ANIME BATTLE: Fate/Stay Night vs. Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

I thought I did the ultimate anime battle with Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works and Fate/ Zero (Here's the LINK), but today's post is going to be a war and it's not for the Holy Grail. As you all probably know, different Fate/ Stay Night roots from the original visual novel were turned into anime adaptations:

Fate/ Stay Night: Produced by Studio DEEN in 2006, Stay Night was the first Fate anime work and it covers the first root (Fate) and some parts of the other visual novel roots (Unlimited Blade Works, Heaven's Feel). It's a one-seasonal anime with a total of 24 episodes.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works: After producing Fate/ Zero, ufotable takes over and makes an anime adaptation of the UBW root of the Stay Night visual novel in 2014. It is a two-seasonal anime with 25 episodes in total, including the prologue episode.

Fate/ Stay Night: Heaven's Feel: The third root of Stay Night will be covered in three movies, also by ufotable,  whereas the first one will be released in Japanese theaters on October 14, 2017.  

Now that we've covered all the roots let's get to the main part of this post. For all you reading an Anime Battle post on World of Anime Girl for the first time, this is a blog section where I pick two anime (similar in tone, topic, genre etc) and compare them in three sections: Plot and Story Line, Characters and Animation. The winner is the anime that won the most rounds. And now, without any further ado : Stay Night (SN) vs. Unlimited Blade Works (UBW). Enjoy!

 ❗❗  SPOILER ALERT  ❗❗

❗❗ CONCLUSION IS SPOILER-FREE ❗❗

PLOT AND STORY LINE 📜

As you all might know already, both anime have the same setting and a nearly similar story line. Still, each root has its own plot and plot twists that made both anime enjoyable to watch. 

First of all, both anime start off in the same way and follow the same characters. In the center of SN we have Emiya Shirou. After a mysterious inferno kills his family, Shirou is adopted by the mage Emiya Kiritsugu. Years after his death, Shirou is caught in a fierce fight between two 'superhumans' called servants. After nearly loosing his life, in desperation to survive, Shirou summons a servant of his own, a knight called Saber. The two must now participate in the Fifth Holy Grail War, a battle royale to life and death in order to obtain the ultimate prize: The Holy Grail that grants its owner any wish. UBW is basically the same, just this time, the focus as the main character is set on Rin Tohsaka, who is also the female lead character in SN.Question is now, what's the difference? between the two roots?

The first difference is basically who fights whom. Berserker for instance is beaten by Shirou, Rin and Saber in SN, but in UBW Giglamesh is the one that kills him. Saber fights and kills Rider with her Noble Phantasm in SN, but in UBW Rin and Shirou just find her dead. When it comes to the action I think that both anime were equally as good. Some fights were better in SN, like the one between Berserker and Archer, but Giglamesh vs. Berserker in UBW was also grand. A clear difference is however in Archer's and Shirou's background story.

Archer is summoned by Rin, but he doesn't remember anything about his past life. I found that odd right in the beginning, but I never thought that he would actually be the heroic spirit of Future Shirou. That is of course reveled in UBW, not in SN. SN does drop some hints, but I am not sure if I'd be able to figure it out without watching UBW first. Also, UBW focuses more on Shirou's ideals and his goal to become the hero of justice.That is rather unclear in SN because they put some elements of the UBW and Heaven's Feel root into the Stay Night Anime. In that way, they omitted actually the core of Shirou's transformation and the story of how he actually became a heroic spirit. But even though that is a crucial part of Stay Night (no matter what root) I didn't miss it, because I found it way too annoying in UBW. His ideals were too childish so I was actually pretty cool with SN leaving out all the crap about the 'hero of justice'. 

Lastly, Gilgamesh's death. In UBW, Shirou becomes suddenly so strong and actually manages to kill the King of Heroes, Giglamesh. I was so furious because...come on. It was impossible, but of course, the anime had to end somehow. SN on the other hand has a more realistic ending. Saber, who is the strongest servant of all, kills Archer Gilgamesh. I am fine with that. But I still think that Gilgamesh is stronger than Saber. It was because of his arrogance that he died like that, nothing else.

In short, SN mixed elements of all three roots into one anime, so you actually get a good story but it leaves many unanswered questions. UBW on the other hand did a better job when it comes to that and actually focused on what's important. Personally, I liked SN more because it was less annoying and more realistic, but objectively seen, the story in UBW was better. So the winner in the first round: Unlimited Blade Works!

CHARACTERS 👦👩

I guess I can't pick a winner here because all the characters are basically the same. Shirou is ignorant and childish in both Stay Night versions, Rin is an awesome and badass character no matter what anime she is in, Saber is...well, Saber...So, I guess we have a tie when it comes to the character section. 

ANIMATION AND STYLE 💻

"I am the bone of my wallet. Hype is my body and money is my blood. I have wasted over a thousand million yen, unknown to DEEN, nor known to JC Staff. Have withstood CG Dragons to create crappy spinoffs. Yet they will never satisfy the Fate fans. So, as I spend, UNLIMITED BUDGET WORKS!" -credits to Gigguk. 

I think you get it. Ufotable created an amazing, stunning, almost unbelievable animation in UBW that I plan to re-watch some time just because of it. I just don't agree with the 'crappy spinoffs' part because I truly am a huge Fate fan. I don't consider all of them masterpieces, but they are and always will be one of my favorite anime. As for DEEN's SN...It was made back in 2006, so I can't really compare it with an 2015 anime, especially when it comes to ufotable. The animation really is bad. But hey, a battle is a battle so this time again, the winner is Unlimited Budget Works! 

CONCLUSION 📌

I guess we have a winner. Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works follows one specific root of the original visual novel and so has an complete story that focuses on Emiya Shirou and his character development. With a breathtaking animation, ufotable takes animation quality to a whole new level and sets new standards that hardly any other anime studio can compare to. Unlimited Blade Works clearly deserves to be called a masterpiece and also the winner in this anime battle! As for Fate/Stay Night, produced by DEEN, it definitely lacks good animation and a fixed story line. It also leaves some unanswered questions that are answered in UBW but it still doesn't mean that it is bad. The story even ends better than in UBW. 

The anime community argues much about whether you should just watch UBW or just SN, but I definitely agree with those that say that you should watch both of them. Even though it's a messy one and "People die if they are killed" (Emiya Shirou), I enjoyed the story line of Stay Night more, but ufotable's animation in UBW is incomparable to any other. Watch SN because Shirou is less annoying and it has a more realistic story line, but don't miss UBW's spectacular animation and the answers to some very important questions. 

What do you think, which Stay Night version is better? Which one do you like more? Leave your thoughts and answers in the comments bellow! 

Your Anime Girl ❤