The Eye of Sauron attacks Homurahara Academy, a villain twirls his mustachio, a pair of perfect breasts is lost, I will eventually make a Wheel of Time reference (and wonder how much people still get Wheel of Time references), and Tohsaka makes more silly faces. All in one episode. So you can’t say nothing happens this time.

Also, spoilers: Kaede Makidera killed Rider!

Oh, a quick side note: I’m going to stop mentioning Fate/Hollow Ataraxia as something that should be next up as an anime. Now that I am over half way through the game I have a far greater grasp of why it has not been turned into an anime yet. It has a great story and I am having a ton of fun but there is far more character minutia and minor lore than fighting and world shattering events. If you thought the original game was an Iron Chef visual novel with some magic sword fighting thrown in for color then Fate/Hollow Ataraxia is the whole dang Food Network. There is some meat on that bone but I am not sure there is enough for a full 26 episode series unless you want a majority of the episodes to be entirely slice of life segments. I love reading about Sakura’s struggles with the archery club but I’m not sure people want to sit through multiple episodes of going to the pool and Caster learning to cook Japanese food. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia might actually work better as two movies or maybe a 13 episode series with a focus of the main plot and just a little bit of fluff for effect. (Actually someone might have suggested that in the past to me specifically. I can’t remember.) Actually an OVA would be best but it seems like those have fallen out of favor for anything that is not goofy like Carnival Phantasm.

Second Side note: They are taking questions for Nasu & Takeuchi for the Fate/Stay Night UBW box set. You probably have to write them in Japanese to get them answered but it is probably the simplest way to ask those guys a question as they don’t seem to do conventions.

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 Before we begin I would like to mention that Fate/Hollow Ataraxia finally has a full English release. If you like Kaede Makidera, Kane Himuro,  Yukika Saegusa, or Ayako Mitsuduri from this version of the anime they are far more prominent in this game. In fact everyone who is not Kotomine or Zouken gets a good deal more screen time but these four really go from extremely minor background characters to real parts of the secondary cast (until the real combat starts.) So if you have been enjoying them and want to them a little more than this is the place to go.

It still has all the benefits and flaws of a visual novel. Your enjoyment mainly comes down to how much do you enjoy the added character details and minor world building you get from a visual novel. Do you see that all as added richness or boring dross that pads out the playtime. If nothing else there have been some major hints that a Fate/Hollow Ataraxia is in the cards so you can always just wait for that.

But the main purpose of this episode if to show off the team from Ryuudou Temple. Caster and Assassin don’t really get that much screen time outside of this arc so it is nice to see them shine here. Sufficed to say that if you really like these two don’t expect to see them a lot in the Heaven’s Feel movies. They basically make more of a cameo in that arc than a full appearance. The third of the Ryuudou Temple group is being left in the shadows so when he is revealed it is more of a big dea (also he would make certain parts of the episode much more complicated) .

The key moment is the tension between Shiro and Archer finally boiling over. It has been coming for a while but eventually something had to go off. The battle with Caster is merely the spark that ignites the firestorm. Continue reading →