If you thought the warfare was hectic, wait until you see the home life.
What They Say:
Saber tells Shirou all about Heroic Spirits and Noble Phantasms. She explains why she doesn’t want to reveal her true identity to him. Shirou wants Saber to stay at his place for a while. Will Fujimura approve this request?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Now that we’ve reached a point at which any viewer would be forgiven for accidentally saying “Unlimited Budget Works” for the subtitle of this series, most fears of any incompetence penetrating this candidate for a perfect adaptation should be dispelled. But as has always been the case in any entry to the Fate franchise, there’s not going to be action all the time, and while it may have some of the finest action scenes anyway, the story wouldn’t have reached the level of popularity necessary to warrant such a budget if that’s all there was to it.
There are still a lot of details of this rich world to cover, and having Shirou in the position of a potential new viewer makes the explanations a lot more natural than if a group made entirely of those versed in the matters were sitting around having a stilted “As you know…” conversation. Additionally, the emergence of this war into Shirou’s life does not negate his day-to-day existence as it’s played out before now, and not only is it more interesting to see how it is affected by such a huge change than to assume that he was somehow able to keep his worlds from getting crossed, it’s also fairly obvious that Rin isn’t the only one from Shirou’s “normal” life who may have some involvement in the more fantastical matters.
And so we get a much slower episode, giving us a view of each participant in the first big battle after the fact, building up to what’s to come on multiple levels, and continuing to develop the plot and character relationships as mentioned above. Saber is obviously an extremely important character even when Fate isn’t the route being adapted, and nearly all of what this episode accomplishes involves her. For her to sit down and have a proper, one-to-one conversation with Shirou in a peaceful setting is something that should’ve happened much earlier if not for all the wonderful chaos and confusion to contend with. Her reactions to his kindness do give some indication of her role as a potential romantic interest, but for those who know anything of her role in Fate/Zero, it should be clear to see why she would be so pleasantly surprised by having a Master such as him. Those same viewers will find her continued exposition redundant, but it’s essential to understanding any Holy Grail War, and the perspective of someone like Saber is still refreshing in some ways.
As Saber makes her presence known to several people from Shirou’s school, she both forces Shirou to begin coming up with explanations that will cause his home life to become even livelier and begins sniffing out something mysterious, foreshadowing about as explicitly as one inadvertently can. The episode isn’t devoid of action, though, as Rin is on a mission of her own and shows how adept she is as a solo fighter. The creatures she disposes of may appear another example of ufotable almost making me eat my words in regard to their flawless quality with their full CG rendering, but when they’re nothing but moving bones and the lighting and meshing with 2D elements remain as consistent, even I can’t complain much.
In Summary:
After a big fight we’re back to the quieter moments. It may not impress visually on the same grandiose scale, but it provides important development of plot and characters alike, as well as building up to the bevy of new conflicts to come. Saber gets her first big opportunity to show what kind of a person is rather than just what kind of a fighter is, and while some of the truth that’s being kept a mystery for the time being is likely to be known by many viewers, it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment, and it plays out as more of what Shirou doesn’t know than what the audience is expected not to know, just as it should.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, 27” 1080p HDTV.