October 6th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 00 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 00
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
TOHSAKA Rin arrives at school early, where she’s invited to observe the archery club practice, but she politely leaves when MATOU Sakura arrives. Sakura’s brother Shinji shows up to hit on Rin, causing her to have to put him in his place. Wandering around the school to kill time, she encounters Shirou, who is helping repair things and comments on her coming to school so early. At lunch, she politely turns down a request to eat with some other girls and heads to the roof of the school, where she reflects on her discovery of her father’s legacy to her — a pendant. That evening, she has a call, reminding her that most of the other Master’s have chosen Servants, and that only Archer and Saber Servants remain.
That night, Rin performs the ritual to attempt to summon Saber, using only her immense mana reserves. However, she ends up summoning Archer because all of her clocks were an hour off. Archer shows her no respect, so Rin uses one of her three Command Spells to try to force him into submission. While the spell is apparently not that effective, Archer now understands that Rin is a powerful mage with large mana reserves. As such, he willingly submits to her as his Master. However, thanks to Rin’s summoning method, Archer cannot recall his Heroic Spirit true identity or memories. For his first act as her Servant, Rin tosses Archer a broom and dustpan, telling him to clean up the mess he made after he was summoned.
The next morning, Archer serves Rin tea, and reminds her that they haven’t been introduced. After accomplishing that, Rin decides to ditch school and shows the the now invisible Archer around town. That evening, the two end up on a roof with a good view of the city. Archer asks Rin what her wish will be should she win the Holy Grail War. He’s stunned when he learns that her only ambition is just to win the war, not to make any wishes. However, this lets him know that Rin is his perfect Master. Upon returning home, Rin spots Sakura and hides to keep from being spotted. The next morning, Rin reports to Kirei that she has summoned Archer and thus is officially in the Holy Grail War. Kirei says he has something of her father’s to give her, but she assumes it is the pendant and cuts him off.
Rin goes to school and upon entering the school grounds, she senses a crude barrier has been formed. While consulting with the again invisible Archer near a stairway in the school, Sakura comes down the stairs and drops some papers, so Rin helps her gather them up. That night, Rin investigates the barrier with the invisible Archer, where they discover that the barrier is designed to harvest humans for a Heroic Spirit to convert to mana. Lancer shows up, stopping Rin from removing the barrier crests. Rin is forced to flee to a better spot so that Archer can reveal himself to battle Lancer. During the fight, a boy from the high school shows up, so Lancer goes to kill him to remove the witness. Rin discovers the boy is Shirou, so Rin uses her pendant to save his life. Later, she and Archer go to track down Lancer to protect Shirou, when they are confronted by Saber.
Thoughts/Review:
If I were to do my review in one word, that word would be “incredible!”
Seriously, ufotable did an amazing job with this ~45 minute prologue episode. Of course, I’m coming at this after having seen Deen’s adaptation of the Fate route of Fate/stay night, combined with the excellent information given to me when I episode-blogged that series, as well as the two Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA series that have aired to date.
I absolutely loved that Rin is the star of this episode. As I recall it, in the Fate/stay night visual novel, she is the one to get things kicked off before it shifts to Shirou and Saber. (At least, that’s what I remember being told since I’ve never actually gone through the visual novel myself.) Her character design seemed a little off to me at first, but then I remembered that Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA has kinda polluted my visual image of her. Looking at images from the visual novel, I think ufotable gets her character design right.
I liked that ufotable used a few clips from Fate/Zero showing Rin as a child as well as giving us glimpses of her mother and father. That was a really nice touch and helped ufotable as they fleshed out Rin’s character quite nicely.
On that front, it was nice to see Rin’s other abilities. I recall Deen’s Fate/stay night anime showing us that Rin was a skilled mage/magus, but in this episode, I felt we got a better look at that. While we haven’t seen Rin use her Gandr attack spell, we did get to see her excellent athletic and battle skills, as well as the magecraft that allowed her to flee Lancer and make an incredible leap over a fence on top of a roof. That may have been in Deen’s adaptation, but I just don’t recall it.
