It was announced yesterday that the upcoming Fate/stay night anime adaptation from ufotable will be animating the Unlimited Blade Works route of Type-Moon’s visual novel. This is not the first time the route has been animated; studio Deen (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Rurouni Kenshin) produced a Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works film in 2010. Now let’s compare the two with the footage we have so far.
Since not a lot has been released for the 2014 Fate/stay night we will only be comparing the shown footage from the the trailer. Before that, we will compare the two key visuals for both anime. On the left is the visual for studio Deen’s Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, and on the right is the visual for ufotable’s upcoming series.
The next comparisons will be between scenes from the movie and scenes from the recent trailer. Once again, the images on left is from Deen’s film and the right are from the trailer of ufotable’s anime series.
Click on the images for the full resolution.
The 2014 Fate/stay night anime from ufotable will be a split cour series, the first 13 episodes will air on October 4 and the final 13 will air in April next year. This will be the second adaptation of the route; the first was an anime film in 2010 by studio Deen (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Rurouni Kenshin). The third visual of the anime was released in addition to the third promotional video:
The anime’s Opening theme will be ideal white by Mashiro Ayano and the Ending theme will be performed by Kalafina. The anime’s production crew has also been announced:
- Director: Takahiro Miura (Kara no Kyoukai 6: Boukyaku Rokuon)
- Character Designers: Tomonori Sudou (Fate/Zero, Kara no Kyoukai series), Hisayuki Tabata (Yuyushiki), Atsushi Ikariya (Fate/Zero, Hataraku Maou-sama!)
- Color Key Artists: Emi Chiba (Fate/Zero), Mika Matsuoka (Fate/Zero)
- Art Director: Koji Eto (Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass)
- Director of Photography: Yuichi Terao (Fate/Zero)
- 3D Director: Kojiro Shishido (Fate/Zero)
- Music Composer: Hideyuki Fukasawa (Vividred Operation)
- Animation Studio: ufotable (Fate/Zero, Kara no Kyoukai: Mirai Fukuin)
Fate/stay night is a visual novel released by Type-Moon for the PC in 2004, and is the first in their Fate series. The visual novel was very successful and claimed the title of highest selling visual novel in that year. 2006 saw two adaptations of the game, a manga by Datto Nishiwaki and an anime series by Studio Deen. Additionally in that year, a light novel series titled Fate/Zero was written by Gen Urobuchi. It is a prequel to the visual novels, set 10 years prior. An anime and manga adaptation of Fate/Zero were created, with the manga written by Urobuchi himself in 2011 and the anime being animated by ufotable. A second season of Fate/Zero was also produced.
Here is a synopsis of the series from MAL:
Raised by a mysterious sorcerer after the horrific death of his parents, Shiro Emiya has only just begun to help others using the small tidbits of magic that he’s learned. However, when he’s suddenly caught in a battle between two more powerful Magus, Shiro finds himself performing a spell above his expected ability, summoning the beautiful spirit warrior Saber to protect him! But safety is only momentary as Shiro and Saber now find themselves thrust into in a secret world of dark magic and deadly challenges: a no-holds barred duel to the death known as the Holy Grail War! At stake: a prize of unimaginable power. But can the inexperienced Shiro and Saber survive long enough to even enter the contest? First they’ll have to withstand waves of treachery and assassination, even as Shiro scrambles to learn everything he’ll need to know to stay alive as seven teams of Magus and Spirit Servants face off in mortal combat!
The Fate/stay night anime series will air on October 4, this Fall/Autumn, for one season and then will air next April, during the Spring 2015 season. The anime will follow the Unlimited Blade Works route. A Heaven’s Feel movie has also been announced, but a lot of new information has not been released.