Angra Mainyu, All the Evil in the World, the corrupting spirit that lives with in the Grail. As its name is invoked in the title of this episode it can only mean that the true essence of the Grail and the Holy Grail War itself begins to unfold in this episode. Kirei has had his awakening to the true darkness that dwells within him so he has no hesitation in bringing and end to the Holy Grail War. The questioning priest at the beginning of the war is gone. Only a monster who wishes the most cruel ending to the war remains in his place. And so the challenge to the remaining participants goes out. Kirei wishes for them to attend his banquet of blood. The Grail itself is only to eager to see his dream come to fruition.

There is a certain unbearable tension that comes with a prolonged silence. After several days of fighting a night where there is no combat breeds a certain uneasiness. Rider, Berserker, and Saber and their Masters are all running on empty as each of them has lost significant resources and made innumerable sacrifices. Their emotional and physical wounds are many and deep. So with this scenario in place Archer sends out a challenge to the remain Servants that signals the beginning of the end. All the while the darkness in the Grail looks on and awaits the remaining sacrifices.

Rider and Waver finally trudge back to their hideout for a quick breather after losing to Saber. Unexpectedly there is someone waiting for them. Glen Mackenzie asks to have a little chat over coffee with his “grandson” on the roof as the sun comes up. Glen admits that he has recently discovered that Waver is not in fact their grandson but since the boy means them no harm he has actually be glad he and Rider have been here to add some excitement to their lives. While they have been happy they have also been a bit lonely since they moved to Japan. A pretend grandson is better than none at all at their age. Glen then gives him a last bit of advice. He tries to convince Waver not to throw his life away. Surprisingly enough Waver seems to take these words to heart. Of all the Masters he has the least focus. Kirei maybe hollow but his drive is focused like a laser beam. Waver just wants to be respected. That is hardly something he needs the Grail for. In a way that becomes acutely clear to him here without that ever being said out loud. Like in the story of the bluebird of happiness he realizes that everything has had wanted was within himself the whole time.

Kiritsugu is clearly a man at the end of his rope. He is clearly mentally and psychically drained. He has never been extremely emotive so he is hardly one to break down crying but everything from his dialog to his animation shows a man who is only a shadow of his former self.  Everyone who was supporting to him is gone. Maiya is dead. Irisviel is captured and even if he saves her then he is only going to wind up sacrificing her to bring forth the grail. He is haunted by the women he sacrificed in the past and present. All he has left is Saber and they get along like oil and water. He is basically camping Ryuudouji Temple hoping that Kirei will come there since it is the optimal site for the ritual. Kiritsugu notes that if he had Maiya he would have her staking out the Fuyuki Citizens Building but he just find himself able to work with Saber even under the best of circumstances. So he waits and lets Saber do what she will. Now he is mostly fumbling toward a conclusion. He is still a strategist and committed to winning but his earlier drive has mostly evaporated. But it does not matter what his condition is. He is stuck playing the Thermodynamics game.

If you did not know the rules of the Thermodynamics game are:

Zeroth: You must play the game.
First: You can’t win.
Second: You can’t break even.
Third: You can’t quit the game.

So all he can do is march forward.

At the same time Kirei proves himself better at playing the “I know, that you know, that I know” game and is hiding Irisviel at one of the few places he knows no one is likely to look, Caster’s old hideout. Since it is not one of the nodes for the completion of Heaven’s Feel it seems an unlike place to store the vessel of the Grail. But Kiritsugu does not know this place exists and everyone else has no reason to come back here. So Kierei takes some time to talk to Irisviel. In a way he wishes to confirm his assessment of Kiritsugu. He wants Irisviel to tell him that Kiritsugu is a sadist like himself. Someone who just wants to watch the world burn. Kirei wants proof that both men are two sides of the same coin. Irisviel is only too happy to shatter his delusion. They are both men who have drifted though hellish existences soaking in the worst that life has to offer while living in the most morally dubious parts of the shadows. But where as Kirei has decided that he will revel in the pain of existence Kiritsugu dreams of ending that pain. Both lives despite being similar have created two men with polar opposite views with the universe in-between where they stand. They are in fact diametric opposites. This clearly infuriates him enough that he snaps Irisviel’s neck. With a rival who is no longer on the same path as him the only option left is to destroy his opponent’s dream. Especially when that dream would crush the new path he has chosen to walk down.

With Kirei’s path set in stone he issues a challenge. He declares victory and dares anyone to stop him. Everyone knows this is a trap but they just don’t have the ability to play cat and mouse games any more. When Rider gears up to enter the last night of battle Waver does something unexpected. He uses up all three command spells at once. When you order a Servant using a command spell they are given a stat boost in order to complete said task. The simpler the task the more powerful the boost is. But even a long-term and complex task gives a slight edge to the Servant. Normally with an extended battle this is not a casual decision but since tonight seems to be the last night there is no reason to hold back. Waver has effectively taken himself out of the war. Rider is an independent Servant with about a day’s worth of energy left. But he will be fighting at his peak with the time he has left. And so Waver tries to exit stage left. But Broskander is not having any of that. While Waver is no longer his Master he will not ride into his final battle without his friend. They started together and they will end this journey together side by side. So Rider, Waver, and Bucephalus ride off for the final battle. At the same time all the bara fans and fujoshi rejoice but know in their hearts that only tragedy await them ahead (which only makes some of them even happier).

As everyone gather for the final battle around the Fuyuki Citizens Building we see Gilgamesh and Kirei discuss what they have put into motion. Gilgamesh is most interested in how his student in the way of hedonism has grown. While Kirei’s ultimate wish is still unknown to him he has certainly galvanized himself philosophically. He now merely awaits the Grail to show him where his decisions have led him to. Why was he chosen for this battle? What was his soul crying out for that can only be provided by the Grail? Gilgamesh seems pleased that his Master has embraced the most selfish path. All Gilgamesh wishes now is to confront Saber who he considers the only prize worth having. So the puppet masters waits for the marionettes to arrive so the curtain can lift for the final act.

Speaking of the Grail we see that while Irisviel’s body is dead her spirit remains tied to the Grail. Inside the Grail is no pleasant sanctuary. It is merely a corrupt sea of fears, regrets, and sorrow. In the darkness Irisviel is trapped in dark dreams as she is merely reminded that the Einzbern family will sacrifice as many homunculi as are needed to win the Holy Grail. If she fails then Ilya will just be the next one offered up to be the Grail. But slowly the foul corruption of the Grail absorbs her and drenches her in the vileness of Angra Mainyu. The episode then ends on a disturbing note. The end is coming and the Grail hungers for it. A wish will be granted but not by a kindly or neutral force.

In a way this whole episode was everyone’s final chance to take a quick breath before the final push. But despite the almost sedate pace the episode still manages to kill someone off. But death is no escape. Irisviel still has a role to play even if she is no longer as a member of the land of the living. But even those who still draw breath are perilously close to death. Broken and battered they stumble towards the conclusion of the 4th Holy Grail War. But in the end there can only be one.

I know what you’re hoping but Saber and Kiritsugu to fight the Kurgan as the final secret boss. But that is only in your fanfics.

Plus that only encourages them to make Fate/The Source. And NO ONE wants that.

I promise you this post will be more than just pictures of Saber on a motorcycle with flowery prose about female knights on 2 legged steeds ruling the kingdom of the highway. I’m not exactly sure WHY you would want more than that but you will get it anyway. I have hyped up this road warrior battle since the first season so it is fairly sweet to finally taste the payoff from those expectations. There are also some other politics and betrayals going on in the background but those are only of minor consequence. Hardly even worth mentioning. Oh. Due to personal matters you might notice that I got this post out FAR earlier than I usually do. My normal Saturday engagement fell through so I was actually able to watch the stream BEFORE the raw even came out. I don’t think there is any way else to prove how amazingly fast these simulcasts are.

Saber peruses a Rider doppelgänger who just kidnapped Irisviel through the busy streets of downtown Fuyuki City. Kirei and Kariya have made an alliance which leads to the actual Saber and Rider having deadly race on the mountain roads outside the city. But it is really a good idea to trust an evil priest in any sort of fantasy setting? Kariya learns this lesson the hard way when he gets exactly what the thought he wanted out of this deal with Kirei.

As a side note: Zouken still just being evil.

Saber starts off hot on the heals of the kidnapper but due to traffic she soon loses sight Rider and Irisviel. Conveniently enough reaches out with her mind and is easily able to locate Rider flying in his pimp chariot. While Saber is not as skilled as even a mediocre Servant of the Rider class she certainly has enough skill to keep up with someone from that class and she shows it here. Since Rider was hoping to settle things with Saber he is more than willing to play a game of tag with the King of Knights. So he decides to head to the mountains to engage in a downhill race. Sadly the “Ghost of Fuyuki City” does not appear to challenge them both.  But wait just a second. Rider is now on his chariot and has Waver instead of Irisviel. Me thinks there is something wrong here. But Saber is not in the position to do a detailed analysis of the situation right just yet.

If Initial D wanted to do better in the US it should have had more magical powered face offs during its street racing. It would have done it a world of good. Since this is Fate/Zero we get all the lucrative construction contract generating combat alongside our race. A bit of Twisted Metal on the mountainside. Rider engages in a bit of Ben-Hur styled chariot racing by tearing up the surrounding scenery and having it fly towards Saber. But that is more just a friendly prelude to the actual battle than anything else. I have to say Saber uses Invisible Air more in Fate/Zero than she ever does in Fate/Stay Night. This time she uses it like magical nitro and a bit of vehicle upgrade as well. Her Yamaha V-Max becomes the  magical Motored Cuirassier so she can keep up with Rider when he really puts the petal to the metal. But also kicks in the Knight Rider approved turbo boost to perform some multi-track drifting that even Takumi would be impressed by and catches up with the King of Conquerors so they can finally cross swords. But when Saber finally catches up to Rider she notices a distinct lack of sickly girls in the chariot. But it is too late to back out now.

We don’t see much of Kiritsugu this episode but he is still playing Lieutenant Horatio Caine as he investigates who took Irisviel. He very quickly deduces that it was not in fact Rider behind everything and begins to shake down the remaining suspects. This brings us to a character we always knew existed but have never really seen before: Shinji’s dad. He is dead before Fate/Stay Night starts and only mentioned in passing a few times elsewhere. We don’t get to see much of him here but he does seem the sort that would father a little Joffrey Baratheon like Shinji. Kiritsugu inflicts some Jack Bauer interrogation techniques on Byakuya and while he does not learn where Irisviel is he did learn that Kariya has an unexpected partner from the church. Clearly Kiritsugu knows that his rival is back in action and doing what he does best. And what that priest does in not pretty.

And we have confirmation of the alliance. Apparently one of Berserker’s hidden talents is not only the ability to hide his identity but also to assume the identity of others for the cost of a command seal. But the two command seals Kariya used to pull off this deception are quickly replaced by Kirei as a sign of their new-found partnership. Kirei also says he has set up a confrontation with Tokiomi at the church at midnight. Kriei has promised Tokiomi’s head on a platter. Like an evil genie Kriei gives you exactly what you asked for but not in the way you would ever want it. But Kariya is clearly wrapped up in his own little revenge fantasy and therefore is not really thinking anything through. If he was me might have noticed the uninvited visitor who was listening to their whole conversation.

Rider does not just want to win. He wants to break Saber of all of her illusions, all of her preconceptions, and crush her pride completly. That is a true victory for the King of Conquerors. He does not take an area or defeat armies per say. He crushes the spirit of his enemy so they know they are beat for all time. Sort of like Monkey D. Luffy that way. Plus he has an amazingly fast Nobel Phantasm unlike Saber’s slow Excalibur. What could go wrong with this. Unless …  Excalibur has a powered up version and a fast cast variation.

It seems that the always reprehensible Zouken was the one watching this deal from the shadows. All that is left on the rooftop is two men who live for the suffering of others. Zouken already revels in the pain of those around him but Kirei has still not yet full realized who he is. But Zoken senses someone who is just as twisted as himself.  It appears that for all plotting and manipulation Zouken would just be as happy to see his son fail as an utter heartbreaking travesty the he would see him win the Grail. Plus he knows that he has the much more promising Sakura waiting in the wings so he might as well just have fun with the 4th Holy Grail War. The only major obstacle would be if his pawn developed reasons not to fight. Then he might have to settle for a much less reliable pinch hitter.

Chariot! Or at least that is what gets vaporized by Excalibur’s holy light. Apparently you have to destroy the vehicle before you can start doing direct damage to the driver. Some one should have informed the other Rider of this fact. While Waver wants to break out the Army of the King his Servant knows that it is his only chance in a fight against Archer. But Saber has bigger fish to fry. She has to get back her hetero-lifemate from whoever actually made off with her. So Saber rides of on her bike and Rider and Waver are forced to hoof it back on foot. They might have been able to hitch a ride that they not run roughshod over the countryside.

Kariya gets a valuable lesson about how you should be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. He storms into the church filled with storm and fury to confront his nemesis only to find that he new-found ally has already taken care of it. Worse yet the one person he does not wish to be there comes upon him at the worst possible time. Aoi comes in and makes the logical assumption that Kariya has killed her husband. All of Kariya bravdo instantly drains from him. Clearly in his imagination he always assumed he would come back with Sakura and present her to Aoi after he won the Grail. But when confronted with nothing else but a corpse he realizes the utter stupidity of his dream. In a way he must have always assumed Aoi hated her husband as much as he did. That was clearly not the case. As she screams at him he snaps and inadvertently triggers one of his button. Before he knows it he starts to strangle her. Maybe all of his romantic ideals were nothing more than lust and bitterness. There is an unsettling sexuality top the whole scenes. A more generous fan of Kariya can assume that part of his quick to violence reaction might have been his Berserker’s affinity taking over. A harsh critic might assume that his goals were never pure in the first place. Not matter what the truth is Kariya walks out of the church a directionless mess. This two main goals are now gone in the worst way possible.

Like a demonic Statler and Waldorf it seems this little production has some hecklers in the balcony. Some people go to the opera to revel in schadenfreude, and other people watch Internet videos, but Gilgamesh and Kirei just stage tragedies in real life. While Gilgamesh always enjoyed these moments of suffering Kirei finally has his revelation. He truly knows what it is like to unashamedly bask in the pain of another. The birth of the Kirei we know from Fate/Stay Night is here. He has finally stopping running from himself and embraced the monster inside. It is not as if he was not already well on the way to this point before. But now he has taken the lowest path and has burned away any conscience he might have had before now.

Kariya is not completely out of the fight. While he may have lost two of his goals he can still save Sakura and that is still something worth dying for. The question is how effective can he be this broken? While Saber and Rider did not take each other out they both expended a good deal of energy and resources fighting each other. And Gilgamesh has mostly been sitting back and drinking wine. Things are not looking good for the three of the four remaining Servants unless they are from Babylon.

Random end note. I only just noticed that Irisviel is wearing Arcueid Brunestud’s outfit when she is in Archetype：Earth mode. No real point to anything on this episode. Just thought I would point that out.

This is an episode with an inordinate number of dying women resting on floors. And Waver is also resting on the floor. Draw from that what you will. But since Kiritsugu‘s flashbacks are done it means that the normal opening and closing have returned. And so have the deadly battles of the Holy Grail War. You can feel the tension as each Master and Servant is eliminated as the remaining teams know that they are fighting the best of what remains will less and less resources. It is quickly becoming a question of who can survive the long game. As soon as you run out of aces up your sleeve you are done. And it is clear that some teams are running low on everything while others are just getting started.

There is no rest for the wicked and Kiritsugu is trying very hard to prove that. With Irisviel no longer being strong enough to act as Saber’s Master is seems that Kiritsugu is forced to try a two-pronged attacked simultaneous against Rider and Archer. But as Kiritsugu soon finds out the situation in Fuyuki City has changed more than he knew. Tokiomi is dead and the safe house is nowhere as secure as the thought it was. At the same time Rider and Berserker marshal their strength for the final four Servants.

Irisviel has finally deteriorated enough that she can no longer even pretend like she is able to function normally. She calls over Kiritsugu to say her goodbyes. Unlike with Kiritsugu and Natalia Kaminski no one here is pretending that Irisviel will be OK. They both know she is doomed to die to bring forth the grail so Irisviel merely gives her husband her last wishes for their daughter and returns Avalon so that me might make it through this dangerous end game. Like some people with a terminal diseases she has resigned herself to the inevitable. Irisviel is more concerned about tying up loose ends as that is all that she has left. With little he can say to comfort his wife Kiritsugu continues forward. He plans to have Saber attack Rider at home and he plans to kill Tokiomi directly so that the overpowered Archer no longer makes himself a nuisance. Before he goes we see a rare smile from Maiya. As someone who considers herself a part of Kiritsugu she detects a change in him. While it might seem to an outside observer that Kiritsugu is the same she clearly has detected a change in her companion.

As Saber looks for Rider she is just a bit too late. Apparently inspired by the final Harry Potter book Waver decides to go on a little camping trip as he waits for Rider to regain his strength. Waver is now apparently aware that Rider has been holding back in taking mana from him so he is much weaker than he should be. It does not help that Ionioi Hetairoi is an immensely draining technique and that he can only conceivable use one more time given that they cannot just rest out in the woods forever. Someone is eventually going to attack them even in the middle of nowhere. As they rest Rider and Waver have a good heart to heart here. Waver is showing his growth as the Holy Grail war has definitely toughened him up from the whinny prissy boy that he was at the start. At the same time we get the first signs that Rider is beginning to suspect that not all is right with the Holy Grail War. It seems he wonders if there is even a Grail in the first place. As someone who knows about chasing dreams he knows that there are some sacrifices you do not casually make no matter how wondrous the potential prize. At the same time it seems Rider’s first priority is to beat Saber. In a way it is almost a paternal interest in her. He does not want her to lose as much so he can win as that he wants her to see how is unfairly torturing herself with her current way of thinking. Sadly all the Waver/Rider fans do not get the mana transfer scene here they hoped for. I think just as many guys were disappointed as women. Oh well. That is what doujinshi is for.

While Kariya may be alive her is hardly doing all that well. For the first time we get to see Berserker speak in anything other than a guttural scream even if it is just in a dream. But even in a coherent conversation we see that Berserker is just filled with an all-consuming desire to snuff out the light. Kariya is just his path to his true goal of killing Saber. Everything else is just a side mission. But if being strangled by his Ghost Rider like Servant in his dreams were not terrible enough his waking life is actually worse. While Zoken’s magic is patching him up he is clearly at the end of his rope. But to prove that Zoken is still trying to win the worst human being in Fate universe competition he pulls a final putrescence filled rabbit from his hat. He implants a worm that has fed off Sakura to turbo charge Kariya for these final battles. It is doubly torturous because not only is the worm physically painful but Kariya also has to deal with the knowledge that said worm is the first monstrosity to defile Sakura. Zoken is just a monster.

Maiya you silly woman. You are the veteran of countless battlefields. You should know by now that the heart to heart reveal of motivations is the ultimate death flag. But a dying Irisviel is curious about the mysterious woman who is her husband’s shadow so she is able to pry out some secrets. Both of them are slightly perplexed by the other and their loyalty to Kiritsugu. Maiya was utterly dead inside when Kiritsugu found her. Kiritsugu gave her purpose so she hooked her dreams to him. It is not that they share they same dreams. In Maiya’s mind they are so one in the same that there is no way they cannot have the same goal. She is only as conflicted or divided as he is. No more and no less. At the same time we get the shocking revelation. Irisviel is really only pretending to be as devoted as she appears. It’s not that she does not want to believe in Kiritsugu ideals. It is just that she is so sheltered that the full ramifications of Kiritsugu’d ideals will always be beyond her. She was raised as a girl in a box who is doomed to die. Her real wish is just for her husband and daughter to live on in a world untainted by the Grail. If this continues she knows that Ilya’s life will be just as horrible as hers. And it then becomes clear why she so easily tolerates Maiya relationship with her husband. She wants someone to be by his side when she is gone. She knows that Maiya will unquestioningly support Kiritsugu and her daughter without question. But their soul-searching is cut off mid sentence by a deadly intruder.

