I know it looking back on your teenage self can be cringy, but this is taking it too far.
When I decided to watch Unlimited Blade Works back in 2014, it was mainly out of curiosity. Fate Stay/Night is a cultural sensation. Whether it’s Saber’s iconic design, or memes of Shirou saying “People die when they are killed”, everyone knows at least something about Fate. It was (and stil is) everywhere. But I had no idea what the actual story was about, beyond a vague idea about a grail war and masters/servants, and there was no good way to find out. The Deen anime was not exactly held in high regard, and I wasn’t so desperate as to read the visual novel. Which made the Unlimited Blade Works the perfect opportunity to finally experience Fate for the first time.
I finished the anime not because it was good, but because I wanted to know what the deal was. In that sense, I’d say it was worth it. But was it worth watching a second time? Not really. It’s not even bad, although there’s some moments that are fun to riff on. It’s just… kind of boring. A convoluted mess of a plot that probably leaves out a hundred thousand words of additional exposition from the VN, experienced through a bunch of characters who are never particularly likeable or interesting.
Rin is a stereotypical tsundere in a way that might’ve been endearing to fans 20 years ago, but is borderline intolerable now. She’s like a parody of herself. Sometimes people who haven’t engaged with the source material in years will have a Flanderized impression of a character in their minds, but Rin really is just like that. And it doesn’t help that her blushing, it’s-not-like-I-like-you-or-anything routine is done in service of Shirou of all people, a guy incapable of picking up on even the most obvious hints, so they’re constantly aggravating each other in annoying ways. Saber is… kind of there. I vaguely remembered her as the ‘best character’, but it’s more like she’s the least objectionable. Shinji is a one-dimensional asshole, so extreme even from the beginning that Shirou treating him with any sort of respect is utterly ridiculous, even for him. Other characters like Ilya or Kotomine just feel like they’re making cameo appearances rather than having a significant role. I don’t know if that’s a consequence of the adaptation, or the fact that it’s only one of the VN’s routes. I guess Lancer is fine at least.
Unlimited Blade Works is about a pair of bumbling fools managing to stumble their way through the grail war. Everyone knows Shirou is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but Rin is hardly any better. Twice she decides to leave Archer behind, and twice she gets caught in a magic field without her servant. Meanwhile, Shirou argues that it’s fine to come to school without Saber because masters wouldn’t attack each other in a crowd, but then stays around until everyone has left, so he gets attacked anyway. By two different masters.
The basic premise of the Grail War seems pretty straightforward. A battle royale between mages, each with a legendary hero by their side. It could’ve been a perfectly entertaining story by itself. But Fate won’t allow anything to be played straight. It feels like everything had to be subverted. There are so many twists that it stops being a surprise. And it’s not like these twists are good either. Most of them feel like complete asspulls. Caster’s master is a school teacher, so everyone assumes he’s a normal guy without magic power. But then it turns out he’s some kind of secret assassin who can take on Saber in a one-on-one fight. What’s the explanation? There isn’t one, it’s just pure coincidence that one of Shirou’s teachers was also a trained fighter, who just randomly met Caster one day. And don’t even get me started on Caster’s “Rule Breaker”.
Many stories sprinkle in background details that hint at deeper lore to make the world feel bigger. But in Fate it’s the complete opposite. Rather than having a big, cohesive setting, it feels like it’s just making things up along the way. When Archer explains his “past”, it involves concepts like Guardians and a Counter Force and the whole thing feels like you’re getting a quick summary of a completely different unrelated story. Whenever something needs to happen or when pre-established rules need to be broken, you can just do it and give an explanation that only raises more questions.
One of the most bizarre instances of this is during Shirou’s final battle against Archer. It seems hopeless on the face of it. Shirou had never been in a real battle until a week ago, and Archer is the same person except with years of combat experience. There’s no way Shirou could grow fast enough to best his future self. So what happens? Well, Archer explains it as follows: “There’s magic that lets you master skills by communing with selves from the past and letting them possess you. Every time our swords clash your skills are being honed”. Huh?? What!?? This comes out of nowhere, is not really shown, and is never mentioned again. Just a brief line to handwave that Shirou is now strong enough to be relevant.
There’s also a plot point about how Assassin isn’t actually Sasaki Koujirou but some amalgamation of different people or ideas, which is revealed right before his death and does not matter in any way.
There’s a lot of silly little things. You think Lancer is dead, but then he rises up to take out Kotomine before collapsing again. So you think he’s dead for real now, but then he rises up again to punch Shinji before collapsing again, this time for good. At least that part was sort of funny. But most of the time it was impossible to get invested in anything that happened. The conflict between Shirou and Archer and the latter’s goal of killing the former probably makes sense on some level, but within the context of the anime it’s such a mess, and I didn’t like either character enough to care about it.
There were also a lot of moments that came off as “Watch Fate/Zero to find out more”. Again, I don’t know what the original VN was like. Maybe that’s how it was originally written. But you’d think it would be more significant that the foster father Shirou idolized fought in the previous grail war. Kotomine’s betrayal has little impact either, because we barely hear anything about Rin’s father. Since the Fate/Zero anime came out first, I wouldn’t be surprised if some backstory was cut to avoid retreading the same ground.
The only positive thing I can say about the ending is that it’s at least a little satisfying to see Gilgamesh losing to a loser. But it’s offset by how much it focuses on the importance of saving Shinji. Rin was ready to die rather than leave that piece of shit behind, even though a few episodes earlier the guy was salivating at the prospect of having his way with her.
There’s also a baffling epilogue episode. It might’ve worked as a 5-10 minute thing, but instead it’s padded by by appearances from completely unrelated characters. I remember the first time I watched it I was like “Who the hell is Luvia?” I still don’t know.
Before I started this rewatch I was considering also watching the Heaven’s Feel movies, which I’ve never seen. But… nah.