Bottom line, Rin was rather incredible in this episode.
I have to admit that I have such a strange feeling as I watched all of this from Rin’s perspective. Knowing her relationship with Sakura made the scenes with Sakura in them have so much more meaning to me.
Ditto her scenes with Archer, since I know Archer’s true identity.
I even got a shiver when Rin sat in the room where her father was murdered. It really made me glad to have watched Fate/Zero.
In the end, ufotable did something incredible and unexpected by making this long prologue episode. If they continue like this, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works will be one incredible anime series.
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Um, why is one of the tags is “Fate-stay night UBL”? Is it from UfotaBLe? :p
I think this part could cause misunderstanding because you didn’t mention the connection between her mana reserves and the time. It gives the impression that you can only summon Saber at a certain time.
If Ufotable really follows the VN, then the next episodes will be told from Shirou’s perspective, not Rin’s. I hope that doesn’t make this series less incredible.
Fool! It means Unlimited Blade Loves of course, because the character that is associated with the name is a sword nerd.
Correct. That’s what those who were able to see episode 1 last week already said. ufotable follows the Visual Novel, so we’ll see Shirou for real this time. (Note, that you don’t get to see Shirou’s complete face even once in this episode. This is supposed to be the same in the VN, although you do actually see one sprite of Shirou’s in the Prologue.)
*lol* Yeah, that’s the ticket.
I’m looking forward to the next episode for sure.
I have NO idea what you are talking about. I think your eyes must be playing tricks on you. 😉
In all seriousness, thanks. I fat fingered things. ^_^;
I think it will stay incredible.
It’s a shame UTW probably doesn’t pick up UBW because of real life and stuff, because I miss their translations. CR had some notable errors like:
1. Mages Association/Church mess up again. Only this time they chose MA, even though Kirei wanted to say that Rin should seek shelter in the church…
2. “Yes, the sound of it suits you.” Um, I would just have said “It (your name) suits you.”
3. I am usually not one who is advertising the VN translation, since that one was too literal, was translated by a highschooler who was neither really good in English nor in Japanese and had not very good editors, but “Come back soon, Father” wouldn’t be really correct, when Rin in her thoughts actually mentioned that she would probably not see her father again. The VN chose “Take care”.
4. Same issue with “The Archer class is made up of archers.” Yes, Rin is sarcastic and it’s a correct translation, if you are foolish enough to translate word for word. English isn’t my first language, but I would have translated it more like: “Huh, you really are an Archer.
The three girls are the three girls from the track team, their names are Kane Himuro (the girl with the glasses), Kaede Makidera (the loud tanned girl) and Yukika Saegusa (the um shy, meek one). They are very minor characters in FSN, but have a lot more screentime in Fate/hollow ataraxia. You could say they are very similar to Ilya’s classmates, haha. 😉
That pendant is a family heirloom, in which from generation to generation the members of the family put some mana for more than a hundred years. It contains the equivalent of ten years of Rin’s mana and was her absolute trump card. Rin also possessed 20 jewels, each worth 10 million yen and she used ten to summon Archer.
Interesting to note, ufotable messed up, because the clocks went backwards. They should have gone in the other direction, if Rin is one hour too early.
Well, Archer says the Command Spell does have kind of an effect, which makes him believe that she is a great magus. Honestly though, Archer’s disrespective talking seems more like how he shows concern to me. He thought she is an inexperienced girl, so he didn’t want to get her into a dangerous war. At least that is how I interpret it. There’s also the thing with the Command Spell, I think he was lying that he felt any compulsion because he felt guilty that Rin wasted a Command Spell because of the way he acted towards her.
Yup, you recall correctly, that was me, lol.
