That’s one thing I say in the notes a few times, since Shiro is the origin of the meme (from Deen/Stay Night).

Since I cut the previous post into two and squashed it on top of the next one, this has 2 double episodes and 7 episodes total, so it’s 9 episodes’ worth of Unlimited Blade Works! No wonder I feel so tired from watching it all…

Note I’m listing the prologue as ep. 1 and the real ep. 1 as ep. 2 (because it’s easier for me that way), so you might have to +1 to an episode number.

Synopsis

UBW 1 – 7: The framework gets put into place and Masters start to show their hands, but this time one Servant has amnesia. (Also, I really didn’t like Shinji because he had the same smug air as Gilgamesh but wasn’t as attractive, which is a big sign he’s probably going to be psycho later.)

Reactions

• Now that’s the Rin I know from fandom whispers.
• Turns out this is ep. 0 and there’s actually 12 eps…
• This brunette reminds me of Maiya.
• This wavy haired guy’s a Matou? Geesh, he somehow reminds me of the Great B*stard Archer.
• Miss Fujimura’s a bit of a non-sequitur…
• If I remember the fan whispers right, his name is Issei Hyoudou…? (Or is that the High School DxD guy?) Update: Issei Hyoudou is the High School DxD guy, this is Issei Ryuudou.
• If people die when they are killed, then machines should, too.
• The button says “voicemail”…well, it’s actually rusu, where rusuban denwa = answering machine (denwa = phone, so rusu means something like “protecting the house (while you’re gone)”). The best way to translate it would be “voicemail” though.
• Fuyuki Church (Kyoukai)? Rin has them on her voicemail???
• I seem to remember reading that this white-haired character is an alternate universe Shiro Emiya…but I guess we’ll find out later, huh?
• Hmm…I’ve seen this Command Seal before. I think it might be Dewbond’s profile pic, in fact…which tells me that he likes Rin. Update: It’s missing the “stalk” but otherwise matches.
• The compulsion the guy is talking about reminds me of Steph from NGNL and how she was forced to fall in love with Sora.
• Rin’s treating this like a gacha game…LOL.
• Pride vs. pride, huh?
• “The Archer class really is made up of archers!” – …and people die if they are killed, y’know? (<- I know this from the memes. I won’t cover Deen/Stay Night, people don’t normally recommend it.)
• Why is a cup omnipotent, anyway? Cups don’t have the ability to have knowledge. By the way, I bet Rin’s acquaintance will have something to do with this. Update: Yes, he does. See ep. 1.
• Rin’s Holy Grail War work reminds me of my own experience with piano. Basically, I grew up doing it, so I never questioned it until I thought about what I really wanted to do. I expect Rin will be the same way.
• Hmm…Sakura and…the Great B*stard?
• Rin says all of this about “crude garbage”, so all I can focus on is the bin off to the side…LOL.
• Oooooooh…so this appearance of Sakura is why people put F/Z before this.
• Saber…the reason she’s so popular is because she appears in so many incarnations of Fate/ that she’s basically become a poster girl for it.
• There’s something that pisses me off about Sakura. It’s probably because she’s fairly submissive, like a girl who was written to be a guy’s fantasy.
• The OP and ED was subbed the first time, so the fact this OP and ED aren’t is interesting.
• I think I’ve seen these scenes before…probably because they look exactly like the setup for Today’s Menu for Emiya Family.
• Hypoxia.
• Sakura’s boobs jiggled…urgh…
• This episode feels a lot more like a VN intro.
• Some of these scenes were from a different perspective in the prologue, so I’ll try to skip them.
• Stove = heater, if you didn’t catch on.
• Oh hey, Emiya isn’t part of the archery club anymore…but there’s some evidence that an alternate Emiya became that Archer Rin has.
• That’s Ilya, isn’t it…?
• Emiya’s magic incompetence reminds me of Waver.
• Shinji is Sakura’s older bro??? I never heard of this…? Step-bro, maybe?
• I read one of the labels on the machine – makanai setto – and turns out it’s a [meal] set for staff (teachers).
• This series’s messages are like anvils…even more so than F/Z.
• Where does Emiya work…? (For some reason, I call Kiritsugu that but Shiro “Emiya”.)
• Archer’s not in white…not that much, anyway.
• “…I really nearly was killed.” – Yes, and people die when they are killed, Emiya. You said so yourself in Deen/Stay Night.
• I know this iconic scene where Emiya stares at Saber! I’ve seen it in all the screenshots and everything.
