Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works AXS Talkback Thread

[J'onn J'onzz]

The mana infusion on this episode felt like it was probably toned down from the game, although I doubt axs edited anything. Interesting the similarities and differences to the mana transfer in the 2006 series. I am guessing the branching paths in the game let you decide which girl to give mana to.

 

[PicardMan]

I think it's become common knowledge what "mana transfer" originally was in the games (Goodnight everybody).

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Schedules up through the 21st are now available. Epilogue is airing on that day, confirming the episode “unlimited blade works” on the 14th is different from the one with the same name (apparently in Japan there is a period in the title of one of the two episodes but not on American cable systems) from a few weeks ago, despite Directv thinking it’s the same episode.

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 21
"Incarnation" July 24, 2025​

While Saber faces off against the guard at the gate, Shirou and Rin try to destroy the Holy Grail!​

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Getting close to the end here. Interesting pivot from Archer to Gilgamesh as the villain for the last few episodes. Last week was TV-MA and this week was TV-PG, but you can’t even tell except through schedule guides. The block has never shown any TV ratings graphics. They also continue to skip the OP and ED on MHA and include it in fate’s one hour slot as a rider. So it’s never entirely clear which show the schedule rating even applies to, other than last week’s mana scene making it pretty clear. Can axs even accurately assess how many people watch MHA if they DVR Fate and FF through MHA in the latter half every week?

 

[Trueblade74]

Are these episodes airing on 1AM Thursdays, or 1AM Fridays?

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 21
"Unlimited Blade Works" August 14, 2025​

All the remaining fighters battle over the Holy Grail in a all out final battle of life or death.​

Are these episodes airing on 1AM Thursdays, or 1AM Fridays?

In a few hours according to the AXS schedule.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

For me it’s on at 10 pm on Thursday nights. But they’ve changed the slot a LOT and their website listing it at the top of the Thursday grid with a “1 AM” label doesn’t do a great job at explaining when it actually airs...

Nice wrap up of the main plot. At least Rin and Shirou survived, even if the servants didn’t. as always the animation and action were very well executed. I’m glad we have almost made it to the end of the show; I was worried this would be another chiller anime block. Epilogue is next week.

The schedules for two weeks from now though just show MHA in a full hour slot, first time it’s appeared on a schedule since March I believe. I think they may burn off the remainder of MHA season 2, and then drop this block from AXS. Initially this block seemed well suited to be a Toonami challenger, getting shows like MHA that Toonami had and shows Toonami missed out on like Fate. Sadly, the ads don’t even feature anime footage, even six months into the block. So we won’t know from on air advertising what the future of the block is. Even Disney XD and Toonami do regular promos with footage from their anime indicating if they’re premieres or not, but AXS airs NFT gifs without mentioning their actual shows’ names let alone if they’re new or not… scheduling is erratic, both on Thursday night and on the weekend encores.

After several months of 3 AM Sailor Moon vs Fate in late night, Toonami removed Sailor Moon and put Naruto at 3. Then we had Naruto vs Fate the last couple of weeks. Even though Naruto briefly dropped off the schedule a week ago, they corrected it and confirmed Naruto is staying. At least to the 23rd and on preliminary schedules for the 30th too. So it looks like Naruto and My Adventures with Superman vs a full hour of MHA may be the Saturday night 3 AM action competition for the time being. Or maybe they’re going to stealth premiere Fate Zero? It would be really funny if axs stealth premiered one of the shows CN used to randomly air unpromoted in late nights like .hack or Gundam but I doubt AXS is going to continue to invest in this block.

Whenever the schedule for 9/4 is out, then we can know if MHA is airing single or double episodes, because the episode number will jump forward either one or two on the guides from 8/28. Ideally the 9/4 schedule could also just reveal a new show. Most people probably removed MHA from their DVR already since it hadn’t aired under its own name in half a year. I wonder if they’ll bother to start airing the OP and ED of MHA if it’s on double? Or could they straight up not afford the OP and ED?

 

[PicardMan]

Episode 22
"Epilogue" August 21, 2025​

After surviving the Holy Grail War, Rin and Shirou look toward their next journey together.​

 

[Trueblade74]

Somebody said the plan after this is to just run double MHA until season 2 is over, and then just end the block like it never happened.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Solid episode, nice to see the characters after a timeskip. Same bumpers as ever, no indication of them licensing any new shows.

Yeah, current schedules indicate MHA is being doubled up. Sadly next week’s listing is season 2 episode 15, then the week after’s listing is episode 18. Since they only list one episode per hour slot, this is a way of conveying that two MHA episodes will air each week, with airings of 16 and 17 implied.

Early on there were a lot of bots from azuki hyping this as a Toonami replacement. They kind of just didn’t stick with that though, and no one outside of this thread really talks about this block. I suspect we will have MHA reruns through September and 10/2 will be either the conclusion of the block, or the end of MHA season 2 and start of a new season of MHA if season 2 on its own does well enough for them to license more.

 

[wonderfly]

The News Team's PicardMan has a new review up on the front page of AnimeSuperhero.com:

"Review: “Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works”: AXS Network Airs a Classic"​

"For those who aren’t in the know, cable network AXS has started airing their own late night cable block Anime.com Hour on AXS, and anime block created by a company called anime.com. AXS is a semi-obscure cable channel that airs mainly music videos from the late twentieth-century, essentially airing stuff MTV did decades ago. Considering the channel’s Generation X target audience, I don’t think a block of late night 2010s anime is the best fit. Another problem this block has is the unpopularity of the company in charge of it, anime.com. Said company sells something called NFTs, which from what I’ve gathered, are the digital versions of the pet rock fad, except they can cost thousands of dollars. So yeah, this block is an infomercial for expensive .JPG files. It’s launch lineup consisted of two shows, the first two seasons of iconic battle shonen My Hero Academia, which every anime fan has already seen and has already ran on Adult Swim’s Toonami block, and the subject of this review. Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works was a major hit when it streamed back in 2014

The main legacy of this franchise was the amazing production values it had, probably the very greatest of the 2010s. Before Demon Slayer, Ufotable was a beloved studio because of their work on the Fate/Stay Night franchise. This franchise and its many different continuities are quite complex, but Unlimited Blade Works works well as a standalone adventure. Essentially, this series is an adaptation of a visual novel from 2004 whose story branched into three different paths based on which girl the protagonist romances, in this case the character of Rin Tohsaka. The premise is that a group of wizards fight each other to obtain the wish granting Holy Grail, and the wizards all summon spirits based on historical or mythical figures, known as Heroic Spirits. These figures are grouped into classes based on their skills, such as Hercules the Berserker and Medea (slightly lesser known Greek mythology figure) the Caster. Protagonist Shirou Emiya is forced to participate in this war and fight against potential love interest Rin Tohsaka and her servant Archer (whose identity is one of the major mysteries of the series)."

Read the full review here.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Next week we have a half hour of My Hero Academia. The end of the anime.com hour. Following week it’s replaced by rockumentary series the Day the Rock Star Died. This means no Fate Zero and no MHA seasons 3+.

 

[PicardMan]

Another cable anime block bites the dust? Not surprised. It was a cool concept, just the wrong channel. Most of the gen X rock fans who are the core of AXS's tiny viewership wouldn't touch anime with a ten foot pole.

 

[Takao]

Azuki's Anime.com will be hosting an Unlimited Blade Works livestreaming marathon on January 16th:


They previously streamed the first two seasons of MHA on December 23rd. Curiously, that promo makes no mention of Crunchyroll, suggesting they got the show directly from Toho.