That was a good episode and a solid lead in to what I expect will be the finale next week. We got a fair amount of action this time around and setting up everyone’s position for the final episode. Shirou is doing his best to hold his ground against Gilgamesh, Saber just wiped the floor with Assassin, and Rin is trying to save Shinji’s life. Honestly I’m kind of with Gilgamesh on the Shinji angle. There isn’t much point in struggling so hard to save that guy’s life. Just a terrible human being that you don’t have to try and save after all the harm he’s inflicted on those around him. But, I’m not surprised that Rin has gotten swept up by Shirou’s idealism a bit and is going to push herself to get the job done.

It is just nice that they are keeping the massive gap between Gilgamesh and Shirou. Right now Gilgamesh isn’t even trying, he’s just staying entertained. Shirou hasn’t yet made that reality marble, but he’s doing everything else he can to just stay alive. The key really is that Gilgamesh is holding himself back. That pride of his being the one thing that is keeping Shirou out of instant death territory. That pure arrogance that he as a King can’t give his all against a mere mortal like Shirou. Hopefully that can be the key in turning this situation around since Shirou would need every advantage possible.

The struggle for Shirou so far was solid and I enjoyed the action. Shirou just pushing himself to fully trace everything he could see in order to fire it back at Gilgamesh was fun. This isn’t a fight of swords. Shirou can’t just try to win by fighting with his hands. He has to convert his style into one like Archer, firing swords like missiles. He did make some progress at that. It’s just a question of being able to keep up with that firepower of Gilgamesh and not lose out to it. Archer may have been hoping for a miracle there with trying to have Shirou win, but it will be interesting to see how this fight ends up going.

That brief moment when the grail tried to grab Gilgamesh was well done and showed Gilgamesh’s true potential if he cared to unleash it. Just pulling out Ea and blasting the area away with a brief attack. That weapon is something that Shirou can’t even wrap his head around. That weapon is beyond his tracing abilities and is something to watch out for. The key against Gilgamesh is that he doesn’t fight seriously, so Shirou needs to watch himself and mind that.

Of course Gilgamesh’s goals are crazy and horrifying. There is some logic behind it, but it’s still horrible in its application. Certainly in the past with smaller populations everyone may have felt like they knew their place in the world and their value. And today it is rather hard to find ourselves sometimes. But to say that humanity has to mostly be annihilated for such a reason is insane. It’s pure genocide.

Saber and Assassin was also good. You could tell Saber really didn’t have time for this and yet was stuck with the job anyways. Assassin is a bit of a tragic figure to be sure. This kind of fake heroic spirit who can only wait at that entrance. A fight against Saber was really all he had to look forward to. I’m glad he got the fight he wanted in the end. Saber did finish it pretty quickly once she decided to get fully serious there. It was a pretty great last strike from her side. Instead of worrying about the three blades in that attack, just cut through everything with one strike XD.

A tough episode for Rin having to go and save Shinji. At least she had a method to get over there instead of letting Shirou insanely run over. Using that gem let her endure it enough that she could make her way to the source and yank that moron out of it. You really could just feel the strain and pain she was enduring with each movement through that substance, which was basically just pure curses. But she has grown to the point where she could still find some compassion and save someone who certainly didn’t deserve it.

A really good episode and I can imagine the next will be pretty epic. Shirou will be going all out against Gilgamesh and Saber will be readying her effort to blast the grail to oblivion. They of course had her attack methods limited to one shot so she can’t just fire numerous Excalibur blasts and potentially fight against Gilgamesh. Have to hold her back a bit XD. Regardless I’m sure the next episode will be great. They’ve done a great job with the show so far, just have to finish it strong.
Score: A