rin who brings out that side of his out of him. Shirou dares biting back, when it’s Rin (or Taiga, but that’s different since they see themselves as siblings).
[spoiler]It’s very similar with Archer and Rin in that regard. Shirou already is pretty sarcastic actually. If Shirou stopped being so polite and started outright saying what he thinks, he would basically act like a less cynical Archer. Their emptiness and their self-sacrificing nature naturally pisses Rin off, though. [/spoiler]
Choices:
[spoiler]Btw, not sure which choice was made on that day after dinner, in the anime. It basically was skipped.
1. If Shirou decides to look for Rin immediately after dinner, she’ll talk about his ridiculous projection magic (since Shirou uses it as an extension for strengthening, it’s his basic magic). Rin tells him that he never should say that out loud, as any other magus would put him in formaldehyde.
2. Saber choice. Some talk in the dojo about what food Saber prefers and her basically saying she likes anything Shirou cooks, because he’s a good cook and the food she ate in her lfie before was crap.
3. Resting with Taiga in the living room. She’ll trick him into admitting that he likes Rin (more than Saber). Shirou gets flustered. [/spoiler]
The funny thing is that Shirou was never taught by Kiritsugu properly how Magic Circuits actually work. A Magic Circuit is something a magus reveals, he/she doesn’t create it every time. Shirou’s method was extremely dangerous and life-threatening, as he didn’t use his actual circuits and used his nerves as pseudo-circuits instead. In Fate, Rin awakens Shirou’s circuits by giving him a jewel, filled with mana, to swallow. Here in UBW he opens them himself and gets treatment by Archer.
Additional stuff:
1. I’m a bit disappointed with Saber’s reactions in this episode. The way Shirou talks about Kiritsugu should definitely affect her more. Her expression apparently does change slightly (http://imgur.com/a/cnfMG), but it’s barely noticeable.
Also, Saber actually reacted in the novel, when Archer delivered his speech at the end. His words hurt her as much as they hurt Shirou. That again is supposed to show how similar they all are.
[spoiler] And that of course was the actual reason why Kiritsugu and Saber couldn’t see eye-to-eye. Kiritsugu, the Magus Killer, and King Arthur were too similar. Artoria however resembles Shirou and the innocent Kiritsugu far more, that’s why Shirou and Saber can get along very well.
Archer knows exactly what Saber’s problems are. That was already supposed to be shown in episode 6, when he revealed that he knows her wish and called her the perfect guardian (a slave). [/spoiler]
2. Behold, there is now a blog entirely dedicated to the faces Rin makes:
http://rintohsakafaces.tumblr.com/
3. Speaking of faces, this face (http://i.imgur.com/5j1PkDQ.jpg) is based on this sprite from the VN:
http://i.imgur.com/uGlXdP7.png
It also resembles Neco-Arc:
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091126195827/typemoon/images/b/bc/Neco-arc_MBAA.png
Btw, in the novel, it took Taiga 5 sprites to realize Rin was in the house, haha.
4. Rin in her casual clothes:
http://i.imgur.com/7X0j8H7.jpg
I disapprove. The skirt is too short! It’s not perfect Zettai Ryouiki, the skirt or her kneesocks should be longer! Like this:
http://i.imgur.com/npoEeI6.png
… Just kidding. ^_^
5. Whoops, someone from the compositing department messed up:
http://i.imgur.com/LPhtcIv.png
6. Some gifs (excluding those Ghoststalker already posted):
[spoiler]
Sleeping Saber:
http://i.imgur.com/m7XrhRI.gif
http://i.imgur.com/4CPSHX0.gif (parody)
Rin waiting for Shirou in the student council room:
http://i.imgur.com/4xIASMi.gif
Saber and Rin in perfect unison:
http://i.imgur.com/6oUk59y.gif
Cute Rin:
http://i.imgur.com/IEWF3rN.gif
http://i.imgur.com/oubVaXR.gif
Angry Rin:
http://i.imgur.com/TV8neF5.gif
http://i.imgur.com/sipMVhK.gif
Archer treating Shirou:
http://i.imgur.com/hCnp800.gif
[/spoiler]
Btw, the little talk between Saber and Shirou was cut.
[spoiler]Saber talked about Merlin for a bit, without mentioning his name, and complained about the trouble he caused because of his pranks and his womanizing nature.[/spoiler]
Hopefully that will be in the Blu-ray release.
Your explanation makes sense.
I totally agree there.
*lol* Rin is very expressive facially.
Her skirt is rather short. I often think, “In reality, someone in a skirt that short is going to show off the goods.”
As always, thanks for the goods you provide. ^_^
Hello there Fate fans!
I reallly liked this episode. It turned out to be a powerhouse , with many subtle clues about identities , and good character development and an good overall build up to what’s coming
The initial part with the date, in the beginning did seem to drag on a bit, but it’s importance came to light during the final act when you see these three people having had a normal fun time, suddenly having to come back to the reality of the Holy Grail war.. For me, the first part of the episode was a perfect foil to the damning realization of how twisted the war had become by this point
[spoiler]( as was depicted by the awesome character montage towards the end with the excellent cover of dillusion 🙂 )
That last montage, showed , however briefly, the brilliant story telling talent for character development that was employed in Fate Zero ( which I reckon is still the best of the series )[/spoiler]
Another aspect of the date, was when Rin ‘Guaranteeing’ Shirou that he’s going to be much taller reveals a lot more than you’d think. If you take all the other clues into account, it was a very telling statement that betrayed what Rin may have already figured out about Shirou and who’s he’s going to be
[spoiler]
Without giving too much away, I think the first part of the arc , as well as Rin’s conversation with Archer, as well as Shirou taking the ‘found again’ jewel at the end, gave us many , yet subtle clues towards this.
Other clues include , Archer commenting he losing his left arm in a similar fashion, Rin’s thinking to her self, when she first gets angry with Shirou that she didn’t think he and someone else were so identical and so on 🙂
[/spoiler]
Saber is a bit of a let down though , she doesn’t seem to have shown any recognition of Kiritsugu from Fate Zero,.. none,zero, no reaction and that made her a bit flat. I don’t like the way she’s been treated in this whole series actually
Finally Caster’s part was ingenious, for me, it showed how Servants can manipulate events and best even those foes that they ideally should have no chance against. It made for a more dynamic setting in that sense.
[spoiler]Plus her plan for the Lesser Grail was a very very clever idea.[/spoiler]
Personally, this puts this series back on the map for me with a solid finale of what was becoming a ‘just for the heck of it’ anime, ( when compared with Fate Zero )
And Lisa’s cover of dillusion was awesome, at the end 😀 very passionate.
Now I have to wait till April :<
I agree. I strongly suggests Rin has figured Shirou out.
I do wish ufotable had made a bit more of Saber in regards to Iri and Kiritsugu.
It will be here before you know it. ^_^
Thanks for writing. ^_^