Shirou vs Shirou: How an Adaptation Changed Fan Perspectives

This video attempts to showcase the key differences between how Shirou Emiya is portrayed in the Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works adaptation by Ufotable and the Fate/Stay Night Visual Novel source material.

A HUGE thank you to all of my friends that voiced the characters:

Shirou: SlasherThrasherJPC

Archer: DomCom360

Caster: LadyPelvic

Saber: Gabbmew

Special thanks to my friend KnightmareAlpha for suggesting the title:

[DanielSantosAnalysis]

Thank you for watching! In case you wanted a bit of behind the scenes insight on the video, originally this was supposed to be a pretty short 7 minute video without any of the extra voice acting. The more I wrote the script however, the more I realized how much the anime left out in regards to Shirou's characterization. That being said I still left out a substantial amount of what makes Shirou a fascinating character but I wanted to keep the video more focused as opposed to a full blown character analysis. If you have any questions about the video or about Fate in general, please let me know and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

One more thing, I dunno why I said "Honnoji Temple" I was supposed to say "Ryoudou Temple" just a weird mistake on my part.

[medbbread]

"Shirou does not want to end his own life"
*Cough* Emiya *Cough*

[soulsilversnorlax]

I think Shirou's feelings about Archer are pretty well summed up with the infamous line: "Just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right!" He agrees with Archer objectively, and accepts the truth to his methods, but he cannot morally accept Archer's ethics.

[chriscrimson]

Shirou: i wanna BE him!
Counter Force: I can help
Archer: noooOOO!

[androgenius_alisa]

It's simple. Anime doesn't show how good Shirou is at cooking. Such character just can't be disliked.

[nawalpandey]

One important thing to keep in mind about Shirou is that he completely lost his identity during the Fuyuki fire. Not only did he forget his original name and everything about his background, his entire personality, values and dreams were scorched down to a blank slate. In his own memories of the fire, he describes himself almost as if from the outside, walking aimlessly through the flames without a goal in mind aside from taking the next step, until he just physically can’t anymore and collapses.

Meanwhile, Kiritsugu during the Fuyuki fire had also lost everything — not only had he, within his mind, cast aside all his loved ones for the sake of his “mission, ” he was now witnessing the failure of epic proportions said mission had turned into. He was incoherent, searching through the ruins desperately to try and find absolutely anything he could do or anyone he could save to redeem himself to any extent.

And he found Shirou.

At that moment, Kiritsugu was genuinely happy, from the bottom of his heart. The knowledge that he had managed to save anyone at all from the disaster was salvation itself — he probably would have killed himself without that. And that happiness was the first thing Shirou, in his new identity as a blank slate, latched onto, and the only thing he registered as a positive emotion in that hellscape.

From that day onward, for Shirou, the deal was done: the prime value in his mind now was saving / helping people = good feeling. In other words, saving and helping people would from then on be the only thing Shirou derives any positive emotional feedback from.

Most crucially, Shirou never recovered from this until FSN: he never rebuilt a “normal” emotional frame of reference for things and events, and always had extreme difficulty generating genuine positive (or negative) feedback from things that would normally trigger it. The UBW anime highlights this when Mitsuzuri points out that she’s never seen Shirou really smile — in actual fact, almost nobody has, because Shirou is almost never happy. Sure, he can enjoy things superficially, but not on any level deeper than “this is nice.” Even things he excels at and spent years on, like archery, he gives up without a second thought when simply asked to and doesn’t think back on with regret, resentment or any emotion at all. He’s also almost never unhappy. He doesn’t react at all when he’s being hurt, insulted or otherwise abused, for instance by Shinji — and I don’t mean he restrains himself very well, the abuse just doesn’t register as any kind of emotional stimulus he should respond to to any extent. Shirou simply does not feel anything about almost anything that concerns him directly. The only thing he feels good about is helping people.

The core thing to understand here is that this is not a matter of moral fiber. Shirou is not a good person — if anything he’s deeply selfish. Shirou is clinically insane. He has a completely externalized set of priorities. He doesn’t decide anything based on what it means to himself, only based on whether or not it helps other people. He doesn’t even value his own life at all except insofar as it can be used to benefit others. And it freaks people out a lot when they realize this: Rin is the obvious and explicit example in UBW, but Shinji, for instance, was once a really good friend to Shirou, only to eventually grow genuinely disturbed by how little Shirou valued himself and put distance between them because of it.

