Anime Review: Fate Stay Night - Unlimited Blade Works

I just got around to watching this, and I have to say that even having played (more like read) the visual novel, I was confused as hell by the pacing.

This movie runs around for 1 hour and 45 minutes. That's not enough to scratch the surface of Unlimited Blade Works. For those who are familiar with the source material, Fate Stay Night is basically like a visual e-book that is comprised of three story arcs - Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. To even finish each arc alone requires at least 20 or so hours of reading, and clicking, and that's considering you are one hell of a fast reader. To me, this movie felt like it was a 105 minute montage that served only to showcase the high points of UBW.

Even then, there were some scenes that felt underwhelming. One of the parts that the anime series got right was during Archer's unleashing of his most powerful ability - Unlimited Blade Works. That was one of hell of a scene as he makes his last stand in order for his comrades to escape. Here in the movie, it was anticlimactic at best, as he didn't even recite the entire incantation to conjure his said ace in the hole. Sure, it was prettier, but there was no sort of build up to it, mostly because they had to cram an anime season's worth of content into one short movie.

If you're a fan of the Fate Stay Night series, then I won't even have to tell you to watch this. You owe it to yourself at least to finally see UBW animated in all (not really) it's glory. For those who haven't, then I recommend saving your bandwidth to much more profitable than ventures, namely just getting the source material instead.

Overview:

+ Unlimited Blade Works is finally animated!
- Why is it a movie?

That's pretty much the gist of it. Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works gets a rating of 6.0/10 from me.