At the same time Kiritsugu arrives to a Tohsaka mansion that is far too quiet. As soon as he notices the elaborate defenses are down he begins to suspect something is up. Rather than find that Tokiomi has changed his base of operations he discovers that the owner of the house was murdered here. Using some magical Holmesian deduction he learns the murder was clearly someone Tokiomi knew. It is fairly obvious that the only person who could get that close is everyone’s favorite psychopathic priest (who is not Alexander Anderson). But his investigation is cut short by the attack on his base of operations.

Maiya is able to call for help (with her massive 80s cellphone) but it is too little too late. Even Saber’s emergency teleport thanks to Kiritsugu using a command seal only get Saber in time to see the aftermath of Rider’s intrusion. Irisviel has been kidnapped and Maiya is gravely wounded. Saber heads off in pursuit as Maiya waits for Kiritsugu. Maiya hols on just long enough to say her last goodbyes. She knows that this war is tearing up Kiritsugu on a physical and spiritual level. She only wishes to give him the strength to finish the war with her passing. And so she dies happily know her role is done. I think they mention it more in the novel that Kiritsugu is surprised he ends up crying for Maiya. Only at the end does he realize she was nowhere as disposable as he though he has compartmentalized her.

In the end Maiya was just far to squishy to survive much more than this. But sadly her death was not even a speed bump in the course of a Servant’s rampage. But observant people will notice two things wrong with the kidnapping. The first is that Rider was still should resting while the kidnapping took place. The second is that killing the far too human Maiya and then taking Irisviel is not Rider’s style. So the question is who did attack the Emiya compound? We will just have to see as Saber takes off on her motorcycle in hot pursuit.

Next time on CSI: Fuyuki City: The Magical Magus Killing Gumshoe investigates another arcane killing. Someone also probably gets raped with an inanimate object.

Tokusatsu and eroge are not necessarily the first two things you might think of combining together but they actually complement each other better than you would think. Dengeki Stryker mixes in tales of hot-blooded courage with transforming cyborgs and combines it with sexy time adventures. I first became aware of this series when Mike Dent mentioned it in his Friday Ace podcast. The opening video with a song by Masaaki Endoh of Jam Project and animation directed by Shinichi Watanabe immediately told me this was something to watch out for. Since MangaGamer does some rather robust demos so I was really looking forward to what they would release for Dengeki Stryker since they were doing the English adaptation. After playing it I learned it was not exactly the game I originally thought it would be. The question was did I enjoy what I discovered it to be.

Yuuki Yamato is your standard superhero obsessed boy. He has a bold heart but he does not have the iron body to back up his love of justice. One day a mysertious man offers Yuuki a bargain. The old man will give him the powers of his cyborg hero, Stryker Zero in return for all his memories. When Yuuki awakes he only remembers being Stryker Zero and cannot understand why he is now trapped in a child’s body in a Japan he does not recognize. Ten years pass as Yuuki awkwardly waits for the forces of the Balbora Empire to attack. When Yuuki moves to Tokyo for High School the day he has been preparing for arrives. But it seems his lost memories are catching up to him when he runs into his forgotten childhood friend Haruna Hongo. What exactly was the price of becoming a hero?

At first I assumed Dengeki Stryker was going to be something like Golden Knight Garo. Since it was a tokusatsu visual novel I assumed it was going to be serious, mature, and sexy with lots of hoot blooded fight scenes. In all actuality Dengeki Stryker is best summed up with Full Metal Panic! + Excel Saga. It is first and foremost a silly comedy. That is not to say that there is not some exciting tussles filled with physic powers, mechanical maneuvers, ninja techniques, and manly courage. Like Full Metal Panic! while the comedy is strong there is also some solid battles to keep things interesting. But they are mostly there to pump you up in between comedy scenes.

It turn out that like Excel Saga the opposing sides actually live right next to each other. Since Yuuki  in living on his own in Tokyo he only has his shoestring allowance from his mother to make it in the big city. This means he lives in a super economy apartment complex next to the invaders from the Balbora Empire. Despite being god like psychics their lack of funds and need to keep a low profile have them living just as impoverished as their crime fighting neighbor. This means the hero and the villains spend more time clipping coupons and hunting down discounts then they do fighting each other.

The main gag is that despite having paper-thin disguise no one seems to be able to recognize each other off of the battle field. Yuuki sees the people next door as the upstanding foreigners who work hard and play even harder. He often mentions how he has to fight hard so he can make Japan safe for everyone including stand up immigrants like his new friends. The Balbora troops on the other hand frequently remark that when they conquer Japan they hope all their new citizens are as kind and virtuous as the wonderful boy next door. But when they only are in their oh-so-very-slightly-different looking costumes they are fighting each other at full power.

At the same time Yuuki is doing his best to fit in at school but much like Sousuke Sagara he is very bad at staying undercover. While he thinks he is blending in perfectly most people at school think he is a grade A psycho. The only people who interact with him are his child hood friend, her exasperated friend Sayaka Ichimonji, and Rin Kazumi a Balbora spy who is just as horrible at blending in. Yuuki instance of calling anything even slightly personal a piece of classified information is the tip of the iceberg with his clumsy attempts to live a double life.

The main trio has a distinctly Full Metal Panic! styled love triangle. Yuuki is the oblivious solider. He only lives for protecting people and therefore all other concerns are secondary. He is a kind-hearted boy but his single-minded worldview can make him good to know when you are in trouble but very difficult to get close to. Haruna is the gentle former girl next door who is desperately trying to get Yuuki to remember her. She is Yuuki constant ally despite their years apart and his constant odd duck behavior. Haruna is the Tessa of the two girls. In turn Sayaka is the Chidori. Sayaka constantly busts Yuuki’s balls when he acts like a moron but obviously has a soft spot for the guy. Her family runs the cafe that becomes a hang out for both sides of this little war.

Along the way Yuuki gets a rather unusual roommate by the way on a ninja named Jack. Jack is from Texas and came to Japan to be a ninja. Jack is also a huge clueless weeaboo who has a very warped view on the homeland of ninjutsu. Jack winds up getting saved from starvation by Yuuki who then finds this little mooch in his service. It is also rather quickly obvious that Jack is actually much more of a kunoichi than a ninja if you catch my drift. With Gemini Sunrise being the samurai cow girl from Texas, Cathy McMahon the cowgirl pilot from RahXephon, and Jack King the cowboy mecha jock from Getter Robo the Japanese sure love their cowboys from America.

The Balbora soldiers are pretty much secondary main characters from how much they appear in the story. Overall they seem like stand up people if they were not using their powers to overthrow the government. They are a motley crew of everything from a dapper gentleman who controls gravity, to a visual kei styled pyrokinetic, to a super intelligent talking dog. When they are not devastating downtown they most seem like a lovable if slightly dysfunctional family. They are very Florsheim in that manner. Their intelligence officer Rin Kazumi has no powers so they sent her undercover to the local school to find out Stryker Zero’s secret identity and try to seduce him. Colonel Mirror is the only member of the crew who lives on his own and he seems to have some secret agenda. He clearly know more than he lets on and is the only one who can see through Yuuki’s flimsy disguise.

Overall being from OVERDRIVE it means that Dengeki Stryker has very strong production values. Crisp and colorful character designs, rousing music, and a surprising amount of animated clips. It is hardly an anime with a lot of text but I was impressed that they had at least one animated scene per chapter of the story. A bit more surprisingly was there were very few choices to make in the demo. All the decisions seemed to revolve around either favoring Haruna or Sayaka. I wonder if there are any actual choices that effect the plot or does it all just come down to who you get in the sex scenes.

I find it amusing that other than the obligatory bath scene with all the beautiful girls (from both sides) there was not that much nudity and absolutely no sex in the demo. In return the teasers at the end of the demo made damn sure to show you that there would be some sexy time scenes if you got the full version. They clearly know how to sell these games. I think the story is strong enough that it does not need the sex but they also know that is a major reason people play these games.

I’m not usually one to complain about it but Haruna and Sayaka have a bit too much of the same face phenomenon. I can always tell everyone in Hayate the Combat Butler and Gundam SEED apart but I find myself confusing Haruna and Sayaka on occasion. Sometimes it a plainly obvious which is which but other times I have to just have to check the text so see who is talking. The thing is that Jack, Rin, Hiruko are all distinct in their character designs from each other and the main two girls. The guys all look nothing like each other. There could be a plot reason for it revealed later on or it just might be a Betty and Veronica thing.

I have to say that MangaGamer is fairly savvy in making their demos. They distinctly give you enough so yo get the overall mood of the story, the cadence of the writing, and a grasp of the characters. At the same time you don’t feel like you the rug was pulled out from underneath you feet too far into the game. A distinctly healthy portion. I think the ultimate decided factor merely comes down to watching the opening to the game. It will easily decide if you are going to like the game or not. If you are not instantly won over then nothing well sell you. But if you like romantic comedies with a manly twist this game will be one to get when in comes out on June 22nd. If the ending is as strong as the opening I am hoping MangaGamer will consider getting Chou Dengeki Stryker as well. We need more hot-blooded visual novels.

And we enter into the second part of Kiritsugu‘s back story. He clearly already started down the road towards being a complete unfeeling killing machine when he killed his father. But a gentle hand could have easily pulled him away from his monstrous path if he were placed in an environment where he was immersed in the positive things in life. But this is a Gen Urobuchi novel. That is not going to happen. By they way, It seems like Gen Urobuchi has a fetish for murdering children. I know that infant immortality is sometimes a strong trend in fiction and people like to play with it for shock value. But this goes a little above and beyond.  With Caster is was a little creepy but made sense for the historical character involved. After this episode I think it might have passed into the minor fetish category.

After surviving the fiery slaughter on Arimago Island a young Kiritsugu finds himself under the apprenticeship of Natalia Kaminski. As Kiritsugu walka further and further along the path of a mercenary so does he abandon a bit more of his humanity with every step. But a routine assassination of a sorcerer involved with some dark research quickly becomes a stage for another tragedy. One that will seal the destiny of the future Magus Killer.

We start with an expanded scene from the first season. In season one we saw the scene were Natalia Kaminski presented Kiritsugu with his origin bullets. She was present there without any explanation to give a quick run down of what the unusual ammo did. But now that we know who she is the scene goes into a bit more detail now that we have more context of what was going on. We learn that Kiritsugu was getting his magic circuits implanted the same time she took one of his ribs to make his bullets.  I do have to say that people are really obsessed with the fact that Natalia and Gilgamesh have similar facial structure. Boy that is going to lead to some really odd doujinshi.

Since we are still in flashback mode we get another episode without an opening. During the initial credit crawl we see a simple assignment where Natalia and Kiritsugu are working together. They have clearly built an effortless working relationship. You see how they very easily slowly entrap their target and then mercilessly move in for the kill. There is a mechanical nature to their assassination. Kiritsugu finishes of his target even though the man is unarmed and pleading for his life. There is no noble hero seemingly left in the young man. This man kills as effortlessly as he would brush his own teeth. Assassination has become a job and a way of life.

We flash back a bit farther. At first Kiritsugu clearly did not having the training to go out with his new mentor. While he had the determination and cold-blooded potential he did not have the technical skills. And so he trains in the artd of murder. We see quite a bit of emotion from Kaminski even if she mostly plays her cards close to her chest. She seems a little put upon to teach this punk kid her trade and at the same time a little happy to be able to pass along her skills. I think there is also a lingering bit of regret as he obviously take so well to such a horrible profession.

And we see how the year strip away any hesitation in Kiritsugu. Like a young Shiro it seems that he had aspirations of being a hero. But the more he guns down people in cold blood for a supposedly greater good the less it seems that any hard choice phases him. When a random boy and his guardian get gunned down so very casually in a war zone  Kiritsugu seems to have a realization that surviving is a noble fight. Or at least a more practical one. We see him develop his moral calculus that allows him to make the sacrifices required so that the good of the one can foster the good of the many.

And his next mission clearly puts his training to the test. It seems like a difficult but mundane mission. Od Volsack was creating bees whose poison turned people into ghouls. So the Mage’s Association wanted him understandably removed from this earth. Kiritsugu will take out Od’s associates that have access to his research while Natalia will kill Od when he has his guard down on the plane. The theory is attacking him anywhere else will give him a chance to unleash his unholy bees. It seems like a simple enough plan. But like anything else with Kiritsugu and vampires it quickly turns sour. (Good things he never interacted with Arcueid. The result would have been devastating.) While Natalia is able to kill Od and destroy his bees in the cargo hold almost effortlessly she makes a fatal oversight. It seems that Od had a hidden cache of the bees inside his body that were released when he died. Soon Natalia is trapped on a plane filled with an undead plague.

Kiritsugu and Natalia’s conversation is slightly heartbreaking. On the surface they talk about how they are going to rescue Natalia. But they both know that there is only one actual solution. The plane has to be destroyed. So they make pleasant small talk and pretend like everything is going to be OK. They are both too stoic to have a teary goodbye but it is also clear that they would not normally talk about their relationship with each other outside of a situation like this.  In a way this is the only way they know how to say goodbye. And so a surface to air missile ends their working relationship. Only at the end were they able to admit they had become a family.

And the normally stoic Kiritsugu snaps as if all the emotions he had been repressing over the years finally bubbled to the surface. We watch as he expels his pain and then hardens his heart. The full on stoic killing machine that is Kiritsugu has been born. With everyone he loves dead he can only move forward with cynical world view. As long as he can convince himself his actions are for a greater good than he can talk himself into any act. If he was willing to kill the people he loved for the greater good than the dead of a few strangers is child’s play.

I was a little surprised we never got so see Maiya Hisau but I suppose her connection to Kiritsugu will come in another episode. For now it is time to catch up to the present. If for no other reason I think the Rider and Waver fans are beginning to try a warp time space to get their favorite duo back on-screen. Also the next episode title strong implies that Kirei will be on the move which is never a good sign. With only a few pieces left on the board things are only going to get uglier and with Kirei‘s dark side fully unleashed it is going to get very horrific very soon.

I said it was a good title for this post last week and I stick by that fact. But it seems the lesson of why Kiritsugu is a ruthless assassin apparently is going to take more than one episode. But I guess you don’t turn into a mechanical murder machine from one incident in your life. It takes a bit of time and wear to fully kill a person’s soul. You have to be involved with the deaths of all the people you have ever loved for one reason or another. We flash back to Kiritsugu’s origins that made him into the Mage Killer of the 4th Holy Grail War. And so the journey of a thousand miles begins with a few significant steps in this episode. Interesting note: They did not use the standard opening in this episode. They just play the credits over a conversation while driving to get the maximum story in this episode.

It seems that life is good for young Kiritsugu Emiya. His father is a genius sorcerer. He lives in a tropical paradise with good friends and a simple life. There is even a possible blossoming romance with an older girl who has become his father’s assistant. But magical research can be dangerous and often the bigger the risk the bigger the reward. But at the same time when you take big risks the fallout of a mistake can be apocalyptic. One such mistake will change Kiritsugu’s life forever.

We start with Kiritsugu surrounded by friends playing by the water. Since this is based on a work by Gen Urobuchi you know those kids will go on to have wonderful productive lives filled with joy and success. Or they will die in flames. You know. One or the other. But those doomed children aside Kiritsugu is picked up by the effervescent Shirley. We learn from Shirley that the Kiritsugu house used to be a shrine which probably means it has an abundance of leylines. We also learn that he was bullied for being a stranger but Shirley helped him integrate with the locals so he is an accepted member of the community. She is even the one responsible for his nickname of Kerry. They have an extremely close relationship but not a romantic one. Kiritsugu clearly has a crush on Shirley but she likes to use the dread phrase “like a younger brother” and not in that Akiha Tohno manner.

But Shirley is more than just a friend to Kiritsugu. She is also Kiritsugu’s father’s apprentice and assistant. Noritaka, who looks like the missing link between Kiritsugu and Tokiomi, has been researching how to stop time as a method of immortality. Like so many mages Noritaka is seeking the Root but is convinced that only an immortal mage would have enough time to reach the ultimate discovery. So  it is the Emiya family’s job is to discover the path to immortality so an immortal can find the answer to the greatest mysteries of magic. So far they can sop the aging of flowers but humans seem still be a long-term goal. But then Shirely whips out a little surprise. She has become skilled enough to create her own timeless flower. She claims it is not as good as her instructors but it is an accomplishment. This prompts Kiritsugu to want to join in on the research but he is quickly shot down by his father. You can see the rejection of his face. It is not one of jealous of Shirley but more of questioning why he is not good enough to help as well.

But is seems that life is not all sunshine and roses for Shirley. While the villagers might be afraid of the Emiya house the town priest realizes there is magic afoot there and seems to be trying to stop Shirley from continuing her apprenticeship. He even goes as far as giving her a minor talisman knife if she gets into trouble. But none of this phases Shirley. She sees an amazing potential in Noritaka’s work that could change humanity. That is why she is willing to stand up to any adversity to help. We also learn two other things. As much as she might seem to be accomplished magus it seems that Shirley is only an assistant. Her flower has already faded unlike Noritaka’s 100 samples. The second is that both Noritaka and Shirley see Kiritsugu as the true heir to his father’ research. It is clear that Shirley wishes to support Kiritsugu in whatever he does leading to a cute little romantic scene by the lake. But if we read between the lines it is also clear that Shirley is a bit desperate for progress. Between being hounded by the local priest and Noritaka’s recent conservative attitude she see seems desperate to prove that this research is actually beneficial. This hunger for acceptance leads to a foolish mistake.

When Kiritsugu awakes the next morning something seems to be very off. His father seems a bit panicked and tells him to stay home. When sunset comes it seems that no one has come home and Kiritsugu begins to worry about Shirley. So Kiritsugu sets out to see what happens and stumbles upon an undead Shirley. She apparently uses the prototype of one of the drugs Noritaka made that have turned her into a vampire known as a Dead Apostle. She has enough of her mind left intact for conversation but she cannot control her hunger for blood. She begs Kiritsugu to kill her before she feeds on more people but then proceeds to kill herself when her friend cannot end her life. Kiritsugu is understandably shaken and goes to get the one author figure that might be able to help, the town priest. But Kiritsugu seems to not be aware of the common horror movie tropes as he quickly get the priest killed and set himself up in a Resident Evil situation.

While I doubt she was Yumizuka Satsuki levels of powerful (No Depletion Garden for her) is seems Shirley feared better than the rest of the islanders who are infected by his curse as they are just shambling ghouls. Just as the ghouls start to overtake the church where Kiritsugu is hiding some executors and Mage’s Association assassins arrive and start laying waste to everything and anyone in their path. While they don’t seem to be racking up any civilian casualties but it also seems neither group is overly worried about helping survivors either. They are just clearing up the mess. And in the Mage’s Association’s mind that also means destroying any evidence of what occurred here with fire. Garden of Sinners fans will notice a familiar face in, Cornelius Alba, although without his trademark piece of haberdashery. He is laying waste to everything and everyone with his trademark fire spells. It is good to see he was always a ruthless jerk.

