What They Say:
Archer finally arrives at the scene in the school. Rin fills him in on what happened. Together with Shirou and Saber, they plan to find out who the real Master of Caster is. After losing Rider, Shinji heads to the church!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After how eventful the previous episode ended up being, it’s so surprise that the aftermath requires a bit of a breather to get everything back to normal. It’s amazing enough that the public seems to be brushing the incident as it appears to them aside so easily, but there’s a reason these wars have managed to play out without any real investigation into such matters, and this certainly isn’t the biggest thing to have happened as a result of one. All is going about as well for the bystanders as could be expected given the circumstances, so in the wake of such a sudden and brutal attack, our lead alliance knows that all efforts must be made to uncover the identity of the enemy still lurking within the school. Rin leads the charge in this mission, giving Shirou his directives and treating him as a more valuable companion than her own Servant, must to the latter’s chagrin. Shirou shows some notable signs of attraction here while Rin seems not to notice, a good role reversal that builds up the mutual relationship much more realistically.
Shirou also can’t help seeing Saber as a beautiful woman, but she’s still very much about being a warrior whose duty it is to protect him. I’ve commented that Saber hasn’t shown the side of her that Fate/Zero offered a great deal of very much in this series thus far, but in this episode she has a conversation with Archer that brings forth that strong sense of a knight’s honor that so deeply defines her. Similarly the episode touches on the development of Shirou’s old promise to Kiritsugu that he would become the hero of justice that his father never could, an ideal still spoken of so earnestly despite being so childishly naïve. That scenes like this continue to consistently use Kajiura’s beautiful Fate/Zero pieces in place of Fukasawa’s decent new compositions is a wonderful little bit of congruity that I appreciate almost as much as just hearing Kajiura’s music.
Some of the sillier humor we’ve had in quite a while comes from Shirou’s immediate idea of how to tell whether or not his friend is a Master. Rin’s idea of how he’d go about doing it was so hilariously in line with his personality that it shows how much they’ve gotten to know each other more than anything, but apparently she doesn’t know just how warped Shirou can be, and if there are BL fans watching this show, this is probably the closest thing they could hope to get. For what seems like such slapstick humor, everything stays very on-model and realistic-looking, and even Issei’s reaction as he escapes Shirou’s assault and makes a relatively graceful exit feels far realer than I’d expect from such a scene, even with the serious underpinning of Shirou’s question.
Obviously any episode like this serves the purpose of providing a great deal of buildup, and as we approach the last stretch of the first cour, we can be fairly certain there won’t be more than one episode of this kind of relative tranquility in a row. We haven’t seen much of Kirei since his first appearance in episode 2, but as Shinji retreats to the church we get to bask in his enigmatic glory some more. And even if this is one’s first exposure to the franchise, it’s clear that the visit to Sakura’s house and the conversations involving both the recurring mystery man and Rin’s attempt at a hypothetical question regarding adoption are all leading to something very exciting.
In Summary:
After another peaceful day turned into a bloodbath and what almost seemed like a tragedy that could claim the lives of countless civilians close to the main characters, we get the closest this series has to a breather, looking at the possibilities remaining to prevent such an incident from reoccurring and trying to piece together the mysteries that have been teasing what’s to come. As we’ve come to expect from such moments, we get solid character work throughout, letting Shirou and Rin be casual in a way that shows how much closer they’ve become and bringing forth the principles that Saber lives and dies by. Its buildup indicates a lot to look forward to very soon.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, 27” 1080p HDTV.