• The blindfolded woman in the OP is apparently Medea. I think I mentioned her offhandedly in one of the WP posts I did, so I didn’t expect to see her so soon.
• Most of this ep is explaining this stuff to beginners. I can skip that.
• I don’t get the appeal of Rin, but then again, I’m neutral at best on tsunderes.
• Shoten Books? Like, Bookseller Books? How redundant…
• “[G]enuine fake priest” – …LOL wut?
• Why is Kirei giving me Equilibrium vibes…? Oh, it’s because he has silly hair that reminds me of Christian Bale. That’s why.
• I’m laughing – this new Berserker reminds me of Tsukasa (Dr Stone).
• Ah, same old Gilgamesh. He’s just in different clothes.
• Kiritsugu felt like he actually was a character. Emiya? Just a blank slate, really.
• Welp, that was over fast…
• I’m getting sick of Rin’s tsundereness, fast.
• Okay, crash course in types of Servants. I needed this.
• *Saber reveals the outfit is from Rin* – Ooh, Shiro, don’t go judgin’ Rin like that…
• Oh-hoh, Sakura does archery, huh?
• I bet Kuzuki actually is a mage. That’s how these things always turn out, no?
• Actually, I think Emiya might be a better match for my piano experience. There’s this one person who played at a higher level of piano than I did, but they kept telling me that I was way better than them at piano (although I don’t know if that was self-deprecation and/or inflating my ego). As I mentioned in my relation to Rin, I forcibly cut it out of my life because my parents chose it for me –no desire to hit the target, in one way of speaking.
• I can see why Fate/ needed a cooking spinoff now…LOL.
• Shinto = New City, with a particular combo of kanji (新都).
• Are these Touken Ranbu enemies, Rin…? (They’re called Historical Revisionists, technically, and I specifically refer to enemy wakizashi.)
• I seem to remember from somewhere Sakura is Caster’s master…hmm. Another thing to confirm.
• That Rin reaction face! I’ve seen it before!
• Medea is one of the only Servants that was originally a woman, so…it’s interesting to see she’s been given a chain as a method to keep up (but also vaguely annoying to see her have such a short skirt). A chain weapon seems to be the sort of weapon for an agile user, with possible sexual overtones (if you want to interpret it that way), so it seems like it came straight from a male fantasy of a woman.
• Rin is the sort that places a lot of stock into obligations, I see.
• I learnt how to read the word “mirage” in Japanese somewhat recently (in comparison to the basics, which I learnt through a CD-ROM maybe…15 or so years ago?). It’s shinkirou.
• I find it interesting that these eps. are marked as Fate/Stay Night and the series is Fate/Stay Night UBW, because Deen/Stay Night (as I’ve been referring to the Deen version of F/SN) looks pretty different to Ufotable’s F/SN, judging by that “People die when they are killed” meme.
• The subbers spelt “specialty” wrong…
• Well, Emiya, being in a room with a girl…alone…you really are a typical VN lead, aren’t you?
• LOL! I knew Kojiro was also part of this series and I think I knew he was an Assassin, but s***! He’s an absolute looker!
• …and *sigh* Caster is using her sensuality against men. A regular Fujiko Mine, she is.
• I think my heart did something when Archer gave that intense stare at Caster, too. This is no time for a reverse harem!

Initial Impressions

I think the really entertaining thing of putting me under the pump like this is that I have such an incomplete understanding of how the Fate/ universe works that the outcomes of everything create enough entertainment for those who’ve committed to said universe. The things that I do know might be really late-game though – such as the white-haired Servant being an alternate Shiro – so I have my own surprises to confirm.

I already know from checking up previous info that UBW is for the 5th Holy Grail War and Shiro is part of it (confirmed with ep. 3). UBW has more infamy than F/Z, according to the things I can recall simply from wandering around the same spaces as Fate/ fans. I definitely remember envying Fate/ fans when I was studying Medea, because just knowing who she was from fandom would’ve made my life a lot easier – that’s how I knew about her, if I didn’t mention it.

(By the way, the math for how much UBW I watched for this post is (48 x 2) + (24 x 5) = 96 + 120 = about 216 mins or 3.6 hours. I didn’t watch the entire thing in one shot, but I did it in one day.)

Screenshot Corner DX (i.e. only the best screenshots)

From ep. 2.

In the end, I only missed the new Monday deadline I set myself by a few minutes…but yeah, I should probably be more careful with this rigorous schedule.