If Im being honest even as VN reader I enjoyed myself very much with this adaptation and if you scroll down youll see I rated it 8.5/10 which is a very good score. However as an adaptation its quite a mixed bag and there are multiple problems and strengths of this adaptation I want to properly address. As always this review contains spoilers. I expect you to have watched the anime. Now grab some popcorn while reading because this review will be long. Content 1.Shirou Emiya A character study 2.Where Ufos UBW failed 3.Nothing beats a smiling Saber 4.What the anime has the VN doesnt 5.Conclusion Imghttps://externalcontent.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https3A2F2Fanimekaizoku.com2Fwpcontent2Fuploads2F20202F032Fpic3.jpg Fate/stay night is and always will be a characterdriven story. Each route explores the psyche of our main character Shirou Emiya and each route offers a different answer and solution to the problem our protagonist struggles with. Given that theyre 1000 different watch orders for no reason I wont elaborate more on other routes but its important to understand that Fate/stay night is one story as a whole with Shirou as its centre. Especially UBW as second route explores his psyche a lot and sets necessary stakes for the final route Heavens Feel. Emiya Shirou A character study Shirou suffers under severe survivor guilt and has little to no selfworth. Instead of valuing himself he places importance on saving others becoming a superhero who can save everyone. Hes aware hes no superhero and hes also aware that hes powerless but all he cares about is the path he took and the goal at the end. His survivor guilt is that severe that he can only accept the fire as outcome if he thrives to be a hero of justice. For him its logical and obviously the right thing. https://i.ur.com/qnR2Z5u.png Even if this type of mindset is highly selfdestructive when he doesnt care about himself. Archer explains it with money: You can help someone by giving them money and you may feel good about it. But if you dont use money for yourself and keep giving it to others you will have nothing left. It doesnt matter what type of person you are but you will eventually run out of money and thats where youll collapse. Imghttps://i.ur.com/ZYUKZtW.png UBW focuses heavily on the selfdestructive aspect not only by having several characters pointing out Shirous flawed mindset but also providing a mirror with Archer who is the future version of himself in an alternate timeline. In that timeline Emiya made a contract with the world Araya and became a counter guardian. By that however he basically made himself a slave by having to counter threats to mankind over and over like a machine. This cycle of killing he was forced to go through eventually led to desperation because he never was able to fulfil his ideals. Instead of saving everyone he had to choose lives over others even if it destroyed him inside little by little. As a result Archer cannot stand Shirou who will go down the same path as him and his main goal becomes to kill the Shirou who will become Archer. Imghttps://i.ur.com/KB117VV.png Its important though that Archer still wants to save people. He lost his faith in his ideals but that doesnt necessarily mean this ideal itself is false. Ever since Kiritsugu saved Shirou in the fire the idea of saving people became beautiful to him. The beauty of his ideal is the conclusion Shirou arrives at which becomes the fundamental reason why he simply cant give up on them. Difference between the two is therefore a matter of faith Whether you still can believe in your ideals of not. And the solution UBW offers is that in fact you can still believe. But in order to do so you need great perseverance and belief a struggle Shirou sees himself conflicted with when quite literally his own self tells him to give his ideals up. In the fight in the Einzbern castle Shirou even experienced memories from Archer picturing clearly before his eyes what path he may end up on. Imghttps://i.ur.com/j6VfbPb.png The thing is Shirou only has his ideals. Saber once asked him the reason why he wants to be a superhero and Shirou struggled with an answer because saving others is something natural for him it defines him. Its like having to answer why sugar tastes good. People meme about the even if youre correct youre wrong line but given the context it makes a lot of sense. If Shirou would give up on his ideals he would end up like Archer: Disillusioned desperate and bitter. The struggle in UBW lies between facing an apparent inevitable truth and staying true to oneself. The final clash between Archer and Shirou in the Einzbern castle will always be one of my favourite fights in all of Fate/stay night simply because it drives Shirous perseverance and determination to the utmost limit. The VN showed this by having Shirou fight in a very selfdestructive way where he would simply collapse once he stops to fight. At the brink of death he still couldnt bring himself to admitting Archer is right even under massive headache and a body which screams at him with incredible pain he still kept his belief that he cant be wrong for pursuing his ideals. And even if Archer was able to finish him off which he initially intended Shirous determination lasting throughout the whole fight frightened him and he couldnt fathom that Shirou would be able to keep fighting in such a state. But contrary to his expectations Shirou kept fighting like a dead corpse ultimately leading to Archer not being able to stop the final attack of Shirou and getting stabbed. Imghttps://i.ur.com/3b7CxJr.png UBW openly shows Shirous flaws and it also shows that his ideal in itself is not bad. As long as he can keep believing in it he can either die satisfied by having tried to live up to his ideals the outmost or arrive at a different answer previously given. And as long as he doesnt let himself get destroyed by his own ideals they can be a very beautiful and admirable thing