Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works AXS Talkback Thread

[J'onn J'onzz]

They aired one episode of this tonight even though the guide only showed My Hero Academia. I guess they’re just not going to fix their schedule, but air both shows unless there’s a double length episode. Next week only shows fate on the guide. Looks like the show is getting into the action now that the character introductions and exposition have been covered.

 

[PicardMan]

This episode introduced Illya the little cutesy little girl antagonist, who is a memorable character. The action scenes are still incredible a decade later.

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 4
"Finding the Will to Fight" March 27, 2025​

Shirô learns the truth about Saber and how the seven Servants function. Meanwhile, Rin and Archer battle a foe who's feeding on human life energy.​

Important note: official AXS schedule says it's airing Wednesday nights/late Thursday mornings at 12:30 AM Eastern. TVInsider lists the show for Thursday nights/late Friday mornings at 12:30 AM Eastern. Which schedule is correct? Tune in and find out I guess?

 

[Trueblade74]

I'm guessing the "airing after Thursday midnight" one was right.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Yeah, this was on last night. There’s also an encore tomorrow night at 12:30. They have the encore moving to Sunday the week after that, and then back to Saturday the following week. Axs is kind of a weird channel to watch anime on. They still have these oversized hour show listings too, but the current pattern of alternating shows shifted to listing the full hour as fate stay night and ghost airing my hero academia. Going by Thursday being moved 2-2.5 hours later, I bet there has been a big drop off from wrestling. Hopefully they make it through this series; it has been pretty interesting so far if a bit slow.

 

[PicardMan]

Totally hope that this block can can finish this show in its entirety. I think the big issue is just the decline of cable and the fact that this show was streaming a whole decade ago. With the exceptions of the Toonami originals, cable doesn't really premiere anime anymore and to the average person Unlimited Blade Works is a rerun (and MHA is a cable rerun as Toonami aired these episodes about 7 years ago).

As for this episode, it's another dialogue heavy episode yes. This show isn't as wall to wall action as Ufotable's Demon Slayer and their are obvious hints at a romance element with hints that Saber and Rin have crushes on Shirou (the latter with what appears to be a tsundere "I'm totally going to kill you but I don't feel like it right now" crush).

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 5
"Dancing after School" March 27, 2025​

A student went missing after her archery club practice. The last person to talk to her was Shinji. And now Shinji is nowhere to be found either.​

 

[Trueblade74]

Is it back at 10PM again?

 

[PicardMan]

Is it back at 10PM again?

No, still midnight eastern according to TVinsider. Move looks permanent.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Things seem to be escalating quickly. I didn’t expect Rin to be trying to kill Shirou halfway through the first season already. This didn’t last long though with the truce. I hope they make it through the whole show, but I see the showings two weeks out are blocked out on tv insider as “to be announced” and the encores seem to be fluctuating between Saturday and Sunday nights the next few weeks, maybe to see if it does better against AS comedy or action on the weekends at midnight. It seems like wrestling significantly outperforms the anime hour in ratings since they seem to just air the same events twice on Thursday now rather than keeping the anime hour at 10 pm. I see the Monkees are also off axs now so they seem to be trimming lower performing shows.

 

[PicardMan]

I am hoping this lasts as long as the last infomercial cartoon block I can remember Action Blast on G4. That block, meant to hawk Hasbro products, lasted exactly 12 months before being canned and being stuck in a terrible 6 AM Central on Saturday mornings timeslot. Well, that block's iconic weird interstitials were unforgettable compared to the minimalist presentation of this block.

This is the episode that introduces the sexy chain lady and Rin's division between her apparent tsundere crush on Shirou and her status as enemy combatants in the Holy Grail War, leading to the first real physical fight between the two before an inevitable truce to fight sexy chain lady. Interesting how all the servants are supposed to be based on legendary/historical figures yet the chain lady's identity as

Spoiler

Medusa

isn't obvious at all nor is Saber's identity as

Spoiler

female King Arthur

.

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 6
"Mirage" April 10, 2025​

Shirô and Rin continue investigating the bounded field at the school. Will they be able to solve this mystery and find out who the third Master is?​

Episode 7
"The Reward for the Fight to the Death" April 7, 2025

Saber faces Assassin while Archer and Caster go into battle against each other! What will be the outcome?

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Archer isn’t coming across very well the last few episodes. I found myself liking the assassin samurai more than him by the end of last night’s episode.

 

[PicardMan]

Archer isn’t coming across very well the last few episodes. I found myself liking the assassin samurai more than him by the end of last night’s episode.

Well, he's kind of a cold "ends justify the means" antihero. Sure he's got style, but I see the personality flaws. Apparently, he was enough of a badass antihero to be one of the most iconic characters on this show (mostly due to things that happen in later episodes).

 

[Trueblade74]

Well, he's kind of a cold "ends justify the means" antihero. Sure he's got style, but I see the personality flaws. Apparently, he was enough of a badass antihero to be one of the most iconic characters on this show (mostly due to things that happen in later episodes).

I think it might also be a fight he gets in the 2006 anime adaptation.

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 8
"Winter Days, Where the Heart Is" April 24, 2025​

Shirô continues his training with Saber. She is glad that his abilities have improved, but there is something different about his technique. Meanwhile, Rin suspects there is a fourth Master at school.​

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Another pretty good episode last night. Rin is becoming more likable even if Archer was moving in the opposite direction.

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 9
"The Distance Between Them" May 1, 2025​

Archer finally arrives at the scene in the school. Rin fills him in on what happened. Together with Shirô and Saber, they plan to find out who the real Master of Caster is. After losing Rider, Shinji heads to the church.​

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

They are moving the encores to 3 AM eastern tonight, right before axs goes to infomercials. It seems like this show may have been a bit too slow and dialogue heavy for Axs’ audience, as both the Thursday and Saturday night showings have now been pushed hours later. But fortunately the Thursday airings look like they’re staying at midnight (or 9 pm for me, very doable even though they delayed it until after a replay of TNA). Not a bad episode this week, but it feels like we have a lot of story to go through still… I wonder if axs will air the second season, or if this block will end in a few weeks.

 

[Trueblade74]

If Rin was as no-nonsense as she claimed to be, she would've just asked Archer to take Kuzuki out from extreme range.