April 26th, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 16 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 16
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Gilgamesh rips the still beating heart out of Ilya’s chest as Shinji introduced his new servant. Shinji threatens Shirou, who’s emerged from the debris, leading Rin to emerge. Gilgamesh decides to retreat for now, telling Shinji that the other girl will suffice as a vessel. Shinji gets angry when Rin rejects his offer to join them. After Shinji and Gilgamesh leave, Rin and Shirou bury Ilya. Rin doesn’t understand Shirou’s living to help others and not living for himself while still helping people. He recounts how Kiritsugu saved him ten years ago and how he regretted not being able to help the others in that disaster. While Rin may be right, he doesn’t mind living for others.
At an abandoned church, Rin and Shirou discuss Gilgamesh as the eighth Servant. Shirou has managed to determine that Gilgamesh’s Nobel Phantasm is not the weapons he used, but the treasury that stores those weapons, meaning Gilgamesh has a weapon to deal with any Servant due to being the oldest heroic spirit. Their discussion is interrupted by Lancer’s arrival. Rin and Shirou begin bickering over who should run off, leading Rin to threaten Shirou with an attack. This amuses Lancer, who’d come on behalf of his Master to form an alliance in order to take down Caster. After hearing Lancer out, Rin agrees. Shirou reluctantly agrees, but tells Lancer to not get to “close” to Rin, leading her to protest and become flustered. Lancer tells Shirou he’s in for a tough time with her, which he acknowledges to Rin’s irritation.
At Kirei’s church, Archer pays Souichirou a visit where Souichirou opens up a bit about himself and why he helped Caster and that Caster’s true wish is to go home. That night, Lancer, Rin, and Shirou have a strategy session on their forthcoming attack on the church. Lancer is going to take on Archer, but may have to deal with Saber as well. Lancer informs them that Assassin won’t be a problem since he was summoned by Caster and thus cannot leave the Ryuudou Temple. They come to the church where Archer is waiting for them. He’s surprised to see Lancer there and Lancer has a dislike of Archer due to his betrayal. Lancer promises Rin that he won’t kill Archer so that Archer can get on hands and knees and beg Rin’s forgiveness. Rin and Shirou enter the church, where Rin takes a moment to explain how there’s only one pendant, not two. Outside, Archer and Lancer charge each other.
Thoughts/Review:
I got to say that after the heartbreaking, depressing episode last week, it was really good to have lighter moments in this episode, even if Ilya got one final round of abuse.
Well, we may as well get the terrible stuff out of the way first. Ilya was STILL alive when Gilgamesh ripped her heart out. Gah. What a complete an utter bastard he is. I’m actually glad they didn’t have that moment in last week’s episode because that would have been too much for me to handle. (Yeah, I know — these are fictional characters, but even if melodramatic, the writing has been very good so that I care about these fictional characters. And it doesn’t hurt that I love Ilya’s character in the Prisma Ilya series. 😉 )
I’m kinda surprised that Gilgamesh didn’t kill Rin and Shirou. Sure, Rin might have killed Shinji, but Gilgamesh is strong enough to easily blow away both Shirou and Rin without blinking. I can only guess that he still needs Shinji for some reason, and that having Ilya’s heart (the Grail) is ultra important.
The other girl mentioned has to be Sakura. I know she was modified, and she’s the only other girl available. (Taiga and the other girls at school don’t count.) Oh man, PLEASE do NOT frack with Sakura. I don’t think my heart could handle that after what happened to Ilya. But this is Gilgamesh, and he’d do it. *_*
I was glad to see that Rin and Shirou took time to bury Ilya. I wish that there had been three graves instead of one. Surely, the bodies of Sella and Liz were still there and would have required burying too.
Now, onto the lighter moments, which were a welcome relief. I laughed out loud when Shirou engaged in a moment of pure teenage logic by laying down the alliance condition with Lancer that Lancer couldn’t hit on Rin. As far as Shirou is concerned, Rin is his girlfriend and by George, some hunky Servant dude isn’t going to come and steal his first girlfriend. 😆
As to Rin, her reaction to Shirou’s statements just made things funnier. Shirou was pretty much making a public declaration of them being a couple, and so she had to go tsundere just a bit to try to protest this notion of her and Shirou being a couple, even though as Lancer said, they’d been one for a long time.
I loved Lancer in this scene. Man, when he was introduced at the start of this series, he was pretty hardcore in how he tried to kill Shirou, then having discovered he’d failed to do that, he tried to kill Shirou again. Now, he’s a likeable guy who totally understands where Shirou is coming from when it comes to Rin, even to the point of seeing how having Rin as a girlfriend is more important to Shirou than him knowing who Lancer’s Master is.
Further, Lancer helped stir the pot to push Rin’s buttons, which was also a hoot. I don’t remember Lancer being this much fun in the Fate route.
I liked Rin taking a moment to explain her pendant and how there weren’t two of them. This is one of those instances where I understand why she didn’t just spell it out for Shirou. I got the feeling that he understood her message. 🙂
Now to some plot stuff. Why wasn’t Rin more concerned about an eighth Servant? Surely she must know that in all of these Holy Grail Wars, there have only been seven Servants, not eight.
How come she didn’t know about Gilgamesh being from the previous war? Aren’t there records of the Holy Grail War that can be consulted or are those classified? For some reason, I felt that Rin should know more than she does, based on the fact that she’s from a powerful mage family, and her father was in the last war.
Finally, I actually got a bit of a shiver as I recognized the room that Archer went into to talk to Souichirou in Kirei’s church was a set used a few times in the Fate/Zero anime.
Next episode, we get to see Lancer and Archer duke it out. I’d like to see Archer defeated and forced to beg Rin’s forgiveness, but I don’t think that will happen.