in themselves. You can say that UBW as a whole is one big challenge for Shirou to prove that he can do just that. Imghttps://i.ur.com/8XXqlEZ.png Where Ufos UBW failed As beautiful as it is with how deeply layered the VN explores Shirous character it also exposes the issues I have with this adaptation. The fundamental issue lies with leaving out a lot of monologue which never shouldve been removed. Leaving out monologues may work in a plotdriven story but in a characterdriven story like Fate/stay night it removes one of the core aspects of why this is such an incredible story. I will not say that they didnt try: We see the fire and the tragedy of the previous grail war multiple times and the anime takes its time to show that Shirou is clearly not normal. But its simply not enough. An extreme example would be the date in episode 12 of season 1 which actually receives a rather dark tone in the VN due to Shirou blaming himself for having fun and actually enjoying himself. Imghttps://i.ur.com/R5TD2iJ.png Leaving out this piece of monologue completely transformed the meaning and tone of the scene making it simply a nice cutesy scene. Thats not necessarily bad of course but given that the VN uses every opportunity possible to break down Shirou as a character the end result is much more impactful than the anime which reduces his characterization to the necessary minimum. Instead of having insight into Shirous mind we only see people bashing him and pointing out his flaws which doesnt help with relating to his struggle and leads to not being very impactful. It even feels jarring at times because it seems like the anime just keeps repeating the obvious. Imghttps://i.ur.com/YIDsRXs.png I think its also no secret that people dislike Shirou as a character because he is stupid and dense. And while this sometimes is not an issue of UBW itself but fans for example having different expectations after watching Fate/Zero which is a whole other topic in itself I think its also a fault of the adaptation. We know Shirou has survivor guilt we know that he has no selfworth. But because its not that apparent on many occasions his behaviour seems stupid and illogical from an outside perspective. His mindset and worldview are so warped that its important to gain as much insight into his way of thinking as possible in order to be able to relate to him properly. Its not only core aspects like his survivor guilt however: Removing monologue removes some nuances to his personality as well a good example would be when Tohsaka wants to talk to him in episode 8. In the anime it looks like he is pretty slow for not picking up immediately that she wants to talk to him. VN readers know however that he indeed realized she was waiting for him but was unsure how to handle the situation. There were multiple approaches to handle it you can make choices in the VN to alter the story and the anime went with the choice where he decides to play dumb on purpose. Imghttps://i.ur.com/OsubINv.png It just saddens me that people dont know that Shirou can be pretty snarky as well but unlike Archer he still cares about being polite and leaves certain thoughts to himself. And this is not to blame on the viewer but on weird adaptation choices. The climax of the route Archer vs Shirou also felt a bit hollow in the anime because of the missing characterization and buildup. I also dislike how there is a clear cut between talking and fighting which takes away a lot of the intensity in this battle. Its not visible enough that Archer clearly intended the kill at the start but his confidence wavered as the fight progressed. Changing the scenery to UBW also felt a bit overblown with Archer and Shirou going backandforth instead of one continuous clash which stakes are on whoever will surrender first. I will admit however that the climax is satisfying and LiSAshttps://anilist.co/staff/105561/LiSA song Last Stardust is great. Imghttps://i.ur.com/TRzL7gb.png With all my criticism I nonetheless still immensely enjoyed the UBW anime. Usually its the other way around when critiquing something but now that we looked at its main flaw first lets have a look at stuff I actually really liked. Nothing beats a smiling Saber I think its no secret that UBW has high production values. Of course what first comes to mind are the jawdropping fights which storyboards visibly had a lot of freedom to work with to create wellchoreographed and intense action scenes. You can argue that this is natural by having a more talented director and storyboarder like Miurahttps://anilist.co/staff/107167/MiuraTakahiro than for example what Demon Slayer got with Sotozakihttps://anilist.co/staff/99006/SotozakiHaruo but I feel the fewer limitations from the VN source material are also a big factor. Webmhttps://www.sakugabooru.com/data/f0955117dfe536fdddcfdc38b0642282. Key Animation: Akihiko Udahttps://anilist.co/staff/146682/UdaAkihiko And maybe thats just my own bias speaking but I feel like Yuichi Terao head of digital department in Ufotable really shines more in an urban setting like Fate/stay night and Kara no Kyoukai. Fuyuki at night looks wonderful and structured highrise buildings transition so well into 3D. Imghttps://i.ur.com/2uyaJlL.png The Noble Phantasms of the servants also give him plenty of opportunity to be as flashy as possible assisted by incredible key animation from Ufotables strongest animators. Abe Kunihiro Obunai UBW received the full package and it shows. Webmhttps://www.sakugabooru.com/data/51977d1d4864712d7f17ec404d8a2db9.mp4 Key Animation: Nozomu Abe https://anilist.co/staff/116271/AbeNozomu Technically freelancer but lets call him halfemployed at this point The beauty of the visuals extends to simple character movements too. It was a joy to see all these characters animated and they did a great job capturing Fujiness quirkiness Rins charm and Shinji simply being Shinji. The modernized character designs of course are a matter of taste but I enjoy them for what they are and they accentuate the traits of each character fairly well. Webmhttps://www.sakugabooru.com/data/49e4dc6cb03f0d4b2f14ddae7943560a.mp4 Key Animation: Masato Nagamori https://anilist.co/staff/124353/NagamoriMasato presumed And of course we cant forget Saber the epitome of holiness itself a goddess I will never stop simping in my lifetime. Seeing how all the little moments of her are brought to life simply left me in awe. Imghttps://externalcontent.