Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works TV

makes instruments out of still living children's organs, or something along those lines. In the anime the kids just get killed more normally. Yay!

The episode does have a bit of an iffy start. Its just Rin going around and meeting people and something feels off about it to me. Some of the framing reminded me of shots you'd see in a VN and it was probably trying to copy that style. It's not a bad beginning but it really did feel like it was just running down a list of characters you'll see more of. The good thing is these conversation do start to give us a clear picture of Rin both from her interactions and what the other characters say about her. Along the way they do hide Shiro face for some dumb reason, but that's pretty whatever.

The episode gets much better once Rin summons Archer. Their dialogue is just fantastic and there's great interplay between the characters. I also like the way that Rin gains Archers respect by showing her resolve and using a command seal. It's something she might regret later but for now it does a good job of showing her determination and explaining the concept of command seals. I like that command seals seem to have even more importance here because they can be used to surpass the normal limits of what a servant is capable of.

Archer is of course pretty damn cool even playing off Rin's disappointment that she didn't pull the Saber class. There were a lot of shit things about Stay/Night, but Archer was always cool and he's the perfect rouge-ish smartass here but he's also got a sense of honor and respect. When he sees how strong Rin is he is impressed, even if her use of the seal was impetuous and poorly worded it still earns her his loyalty. These early interactions let us get to know both characters and start to care about their relationship with each other. It's also just plain funny she uses him to clean the house.

Of course the summoning wasn't perfect as Rin still lacks experience so Archer doesn't have his memories and doesn't know who he is. This is obvious set up for him to regain those memories over the course of the series. It's obvious it's going to be an important piece of information as a servants identity is tied directly into their power.

The other thing we get from all of this is just how dangerous the Grail War is Rin gets told that she can go and hide somewhere both by Archer and the man on the phone. This is a war that is played for keeps as we see how far mages will go to protect the secrets of the Grail war when Lancer is ordered to kill Shiro. Unfortunately Rin is able to heal him. This scene once again tries to hide Shiro's identity a little stupidly that red hair is a dead give away.

Once we get the introductions out of the way it's time for some action! And goddamn was it sweet. The fight between Lancer and Archer was but a taste of the battles to come. My favorite bit of the battle was how honest Archer is, he fully admits he was about to die when Lancer was going to use his Noble Phantasm. Of course this is just a warm up and the fight is interrupted. The animation here is smooth and crisp, and you can feel the power of the blows. Archer is a bit weird in that he uses swords, but it will all be explained later. We also get some hints at Lancer's true identity but I think they don't say it outright because it was already explained in Fate Zero, so people that haven't seen that won't really get who he is from the hints given unless they are familiar with Irish folklore for some reason.

We also learn here that Servants are powered by human energy so it's best to feed the servant with human lives. Both Rin and Archer are disgusted by the idea but some less than noble master is fine with the idea. Again it was a neat way to slip in some explanation that didn't feel forced. The conversation they have about it feels quite natural as they try to strategize how to handle the situation.

Then we wrap up with them going to save Shiro once again only to find out someone has summoned Saber, the most powerful of the servants. It's a good note to leave on I think and the summoner will be revealed next episode. Although it should be obvious to even the people not familiar to the franchise.