Fate/ Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works: ANIME REVIEW

If there is one thing that Ufotable is really good at, then it is animation. A rather 'young' studio that was founded in 2000 brought us a couple of really good anime series including the "Fate" series. After finishing Fate/ Zero, I watched Unlimited Blade Works and even tough a lot of people consider Zero as the better one, I cannot agree with them because UBW was a masterpiece. I guess it's review time: Fate/ Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. Enjoy! 

 PLOT AND STORY LINE                                                                                                    

Let's firstly talk about the setting of this anime. The setting, being the Holy Grail War, is in my opinion one of the best settings I have ever seen. In a battle royale, seven Masters fight for the ultimate prize-The Holy Grail. Each master summons a servant, a Heroic Spirit from the past that fights for them in the war. There are in total seven different servant classes: Archer, Saber, Caster, Rider, Lancer, Assassin and Berserker. It is so amazing how they actually found a way to awaken legendary warriors and heroes from the past. Alexander the Great, King Arthur, Gilgamesh... These are all characters from my History books and legends we have all heard so many times. And now there is an anime that actually awakens them, their story, their ideal and personality. Truly amazing. And of course with a setting like this one the story itself just has to be good. 

Unlimited Blade Works' story line follows a young mage, Toosaka Rin, that entered the 5th Holy Garil War together with her servant, Archer. After an incident at her school, one of her classmates, Emiya Shirou, enters the Grail War by unconsciously summoning Saber. Facing mutual enemies, Rin and Shirou form a temporary alliance to challenge their opponents in the Holy Grail War.  In time the battle for the Grail turns into an interesting story that involves much more than just mare fighting, but events from the past and the future. Unlike Fate/ Zero, UBW has its focus more on the life story of Shirou Emiya rather than the war it self. It is a story about his ideal and promise he once made to his father to make this word a better place. And even tough it was the main story line of the anime, the War it self wasn't pushed into the background. In that way, the anime brought a lot of action and amazing fights along with an emotional main story and a couple of background stories that filled the plot in between. 

The story line of Unlimited Blade Works develops gradually and slowly but there still is, in my opinion, one thing that disturbed the otherwise perfect story line. Shirou starts of as a weak mage with no actual talent but suddenly gets all strong and becomes the hero of the story. I found it rather forced and poor. Besides, Rin in the end becomes nothing more than a side kick despite being strong and independent from the beginning. His actions, on the other hand, were mainly transparent and kinda immature for most of the time. Still, it didn't change the fact that it was one of the best anime stories ever and it definitely deserves the best note. 

 CHARACTERS                                                                                                                    

And here is one more thing that the makers of UBW did extremely good. Even tough it didn't brought us the characters close as Fate/ Zero did, I did get the feeling to know all the characters  very well and their personalities. The diversity of personalities in this anime is awesome and most of the characters are incredibly developed. The character that kinda stands out with his/her development is in my opinion Caster. Actually, it is not her development, but more the way she actually showed her true intention in the end. The only character that I actually hated was that Shinji idiot, whereas my favorite characters were definitely Rin and Gilgamesh. They are both so strong, independent and incredibly amusing. What a pity that the worst character in the anime happens to be the main. A rather clumsy, stupid and in character weak person ends up being an overpowered hero in the final battle. I just couldn't accept the fact that actually  HE defeats...Sorry, NO SPOILERS.  

 ANIMATION AND STYLE                                                                                                   

Right from the first episode I knew that this anime would be amazing. I literary fell in love with it and especially with the animation and its style. Guys, if there is one thing that I respect the most than it is the animation of an anime. If the animation is bad, there is almost no chance that I'll ever watch the anime. The animation of UBW is just incredible and so is the style. It is with great extend the best animation I have seen in a long time. Fluid movements, colorful, rich in movement, and the action scenes...astonishing, marvelous, extraordinary, wonderful... Should I go on? It is one of the rare anime, I'd actually like to watch over and over again and mainly because of the animation. 

 CONCLUSION                                                                                                                     

It was pretty easy to rate this anime on My Anime List. It's clearly a 10/10 masterpiece. From the start I knew that I'd actually love it. I don't know why, but I was right. I loved it and I am sure that you will too. "I am the bone of my sword. Steel is my body and fire is my blood. I have created over a thousands of blades. Unknown to death. Nor known to Life. Have withstood pain to create many weapons yet those hands shall never hold anything. So, as I pray, (I need more of) Unlimited Blade Works."