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ローゼンメイデン 
This is not exactly the best episode especially in comparison to last week's. But I think this is a necessary one in order to facilitate the next set of stories. The most important part of this episode is Shirou's eventual doubt of his idealism, which I think will become one of the main plots in the series and affects the development of another character. This episode also establishes Saber's background a little bit. I am not particularly fond of this since I'm not a big fan of medieval storyline. But again, this is a necessary part of the series. Animation-wise, the episode seems to take a slight nosedive in quality. However, this is not that noticeable since there isn't that much action happening within the episode.
The episode begins with a flashback to Saber's past, revealing that she used to command a large force of warriors. In the present time, Shirou is informed by Rin that Saber still hasn't regained her consciousness. Shirou thanks Rin for taking care Saber but Rin tells him that she couldn't do much since Saber's health is not in good shape. She, however, wants to know what caused the condition so Shirou told her that Saber and Rider had a battle against one another and Saber ended up using her Noble Phantasm. However, after using said Noble Phantasm, Saber passed out. Upon hearing this Rin is not surprised to see Saber's condition. She thinks that if this continues, Saber may disappear. She explains that Saber's magical power is at critical level. Rin doesn't know what kind of Noble Phantasm that Saber used but either way, the technique depleted her own magic power. Shirou is surprised to hear this because Saber has always been able to recover by sleeping it off.
Rin, however, explains that this time around, the amount of magic that is used is extraordinary. At the moment Saber hasn't lose all of her power but she needs to replenish her magic. Unfortunately there are only two ways to do this: either her Master provides her with the magic replenishment, or Saber obtains it herself by using other people's soul like Rider did a few episodes ago. Shirou vehemently refuses to do the later and he is sure Saber wouldn't want to do it either. Unfortunately, Shirou doesn't have the power to do the first. Because of this Rin tells him that the only option left is for him to force Saber to do the later by using his command spell. As Shirou sits next to a sleeping Saber, he becomes frustrated at his inability to protect her. He eventually falls asleep and gets to share Saber's dream. In the dream, he sees Saber approaching a sword that is embedded into a stone. Near the stone, the famous magician Merlin told Saber that by drawing the sword, she'll take the responsibility as the King of Britain, Arthuria.
Saber agreed with this and proceeded to take the sword, which according to Shirou looks quite different from the one that Saber wield the night before. A quick flash to an empty forest reveals that the sword that Shirou is referring to is actually located there. When Shirou wakes up, he feels that everytime he thinks about the sword in the forest, his body becomes feverish. As Shirou takes care and asks her not to disappear on him, he remembers Rin's words about him having to force Saber to use other people's power. The day doesn't get any better for Shirou because he stumbles onto Archer who tells him that Saber uses her Noble Phantasm despite knowing the consequences. So he asks Shirou not to forget that Saber did that to protect him. Shirou is angry upon hearing this but has no choice but to swallow his anger and run away to a park to contemplate the situation. At first Shirou thinks that he doesn't want Saber to disappear because he needs her in the Holy War.
After a while, however, he realises that the truth is, he just doesn't want Saber to go away. Having said that, he feels that he can't force Saber to use other people's power. Unfortunately while Shirou is deep in his thought, Illya suddenly appears in the park. Much to Shirou's surprise, Illya immediately guesses that Saber is in danger of disappearing and mentions how she's aware that he and Saber were the one who made Shinji ran away. She thinks someone like Shinji is better off killed. Shirou realises that back when Saber were fighting with Rider, Illya and Berserker were also there. Before Shirou realises it, however, Illya's eyes starts to glow as she channels her power to immobilise him and later on makes him fall unconscious. When Shirou wakes up, he finds himself tied up to a chair inside Illya's room. Illya tells Shirou that she has taken him to her house deep in the forest so no one can interfere. Despite this, she assures Shirou that she has no intention to kill him.
Illya tells Shirou that she's going to kill the other Masters but Shirou is special. She wants Shirou to become her 'slave' and for some reason I don't think she meant it in the Holy War sense of the word. At the same time, Saber finally regains her consciousness but becomes disturbed when she can't sense Shirou nearby. Rin feels sorry for Saber so she enlists Archer's help to find Shirou despite the Servant's protest. Back to Illya's castle of Loli-dom, she is seen straddling Shirou's legs and forces him to become her plaything. Illya tells him that she's going to kill Saber and Rin if that will make Shirou hers. She also tells Shirou that she and Berserker killed Shinji after Rider was defeated by Saber. Because Shirou can no longer stop Illya, he tries to set himself free by using his magic but ends up coughing blood instead. Meanwhile, Saber, Rin, and Archer are seen reaching the forest where Illya's castle is located.
