I’ll just copy and paste the beginning of my episode 11 post, because unfortunately, it’s still fucking relevant.
Part of the problem with having Rin spend so much time teasing ENFP is that it drains so much intensity from the episode. Now that Caster knows who they are, don’t you think she’s gonna find out where they live? She could attack at any moment with an army of skeleton dudes.
Because Ufotable was aware of this problem, episode 12 started with ENFP being embarrassed to see Rin waking up. Man, this plot is advancing at such a fast pace.
And then Rin and ENFP went on a date. Rin herself admitted that there wasn’t any strategic purpose to it. It was just kids having fun. This episode was above, say, Grisaia in the sense that it wasn’t scene after scene of the male character subjugating the females, but, to put it bluntly, I was not at all surprised when they walked straight into Caster’s bounded field. The enemy learns your identity and you go on a date instead of taking the fight to her? Okay.
Naturally, Rin had to go blushy blushy when ENFP suggested there might be more to her actions than simple whims. I hate anime’s tendency to have their female characters be embarrassed of their affection. This was an especially bad case because it happened after Rin asked Shirou out on a date. Aren’t all her cards already on the table?
Then the plot happened, and that is a joyous, joyous occasion.
Overall, “stuff actually happened” is a good way of differentiating this episode from the previous ones. Caster kidnapped Fuji, Caster stole Saber, and Caster fought with Kotomine. It might seem like the burden of plot development was unfairly given to one character, but someone’s gotta do it.
I think this is the first time Shirou’s felt like a real character that makes his own decisions. Between helping Caster, handing over his command seals, and letting Fujimura die, Shirou had plenty of near-equal options. The moral conflicts the characters have been philosophizing about for the past few episodes actually came up to the surface. Shirou’s ideologies even caused him to fuck up and essentially hand Saber over to Caster. It’s all vastly more interesting than “Shirou is embarrassed to see Rin in her pajamas.”
The show’s habit of including too much dialogue is still here. I honestly don’t get why Caster would bother to explain her noble phantasm. She should be trying to limit what her enemies know. It’s not necessary from a narrative standpoint, either; if Caster stabbed Saber with the knife and Saber then had to obey Caster, wouldn’t we understand what’s going on? The evil laughing that was inserted into Caster’s speech certainly didn’t help.
Then, because something actually happened in the plot, Rin, Shirou, and Archer had to make decisions about what they wanted to do next. I wish this had happened six episodes ago, but at least it’s happening now. It was pretty predictable stuff; Shirou wanted to keep fighting, Rin wanted to honor Shirou’s desires but warn him away, and Archer wanted to cut ties with him. Nonetheless, I found Shirou’s confrontation with Rin on the rooftops to be fairly dramatic. He’s at his low point, so there’s actually some tension going on.
And I guess that’s that for this season. I’ve hoped before that the next episode’s going to be more action/plot-oriented before and been disappointed, but I get the feeling that this time, Ufotable might be willing to live up to my expectations. After all, there’s not a whole lot of time left to kill off five servants.
Mo[r]e Anime 