June 28th, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 25 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 25
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Two years after the Holy Grail War, Shirou and Rin live together in London, where both attend classes at the Mages Association’s Clock Tower location. After Shirou makes breakfast, the two are in the hall of the school and chatting when classmate and fellow resident of their apartment building, Luvia, comes up. Rin is highly displeased with Luvia fawning for her man, so Rin decides that their next class will be a defense class. She and Luvia battle in the school’s area for this. After the fight, a bandaged Rin lays on Shirou’s lap in the library and demands to know how Shirou met Luvia in the first place. During their chat, Rin asks Shirou what his decision is regarding the official invitation he received to join the Mages Association, which he hasn’t made yet.
The following day, Rin takes Shirou on a bus trip to Glastonbury, so Shirou can say goodbye to Saber at the grave of King Arthur. After Shirou says his words, he and Rin have a picnic on the grounds and chat about things, including the Holy Grail War and Saber. That evening on the bus trip home, Rin sleeps with her head on Shirou’s shoulder as he recalls the time at the end of his second year in high school when Rin let Issei know in her own special way that she and Shirou were a couple, irritating Issei. Shirou recalls talking with Rin, where they made their plans to come to London and the Mages Association’s school at Clock Tower. Back in the present, Shirou thanks the sleeping Rin for bringing him here.
Shirou has his appointment with the Mages Association about joining. After leaving, he is stopped by Lord El-Melloi II, who asks him about his reasons for coming to Clock Tower after participating in the Holy Grail War. Shirou comes home to find Rin waiting for him. She asks if he accepted the invitation to join the Mages Association, but as she expected, he turned them down. Shirou is surprised that she doesn’t get angry by this and says that he’s probably on Archer’s path. Rin agrees, but says that this time, he might go further down that path. Either way, Rin will be coming with Shirou after their three years at school are up and they will have their own “happily ever after” ending.
Thoughts/Review:
I wanted an aftermath episode, but instead, what I got was a tease for a series I’d LOVE to see created as a sequel. 😉
I was surprised that the epilogue episode jumped ahead two years in time, but I have to say, I loved it. I loved how Shirou and Rin are living together in a small, London apartment and attending college together. Apparently, they are a happy couple.
With that in mind, is it any wonder that Rin stole this episode? For once, she was not tsundere at all, but instead acted like a normal girl who loves her man dearly, enough to follow him all over the world.
Seriously, while Saber has always been my favorite girl of the franchise, Rin, whom I’ve always like, really made me sit up and go, “Well, you know, she’s really is a pretty darn good choice once she drops the tsundere thing.” She really really shined in this episode.
The only odd thing about their relationship is that they still address each other by their family names…well, mostly. Shirou always addressed Rin as “Tohsaka” and Rin mostly addressed Shirou as “Emiya-kun,” though on their picnic to Glastonbury, she did call him Shirou.
I hate to say it, but when Rin took Shirou to Glastonbury, I was kinda hoping that Saber would show up, even if just in a form only Shirou could see.
Anyway, during the flashback to where we could see Rin and Shirou a month after the Holy Grail War, I laughed at how Rin let Issei know that she and Shirou were dating. Again, she dropped the tsundere thing, and was just open with her affections for Shirou, while at the same time, driving Issei nuts since he doesn’t like Rin.
Also in the flashback, we got to see Sakura visiting that bastard, Shinji. Yes, he’s her brother, but man. I did like that dirty look she gave him when he initially gave her attitude about being fed cutely cut apple pieces.
We got an extended cameo from Lord El-Melloi II, otherwise known as Waver Velvet. I wouldn’t have known him as Lord El-Melloi II except that he has a small role in the Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya (and the connection to Waver was explained to me).
Speaking of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, ufotable seemed to be giving a shout out to the series by introducing Luvia to the mix in this episode. Her appearance was completely unexpected, but totally welcome. In fact, I may have made an audible noise when she showed up and Rin attempted to punch her.