The VN starts with the Prologue (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL65E2739808298034) and is told from Rin’s perspective. While it’s true that she is not the love interest in the other two routes, she is still overall the deuteragonist of FSN and has the most screentime, besides Shirou of course, in FSN.
There were a lot of infodumps that they cut. For instance, there was right at the beginning an explanation about the difference between majutsu (magecraft) and mahou (True Magic). The rest was mostly about the Grail War and its rules though, but they probably cut it, since Shirou will hear it from Rin and Kirei anyway.
However, there is also scene that was shown in the early screening, but was left out here, probably because it didn’t fit in the one-hour spot they reserved (had to put in commercials after all, haha) and probably to advertise the BDs I guess. The scene was on the second day, when Archer and Rin are walking around Fuyuki.
Vg cynlf va n cnex, jurer gra lrnef ntb gur Shlhxv Pvgl Unyy fgbbq. Guvf vf gur cynpr jurer Xvevgfhth naq Xverv sbhtug naq gur pragre bs gur Shlhxv Sver. Eva vf gnyxvat nobhg gur ynfg jne naq Nepure abgrf gung gur ngzbfcurer erzvaqf uvz bs n Ernyvgl Zneoyr. Eva abgrf ubj vg’f fgenatr gung Nepure xabjf nobhg fbzrguvat yvxr Ernyvgl Zneoyrf.
uggcf://jjj.lbhghor.pbz/jngpu?i=Vum6kl-RG9p&vaqrk=2&g=15z
I’m not sure what to think about it. From the side, Rin does look strange sometimes and her nose is often very off. I especially find it strange because ufotable managed to make decent noses in Kara no Kyoukai. Huh.
That’s actually straight from the Visual Novel. Pretty much everything you see is straight from the novel, ufotable followed the source to almost 100%. Gung fprar jurer n zlfgrevbhf oybaqr sbervtare zrg Fnxhen? Nyfb sebz gur Cebybthr, gubhtu vg qbrfa’g cynl na vzcbegnag ebyr urer.
Please compare.
DEEN: http://24.media.tumblr.com/7632ec59facbceda5b03a362b9bbda82/tumblr_n59vgumuv31ry576bo1_250.gif
ufotable: http://37.media.tumblr.com/2db922a091232d99f41b3c3a1ddd5e4c/tumblr_n59vgumuv31ry576bo7_250.gif
—————————————————————————————————————————–
So, as ufotable promised, they added little parts that connect with Fate/Zero. The first thing one probably easily spots is the snake skin Tokiomi left to Rin as a catalyst, which was used to summon Gilgamesh. I wonder what would have happened if Rin had tried to use it, though…
Lrf, fur pbhyq unir cbffvoyl fhzzbarq n frpbaq Tvytnzrfu. Ubjrire, ure nssvavgl jvgu ure Nepure vf fb fgebat gung fur cebonoyl jbhyq unir fhzzbarq ure Nepure naljnl V thrff.
There was also the track that played in that room where Tokiomi died (another FZ reference of course ^_^), which was a remix of “Point Zero” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeDZ1iFhowA). Yuki Kajiura was credited as a guest composer this episode.
Gurer jrer dhvgr n ybg bs uvagf nyernql va guvf rcvfbqr gung crbcyr jub xabj nobhg uvz cebonoyl abgvpr:
1. Evtug ng gur ortvaavat jura Eva ragref gur yvivat ebbz, lbh pna urne gur svefg abgrf bs uvf naq Fuvebh’f gurzr “Rzvln” (uggcf://jjj.lbhghor.pbz/jngpu?i=MiqiSrwerD8)
2. uggc://v.vzthe.pbz/oqterJ1.cat
3. Jura ur fhzzbaf uvf gjva fjbeqf, Nepure fnlf fbzr jbeqf. Thrff juvpu jbeqf ur hfrq… ^_^
4. Uvf ernpgvba jura Fnore nccrnerq.
Some fun stuff:
1. Nicovideo comments: http://i.imgur.com/wpEpqWL.jpg
DEEN: So… this is a fight between Servants.
