April 5th, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 13 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 13
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Shirou manages to make it home that night, but doesn’t make it to bed. The next morning, he sets out with a weapon and Rin’s pendant to find Rin. Elsewhere in an old church, Caster has Saber magically bound in a white dress when Souichirou (Kuzuki-sensei) arrives, demanding to know why Caster is here. Caster gives an explanation and is troubled by Souichirou’s insistence on staying at the church. Still elsewhere, Rin wakes up at a covered picnic table, covered with Archer’s jacket. The two chat before going to investigate Kirei’s church, where they find blood but no body. Rin lays out her plan to attack Caster while Archer attacks Souichirou. However, Archer does not seem pleased with the part of her plan that sees Saber return to Shirou’s control.
Archer and Rin confront Caster and Souichirou inside Kirei’s church while Shirou has snuck in and observes from a balcony. After a brief chat, Rin attacks Caster, but after a brief fight, she finds Archer is not following the plan. Archer turns on Rin and pledges allegiance to Caster, revealing he knows her true identity — Princess Medea. Caster stabs him with Rule Breaker, causing the Command Spells (Seals) for Archer to become Caster’s. When Souichirou makes a move for Rin, Shirou springs into action, but his injuries prevent him from doing much. Archer has Caster release Rin and Shirou as a condition of his continued servitude, so she lets them go, but warns if they interfere, she will deal with the situation.
As Shirou and Rin leave, Rin vows to make Archer hers again, after which she promises she will never forgive his betrayal. Rin and Shirou walk and talk. She’s concerned about his injuries, but he knows her pain is greater and says as much, causing her to cry. The two end up on a hilltop sitting back to back to continue talking. Rin concedes her mistakes in not taking out Caster sooner. Shirou confesses to making mistakes, but figures Rin will come back and make them pay. He gives Rin the pendant, where Rin realizes something. When she asks why he saved her, Shirou confesses that he’s in love with her and has been for a while. Rin is embarrassed, but after insulting him, she hugs him from behind and thanks him for saving her.
Thoughts/Review:
Wow. There’s just so much in this episode. Where to begin?
In episode 12, I was stunned when Saber was taken from Shirou because that’s certainly not how things went down in the Fate route. I didn’t think that moment could be topped, but then Archer betrays Rin and joins Caster. Even as I write this, I’m still not over the shock of that moment.
So, why does Archer betray Rin? Is it because he hates Shirou so much? He did not appear happy when Rin noted that should they kill Caster and free Saber, she could return to Shirou’s side.
Or does Archer have some other scheme in mind? He may have realized there was no way Rin would survive the assault on Caster, and thus sacrificed himself to save her. But if that’s the case, then what is his end game? Or is he actually cool with whatever Caster wants, providing Rin is OK?
Changing topics, why did Caster change Saber’s clothing? Why was her skirt hiked up? The only reason I can think of for Saber to have her skirt hiked up like that while being magically bound is if Caster was sexually assaulting Saber as a means of breaking her. Caster’s guilty reaction to Souichirou’s arrival would also seem to indicate she’s doing something she doesn’t think he’d approve of.
So now Caster has in effect three Servants at her command — one guarding the temple (Assassin), one willing having joined her side (Archer), and one unwilling to help (Saber). At this point, I’m not sure how Rin and Shirou manage to defeat Caster unless Kirei helps them, which is possible since he’s likely not dead and would want to get back at Caster for her attack.
Speaking of Rin and Shirou, I have to say that it is weird for me to hear Shirou confess his love for Rin. After all, in the Fate route, Shirou was all into Saber. I know this anime is covering Rin’s route, so the story is going to be structured in such a way to have Rin and Shirou be the romantic couple. I honestly don’t have a problem with that, but it was weird to me just the same.
Rin’s tsundere reaction to Shirou’s love confession made me chuckle. The fact that she embraced Shirou from behind at the end tells me she accepted his confession and the two are officially a couple now. It will certainly be interesting to see them working closely together now.
Also while I’m thinking about it, on the issue of Rin’s pendent…
…while she may have suspected the linkage between Archer and Shirou, the fact that Shirou mentioned two pendents and gave one to Rin gave her the proof that the two are linked, and in fact the same person. I liked that moment.
I have to say that ufotable’s work here continues to amaze me. Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works continues to be a cream of the crop anime title. I can’t wait to see the next episode (though I may be delayed in blogging it).