Regardless, this was a good episode, lifting some of the heavy darkness from the previous episode so that we can all take a breath, collect ourselves, and move forward to the resolution of this excellent story.
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I’ve always thought that Lancer was a rather likeable and a decent individual in both the Fate and UBW routes. Him trying to kill Shirou was always just business and has nothing to do with his morality. He just gets a lot more screen time in this route.
Outside of his attempts to kill Shirou at the beginning, I had no problems with him in the first series (there is a tragic element to him) and in this episode, Lancer is pretty awesome.
Well, that was a slow episode, but not really surprising. The most important scene Your distortion (or twist, since apparently distortion was mirror-moon’s weird choice of words) had to be shown, as it’s a very important chapter about Shirou.
And now you know what I meant with the jokes that were triggered, haha. Heart-related jokes.
But I agree, this was handled decently. The emotional moments were last episode, so to start with another shocker with dramatic music and everything would have been bad. That’s the decision ufotable had to make. In the VN, it’s a very signifant, very dramatic moment and while DEEN did not adapt Ilya’s death correctly, they nailed the drama in the movie (and it looked a lot like a CG from the VN).
DEEN: http://i.imgur.com/gsxpZiM.gif
But while Gilgamesh is still a bastard, he is toned down again. He ripped Ilya’s heart out with an “ominous” smile, you could say Gil gleefully killed Ilya, in the VN. Also, lines like these are missing:
“So there was an audience. I understand how you want to observe my gallant figure, but… Watch what you say. No one gives orders to a king, you mongrel!!”
Huh, he hasn’t used “mongrel” in the adaptation, yet. Anyway, Gil isn’t that arrogant in the anime. Not sure if that’s good or bad.
This scene felt a lot longer in the VN. Though that’s mostly because all of Shirou’s thoughts were skipped. The funny thing about that scene is that Shirou is completely ignoring Shinji’s rambling while trying to come up how to deal with Gilgamesh. And man, Shinji, stop touching Gil’s clothes. He’s got to wash them every time you touch them. Well, stuff like Shinji accusing Rin to be a murderer (and Rin argues that magi murder, so no big deal) and her giving Shinji a “The reason you suck” speech is also missing, but that’s secondary, so I guess it makes sense to leave that out.
Or the simpler explanation is, Gil’s leaving them alive on a whim. Rin’s threat is no real threat if he acts quickly. He praised Rin’s decision-making to threaten Shinji and not just blow him away while she had the chance and no one was looking.
I guess I never really thought about that, but that is probably because of the translation that I read. Anyway, my response to your theory is a spoiler, so only read it if you want to know.
[spoiler title="UBW and the other girl"] I know Japanese isn’t the easiest language, but “that other girl” is a weird translation, at least to me. Gil is referring to Rin, which is why he leaves her alive and why Shinji suddenly turns around and asks her to team up.[/spoiler]
Lots of stuff is left out in Shirou’s thoughts, but I think this is what Nasu meant, when he talked about “throwing the explanation at the readers’ faces”, like how Shirou lost every emotion in that fire or how Rin knows he’ll live a thankless life if he keeps this kind of mindset. I mentioned it a long time ago, but Shirou views the person before the fire and Emiya Shirou as two different people. He sees it as a rebirth (that’s how the first scene from his POV is named) and that one emotion he felt, when Kiritsugu saved him, was happiness.
[spoiler title="Fate route & Kara no Kyoukai"] “Rebirth” is even more aptly chosen, if one knows that Shirou’s Origin (and then his elemental affinity) was changed into “Sword”, after Kiritsugu sealed Avalon in his body to heal his wounds. Origins cannot be changed, usually. It’s a very philosophical concept.
What leaves Akasha is not the soul, but the Origin. The Origin then gathers particles that share its alignment, thus forming the soul and the body. Basically, the process is like a magnet only attracting ferrous metals, but nothing else. An Origin only attracts particles that share its impulse. You are you because every particle is formed of you.
That impulse however only mildly guides your life (unless you become aware of it, or worse, activate it). Kiritsugu’s origin “Severing & Binding” isn’t “healing” but more like “tries to fix it, but can’t return it to its original state”. He left fixing things to Shirou, who has far more talent in this, because Kiritsugu often only made things worse. That’s also how the origin bullets worked, as Kiritsugu irreparably “fixed” the magus’ magic circuits after cutting them first.
Therefore, an origin change is beyond ridiculous and another reason why Shirou changed dramatically. His reason of existence is completely different after the fire. He tries to live like a sword, a tool.
I should note that this isn’t mentioned in the VN as far as I remember, but knowing Nasu, he probably kept that in mind. Origins play a very important role in Kara no Kyoukai, and the connection between Shirou’s fundamental change and his origin only becomes clear if one has read/watched Kara no Kyoukai and knows how origins work.[/spoiler]
This scene is important, but lots of things will be (hopefully) said again, so leaving a large chunk out is a good decision, especially because I think the conversation is longer on the BD. Rin is referring to Shirou being used to see corpses (from episode 8) in that scene for instance. And this is again a scene that scarcely music. I guess I’m just used to hear music during scenes like this one and I still remember the VN very well, so the lack of music just doesn’t work with me.
Yeah, I was wondering about that too. I don’t think Sella and Liz dissolved or something like that. Berserker was also buried with Ilya in the VN, btw. His body turned into sand when he died.
“Yeah. …The strongest enemy, Ilyasviel and Berserker, are gone, but an unknown foe came out in their place.
There should only be seven Servants, but he makes eight, right? …He’s not a Servant that should exist. How did Shinji make a contract with such a guy?”
Either it’s on the BD or they simply cut that line.
