F/sn:UBW FTW. You heard me.
No, that’s not government code. It’s the ridiculous acronym for Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, the 2014 anime and alternate-ending reboot of Fate/stay night, the 2006 anime adaptation of the 2004 Japanese visual light novel Fate/stay night and precursor to the 2011 original video animation Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works. The acronym, you see, is no more confusing than the nature of F/sn:UBW itself, which, I’ll have you know, is preceded by a prequel, Fate/Zero, in which the two main (???) characters show their enmity by saying each other’s names very intensely with a frequency bordering on Zen koan or pathological obsession.
Kiritsugu…Emiya.
Kirei…Kotomine.
Yeah. Like that. All. The. Time. Also, yes, Kirei Kotomine IS a priest with Wolverine claws. I’m glad you asked!
Also, I say ??? w/r/t (that is an acronym for “with regard to,” not for “wondrous rapier temple,” for the record) the centrality of said characters because there are, like, 100 main characters in every entry of this series, including Gilgamesh, Alexander the Great, and Arturia Pendragon, who, yes, is Lady King Arthur, which, yes, is awesome.
Anyway, that’s Fate/Zero. We’re talking F/sn:UBW here. (Although Gilgamesh and Arturia show up in that, too.) The point is, the entire raison d’être for these shows, it seems, is to be awesome. They involve warring mage families, a Holy Church that is somehow more corrupt than the Catholic Church in our own world, and the heroic spirits of fallen heroes who battle each other in order to help their summoning masters achieve the Holy Grail — which is not the Cup of Christ at all, but really, who cares? If you’re watching this show for logical consistency and not the fight sequences and unnecessary intensity and absurd historical references, then baby grrrrl, you are watching the wrong anime.
Anyway, you can’t go wrong with either of these shows as longs as you’re watching for BLADES. You might want to watch F/Z first, theoretically because it’s set before F/sn:UBW and the children of a number of characters in the former star in the latter, but again, really, who cares? It’s not like it’s going to make either make much more sense. You’re not here for the plot, or the character development — although both shows might occasionally surprise you! You’re here for Queen Arturia fighting Hercules. You’re here to watch the Greek witch Medea summon the samurai archenemy of Miyamoto Musashi to vanquish all comers. You’re here for BLADES. You’re here for UNLIMITED BLADES.
You’ll get the WORKS.
Thanks for reading The Dot and Line, where we talk about animation of all kinds. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.