As neither agency is looking to help anyone Kiritsugu soon finds himself surrounded by the hungry dead. When all look lost it seems that someone who also made a cameo in a flashback is here to save the day. Natalia Kaminski, bursts onto the scene in wonderful Blade like glory. After some glorious gun fu she lays down he situation for the young man she just saved. While she is clearly not the most empathic person (mercenary life does that to you) she is also distinctly the only person willing to help anyone out. It seems that Natalia was hired to find out who was responsible for this travesty and take them down. As it turns out Kiritsugu knows all to well who is behind this all so he agrees to help.

Kiritsugu goes back to his house and confronts his father. He now realizes his dad was not simply researching time and immortality but the distinctly forbidden creation of a dead apostle. The veil over Kiritsugu’s eyes is lifted as he sees exactly how ruthless his father is. Noritaka sees Shirley’s death as a mere stepping stone to his greater research. His father’s inability to see not only what he did wrong but to continue his research somewhere gives Kiritsugu proof of what needs to be done. Kiritsugu stabs his stunned father and then finishes him off with his own gun. Kiritsugu’s path to the man he will become has been set. While the event has clearly traumatized him it has also removed a vital piece of hismorality. Once you kill someone you loved like that you cannot go back to being the same person.

Natalia and Kiritsugu leave the burning island together now that their task is done. With nothing left for him on the island he can only move forward with his new-found guardian. Like the opening sequence we do not get our standard ending. We instead leave the episode with another Kalafina song. But the flashback does not end here. Kiritsugu still has much to learn from Natalia and much to lose before he is the Mage Killer we met at the beginning of Fate/Zero. There is more to come with Kiritsugu is Forced to Murder Everyone He Ever Loved, Part 2.

As I don’t read Japanese it is extremely hard for me to be any sort of taste maker when in comes to manga. By the time I usually know about a series it is fairly in the thick of things in its run. The rare exception comes when I know to check out a series because I have enjoyed something by the author in the past so I know to keep an eye on their current work. In a previous Manga of the Month I talked about Miki Yoshikawa’s Yankee-kun to Megane-chan. It is a great comedy series but it can be hard to recommend because you are asking for someone to commit to reading 23 books. But with a new series you can read a handful of chapters and be up to date. Since Yamada and the Seven Witches started in February it is a great time to start a Miki Yoshikawa manga.

Ryu Yamada and Urara Shiraishi are as different as night and day. Ryu is a rough a tumble delinquent while Urara is the class brainiac. One day the accidentally kiss as they fall down the stairs and discover they can exchange bodies by kissing. When the student council vice president get involved with their little secret they learn that they can exchange bodies with other people as well. So the three of them restart the school’s supernatural club to figure out why this is happening. But how long can the three of them keep this under wraps?

Miki Yoshikawa has done a good job of playing to her strengths while making enough changes to make Yamada and the Seven Witches feel like a retread of what has come before this. While it is still a school based romantic comedy the supernatural element changes everything. Ryu is very similar to Daichi where as Urara and Hana are both very strong and unflappable women but their strengths and weakness are very different. Buy the key to her success still seems to be good comic timing with loud but loveable characters. Ryu and Urara have a fun dynamic and bounce off the rest of the cast well. I will note while the series still feels female friendly the manga-ka has upped the fan service levels a little. Since Ryu can jump into female bodies he is not adverse to taking a peak at who he switches into before he has to get down to business. That usually means an underwear shot every few chapters.

Hopefully the series will remember on of the main reasons Yankee-kun to Megane-chan was great. Miki Yoshikawa was always smart enough to change the formula of how things word every few books keeping the humor and drama fresh. It is a little to early to tell if this will be the same case but we have not even met the eponymous Seven Witches yet.  If nothing else you have to admire a school romance series that has the characters kiss in the first book.

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SPOILERS FOR RUROUNI KENSHIN

You know what you’re wanting to see in a Rurouni Kenshin OVA, fights. You know what this is missing, you guessed it, fights. This is a shonen fighting series that the staff completely forgot half of. I’m not saying that the characters and backstory aren’t interesting in Kenshin, but those things aren’t executed with much grace either.

This OVA is like the reverse of a clips reel. Instead of showing all the cool fights and intense moments, it is a collection of people talking to each other in between all the awesome things that go on during the (arguably) best arc of the Kenshin series. Note, most awesome things not included.

I’m going to admit it. I was not so secretly hyped for this OVA. When I heard they were going to remake the Kyoto Arc from Kenshin I thought that was pretty amazing idea. Take what is one of the strongest arcs of the manga and animate it with modern techniques and a decent sized budget. (Note: Debates over the superiority of the Remembrance or Revenge arcs can be saved for another day.) It seems like a recipe for awesome. Then they announced the OVA would be from Makimachi Misao’s perspective. That was a bit puzzling. I love Makimachi Misao. She is my favorite character from the series. A spunky kunoichi who is a wonderful sidekick for Kenshin during the arc as she adds a much-needed dash of comedy and drama to what would have otherwise been a less engaging solo journey for Kenshin. But as much as I love her she is still firmly a side kick character. So I was a bit worried that a story too much from her perspective would be claustrophobic and miss some of the most important parts of the arc due to their choice of perspective.

So I went in hoping for the best but prepared for the worst. In the end I had nothing to worry about in that regard. They did not do any of the things I was worried about. They botched the OVA is so many other more egregious ways that my initial fears seemed laughably quaint. It takes a special talent to do everything incorrectly. A bad anime will usually be broken in several places. The worse it is the more places it tends to have major flaws. But usually there are some bright spots that lift it out of being a complete train wreck. The thing is this Kenshin OVA does absolutely everything wrong with its plot and characterization it can.

  It should be said that this OVA seems made only for fans of the series. It is nay impossible to follow the plot otherwise. I’m not sure if is a good bet or not that everyone is already familiar with the story considering how old it is now though. And unless you are a Kenshin expert you might have forgotten some of the finer details. Even though this is a story seemingly made for fans of the series, that doesn’t mean there needs to be zero set up to events. It throws you in the middle of things so quickly you are never allowed to sink into the pace and emotions of the story.

But as a fan, we certainly remember what stands out in this arc. Things that are important in the first half: Kenshin catching up with Shishio and coming face-to-face for the first time, Kenshin’s sword getting broken and then getting a new one, Saito and Kenshin working together. All of these things happen but without any real emotion coming from the OVA. It’s as if it’s just another day in the neighborhood when Kenshin finds Shishio in the village. Saito questioning Cho in jail originally showed off Saito’s sly skills and made him and Sanosuke work together. Now it was just a throw away scene, which Sanosuke wasn’t even in!

Furthermore there a few new scenes which don’t do anything. There is a sex scene, why? The surprising thing is it is actually all in shadow and there is no nudity. Even then it was still awkward. So they couldn’t even throw in a fan-service scene properly?

And fights? Rather important in Kenshin-land. I was exaggerating when I said there are no fights, but they are over so quickly as to be practically nonexistent.

The Kyoto Arc starts in volume 7 of the manga and does not end until volume 17. That is a good deal of ground to cover. Sacrifices have to be made to condense such a sprawling tale into a short series of OVAs. You have to have a good eye for what to cut, what to shorten, and what to combine to keep the spirit of the original while still telling a coherent story. The problem is, as Narutaki said, the story is a mess. With too much ground to cover Kazuhiro Furuhashi and Mari Okada tried to cut out the extraneous parts of the original Kenshin story and only give the viewer the vital high points. They seem to know what the major beats of the story are but they don’t seem to understand what makes any of those key points work.

The perfect example is Kenshin first meeting with Shishio. They cut the fight with Senkaku which while adding slightly to the story can be cut with almost no consequence. But at the same time there is no build up to anything else that happens. Most of the meeting is Kenshin and Shishio talking at each other. The problem is that half the conversation makes no sense unless you read the source material and the other half has no impact. In the manga it was a struggle to get to Shishio and so there is a weight to the conversation. But since they effortlessly find him the conversation consequently seems cheaper. Also without any build up Kenshin’s fight with Sojiro ends in a flash without giving any menace or depth to Sojiro.

By the same token without all of Cho’s gimmick swords his fight is over before it beings. It takes away from exotic fighting styles that made him a unique character. Also Arai’s son never seems to be in too much danger making the fight toothless. In the original fight Kenshin not only had the handicap of not having his signature sword but he also he also had to constantly keep Arai’s son from harm as Cho would attack him to distract Kenshin. Likewise we only see the last blow in fight between Aoshi and Okina. That is the most important blow but since we practically have no idea who either of them are the scene is more confusing than meaningful.

It might seem like I am nitpicking the fights but they are the biggest weakness in the OVA. This could have been at least partially entertaining in the had only condensed the fights from the manga as opposed to reducing them to a single sword swing or two. The dialog and plotting was already an unrecoverable mess. It would take a major overhaul and a great deal more time to salvage anything from this current adaptation. But fights don’t need that much set up to be understandable. Most of the time the little setup they got was sufficient. Some gorgeously animated fights would have made the bad parts go down a bit better and let you fill in the gaps in story a little easier. If you can’t make a dish taste complex you might as well throw in some strong sugar and spice to make it go down easily.

The characters are rushed through relying too much on the audience’s familiarity. Despite what this studio thinks, characters don’t stop developing (hopefully) after you know who they are. You learn more as time goes on, you learn nothing in this OVA.

Misao is introduced in this arc so we theoretically need more explanation of her yet even she has little in the way of presence and development. Her seeking out Kenshin comes off more as “well, we had to start this story somehow” and it is so unclear about why she joins up with him. Her master Aoshi shows up briefly to tangentially kill someone. This is a pretty good scene, I admit, but doesn’t seem to go in the flow of the show.

Familiar faces like Yahiko, Karou, and Sanosuke come off as random rather than everyone leading to the confrontation in Kyoto.

As I mentioned before Sanosuke is actually cut from a scene. While Karou and Yahiko are actually added to one that seems to waste time. They stumble upon Kenshin’s master Seijuro without Kenshin being there. Seijuro is crazy bad-ass for sure but there is no reason for this scene. Karou and Yahiko look at his pottery, chat, and Seijuro chops some wood.

This OVA just had no idea who or what to spend time on.

If the fights were weak than the only thing that was weaker was the attention paid to the characters. Everything about the plot comes off like someone reciting off a set of cliff notes they glanced over before a test. We see the most of Kenshin and Misaso but we don’t learn much about them. The characters are all too willing to say things like Kenshin is a gentle warrior who refuses to kill or that Misao is a spunk ninja girl but we don’t see that much to back up those claims. Also most of the time you are asked to remember character relationships from previous material more the plot giving you any details involving them. There is no gravity to Misao’s quest to find Aoshi so it makes much of her motivation seem pointless. If they were going to have so much talking they should have at least built up the core characters.

At the same time the side character pop up to equally vapid cameos few of which even properly introduce their characters. Yahiko, Karou, and Sanosuke all appear but you never really learn that much about them. They would be instantly recognizable to fans of the original but to everyone they are mostly enigmas.  Even the one member of Shishio’s henchmen that gets any development (including a scene during an oddly tame OVA sex scene) is killed off earlier than he was in the manga. Why bother to develop Uonuma Usui if you are just going to kill him before he gets to do anything really interesting?

I can at least say that this OVA renders backgrounds, land- and cityscapes, and the sky with loving detail. Light is used well throughout, too. And even in taking stills for this OVA, I realized that it might look better than it truly is.

The few moments of action we were privy too also looked good. That is why it was doubly disappointing that they were so few and short. I feel they could have made a good action OVA. Perhaps they are saving it all for the second half.

If I have one complement to pay this series it is that the production values can be high at times. The original TV series by Studio Gallop was usually adequate with it came to animation but it clearly had the budget of a long running TV show from the 90s so scenes were very often done on the cheap. The new OVA clearly has a bigger budget as befits an OVA. That means crisp modern animation, wonderful backgrounds, and some choice animation at key points. But at the same time pan shots and long-range shots often cheat and use a more sub par animation when they assume you are not looking a closely. Also considering the fact that so much of the series is people walking or talking it is not like they were burning through money in about 90% of the time. The fights are often extremely smooth but they hardly last long enough for you to appreciate the quality. The oddest change is that while most of the cast looks exactly like they did in the TV series they oddly enough radically redesigned Misao. You can tell who he is if you watched the original but she looks more like Misao’s long-lost cousin wearing her outfit more than herself.

The soundtrack is mostly made up of new versions of most of the old soundtrack from the TV series. Most character’s leitmotifs are unchanged or slightly tweaked along side a good deal of the more iconic themes of the series. It more than anything helps fill in the gaps missing from the OVA by invoking memories of the TV series (if you had them at all.)

I don’t understand why they bothered remaking this arc in the first place if not to do it any sort of justice. Trying to imagine a production meeting where it is suggested they take out all the fights is laughable but somehow it occurred.

As for the Misao element, I really wouldn’t have known this was supposed to be Misao-focused if Hisui hadn’t informed me beforehand. If it was, it could have accounted for some of the oversights, but it just didn’t do enough to make me believe we were seeing this through Misao’s point-of-view.

This may be one of the most disappointing things I’ve watched in a while.

This OVA made me physically mad. It is just such a wasted opportunity. The Kyoto Arc still has such a strong reputation with fans. With the new Kenshin manga coming out and the live action movie coming out it seemed like the best time for the franchise to put its best foot forward. But instead they have squandered their opportunity. Had this been successful they could have thought about adapting Revenge Arc or make a rebooted series as they are want to do recently. But with a product like this I doubt that will be the case.

We get mother flippin Saber in a mother flippin suit on a mother flippin motorcycle in this episode. While we have not see the best of Saber on a motorcycle we have at least been given a taste of the wonders that are yet to come. That aside I guess there was that B plot of betrayal and corruption in this episode as well. I suppose I shall spend the bulk of my post going into the details of the events that are not Saber riding around on a sweet chopper. I will say that I was slightly amused that Kiritsugu’s rather Machiavellian dispatchment of Lancer and Kayneth almost universally won the Mage Killer a dedicated fan base. I was slightly surprised by the number of people who were sympathetic to Kayneth and conversely by the lack of people who condemned Kiritsugu. But the one character whose death did not seem to effect most people at all is oddly enough the one that triggers everything that happens in this episode.

Kirei discovers his father’s body in the Church. Risei’s death soon spawns a chain of reaction from the people allied with Tokiomi and Kiritsugu. Alliances are formed, partnerships are dissolved, and a Servant changes allegiances in the most brutal way possible. In the background the true nature of the Holy Grail War is revealed as we learn the shocking truth of the bloodthirsty ritual and the sacrifices needed to fuel its terrible engine.

The discovery of Risei’s causes an equal mixture of anger and panic in Tokiomi. His seemingly untouchable ally is dead. All his carefully laid plans are crushed as he was unable to get an extra command deal for killing Caster and his ability to manipulate the flow of the Grail War is severely impeded. Kirei on the other hand is as seemingly dispassionate as someone who found a dead stranger. His father’s death seems to have provoked no emotional reaction in him. But Gilgamesh knows better. He knows that not only did Risei’s death trigger a transformation in Kirei but it effected him in way that most people would not assume the death of a father would change his son. Also Gilgamesh clearly knows that there are parts of Kirei’s report that leave out important details. In fact the most important things in this conversation in the hallway is not what is said but what is implied and what is left hanging in the air.

Irisviel is still falling apart and it is only getting worse as the number of servants is decreasing. This time she had to be rushed home to her healing circle as opposed to give a little time to rest. But this gives all the yuri fans a little “Saber X Irisviel OTP” action which I am sure they appreciate. But Maiya arrives with an unexpected message. It seems that Tokiomi wishes to meet at the neutral ground that is the church to discuss an alliance. He wishes to call upon the old alliance of the Einzbern and Tohsaka families. This is obviously less because he wishes to put aside old grudges and more because he sees Team Saber as the weakest of the four remaining participants. Irisviel is less interested in dealing with Tokiomi as she is in removing Kirei from the battlefield. She realizes that he is the greatest threat despite the fact that he is seemingly neutered. Irisviel knows a nemesis when she see one.

If anyone played the Fate/Stay Night visual novel they will recognize this scene immediately. In the prologue for Fate/Stay Night this event is the first thing Rin describes. It is the final time she sees her father. In the game she recalls that while neither of them say it they both realize that this is probably the last time either of them will see each other. And so Tokiomi leaves his remaining daughter a few words of wisdom and heads off to face his destiny. This is clearly a moment that would stay with young Rin and shape much of her thinking in the 5th Holy Grail War. But it is also very clear that Tokiomi no longer has his same bravado and assurance that he will win this battle. He is closing up loose ends if he does not come back much like a man with a terminal illness would try to leave with a clean slate. Compare this to the attitude of a man just going on an extended business trip like he had before. Of course this means he has tripped the biggest death flag of them all: the heartfelt goodbye for now which is always the goodbye forever.

There are no permanent alliances in the Holy Grail war unless you are a crazy idealistic person named Shiro. What you have a ceasefires to deal with troublesome mutual enemies. Tokiomi proposes a temporary truce as they agree to not attack each other until Rider and Berserker are taken care of. Irisviel agrees under two conditions. The first is largely unimportant. It is sharing information about Rider. That hardly a concession. The faster either of them get rid of Rider the better. I’m sure that Tokiomi would love it if Kiritsugu could but a bullet in the back of the head of Waver Velvet as it would save him an immense amount of trouble. The other part of the agreement is the real concession. Irisviel wishes that Tokiomi break ties with his evil little church assassin. The hope is that it would make Kirei pack up his things and go home. Tokiomi agrees but it hardly has the desired effect for anyone involved. Also if you were not aware the three families they mentioned are the Einzbern, Tohsaka, Makiri families that created the Grail system in the first place. The Makiri family would go on to become know as the Matou family and all three family would participate in the war after that with a ever shifting series of alliance and betrayals. So this dysfunctional dance has been going on for decades.

After the meeting Irisviel collapses as she is strong enough to put on an unaffected front for short negotiations but she does not have much energy beyond that. And she proceeds to open up quite unexpectedly to Maiya. She reveals to her that she is the vessel of the Holy Grail, that the energy of each dead servant is tearing her apart, and that it is only Avalon that keeps her functional. We as the audience knew all these things but it is a bit surprising that Irisviel would be so open with her husband’s mistress. Irisviel knows her time is short so the keeping secrets no longer has much meaning. Irisviel merely wants confirmation that when she is gone that Maiya will do everything she can to support Kiritsugu. It is clear that both women are fanatically devoted to Kiritsugu and his ideals. If that means their deaths then so be it. And so both women reassure each other that they will die for this dream. And so they drive off into the night as devoted allies that otherwise might be enemies.

It seems at first that Kirei is ready to pack up his stuff and head back to the Executors for new orders. But Gilgamesh knows that these recent events have severed certain restrictions Kirei has placed on himself. He not only has his three new command seals but he also has all the extra seals his father left him after he died. So if can kill another Master he can easily take his Servant as his own and Gilgamesh is all too willing to be that Servant. But it seems the greatest change is that Kirei has thrown away whatever ties he had to his emulation of humanity. Kirei has always been a psychopath. But bonds with his wife and father made him keep up a facade of normalcy as he questioned why he would be born with such a soul that would only take pleasure in misery. But now three things have come together to destroy any reason he had to hide his true self. His ties to humanity are gone, he has the power to seek a new path, and now he has the opportunity to seize that new path. But before they seal their alliance Kirei reveals how the Grail War truly works.