2. Nasu was borrowing the official FSN anime twitter account to tweet about the first episode. Some of them are really hilarious. Here’s a translation of his tweets: http://pastebin.com/8XYjEkHt
This is my favorite one:
3. The members of Beast’s Lair are playing a little bingo game, when reading other people’s reactions: http://images.sanctuary-inc.net/fsnbingo4.png
All in all, this was a great and very faithful adaptation to me. I like Hideyuki Fukasawa’s soundtrack already. The faces looked a bit off to me sometimes, but that wasn’t so bad and the animation is wonderful. We haven’t really started with UBW yet, but I’m looking forward to the next episode already (which will also be one hour long). 🙂
Yeah, I almost fell into that trap, but I remembered what they’d done before, combined with knowing whom Rin was talking to. I just bitched about that to Crunchyroll.
Interesting. I wondered about that.
That went right over my head. ^_^;;;
Interesting perspective.
Oh, how interesting. Thanks for that information.
Good, so I wasn’t going crazy. ^_^
I didn’t mention it in my review, but I did note how Rin’s short skirt never revealed a thing.
Awesome. ^_^
Yeah, Rin’s POV in the VN also starts with a dream about the last time she sees her father. This is the reason why that scene had to be included in Zero.
Comparing the animations always makes me wonder, whether DEEN should just have dropped the additional stuff from UBW and HF and adapt Fate faithfully, because they were clearly lacking the budget for 24 episodes. Otherwise I can’t explain how this happened:
http://a.pomf.se/vwlyjo.webm
Especially this part: http://24.media.tumblr.com/b5954af30b76c3ba6ef8d1c66cd373ad/tumblr_n59vgumuv31ry576bo2_250.gif
Yeah, the anime is eight years older than this one here, but I’ve seen better productions from 2006.
Additional notes:
ufotable really likes to reuse designs from their older works (or it’s a hidden reference). This dog is from Kara no Kyoukai: http://puu.sh/bZfz2/68c45cf0a2.png
Reading Nasu’s tweets again reminds me why people are still waiting for the Tsukihime remake. That guy spends hours only playing RPGs. His diary on the official TM website is often filled with references to games. For example…
Recently, he talked about his WiiU and Bayonetta 2, lol. Guess, we’ll see the Tsukihime remake in maybe 2020 if we’re lucky. T_T
I have the Tsukihime DVDs, but I’ve still to watch it. So much anime, so little time.
I’m begging you to not watch Tsukihime. Seriously, this anime is an atrocity. The only thing people acknowledge is the music. There’s an insider joke/meme with people playing dumb and saying that the anime doesn’t exist (http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/there_is_no_tsukihime_anime.png).
If you don’t want to read the Visual Novel (which aged pretty badly, that’s why there’s gonna be a remake), you can read the manga, which combines several routes and makes it a very pleasant read. It ignores two out of five heroines’ story, but it’s still a very good adaptation.
Ah. OK, I guess I’ll pass on watching the anime. ^_^;
Btw, kudos to ufotable for not just simply using the FZ footage in Rin’s dream: http://fate-staynight.tumblr.com/post/99183607948/come-home-soon-father
So they really did reanimate those scenes. I figured they would have just pulled from the F/Z material to save a few yen.
Bonus info:
Rin’s German: “Anfang! Vertrag! Ein neuer Nagel! Ein neues Gesetz, ein neues Gesetz! Ein neues Verbrechen”
“Set/Begin! Contract! A new nail! A new law, a new law! A new crime!”
“Es ist groß! Es ist klein! Vox, Gottes/Gott Es Atlas!”
“It’s big! It’s small! (No idea what the rest means. Gott = God, Atlas is a titan and Vox means voice in Latin…)!”