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https3A2F2Fi.pin.com2Foriginals2Fcc2F9a2F8f2Fcc9a8fcd5bf303c49abc1b35789d6981.jpg Soundtracks and sound design are also great cant comment much on that however because I know shit about music. I thoroughly enjoyed the OST though especially Fukasawas https://anilist.co/staff/103288/FukasawaHideyuki take on EMIYA. https://youtu.be/VTA2nSOBDis In total its hard to deny that the presentation of Ufos UBW is nothing but stunning and thats why I love it nonetheless even while knowing the VN which in my opinion is still the superior version. Maybe its exactly because I know the VN that Im able to fill gaps an animeonly is not able to? I dont know. I want to address as last topic though that there is actually stuff in this adaption the VN doesnt contain. I spoke in great length about how they butchered Shirous characterization but thats not by any means the only change/addition in this anime. And some of these are actually at least for me pretty welcomed. What the anime has which the VN doesnt You either have an adaption which leaves stuff out an adaption which changes content slightly or an adaption which is extremely faithful and adds animeoriginal content on top. Ufos UBW somehow managed to tick all the boxes. The animeoriginal content is most likely to be credited to Nasu Kinoko himself the writer of the VN. He was fairly involved into the production process in writing scenarios for the anime and attending meetings and some of the changes are probably also to be credited to him. That man somehow seems to dislike everything he wrote in the past to the point that Miura and also Sudo later on for the Heavens Feel movies had to restrict him in his desire to rewrite everything. I just hope once Fate Remake happens Nasu can show some love to his original work lol As a VN reader I did like the anime original content though. Examples would be Illya vs Rin in their first encounter Rin investigating the gas incidents or the extended backstory for Illya in episode 3 of the second season. Its not anything major but it serves well as both filler but also interesting content and in my opinion it also shows that there was a lot passion to be found in the anime as adaptation. The very last episode is also completely animeoriginal not only providing great fanservice with Rins and Shirous life after the grail war but also giving pointers to connections to other franchises of the nasuverse. You can argue that this episode shouldve been an OVA and we shouldve gotten the normal epilogue in full length instead but it is what it is and I dont think this is necessarily a dramatic change. For the very last scene I do prefer the script version not VN but the scenario written by Nasu more than what actually ended up being the final product though. Imghttps://i.ur.com/pETr8R0.png To the other things I mentioned above I think I dont have to explain why there is cut content. This is bound to happen in a VN to anime adaption but it can happen in a small scale that it doesnt really matter that much. I think thats the case of UBW because while there is cut content they still included everything needed and there arent many question marks except when it comes to more detailed stuff in lore or systems. And even that is not that huge of an issue because worldbuilding is mostly done in Fate with Heavens Feel digging deeper into the lore. Imghttps://i.ur.com/A3a18g2.png When it comes to changes they are there in numerous occasions and sometimes its pretty much a whatever sometimes its a bit questionable. We all know that Ufotable likes to make fights flashy so I dont think anyone raised an eyebrow I hope when Shirou literally jumped 10 meters in his fight against Gilgamesh or was suddenly able to move in inhuman speed. Other examples would be in episode 2 where they changed the boundary field around the Emiya residence into a mechanical warning system and 10 episodes later Rin praises their boundary field very consistent writing or in the first encounter of between Assassin and Saber. In the VN his sword was actually bent which is the only reason she survived his sword technique. Since its pretty much a technique being able to warp space and time her luck wouldnt have saved her opposed to Gae Bolg. Imghttps://i.ur.com/0dSBAOg.png Conclusion Especially among VN readers you either love or hate it. Its undeniable that the UBW anime did create misconceptions about Fate/stay night: For example that it is a sequel to Fate/Zero or that Shirou is just a generic shounen protagonist. Does that mean its a bad adaptation? I dont think so I still enjoyed it for what it was and I would prefer such an adaption which sometimes was more experimental any time over a bland boring adaptation which may be more faithful but feels empty as an overall product. However I think not every change made in this adaption was good and I hope whoever is in charge in the Fate Remake its not confirmed I know just let me have some hope will revise some adaption choices especially when it comes to monologue. As it stands now TypeMoon X Ufotable is still a very exciting collaboration and I look eagerly forward to the Mahoyo movie in 2023. Thank you for reading through this long review and I hope I also gave some information you didnt know before for example if youre an animeonly. Now that were at the end enjoy this wonderful cut from the one and only Nozomu Abe https://anilist.co/staff/116271/AbeNozomu. Webmhttps://www.sakugabooru.com/data/4b8340f398c7bb8c20186796f9783b60.mp4