The Grail is not activated by the death of six servants but seven. A master who understands the proper function of the grail will sacrifice his servant to completely fill the grail and hopefully open the door to the Root of all Being.While a servant might get his wish at the end he would soon find himself dead as his Master orders him to commit suicide. It is now clear that if Tokiomi were to win the war Gilgamesh would soon be a sacrificial lamb. It is no secret that Tokiomi’s goal has been to reach the Root so it is hardly surprising that he would sell out his servant to reach this goal. And so the innuendo of an alliance is finally make real. Amusingly enough the only time that Gilgamesh admires Tokiomi is right before he sets him up to be murdered.

Tokiomi gives his student two final parting gifts. His will and a dagger. Both of these are incredibly important to Fate/Stay Night. His will states that if he dies that Kirei will become Rin’s guardian and teacher. Kirei uses this apprenticeship to set up a great deal of his plans in Fate/Stay Night. The dagger Azoth on the other hand becomes an almost cursed dagger from this moment on. Originally a symbol that is passed from a master of the Tohsaka school to their graduating apprentice it becomes the weapon that Kirei uses to murder his teacher. While the irony of giving your student the weapon he uses to kill you is quite clear but it does not end there. When Kirei finishes teaching Rin he passes along Azoth to her. In turn Shiro uses the dagger to kill Kirei letting the irony go full circle. A poetic cycle to say the least.

But the betrayal that Fate/Stay Night fans knew was coming finally occurs. Kirei stabs his master in the back when Tokiomi assumes he was at his least vulnerable. Now Irisviel’s greatest fear has come to fruition. The most dangerous Master is back in the game and has one of the most powerful servants at his command and with a sickly amount of power to back that up. Everyone one else is now a target. But it seems next week will be a little break from this major game changer. It seems that the next episode will focus on Kiritsugu’s past. We get to learn how he became as cold-blooded killer he is now. You can call the next episode, “Kiritsugu is forced to murder everyone he ever loved in his childhood.” It sums it up quite nicely.

This is an episode the brings home the true nature of some of the major players in Fate/Zero. It will solidify your opinion of some characters. If you thought certain people were horrible, cruel, naive, and/or noble than all doubts will be cleared away. Other people who you maybe have been sympathetic towards or felt conflicted about their motives will no longer give you a feeling that is quite so on the fence. And other people you admired might not have you looking at them the same way after this episode. But no matter what your opinion you see what happens when push comes to shove, and all the chips are on the line, what these characters have inside of them. No matter what you will find that you will have an opinion about the members of Team Lancer and Team Saber.

Can some one give Sola-Ui a hand because she sure needs one? OK. Bad puns aside we see that Sola-Ui is clearly a bit unhinged. As she revels in Lancer’s victory the obsessive nature of her twisted love for Diarmuid is all too clear. Her love is a sickly green flame that burns bright but is toxic. But she is so wrapped up in her bliss that she does not see that Maiya has found an unprotected Master. And so Maiya proceeded to lob off her arm and takes an extremely valuable prisoner. Maiya is careful to obliterate Sola-Ui‘s remaining command seals and uses the arm as a message, “We have your woman now Kayneth.” If nothing else you have to admire the ruthless efficiency of Kiritsugu and Maiya. My only question is how did Maiya get a woman with one arm recently chopped off out of the building while she herself is covered in blood. But I suppose that is a question that we mainly ignore for story convenience. I am sure you could come up with an answer but is it really worth going into?

This is a rather short scene but one that provided a major revelation for me (but not necessarily anyone else). Kirei simply drops off Kariya, who he just healed, and heads of into the night with nothing but questions in his head. That in itself is simple enough. Kirei is curious as to why he has helped someone who is more than likely to be a major nuance later in the war when up until now everything he has done has been ruthlessly efficient. Up until this point I always assumed that Kirei was the ruthless monster we see in Fate/Stay Night with his true ambitions laying in wait to be revealed. But this incident clearly shows that he is still not that man yet. He is ACTUALLY someone who thinks he is on the side of the angels but wonders deep down what is wrong with himself. The seeds of the monster that would be the true villain of Fate/Stay Night are all here but that have not yet matured as he still keeps many internal restrictions on himself. The Holy Grail War is the trigger that sent him into a larval state that will let him transform himself into a corrupted butterfly by the end.

It might have been possible to have some amount of sympathy for Kayneth before this point. Sure he was full of pride, arrogance, ruthlessness, and even some sickening prejudices but there were things that made him have flaws you might be able to relate to. His unrequited love for Sola-Ui or his recent gilgul and permanent paralyzation might engender people to feel sorry for him. But any points of sympathy me might have earned quickly disappear in this episode. After he gets his new command symbol for Lancer’s role in defeating Caster he murders Risei in cold blood so the priest cannot give out any more Command Seals. He then returns to his base and tears into Lancer blaming anything and everything on his servant. He is clearly taking out his feelings as a worthless lover and Master out on his only remaining ally but this rationalization does not mean it is any less pathetic. But his tirade is ended by an unexpected intruder.  As a side note: In the novel it is mentioned that an unnamed master of puppetry magic was hired to get Kayneth moving around. Hardcore Type-Moon fans will recognize this as a subtle reference to Kara no Kyoukai’s Touko Aozaki. I assume they will mention that in an extra scene when they release the season two box set. I do wonder if we will get a quick glimpse of owner of the Garan no Dou if they add that scene.

Saber and Irisviel arrive to challenge Lancer. At first Lancer is perplexed. Saber should be spent with her power is mostly drained from using Excalibur. But as Saber explains this is exactly why she came. Everyone is drained after the fight with Caster. Lancer is equally drained so they are on a level playing field and anyone who would normally interfere is resting up so they can finally truly fight one on one.  And so they fight with almost a gleefully joy. When Lancer notices that Saber is not using her left hand to honor Lancer’s sacrifice during the battle with Caster he is moved by her chivalry. Though they are fighting to the death they are both fighting a person they respect and admire. They are honorable souls engaged in a glorious duel. The type of story that epics are made of. That is what makes what happens next even more heartbreaking. I suppose the upcoming tragedy is also what epics are made of.

As we saw from the last episode more than any other Kiritsugu is a master plotter and expert schemer. And so his real plan in unveiled. While Lancer is distracted he offers Kayneth a deal. If he commands Lancer to kill himself he will promise to allow his opponent and his fiancée safe passage. He even adds in the safety net of a magical pledge to not harm them on top of everything. Kayneth is clearly conflicted but in the end a mixture of cowardice and concern for Sola-Ui win out. He is trapped and no matter how painful it seems to take the dishonorable way out it is his only remaining option. Kiritsugu devil’s deal has a sinister sweetness to its horrible betrayal. But it also has all the tragedy you associate with a deal with the devil as well.

Lancer’s death is clearly one of the most tragic events that has occurred so far. Lancer was the most poplar character in recent polls. His charm, honor, and class won him a legion of fans. And that is what makes his betrayal all the more heartbreaking. He participated in the war for a chance to regain his honor but all he was given was betrayal. Betrayed by his Master, his Master’s fiancée, and seemingly by his one boon companion. He dies like a dog with a mixture of madness and misery engulfing his soul. And so he dies cursing everyone around him. Then the final betrayal comes. While Kiritsugu can do nothing against Lancer’s Masters that does not mean that anyone else is not free to act. And so a sniper rifle quickly finishes off the two injured Masters. Kiritsugu proves that he does what needs to be done no matter what the cost. I do have to wonder what this impact will have on a meta level. Will Lancer’s tragic end cement his place in fandom? Will this throw either fuel or sand on the fires of Lancer/Saber shipping? How many people will love Kiritsugu for his ruthless efficiency and how many people will not forgive him? How many people will see Saber as justified and how many will see her as childishly naive? This sort of reaction for fandom always interests me (although it often also perplexes or infuriates me as well).

Saber and Kiritsugu hardly got along at the best of times but at least they had a crude but dysfunctional working relationship with Irisviel playing peacemaker. But Kiritsugu plan has turned a bad situation to one in critical meltdown. Kiritsugu is clearly a pragmatist that clearly believes that the end justifies the means and that the good of the one is outweighed by the good of the many. Saber clearly believes in honor and compassion above all else. The problem is both of them have so encased themselves in their ideals to protect their hearts that they can no longer understand anything else. But Kiritsugu is clearly playing the long game and has long since decided that any and all sacrifices are acceptable. Everyone is a tool for his ideal (and what Saber does not realize is that includes himself). All Saber knows is that her Master is a ruthless man who crushed the honor of a brave man and slaughtered a pair of despicable but helpless dupes. Neither of them is really listening to the other. They are just shouting their philosophies at the uncaring world hoping that something makes sense. And so the gap between their hearts only grows wider. I will mention this does mark one of the three times he talks to Saber not using Irisviel as a note passing service.

Once Kiritsugu leaves we see that Irisviel did not play mediator as much in the argument not because she had nothing to say but because she was barely standing. It seems that the death of two more Servants in one night has hit her hard. If the energy of one servant greatly weakened her than two more has surely torn her asunder. The beast known as tragedy ate well this night but it has only whet his appetite as opposed to satiating it.

The most interesting thing about the philosophical battle at the end of this episode is how much it will go on to influence Fate/Stay Night. The few glimpses of Kiritsugu we see from Fate/Stay Night show that he clearly regrets his emotionless ruthlessness from his battle here. In many way he spends the short amount of time he has after the events of Fate/Zero trying to repent for the cold calculus he enacts here. In fact Shiro only seems to embrace the most fanatically idealistic parts of his adoptive father’s search for redemption. At the same time Saber seems to embrace much of Kiritsugu pragmatic stone hearted nature when she returns in the 5th Holy Grail War. The conclusion of this argument and the lessons learned are highly dependent of the path chosen in the Visual Novel. But it is clear not matter which path you choose that both Saber and Kiritsugu are both too fanatical as they are here. The paths they currently embrace dogmatically cling to ways of thinking that crush their options and their dreams.  As they cling to these paths Lancer’s final curse only creeps closer and closer to fruition.

I told you there would be a new version of Sword of Promised Victory and I was correct. That can only mean one thing. It is time for Excalibur to get busted out in this episode. While we have had some great fights before this and even saw one Servant taken down this really feels like the first time things have gotten serious. We are solidly in the third act. When Assassin went out it was more to show that Rider was a serious threat. This riverside battle is where we really get to see the nitty gritty of the remaining Servants and Masters competing for the Grail. There is no turning back now.

The three way battle continues as the heroic trio continue to lose ground to Caster’s towering mass of corrupt calamari. At the same time a magical Top Gun plays out in the sky on one front while an experienced master goes up against a powered up neophyte on the other. As these battle intersect the first true and derisive battle (that is not utterly one-sided) in fought in the 4th Holy Grail War. Another servant will fall bringing the match closer to its bloody conclusion.

Try as they might Caster’s summoned creature cannot be killed with poke damage. They soon realize that then need some way to magically nuke all of Caster in one shot or else they will all lose. At that point two people step up to the plate. Rider calls everyone together. He can trap Caster in his Noble Phantasm for a short amount of time in hopes that everyone left outside can find an answer because it is clear that if they keep doing what they are doing they are going to be slaughtered and anyone who survives will have to deal with an even more powerful Caster. Soon after that the Leon Silverberg of Fate/Zero whips out a plan via cell phone to end this battle once and for all.

There is something to be said for experience. Kariya might have a righteous cause and sacrificed so much to gain to gain power in a short amount of time but in the end it is all for naught. Tokiomi’s experience just puts him of a level that is too high for Kariya to reach. He might have also done better if he played some Pokemon and knew that bug types are weak against fire types. Much like the Assassin beat down this fight is over almost as quickly as it began. After Tokiomi shields himself as he effortlessly sets his opponent on fire and watches him fall off the building in agony. Tokiomi swatted away Kariya as he would a troublesome mosquito. At first it seems that Kariya is done for but he still has a little life in him but clearly no more fight.

Kiritsugu relays his plan to his allies via an awesome brick like 80′s cell phone. In this plan everyone has a role to play. Kiritsugu himself will go out and position himself on the water to show Rider where to drop Caster in the bay. This will set the stage so Saber can unleash her trump card that will vaporize this menace once and for all. But that requires Lancer to break one of his Nobel Phantasms to lift the curse on Saber so she can use both hands again. Saber and Lancer have a bit of a tit for tat with their honor but the greater good of stopping Caster wins out over their pride. Goodness. Any pixiv search will show that people were already shipping Lancer and Saber like crazy. This little scene is surely on going to throw rocket fuel on those flames. There is the grand reveal of Excalibur as she drops Invisible Air but before she can get into position a certain interrupting cow decides to stop on in even though he is uninvited.

While all of this was going to Berserker and Gilgamesh were having a dogfight on the highway to the danger zone. Gilgamesh has quickly positioned himself on Berserker’s six and it seems that the mad knight has little to let him fight back as he cannot easily attack anything on his rear. But when Kariya is down for the count it seems that Berserker quickly stops working on the mission his Master gave him and immediately tuns his attention towards his favored target of Saber. When Gilgamesh pops up right behind his obsessed opponent he gets a face full of enchanted chaff. I suppose Berserker had a remaining trick up his sleeve. But that means the Black Knight is now free to interfere with Kiritsugu’s plan. Thankfully an unlikely duo step in to provide Saber cover. Lancer logically steps in and trashes the possessed F-15  but that is not enough to stop the determined Berserker. As he falls to the earth he grabs an intact Vulcan cannon and is about to open fire when the King of Heroes provides the more unexpected back up. I have to say as much of a bother as he is Berserker is always cool in what ever he does.

While the crazed servants runs roughshod by the water his Master is in mortal peril.  At first it seems that Kirei is going to step in and finish the job his ally started. But then almost in-spite of himself the church assassin finds himself healing the helpless magi. It is clear that more and more Kirei is unsure of his motivations but is clearly on the road to his ultimate path of betrayal as the man we know from Fate/Stay Night. But for now his transformation is still in the larval stages. Still the amusing irony of Kirei’s infinity for healing magic is in clear view when we see his technique for patching up his patient. Kirei was clearly never taught that palm strikes to the chest are not a part of good beside manner.

With all obstacles cleared Saber can finally end this boss fight once and for all. She gathers up the energy for her anti-fortress attack as all the participants comment on this divine strike. It is a little cheesy but it put a good deal of weight on the power of Excalibur. I have to say I enjoy the new vocal component to the Sword of Promised Victory. I am very curious what the lyrics are to the remix. But chorus aside when Caster is hit by the light of the lake even his eldritch abomination cannot regenerate from the deviation. Just before Caster is vaporized he sees Joan of Arc welcoming him. Dedicated Type-Moon fans will notice that Joan’s character design is the same as when it first introduced in Fate/Apocrypha. While they unsuccessfully try to give Caster a bit more of a sympathetic light in his final moments I was glad he at least was struck by the immorality of what brought him to this place.

And so we shall see another visitor to the Einzbern Consultation Room soon enough as Caster joins the fallen. The episode ends with Rider and Archer exchanging words on the battle they have seen. Rider’s opinion of Saber has not changed. While he still thinks she is powerful and honorable he notes that she has still not moved off of her path of self-destruction. But to Gilgamesh that only makes her more attractive. After a bit of mutual poking both Servants decide to call it a day as they are both quite worn from their respective battles. And so Gilgamesh proves that he truly is the King of Creepy Non-Consensual Sex more than King of Heroes. Ick.

A nice conclusion to the promise made last season. Caster is finally down and out and the Church and the Mage’s Association will surely have their hands filled trying to cover this all up. While most of the participants in the battle parted on good terms that truce they had is surely over now that this is done. If nothing else Gilgamesh will show no mercy for anyone else who crosses his path. At the same time Irisviel is getting weaker as more servants die. If she was not feeling well after Assassin died she is surely going to start falling to pieces now that Caster has been dealt with as well. So while it seems that things are looking up for Saber it seems that she might be losing as much as she gains. Plus as much as it was Saber who dealt the finishing blow on Caster it truly was a group effort so I assume there will be a bit of conflict over who gets the additional command seal. Sometimes winning a battle means more than you have staved off losing the war than you have moved towards a final victory.

It is good to be back. I have enjoyed the little break from episode reviews but I am now ready to start writing about Fate/Zero again. Season 1 ended just before we could dive into a grand set piece battle on the river so it is good to be back. Now that we have passed the half way mark all bets are off. The immunity people had is slowly falling away as the number of episodes go down. Someone like Rider or Tokiomi is not going to go down easily but we know they are going to die. So their battles are a bit more tense because you are not sure when they are going to die. In fact Gen Urobuchi eliminates one major character in this episode and has set up some characters in very perilous situations at the end of the episode. People will die when they are killed. The kid gloves are off. Now it is on to the beginning.

As Caster and his pet baby Elder God head to shore to kill 1d4 people per round the heroic trio of Rider, Lancer, and Saber do their best to prevent the seafood abomination from making a buffet of Fuyuki City. At the same time Team Archer and Team Berserker face off with Master vs. Master and Servant vs Servant battle royal. And while everyone is trying to kill each other Risei realizes things have gotten out of control as he has to cover up the chaos. This might soon become larger than just the Grail War.

A new season means a new opening. The new opening is by Kalafina which is a group that should be familiar to anyone who has watched the Garden of Sinner’s movies. The song is a bit more upbeat than the work that they did for the Kara no Kyoukai films but Fate/Zero has more of action than its more contemplative sibling. The new opening reflects the current status of the remaining participants of the 4th Holy Grail War. We see how everyone has either grown or suffered set backs. The most interesting thing is that we see a good deal of young Kiritsugu. This clearly means we are getting an episode about his back story as there is a lot to tell there. I wonder if we will get a similar flashback to what made Kirei who he is. That just might mean we could get a Caren Ortensia cameo. Other than that it is good to see Saber on her motorcycle in the opening. They seem to like to play that up in promo images for season 2. And I don’t mind one bit. Also the opening makes it very clear that there is a reason you don’t see Irisviel anywhere in Fate/Stay Night.

It seems like everyone’s plans are coming apart. First of all those silly pilots and their foolishness in thinking they stood a chance. They should have gone with their instincts and realized they are monster movie fodder. By the way the Giant of Light reference they make is of Adam from Evangelion. At the same time the three Servants fighting Caster quickly realize this will be harder than they thought. While they can cut the monstrosity that Caster has encased himself in easily it regenerates so quickly that they cannot cut a path to Caster’s Noble Phantasm quickly enough to make a decisive blow. While they are keeping Caster from coming ashore they are mostly stalling for time. As the battle continues more and more people are beginning to take notice and Risei knows that he cannot easily cover this up like the other incidents he has swept under the rug. I will mention that this is hardly the WORST thing that has happened to the Holy Grail War under his stewardship. He is the person who let the Grail get tainted during the 3rd Grail War which leads to all sorts of trouble. But I suppose Risei is blissfully unaware of this fact. In the sky above Fuyuki City Tokiomi is trying to get his servant to join in the battle rather unsuccessfully. His original plan to sit back and have Gilgamesh casually deliver the killing blow seems impossible and the longer he waits the more the situation is spiraling out of control. Tokiomi idea of gentle manipulation is only infuriating his servant. Not only is he in danger of losing the prize of a command seal, and getting the Mage’s Association involved, but he is also infuriating his already temperamental Servant. Another incident that only further solidifies an alliance between Gilgamesh and Kirei.