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That’s pretty much it. Caster wants to humiliate and break Saber. I wanna note that this scene was not removed in the non-eroge version of the FSN VN (Realta Nua). It was kept and actually, ufotable kept the… molesting too, it was only cut in the tv release. People who attended the prescreening confirmed that they saw the uncut version. The scene in the novel is called “Holy woman violated”.
Btw, in the myth, after Jason leaves Medea to marry the daughter of King Kreon of Corinth, Glauce, Medea sends a poisoned dress to Glauce, which kills her and her father. Just wanted to note that.
As I’ve mentioned in the other episode reviews before, Shirou spends far, far more time with Rin than with Saber in this route. Admittedly, their longer, casual talks are cut short quite a bit in the anime, but they are still bonding by sharing and talking about their own experiences as magi and students, something he and Saber don’t share.
Considering his already existing crush on Rin before FSN even started and how his relationship with her develops in this route, it’s in my opinion natural for him to quickly fall for her (Actually, he also had a small crush on Sakura, but since she willingly during the war…). Shirou is a guy who values honesty, so he is usually very honest himself (although he does act tsundere sometimes), so I was kind of surprised when people reacted surprised that he confessed so early.
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]
Interesting to note…
[spoiler] It’s not only that. She figured out why she summoned Archer when Shirou showed her the pendant. Naturally, she and Archer would actually make a good team, because Shirou and Rin are a good team. [/spoiler]
I’ll post additional notes when I return home in a few hours…
Welcome back. ^_^
Ugh. I had a feeling that was what was going on.
I was unaware of that. So is this dress Saber is wearing another artifact of some kind to help break her?
It is the original anime and the romance between Saber and Shirou that is strongest in my mind. It may be strongest in others mind as well.
Anyway, glad to have your remarks on the series here. ^_^
Having watched the Unlimited Blade Works movie, none of these plot twists are surprising to me, which is why I’m glad you didn’t experience this route until the TV series, which has substantially more content. The main points are all the same, but how they connect and move from one to the other is done much more fluidly. Especially since this was done after Fate Zero, so there are little details here and there that are callbacks to that which weren’t present otherwise because Fate Zero hadn’t been made yet.
All in all, I’m very much liking this. Again, since everyone’s main gripe with Fate is Shirou, I point them to this story, where he actually, you know, does things other than whine.
Speaking unbiasedly, when I first discovered Archer’s betrayal, I first thought that it’d be for Shirou’s sake, as the only way Rin would team up with him would be if she had no other options, and by being back in the game again, hopefully Shirou would learn through the strife that his ideals and motivations are as fake as Archer believes them to be. It’s not necessarily that Archer hates Shirou, but he hates the way Shirou thinks. Change that, and maybe change [spoiler]Shirou’s, and thus his own, future into one that isn’t so hopeless and meaningless[/spoiler]. Not knowing what happens next, that’s my assumption as Archer doesn’t seem to really care for the Grail itself.
It’s the other way around. Not really trying to nitpick here (okay, that’s a lie), but I just wanna mention again, the so-called callbacks existed before Fate/Zero. They were simply left out in DEEN’s movie adaptation from 2010, because you can’t fill all that stuff in 100 minutes.
Daily reminder, that Fate/Zero is built on all three routes of FSN – almost any reference to the 4th Holy Grail War was already in the Visual Novel (2004), which was released a few years before the first FZ Light Novel was released (2006). FSN, and with it, UBW and all the references to Fate/Zero, came first.
Confusing, I know, but the movie that you watched really was only intended for fans of the Visual Novel, who wanted to see the fights animated. The whole story and the character development was dropped, some would even say butchered.
[spoiler]The problem is, Archer cannot change the past for a better future for him. That’s not how it works. Shirou and Archer are separate people.[/spoiler]
And as Archer already said back then in episode 00 and 06, he absolutely has no interest in the Grail. No reason to lie here.
Regarding Fate/Zero, is my understanding correct in that the novels (and subsequent anime) were designed to take the flashback materials from Fate/stay night, and just flesh them out? (Not sure if I’m making sense as it is passed my bedtime.)
That’s actually pretty typical of a lot of anime movie adaptations, at least as I see it (as tomorrow’s review of the CG movie Space Pirate Captain Harlock will demonstrate).
D’oh! I’d forgotten about that.
That is a correct assumption.
For instance,
[spoiler]
In Fate, at the end of their date, Saber sees a destroyed ship in the river and tells Shirou how she fought on the water and used Excalibur, but unfortunately destroyed the ship. (She didn’t know Kiritsugu put it there to reduce the damage.)
