Home
»
Movies & TV
»
Movie & DVD Reviews
»
Fate/Stay Night Vol. 2: War of the Magi
»
scorpioeyez's Review
Saber & Rin... Now That's A Combo!
Anime Geek, Movie guru, into action flicks, REALLY into Rin & Saber
| Pros |
|
| Cons |
|
JUN
3
2007
Fate/Stay Night Vol. 2: War of the Magi —
Originally published on otaku review.netIntro
Ah, don’t go all predictable on me now!
The Story
In the second set of episodes, new enemies appear which means new battles must be fought while on the other side of the spectrum, Shirou shows just how inexperienced and different of a master he truly is to Saber when he tries to integrate her into his daily life and introduce her to his friends.
In the first episode of the volume, Shirou goes to school while Saber spends the day sleeping. He feels bad and thus tries to integrate her into his daily life by introducing her to his friend Sakura and his teacher. Naturally this confuses Saber to no end since she fails to see how this could lead to a strategic advantage.
The real battles begin in episode two with Rin revealing that the temporary alliance she unwillingly held with Shirou is now over. Their battle is nothing though as a new servant appears and comes after both Rin and Shirou which is even worse for Shirou since he is without his servant. When a new revelation is revealed though, the cease fire is back on.
Life becomes much more complicated beginning in the third episode. Saber becomes upset when she finds out that Shirou was attacked and didn’t feel the need to summon her and Rin decides to stick close to Shirou as a means of protection and to strengthen their cease fire, their first order of business together is to weaken the barrier that has been erected around the school and has slowly drained the life force from the students so the pair work together to weaken it as much as they can to protect the students.
The third master enrolled at the school reveals themselves in this episode and while I won’t say who they are in this review, I will say that it’s not a huge shock when they step forward. A new alliance is offered to Shirou and new information is revealed another master and her servant living in the mountain temple that is owned by the family of Shirou’s friend, Essei.
The Good And The Bad
As with most second volumes, the overriding theme of this volume was development and we did see quite a bit of it in the form of character development. Over the course of the four episodes, I was quite pleased with how much more we learned about Rin and her relationship with Shirou. Rin has quickly become a fast favorite of mine and it is obvious that the role she plays in the end of this series will be huge and how it will involve Shirou is really up in the air at the moment. As long as this series doesn’t run out of steam and get too predictable near the end, I foresee something quite explosive coming within the next ten episodes or so.
What really disappointed me however was the lack of development in any other character of the series. With so little going on with the overall plot at this point, I really thought that this would be a great time to flesh out some of the characters such as Sakura or even better, some of the servants that we’ve met thus far like Saber and Archer. With so many questions surrounding these characters, this would’ve been a great time answer at least a couple of them but nothing came of this.
Throughout this volume I had to be disappointed with the lack of plot development throughout this volume. While there was a few things that were revealed such as the identity of a couple of new magus within the war, there really wasn’t much more of any substance that contributed to the overall picture of the plot and where this series is headed which absolutely kills any momentum that it had going for it by the end of the first volume.
The animation and character design continues to be a strong selling point of this series. While there weren’t too many scenes that really highlighted the beauty of the animation in this series throughout this volume, there were still a few examples that one could easily point out such as during episode seven when Shirou and Rin are destroying the sigils around the school which I felt showed a great use of CG animation that didn’t look overdone or out of place. The battle scenes in episodes 5 and 6 were also very fun to watch partially because of how well they were animated.
With this second volume I am finding more reasons to enjoy the character design though as the more I see these characters, the more I am beginning to notice smaller details that passed me by the first time such as Rin’s eye color happening to be my favorite color. Such a little detail and yet it adds so much when you think about what blue traditionally represents and how the lighter shade used in her eyes contrasts so sharply between the outside presence that she projects to others and who she really is inside.
The overall theme of this series being portrayed through the writing thus far is all about idealism and how to be a participant in a war without causing causality. Shirou is so attached to his idea that he can be in this war, only fight when he has to and yet never take a life yet still come out on top as a winner. Even I, as a viewer who is supposed to be on his side, thinks that this is quite possibly the stupidest idea I’ve heard in my life (and I emphasize ‘quite possibly’ since I’ve seen some of the movies that have come out over the last decade or so) but it will be very interesting to see how this theme is challenged time and time again as Saber grows more and more frustrated with her master’s lack of action and initiative for the war and overall goal.
Music
The background music continues to be a very strong part of this series that is neither overdone nor obtrusive to the scene playing out on the screen. Never does the music stand out too much on it’s own and distract the viewer from what you are seeing but rather only lends itself to the ambiance and helps you further emphasize with a character who is having a difficult time with a difficult situation.
I didn’t notice any drops in sound quality throughout the volume on either track.
Dub vs. Sub
Both tracks were well done but I’m still finding that Mela Lee portraying Rin is the best performance on the volume. Rin is such a cliched character and yet I just can’t help but be drawn to her and the performance is spot on. I really can’t complain with this performance.
Extras
Clean animation. Still very disappointing to me.
Overall
This series loses a lot of it’s momentum throughout this volume which really deflated me as I was really hoping that it would maintain the full head of steam that it had gathered over the first four episodes. These are not bad episodes by any means though and while there wasn’t a whole lot here to keep me absolutely gripped, it was still enough to keep me entertained even if it felt slightly predictable in places. This volume ends on a good note though and leaves me very much wanting to know what happens to Saber at the beginning of volume three so I can’t complain too much. Not a great second volume but passable and still worth viewing.
Final Grade: 88% - B
Fate/Stay Night Vol. 2: War of the Magi is recommended by scorpioeyez
 |
Search Amazon.com for Fate/Stay Night Vol. 2: War of the Magi prices |
Comments about scorpioeyez’s Review
More reviews by scorpioeyez
Gantz Vol. 2 Review - "Well, It Started Well"
The Daichi's: Earth Defense Family Vol. 1: Dysfunctional Heroes Review - ...
Glass Fleet Vol. 4 Review - "Why Do People In Space Always Speak With...The Third: The Girl With The Blue Eye Vol. 6: Final Decisions Review - ...
Action & Adventure
Gladiator - Extended Edition (Three-Disc Extended Edition)
5.00 overall from 11 reviews
5.00 overall from 11 reviews