Thankfully for Tokiomi someone decides to give him a chance to end this argument when Berserker appears out of nowhere and launches an attack by turning a F-15 in his newest Nobel Phantasm. One could wonder how Berserker got up there but I just chalk that up to a simple fact that a Wizard did it (and in this series that is a valid excuse). So Archer enters a magical dog fight with the mad knight. Gilgamesh has his ancient Indian Holy flying machine  and Berserker has powered up the remaining piece of flying cannon fodder. There is some nice CG as Gilgamesh throws around weapons from the Gate of Babylon for offense and defense while Berserker throws some juju on the already impressive weaponry of his hijacked jet. Both sides seem to relish throwing out projectiles and then using telekinesis to get them to move in new directions. If we continue to get fights like this then I have no problem with the season break between episodes. Sadly this dog fights only starts to warm up in this episode.

At the same time on the ground Kariya finally gets his grudge match. Face to face with his rival he calls out Tokiomi for giving away Sakura. But Tokiomi shows nothing for disgust for this opponent. Not only does he see Kariya as a coward from running away from his responsibility as a mage but an ignoramus who does not understand how the magical world works. In his opinion giving Sakura to the Matou family was the best thing for both daughters. His choice lets both girls grow to their full potential as they grow up as rivals who each have the undisputed backing of a magical family. If Tokiomi is unaware of the depraved practices of the Matou family is unclear. He is either uniformed of the dark practices of the family that took in his daughter or is lying to himself. But it is clear that his pride as a mage will not let Tokiomi see his choice as anything but proper no matter how uncaring it might be. Either way Kariya does not care. He will never forgive a man whose foolish traditionalism would allow him to sell his daughter no matter what the reasoning. Both men only see dangerous mongrels as their opponent and will give no quarter to the other. So begins a fight between flames and insects. Kirei is watching this fight from the shadows but for now he seems all to willing to let it play out how it will.

Kiritsugu is not one to just sit on the side lines. With almost everyone participating in the fight he decides to see if he can find any targets of opportunity and he find quite a juicy target. An undefended Ryuunosuke is a simple target especially since he is the only non-magical participant in the battle. We see a little reflection from the serial killer after he is shot through the chest by the Mage Killer who then gets rid of the first Master with a brilliant head shot. I know that they want Ryuunosuke to be slightly sympathetic but it does not work. I find him far too detestable to earn him any forgiveness. Good riddance to bad rubbish. But for the Heroic Trio this has not really helped their cause. Even though Caster’s Master has been killed he is a servant that can act independently for a long time. And as long as he can consume some people with his rampaging tower of tentacles then he can remain physical indefinitely. If anything it has only made Caster more committed to his rampage now that he no longer has a soft target to protect.

The new ending song by Haruna Luna seems a bit generic to me. It is not a bad song but it seems much more like a choice to put in a singer that Sony want to promote than an effort to match a singer to the show. Also the new ending does not focus on the whole cast like the last time. This time it only focuses on Irisviel and Kiritsugu. It seems to be various scenes of their time together before the Holy Grail War as seen in the Drama CDs. It is a nice little montage that shows quite a bit of how they came to know each other without saying a word.

I have to admire the show for hitting the ground running. They could have been tempted to do some recap but with the cliff hanger they left the show on before it was wise of them to skip that. I will say that I am slightly jealous of the people at Sakura-con that got to see the first two episodes there. But I suppose there is something to be said for spreading out your happiness. I cannot wait to see these fights ramp up. Three simultaneous battles is the way to start a season right. And of course we will clearly see a remix of a certain song in the next two episodes if Kiritsugu is correct in his predictions. Excalibur!

Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro had the pleasure of showing me there are 4-koma manga that I like! But then again, Kiyuduki doesn’t use the format in a traditional sense. Her low-key humor and simple but precise art makes this series a real charmer.

Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro follows the story of a haphazard group of travelers headed up by the mysterious, coffin-carrying, black clad, girl going by the name Kuro. She along with a bunch of bats (one snarky one in particular, Sen) pick up two little cat girls along the way. Where they are headed remains a rather amorphous concept though they do seem to be looking for someone. Along the way we learn bits of pieces of character’s past. Each traveler plays off the others; Kuro being none too talkative while the kids are little balls of energy and mischief. The series has a melancholy undertone, not unlike Kino’s Journey but also not that heavy, though it is balanced out by the adorable art style and banter.

The way Kiyuduki plays with the format is of particular interest from using one giant panel to tell a story to expanding an adventure to two or three times that of usual 4-koma. At times she is using the format merely as a structure but still these adventures feel like quick bites. The printing is also nice with many color pages to enjoy.

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Le Tableau was my final film for the festival, luckily this screening also featured the director and writer in a little Q&A after. This film while still for children is a little more mature in its execution. The animation and colors of a painterly quality will strike you first and captivate you, indeed it was the reason I wanted to see the film in the first place. Happily there is also an under current of independence and creating your own destiny making it more than just pretty to look at.

Le Tableau means The Painting, so that is where our story begins, inside an unfinished painting. A three caste systems has developed, diving those who are fully painted, those only half-painted, and those that remain sketches. Lola, a Halfie unperturbed by being “incomplete,” decides to journey to find the painter in hopes of helping her friend Claire who is in love with the free-thinking Alldunn Ramo. Ramo joins Lola on her quest as does the Sketchie Plume. Their adventure takes them beyond their painting into the world of the painter, meeting his other creations along the way.

Lola is the heart of this story and she remains the most abstract in her thinking and in her ultimate choice at the end of the film. From the beginning she thinks bigger than the other characters, she can see the world beyond her painting and yearn for it. But that doesn’t mean she acts above them, she strives to help everyone she comes in contact with learning their story. And that in turn informs her story and her path. Just as Ramo and Plume seek the painter in order to complete their world, they unexpectedly end up learning how to shape their own destiny. But Lola, she seems to know she’s had that power all along.

Jean François Laguionie the director of the film took questions after the viewing. He expressed his wish to have done the movie in hand-drawn animation but lamented the time and money needed to do so made it impossible. But even then the project took eight years for completion. Anik Le Ray, the writer, mentioned that all the names with the exception of Lola and Ramo are inspired by paintings and painting terms. She knew the only person who could make this come to life as Jean François. Jean François Laguionie is considered legendary in the field and yet this is the first film I’ve seen sadly. Anik went on to describe the furious way he works drawing frame after drame, hundreds of drawings one after the other in the early concept stages.

I was only able to see three films this year, but two of them were French which is an area I’d like to expand my animation knowledge in so it worked out.

First, I really must thank the New York International Children’s Film Festival for bringing one of my wish list movies of 2011 to the event this year. This French CGI production played in 3D and was the opening night feature to kick off the nearly month-long festival. This comedy adventure features wonderful animation, great music, and charm on all levels.

Our story begins in a flooded Paris of the early 20th century, giving a magnificent backdrop to the tale. When Emile and Raoul make a delivery to a scientist’s lab, they take the time to explore. Their experiments accidentally create a giant insect that promptly escapes into the city. With the pompous police commissioner in pursuit, the now infamous “Monster of Paris” meets young singer Lucille who takes him in after recognizing his noble heart.

Lucille is a great lead heroine. She is talented, quick-witted, and brave as anything! The musical numbers of her on stage are magical, helping to enrich the life of the story. Everyone in the film has big dreams as well: Raoul as inventor, Emile as filmmaker, and Lucille as singer. Raoul  and Emile evolve emotionally over the course of the film too, at first being unable to tell the girls they are in love with how they really feel. And our dear monster, who proves the age-old case of not judging a book by its cover, is central in bringing people together and creating change. The daring adventure of friendship that this becomes is vibrant.

I was so impressed by the construction of A Monster in Paris. Little actions that happen early are relevant to the end of the story. While the movie is fantastical, anything could happen, they still take great care to ensure that nothing happens out of thin air. It is all connected. I was similarly pleased with the character relationships. The film continually shows its ability to juggle without getting tangled up or overly exposition heavy.

This classic story of a monster with a gentle heart is brought to life with all the right flourishes making it so very memorable. Far and away my favorite film at the festival this year and maybe my favorite from the festival ever. Please, please, please give it a wider theatrical release; not only does it deserve an Oscar nomination, I’d like to own to watch over and over.

The New York International Children’s Film Festival in a unique opportunity to see translated animated films from around the world. This means they often play anime films even before they appear on the fan sub circuit giving the festival a unique appeal to anime fans. It is one of the few times you can still go in cold to an anime. I certainly had no knowledge about A Letter to Momo other than the blurb on the website. That is just a feeling you don’t get as much any more. Just the ability to see something and judge for yourself if it is a gem is a fun little treat. That sometimes means you sit through some mediocre material as well but the chance to get a relatively clean movie watching experience free from hype or prejudice is worth it by itself.

Two anime were being shown at the festival this year, A Letter to Momo and Children Who Chase Voices From Deep Below. A Letter to Momo is one I had only read about being in production, but little else after it premiered. I was pretty much going in blind other than knowing Production I.G worked on it. But a lot of times I put myself in the hands of the festival, if for nothing else this may be the only chance I’d have at seeing these films. A Letter to Momo brings brightness to the subject of grief but over stays its welcome to a degree.

Momo is a taciturn 13-year-old girl who has recently moved to her grandparents house after the death of her father. As she tries to fit in she discovers that three mischievous spirits are also living in the house and are making trouble in the neighborhood. But only Momo can see these three troublemakers. But how is this trio of spirits linked to a letter that Momo’s father never finished before he died?

This is a quiet story, Momo talks rarely unless it is screaming at the top of her lungs when she encounters spirits. It is an emotional journey for her to begin again after her loss. It is quite literally about moving on, from Tokyo to Shio, from earth to heaven. The spice in all that are these loud, boorish spirits looking after her.

Momo is a very reserved young lady. I got the feeling she was hardly talkative before the move but after the death of her father and being brought to a strange new town she seems to close herself off even more. She seems to be very reluctant to open herself to anyone. It does not help that she is both trapped in a strange in environment externally and by her father’s death internally.So when the spirits enter her life it forces her to get involved with them despite her usual manner. When she realizes that she cannot easily chase them away she at least tries to minimize the damage they do to the area as they steal food and accessories from the island. At the same time despite the fact that the three spirits have a job to do they mostly just raid the local fields for food. The biggest imp seems to be the leader and while he is a gentle giant he also seems the closest to being the brains of the operation. The tall skinny imp is clearly the lazier and sneakiest of the three who is more content to throw out a snarky quip than lend a hand. The smallest imp is the innocent of the group. He is a bit of a space cadet but he seems the most genuine of the group. This trio is not the greatest at the their jobs and the fact that Momo can see them only complicates their assignment more. Momo spends the first part of the movie running scared from them but when she gets the upper hand on them she almost becomes their patrol officer as she tries to keep them in line. But in the end they form an odd friendship from their misadventures letting Momo open up a bit after all the circumstances closed her off from the world.

Momo is struggling but she isn’t a caricature of a grieving teenager. Because we never know Momo before this lose it could be easy to overemphasize her emotions, but this film is generally subtle. In fact, the ones acting out most are the spirits, for which she gets blamed heartily. Still she has her moments, as is natural to her, though I will say, her final argument with her mother does come off as a too perfect storm though necessary for growth. Speaking of her mother, I think we all visibly cringed at her attempts to get Momo to be more social. Momo is able to get there on her own as she learns to open up with the spirits. And my those spirits contrast with her wonderfully. Each one embodying a sort of selfish recklessness. But they do have the commonality of learning to see another perspective. Just as Momo at first doesn’t understand her mother’s plight so to do the spirits not see their actions.

Momo’s mother is a strong woman who is obviously holding in a tremendous amount of pain.  She want to move on. She knows that being upset won’t help anyone but both Momo and her mother have both retreated into themselves. It is just that Momo wears a mask of eternal sorrow  to cope whereas her mother wears one of seemingly endless optimism. They carry their sorrow singularly and therefore cannot move on. At she same time I get the feel no one in that family is great at social interactions. When Momo’s mom basically begs the children of the island to be Momo’s friend it is amazingly awkward for everyone involved. The kids from the island seem to genuine wish to make friends with Momo with the leader of the gang being interested in the attractive new girl but Momo seem unwilling to take the leap both literally and metaphorically.

I have to say that family movies all get the most delightful budgets and when you team up that money with a studio like Production IG you get same amazing visuals. Any given scene has amazingly beautiful backgrounds. From the rustic charm of the village, to the majesty of the forest, to the captivating vistas created by the archipelago every scene is just wonderful eye candy. With a movie with as many scenes that just live in a mood this is a necessity. At the same time the fluid animation of the chase on the hills and storm at the climax is breath-taking. I feel A Letter to Momo was going for a Studio Ghibli level of pomp and circumstance as a visual treat and in the respect they succeeded.

Despite the praise to give this film on its characters and setting, I really found it too long making my enjoyment falter considerably. It has moments of repetition that are necessary and some sagging moments as well. It is a slow, quiet film but that doesn’t mean it needs to be stretched out. I liked many things I saw, but wish a good editor would go in with some scissors. That being said, it is still a nice addition to the family film genre and something to build on. Children will and did surely love the antics of the spirits and Momo herself remained a relatable figure throughout.

I enjoyed the movie but it really needed to be at least a half an hour shorter. As we get to the end I knew they were going to do what too many overly long movies do and have several ending points. And soon enough I was proven right a the movie basically has three endings in a row. Each of them resolved something about a character relationship with either with Momo and her family, Momo and the spirits, or Momo and the other children on the island.  Each was important but it only made the movie feel longer than it already was. I know the movie wanted show and not tell you about these characters which was important but they needed condense a few scenes. It has a strong characters, beautiful visuals, a touching story all which could have been amazing if they just trimmed the fat a bit. Like Welcome to the Space Show this was clearly meant to be a family movie but I wonder how much the movie will be able to keep the attentions of kids for 2 hours. There are some funny scenes and even some action and suspense but when the plots slows down to drink in a feeling it often holds that feeling for too long.  Then again the children in the audience at the film festival seemed engaged for most of the movie so maybe I am underestimating a younger audience. Still I hope to see more from Hiroyuki Okiura. He showed a good deal of promise with this movie as long as he learns to condense the stories he tries to tell a bit.

Since I already did GTO: Shonan 14 Days as a Manga of the Month it is only natural that I recommend GTO: The Early Years as the companion piece. Shonan Junai Gumi is where Eikichi Onizuka’s adventure started. I always had a vague feeling there was a longer story that occurred before GTO when I first read the series. Characters make quick reference to old stories and grudges. Characters would pop on to the scene with minimal introduction. Ryuji Danma and Onziuka seemed to have had a tremendous amount of back story. But I did not think much about it and just assumed Tohru Fujisawa liked it hint at a greater story than he was telling. But when I learned that GTO was a sequel to an equally long manga called Shonan Junai Gumi it all made sense. So I was thrilled when Tokopop started releasing the original series and crushed when they closed up shop leaving the manga unfinished. Thankfully Vertical has licensed recused this series and is putting their own signature polish of the title.

Back before he was the greatest teacher in Japan Eikichi Onizuka was just a teenager with his friend Ryuji Danma and they both had a dream. To finally lose their virginity. It just so happens these two goofy teens are also the toughest delinquents in all of Japan. So the Oni-Baku has to fight all stripes of insane thugs, miscreants, yankees, criminals, and psychopaths to keep their reputation while trying to find love (or at least satisfy their lust) with some lucky ladies. They build quite a gang for themselves in the process.

It is great to get the end of the beginning of the Onizuka legacy when it seemed like this part of the story would not see a full licensed release in the US. While this part of the story is a bit cruder than later parts of Onizuka’s story it also has its own energy that is not present in the later iterations as well. The art and story telling is a bit less refined but I feel the humor is a bit ruder, the action a bit wilder, and the stakes a bit higher. As Tohru Fujisawa goes on in his career his work gets much more refined but he loses a bit of spontaneity in the process. This is the raw and uncut Onizuka. I would like to see this do well because then Vertical can go back and redo the old Tokoyopop versions of GTO: The Early Years and maybe even GTO itself. If you want more Onizuka there is the new Ino-Head Gargoyle that continues the GTO legacy with Saejima Toshiyuki who has been with the GTO franchise since Shonan Junai Gumi as well.

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Every time I get a new volume of D.Gray Man, I think to myself why don’t more people read this? I realize it is not an unpopular series but it also doesn’t seem to have really stuck around. This may be partially due to it moving from the prominent Weekly Shonen Jump magazine to the monthly Jump Square. There is a lot of shonen fighting manga out there, so it is easy to miss one. And besides that, picking and choosing what is worth settling in the long haul with can be difficult.

D.Gray Man combines supernatural powers and occult lore with the shonen fighting formula. The gothic and macabre designs are well utilized giving life to everything from the obvious horror to less imaginable whimsy and humor. The art overall is a real treat in the series; the details in the European setting to costume and architecture are wonderful. Allen Walker possess a power called Innocence that can be harnessed to defeat demons and the like. The organization known at the Black Order recruits people with these gifts in an ongoing war against the Millennium Earl and his dark minions. Even before Allen joins their ranks, it is clear that there are many secrets to each side and to Allen himself. Allen is a positive lead who has a lot of charm about him; he is very honest and possesses a lot of heart. He isn’t the type of character who you forget about to concentrate on the support personalities. But he does have an electric group of people around him. The series utilizes everyone and the setting well, even pushing the grotesque monsters and violence pretty far at times. And it has a lot of mystery in the undercurrent which slowly reveals itself.

At just 22 volumes so far, D.Gray Man isn’t too much of a commitment compared to its brethren. (And VIZ is almost in line with the Japanese, releasing the 21st volume in November.) Within its pages is a solid journey that doesn’t drag and reveals its twists and turns in good time. Add in a good cast and artwork that begs to be looked at in detail and I find I can’t resist D.Gray Man.

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I have finally completed my final play through of Fate/Extra. Having completed it with Caster I feel like I have closed out the game. While I did not go through every scenario possible in the game I think I saw the optimal amount of possibilities. I would be interested in a few tiny details like using Saber with a female protagonist or taking Archer through Rani’s route but those little details are what YouTube is for. In this final post on Fate/Extra I just wanted to give my thoughts on playing as Caster. I mean how could I not play the game as the cute little fox goddess even if that is dangerously close to furry country.

I will admit I tore through this play through whereas I savored the other two. The third time around I had to put in cheat codes because there was no way I was legitimately grinding through the game a third time. I love Type-Moon but I am not crazy. It was sort of fun playing through the game as a level 99 god. You can actually win several battles are supposed to either come to a draw or have you be outright slaughtered. Winning them never changes to plot but it does get you some bonus dialog as a pat on the back for your accomplishments. That said it was still quite obvious that Caster is the hard mode. That is not to say that she is worthless because at times she is a wrecking crew. The problem is she is really slow to power up and definitely a glass cannon. When you start the game she is definitely the weakest character you can pick. She does not deal much physical damage, she has paper-thin defense, and it takes awhile for her to get the spells she needs to rip things apart. When you have her full complement of spells she is a monster but no matter how high level you get her she is always fragile and cannot absorb too much damage. But her basic spells are a nasty one two punch as they do their standard damage and can stun the opponent if you choose wisely. If you set things up correctly she can tear into even the toughest opponents. I took out Saver in 1 round with a level 99 Caster and Ryougi Shiki without breaking a sweat. She is challenging but rewarding to play.

