Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works anime ended with a blast, so I guess it’s time to go ahead and review this series. Unlimited Blade Works is a popular route in the Fate/Stay Night franchise which focuses on an age-old ritual called the Holy Grail, it grants any wish from its possessor. Seven masters are given seven heroic spirits chosen by the Grail.
The heroic spirits or servants are Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin and Berserker. The masters will sigh a contract with the spirits in order to fight for the grail and the wish. Unlimited Blade Works largely focuses on Rin Toosaka and Shirou Emiya as they both work together to defeat their opponents.
Before I begin reviewing this series, I’d like to mention that this series is my first Fate/Stay Night series so I won’t know what has happened in the previous anime, manga or novels. So let’s begin, from the very beginning the series unveiled the Holy Grail straight away, we started with Rin when she went ahead and summoned Archer, from then on we met Shirou when he summoned Saber.
They both nearly fought each other, but in conjunction to fight and defeat Berserker, they teamed up to fight her. However, as the series progressed, we met with compassion between the both of them as they began to work as a team and friends rather then just comrades. Rin helped him out as he kept on getting stronger and stronger.
I’d like to go ahead and mention that the art, animation and audio involved in making this series better were on point. From what I could see and hear, it made me feel the correct emotions at the correct points in time. From the intense battles to the times when heroic spirits or humans died.
The story itself has been written countless times and shown in different times lines multiple times. So it’s no surprise that the story was well written by the team at Ufutable. The battles within the series were very well constructed, they don’t go on for very long, nor are they short. And there is usually always a reason for them to fight.
The character development of Shirou, Rin, and others have been character within this series were quite well done, they show everything that is required to make the viewer think for themselves, and to make the links between character and their actions. In the second season, we that other characters saw more development compared to Shirou and Rin.
These include Ilya and Archer who receive a lot more explanation that helps the viewers obtain a greater understanding of their ambitions and motifs for fighting. Ilya was given her own episode to show her back story as a young child, and how she met Berserker.
On top of which I believe that Archer got the most development compared to anyone else, as we reach the end of the series, we encounter that he is the embodiment of Emiya’s will to become a hero, a person of justice and someone who will eradicate all evil and fight for justice and peace.
Honestly, there isn’t a lot I can say about this series except that I really like it. From the moment I watched the first episode, I fell in love with the art, animation, graphics and sound. The story was also fantastic to see, on top of which everything that happened was unique to this series.
I score Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works:
9 out of 10
So, have you been watching Unlimited Blade Works? If so, what do you think of this series so far? The story has ended, but I’m sure there might be another edition of the series with a different ending. Still, it’s a fantastic series which I’ve absolutely gotten into and loved. Comment down below telling me what you think.
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I really enjoyed this anime. Its very good and I love the fight scenes. I actually watched the movie that explains this whole series. But they remade it because they needed to explain more details of the series that a movie couldn’t.
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Theirs a movie? :O I think I’ll have to watch that next hah
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Ya their is. 🙂 Its called Unlimited Blade works movie. It’s before this series was released. I watched that first, and now I’m on this one. I’m almost done too. My friend compared a servants noble phantasm with a Shinigami Bankai. And I can see the similarities.
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Haha yeah I agree to that too 😛 It’s like their ultimate powers. I suggest you watch it at 1080p if you can, it’s so good, the detail, animation and art is just superb. Can’t praise Ufutable enough for their work.
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I did. Its amazing. I gotta say, they have some amazing animation. I also like that in the English dub, many voice actors are from Bleach. At least in the movie. Rukia’s voice actress plays Saber, Jushiro’s voice actor plays Archer, Orihime’s voice actress plays one of Shiro’s sisters. And I know Ichigo’s And Yoruichi’s voice actors played characters from the prequel series.
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Wait really! This I gotta check out! I’ll definitely have a look at it now 😀
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Ya I know! I found out right at the end of the movie that Saber sounds just like Rukia. I like that so many Bleach voice actors play fate characters. 😉
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But there is one more episode to go…?
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The next episode is an epilogue episode, it will just try and round everything up on whats happened, I’m sure it won’t be of any significance. It might repeat everything that’s happened.
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I just finished this series. Which noble phantasm is your favorite?
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Honestly, I really liked the look of Assasin’s long sword, but his phantasm was a little underwhelming. Overall I really liked Gilgamesh, even if he was an evil guy, his attitude to stay in one place and just use his power is something I admired. He was pretty awesome nonetheless.
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What about yourself?
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Ya that his is very powerful. That’s why alot of people think he is the strongest. I personally like Sabers. Hers is just so powerful, one swing and your dead. The most overpowered I think other than Gilgamesh is Caster. Hers is just a dagger that takes away your servant. I noticed the weak servants are usually Assassin. The previous one could only multiple himself. I also like Lancers curse spear.
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Oh Sabers is awesome too and Caster is pretty OP too. Lancer died in a really bad way, but I’m glad he got to have his revenge and die in piece. His spear and fighting style are pretty fantastic.
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I like how honorable the servants for Saber and Lancer are. That’s why they are mu favorite. I know Joan of Arc was a Saber class servant as well. The prequel Lancer was also honorable.
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I don’t quite know about the prequal story just yet, but I’ll take your word for it. I know that Shirous dad was part of the previous one, thats mostly it.
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Oh ya you didn’t see it. You really don’t have to. Its kinda depressing. You know the priest? You would think a prequel would explain why he is so evil. But it kinda didn’t. Ya Shiro’s dad was in it. You can guess who his servant was. 😉
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I agree with Nick Dunn. Fate/Zero was pretty depressing and I really didn’t like it. It had top notch animation and a great soundtrack along with some solid characters, but I felt like it went off the rails very quickly and was way too dark/violent. It’s one of the reasons why I haven’t seen this show yet although I will check it out at some point.
It’s cool that you’re doing anime reviews now Sunite! That’s definitely cool and at a 9, it’s fun to see this series doing so well. Since the franchise branches out in so many ways, think you’ll check out the old show (Which diverges around halfway or earlier I believe) or the spinoffs? (Those don’t sound good though…)
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I’m definitely going to have a look at this one….
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Very nice review! I agree the series is indeed quite awesome and probably the best series to come out this year so far. For me Rin really stole the show in this series. Such an awesome character. I agree the character development is really one of the strong points of this series. In fact it is really the core of the series in my opinion. It is refreshing to see a character driven series in an age of high action, low substance media.
I certainly would recommend Fate/Zero if you enjoyed this one as it is very similar in tone and quality. It does provide some backstory on a few of the characters and introduces many more great characters.
Keep up the great reviews! Looking forward to seeing more in the future!
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Thanks for the comment, totally agree with your opinion, I’ve also been meaning to watch the Fate/Zero series as I’ve been recommended by a number of others on here. I will certainly watch out for it.
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