She also told Shirou that Kiritsugu only talked three times to her, so that had to be kept in FZ to not retcon things (and Urobuchi found that incredibly difficult, so Irisviel was often used instead). Saber also sees a different person when she looks at Illya’s face in Fate (Iri).
In all three routes it’s mentioned how Kirei quickly lost his Servant and went to his father in the church, to seek protection. He also said he was the first one to lose.
Both of these statements came true in FZ, only the former was a ploy and the latter happened much later actually (episode 11), when Assassin tried to ambush the banquet of the kings.
This gave those, who thought Kirei lied or there was a plothole, since Gil turned out to be Kirei’s Servant, a satisfying answer.
Here and there are story elements from the 4th War, that were fleshed out by Urobuchi and Nasu. In hollow ataraxia, a Master-Servant team was mentioned, that became the target of every other team because they caused too much attention (Uryuu and Caster), and Kayneth’s death scene was described by Kirei in one of the other FSN routes.
There are other scenes, but yes, Urobuchi connected the dots and wrote down the 4th war, while keeping the characterization of several other characters that were mentioned, intact.
There weren’t that many flashbacks actually, but the 4th war was very often referenced in FSN already. [/spoiler]
Thanks for the info. ^_^
It was on my list of things to watch. With the massive backlog I have, I never got around to it. ^_^;
Yes, he’s a much stronger character in this series.
That does seem to be the case.
Wait till they get to the loli. Looking forward to seeing the contrast between Shirou and Archer eventually. Archer still totally reminds me of Ikusa Ayasaki
I’d actually sorta forgotten about her.
So… let’s get started.
First of all, I gotta mention again that I love Fukasawa’s work here. I truly enjoy the music and the episode outright starts with a great and slow remix of Sorrow, a Realta Nua VN track (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDMXVvHSnJ0). Though this song is played in more than one scene in the VN, the most famous one where it is used is probably the one at the end of the Fate route, after the final battle. I’m sure you know which scene I’m talking about.
Now I have to say, the episode did feel a bit rushed. They covered almost the complete 12th day in one episode. I remember (damn it, can’t find the source right now) director Miura saying, they will add scenes because otherwise they would run out of material, which I find kind of odd. Well, whatever.
As for Shirou’s monologue, it’s kind of interesting how ufotable is handling this. Which part they leave in, which ones they leave out, etc.. I’ll talk about this in more detail later, but especially regarding Shirou’s relationship with Rin, they leave out the monologue parts, that show why he keeps fighting. Instead of this (which btw I think is very well written and heartwarming):
[spoiler] …Even if I was wrong from the start, there is nothing wrong with the path I took.
I wanted to be a superhero so that incident wouldn’t just become a sad memory.
A time where everyone would be happy and shed no tears.
I have held that ideal for ten years.
[…]
I didn’t fight because I became a Master.
I decided to fight because it’s something I can do, and I believed it’s something I have to do.
“…Tohsaka, no matter how much you tell me…”
If I believe it is right, I will believe in this path until the very end.
I won’t stop, and I won’t let her fight by herself.
…That’s why I will sleep now.
I won’t let her call me a burden.
I’ll heal this wound up in one night.
And when I wake up in the morning…
…And when I wake up in the morning… I’ll catch up to her for sure and repay her for what she did that night. [/spoiler]
How he switches from the ‘I’s to ‘she’s and ‘her’s was especially well done. Well… instead of this, ufotable just shows a shot with Shirou looking at the pendant and saying Rin’s name. ufotable (and by extension director Miura and Nasu) try not to repeat too much thoughts and/or dialogues, as Shirou would bring up the reason why he tried to save Rin later in the episode anyway. I think everything is more subtle this way, but it works.
Oh yeah, about the Saber-in-a-dress scene again… Nah, not an artifact or some sort. Saber is “untainted” and pure (and, you know, a virgin… but better not talk about this), so she was given something that suits her more, or so Caster tries to explain in her head… It’s parodied in later works like Fate/hollow ataraxia. Saber is amusingly scared of Caster because she is a Cosplay maniac and wants to dress up Saber like a doll in maid clothes, goth loli, etc…
Oops, forgot to talk about the dress. I’d say it’s Takeuchi’s fault, haha. Nasu’s friend, co-founder and main artist of TYPE-MOON, Takeuchi Takashi, is a Saberfag. I bet Nasu had to write the… rape(?) scene because Takeuchi really wanted to draw Saber in a dress. And since it’s not explicit, they were even able to keep it for the non-ero Realta Nua ports! Look forward to the BD release with added butt slapping and groping!