As the supervisors of both Fuyuki and the Grail War, Tokiomi and Kotomine Risei, died in that war, it was left to Kirei to take care of everything like the reports. I’m pretty sure he had no intention to reveal any information that could get him into trouble. The Holy Grail War is of minor concern to the Mage Association, so while there are probably records and reports, details are probably lacking.
Rin knows very little about the Grail Wars in fact and jumps to conclusions, and Kirei must have told her lots of lies (or half-truths). I mean, she had no specific catalyst, yet she thought she could still get a Saber if she just uses large amounts of mana. Yeah…
Was that a church? It reminded me of that house where Shirou, Rin and Saber had their uh… threesome in the Fate route (http://i.imgur.com/tOFN3gf.jpg). CG Dragon and everything, you know? Haha. ^_^ Probably just a coincidence.
Anyway, since Shirou’s thoughts were skipped last episode, the process how he figured out how Gil’s Noble Phantasm works was also left out, but whatever, not that important (just know that he was able to analyze them very quickly). He notes one more thing in this scene in his thoughts, though:
If there is a chance of victory, it is that he is not a master of these weapons.
He is not a “wielder” that has mastered his weapon to the limit, so I think there is still a way to beat him.
Oh, and hey, the left out the “Goldie” (金ピカ, Kinpika) joke. Shirou was wondering the whole time, why Rin calls him Goldie, and she just noticed that he must be really rich (it’s a personal skill of Gil’s), that’s also how she partially figured out his Noble Phantasm (which Shirou finds really scary).
Besides the skill entry (http://i.imgur.com/PjxDorT.jpg), there was also an entry for “Goldie” in a material book, lol.
[spoiler title="side material entry"] Goldie [Other]
A name bestowed upon Gilgamesh by Rin.
Gil’s “golden” reputation doesn’t just come from the armor he wears when fully equipped for battle, but from the fact that even the color of his soul is gold. Also, he’s the richest character in the story.
Accordingly, his compatibility with the notorious wallet-drainer Rin is…
————————————————————THE BEST.————————————————————
…But let’s keep that a secret between you and me, okay?[/spoiler]
Another side note, the biker outfit Gil is wearing is one of his favorite casual clothes.
I’m so glad ufotable adapted that scene. Rin-sama embarassed and angry is probably one of my favorite lighthearted moments in the VN. They also got the faces right, especially Lancer was spot-on (when he at first looked like he got sucker-punched and then his know-it-all face). It’s almost a 1:1 adaptation (http://i.imgur.com/bccEjYE.jpg). It looked weird though, when the camera focused on Shirou, when Lancer admired Rin. I thought he praised Shirou as beautiful and everything, lol.
As you can probably guess, you get Rin relationship points, if you choose this option (I don’t mind (cooperating), but under one condition…). 😉
Now with VN OST:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9RJolk2QrQ
Also, Shirou avoids a Dead End here, again. There are three ways to get it.
[spoiler title="UBW Dead End"]1. Shirou hesitates to go inside the Einzbern Castle. When they arrive, Ilya is already dead and Lancer no longer there.
2. Shirou doesn’t jump out to shout at Gil. You probably noticed it, Lancer was observing the battle. He also knew that Rin and Shirou were also watching. If Shirou doesn’t come out, he’ll see them as cowards and doesn’t have any interest in cooperating.
3. Shirou refuses Lancer’s offer.
If they don’t manage to get Lancer, Rin and Shirou will still confront Caster, but Shirou has to face Archer and Rin fights against Kuzuki and Caster and they both die.[/spoiler]
Oh yeah, this is the route where Lancer shines. In Fate, after fighting Archer and Saber in the first three days, he only appeared at the end, when the final antagonist was revealed, and then he bought Shirou and Saber time to escape and eventually died.
A few more lighthearted moments (when they discussed their plans) were cut though, which give more insight about Lancer’s character. Conversations like these:
[spoiler title="Cut conversation"](Lancer keeps messing with Rin)
Rin: “Hey now, you have your own Master, right? Then you should stay quiet. We’re going to be enemies after we beat Caster, so it does no good to be talking. Anything other than planning is unnecessary.”
Lancer: “What, we can’t talk because we’re going to be enemies? You have less composure than you look like you have, huh? It should be natural for you to drink until dawn with someone that gets along with you, even if he may be your enemy.”
Rin: “… When are you from? All that ‘friends today, foes tomorrow’ business is out of style these days. If we don’t think things all the way through, it’s rude to the other party.”
Lancer: “…Wow. It sure became a boring world.” [/spoiler]
Oh, and some side info from Lancer:
“She won’t let go of the Ryudou Temple…? Does that mean…”
“It’s because that mountain is the summoning place of the Holy Grail. Do you know? This is the fifth Holy Grail War, but there are only four possible places for the Holy Grail to be summoned into. Two of the places are the Ryuudou Temple and the church.
This again makes it look kinda weird, that Rin doesn’t seem to know that.
This scene was anime-original btw. Seems like instead of Archer talking with Caster, they let him talk with Kuzuki. Well, it characterizes Kuzuki better. And that whole “I view good and evil as having equal value” is kind of hilarious, coming from an ethics teacher.
[spoiler title="UBW"]Archer: What do you think is the right thing to do?
Kuzuki: Something that you do not regret, even if you make the wrong choice.
Seriously, these conversations are really funny, especially in hindsight.[/spoiler]
Wow, I also saw a young Caster cameo. That’s new. The only time I remember seeing her with short hair was in Fate/hollow ataraxia (http://i.imgur.com/ejJ4ANg.jpg).
Ah, that room only makes an appearance in Heaven’s Feel in the VN. I was thrilled when I saw it in Fate/Zero.
Yeah, what I always liked was the subtle reveal. No gigantic drama or anything. Those who noticed it will have their own “Aha!”-moment. Btw, Shirou’s headaches keep getting worse the closer he gets to the church.
