Minor miracles do occur every day. Legend of the Galactic Heroes, The Rose of Versailles, and Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure are all licensed for an English language release. Smile PreCure! is going to be on Netflix. (It is going to be called Glitter Force but I am talking about minor miracles. Smile PreCure! being licensed without significant changes would be in the category of major miracles.) I even got Artoria Pendragon and Attila on two accounts in Fate/Grand Order. (I don’t have a Tamamo no Mae but once again … MINOR miracles.) So it should not be completely shocking that the second Unlimited Blade Works has a Sunny Day OVA but it was hardly guaranteed to be on there either. Also it would have hardly been blindsiding if it were on the box set but then not subbed. I would not put it past Aniplex. I’m looking at you Einzbern Consultation Room. So another minor Type-Moon miracle occurred. But despite the odds the OVA was there and subtitled.

You can argue until your blue in the face if the changes Ufotable has made in adapting Unlimited Blade Works were a good idea. There are hundred page threads consisting of nothing but complaints about certain segments of the original visual novel being left out, comments that some of the new scenes are questionable additions, detailed screen caps showing times when there were animation mistakes, and pacing debates as varied as the color palette on a Full Ultra HD TV. But what you can’t say is that Ufotable did not go out of their way to try to make fans as happy as they could with this version of the story. When the animation is firing on all cylinders it is OVA quality, the story tries its best to stay as faithful as it can while adapting the narrative to a different medium, and there is a palpable respect for the original and its fandom in the end product. You can argue how well that was accomplished (I think it was very successful with a few minor and easily forgivable hiccups) but I think this Sunny Day extra is a real proof that Ufotable is going out of their way to give you the most authentic reproduction of playing the visual novel (or at least the Réalta Nua version) you can get in an anime from.

This is a short little OVA that basically sums up the Good Ending of Unlimited Blade Works as opposed to the Brilliant Years ending from the anime proper. While it is not the expanded story that the 25th episode of the TV series was for the original ending it is an acknowledgement that there was another valid ending. Because of that (and because of my preference for this ending) I would be remiss of me not to do a quick review of this unnecessary but greatly appreciated bit of fan service.
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