(I bet he is still butthurt, that ufotable didn’t adapt Fate and insisted to adapt this scene. Praise Takeuchi (not)! Okay, I’m just kidding. See additional notes below though, regarding Takeuchi.)
Alright, this is where Shirou actually dodged another dead end.
[spoiler] It’s morning and he has the choice to go look for Rin or go to Kirei to the church. Well, obvious choice of course, since the reader knew Caster and Kuzuki are at the church. If the player doesn’t have enough Rin relationship points (you have to be a real dick to her if that happens), Shirou will automatically go to the church. And meet Caster. And die.
(Hilarious Tiger Dojo afterwards btw, Mahou Shoujo ftw!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVfis_gtfEM ) [/spoiler]
Apparently, if I understand the people who attended the prescreening correctly, there was a scene with Shirou wandering around, looking for Rin and people looking strangely at him. If that is correct, that part was cut. He actually spends hours looking for Rin in the novel.
Well, next comes Rin’s last dream about Archer’s life… I think. Lovely scene. The reason why I think this scene was done so well was the change of scenery, while Rin narrates how Archer was ultimately betrayed by his ideal. That actually perfectly makes sense. I’ll elaborate in a few weeks.
[spoiler]I’m talking about Reality Marbles if you want to know.[/spoiler]
There were some parts that were foreshadowed (and which I mentioned in the episode 06 review: http://anime.astronerdboy.com/2014/11/fatestay-night-unlimited-blade-works-06.html#comment-36446):
[spoiler] Namely, the part about “protectors”. In FSN, when describing Counter Guardians, most of the time 守護者 is used, literally Protector. Mirror Moon translated it as Guardian. The term Counter Guardian originated from the Kara no Kyoukai dictionary. The way hulu and aniplex translated it is fine unless you expected them to reference lore dictionary entries in their subbing. (I’ll use Guardian from now on, though.)
Anyway, the first time that term was used in UBW, in the novel, was when Archer escorted Shirou home, the beginning of episode 06. Archer already described heroic spirits that are only slaves who have to clean up after what mankind did. Saber was also described by Archer as the perfect guardian, because she literally is a slave in his eyes. Not to mention, the reason why Saber can participate in the Holy Grail War…
To elaborate, since probably most people who only watched DEEN’s Fate anime don’t know/remember, Saber made a contract with the world to get the Holy Grail (so she can change the past and find a more suitable king). She is not truly dead, but frozen in time and is sent to the Holy Grail War until she finally wins (although she only participated in FZ and FSN). If she wins, she will become a guardian after her death and serve for the rest of her time.
Why Counter Guardian though? As Rin described, it’s a defense mechanism to protect mankind. It’s a Counter Force (two actually) that exists on Earth: Gaia and Alaya. Gaia is the will of the world and Alaya the will of humanity. Alaya was a part of Gaia, though conflict is inevitable, since humanity and the rest of the planet don’t often see eye to eye.
The True Ancestors (the shinsos, true vampires so to say) from Tsukihime are part of Gaia’s Counter Force (there are other forms, but I’m drifting away too much). Counter Guardians are part of Alaya’s forces – when I talk about Saber’s contract with the world, I’m talking about a contract with Alaya.
Anything that threatens mankind will eventually be taken down by the Counter Force. Magi therefore actually have a really hard time to reach Akasha, the Root, because finding it, and with its knowledge, its power, potentially threatens the whole planet. Whenever you have the time, try reading or watching Nasu’s Kara no Kyoukai series (or the movie series by ufotable) for more info.
Oh, side info, Rin mentions anti-heroes, this is the first time in the novel I believe, in her dream actually. And with anti-heroes I mean Avengers. People who were praised as heroes against their will, even if they hated humanity. She notes, Archer is not such a heroic spirit though. [/spoiler]
So, since a lot of wandering Shirou was skipped, I’ll make it short. He’s searched the whole town looking for Rin and the last station is the church (he doesn’t want to meet Kirei, but begrudgingly notes that Kirei might help him), which is why it’s already dark when he finally arrives there. Oh, and he keeps getting headaches, the closer he gets to the church. I’m just mentioning that because it’s such a minor detail that is kind of important and makes sense in hindsight.
And here is the second dead end Shirou dodged.
