Sometimes it is just nice to spend an episode purely for epilogue. No big battle, the grail war is over and now is the time for Rin and Shirou to move forward with their lives. The episode went a lot further ahead in time than I ever expected it to. This really just took these characters basically into college age and seeing how they are still moving forward after events that really were quite extreme.

It was interesting seeing the kind of impact the grail war left behind. In a sense it was one event and that is it, but of course it was an event that nearly ended the world as we know it. Kind of strange to see it being treated as a “minor ritual” XD. I suppose for Europe and the world as a whole it was simply that. But of course the reality is that it really did leave an impact on Shirou and Rin. Though perhaps more than anything the impact it left was that they are still together even now.

In some ways not much changed for these two after that crazy event. Shirou is still as a whole moving in the same direction as he always was. He hasn’t changed his view on aiming to become a hero of justice even at this point. He even realizes that he could very well end up in the same place and the same kind of end as Archer. Although just recognizing that should mean something at the end of the day. He recognizes that he can’t change his way even when he realizes when he is wrong. Kind of a frustrating loop where he knows this and yet he can’t change it any more than if he didn’t realize it.

The key may be that Rin is going to be keeping an eye on him. Where Emiya Shirou might have walked into death before, having Rin along might allow him to not simply end up dead at the same point in time. Her words even gave away that she doesn’t intend to simply let him end up like that. Reaching their happy ending is what she has planned for the future, even if that is a tough thing to accomplish when it comes to Shirou. She’ll take a break from the Clock Tower in the meantime and go along with him. Maybe things turn out for the better, maybe they don’t. But I’d like to believe that Rin does have the ability to change a destiny that lead to Archer. I’m not sure if Shirou can change considering he’s been like this for most of his life, but you never know. There is at least more hope than if he was left on his own and allowed to go down that route without anyone being there. The last scene of him walking around in that desert does give the impression that there is no avoiding that end for him, but perhaps it will be a much longer road than for Archer.

In a lot of ways I appreciate how they don’t just toss in pure fanservice with these two. Rather it feels more like they are showing scenes of them together which allows you to naturally understand their relationship. Shirou was open about his feelings for Rin half way through this show and it would seem after these years Rin is able to express herself better. Rin showed a pretty wide view of things during this episode. Everything just ties in together and events repeat themselves. Saber leant them her power and in the past Saber herself was relying on the strength of others. In a way it really all is connected. While Shirou sees that Grail War still as being a special event. It is tied in with everything else….but it still stands as a major event.

The flashback to events directly after the grail war were fun. Life continues on. Kuzuki’s death is just considered a strange disappearance and that is that. Shinji….survives and one can only hope that Sakura can have some kind of positive influence on that twisted idiot. But, the most fun part was with Rin openly dropping strong hints as to her relationship with Shirou. Just the pure shock with Ise at that point was hilarious XD. Shirou decided to become Rin’s disciple so he could start learning magic properly. He may simply never have the capacity to pull of UBW like he did again, but he can improve. A good move by Rin to drag Shirou along with her to the Clock Tower, even if it was only a slight delay to the path he’s going to walk. Plus, I have to say it is fun when she can rattle him a bit. In the end there was no way he could turn down her invitation to go with her. Plus, that in itself feels like an event that could change Shirou’s future a little.

I did have fun with just the school scenes in general in the present day. The introduction of Luvia was hilarious XD. Much more familiar with her in the Illya spinoff…but I have to say her antagonistic relationship with Luvia remains hilarious. Those two just going at it in the self-defense class was entertaining. Both of them are pretty darn skilled. Despite Luvia’s attempts there really is no way she’ll draw Shirou away from Rin. In the end he was the one comforting Rin who was pretty banged up after all that. It was a nice chance to see Rin actually fighting hand to hand someone who was basically her equal. The outfits were pretty over the top, but it was an entertaining little brawl. A good way to have a bit of action in the last episode.

In the end this was a nice way to end things. It did leave me wondering a bit if there was any hope for Shirou, but there was enough there that I could at least hope for the best. They didn’t bluntly express the relationship with Rin and Shirou, but you have a good read of it. A lot was lost in that fight, but these two survived it. Rin will continue to chase her ambition to make Shirou a happy human being and Shirou will continue on his road. Even now able to continue chasing that dream of being a hero of justice.
Score: A-

Final Thoughts:

This was certainly quite the ride. In a lot of ways it definitely blows the original Fate anime out of the water. They were able to focus on this route’s adaptation and I presume, stick to the material closely. It was an interesting series, getting to see Shirou be much more developed than I recall him being in the original Fate route. You always knew that Shirou had gone through terrible things and what his past basically was. But, I don’t think you ever fully grasped what his mental state really was like we did here. The most I can remember of Fate-route Shirou was a guy who constantly acted like a servant that could instantly murder him at will was in constant need of his protection and could not be allowed to fight. Here we actually saw him be fairly intelligent about his own limitations and didn’t complain about Rin having to fight.

I will say there were parts that I kind of wish were done differently. It felt like they adapted a bit too closely at times. The exposition and flashbacks often dragged things out a bit too much and took away from the action. Instead of focusing on a massive struggle between Heracles and Gilgamesh they had to basically cram all of Illya’s backstory into a single episode, after she’d basically been gone for most of the show. The middle portion of the show felt like they often missed the right pacing for the action and couldn’t quite live up to that Saber vs Berserker fight in the early episodes. Now a lot of information was necessary, but at times I did wish they could have found a better balance.

There is a lot the series did well and most of it will probably be covered in my eventual review. The visuals were outstanding. This show just looked good. It was fun watching all the action and just the characters interacting because the style was nice. We also got to know the cast fairly well by the end of the show. We had a good feel for Rin and Shirou as the leads and the kind of people they were. We could understand Shirou pretty well after seeing him take on Archer and Gilgamesh and be confronted by Rin about what he was thinking. In some ways Shirou is an amazing person and in others he’s amazingly messed up. What happened to him as a kid and after being saved by Kiritsugu really is something. This kid was pretty well left empty and eventually went down this path to fulfill Kiritsugu’s dream of being a hero of justice. Just seeing how it turned out with Archer was pretty incredible and tragic.

The show pulled it together well by the end. I had a blast pretty well from Archer vs Shirou all the way to the end. Could even pull it back to Lancer vs Archer and the Shirou and Rin team up fight. They brought the action and they brought the character development. We really got to understand these characters. I could really feel for Archer in what he had gone through and for Shirou in what he was trying to hold onto. Then you had the struggle against Gilgamesh. Sure, Rin was basically doing nothing but wasting her time trying to save a waste of life like Shinji. That was a negative, but the fights were good. The short little one between Saber and Assassin and just Gilgamesh and Shirou. That fight and hte music along with it was simply worth watching for. They did a nice job with the music in this series, saving those special tracks for the ideal moment. I’d say both Shirou vs Archer and Gilgamesh vs Shirou had good musical hits at key moments.

As a whole, I had fun. I will say that at times in the second season I was feeling a bit worn when it came to all the build up and build up without enough satisfying payoffs. But, the end of the series worked. I think this show gave me a much more positive opinion of Shirou and Rin than I did in the original show. I feel like you could understand them better this time around and they had some nice moments. A great showing of what the Fate series is capable of when done right. I’ll certainly miss UBW, a very good show when you look at all the episodes together. Now to look forward to the Heaven’s Feel movie and of course 2wei Hertz that is starting up next month.