Fate: Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

  

     Based on: 2004 Fate/stay night visual novel developed by Japanese video game company Type-Moon

Written by: Akira Hiyama, Kazuharu Sato, Tatsuki Ichinose

Produced by: Ufotable 

Starring: 

(Note: due to a large cast of characters, multiple iterations, and separate English and Japanese actors, I'm only listing the primary characters to avoid excessive clutter)

Japanese: Noriaki Sugiyama (Shirou Emiya), Ayako Kawasumi (Saber), Kana Ueda (Rin)

English: Sam Riegel (Shirou Emiya), Kate Higgins (Saber), Mela Lee (Rin) 

Fate: Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works trailer: 

This series is long and convoluted, but also rich in philosophy and mythology. 

I'll jump right into a basic synopsis because it can be very complicated to discuss otherwise. Fate: Stay Night (and other series in the "Fate" franchise) is about the Holy Grail War, an epic strategy game (battle?) where several different players (usually aristocratic Houses) fight each other to claim the legendary Holy Grail. In this series, the Holy Grail has nothing to do with Jesus or the Bible; it's simply a name for a magical artifact with the power to grant any one wish. 

Each player in the war consists of a human "Master" and a mythical "Servant." The latter is a magical entity, often a legendary figure or hero from ancient cultural lore, made physical and sentient by the Grail's power. The Master and Servant are bound together by a magical contract to help each other win the Grail, though each individual often has different personal goals. 

If that sounds like a lot, believe me-- it gets even more confusing. Having not partaken in any other part of this franchise (it's based on a visual novel, as stated above), I only barely remained afloat each episode. However, simply understanding the competitive nature of the Holy Grail War and the basic nature of that Master-Servant contract will get you most of the way. And overall, it's quite a fun ride. 

Saber, Shirou, and Rin meet 

Shriou, a novice magician at the beginning of the series, begins to realize his power

One thing this series does very well is exploring the depth of strategy employed by all players. Not to dive in too deeply, each "Servant" has a specific class within the War: a Caster, for example, would specialize in spell-casting, whereas an Archer would specialize in bow and arrow. I think there are maybe six different classes, and each one has a set of strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, as I mentioned before, each Servant is a manifestation of a figure or hero from cultural lore, such as King Arthur or Gilgamesh. Each of these figures has additional abilities or weaknesses that they're known for in their respective lore. A foundational aspect of the series is each Master discovering who their Servant is, what their class is, their combined advantages, and how to use all of these against the other players in the War. 

The powerful Archer-class hero in Stay Night

My only frustration was that toward the end of Stay Night, things got just a bit too convoluted for me. Contracts were switched; the main character Shirou and his close ally Rin apparently traded contracts, and one Servant betrayed their Master. There was also talk of the previous Holy Grail War (one is held about every decade or century, if I remember right) and debts being paid from that one. I think one or two rules were flagrantly broken in exchange for power. Overall, I just couldn't keep track of the minutia. 

Despite my confusion, I'm excited to come back to this franchise for the next iteration in line, Fate: Zero. Hopefully I'll be able to discern some connection between the two!!