[spoiler] If he jumps down immediately instead of figuring out what the situation is, Archer will call him a fool for dooming them all (“…You idiot. You and Rin would have survived if you had not come out.”) and Kuzuki, noting that it’s now 3v3 and even, uses a Command Spell, to order Caster to use her second Command Spell for Saber. Saber can resist one Command Spell, but not two. She and Caster then mercilessly attack Shirou, Rin and Archer and they die. Great Tiger Dojo afterwards again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLpvSB9autU
Btw, Caster said she was looking for the Grail and searched the whole church. She must have discovered the crippled orphans downstairs, that Kirei used as mana batteries for Gilgamesh, yet Shirou doesn’t mention anything. I think she got rid of them. Killing them is probably a mercy. Thank goodness. [/spoiler]
Oh, genre savvy Rin. If they didn’t find the body, they aren’t dead. Kirei must be alive it seems. The fight btw only happens in the anime. In the novel, Rin and Archer only discuss their chances against Caster while they are confronting her and Archer flat-out reveals her identity and doesn’t respond to Rin’s confidence in beating Caster. Instead he looks up to Shirou (Kuzuki also noticed Shirou a long time before, but chose not to do anything), asks him to not curse him and then joins Caster (Archer can convince her, because as his Master, she can punish him with Command Spells, if he ever betrays her).
I gotta say, that backhand slap of his in the anime looked like it really hurt, though. Kind of refreshing to see changed scenes once in a while. Something that bothers me sometimes, as a VN reader, is that the anime cannot portray the struggle of the POV characters. Rin seemingly looks composed all the time, but it’s often noted how she is very angry or panicked inside. Another example would be the consequences of Shirou’s projection.
Granted, Nasu is just fully using the advantages of using a first-person perspective. Scenes like this one (http://i.imgur.com/IE5bBHV.jpg) when he projects his swords in this episode become much more intense. I’d say trying to adapt that in the anime is too hard.
Btw, Archer’s stats don’t change. Only his Master being Caster changed (http://i.imgur.com/A8vaq7M.jpg).
Back to POVs. Shirou can read Rin’s character pretty well, which is why he insists they go home immediately, as he knows Rin is putting a mask on to act more composed and less emotional, and wants her to let it all out when she is alone in her room. Which is why Rin starts crying when he finally tells her, when she keeps getting worried about his wound, that she must be very hurt, too.
And then came the graveyard scene (in the cemetery where they fought Berserker). Wait, no graveyard? Alright, that was changed. Whatever. What does bother me is the usage of music, which I already thought when the first half aired, was underused. I mean, I’m aware that silence in a scene can be very powerful, but I kind of expected the usage of Ever-Present Feeling in this scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L1DEvzsftw). Meh.
A fan tried adding it in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PSMAsqvBLw
But anyway, that was a great dialogue between the two of them in my opinion and what Shirou says is pretty important, too. Long text incoming (I’ll quote the novel):
[spoiler]
(Rin) “He said I’m not the type to regret my actions, but it seems now’s the critical moment. I’m even more depressed that I’ve made a mistake.”
“…”
…I see.
I don’t understand her too well, but Archer’s right.
Tohsaka isn’t the type to regret her actions.
“That’s just now, right? It’s irritating, but I agree with Archer. There’s nothing for you to regret.”
“Why? Caster is doing whatever she wants, and even Archer lost faith in me. This is because my policy was a mistake, right?”
“It’s just that you were unsuccessful. You haven’t made a mistake. If you haven’t made a mistake, you can be proud of yourself even if you were unsuccessful.”
This line is very important because it’s exactly what he tries to tell Saber in Fate all the time. She did her best, so she doesn’t have to regret anything. Shirou is acting as a support for both heroines by saying this line or something similar in both Fate and UBW.
(Shirou)“… Yeah. To be honest, you’ve always shined.
…I won’t regret my actions either. I believe what I’ve done is right, but it’s full of stitches.”
…I don’t want to regret anything.
I want to make all the tragedies that happened into meaningful things by believing that my path is right.
“But you’re different.
You’re the type that will regret something, then go back and retaliate. I’m deceiving myself with all the patchwork, but you go and completely destroy it with a straight face.
You’re breaking even. You only get depressed once in a while, but what comes after is scary in your case. I think you will go to the one that got you depressed and get them to be even more depressed.”
“…Ugh. What is that, are you trying to finish me off?”
“Yeah, I thought I’d strike while your guard was down.
Well, isn’t that true? I’m sure you don’t intend to give up now.”
The last part, which I find very endearing and sweet, was unfortunately left out. [/spoiler]
Next I wanted to say, I really like the OP. The song, brave shine this time is sung by Aimer, she sang the songs for the Fate/hollow ataraxia OPs that I’ve sent you a while ago. That was definitely a good choice. Not as good as the second FHA OP (hollow world), but still pretty good.