————————————————————————————————————————————–—
Additional notes:
1. Episode script cover:
http://i.imgur.com/bAm4Kxr.jpg
2. https://twitter.com/hikaruufo/status/591989054540877824
Five minutes were cut again. Geez, they really cut lots of stuff out in the second half, compared to the first half.
3. Speaking of heart-related jokes and surgeries, I guess you know now why GhostStalker kept talking about Dr. Gilgamesh (http://i.imgur.com/yMXCsuu.png). 😉
Well, some jokes are really funny though. This video always makes me laugh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imrC3HWwCDU
Now that I think about it, Prisma Illya 2wei Herz (heart) is a hilarious title.
4. Clever foreshadowing, ufotable. Very clever.
http://i.imgur.com/UK1st28.jpg
5. I’m bashing the translation again, because calling Gil “half-human, half-god” isn’t exactly correct, since Gilgamesh is 2/3 god and 1/3 human (not that mirror-moon did it any better). Just calling him “demigod” would have sufficed.
6. ufotable really outsources great studios. The background (especially the water) looks gorgeous:
http://i.imgur.com/xzQaRBo.jpg
7. Lancer’s personal skills are revealed. Will be sort of important later on and I’ll refer to them occassionally:
http://i.imgur.com/jYUEO77.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Fu2OqtQ.jpg
8. Gifs:
[spoiler title="GIFs"]
Shitji:
http://i.imgur.com/ugMr2Ke.gif
http://i.imgur.com/PhSbQjD.gif
Dr. Gilgamesh:
http://i.imgur.com/UdUf2j8.gif
Shirou cries:
http://i.imgur.com/zNwLG8X.gif
Shirou flashback:
http://i.imgur.com/QtcG9fA.gif
Dat Shirou smile:
http://i.imgur.com/UHQTsOt.gif
Beautiful scenery:
http://i.imgur.com/ukj96AR.gif
Cute Rin:
http://i.imgur.com/Eg125YF.gif
Lancer appears:
http://i.imgur.com/N0HPMdo.gif
Rin-sama embarrassed and angry:
http://i.imgur.com/WASaQdY.gif
http://i.imgur.com/df5egPA.gif
http://i.imgur.com/Fik75YC.gif
http://i.imgur.com/SxAEW3Y.gif
http://i.imgur.com/WRTJfC4.gif
Lancer’s know-it-all face:
http://i.imgur.com/1JwyFOl.gif
Lancer vs Archer:
http://i.imgur.com/DxiAMcn.gif
[/spoiler]
9. UTW caught up with the episodes and they also already released the episodes of the first half (BD quality).
10. Oh, and one last thing I forgot to mention. The Fate route (Fate/stay night Réalta Nua) is available for iOS now. As promised, it’s for free (Japanese only, until someone makes a patch). And no, the Android version is still not out for whatever reason …
http://www.fate-sn.jp/
Seems like the CGs even have a better resolution than the original ones. ^_^
I don’t own any iOS devices so…
Yeah, well, the iOS version already came six months later than planned. ^_^
The last time they tried to release a Fate-related story for iOS and Android (when FZ aired), they were so behind, they just dropped the Android version eventually, lol.
Yup, though I must say that his surgery was a lot more sedate than I’d imagined it would be. If it was more like the DEEN movie, and it was in the last episode, that would’ve been too much for my heart (ha ha) to handle…
Rin sama embarrassed and angry is one of my favorite comedic scenes in the game, and I’m glad ufotable decided to animate that dialogue choice. Perfect touch of levity there.
The gifs that come out of these episodes continue to be great, they should’ve called this anime Unlimited Reactionfaces Works.
Ditto.
*lol*
I think you have a typo in your spoiler there, ANB. it reads:
Unless I’m misunderstanding you, I think you want a don’t there after your caps.
Also, Farray set you straight on who Gil was referring to.
Sweet, grabbing them now. Unfortunately, I need more storage for the BD quality episodes, though.
I added the word “not” there. Man, I hate when I do that. ^_^;;;;
That was completely unclear in the CR release.
I owe many thanks to both you and ANB for all the little extra details that I wouldn’t have noticed, or context that’s either missing or too subtle for me. I know the producers have to prioritize (length, cost, time, story value, etc) as well as pick and choose… but sometimes I wish they didn’t lean so heavily toward “They’re all otaku of this series, so they’ll fill in any scenes that are missing. And of course they’ll understand the meaning of the red coat she wears for 1.5 seconds in episode 5.”
I would rather that they lean toward subtlety, because a lot of the time tiny details are enough, and I appreciate the implied compliment to the viewers’ intelligence. I simply can’t watch American TV any more because most of it leans so heavily in the opposite direction. (Ok, it’s less “leaning” and more like being sat on by a sumo wrestler.) But extremes in both directions are problematic.
I.e. while many anime fans (like you guys) are smart enough to intuit “Ha! If Kimiko is wearing a red coat, she just returned from Parco where she bought a chain saw to dispose of Yuuji’s body after she poisons him with Ex-Lax because he’s cheating with his childhood friend Chise who’s secretly Kimiko’s sister! (all of which happened in the LN, but none of which has been introduced or even hinted at on-screen)”, I’m not one of them. (^_~)
Sorry about the tangent… going back to the point: Thank you very much. (^_^) *bows*
Both make good sense, alone or together. I could easily be misremembering (middle age does that), but I think I recall him speechifying in Zero that as a king, it befits him to be magnanimous (some might say patronizing). Left unspoken was that it’s only when the whim strikes him and he sees no real threat.
My impression for a third possible motive to add: Gil takes perverse pleasure in playing with Shinji (like a cat with a mouse) so subtly that he never recognizes it. I wish I could recall details of when and why, but I’ve had this feeling at least once before.