Impression:
I think there are some nice character development here for both Shirou and Saber. Shirou is clearly torn apart by his idealism and the harsh reality. He doesn't want to hurt other people but at the same time, he wants to keep Saber around him. I find it interesting that he admits that he wants Saber around not so much for the Holy War but because he enjoys her presence. This seems to be a major greenlight for Saber/Shirou pairing. Unfortunately, Saber seems to have another thing on her mind and that is her past as King Arthur. As a side note, the sword that Saber pulled from the stone was not Excalibur. Excalibur itself seems to be located deep inside a forest. Speaking of the forest, I thought the drawing of the forest looks quite similar to the painting inside Jyukai's Anata ga Ita Mori music video. It's kind of neat since the two media are related to one another. I'm not sure which one mimics the other though.
Moving on to other characters, I get the impression that Rin somehow led Shirou to choose a rather unsavoury path this time around. She seems a bit angry too in this episode which makes me wonder if it has something to do with what happened in the previous episode. Maybe she finally realised that Shirou is now a serious contender in the battle for the Holy Grail. Archer also becomes a lot more interesting and it's a good thing that he is featured prominently now that Shirou starts to have doubts about his ideal. Anyway, it was rather surprising to know that Illya and Berserker actually killed Shinji. I was hoping that another character will do the deed since it means we'll be heading towards Heavenly Feel's plot. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case now. Having said that, I still hope that Sakura will somehow get her share of the plot before the end of the season. Last but not least, it was amusing to see Illya acting like a scorned woman in this episode. Shirou better stay alert from now on. :)
Preview
On next week's episode: Archer gets to be THE MAN. He's going to be taking over Shirou's main character position and score with both Rin and Saber. Meanwhile, Berserker goes "Berserker smash puny human" because he too wants a harem of his own.
I don't think hypnotism involves glowing eyes - she's probably got some kind of mind magic going. And man, some of those expressions aren't childlike at ALL - they're evil. :D
And personally, I'm glad Berserker got Shinji, the way I suspected he might have done that night... although I wonder why Ilya's so fixated on getting Shirou ALL to herself. It's not because she thinks he's a loli, that's for sure...
Yeah, it's not the correct word but that's the only word I could come up with at the moment since that's essentially what the power did, taking the will of its victim, making her victim fall asleep despite his/her wish.
If Berserker is the one who kills Shinji, I think that suggests that this one is going to take Fate path. That doesn't sound good for Archer next week.
But Shirou coughing blood due to his magic sounds UBW to me so I hope that Archer will make it right through the end and not get the shaft like Rider.
"Illya tells him that she wants to make him her plaything"
I wish a cute girl say that to me, life is so unfair.
I thought Shiro got killed by Illya or something when I first saw some of those caps. Until I scroll down and see him still sitting on the chair. Curse you for getting my hopes up!
... and now I get the idea that, since we're talking about an anime derived from an h-game visual novel, that Ilya's just going to wait to grow up so she can join the harem of one, after killing off the competition the way Sakura probably wants to. ;)
Incidentally, that WAS Ilya's hand on Shirou's cheek in one of the screencaps, right? I do have to ask whether Shirou was trying to strengthen his body, or if he was trying to weaen the bonds somehow... which isn't the way his power normally works, IIRC. And if it wasn't for Rin and ARcher, would he have been able to do something like UBW to get himself out, you think?
A few notes..
1) Excalibur... the sword that Saber used in the last episode, is not the sword that Shirou seems in his dream. It is a different sword altogether. Shirou wonders where it went.
2) Ilya knows about Shrou's past; among other things..
3) Next episode's title is Risou no Hate. Fulfilment of ideals. IIRC that is a subtitle for a certain someone's noble phantasm
Oh wow the next episode looks incredible.
It sounds like episode 13 is just another one of the more boring episodes of F-SN.
Their pacing really needs work :: laughs :: Especially with how good episode 12 was!
the pacing is good, I don't want F/sn to be like DBZ with lots of fights an no plot.
With Shinji gone, the only sure thing is there won't be too much HF. The main HF storyline just doesn't work without him IMO.
FATE or a mix of FATE and UBW are both still possible.
I think it'll be a missed opportunity if the series does not take HF route at least for Sakura. She hasn't done anything in the series so far. And yet, she seems so prominent. And that last shot of her in last week's episode is so....what's the word....prophetic? What's the point of setting up that scene (and with Rin too, to boot) if they are not going to go HF when it comes to Sakura?