The ED… well, after having listened to so many Kalafina songs, I think this one again sounds too familiar. It’s not bad, I just think I’ve heard something like this before and therefore find it quite boring. Besides, the title ring your bell reminds me too much of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URAqnM1PP5E
This pic here (http://i.imgur.com/fGDupyJ.png) is great though. And this one with Saber (http://i.imgur.com/evCbSB6.png) is kind of a similar to this one (http://i.imgur.com/fYlUD6V.jpg) from FZ. The body lying next on Saber’s right is Mordred, pierced by Saber’s lance, Rhongomynyad.
Btw, there will be a special ED song in a few weeks.
——————————————————————————————————
So I wanted to talk about how the characters are portrayed here and I think additional info from Nasu helps a lot here. Rin for instance is fleshed out very well in the novel (in fact, she has the most screentime in the entire novel, if we exclude Shirou), but both he and director Miura agreed that since VNs and anime are two entirely different media, they had to change things.
Hence changing Rin’s actions slightly (but not her character since it is perfectly fine) a bit in the anime to make it more obvious, since while she appears very unsocial and stand-offish in the novel, it’s harder to understand her true character in the anime, without relying too much on monologues. Same goes to Shirou, who actually isn’t supposed to crack a single smile (which Ayako noticed in ep 4).
While the anime follows Rin and Shirou mostly, just like in the VN, it is still told from a third-person perspective. Instead of monologuing Shirou’s panic and the internal assurance that he’ll die if he jumps out (and then does it anyway), they try to use as many visual expressions as possible. As I’ve said before, it’s more subtle this way and the viewer must interpret more, but for now I think ufotable is doing a good job.
Besides, I think the anime is just another alternate universe (see additional notes), hence some changed events. It still follows UBW, but the adaptation doesn’t outright replace the novel, so it’s still worth a read for people who are interested in the VN. The key lines are still pointed out by Nasu though, he has worked very closely with the staff. That whole Illya vs Rin fight in episode 03 was Nasu’s work, if I remember correctly.
Btw, the interview with Nasu that came with the BD box flat-out denies the existence of the UBW movie (Nasu adds “first time adapted for TV” though). LOL. He also wanted to start with the Fate route, but later on changed his mind. But since it’s not the Saber route this time, he just wanted Saber to visually stand out, as she acts like the Team Mom in this route… sort of. Which I find odd, since at least a few more hints about her painful expressions when she talks to Archer were missing.
Additional notes:
1. Here some official art and gifs:
[spoiler]
http://i.imgur.com/UmMtH3d.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/svZxguz.jpg
Gifs:
OP:
http://i.imgur.com/8bcTXdo.gif
http://i.imgur.com/9lhKhSw.gif
http://i.imgur.com/62o3sKa.gif
http://i.imgur.com/okeB0FV.gif
What’s this with Lancer’s Gae Bolg-laser-guns-pew-pew…?
Rin:
http://i.imgur.com/UC8cX5T.gif
[/spoiler]
2. Speaking of images, the one with Saber in her dress was very often photoshopped and parodied many years ago, because that whole scene was just too gratuitious.
Pics:
[spoiler]
WARNING, NSFW, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
This is from the novel:
http://i.imgur.com/huIoEye.jpg
These are some of the parodies, using CGs and sprites from the novel:
http://i.imgur.com/KsWK5Bu.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2yW54jA.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/aR5JwpS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/o6WRvpp.jpg
My personal favorite:
http://oi41.tinypic.com/w8u6c8.jpg
[/spoiler]
3. You know, I was kind of disappointed and misled when the BD box was released. 80 minutes additional content was what Aniplex advertised – ~8 minutes were from the episodes and 73 for the OST.
I did know publishers sometimes do this, but since they delivered the last time they did this with Fate/ related stuff (FZ to be precise), there was over 60 minutes more animated content (30 minutes from the episodes, 30 minutes Einzbern Consultation Room specials). I kind of expected a Tiger Dojo special this time. Meh.
But hey, the music is finally louder on the BD, I can actually hear something.
4. There actually was a Q&A with Takeuchi and Nasu again, together with the Garden of Avalon short story Nasu wrote for the first BD (this is Merlin btw if I’m not mistaken: http://i.imgur.com/gF5vc2P.jpg) . Here are some highlights:
[spoiler]
Oh, and there were of course English questions, too, namely from members of BL (Mongoose aka Rafflesiac): http://i.imgur.com/cMA0uUP.jpg
And yes, Gilgamesh did sterilize his clothes afterwards.