Back to the initial rant – this is one of many things I wouldn’t have picked up. Thank you again, because it makes Shirou seem much less like an idiot who can’t tell the difference between having principles and being obstinate.
Always a pleasure to help. That’s why I’m doing this. 🙂
The problem with adapting Light/Visual Novels, which are often written from a single POV, is that so much information could get lost and you just can’t fill the episodes with monologues in an anime. I feel that for now ufotable does a decent job, but it’s interesting to know that people, who haven’t read the novel, think some things might be too subtle.
The problem with Shirou is that he often says/does things, when he is actually thinking the opposite. He often opposes Archer’s views, but in truth he actually agrees with Archer, and that pisses him off. He knows when a situation is life-threatening, but despite this he still jumps out to help people, which just shows what a twisted mind he has.
He usually values honesty (that’s why he is very clear about his relationship with Rin, and since she is not so honest, he often teases her), but at the same time he denies the truth about himself.
Shirou gives off the vibe of a typical protagonist from a shounen manga – who just wants to become a hero (a superhero/champion of justice to be more precise) – but perhaps it helps you, if I tell you that FSN attempts to deconstruct all of this. Shirou wants to act selfless, but everyone tells him that this attitude isn’t healthy, and moreover, it’s self-serving selflessness. Archer even called him a hypocrite in episode 7.
For now, it looks like Shirou acts like this because of survivor’s guilt, but this will be explained and resolved in a few weeks. I have faith in ufotable, that they can successfully deliver the message and that we will get a satisfying Answer in the anime.
Yeah, Gil left a Master alive, who no longer was a threat (with no Command Spells), and more importantly, to respect the last wishes of a worthy opponent. He often encourages people to just do whatever they think is right and follow their own beliefs, especially if it serves his own entertainment.
Ah, you’re right about that. Shinji is supposedly Gil’s Master, but it doesn’t seem like Shinji has any actual authority over him. Gil just does what he wants and for the lulz, and Shinji follows him around. That’s why Rin called Shinji a flunky.
Unfortunately, that is a pretty common trait in a lot of anime adaptations, most especially movie adaptations. Things get cut, but the audience is just supposed to fill in the blanks from the source material.
Yes, I do. I’m glad ufotable didn’t go the DEEN route to add insult to injury.
*lol* You know, I kept expecting Gilgamesh to have a negative reaction to Shinji touching him, but it never came.
Figures.
I presume it wasn’t the Crunchyroll version then?
Regardless, the quote I read was, “That other girl will be a satisfactory vessel,” which is what lead me to believe what I did.
However, having read your spoiler, what transpires next with Shinji and Gilgamesh makes a heck of a lot more sense now.
Hmmmm…interesting. I thought Servants turned into a kind of energy and just disappeared.
I would think that would be an important line to keep in, but maybe not.
Interesting, since they sent two people to fight in the war.
I hadn’t considered that, but that makes sense.
Some of the architecture from the image you shared and this building is the same. And it is ruined. The cross on the roof as well as its general structure makes it look like a church.
http://anime.astronerdboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/xx-church.jpg
I didn’t remark on that, but this scene in the episode further helps Caster in the sympathy route.
They are already in the church.
That’s so wrong. *lol*
Yeah, the visuals all the way around have been quite good.
Oh yeah, I forgot about them. I’ve just been doing CR just because.
Anyway, thanks as always for the great stuff. ^_^
That appears to be the case for Berserker in the Fate route (and in general for everyone else), so I was wondering why he turned into sand in UBW.
I don’t know if it’s normal for Servants, but the black giant turned into sand. But we put the sand in the same coffin as the girl.
Hm… Atlam probably voluntarily participated in the Grail War for glory, like Kayneth and Waver.
[spoiler title="hollow ataraxia"]If I remember correctly, Kirei was the one who asked Bazett to participate in the 5th War (and then got rid of her, since he didn’t want outsiders to find out the true nature of the Grail).
The two of them – as Executor and Enforcer respectively – who had similar jobs and sometimes worked together, were acquintances. Since Kirei was one of the few people Bazett talked to privately, she trusted him.
Oh, then there was also that guy from the Association, who worked for an enemy faction of Bazett’s, which is why Bazett killed him. So there were basically three (four, if Kirei still counted as a member of both the Church and the Association) people who belonged to the Association and went to Fuyuki.[/spoiler]
The Association (like the Church) just makes sure magic doesn’t become public. They don’t even pay for the collateral damage, they send the bills to the Einzberns, lol.
It’s gonna eventually show in the anime, when more mechanics of the Grail War are revealed. Tokiomi’s untimely death was another reason why Rin didn’t know very much about the Holy Grail War.
How embarassing, I didn’t notice the cross. ^_^
But since I’m not the only one who thinks it’s that building from the Fate route (and it’s the only other building in the Einzbern forest), it really could be another nod ufotable added.
Yeah, I agree. I also saw it as characterizing Kuzuki and his relationship with Caster more. I think they wanted to imply that Kuzuki understood Caster that well, because he saw bits of her past (in his dreams).
Oh yeah, the headaches are even worse now. You’ll see (in two episodes I think).
Maybe I’m thinking too much, but now I’m wondering if it’s ok to make it look like a ruined church, considering what those three did in the original game..
Well, there’s ugliness going on in Kirei’s church right now. And there’s other kinds of ugliness that happened there. So 3P action in an abandoned church doesn’t seem too far fetched in terms of the Fate/stay night story/stories.
I really hope ufotable adopts the Fate/hollow ataraxia series.
Ah, yeah, CR’s (Aniplex’s) translation sometimes is just confusing. ^_^
Well, the blu-ray release of the first half only has around 7 minutes of additional scenes (Rin and Archer talking about Reality Marbles in the Prologue and Rin fixing Shirou’s window iirc), so I will probably only rewatch it, once the second half has been released.