Luvia looked MUCH better in this episode than in the Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya franchise. There, she has more of a cliched, haughty, ojousama look. Here, she has her ojousama look, down to the blonde cone curled hair and speech patterns, but she didn’t have the same cliched look to her, which makes her more attractive to me.
And then there was the battle between Luvia and Rin. Those exercise outfits! 😀
We got to see some of their fight animated, showing how impressive both girls are. However, when the fight went off screen, hearing Luvia insult Rin as “Miss Gorilla” made me laugh out loud. Their rivalry in Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya is mostly fun (sometimes it was tedious), but here, the rivalry was just deliciously awesome.
Because of all this, I really wish ufotable would work with Nasu-sensei to develop a sequel to the UBW route, where we get to see Rin and Shirou at school, at home, at play, and of course, Rin vs. Luvia. Also in that mix, you could have some magic-related thing that needs solving, where we could see Rin and Shirou work as a team in battle. I really think this needs to happen.
I’ll see if I can find some time to write a “final thoughts” review of the series. In the meantime, this episode was an excellent way to end the Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works series. I’m looking forward to seeing the Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel movie (I hope that’s “movies” so that it is better adapted), whenever that gets released.
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I also want to see a form of small continuation to UBW, with all you mentioned plus showing more of Shirou walking the path to Archer. or something among those lines.
Oh, absolutely. That would be totally awesome, especially if this time, Shirou’s path does take him further, as Rin mentioned.
I completely agree I want to see a small continuation and want them to stop making different routes based off the one event. If they do go into the future I hope it’s a UBW continuation as Rin is my favourite character and I think her and Shirou are cute together.
I haven’t looked, but I suppose there is some canon material that states what happened to Rin and Shirou later on in this route. Still, that would be interesting to see animated.
http://chng.it/hTqFp7Gw2W
The link appears to go to a change.org petition.
yep me to
A lot of people think that ufotable including Luvia was more of a nod to Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, the fan disc sequel to Fate/stay night, and are now clamoring for an adaptation of that from ufotable once they finish doing the Heaven’s Feel movies.
As for the fight between Rin and Luvia, that’s pretty much a callback to the Type-Moon April Fool’s Day joke a couple year back, where they re-imagined the Fate franchise as a wrestling promotion. Rin and Luvia continue to be rivals there, and I think it’s here that Luvia’s love for German Suplex’ing people (even though she’s Finnish) came from (there’s also that pixiv meme of people drawing characters German Suplex’ing each other which might’ve contributed to it).
I dunno if Prisma Ilya explains the rivalry between the Tohsaka and Eldefelt families, though I’d be happy to explain it.
That scene with Shirou at King Arthur’s grave at Glastonbury was great, and it just reminded me of this pic:
http://i.imgur.com/d2GKeKe.jpg
Also, the script cover of this week’s episode:
http://i.imgur.com/hxjvq1S.jpg
You go, Rin!
Honestly, what more needs to be said? The epilogue was great, and the cameo by Waver was absolutely amazing. The collection of reaction faces by Rin were perfect as well, especially when Luvia shows up and tries to be friendly with “Sherou”.
I would approve of that. Farray has mentioned that a few times.
Ah. That’s interesting. I figured it was the Illya series since Luvia plays such a big role.
I’m pretty sure Farray probably mentioned something about it, though my memory is like a sieve and I don’t always read spoiler tagged stuff.
Absolutely! 😆
Oh my gosh that Glastonbury picture killed me!
That Epilogue was not what I expected but still a beautiful and touching ending with Shirou striving towards his dream of becoming a Hero and following in Archer’s footsteps.
Waver and Luvia makes an appearance and regarding future adaption… I believe Ufotable are doing a ‘Let’s wait and see how this plays out’ game… if UBW and the HF movie are successful then they will consider more adaptation.
Hopefully, things work out more than well enough to encourage them to continue. I’d be all over any adaptation that ufotable makes!
http://chng.it/hTqFp7Gw2W
The link appears to go to a change.org petition.