-The mystery with Berserker’s God Hand in episode 03 is lifted. Archer’s Caladbolg shot killed him, so Berserker died twice that night. They’re just saying stuff like “Well, the anime version of God Hand…” like it’s separate from the VN, which we already figured since Saber was slashing through it and all. So anime version apparently simply works differently than VN.
Another question about God Hand:
(BB is a character from the PSP game Fate/EXTRA CCC)
-Rider was okay blood forting the school because Sakura would only be in a coma cos of her magical energy. Bloodfort is the inside of a gorgon’s eye and the thing up top was Rider’s eye, apparently.
-There also was something about Kojiro, but I forgot what it was.
[/spoiler]
5. I actually wanted to write something about TYPE-MOON’s April fools joke this year, but that would be too much. Just one thing: They did TMitter again. Unfortunately, all accounts are deleted already, I believe.
6. I think Nasu won’t release much in the next weeks/months anymore. He was very hyped, when he talked about Bloodborne (and it’s a damn good game). Damn it. T_T
Well, that’s it for now. Sorry for the text walls, but there was so much to write about. ^_^
Regarding the question about an own route in the Q&A – I messed up with the HTML code – the question was asked by someone who signed with the name “Illya”.
Oh, OK. Now that Prisma Illya remark makes sense now.
I didn’t get a rushed sense (I was hoping for a double-length episode though), but I did note that Shirou set out in the morning, but then it was night when he arrived at the church.
Here’s my question — why’d Rin and Archer head out into the night in the previous episode if Rin was just going to sleep at a picnic table?
*lol* Well, Saber is a hot babe. (But so are the other women.)
And yet they didn’t go home. Now that I think about it, that’s kind of a puzzler as it would seem that retreating to Shirou’s place would be the best course of action for now.
As do I.
I didn’t notice Caster without her headgear when I watched the OP, but there she is in the gif.
If you want to share, I’m all for it. ^_^
That is never a problem, sir. I’m just thankful you have so much awesome info and take the time to share it. ^_^
Well, Rin was looking for Caster the whole day. Actually, in the novel, it was around 7 PM when she woke up. She was sleeping while standing in the cemetery, which is not too far from the church.
My assumption is she wanted to relax for a moment, but then fell asleep, or she just fell asleep while standing and Archer carried her to a better place to sleep. Probably the former.
That is probably because it’s Rin who can’t just go home immediately. She needs to calm down first, after Shirou just broke her mask and made her cry.
[spoiler] Also, “a guy made me cry” could refer to either Archer or Shirou, although she probably means both, which in turn of course is just Shirou again. [/spoiler]
Rin just needs him to listen to her now and while Shirou at first doesn’t understand what Rin is doing and still wants to go home,
“…I’m just talking to myself.”
…I see. I can’t reply if she’s just talking to herself. I’ll keep staring at the night sky.
he sees that this is Rin’s way of letting everything out, so he stays silent. Brilliant people shine more brightly than ordinary ones, is what Archer said, but I guess reaching out to someone while you’re emotionally vulnerable and just talk, even if Shirou genuinely wants to help her, is really hard for someone as brilliant and lonely as Rin, so the best she could come up with for now was “pretending” Shirou wasn’t there.
Basically, it just couldn’t wait until they got home. I imagine Rin was an emotional wreck when she started crying, so she had to do the talk immediately.
While I did say that Rin’s actions are slightly changed in the anime, this scene is almost the same (the only new thing is pushing Shirou and then leaning on his back, they were back-to-back the whole time in the novel). As it’s not narrated by Shirou, keeping the monologue to characterize both Shirou and Rin better probably wouldn’t have worked.
That said, unlike in the novel, UBW’s theme supposedly will only become clear at the end of the whole show, according to Nasu. He was under the impression that he spelled it out to the reader just like that, so as I’ve said earlier, a lot of dialogue (and monologue) was trimmed down and only key lines that Nasu pointed out are kept. Instead, they want to rely more on the advantages of an anime.
Seems like a lot of people have made back-ups for this year. Beast’s Lair member, Crown, gathered the links on his blog, here:
https://junktheeater.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/type-moon-2014-april-fools/
To sum up most tweets, they were full of pop-culture references and they non-stop cracked jokes… ^_^
(But yes, Archer is a superhero: http://i.imgur.com/ared2w2.png
And he hides his identity by using a pair of sunglasses: http://i.imgur.com/shH6nxQ.jpg)
I can’t find the source right now, but I do believe that the final episode will be twice as long again. I think the accidental leak a few months ago, that revealed that episode 12 was 40 minutes long, mentioned that, but I’m not sure.