I feel like, much like mangas, animes just work so much better when you marathon them.
Thanks for the information on the BD version. ^_^
Yeah Lancer is pretty fun, his problems mostly stem from incredibly bad luck (something Lancers in general are known for) and having a shitty Master. Funny thing is, his wish to be Rin’s Servant is actually fulfilled in the Fate/Extra game. He is having a blast there messing with Rin.
The Tsun scene was really perfectly done, taken pretty much word-for-word from the visual novel. In the game you actually have three choices if I remember right. Accept, Decline and Accept under condition. I’m super happy they picked this one XD
I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you maybe watch Carnival Phantasm series? It’s essentially a wild and wacky parody with Type Moon characters. Light-hearted and completely insane. After UBW is done you might give it a try, it should flush out all the darkness and drama. If you want a taste check “carnival phantasm holy grail war” on youtube. Short but should give you the idea of what you are getting into.
You know, it’s also funny that in the original Fate/stay night, now known as Fate/Prototype, the Rin-like character was teamed up with Lancer and Lancer would later also team up with the protagonist. It’s kind of fun to spot all the references and ideas in the episodes.
[spoiler title="Fate route"]Like Lancer mentioning in this episode that he and Gil wouldn’t get along, which was the reason why he betrayed Kirei and attacked Gil in Fate, haha.[/spoiler]
Some people, including me, already recommended it to Astro. It went up his list, but I think he is too busy at the moment to start another series (and it’s also more fun the more he knows about Tsukihime and FSN). ^_^
Yeah, I do want to watch Carnival Phantasm. I have it on standby. 🙂
While I remember, if you haven’t already, you may also want to check the manga “Take Moon” and “All Around Type-Moon – Ahnenerbe no Nichijou”. Some stories in Carnival Phantasm are from Take Moon btw.
Yeah, I’ll have to add that to the list. 🙂
I’ve seen a few clips from what Farray has shared. It is on my list for sure because what little I’ve seen has been hilarious.
I agree with you regarding the first scene of this episode, but it still hurts seeing Illya in the opening.
About that “abandoned church”, is that the place where “Saber’s mana got replenished” in Fate route?
Oh good, I wasn’t the only one who thought it was that place from the Fate route (see my comment above). 🙂
Well trust you to go on a rampage about the episode.
Well I was watching some Studio Deen Scene and comparing it to Ufotable… and honestly… Ufotable is beating Deen in every way possible in terms of characterization and they way they interpret them and portraying them and dramatic representation… like you get more boom and impact from watching it than a dull deadbeat episode where you wish for it to end already.
Gil pulling Illya heart out lacked dramatic impact in the movie… and gave people the ‘oh… well that happened’ reaction which may be more accurate to the original source whilst Ufotable made a ‘GOD DAMN YOU GIL, HOW CRUEL CAN YOU BE!?’ reaction which works better.
[spoiler title="Gilgamesh in other Fate stories"]I dunno having seen Gil in Fate Extra CCC, Fate Zero and Illya Prisma… I feel Ufotable has kept some of Gil’s human elements which is nice… like he can be a kind and merciful king and shows more lighter side of him that you dont normally see.[/spoiler]
I know your a fan boy of the original material and would like for them to keep to it… but the thing is… there is a limit to what you can adapt from the original source.
I mean there this:
Shirou, Saber and Rin vs Caster and Kuzuki
Studio Deen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5QmDjGtt1U
Ufotable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0plnjolg53A
Gil kills Illya
Studio Deen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcpSVzMMhw8
Ufotable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyXAjGf5xoc
Episode 1 comparison (Archer vs Lancer, Archer summoning, Saber summoning, Saber vs Lancer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHDQLpyS7c4
There is a serious limit to story writing and development of a VN (Game Designer and Story Writer who has tried it during University as a project) even if the story is great, there can be serious flaws in the plot or the visualization of the story.
Like I do a script which is all text, the storyboard depicts them as scenes like the illustrations in a VN or Manga, if it taken further to be developed into gameplay where people can navigate in the world or animation… then it can be heavily changed. Someone might make an accurate adaption. Someone might make a terrible adaption… someone may even produce something surpassing the original.
But yeah I should get my hands on the VN and go through it… will be interesting… as for adaption… Ufotable is doing an amazing job of it. Obviously it better for people to praise the show than to slag it off like they did with Studio Deen. I mean when I watched Deen’s adaption I never got the interest to invest on the series. Fate Extra got me into the series and learnt more about it and Ufotable has just ignited a flame inside me to really go and support it. i mean FSN UBW has been propelled to the top anime favourite of 2014 and 2015 on my list and among top 10 in my personal list.
Something that I hate happening to a really good series like Sword Art Online which is filled with over the top Fan Services and created a fair amount of hate among anime only viewers.
First, blockquotes. You’re responding to the wrong comment and I had trouble figuring out to what part you keep referring, so please use it. blockquote & /blockquote in chevrons. It’s not that hard.
And again, I think full comparisons between a 100 minutes movie and a complete anime series, whose first two episodes are already as long as the movie, are… pointless and dumb. Even trying to compare characterization is absolutely unfair.
What I meant with drama is that with the limited resources DEEN had, they decided to go with the dramatic kill when Gil ripped out Ilya’s heart, which, in certain aspects to the novel, was the more faithful part. It’s a side note I thought was interesting.
Um, I thought I cleared that up a few weeks ago. Pointing out differences is to help Astro and others (like arimareiji) appreciate some scenes more and fill in possible gaps. It’s not automatic criticism.
You don’t need to keep telling me that an adaptation must change things. I already say that in every weekly review. Read any of my older comments again, and you should notice something. For example:
I don’t want them to stay too close to the source material and I agree with quite a lot of decisions ufotable made, I thought that was obvious.
