Opening Songs
OP 1 - Brave Shine (Aimer)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Ring Your Bell (Kalafina)
Genre: Action, Drama, Supernatural
Episodes: 13
Welcome back to another installment of the "Fate" franchise, honestly, a franchise that has been milked a whole damned lot for its....honestly repetitive nature. Still, repetitive it may be, but people still eat it up anyways because Ufotable does an amazing job at making the anime look amazing. After the previous half of a season, we are back once again for the conclusive half of "Unlimited Blade Works", which supposedly contains the "climax" and exciting segments of this ark. With that in mind, you should expect a fun ride, and of course, if you've watched the first half, you owe it to yourself to watch the second half as well, because its where the fun is at. There's really not much else to say except for...prepare your ass for more "Fate", more well animated battles, more of Saber as a bride, and a lot more of Archer, a character that becomes excessively fleshed out in this series.
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| These 2 feel more important than Shirou and Saber this time around. |
The opening theme is "Brave Shine" by Aimer, which is a pretty good piece coming from her, considering how I'm not too big of a fan of Aimer songs. "Brave Shine" is epic, it has a great "Oath Sign" feel to it, and its so fitting for an anime that's part of the "Fate" series. The ending theme is "Ring Your Bell" by Kalafina, and you know me, I'm a sucker for Kalafina songs. Its certainly not as strong as "Believe", but "Ring Your Bell" is still easily opening theme material because of the nice tempo and strong vocals.
Rating: 8.0/10
Want more amazing fights? Watch "UBW". Want more focus on Rin and Archer? Watch "UBW". Want to see the blood bathe battle royal that this route is known for? Watch f**king "UBW". There's really not much I can elaborate on, the second half of the "UBW" route focuses on a lot of story, a lot more than what the first half offered. Of course, there are no shortage of nice battles in this second half. Being a different ark, things go very differently than they did in the "Fate" route, and there's a lot of focus on Archer in this second half. As far as the lore on a character that's pretty much iconic in this franchise, this is as deep as it gets, there isn't any other form of media where you can find this story about Archer from: and honestly, its quite a doozy. IMO this second half feels a little bit dragged out and the pacing is a little rough, though as usual, Ufotable's animation on the fight scenes carry it through nicely. Also, IMO, the conclusion for "UBW" is FAR better than "Fate"'s, it actually ends the series on a more satisfying note.
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| Calm down...spoilers? Nah, this is the first thing you see in season 2. |
Following the events of season 1, Saber was kidnapped by Caster, bringing about the end of his reign as a master. To make things worse, it also marks the end of the partnership between Shirou and Rin, since Shirou is no longer a master without Saber, he can no longer participate in the Holy Grail War. Shioru, being the justice freak that he is, still thinks about rescueing Saber, even without the aid of a servant OR a competent mage like Rin. Thinking that he can use his skills to trace archer's weapons for battles, he heads into the fray to save Saber. On the other hand, Rin and Archer go together to save Saber from Caster's clutches, however, things go horribly wrong. Archer betrays Rin and goes over to Caster's side, Saber is still captured, leaving Rin and Shirou to their lonesome selves. Now the 2 of them have to work together to somehow turn things around.
And that concludes the "UBW" ark. Its already been confirmed that the "Heaven's Feel" movie and eventually the anime adaptation of that is on the way, so we'll see how that one goes (finally time to see some love for Sakura). At the end of the day, "UBW", while a satisfying show from start to finish, feels a bit dragged out. Still, for "Fate" fans, this is an easy "must watch".