And crude speculation (spoilers for those who don’t know about Rin’s relationship with a certain other character): http://yudonomi-stuff.tumblr.com/post/99481496857/in-the-ubw-anime-this-is-what-ufotable-gives-us
Though I think the user got something wrong here (bet it’s the wiki the user used). Rin’s birthday is the fourth of February as far as I know (Complete Material 2 and Fate/Zero say so. A TM Ace article said February 3. Majority wins.). Nyfb, vs vg ernyyl vf 32, gura vg’f 月 3 日 2, frpbaq bs Znepu, juvpu zrnaf vg ersref gb Fnxhen’f oveguqnl.
Thanks for the info. ^_^
Never mind. Zero material has a comment of co-founder Takeuchi saying Rin’s birthday is February 3, it’s just everyone else got it wrong… -_-
Why was it thought that Rin’s birthday was the 4th?
It started with this from the second Fate/Zero Light Novel volume: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/images/e/ed/FZ_v02_000k.jpg
Then Complete Material 2 and other books used the same date: http://i.imgur.com/cPrtAcM.jpg & http://i.imgur.com/q2uZNGU.jpg
The thing is, Zero Material actually corrects the birthdays of several characters like Rin’s (http://i.imgur.com/saU2ENW.png). As stated above, Takeuchi Takashi (Type-Moon’s co-founder) commented on this that the other one was a mistake. It got used in other places regardless though because nobody listens to Takeuchi. So yeah, the birthdays are third of February and second of March.
Thanks for the info. ^_^
Forgot to add, they also showed the catalyst Rin’s father used to summon his servant. I think this is also a nice addition, because, IIRC, it’s never mentioned in the original VN.
And I realize that you didn’t mention anything about that blondie that was near Sakura when Rin spotted her.
Actually, I had forgotten him. I don’t recall him from the original anime either.
Pretty sure you’ll recognize him soon enough, he played a pretty big role… Zbateryf!
I put the proper tag markers for the <blockquote>. ^_^
I’ll have to remember to keep an eye open for him then.
Yeah thanks, I wasn’t used to the html tags, used the bbcode tags instead. My bad.
No problem.
I take it you’ll also be blogging your thoughts on the Heaven’s Feel movie(s?) when they come out?
Deen’s adaptation of Fate route was pretty trash, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how ufotable handles UBW. Hey, it can’t be any worse than the previous movie, right?
Great prologue episode, and the next episode is another ~45 minute one as well. And yes, the prologue of the VN was originally from Rin’s perspective as well, and we’ll be moving on to Shirou’s next.
So many things to catch if you’re already familiar with the series, it’s amazing how much they fit in there. Really looking forward to seeing the rest of this show, expecting so much out of it now.
That’s the plan. ^_^
There were certainly problems with Deen’s version, but I did like it for the most part.
Ditto.
People, myself included, felt that it was too muddled because Deen tried fitting parts of other routes into the overarching Fate route and it didn’t work out too well. Trying to do too much at the same time and stuff like that. Shirou seemed like a bit of a tool in that series too, his characterization was all over the place. Also doesn’t help that some consider Fate to be the weakest route of the three.
Same thing happened with the previous UBW movie, as they cut too much out of the route to try and cover everything. Didn’t work out too well that time either. Some of the more climactic fights in the route weren’t that well done either, though I was satisfied with them at the time. Looking forward to seeing a better adaptation this time around.
I agree with that assessment. I was new to the franchise at the time, and the story was really good, which overcame some of the weaknesses.
One of the reasons I never put that movie on the high priority list was because folks told me to just skip it and do the visual novel.
An LP of the entire VN is here, if you want to take a look after the series is over. It’s broken down by route, so if you want to avoid spoilers for Heaven’s Feel while checking out Fate and UBW, that’s totally possible. Apilers abound everywhere, of course, so hold off until the entire series is over, or maybe wait for the mid-season hiatus to take a look at the material in the first cour.
It’s primarily image based, with some videos linked, so be prepared to do a ton of reading. Then again, it’s a VN, so that’s to be expected and comes with the territory.