"And if it wasn't for Rin and ARcher, would he have been able to do something like UBW to get himself out, you think?"
I don't think he needs UBW to get himself out. This should be a piece of cake if he knows how to use his power at all.
The problem, cclragnarok, is that Shirou (at this point in time) has no clue how his power works besides to change things through his existing talent. I'm not sure if he was trying to weaken the bonds, or just turn his arms to steep or something... but it didn't work.
Ah well... I guess Ilya DOES have some plans for Shirou, even if he's not a lolicon or siscon...
I've been thinking about that scene for awhile now. The thing is, Shirou's ability is to strengthen the element of a particular object. So to me it makes more sense if he tries to strengthen his body so that he can rip the rope apart easily. On the other hand, I'm not sure if he can actually make the rope itself weaker in composition since that's not what his power is capable of. So I think he did try to make himself stronger so he can rip the rope apart instead of making the rope weaker in its composition.
"I've been thinking about that scene for awhile now. The thing is, Shirou's ability is to strengthen the element of a particular object."
You probably shouldn't think too much about that scene right now. It's possible that it has something to do with his true abilities.
Aye. Given how things went here... he may discover he can't strengthen the material of his arms... but he may discover his real talents, which would be interesting given that Archer and Berserker appear to be fighting in the next ep, especially if they're doing the Fate storyline with some UBW elements, as appears to be the case here.
Nice ep, but too far into snail-pace territory, for my tastes. Not really much to say about it, waiting eagerly for the next ^_^.
Just because Shinji is dead doesn't mean Heavens Feel is out- it might be just another twist in combining all three scenarios- 'cause we are not positive that Rider is truly dead or that Sakura did whisper a command spell.
I want a cute little girl to sit on my lap :(
Hmm... I wonder if animals have any mana. I mean, if you don't want to send off your servant to harvest people, then animals might be a less unethical route. (I can see it in the headlines, "Meat Shortage Hits Japan!") But yeah, the rumours over in 4chan imply that there is a way to *manually* transfer mana from magically incompetent masters to servants. A technique that involves something similiar to Otome power removal.(DANG IT. Thanks to you Garten, I am now making comparisons of FSN with Mai Otome)
There is an interesting point on whether Shirou can harden his body, like that time in ep 11 when rider tried to stab his neck, but some*thing* kicked in and her blade BROKE. Its at least a lot more tolerable than totally inexplicable Sergei plot armour. (DANG IT! Another comparison) If he trains iron body enough, who knows... He may yet be able to hold his own against a servant.
Actually I think the pacing of this anime is very good. Guys, it's not just action and more action that makes this anime good.
It is precisely because of the slow pacing that makes us eager to watch the next episode. Just sit back and relax. Don't disappoint yourself expecting more action when this isn't a pure action anime.
@Tourbillon
I think the slow-pacing is good too, and I love this anime quite a lot, but overall there a bit too much repetitive scenes, imo. Ok, "repetita iuvant"....
This show does not disappoint me at all, but I'm kind of a tool in criticizing anime ^_^
its sposed to be 'i sense a disturbance in the force'... not a disturbing sense :p
About the different swords, i think its a referance to the original king author story... or at least a version of it, because the sword Arthur drew from the stone wasn't actually the real excalibur, and the real one was stashed in the forest with the lady of the lake along with its mystical sheath for Arthur to claim later after he breaks his swords and repents his mistakes of arrogance and foolishness that he incurred in a battle
Btw, if archer dies the next episode i will be so pissed off
Ilya- a reverse loli!
Damn, another episode that appears to have used 20 minutes, but I'm not sure on exactly what. Shirou captured. Dream sequence. Talking. Seems like all of these things could be accomplished in 10 minutes.
Anyone else notice Ilya's comment about waiting ten years? How old could she have been then? Or is this another of those 'its not pedophilia 'cause the caracter is actually older than she looks' h-games?
And it seems like Shirou's thoughts about the sword in the forest and wanting to touch it were forshadowing something. Maybe Shirou can do the same sort of materialization thing Archer shows off in the game's demo version?
Is this fanart?
I think it's not but my friend thinks it is...
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SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER
18+ 18+ 18+ 18+ 18+ 18+ 18+ 18+ 18+
HentaiHentaiHentaiHentaiHentaiHentaiHentai
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http://wisedwarf.free.fr/AH01.jpg
Yes, those are from the actual game itself. I have the game and that picture is in the CG gallery.
Haha, You'll crap yourself when you find out who Archer really is. Shirou haters beware!!
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