Fate/Stay Night: UBW, Anime Recommendation!

So one of my favorite artists, Aimer recently announced her marriage; seeing her up in the news brought back fond memories of her best work. She recently worked on Chainsaw Man as well, fantastic work as always. But, my personal favorite Aimer work happens to be Brave Shine. Yes, the 2nd opening theme for Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade works. That is why I picked it for this week’s anime recommendation.

So welcome back to another edition of our anime recommendation series! This week we are talking about Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works or UBW for short. My personal favorite F/SN route and probably my personal favorite Fate Anime as well; it’s a competition between this and Fate/Zero for the top spot. So let’s get started.

GIF courtesy, Tenor

Introduction

Fate/Stay Night, all three routes are based on the 2005 visual novel of the same name by Kinoko Nasu and Type/Moon. The story is of course divided into 3 routes, Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven’s Feel. Fate route has a rather bad adaptation by Studio Deen; which I don’t recommend. Play VN for the Fate route instead. Then we have our today’s topic, UBW the 2nd route. Yes, you can start with this anime even if you don’t know anything about Fate/Series at all. UBW is one of the best starting points. I recommend following it up with the HF movies.

Plot

Seven Masters summon seven Servants to fight over the Holy Grail. The victor may get any one of their wishes fulfilled as a reward. Shirou a seemingly normal high schooler is suddenly dragged into this war when he’s attacked by a Servant and ends up summoning his own, Saber. Always the idealist, Shirou does not wish to fight but little does he know about what is actually going on in the war.

As I said, UBW anime is one of the best starting points if you want to get into Fate-verse. The plot is really amazing. It will always keep you on edge and it does not overload you with info like HF. The plot point of pitting one against their “ideal” self is interesting and manifests in a way you probably won’t expect. Lots of action and twists to keep you going on as well.

Characters

Archer is one of my favorite anime characters, ever. Bro is thoroughly broken and devoid of hope, and he is clinging to the last strand of hope even if it means erasing himself from existence. By the end of the series, he realizes the faults of his ways. That ending scene is beautiful. Rin is one of my favorite waifus once again. She’s cheeky but she’s really smart and a good compliment to Shirou because she is willing to do what he isn’t.

Animations and Soundtracks

UFOTable, I love you. Beautiful art design and animations. The fights are smooth and crisp, they are really well-directed. The magic effects are awesome. Great job on the lighting overall. The soundtracks are amazing too. I love the fact that they kept and remixed some soundtracks from the original VN to keep the feeling of familiarity. UFOTable’s Fate/Stay Night has amazing animations and soundtracks for sure.

Why should you watch Fate/Stay Night: UBW?

Quick pointers on why you should check out this anime:

• Great plot
• Good characters
• Awesome animations
• Awesome fights
• Great soundtracks/sound design

Conclusion

Well, that is all for now. As you can see, Fate/Stay Night is pretty close to my heart. I really do love this series and I am always a sucker for more Type/Moon works. Let me know what you think in the comments. I will take my leave here. See ya!