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).
The battles between these characters are amazing spectacles to
see. The Fate franchise is beloved for its wacky and bizarre takes on historical and mythological figures, which are often very loose adaptations. The series take on King Arthur is iconic, yet unorthodox to say the least. Other branches of the franchise contain more famous historical and mythological figures, as I think the majority of American audiences will recognize the names Hercules, King Arthur and that’s it. Okay, maybe that’s more an observation of how little Americans know about worldwide mythologies as Cu Chulainn is probably not well known to most Americans, unless they watched Gargoyles. For the most part, the Heroic Spirits are more interesting than the wizards who summon them, although the two protagonists and the priest Kirei Kotomine, voiced by Crispin Freeman, gains lots of cool points for having Crispin Freeman’s voice.
Shiro and Rin have pretty good chemistry, with Rin being of the tsundere architype, a girl who is belligerent toward the protagonist, yet falls for him. This series is mainly a hybrid between action and romance and it does its job well on both accounts. For those who prefer Shiro’s other two suiters, there’s always the anime adaptations of the other two paths of the light novel, which probably won’t air on the failing AXS block.
Okay, one final thing to mention, Archer is one cool guy, voiced amazingly by Kaji Tang, and the “bone of my sword” chant is one of the most famous lines of dialogue in anime history. Archer’s chant, aside from the action scenes and waifus, is probably the most remembered thing about the show.
Yes, Unlimited Blade Works still holds incredibly well even in the 2020s. I do admit I have pro-2010s bias as I see that as the greatest decade in anime history, but even some newer fans have jumped on the bandwagon of the 2010s Fate shows. There are tons of other anime in this franchise that AXS could air, but schedules seem to indicate that an extra half hour of My Hero Academia will replace the show next week. The Anime.com block on AXS provided a brief trip down memory lane, even if the experiment of a late night anime block on a music video channel aimed at gen X, hardly anime’s target demo, seemed doomed to fail from the start.