Rin was always my favourite girl.
How many years did Shirou and Rin spend together before he would walk off to become Archer?
That I don’t know. Sadly, Farray hasn’t been around in ages, so I don’t know if he knows that answer or not.
“Walking with the wind blowing in your face.
Walking towards the future.
Busy days with no compass to guide you.
After travelling to distant exotic countries…
You will return to where you belong, one sunny day”
-the closing text of UBW route True End, “Brilliant Years”
I want him to meet Hakuno… Female version of course.
Thanks for that. 🙂
This was a rather good Final Episode. Wasn’t expecting much since the action was supposedly over, but I simply LOVE the kind of character Luvia is, the archetype, everything, really. Seeing her appearing all of a sudden was awesome, like a surprise party or something. xD
Anyways, UFOtable being awesome as always.
Now to get ready, as the final (and my favorite) route is coming… X)
True. And for me, her portrayal here was much better than in Prisma Illya.
(Commenting a month late because I finished it late.).
I actually kind of hated part 2 until this episode honestly. I think the reason was that I knew almost exactly what was gonna happen and it just dragged, it felt so slow compared to part 1! Especially Shirou v. Archer I thought was way too long (great, but almost tl:dw.) Plus I really hoped they were going to take creative liberties and kill Shinji (^________^)
Oh well, this episode was great and I agree they should do a sequel in the clock tower. If they announced that, I would instantly orgasm.
Also I might watch Prisma Illya now, but I need convincing. It looked too much like loli-bait to me, and I’m not exactly into that, maybe I’m completely stupid though IDK. Is it worth my time as a fate fan to watch or not?
No problems. 🙂
😆 I hear ya. 😀
The first series starts as a kind of parody of the mahou shoujo genre using Fate/stay night characters, with a side of Cardcaptor Sakura. The first series is basically laying the groundwork for the second series, 2wei. 2wei kicks up the loli ecchi content because this is where Kuro gets introduced, but with episode 8, things shifted to a new, more interesting level, setting up 2wei Herz.
I know that Farray really liked the series (I miss him…don’t know what happened to him). I liked the plot elements, even if the ecchi, loli content was off-putting at times. This alternate universe version of the Fate/stay night world (where Iri is still alive, obviously) is rather interesting in and of itself.
In the end, if you can tolerate “loli bait” as you called it (which makes me laugh — good term), the actual story so far has been pretty interesting.
I agree. If they made a sequel to this showing more of Rin and Shirou’s relationship and adventures, maybe adding some drama too, I’d be ecstatic.
“Because of all this, I really wish ufotable would work with Nasu-sensei to develop a sequel to the UBW route, where we get to see Rin and Shirou at school, at home, at play, and of course, Rin vs. Luvia. Also in that mix, you could have some magic-related thing that needs solving, where we could see Rin and Shirou work as a team in battle. I really think this needs to happen.”
100% agreed! I wish we would have been able to seen more of their match. I loved it! Especially the implication that Rin had lost. XD
Sadly, I don’t know if we’ll ever get another match like that between them.. 🙁
I guess after the Heaven’s Feel movie, we’ll have some idea if ufotable is willing to do more or not.
Is Luvia in that movie?
Luvia was not part of the original Fate/stay night visual novel and thus wouldn’t be part of that movie. She was not part of the Unlimited Blade Works either — ufotable just added her in from another part of the franchise. Luvia is canon to the Fate/stay night world though.
A clarification: In the anime when Rin takes Shirou to Glagow to allow him to pay his respects to Saber the only one that actually pays those respects is Shirou, not Rin (plus she says so as well: “you remember how you told me that day that you wished you had the chance to say a proper goodbye. Now’s your chance”. Once they reach the tomb Rin says: “I’ll give you some time alone” and goes away to prepare the picnic. Shirou then says his goodbye words in front of her tomb. At the end he says: “Thanks for taking me there, it means a lot”.
Did I mess something up? I’m dead on my feet at the moment and can’t tell.