Also, this isn’t the Realta Nua version, so the h-scenes are still in, but only in text form, no images, with most of it rewritten mad-libs style based off of recommendations from the Something Awful LP thread where this was originally posted, with some of mine included.
seorin (the LPer) did a really good job with this, and he also has a Tsukihime LP to his credit on the same LP Archive site if you want to check that out as well.
I’ve got a copy of the FSN VN. I think I started it up, just to make sure it worked. It is on one of my archive drives. With as busy as I am, I just haven’t had time to do anything with it. 🙁
Dammit, html ate my link. Link is here:http://lparchive.org/Fatestay-night/
Thanks for the link!
Yeah, I already told Astro about this. I still recommended to him the latest Realta Nua + the fancy patch BL created. ^_^
Which I’ve NOT scored. ^_^;;;;;;;;;;;
http://yaraon.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-27341.html
“DEEN DID NOTHING WRONG”
“Silly gaijins”
“I can’t forgive the insult towards DEEN!”
“The gaijin probably went berserk.”
” Finally! The gaijins and Japanese have the same thought”
“DEEN is not that bad ufotable is just better”
“Both are garbage”
For some reason, this flagged as spam. ^_^;
And the blog is blocked from work, so I’ll have to try to remember to check it when I get home. I’m assuming your quotes are from the site.
Off-topic: The new Tenchi is out: http://tenchiforum.com/universe/tenchiforumtranslations-fansubbing-for-ai-tenchi-muyo-first-episode-live/
Thanks. ^_^ Now I’ve got to work on getting them watched.
I HATE the talking jargon that goes with this franchise. However I absolutely loved Fate Zero and have high hopes for this reboot. Hated Fate Stay Night with a passion yet i’m so psyched for this reboot series. strange hu?
You hate the talking, but still loved Fate/Zero? Uh…yeah, strange. Talking is pretty much TYPE-MOON’s shtick. The deconstruction of values and ideals in FZ and FSN is the more important aspect than say… the fights.
FSN’s not a battle series, but you will probably still like UBW, if you still enjoyed Fate/Zero, because this story was the most action-packed one in the FSN Visual Novel.
The talking has never bothered me, but we all have different tastes.
Okay, that was badly formulated. I meant, the point of FSN are not the battles, although they are of course an aspect of the franchise.
I think its a simple case of liking things I liked and yawning at all the freaking talking. I didnt like FSN but I ship Rin and Emiya and Liked the art direction of Fate Zero and loved episode 1 of this series. Maybe my rose tinted glasses will be taken off when I realize ive already watched the majority of this series.
*lol* You really are sounding like my friend here. ^_^
As witnessed in the prologue. 😉
The special terms (jargon) used, or just the chatty nature of the series?
I’ve got a friend whom I was talking to about Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero, so he watched seven episodes of Fate/Zero. He didn’t like how verbose the series is and he thought it was overly dark.
As someone whose read all three paths in the VN some years ago, I have to say that my favorite part here was the battle between Archer and Lancer which, while adding a few things here and there stayed very true to the VN. They start out seemingly evenly matched, but Lancer destroys Archer’s “noble phantasm.” Just as Lancer is about to slit his throat, Archer projects another sword from out of nowhere. Lancer keeps destroying Archer’s swords but he keeps projecting more and eventually actually starts to gain the upper hand by closing the gap. The animated version was pretty much how I imagined it would look. They also do a good job of showing just how vastly overpowered servants can be when compared to normal humans.
Anyway, an awesome first ep, although I would say that I still enjoyed fate/zero’s prologue episode more, but that has more to do with how both stories were written rather than the adapations.
…and just a little addendum since you already know who Archer is, he actually mouths the words “genpr ba” after Lancer destroys his sword during the fight.
Just to be safe for those who’ve not watched, I coded his words with ROT13. ^_^;
Yeah, I agree there for sure.