Caster is a cutie-pie little vixen with a deceptive appearance. She seems like an airhead but she is someone who will just as easily deceive, set up, and then assassinate everyone around her in a way that would make the Count of Monte Cristo slightly uneasy. She is definitely designed to have a mixture of Yamato Nadeshiko loyalty, ditzy charm, and vengeful possessiveness. It does give her an amusing appeal if a bit on the moe wish-fulfillment side of feminine appeal. She is definitely the most openly affectionate and playful Servant as well as the most sexually aggressive.  A bonny boom boom body does not hurt with features on the safe side of anthropometric. She was a refreshing sorbet after the sarcastic Archer. The most surprising part of her past was her connection to Twice H. Pieceman. It was set up in advance but like everything involving Pieceman I wish they had investigated it more. I also wish Caster was in other mediums as well. Her careful Machiavellian plotting combined with her harmless demeanor would make her an interesting character in a title outside of a tournament RPG.

That is it for Fate/Extra. I definitely got my money’s worth in the 3 play throughs I did. I admit that I certainly used the skip dialog button quite a bit in my third time through but Caster’s charm made it worth my time. I now have three max affection Servants to import into Fate/Extra CCC if that ever comes out. I hope that the game did well enough that Aksys Games considers picking up the sequel. I can’t wait to see how your characters transfer over and what rewards you get for playing the previous game. I can never get enough of the Fate universe.

While this is slightly delayed I have finally got through my second play through of Fate/Extra this time with Archer, a female protagonist, and taking the Rin route. Essentially I changed everything you could change to see how much it actually effected the story and how the game played out. If you are looking for a proper review of the game you just check out my first article about my Saber playthrough. That has more analysis of the game proper. This is just a supplemental look at the viability of a replay and what bits of nuance I got out of using Archer. This review took about a month longer than it should have as I swear the universe did everything up to including making it so my PSP would no longer read UMDs to prevent this review. Le sigh. But here it is.

First of all while it is a nice option to play as a female protagonist in Fate/Extra as far as I can tell it is the one choice that has the smallest effect on the game. I am glad to see that you are going to make the protagonist be so much of an avatar you might as well let both sexes have a chance to be represented. But sadly unlike say Persona 3 Portable changing your gender does not change the way the game plays. You don’t get any different plot choices and most of the dialog goes completely unchanged. It also makes all the servants and a few other characters in the game strongly bisexual as they will develop romantic feelings for you regardless of your gender. I do find that a bit amusing. I am sure that pleases the yuri fans but the yaoi fans can get a little for themselves as well.

I will state this plainly. There is no way you can mistake Archer from Fate/Extra being anyone BUT Archer from Fate/Stay Night. He makes references to fighting in another Holy Grail War in a school setting, he recognizes Shinji and Rin but mentions her knew much different versions of them, makes a an off-handed reference to the traditional Saber we all know and love, and even has the same appearance, powers, and back story as the traditional Archer. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands. I am not sure why some people seem to insist that this Archer is not necessarily the Archer from Fate/Stay Night. While I am not sure the story of how he become a Counter Guardian counts as canon outside if this iteration of the franchise it is clear who he is supposed to be. If nothing else this means that Archer is the servant to play as if you are a fan of the original story. No one else will even come as close to the number of in jokes and references as picking EMIYA as your servant.

Playing as Archer at times feels like a whole new experience and other times feels exactly the same as playing as Saber. The big difference is the dialog. Any time the your servant speaks there is always a very distinct tone in their dialog. If you picked any line as just read it off with no other context you could tell who the line is from. Where as every statement from Saber is grandiose but affectionate all of Archers conversation is filled with sarcasm and ruggedness. Also Saber is without a doubt easy mode. Anything that Saber does with ease takes Archer a good deal more work to do. Archer’s real ace in the hole is Seven Rings of Heaven as it can just ignore one attack. But other than that he is just harder to play.

The same thing thing is true with the alternate servants when you do Rin’s path. While the dialog is different with other opponents the mechanics of what you have to do are exactly the same. How you transverse the levels, gather matrix information, and even get help from your female companion is identical. Lil’ Ronnie and her Lancer are even crazier and far creepier than Monji Gatoh but I miss the True Ancestor. I was a bit more conflicted when fighting Rin in Rani’s path but I enjoyed your little romance/friendship with Rani more. The servants on Rin’s path were far easier as a breezed through those battles despite the fact that Archer was not anywhere as powerful as Saber. But if you pick Archer as your servant you MUST take the Rin path. His reactions to Rin in-person and when you are alone are priceless. The amount he purposefully does NOT say is just as hysterical as what he does say. I am curious what he says in those moments if you take the Rani path but they can’t be as wonderful as his dialog for Rin. Also he has the One-True-Mana-Exchange-Scene™ in this route.

The biggest thing that is added to a second play through is you can fight Shiki Ryougi as a secret boss. As is the tradition with all secret bosses she is far harder than anyone else in the game. After my level 55 Archer died against her the 4th time I just cheesed her by rushing to get out Unlimited Blade Works so I could spam her with Fake Spiral Swords and used a bunch of elixirs so I could do that for 3 rounds. You get a useful little item from beating her= that lets you cancel your opponents next move but it mostly only useful if you are going for a 3rd playthrough. Shiki is a nice Easter egg that explains the presence of Touko in the game but all in all she is mostly just an Easter egg.

So the real question is if it is worth playing the game a second time. My answer is yes and no. There is a good deal of new dialog and story if you play a second time. The game makes sure to reward you for playing  with new elements and things to discover. Even the servants who were the same react differently to the companion you choose to fight at your side. But other than that the game itself plays exactly the same. Everything is mechanically unchanged. Also the grinding is far more annoying the second time around. I enjoyed the fact that you kept the learned patterns from the last game but it did not make the time killing the same monsters again and again any more interesting. They really should have just let you keep your levels from them last playthrough so you could focus on the story. I could tolerate as the hardcore Type-Moon fan but I see most people getting sort of frustrated. But you have to grind like that if you want to take out  Shiki at the end. I would say the second play though is worth it but I would play something else in between play playthroughs as it might help take the edge off doing the same thing twice in a row and let you just enough the changes with a little distance. I will do a hopefully shorter little follow-up article about Caster. I am sure I will have a lot less to say but I feel I should mention how she plays and what I think of her character.

With Carnival Phantasm just wrapping up I decided I might as well spotlight it’s origin. Take Moon was a little comedy anthology that Eri Takenashi of Kannagi fame wrote while she was still at Type-Moon (not that she fully left as she is doing the character designs for Girl’s Work.) It took the mostly serious characters from Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night and puts them in utterly comedic situations to play out their personalities in as exaggerated manner as possible. So Arcueid goes from eccentric vampire to am undead blonde airhead while Saber is portrayed less as a hungry young swordswoman and more as a bottomless pit. But it is all done in a loving manner. It has the lighthearted feel and spirit of fandom present in an amateur doujinshi with the polish of a professional manga. The first book is all Tsukihime characters where as the second book add in skits from Fate/Stay Night. You can tell that Eri Takenashi has a bit off a soft spot for Arcueid and Ciel but almost everyone gets a turn in the spotlight. Even Hanei Misawa and Bazett Fraga McRemitz get some screen time.

I will warn readers that the manga has two major barriers. The first is it assumes that you know the Nasuverse characters inside and out. No real effort is made to introduce the characters or their worlds. Eri Takenashi not only assumes you have played all the Type-Moon games but that you also know the fandom in-jokes surrounding the games. You don’t just have to know who Kohaku is but know her mad scientist persona that she has gained outside of the main games. The second barrier is the fact there is no official English release and the second volume has never been fan scanned. I think it would be neat if someone picked it Take Moon considering the increased interest due to Carnival Phantasm and its short length but I am not holding my breath.

Speaking of Carnival Phantasm the instant question is, “If I watched Carnival Phantasm is there any reason for me to read Take Moon?” The answer is of course. While some of the stories are pretty much a direct interpretation most of the stories have been modified. The anime adds in characters that were introduced after Take Moon was written like Riesbyfe Stridberg or Red Saber but throws some characters like Arihiko Inui and Zouken Matou from main character roles to minor cameos. Heck the whole Phantasmoon skits from the anime are based on one page of a longer and very different Phantasmoon story in the original manga. Both have stories unique to their iteration as well. I mean if nothing else you don’t want to miss out on the Mystic Eyes of Breast Enlargement. It is a delightful little piece of fun for fans of Type-Moon and Eri Takenashi alike.

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This is the first year I participated in the Reverse Thieves’ Secret Santa Project, and unfortunately I can’t say that I loved the show I picked to watch. That isn’t to say that I hated it, or that it was even bad, but it wasn’t really my kind of show and wouldn’t have been something I’d have selected to watch on my own. That being said, I’m glad I participated in the project and look forward to doing it again next year. On to the review!

Uchuu No Stellvia, based on the short description I read on animeinfo, sounded like a somewhat promising sci-fi drama with a bit of school life mixed in. The story begins in the somewhat distant future, after mankind has experienced a catastrophe of a star going super nova and the Earth was bombarded with all kinds of cosmic radiation. Much of mankind perished in the stellar event, but things aren’t over because the “second wave,” basically the shockwave of debris and more cosmic radiation is going to bombard the Earth in another 200 years or so. Mankind has become united due to this revelation, and has worked endlessly to prepare for the coming disaster by building multiple space stations, called foundations, where students are trained to become pilots, engineers, programmers, etc., all to participate in The Great Mission of defending the Earth from the coming second wave. The foundations are basically giant space colleges which also act as pseudo-military bases.

Enter our protagonist, Katase Shima, who at the beginning of the series is boarding a space transport to embark to the Stellvia (the foundation nearest Earth) to begin her training. She’s generally shy, soft spoken, but is also a genius when it comes to programming, but more than anything she wants to be a pilot and wants to see space. On board the transport she meets Arisa Glennorth, who is basically the opposite of Shima. She’s loud, outspoken, energetic, and not particularly skilled at anything. The two of course become best friends, and then naturally are assigned as roommates once on board the Stellvia.

There will be some crying about every other episode.

We’re quickly introduced to the rest of the students/staff, who pretty much fill every cliché role imaginable. On the girl’s side you have Kayama Akira, a tall, somewhat stand offish, serious girl. Fujisawa Yayoi, who’s the smart, well endowed glasses chick. Machida Ayaka, one of the upperclassman who’s a star pilot and is basically driven to be extremely competitive due to some kind of inferiority complex. Later we’re introduced to Kazamatsuri Rinna, a wunderkind who initially views Shima as her rival but quickly becomes another friend. Lastly is Najima Gable, another one of the upperclassmen who’s trait is that she randomly quotes lines of Shakespeare or the Bible and never seems to have any kind of reaction to anything.

They somehow made a show with a space ninja and made it boring.

On the boy’s side we have Pierre Takida, the suave lady’s man who unfortunately always seems to fail in his romantic endeavors. Joey Jones, aka JoJo, the short, fiery tempered comic relief. Masaru Odawara, basically the blandest character in the series, his defining characteristic is that he eats a lot. Otoyama Kouta, a good-natured, but somewhat socially awkward guy who is generally average at everything but turns out to be a phenomenal pilot due to his “sight.” Kent Austin, basically the super hero upperclassman who’s good at everything and handsome. Finishing off with Ritsuo Shojin, another upperclassman who’s a ninja always doing physical training and who rarely speaks.

Everyone meets, everyone likes each other, yay. Shima initially stinks at flying, but then becomes a pro after some tips from Kouta and her reprogramming of the flight software for her ship. There’s a brief point where we learn that Ayaka is a psycho, when she basically tries to kill Shima in a jousting game, but she gets over it and everyone’s friends again.

The first half of the series is basically going through the initial training of the new students, Shima struggling with flying, overcoming her problem, and then making the final preparations for The Great Mission, which goes off without a hitch (though of course with a bit of melodrama thrown in). Overall, I actually liked the first half the series. Again, not really my cup of tea, but it was still enjoyable.

The second half of the series is where, for me, things kind of took a turn for the worse story wise. Initially, it looked at some intriguing ideas, introduced some political aspects to the series, and toyed with the fact that mankind has essentially not known war for almost 200 years because every moment had been spent with mankind working towards a common goal (The Great Mission) and almost immediately after that goal was achieved, mankind started acting like mankind usually acts…for like a few days, then everyone was fine again. It’s around this time that aliens show up and destroy one of the foundations after everyone evacuated. Then there’s a new impending cosmic catastrophe that threatens to destroy the entire solar system and mankind only has a few months to prepare to face it, during which nobody seems to be really concerned (until the last week or so). The fend off the disaster, the aliens were really trying to help us in their own way, and everyone lives happily ever after in a new era of space exploration.

If it seems like I really hated the series, I didn’t. It’s just that I found it rather mediocre. Part of the reason I think it came off that way to me is that it tried to do a bit of everything, but didn’t really excel at any one aspect. I also didn’t really like any of the characters, because for the most part they were all just caricatures. With the exception of Shima, Kouta, and Ayaka none of the characters really “grew” throughout the series. Shima always broke down and started crying whenever something was hard, but then would overcome it. Kouta finally learned how to express himself a bit. Ayaka accepted the fact that she isn’t the best there is.

I know a lot of people really liked Stellvia, though it’s somewhat unknown, but for me it wasn’t really anything exceptional. Again, I wouldn’t say it’s a bad series by any means, just rather forgettable. The art/animation is adequate, and I will say that when CG was used it the series it was done fairly well. The music wasn’t really anything standout, though I really didn’t care for the opening song. The singer does what, to my ears, sounds like the Japanese equivalent of yodeling. The voice acting was fine, nothing bad nor anything great.

On a scale of 5, I’d give Uchuu no Stellvia a 2.5. Not bad, but not great. Right in the middle.

It is rather pleasant to not be crying tears of blood as we watch a series for Secret Santa. I can’t say that Metal Fighter Miku was a greatest show ever but thankfully it was not the torture that was Texhnolyze or Dead Leaves. There are a few reasons that people might remember this show. It is the directorial debut of Akiyuki Shinbo. If you are a fan of his work it is an interesting artifact. It is also a cute girls in robot suits anime that only has little accents of fan service. It is not the cyberpunk world of Bubblegum Crisis (although one episode might make you think otherwise) but it is thankfully also not the boobtacular harem world of Infinite Stratos as well. It is a strange little show that mostly seems forgotten by time and fandom. The real question is if Metal Fighter Miku is a hidden gem or a curious footnote.

First, I want to thank our Secret Santa because this is the first year I haven’t wanted to do bodily harm to myself and others having to sit through a show. That being said, Metal Fighter Miku is a pretty average 90′s action/comedy that at times was entertaining, at times perplexing, but overall won’t stand out in the future when I look back at the anime I have watched.

In 2061 professional wrestling has become EXTREME. Neo Pro-Wrestling uses armored suits to take the sport to the next level. In the world of women’s Neo Pro-Wrestling there is a team of four idol singers who are also athletes with amazing potential known as the Pretty Four. The most enthusiastic member is Miku who could be greatest champion Neo Pro-Wrestling has ever seen. Can a burnt out drunkard of a coach train her to beat the mysterious Sapphire and the legendary Aquamarine?

Metal Fighter Miku is primarily a sports comedy. The plot is nothing you have to think very hard about with fairly straightforward stories even when conspiracies are swirling about the players. Villains that are usually laughable and transparent appear thanks to an evil corporation, wrestling matches may or may not consist of rules by which people need to abide, and new special moves are the soup de jour. So on that note, while it is sport-based, it is hard to really feel that intensity that you might associate with a regular sport series.

Of the Pretty Four the only one who really matters is Miku. The other three are mostly there as window dressing and can basically be summed up by their character quirk. Sayaka is the girly girl with the dynamite body, Nana is the spunky cute little girl, and Ginko is the tomboy with the figure in between the other two. They are slightly important in the beginning but become part of the background as the series goes on. None of them really have a character arc and they don’t even participate in the last two major fights. Miku is the your energetic sports hero archetype. She is fanatically obsessed with the sport and is always training as hard so she can be the best. Being the female version of this model it means that she is friendly, cheerful, and kind. She is earnest enough that it is hard to dislike her but stock enough character that she does not really stand out. Kinta is the team mechanic and if this were a harem show he would be the star and all the girls would be in love with him. But since this is a 90s comedy he only has eyes for Miku, she has no idea he exists as a man, and the other girls just rib him for being obvious. There is couple who owns the team. One is the nerdy looking little man that most exists to absorb abuse. His wife used to be a Neo Pro-Wrester and looks exactly like what you think of when you hear female wrestler.

Miku definitely overshadows everyone else on the team, but at the same time despite having a lot of screen time she doesn’t have a big character evolution to really point to. It is simply more about using each characters traits to create funny or intense situations in and out of the wrestling ring. Everything and everyone is so very 90′s which is one of the more endearing qualities, but they also stick pretty close to that protocol when it comes to personalities which doesn’t have much extra spice to speak of. Whether is be love or friendship or that new team of terrifying looking clown women, the girls stick together and believe in one another in true team spirit. Even when doubt comes into play and people try to drive a wedge between them things quickly resolve. Also luckily since the series is so short there isn’t long filler or training arcs to speak of. But the girls do get their butts handed to them by their coach but rarely in the actual matches. It is surprising how much of a beating characters take at times.

As for the antagonists we start with the coach. The plot might try an convince you that he is on the side of the protagonist but I’m not sure the show ever makes me believe that. First of all Eiichi Suo is super creepy. He looks like he is just killing time before his real job as back alley rapist in a hentai. Also they obviously want him to be the super hard shojo sports coach. The one that is merciless to his students but only because he really cares for his students but worries that any leniency will lead to weakness. The thing is when you think that big reveal of of his better nature will come but it never really does. The end makes him seem more like this eternal jerky spirit of pro wrestling. Miku’s main rival is Sapphire who is so very obviously Yoko Shibano.  I and not 100% sure if this is supposed to be a joke or just the most obvious secret in the world. Part of me wants to believe that it is par for the humor of the show but they play it so straight I am left to wonder. She is the equally hard-working and honest fighter that sees Miku as the only worthy opponent in the league. Her father on the other hand is a sneaky old millionaire that sends all sorts of underhanded obstacles at the Pretty Four including ninjas, spies, and assassins all to get back and the owner of the team for the gravest of grudges. (WARNING: The grudge is hardly grave at all.)  And last but no least is Aquamarine who is at the top of her game but has lost the ability to grow as a fighter. She has a past connected to  the old boozer of a coach. She also has major man jaw. She is supposedly to look matronly but she comes off more like a drag queen.

Some of the most entertaining parts of MFM are when the try to wedge in some romantic subplots. Just as so many of the villains in the series fail miserably, Nagoya (brother to Sapphire) somehow captures the hearts of women. This is so impossible to imagine (I was reminded of Kazamatsuri from Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl). He will make you roll your eyes and slap your forehead as he is a major tool. Despite that he succeeds in seducing Miku and Ginko and almost gets them both out of the way which I think makes him the most successful villain in the series period. Nagoya also randomly leaves later in the series as if he sees the company as a sinking ship. One minute he is there, the next he has left on a business trip so let’s just chalk it up to the staff hating him as much as us!

The problem with going to crazy town is it a major commitment. You can’t go half in and expect results. Macross 7 shows us that is you are going to be insane and trashy you must relentless it your pursuit of madness. As Narutaki mentioned the rules of Neo Pro-Wrestling seem to be made up as the story goes along. They are somewhat based on the rules of professional wresting but there is a whole bunch of unexplained extra rules that are just perplexing. The problem is they need to be insanely over the top like it was Kinnikuman. But sadly the additional rules are pedestrian and seemingly arbitrary. The other teams are goofy like the women named after construction equipment and a team of kunoichi all with peculiar methods of entering the ring but they are never crazy enough to sell the show. There is some good attempts like the Moonlight Jewels having a camel as a mascot, a nun with a killer aura, and Miku fighting a shark but those are far to uncommon to push it unto that utterly surreal realm it needs to be in. There is one episode that hits that mark but it is sadly too short.