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]
First, spoilers. PLEASE TAG THEM.
One can see Gil’s better side in this adaptation occasionally and that is usually not bad as it’s less one-sided. It’s just not good either in certain aspects, because it’s contradictory to his actual actions.
Also,
[spoiler title="EXTRA CCC"]I’m not sure, if you remember Gil in CCC correctly. Hakuno is forced to use three Command Spells right at the beginning so Gil doesn’t murder him/her immediately. CCC Gil is less reasonable than FSN-Gil when it comes to interaction with other people. [/spoiler]
Yeah I was typing off my Ipad. But yeah… When I read your comment which at times is very helpful but at times, the tone is really bad… like your slagging off Ufotable for thier efforts and cannot appreciate them for what they did. Which I know isn’t your intention but it seriously does sound like a ‘Ufotable can go ef themselves and die because they can’t keep to the original material’ type of tone if you know what I mean.
To be honest… unless your talking about the plot itself… there is no need to spoiler tag it…
It one thing to mention that Gil has a better side and another thing to say ‘Oh Gil has a better side because in this adaption he does that and this adaption he does this.’
I mean we already seen his merciful side for letting Rin and Shirou off and Shirou even said, he is the King of Uruk, the progenitor of Heroes and bares all of the noble phantasms that would later become their legends, he is no more stronger than Berserker, but his strongest asset is his vast collection of weapons that can counter their weakness.
Why spoiler tag something that was already mentioned? As people say on forums that discuss and review an episode, it is their fault for reading the comment section before watching the episode.
Your just coming off as VERY OCD on Spoiler and quoting and not everyone knows how to blockqoute, this ISN’T a Forum after all. Unlike a forum it’s not designed to have buttons to auto generate the appropriate tags.
Astro has edited comments before, if he not spoiler editing my comments then what I said is not considered spoiler. If you want full control, start up your own blog or moderate your own forum, otherwise GET OFF MY BACK >.> GhostStalker in the comment below is spoiling the next episode and you not throwing a sissy fit.
Just to throw my 2-cents in, I’ve never thought Farray was slagging off ufotable at all. If anything, he’s been quite verbose with his praise of them, especially in light of the DEEN adaptation.
For me, the stuff Farray says is to fill in the gaps that ufotable couldn’t put into the anime adaptation, thus making the picture clearer. Folks who’ve played the visual novel already know all this stuff. Folks like me who haven’t need some of this extra info to help out. ^_^
Just in case you missed it, I do have the HTML code for blockquote and the WordPress plugin code for spoilers at the top of the comment block. I wish the comments did have buttons to make things easier for people to blockquote and such.
Oh and i’m bring in the ENTIRE Studio Deen Adaption and Comparing it to Ufotable and you just happen to ignore their example. It seems your obsessively defendant of Studio Deen because they stuck to the original source.
There are plenty of identical scenes in both Original FSN, UBW Movie by Deen that are in Ufotable UBW and ironically u still won’t acknowledge that Ufotable has done the better take on the exact same scenes.
The Shirou vs Kazuki fight in 2006 was an identical in Ufotable 2014 take and honestly, the impact of the fight was no where near as epic or as rememberable as what Ufotable achieved.
Even Archer’s summoning was the same but Deen’s felt bland and boring whilst Ufotable had the right music, atmosphere and build up to the summoning.
Lancer and Archer’s fight as well, Ufotable surpassed them in representing their first fight with one another.
Even Rider didnt feel as fast or seemed all that strong and impressive in the 2006 + 2010 version.
Shirou was also incredibly sexist, always being a ‘No, no, let me handle this saber, just stand back and watch.’ despite being half dead… (Although he did that with Rin in this episode, it was very i am her Boyfriend reason which felt more justified and somewhat romantic in a he is an embarrassing idiot way).
Whilst in Ufotable you actually feel for him and get the sense that something isn’t right and that the fourth war has seriously scarred him for life which Ufotable showed in the final ep of Fate Zero and hinted in his actions and way the other characters perceive him.
I know you obviously enjoy the series but some of your comments are coming out rather anti-Ufotable in my opinion and very overly defendant for Studio Deen which didnt really succeed in building a major fandom.
Again with my 2-cents, I haven’t seen him being anti-ufotable. I have seen him be anti-Deen. ^_^;
I want to point out that the following is written on this blog:
edit: I tried to only co-pas from what’s written, but it came out weird..
About your disagreement with Farray, I can only say that I saw Farray as trying to be objective by pointing the good and bad of Ufotable’s adaptation. If anything, I think he’s pretty much satisfied with this adaptation.
Yeah, when it comes to quoting HTML, one has to use the ASCII HTML logic (entries) to force things to display correctly.
That is like the complete opposite of what I’m doing. Point out where I am oozing with negativity because I’m not seeing it.
I am not looking at this adaptation through rose-tinted glasses like a hyped fanboy, but I’m not an obsessed “primary” either. Stop jumping the gun and mistake me for that guy GhostStalker complained about a few weeks ago.
Judging from the other comments here, you’re the only one here who really thinks that.
I even highlighted the part that needed to be spoiler tagged.
In case you didn’t notice:
[spoiler]You just blatantly mentioned that Gil appears in Prisma Illya, which is something Astro does not know and isn’t supposed to know yet. He hasn’t read the manga.
This is Astro’s blog. So you take into consideration what Astro has seen and hasn’t seen. He reads every comment here, so be considerate enough to tag correctly.
GhostStalker is giving away the title of the next chapter. That is equal to me giving you the title of the next episode. [/spoiler]
That’s funny and ironic. The reason DEEN is constantly bashed by people like me is because they didn’t actually stuck to the original source, and the reason ufotable is considered far better by VN readers is because ufotable actually does the opposite and is more faithful to the source than many other studios.