As always, thanks for the great info. ^_^
Oh, and I just remembered… Caster was obsessed with getting Saber in the Fate route, too. That and her dressing Saber up was also parodied in Carnival Phantasm. ^_^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA9tZXR9mWA
*LOL* While the “look” isn’t as good as ufotable, I’ve got to move Carnival Phantasm up on my list of things to watch. That was pretty funny.
It’s definitely a refreshing series, especially because Fate and Tsukihime franchises are quite dark stories. I like it as much as I like Ufotable’s UBW, although with different parameter. :p
I’ve never watched Tsukihime. It was on the list, but I’m thinking Farray said to not watch it. Maybe I’m wrong there.
I’m disappointed only because this wasn’t a 40-min episode.
Btw, sorry to say this, but there is another Kirei-Kirie mix-up there, in the paragraph below Saber’s pict.
On second thought, considering Kirie’s ability, it sounds funny if that mix-up was on purpose.
I agree. I was looking for one, but I think that the last episode might be 40 minutes. Farray may know.
Ugh. I hate when I do that. I’ll get that fixed.
Archer’s betrayal was more impactful in the TV series than the movie though Ufotable has always been better than Studio deen.
Although I knew what was coming, I did not expect Archer to suddenly slap Rin aside.
As for the connection between Archer and Shirou… I’ll let the anime unravel the mystery.
As to why Archer would betray Rin, the answer is just down to the way he was summoned with incomplete memories. For Rin, Archer’s memories are bleeding through and for Shirou he is obtaining knowledge subconsciously and accelerating his growth, due to the a paradox in time. For Archer due to the paradox in his summoning, his memories is incomplete. Since Caster has more mana than Rin and is directly linked to the Throne of Heroes, he was gambling on the possibility of unlocking his memories (although he has already deduce a large portion of his suspicions) and obtaining free will to act.
Yeah, that was a pretty powerful moment.
Hello again, time to get back to the UBW goodness!
A lot of people were saying that this would’ve made abetter end to the first cour, and I’m inclined to agree. It’s a good episode, but not one to start up a second cour with. And I was also hoping for a double length episode, so I guess we’re all disappointed.
As for the episode premiere, I missed most of Saturday afternoon at Anime Boston because I was staying in my hotel lobby after checking out to use their WiFi to watch the episode and post about it. Then I get to the convention center, hang out in the Volunteer room (since I was a volunteer last year and I know a bunch of the staff and volunteers there, dropping by to say hi), and I find out that Hynes (the convention center) has free WiFi and I could’ve enjoyed myself at con and watched the episode in my downtime there… So sad at myself… Spent some time hanging in Artist Alley grabbing a bunch of Fate prints amongst others and looking up some artists I know for their new stuff and then the karaoke room, where I know one of the staff members, and enjoyed myself there.
As for the episode itself, Farray mentioned most of what I wanted to say. So all I have are some more gifs:
[spoiler]Archer during the “fight”:
https://38.media.tumblr.com/8d94e63dbbe08b4fa2ce683808ddc75c/tumblr_nmaidcVXfY1tgagauo1_500.gif
https://38.media.tumblr.com/6ebfcb479f15ccf6d80d793ed14a8b20/tumblr_nmaqr89KRt1qa94xto2_500.gif
Rule Breaker’d:
https://33.media.tumblr.com/53f606c4b693216692f66dd1de6f77ac/tumblr_nmaj76GW1P1tgagauo1_500.gif
Shirou projecting:
https://31.media.tumblr.com/1440337aa0192984d229503a8b0a788d/tumblr_nmavncW2R81rs5gxyo1_500.gif
Rin tsun:
https://38.media.tumblr.com/4ce53750932d93c2cf72b23abc22119f/tumblr_nmasg16Bkn1tugdt2o5_500.gif
Rin dere:
https://38.media.tumblr.com/a9b8eecff0543276587498ad5e0577cf/tumblr_nmasg16Bkn1tugdt2o8_400.gif
Rin from ED:
https://31.media.tumblr.com/4c9e07f228cbce707daca9411760ba46/tumblr_nmasg16Bkn1tugdt2o2_400.gif
[/spoiler]
Farray already posted the Crying Rin and Lancer Gae Bolg from OP gifs I wanted to post as well…
Thanks for the additional images. ^_^
Which episode Was this From
This is episode 13, if that’s what you are asking.