Ah yes, truly the most surprising moments of MFM occur in episode 10 – Miku Goes to War: Pretty Miku vs. The Old Man. It begins in a worn torn landscape where people are being attacked, the rest of the episode only descends further into weirdness as Miku must take on a mercenary sent to put her and the other girls out of commission. Strangely Sayaka and Nana have to go to the hospital but we witness no injuries. Then Ginko is kidnapped and tied to a crucifix. This is also the only episode when the world hinges on Miku outside the sports arena. And despite the seemingly deadly climate this episode it is never spoken of again. Sadly, this episode is really only awesome to watch if you watch the beginning of the show to know the stark differences. MFM is wacky but would have benefited from pushing the limits much further. As we are writing about it, it comes off more hilarious probably because the abridged version of events.

If you were not informed that this was directed by Akiyuki Shinbo it might never occur to you. He clearly develops his style as his career goes along because this looks like a very generic 90s show. The character designs, plot structure, framing of scenes, and overall feel is about 90s as you can be. Any of Shinbo’s later design flourishes and quirky sense of style can only be noticed in their most nascent form. His unusual composition and directing that he will become know for in shows like Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, Bakemonogatari, or Puella Magi Madoka Magica has clearly not developed. It is an interesting transformation to see him go from the very generic director you see here to the character that would shape Studio Shaft. Love him or hate him his style is unmistakable.

Metal Fighter Miku is cemented in the 90′s from the clothes and character designs to the humor and the music. I know that had I seen this show in 90′s, I would have loved it and watched it many a time. That isn’t to say something ridiculous about now being more mature or having refined tastes, but more about what is available to watch and the other things surrounding a show. Metal Fighter Miku is a cute, silly show but it isn’t particularly memorable.

Miku herself pretty much sums up my feelings towards this show. It is hard to hate but nothing about it stands out to make me recommend the show. With an all pretty girl team there could easily be an exploitation fest with the camera feeling like a never-ending gynecological exam. They don’t hesitate to put some bounce in the girls or throw them in bikinis but those scene are the exception and not the rule. The problem is the show is too goofy to be an Aim for the Ace! or Attack No. 1 with robot suits but only episode 10 hits the appropriate level of insane to make the show memorable. In fact it might be best to watch the first two episodes to get a feeling of what the show is normally like and then watch episode 10 and call it a day. It is truly just a junk food show. It is something you watch to hold you over to a more substantial meal but at the same time you won’t remember any of it a week later.

The episode marks the end of season 1 of Fate/Zero. The show is going on a planned break for the winter and will not be back until April. I don’t think that the break could have come at a better time as someone who is episode blogging this series alone. If I were just watching this series for fun I could watch the second half right now and not break a sweat. But there is something tiring to me as I try as I do this episodes alone. If I did not absolutely love the material like I did I don’t think I could keep up with the schedule. I appreciate this little break so I can have my Saturdays free again for a bit before going back into the breech.

Caster and Ryuunosuke are clearly the villain characters of the series. Someone like Kayneth or Tokiomi might have unsavory methods and personalities but you can see how they view themselves as the heroes of their own stories.  But up until this point Ryuunosuke seems like someone who should be on the way to the store to pick up moustache wax. Evil moustache wax. But as Caster and Ryuunosuke look over the remain of their hidden base that was cleansed with some righteous fire they get into a bit of a philosophical debate. I think Gen Urobuchi saw that if he did not add a little depth to these two they would come off completely one-dimensional.

We have already seen that Caster believe that god is a cruel puppet master that hates humanity. Therefore any and all blasphemy is a strike again the evil overlord of mankind who cares not for man beyond his suffering. Ryuunosuke on the other hand has come off as quiet on the philosophical front finally lays out his worldview. In his opinion God loves man. But he loves man like an author loves his characters.  Good and evil are unimportant. What matters is the drama and power of your actions to entertain him. The louder and more bombastic your life the better. If you do good it must be legendary and if you do evil it must be as wretched. Everything is beautiful. The grander the action the greater it is regardless of its intent. This little conversation helps these two come off as a little more than just stock villains. They are still a bit cartoonish in their loathsomeness but at least they have a reason for it.

At the same time we tie up another mystery of motivation.  Rider and Waver step out on the town to do a little shopping. After Waver has a dream about the life of Iskandar he seems even more awkward than usual. Rider is a man of endless ambition, gusto, and bravado but lives for simple pleasures as well. Waver on the other hand seems a meek man whom lives for a more pretentious variety of petty and selfish wishes. If the grail summons a Servant that reflects the soul of his Master than why did these two miss-matched fellows come together.

Wow. If people did not think Waver was full of moe his little “Why do you  need pathetic little me?” speech pretty much sealed that title. Waver seems to wonder why someone as pathetic as him would get someone as powerful as Rider. Rider acknowledges that Waver might not be great now but that they both started off as small men. What matters if they both dream of things greater than themselves. They both reach beyond what others might consider in their grasp.  Rider lives for exploration and conquest. In a way so does Waver. Rider knows that if Waver lives through this war he has greater things ahead of him. This is just his first step to being a better man. And as he grows so shall his dreams.

The season ends Caster going all out by summoning what seems to be a star-spawn of Cthulhu to wreak havoc on the city. This abomination is being powered by Caster but as it starts to eat people it will be able to fuel itself. So Rider, Saber, and Lancer all agree to team up and destroy this thing while they can. They need to expose Caster at the center of the evil sea food platter and let Lancer’s magic destroying spear obliterate Caster’ grimoire and hopefully banish this beast before it is too late. Rider will attack from the air, Saber will attack from the water, and Lancer will wait on the shore for his chance to strike. Just as they go in battle we end season 1. I will note that like Jesus it seems that Saber can walk on the water and swim on the land.

Now THAT is a place to end a season. Lovecraftian kaiju, F-16s, and a battle royal with all the Servants and Masters all about to be unveiled. It gets you anticipating the day that season 2 starts with a triumphant return. They tied up a few loose ends with some good character moments but enticed you for the bloodshed that will come next season. April just can’t come soon enough. I will see you all again then. Until then let us just cross our fingers for a Fate/Hollow Ataraxia anime announcement and play some Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code. Cheers!

If anyone read this article on Sunday and has come back they will notice I just edited it. ToastCrust thankfully pointed out that Fate/Zero is 13 and not 12 episodes long this season. That explains SO much about the pace of this episode. So I decided that everything in the middle of the post is fine but I had to update the introduction and conclusion if for nothing else so it looks a little nicer in the archives. Hey I can still use the opening next week as it is no less true next week than is today. Otherwise this would have rather anticlimactic for a final episode.  It would be like having your cliff hanger season finale be the infamous soccer episode of Eureka Seven. While important things happen in that episode and revelations are made it would still feel a bit odd to end at that point. What would leave you with this burning desire to finish the next season? Thankfully this is just the penultimate episode and the series will end the season with a major confrontation with Caster.  Until then it is time for Kirei to do some soul-searching (or more exactly an examination of his lack thereof) and Irisviel to be filled with tragic illness.

The first Servant has been eliminated and so the original deception at the beginning of the war has become a reality. This time Assassin truly has died. But that does not mean that the other participants can rest on their laurels. There are still plans to be made and a prize to be won for killing Caster. So Saber and Irisviel relocate to a new base of operations while Kirei learns that his role in the Holy Grail War is not over.

Now that the number of Servants has gone from 7 to 6 the most dangerous players are stepping up their games. Tokiomi seems to think that the war is pretty much wrapped up. With the intelligence he has gathered he seems not to fear anyone but Rider and now that he knows the King of Conquerors powers he assumes it is only a matter of time before he wraps up this little conflict. Kiritsugu on the other hand still see most of the remaining Masters as a threat worth worrying about. But he is most perplexed by Kirei’s acti0ns. If Kirei was just supposed to act as recon with Assassin why did he stick his neck out to fight when they seems like a completely useless tactical decision. Kiritsugu knows there is something more to Kirei but he has no idea what that is.

At the same time there is someone who knows the deal with Kirei even more than Kirei himself. Kirei says that he is glad to be out of the Holy Grail War as now he can be protected by the church. But Gilgamesh sees the truth. Gilgamesh sees a man who says he knows nothing of pleasure but knows exactly what bring joy to this priest. Gilgamesh sees a man who says he has no wishes in his heart but know what he truly longs for in his heart. Gilgamesh knows that Kirei enjoys suffering. That Kirei is happiest when committing sacrilege. But Kirei still considers himself a man of the cloth. He still feels that what makes him happy is a sin. And so at the end of the episode when Kirei regains his command seals Gilgamesh knows exactly why he is back in the fight. Kirei is a twisted man who needs a Servant. Gilgamesh is a twisted Servant who need a more interesting Master. All that is left is for both parties to realize their mutual compatibility. Gilgamesh gives need to give him that little push to betray his mentor.

Now that Einzbern castle has been compromised Saber and Irisviel must relocate themselves. Any fans of Fate/Stay Night will instantly recognize this their new base of operations will eventually become Shiro’s house. It might be a little run down now but is clearly the same place. As they look around Saber notices that Irisviel is not herself and it is revealed that the homunculus is not feeling quite well. She plays it off that she is just feeling ill but being a magical construct she can not run the local doctor. Irisviel seems like she being honest but she is holding back on a vital detail. She is not merely sick. She is falling apart. As the vessel for the Holy Grail as each Servant dies she lowly unravels as a human being and starts to become the Grail. Ilya dealt with this better than her mother but only because they went out of improve on her after her mother’s design. But clearly Irisviel will only get worse as the war goes on slowly becoming less and less herself as the Grail erupts out of her.

Those who played Fate/Stay Night will also remember that Saber is summoned by Shiro in the shed of this house. A neat little nudge and the wink is they show us that while Irisviel was working here it was her who created that magic circle that is later used as the point in which Saber arrives on the scene of the 5th Holy Grail War. That is a bit of retcon. I assume that circle originally was either supposed to be just a visual effect, something Kiritsugu made after the war, or something Shiro made practicing in the shed. Despite that I think it is a clever wink and a nod and therefore I approve of how it ties to two series together.

This episode is a nice little breather between the death of Assassin and the battle royal that will go down around Caster. Oddly enough episode twelve did not really set up that fight but they also had no need to. The previous few episodes have shown that everyone is getting ready to stop Caster’s reign of madness. What these episodes do is set up some of the subtler things going down in the next season. Kirei’s sudden but inevitable betrayal as well as Irisviel’s equally unavoidable demise. I do have to say it was unexpected to see Kirei was actually struggling with his darkness. I had assumed any allegiances he had were all an act. Apparently he did have something approximating a conscience at one point. You learn something new every day. That said the next episode is the last episode we shall see for a while so hopefully they end on a spectacular note.

Nothing says based on a light novel like three mortal enemies who are trying to kill each other having a leisurely garden party as they discuss philosophy over a barrel of wine. Only a light novel would have such a long conversation in the middle of a war. But don’t worry. This episode is nor completely a roundtable think tank on what it means to be a king. Rider unveils his greatest trump card and it is quite a doosey. Also the first Servant falls in the Holy Grail war and it is oddly enough not Caster who lives to commit atrocities another day. In the end there was a huge heaping of  Saber this episode so I was a happy camper even if she was rather emotionally tormented the whole time.

After Kayneth‘s assault is seems that Einzbern castle has another invader. But this invader has come for conversation and not murder. Rider gathers the three Kings of the war to discuss why they think themselves worthy of the Grail. The larger than life King of Conquerors, the penitent King of Knights, and the haughty King of Rapists Heores meet over some vino. Each gives their reasons for needing the omnipotent power of a true wish and how it ties into their philosophy of leadership. But an unexpected party crasher cuts the debate short as Rider shows the best way to deal with an army of assassins.

Rider storms in the front door on his chariot and Saber naturally assumes that she will have to thrown down with Rider. But when she arrives downstairs she find Rider still in his civvies with a cask of wine. It seems that Iskander has not given up on his wish to end the Holy Grail War with as little bloodshed as possible. And so they head off the garden to talk with everyone BUT Rider still greatly uneasy. You can tell that Waver and Irisviel are innately aware of how vulnerable they are compared to their super-powered servants even when there is no violence going down.

Iskander proves himself a Bro for all ages and cracks open the only size portion of human wine fit for a Heroic Spirit. Saber then proceeds to show him that she can drink like one of the boys. Since she used to have to spend most of her free time with the Knights of the Round Table in her days as King Arthur she surely developed a legendary tolerance. Rider wishes to discuss what it means to be a King worthy of the Holy Grail. He proposes that if one of them can clearly prove that they are the most worthy then the others will perhaps bow down and let the victor claim his prize. But that means that one more King must be in attendance. So enters Gilgamesh.

If Waver and Irisviel were worried before then they are terrified now that the Golden King has come to chat. Rider and Saber have both proven themselves as honorable souls but Gilgamesh is the kind to kill you as quickly as most people would squash a bug. But Gil seems willing to play along to see what the other two have to say. While they might be pretender kings in his eyes they are at least interesting frauds. Plus it surely beats sitting on his hands waiting for Tokiomi to finally let him make a move. But the thing he will not stand for is Rider’s barrel of Two Buck Chuck. He then shows that he can pull more than just weapons from the Gate of Babylon. He also has treasures like the finest spirits in the world as well. Apparently this also means that when Gilgamesh was drinking all of Tokiomi expensive alcohol he was doing it more to stick it to his boring Master because he has a near infinite supply of nectar quality drinks at his disposal.

According to Gilgamesh he is not in the Holy Grail war because he needs the Grail as much as he does not want anyone else to have it besides himself. If all the best things in the world are his then obviously the Grail should be his as well. All these other fools are thieves who will be punished for their arrogance. Gilgamesh’s philosophy is simple. He does not rule because he is the smartest, the strongest, or the boldest. He rules because that is simply the way of the world. The sun rises in the east, gravity makes all objects fall at 9.8 m/s², everyone and everything eventually dies, and Gilgamesh is always the pinnacle. That is just how things are. Since his rule is innate then everything he does is innately correct. He simply cannot see himself as being wrong.

Past that point Gilgamesh lets the other two talk to amuse him. We learn that Rider’s goal is simple. He wishes to live again after the Holy Grail War. He is not just content to win this battle. If he wins he wishes to live again in the modern world. Saber sees this as selfish. Rider agrees but in his opinion that is what makes a king great. A king must be selfish to be a true king. In return for the populace serving to the whims of their absolute ruler they reap the benefits of a champion who will do everything to make their nation great. Rider sees a proper state as a symbiotic relationship but with one that clearly and absolutely has him at the top.

Saber on the other hand see the king as a servant of the people. While she has the position it is a heavy burden. The king has the most power but also the most responsibility. The king asks for countless sacrifices from the people but in return must make their life a life of sacrifice as well. We see the burden on her in Fate/Stay Night as well her wish to have another been chosen by Caliburn. But Rider calls her on her story. While she had noble ideals her valiant self-sacrifice meant that there was none of herself in her rule. You can see that this idea shakes her to her core. In fact it goes to explain much of her reaction to Shiro and his fanatical devotion to saving everyone at the expense of himself. She sees Shiro making the same mistakes she did and is angry that he is just as blind to the costs.

In the middle of the discussion of the qualification of a king comes a major disruption. Beforehand the Assassins came in smalls cells and mostly observed their fellow Servants. Tokiomi saw his chance with two servants apparently unprepared and Gilgamesh at the ready. He has Kirei attack with all the remaining Assassins. So it seems the heroes are outgunned even with Gilgamesh remaining a neutral party. What Tokiomi did not know is that Rider has an army of his own. He summons his greatest Nobel Phantasm a reality marble called Ionioi Hetairoi. He summons all the soldiers under him as Alexander the Great. Each member of his army acting as a minor Heroic Spirit in their own right. So while the Assassins are a small battalion of killers Rider’s army is a full field army that is an order of magnitude larger. They quickly make mince meat of the Assassins without even breaking a sweat.

Am I the only one who thought it was obvious that Rider was inspired by Raoh from Fist of the North Star? They are both ultra powerful physical warriors who are like giant upright bears made of muscles upon muscles. They both have legions of crack warriors in a world of endless desert. They both live life without regret and believe in the rule of the strong. And the both have demonic black horses that are just as fearsome as they are. I half expected Rider to whip out some Hokuto Shinken in this battle.

Two notes about Rider’s amazing Nobel Phantasm. The first is the long black-haired man seen above in the Ionioi Hetairoi. Eva_sama noted that he looks like Lord El-Melloi II. Lord El-Melloi II is the name that Waver goes under during the time of Fate/Hollow Ataraxia so it might actually be Lord El-Melloi II. Since Servants and Nobel Phantasm exist outside of the flow of time it is possible for his army to have soldiers from ANY TIME. Even followers from the future. Remember that Archer from Fate/Stay Night is actually from an unspecified time in the future so why can’t Rider’s soldiers come from the future as well. The last note is maybe Rider’s Nobel Phantasm shows he is not as greedy as he might first appear. I think that he wants to live again because that also means that his army can live again too. As he said in his speech to Saber sometimes the greed of the King can lead to the benefit for the people. This is the clearest example of that.

With the first Servant officially killed the drinking party has ended. Rider notes that he is disappointed in Saber and no longer see her as a King. He mentions her waking from her dream which is extremely profound in relation to her ending in the Fate scenario. Gilgamesh on the other hand only seems to be intrigued by her relentless philosophy and states that he has his eye on her as another wonderful treasure he wishes to own. The episode then ends with an interesting bit of foreshadowing as Saber mentions a certain knight who left the round table.

I don’t know what other people thought by I loved the conversation between Rider and Saber in this episode. It gives an amazing amount of insight into the pain that Saber carries in her chest. It shows how she lived a selfless life and continually regretted her decisions. As someone who lives with an unusual amount of needless regret it showcases why I have have an affinity for her. With that out-of-the-way there is only one episode left for this season. I had originally thought the season would end with the showdown with Caster but I am now wondering if they will save that battle for the beginning of the second season. Either way I can’t wait to see how they cap of this amazing cour.

With Gen Urobuchi as the writer of Fate/Zero we all should have known that Rin Tohsaka’s adventure would involve murder and mayhem despite the fact that she is just in elementary school. But since Rin Tohsaka has the magical plot armor of being alive in the original story she can’t get too injured or else there would be a major time paradox. All of her friends at school on the other hand are fair targets. The little kids like Kotone are in far greater danger. And we have seen that Fate/Zero is more than willing to have little kids explode into little chunks as a catalyst for spells. I will warn people who hate filler episodes. While a very important event happens at the end of this episode most of it is just Rin and her minor incursion into the 4th Holy Grail War. It does give you some good insight into characters in both the prequel and the sequel but overall it is mainly just a curious little side story.

Children are disappearing all over Fuyuki City. And when they are found what remains of them is not fit for an open casket. There is only one detective that can get to the heart of this arcane mystery. It is not Kojak or the CSI team. Their detective work may be flawless but their magic is nonexistent. The only person who can stop these magical crimes against children is a child herself. It is time for Rin Tohsaka, Magical P.I. to get to the bottom of this. Justice wears thigh-highs but is only waist-high.

