Fate/stay Night Unlimited Blade Works was based on the Unlimited Blade Works route of the original Fate/stay Night visual novel. It was released in Japanese theaters in January 23, 2010 and Studio DEEN who was also responsible in the original series’ animation is back for this film.
It has been 10 years since the previous Holy Grail War and the people of Fuyuki City are commemorating the lives of those people who died in a catastrophe unknown to them.
So basically, to those who watched the original series, the first few minutes of the film are those from Fate/stay night, except it is compressed for a few minutes to fill in the Unlimited Blade Works route coming from the visual novel source.
For the uninitiated, The Holy Grail War is a war in which seven magi will summon a Servant, which are embodiments of various Legendary Heroes and are divided in seven job classes. These Servants accompanies their respective Master in spiritual form that can be summoned if the Master will face another Master. Whoever wins the war will be the owner of the Holy Grail can use its power to grant any wish.
Aside from that, there are minor changes that followed in this route. Aside that Lancer has more screen time, Shinji; the first Master who was defeated in this series has a bigger role in this one.
This film focuses more on Archer (To those who are not familiar with the series, Unlimited Blade Works is his strongest move), Rin’s Servant and his unknown quest, which will remain unknown because it is one of the vital points in film that if I will spoil it to you, you might get pissed. For him to fulfill his personal mission, he changes allegiances if he finds it weak in some point that in one point in the film, he betrays his Master, Rin Tohsaka for another Servant, Caster because she has Saber, one of the strongest Servants around in her side.
The film also focuses on Shirou Emiya who witnesses the battle between Lancer and Archer and accidentally summons the Servant, Saber. To come into an end and try to save everyone so that the catastrophe that happened back when he was still a kid will not happen again. Will he and Rin able to stop this War?
On to the review, one of the biggest mysteries surrounding Archer back in the first series is his identity. No one knows who he is or who was he based upon. To those who don’t know, the Servants are based on a well-known historic or legendary personality. For example, the winner of the previous War, Gilgamesh an Archer class Servant was based on an Iraqi legend about a certain well, Gilgamesh! Also, Saber was based on King Arthur, hence her weapon is a sword called Excalibur.
The original series hints his identity for quite a while and most of those hints are carried in this retelling of the series which like I said, takes a different route. If I will spoil it to you, it would ruin the fun in watching the film… if you read the Wikipedia spoilers; I think you know who is Archer!
Speaking of Archer, one of the major improvements that I see in him in this film is that aside that him being a jerk and all has been improved, he finally! I repeat, finally, uses some arrows! Technically, it is a sword that he shoots in his bow, but still, he still shoots Berserker with it!
More on Archer, if I remember correctly, we never learn the purpose why he cooperates with Rin since a servant can betray his master if he or she feels like it, adding much to the mystery of this character. Most of the Servants have a chance to see their past to be exact, the Servants that were given proper focus in their back story was Caster and Saber while the rest were given good back stories but it was not elaborated that much. From all the Servants, only Archer’s back story was not given, until this film came along. Aside that we learned which legendary or historical figure was he based upon; we learned his purpose on why he was appeared in the current Holy Grail War.
Since this is an Archer focused film, some characters were practically ignored during the duration of the film. Aside from Rider being eliminated earlier (Well, she was eliminated here in a different way), Saber, who was one of the main focus in the original series was literally, thrown out in the sidelines. Asides that she never participated much in the battles, she was later become Caster’s Servant thanks to her Noble Phantasm, Rule Breaker. Another Servant and Master who was given less screen time and importance were Illya and Berserker.
Since Saber went on the sidelines, some characters, to be exact, Lancer were given a good spotlight. Seriously, in the original series, he is one of the characters that I want to see in the show! But, he only appeared quite briefly and as far I remember, I don’t remember much about Lancer being in the series at all. In this film, aside that he aides Shirou and Rin, he actually was given quite good amount of screen time and good amount of fight scenes! Most of my favorite parts in this film is when Lancer is involved in it. The part of the film that gave Lancer a good explanation point in his character is at the last few scenes before his death… and he was not that dead yet!
Like I mentioned earlier, the earlier parts of the film is like the original TV series except that it was compressed for it to give more space on the new material. To begin with there are some scenes that felt like they were directly lifted from the TV series! The one on top is the similar shot that came from the original TV series in which Shirou first met Saber.
One of the things that I noticed in the film is the upgrade in terms of gore. Deaths here are bloodier compared to the original TV series. Aside that we saw Gilgamesh remove someone’s organs, this series has good blood physics to begin with that in some point, the blood splatter look liked it was exaggerated for the sake of gore fans to be happy. No wonder it was released as a movie and not as a TV special!
One of the main highlights of the film is the battle between Shirou and Archer. Two characters who has the opposite ideals yet they have something in common in which they tried to ignore. Their fight was one of the best fights that I have watched in this film. The fight was a fight between their own personal beliefs about saving people. Shirou is a person who will do everything to save everyone. While Archer is someone who is the complete opposite of Shirou’s ideals about saving everyone and justifies to Shirou that you cannot save everyone.
The animation for the film has the same quality like that of the TV series except it was given some upgrades. Studio DEEN did a good job for the animation asides that they increased the amount of gore and turn most of the bloody fights of the film into a splatter show… which is both disappointing and a good thing. Disappointing because most of the deaths became quite exaggerated, good because as a fan of gore, I love seeing fountains of blood coming out from the victim and it aggravates the strength of the Servant who killed its respective victim.
The only thing that is disappointing in the film is the chant for Archer’s Unlimited Blade Works was shortened into a single phrase, “I am the bone of my sword” and that is it. His infamous chant about his body being made of steel and the rest of it is only found at the beginning of the film… and the fact the Shinji has a significant role in this film alongside with Gilgamesh redesigned overall appearance. Seriously, I prefer him wear his gold armor than his civilian clothes in battle!
Overall, Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works is one anime film you can enjoy whether or not you are fan of the series or not, especially if you are an Archer fan, you will definitely enjoy this one. Hey, there is a reason why the film is called Unlimited Blade Works right?
The overall theme of the film is choosing your own fate and the ability to save everyone. Archer is right, you cannot save everyone but Shirou keeps on pushing his ideals that he can save everyone if he can do it or he have the power. The theme about fate, I will let you figure it out because it is one of the vital points of the film along with Archer’s identity. The only hint I can give you is that Shirou is living with the ideals of the man who saved his life.