Fate/Stay Night ~ Unlimited Blade Works ep 3

Episode 3 of unlimited blade works, YAY Berserker! Now as everyone knows from when I covered episode one, I am not Shirou’s biggest fan. This episode guys, this episode somehow managed to take my biggest issue with him and erase it. If it keeps up like this I might have an entirely new perspective on him by the time the show is over.

Let’s recap, Iliya showed up to face them at the end of the last episode with Berserker at her side. I mentioned that we’ve watched Fate/Zero recently, well you can see in this one frame. from how she steps back slightly to the look on her face when hearing Iliya’s last name and looking at her the “Oh no.” look on Saber’s face.

Rin sends Archer off to fight from a distance and tells Shirou to run, Saber takes the battle off into a graveyard so she can provide herself with cover. [good thinking.] Wait, what’s this, REAL human emotions from Shirou? He’s scared, he’s really scared and with good reason. This is a far cry from the Shirou that nearly got himself killed trying to fight Berserker in the first anime. He wants not to fight FOR Saber, but WITH Saber.
Not even going to lie, i’m super impressed with how this anime is handling Shirou as a character. I could actually become rather invested in him if it keeps up like this.

The next part of this episode is absolutely amazing even though it’s merely Kirei and Gilgamesh talking. I need to make a drinking game out of how many times Kirei is going to think about Kiritsugu throughout this series and reach back in time to imagine smacking him across the face. [Side note: Gilgamesh is sexy in street clothing, he needs to have his hair down all the time. Then maybe Saber will have sex with him.]

There is also in this episode, a very interesting fight between Rin and Iliya. This is something completely new, it wasn’t in the first anime. [not even sure if it’s in the game. it wasn’t in the route my friend is playing.] Iliya almost kills Rin, if Archer hadn’t of stepped in last second we wouldn’t of had Rin for more then three episodes. This is scary, Iliya was a very hands off master in the first anime, to see her fight like this is really rather scary.

Saber and Berserker fight, she lands a good few hits and even manages with the use of her noble phantasm to kill him. Too bad Berserker has a time reversing noble phantasm. Did they really think it was going to be that easy to kill [censored for spoilers!].
Shirou shows up at the battle feild and senses an attack that Archer is going to launch that Saber doesn’t sense and runs in to save her. OMG, he’s saving her not because she’s a girl but because he sensed an attack that she didn’t? He’s not being sexist and trying to get himself killed because Saber is a girl? He’s acting like a real human? I LOVE THIS SHIROU! Can we have more of him? I approve of this version of him.

Iliya gains an interest in Archer and calls the battle for now, however it seems like Shirou got more hurt then we thought. This episode was amazing, the battles were amazing, even the part where the episode slowed for the talk between Gilgamesh and Kirei left me on the edge of my seat. I can’t wait for next episode and to see if they keep up the pace with Shirou’s character development.

~Midnight