I am amused that the episode tries to build up all this dramatic tension for this mysterious magi working in their lab undoubtedly on some sinister project. At the same time just by the name of the episode I knew the camera would eventually just reveal that it was a tiny zettai ryouiki mistress doing something less than malicious. She is working in her father’s lab trying to infuse mana into gemstones and failing miserably. Anyone who played Fate/Stay Night will know that while  she is missing up due to her lack of formal training she eventually gets VERY good at this skill. Also the Tohsaka family signature magic is all about gem crafting and she is a great magi of the Tohsaka family. She has a good deal of potential now but not a great deal of experience. So she is going through gems like potato chips. But then she is caught red-handed.

After the opening we jump to see that as much as she might make fun of Shiro it seems that Rin likes to play a hero of justice herself. When her classmate Kotone is being bullied she step in and defends her like a champion. At first I wondering if this girl was Yukika Saegusa or Ayako Mitsuzuri as they are both Rin’s friends (or in Ayako’s case frenemy) in Fate/Stay Night and I never remember either of their names. But apparently Kotone is a Fate/Zero original character. I was a lot more convinced that she might bite the dust when I realized that she was long longer protected by temporal plot armor. But Rin has made a new friend. But then again authors love to kill new friends.

Say what you will about Tokiomi Tohsaka but those gems his daughter are breaking are incredibly expensive. In Fate/Stay Night Rin makes a big deal that she has to live incredibly frugally just to be able to afford 10 gems of magecraft quality when she fights in the 5th Holy Grail War. I don’t think many parents would be that calm about their children casually practicing with such expensive reagents. Instead of giving her a major tongue lashing (or a lashing in general) he guides her through the process making a mana infused gemstone while at the same time making a beautiful crystal unicorn in the process. While his haughty demand for elegance come through you also get a warm and genuine fatherly guidance as he teaches  his daughter. It is a good scene for explaining why he acts like an emotionless and calculating monster towards his opponents he can be someone who Rin completely admires when she is older.

When the Holy Grail War starts lie we saw in the first episode Rin and her mother are going to be shipped off to live with the Zenjo family. I don’t think it is ever stated but the Zenjo family is Rin’s mother family. Rin wants to help her father but clearly he does not want his family in such a dangerous place. As always we also see creepy old Kirei Kotomine in the shadows. Rin tries to learn some advanced magic to be of use to her father in hopes of being able to stay with him but just winds up biting off a bit more than she can chew with a trapped grimoire. Her father saves her in time and gives her a magic seeking compass that is so very clearly a MacGuffin. But it is another good scene of him being a gentle teacher with his daughter.

When Rin’s friend goes missing back in Fuyuki City she learns that there have also been a series on grisly serial murders of children. So Rin runs away to find her friend and hopefully save her before it is too late. She goes off with her portable and reusable detect magic artifact to do some Nancy Drew legwork like she was elementary school Harry Dresden. While dodging the cops she stumbles upon Ryuunosuke Uryuu acting like the Pied Piper of Hamelin as he gathers up hypothesized children for a twisted ceremony. She tracks him down to a bar in hopes of learning what evil deeds he is up to. She apparently does not have much danger sense at this age like Shiro as well. I will say that apparently ufotable’s work on Kara no Kyoukai pays off as now they animate creepy streets very well.

Rin finds three things in the underground saloon. The first is her missing friend Kotone is alive but held captive in a trance. The second is a bunch of other children in a similar state. And the third is a lot of trouble as Uryuu has found another child to add to his bloody tea party. Rin proves that even as a child she is brave and spunky. She is not being taken by Uryuu without a fight. She she jumps around and throws things at him she then goes for the bracelet. At first this seems like a very BAD idea as she beings to fall under the sway of the bracelet.  But after remembering her mistakes with gem crafting she overload the bracelet with mana. If that seems a bit convenient but it is important to remember that while she has only had a minimum of training she is a once in a life time prodigy. She has an insane amount of magical circuits and an elemental affinity of: all of them. She might not be well versed in spells and lore at this age but her output when pushed is far greater than any average adult spell caster.

And so Rin smashes the hypnotic device, injures the evil Master, leads an escape, and disappears before the fuzz can get there. But it seems that while Caster did not intervene in the bar he will take the greatest prize when she is alone. Or so he would think before a timely save by Kariya and his swarm of magical insects. Caster wisely retreats to avoid Kariya and Berserker who are far more dangerous that a tiny lady sorcerer.

Kariya delivers Rin to her mother and then declares he will win the Grail War and return Sakura to where she belongs. Clearly he is overlooking the fact that to do that means he has to kill her husband. I think he assumes that she hates her husband for giving away Sakura much more than she actually does. Another case of participants in the war moving ahead with their own desires and ignoring the desires of those they care for. Another set up for tragedy. I will say the fact that Rin and Aoi are on the red side of the park in light while Kariya is on the green side with darkness is a well framed scene that speaks volumes.

Well considering that this was a Gen Urobuchi joint the ending was surprisingly happy. Rin saver her friend who seemed as good as dead and save   a whole bunch of other children in the process. In the end not much happened. Uryuu lost some mana reserves for his Servant but beyond that this was most a breather before the last two episodes. Still as a fan of Rin I don’t mind seeing what she was doing in this episode. My roommate had no problem with this as well. It gives some good insight to who she would become in Fate/Stay Night. Also it sets up the disconnect between Aoi and Kariya which is vitally important. But with two episodes left it looks like we can settle into the big confrontation with Caster. That should be fun. Lets end the season with a BANG!

Any Sailor Moon fan will tell you that it was a long-time wish for Codename Sailor V to get an English translation. It is so special to us because Sailor V is a character that appears in Sailor Moon but has a much larger back story that most of us couldn’t actually read. Sailor V is a legendary warrior already in the Sailor Moon series and her exploits (and video games) are often mentioned. And again alongside Sailor Moon it is a title that helped transform the magical girl genre. Beyond that though, it is a fun adventure for anyone with a young heart. No deep Sailor Moon knowledge needed since it comes before, too.

Codename Sailor V follows 14-year-old Minako who becomes a champion of justice, somewhat against her will, thanks to a talking cat named Artemis. She battles dark forces in the town as they manipulate the masses through various schemes. Mina has great energy as a lead with a peppy and amusingly dramatic attitude. While her studies suffer as she’s more apt to play video games and daydream about idols, she excels in athletics. This makes the action scenes fun as she loves kicking baddies, literally. Sailor V also becomes something of an idol herself as the story goes on getting her own video game, fan club, and best of all police detective rival who vows to catch her. There is a plenty of humor which should be obvious and nothing gets incredibly serious but Mina does start to realize something bigger is going on. While all the incidents are tied to a deeper story, they are mostly quick adventures.

At only two volumes this is a great, quick read! It adds a little something extra for fans of Sailor Moon but can also entertain with its poppy fantasy. Of course if you want to know the bigger story you’ll have to pick up Sailor Moon next (like you weren’t going to anyway).

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While no one goes into long speeches about how once the Holy Grail War is over they are going to finally settle down with their cute fiancee like they have always promised a few people do things that should tell you they are not going to survive even if you did not see Fate/Stay Night. I will warn people this is a build up episode. While we have a brief skirmish and the burning of the corpses of tortured children this is mostly a set up  to the final three episodes. I assume the build up will continue into part (if not all) of the next episode. But we have another heavy Rider and Waver episode so I know there will be many people rejoicing. Also if I get 10 times the normal hits I usually do for this post I will assume it is all the power of mega moe moe Waver at the top. People love their moe moe Waver Velvet.

Everyone who fought last episode is licking their wounds. There were no decisive victories but a good deal of gravely wounded combatants. Lancer’s and Saber’s group both have a bit of infighting as members are divided on how to proceed next. At the same time Waver tracks down the lair of Caster but gets a very different series of confrontations than the ones he expected.

Lancer starts off dead. Never a good sign for him. It turns of it was just a flashback to his time as Diarmuid of the Love Spot and his life filled with love, betrayal, and regret. We don’t get the full story but we know he died for loving a woman who was to be married to another and that it weighs on his soul. But the person having the flash back is the now immobilized Kayneth who has a rather nasty disagreement on who shall be Lancer’s master from here on in. Clearly the already somewhat infatuated Sola-Ui has entered the territory of the obsessive and dangerous. One has to wonder how much of her attitude is due to Lancer’ love spot and how much comes form her already somewhat cold attitude towards her fiancee. Wherever it comes from she willing to play hard ball to be in charge. In her defense is not like Kayneth is ready to march right back out to the battlefield. The only problem is Sola-Ui is not really ready for combat as well seeing how unstable she is. Eventually Kayneth relents if for no other reason than Sola-Ui shows she is going to get those command seals one way or another. Big blood drenched death flags for this group all around.

The most interesting thing to me about this section was the fact that even after that Kayneth’s peek into Lancer’s memories he still does not understand why his Servant is fighting in the Grail War. It should be clear to the audience that Lancer is fighting in penitence for what he did in life. This time around he wants to properly serve a Master without love getting in the way. But Kayneth is unable to understand such a dream. His own selfish desires make such a selfless wish outside his comprehension. But it seems history wishes to repeat itself despite Lancer’s best intentions. If you ever get a choice of which weapon to study you may wish to stay away from pole arms and spears despite their reach if the Fate Universe is any indicator.

While clearly doing better than Team Lancer it seems that Team Saber could be more harmonious. Maiya has survived but is out of commission for at least a few days. Saber wishes to pursue Caster before more children are hurt but Kiritsugu knows with everyone gunning to kill him for the extra command sea. In his opinion it is better to finish off the wounded Master before his group can recover. Saber wishes to do what is immediately right where as Kiritsugu feels he is looking at a long-term view or righteousness. It is all about sacrificing the good of the few if it can benefit the many. And so Saber and Kiritsugu part again without truly talking and with neither of them understanding the heart of the other. Clearly conversations like this one will only sting Kiritsugu more after the war is over.

It’s emotional black mail time! With Kayneth crippled and no longer able to use magic Sola-Ui tries to get Lancer to follow her. While Lancer may have never liked his Master’s fighting style and bad attitude he was the person he was summoned to obey. And it seems again that a love triangle is drawing him towards doom. But with a promise that they are now all fighting to heal Kayneth Lancer reluctantly decided follow his new master. But if the last part did not raise enough death flags this is surely the Grim Reaper’s kiss for all three of them.

But back in the Odd Couple sitcom that is the Mackenzie house we find Rider has not only gotten the pants he needed but made friends with the cover family because he is heroic spirit filled with charisma. But after comedic interlude we have to get down to serious business. Using alchemy and a few careful deductions Waver is able to determine the location of Caster’s layer. After some moe moe moments from Waver we find Rider announcing that now is the time to strike. Waver wants to follow Kiritsugu’s plan that says that charging a spell caster in this domain is a very foolish idea. But Rider being a man’s man knows that today’s intelligence maybe be rubbish tomorrow. Also that no one gets style points for playing is safe all the time. So the pair rides the Gordius Wheel into the sewers.  In the Fate/Zero quickly produced licensed video game this would be the prerequisite annoying sewer level.

The duo finds that Caster is no longer home but that his handy work is still lying around. Rider having seen many a battle field has the stomach for the horrors that await but despite all his bravo Waver is staggered by the brutal carnage of the innocents around him. But is his moment of shock some of the Assassins attempt to remove one Master from the competition. Rider quickly dispatches two of them and now their cover is blown. We clearly see that the Inverse Ninja Law is in full effect because Rider takes out Assassins like they were made of paper-mâché (and not a very magical paper-mâché at that. ) Oddly enough the most important part of this trip into the sewers was the growth of Team Rider. Waver got some healthy shocks to the system about the nature of the war and both Master and Servant have a little more respect for the others ability.

In the end Tokiomi is trying to do his best Dr. Claw impersonation. He sits in a darkened room with his face obscured talking about the fact that while his minions failed to complete their mission they may have gained enough information to defeat the heroes next time as part of their TRUE PLAN. That is some dialog you expect to hear from the leader of  M.A.D. even is he never refers to Rider and Waver as heroes. But we see that Gilgamesh’s words still resonate in Kirei‘s head. When your supposedly loyal but somewhat dodgy lieutenant has thoughts like that it is major death flag for any shadowy manipulator.

Oh man. A certain type of fan is going to have a field day next week. I guess they can talk about more than Ilya now (but I would prefer if they did not). It seems that Rin is going to try to help her dad in her battle. I know that my roommate might actually qualify to be Tohsaka fan #1 much like I am Saber fan #1 so I am sure he will be in heaven next week. Other than that I think it will be a little break in the tone before the bloodshed that will come with the final two episodes of the season. Still with people like Uryuu in the preview it will not be all be a candy land of happiness and joy in the next episode despite the younger version of the mistress of the zettai ryouiki running around.

An episode that is nothing but people trying to put massive holes in each other from start to finish. Hopefully this will calm the audience’s blood lust for a while. We also see a whole new side to certain characters who might not have seemed to be warriors doing some pretty awesome combat maneuvers. I will warn everyone that there was no Rider and Waver in this one. I want to let certain people down easy so they know what they are in store for. Don’t worry. I am sure when it comes down the real showdown with Caster we shall see the King of Conquerors in his full glory. But the King of Knights content is sufficient for me to be happy. And that is all that should really matter to anyone.

Battles everywhere. Kayneth and Kiritsugu are locked in a battle of guns vs. quicksilver. Irisviel and Kirei duel with alchemy and martial arts. Oh and Maiya is there too. Lancer and Saber fight against Caster and his demonic calamari horde. If you ever wondered why Einzbern castle always looks so dilapidated in Fate/Stay Night here is the reason why.

Irisviel like a Higlander style immortal can sense the quickening of another intruder through the use of the wards on the castle. But this time she knows it is the most fearsome Master in the war: Kirei Kotomine. And so both women fleeing the castle decide to stop and fight the church assassin. Both women clearly have a great affection for Kiritsugu and a good deal of knowledge of how dangerous Kirei is. Irisviel’s conversation makes it very clear she is far more aware of Maiya’s relationship with Kiritsugu than it would have first appeared. It is a nice bit of added complexity on her first very naive seeming demeanor. She is still clearly a child of a sheltered life but a bit more insightful than she would first appear to be. Sort of a Lacus Clyne style character in that respect. I do love me some Lacus so I do not mind this.

Kayneth is obviously not a baseball fan because he seems to have no understanding of how a changeup works. If someone is working really hard for you to understand a pattern it is clear that they WANT you to get that pattern so when the real killer pitch comes you are expecting the pattern and not the deathblow. Right off the bat we learn that the Kiritsugu’s antique gun,  Thompson Contender, is clearly his magical magnum as it punches a hole right through Kayneth’s magical shield. This sends Kayneth on a rampage as he was actually hurt by Kiritsugu’s petty tactics. And so Kayneth falls into the trap hook, line, and sinker.

For anyone who only watched the anime and never played the Fate/Stay Night visual novel, or saw what Ciel could do in Tsukihime, might find kung-fu death ninja Kirei a bit odd. But in the Heaven’s Feel path after Kirei loses both of his servants he proves that he learned his lessons well as a demon hunting assassin for the church. He goes and fights Zouken and True Assassin by himself and makes a surprise appearance as the last boss in a martial arts battle to the death at the end of the path. Maiya has some good tricks and knows her way around a fighting knife but she is no match for a magical black belt who also just happens to be a bit bullet proof. Maiya might go down quickly but Irisviel then proves that she is more than just a white mage. She not only has monofiliment wire but can shape it into familiar than can attack and restrain someone. I think she just went up a level of coolness on the Daryl Surat scale. But Kirei quickly proves his kung-fu is stronger than Irisviel alchemy.

Surrounded by an endless horde of demons Lancer and Saber quickly determine the only way out it to destroy Caster’s Nobel Phantasm. The only path to victory is obviously a Suikoden style combo attack. Saber uses Invisible Air to make a wind tunnel that Lancer dashes through to strike Prelati’s Spellbook with Gae Dearg. The anti-magic properties of the spear are enough to slice through Caster’s wards and disrupt his demon army but not enough to prevent the book from regenerating. Man that would be a great maneuver in any RPG. It almost makes you sad Saber and Lancer can’t fight back to back all the time. Caster then escapes using the time honored ability of villain teleport. Lancer then realizes that his master is near death. Saber knows that the person who is about to kill Kayneth in none other than her own Master. While she could occupy Lancer for enough time for Kiritsugu to kill Kayneth thereby getting rid of both Master and Servant at the same time she honorably stays her blade in payment for Lancer’s deeds in her defense. And so the two warriors part vowing to properly finish their fight later on.

But while Lancer is doing well outside the castle his Master is not doing as well. With his body hurt and his pride even more damaged he rampages through the castle looking not only to kill his opponent but slowly and sadistically snuff the life out of the Magus Killer. But that is exactly the plan. When Kiritsugu whips out his standard one-two punch of automatic weapons and then the Thompson Contender he has a little extra punch in it. We see that Kiritsugu mentor, Natalia Kaminski, made special bullets for him. When they hit a magi they cut and the reform their magical circuits in a way that not only do major bodily damage but also permanently fry the circuits. This means that even if they heal they cannot access mana. It would be like being a RPG mage with a MP of zero. But before Kiritsugu can deliver the finishing blow Lancer comes to the rescue. While it would not be that hard for Lancer to kill Kiritsugu he merely saves his Master out of respect for Saber and her honorable actions from before. Unlike Game of Thrones playing by the rules of fair play do benefit you from time to time in the Nasuverse. (Just don’t count on that all the time. Especially if you are a Lancer.)

As a quick note on Origins for anyone who did not extensively research Kara no Kyoukai. Natalia bring up the term but hardly explains it. In the Nasuverse everyone has an Origin. An Origin is a concept that defines a person’s being. Sort of like a True Name that expresses who they are and where they excel at. In Fate/Stay Night Shirou’s origin is Swords so he excels at the  creation and usage of swords to the point where he can create the reality marble Unlimited Blade Works which should normally be beyond his means. Kiritsugu on the other hand has an innate ability to cut and bind things including magical circuits. That is a bit more useful than Kokuto Azaka’s origin of Taboo.

And so if Rider and Waver did not create enough yaoi doujinshi potential we have the hate-sex angle with Kirei’s obsession with Kiritsugu. He obviously assumes that Kiritsugu has the same hollow life that causes him to search for meaning alone in the darkness. Therefore Irisviel must have some other reason to put her life on the line for Kiritsugu. If Kiritsugu is empty like him no one should love him. This difference clearly explains he complete and utter hatred for Kiritsugu in Fate/Stay Night even after he is dead and his obsession with destroying Shiro. Hatred and obsession is milk and honey to a certain breed of fujoshi. But before he can continue his interrogation Assassin informs him that Saber is on her way so he gives the silver-haired homunculus a parting gift of some black keys in the abdomen.

Speaking of Shiro we learn that Irisviel has one hidden trump card much like Kiritsugu’s future adopted son. She has Avalon implanted in her so as long as Saber in near he she has amazing regenerative abilities. But Kiritsugu has sworn her not to tell anyone that she has this ace up her sleeve. And so everyone has survived Kotomine’s assault but it is clear he is not be taken lightly.

A good blood pumping episode. Still no killing blows have been delivered but Kayneth is clearly not doing to well. Fortunately for Lancer he has a back up Master. But until your dead and buried you are still in the game so don’t count out Kayneth. But obviously problem number one is Caster. Although he was beaten back, he is still out there, and there is still a price on his head, so everyone will be gunning for him. We have also not seen Tokiomi and Kariya for a while so hopefully they will step up their game. I look forward to the fall out of this episode and I am still scratching my head as to the contents of episode 10. I am just SO curious what that is going to be about.