But to quote a friend of mine, who once delivered an “Unlimited Rage Works” review about the movie:
The few good moments can’t save the movie. Shit is still shit, no matter how well you dress it up.
I pointed out one (!) good moment DEEN did, the rest is unsurprisingly completely inaccurate and wrong. Astro can sing a song about me cutting up DEEN every chance I get.
That’s also funny, because that is blatantly wrong on every account of how you interpret what I’m actually saying. I did acknowledge that, and I advise you to read my comments again, because I applauded ufotable’s decision for not making the heartrip scene in this episode not too dramatic, since they already put in the drama and the emotional hits last episode.
Just because I think DEEN did something well for a change, doesn’t mean I liked it more than ufotable.
And about all your examples, I again suggest you read my comments better.
I bashed DEEN’s fight with Kuzuki from the beginning, because it had no place in a Fate route adaptation and made the anime a joke, as the Caster arc introduced us to the infamous Latex-Sakura. The whole Caster arc was badly done and I criticized them heavily for that in the past.
At the same time, I praised ufotable for its accuracy and Fukasawa’s OST, like when Archer was summoned. You can read it on Astro’s review of episode 0.
Interesting to note here, while DEEN did not do its job well, it did its job. It helped a lot in promoting Type-Moon, so you are actually wrong on that account.
Animes promote the source, be it a manga, a novel or a game and that is exactly what the anime did – it boosted the sales of the PS2 port of FSN, which was released shortly after the anime finished airing.
Finding flaws in an adaptation doesn’t mean I’m anti-ufotable. I don’t even know how you got that impression of me because my praises far outweigh my complaints.
To not cause misunderstandings again:
You’re the only one who thinks that I, me, really think that ‘Ufotable can go ef themselves and die because they can’t keep to the original material’.
My apologies if I am guessing wrong: Is it possible that machine translation is causing a misunderstanding? I know that has happened before with Seimei, so I thought it might be happening here.
If you are using machine translation, either partly or completely, please think about Hanlon’s razor when you read comments. If someone appears to be saying something illogical or malicious, it is MUCH more likely that the reason is a misunderstanding because of a mistranslation.
Even if machine translation is not the problem, it would still be wise to assume the best when reading comments. The people you are talking to are good people, and I am sure they are neither illogical nor malicious. (If nothing else, the fact that they are responding without malice to your comments should help demonstrate that. I do not think that you want your comments to be hostile and patronizing, but that is how they appear.)
SAO has been on my list, but I hear such mixed things about it that it hasn’t moved in my list.
@astro Yeah I noticed that the code do pop up when u type comments on mobile but not on desktop and ipad.
But yeah I agree that farray does fill in some important info which I do appreciate, but the way I read his comment seems pretty harsh and critical in my headed and it kinda ticks me off in some of his personal replies to my comments (I apologise for the rage btw)
In regards to sao the reverse is likely to happen since I’ll most likely be acting in the same way as farray (I guess this is where the saying similar personality clashes and u can’t get along comes into play).
Sao is a decent series but unless you can analyse and understand the moral of the story (which the anime is very subtle about), all you will find is harem and fancy fight animation scenes.
Sadly, other than character recognition, my only other knowledge of SAO is the hentai chapter the author wrote when he was publishing the story online, prior to it getting picked up and printed. (I only know about that chapter because people were talking about it in some forum or something, so I decided to read for myself. ^_^;;; )
Ah the all famous chapter 16.5
Kawahara Sensei has added more material with one scene being a toothbrushing argument between Kirito and Asuna.
But yeah the novel is great, specifically the final arc which, if it happens, will be portrayed in season 3, but you never know if A-1 will water down the anime with Fan services, Harem and etc.
I’d like to read the novels, but I’m so finicky about how I want my adaptations to be. (Translation: I want Japanese honorifics to be retained.) Thus far, it seems that for light novels, publishers are going back to the early 90’s for their adaptation practices, so I won’t support that.
One of the reasons I skipped the OP. (Time being the other reason.)
It kinda looks like it.
Also, Lance of Sure Hit, Shield of No Loss next week. Can’t wait! Why can’t it be next Friday already (Avengers: Age of Ultron hits then, so I don’t want to miss that as well)?
I’ll be catching Avengers 2 later next week. I’m looking forward to it.
Brolancer to the rescue. In UBW route, I gotta say he’s by far, my favorite character. X) And next week we get the long awaited rematch between him and Archer, not to mention Rin and Shirou vs Caster and Kuzuki. That makes two rematches… Of course, there’s also Saber to add in the mix, so who knows how things will play out in the end? It’s well worth the wait!
*lol*
Very true.
Seems to me like Rin wouldn’t know about Gilgamesh because Kirei would have gone over her father’s files on the previous Grail war before letting her see them. It’d make sense for Kirei to erase anything on his trump card, Gil.
What struck me as odder was that Rin and Shirou were having a back and forth conversation about Gilgamesh identity and noble phantasm’s power after seeing it just once. I could see Rin knowing enough to recognize him and that noble phantasm. But Shirou hasn’t trained all his life memorizing countless legends so that he can have a shot at recognizing a servant in this war. That said, I suppose it’s possible he used Structural Grasping to get additional clues that helped him figure out Gilgamesh’s identity and noble phantasm.
Shinji blurts out Gilgamesh’s name, after both Shirou and Rin refuse him. That’s how they know it’s Gilgamesh.
As for Shirou deducing the Noble Phantasm, he achknowledges the weapons as real Noble Phantasms. You are on the right track with Shirou structurally grasping them. An explanation wasn’t given yet in the anime, but you’ll get the answer very soon.
Yeah, that’s true.