So essentially, the thing to remember is that Shirou wants to save everyone because saving everyone is the only thing he derives happiness and self-worth from, and his entire value system and worldview is based on that. Asking Shirou to not help, to not fight, to not risk his life for other people, is akin to asking the average person to walk off a cliff.

[larrytherustyboii]

"Shirou is not suicidal"
Archer: lol

[littleboyred]

"While shirou understands that what Archer's saying is _correct..._ "
*Me:* _Say the thing!_
"That doesn't necessarily mean that..."
*Me:* *_Yeeees!_*
" _...What archer says should be completely trusted_ "
*Me:* goddammit

[pandadogunited]

Shirou is a key example of why people who have experienced traumatic events should get therapy

[MrThecrazyzombie]

Seeing modern fate fan thinking he's shit because he's not "cool" as kiritsugu hurts me so much

[Rais-Codex]

I liked Shirou, without even reading the source material.

[KhairiART]

I can never get enough breakdowns of Emiya Shirou's psychology and survival guilt. It's so unique and a crutch for his ideals. It's just so fascinating how natsu made such a creative, real and tangible person. Also, awesome presentation man

[everinghall]

The Iron Giant "I am not a gun"
Shirou "I am a sword"
Kiritsugu "I am a gun"

[OtakuDaiKun]

The inner monologues can obviously clarify logic, but I feel ufotable and even studio Deen still conveyed his personality to me. I feel those who misunderstand Shirou are missing more subtle clues that the VN is more blunt about.

[FlameSkull]

I believe the issue people have with him as a character stemns from the fact that the anime atempted to communicate Shirou's inner conflicts through subtle visual nods, but people didn't pick on that due to multiple factors, and even if they did, they still couldn't understand that he's a fundamentally broken individual, clinging on to a borrowed ideal that brings forth his warped and contradictory path of becoming a hero of justice, something the Heaven's feel adaptations thus far, had a much easier time given the context of that entire arc.

[lackusshock]

His Survivors Guilt really does play a part into why Archer became so bitter.
He wanted to save others as a way of making up for the lives he couldn't save in the fire. He became Counter Guardian because he thought he was given the power to save more lives, but he ended realizing that he has now killed far more people than the fire ever did.

On a different note though, there are alot of things that relates Shirou to Archer that only works in a Visual Novel... Both are actually prone to shit talking, its just that Shirou's words go through a "good guy" filter between his brain and mouth, Archer just lets the insults fly.
There was a line in Shirou's mind "I've yet to make tea that satisfies Tohsaka" which I just can't help but laugh a little when remembering Archer's small huff of pride when Rin praised his tea.
Remember how Shirou's entire left side went haywire after using projection magic? Take a look at Archer's sprites and you'll notice that his left hand is tensed or clenched.
There's a moment where Shirou "gestures to Tohsaka to 'go to hell'", which Archer apparently still remembers as he does the exact same thing when he begrudgingly goes to clean up.

There's also two scenes that were removed from the anime and I really wonder why.
First is the scene of Archer returning Rin's pendant. After hearing that its a family heirloom, Archer very hurriedly takes out the pendant of his timeline and gives it to Tohsaka saying "You don't have to be that strong." Aside from it being strangely out of character for Archer, its something which Shirou says to Rin later on.
Another is Rin repairing Shirou's window. Its a minor one but Rin reparing a hole Shirou's house on her first visit? Guess what Archer did as his first "job" at Rin's Mansion...

[Lopaloos]

Also it is stupid how they fawn over archer and shit on shiro, when archer is just a bitter shirou

[othello]

Tl:dr Shirou is a tsundere.

Edit: Huh. Didn't think my throw away comment would become my most liked one.

[HeroTen]

Since Fate Stay Night was a visual novel so much characterization occurs through thought which is never really explored in anime. Good job on giving insight on what source material Shirou is really like.

[certifiedswordlover.]

One my favorite protagonist characters yet so misunderstood it's stupid. Shirou can't live a normal life, he more soldier if you think about.

I swear I hate how they don't show more of his character.

Thanks for the video bro. Also is shirou more anti hero than hero.