Underplayed Gems

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (2014)

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works poster
Original title
Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]
Genre
action anime and manga, fantasy anime and manga
Country
Japan
Length
2 seasons, 25 episodes
Rated
TV-14
Rating
8.0 of 10 from 367 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A high school student and amateur magus named Shirou Emiya is forced into a secret magical battle royale called the Holy Grail War. He teams up with another master named Rin Tohsaka, but her servant Archer seems to hate him for reasons unknown.

visually lushaction-packeddramaticphilosophicalintensefast-paceddark fantasymysterious

What happens

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works is an anime television series produced by Ufotable. It is based on the visual novel Fate/stay night produced by Type-Moon. The narrative is primarily based on the Unlimited Blade Works story route from the visual novel and centers around Shirou Emiya, a high school student and amateur magus living in Fuyuki City, Japan. Shirou is unexpectedly dragged into the Fifth Holy Grail War, a secret magical tournament in which seven participants, known as "Masters", and their "Servants", reincarnated personifications of legendary historical heroes, fight in a battle royale for the Holy Grail, an omnipotent magical chalice that can fulfill any wish or desire for its victor. When Shirou and his Servant Saber are forced to team up with Rin Tohsaka, another Master in the Holy Grail War, Shirou finds himself earning the strong dislike of Rin's mysterious Servant Archer, whose true motivations are unknown. The concept for a new Unlimited Blade Works anime originated from Ufotable president Hikaru Kondo, who wanted to create a new anime adaptation based on the Fate/stay night visual novel. Although initially many staff members were in disagreement over how to properly adapt the novel due to its three routes, it was eventually decided that the Unlimited Blade Works route would be adapted. In creating the series, Ufotable wanted to further explore the protagonist's conflicts with Archer while also providing new scenes not featured in the original visual novel. The series was first announced in early 2014. Its 26 episodes were split into two seasons that aired from October 5 to December 28, 2014, and April 5 to June 28, 2015, respectively. It was released Blu-ray and DVD in both Japanese and English speaking territories in 2015. Unlimited Blade Works was one of the most anticipated anime of the end of 2014, following from the general popularity of the Fate franchise and the success of Ufotable's previous adaptation of Fate/Zero. Upon release, it received highly positive reviews from critics, who directed particular praise towards the writing of Shirou and other characters as well as the visually striking animation. It was a major commercial success in Japan, having multiple top-selling home media releases and being the winner of multiple awards from the magazine Newtype. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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