Shirou Emiya

Shirou Emiya
Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero character
First appearance Fate/stay night
Created by Kinoko Nasu
Voiced by Japanese
Noriaki Sugiyama
Junko Noda (young)
English
Sam Riegel (Fate/stay night)
Bryce Papenbrook (UBW TV) (Heaven's Feel)
Mona Marshall (young)
Profile
Gender Male
Relatives Kiritsugu Emiya
(adopted father; deceased)
Illyasviel von Einzbern
(adopted sister)
Information
Servant Saber
Abilities Projection Magic, Tracing and Reinforcement[1]

Shirou Emiya (衛宮 士郎, Emiya Shirō) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the of the visual novel Fate/stay night by Type-Moon. He also appears in numerous spin-off works. In Fate/stay night, Shirou participates in the Holy Grail War along with six other mages for the Holy Grail, an all-powerful wish-granting device. He is an honest and good-hearted teenager who always enjoys helping others and aspires towards his father's ideal of becoming a "hero of justice."

In the beginning, Nasu was worried that because the main character was a girl, the story might not work as a bishōjo game. It was artist Takeuchi who suggested switching the genders of the protagonist and Saber to fit the game market.

Creation and conception

Before Kinoko Nasu started writing Fate/stay night, Fate was something he had written for fun in his spare time when he was a student. Shirou and Saber's gender were swapped.[2]

When first deciding what type of character to create for the protagonist of Fate/stay night, Takashi Takeuchi suggested a stubborn character. With that in mind, Nasu sought to create a character who cared solely about his goal and rather than stubborn character, he created a character that could not have fun.

There have only been small changes to Shirou's physical design since its inception. With red hair stubborn eyes, Takeuchi aimed for a design that was typical of a straightforward shōnen manga character. However, he felt that to be lacking, so he added more circles in his eyes. Takeuchi has trouble bringing out Shirou's expressions because of his unique eyebrows, so Shirou remains the hardest Fate/stay night character for him to draw. The duo focused on making Shirou with little unique physical characteristics to make it easier for the audience to project themselves onto his character on a visual level. However, their goal of creating "a protagonist without a face" per the nature of bishōjo games in the initial release of Fate/stay night is another reason why he has trouble drawing Shirou—he only appeared in a handful of scenes after all. However, in the rereleased Réalta version for ages 15 and up, the pressure of creating a faceless protagonist was gone and Takeuchi had to draw Shirou a lot more.[3]

Shirou is voiced by Noriaki Sugiyama.[4]

Appearance

During the events of the Fifth Holy Grail War, Shirou is a teenager with auburn-red hair and golden-brown eyes.

He is often seen wearing his casual clothing, which consists of a blue-and-white long-sleeve baseball jersey T-shirt and blue, slim straight jeans. While in school, he wears his Homurahara Academy uniform, but underneath his jacket uniform, he wears the same long-sleeve T-shirt.

Appearances

Premise

Before the events of Fate/stay night, a fire caused by the Fourth Holy Grail War left Shirou on the brink of death until Emiya Kiritsugu saves and adopts him. Kiritsugu's exceedingly happy self when saving him became an unforgettable memory of admiration for Shirou. In the moments before Kiritsugu's death, he told Shirou that he failed to become an ally of justice, someone who saves as many people as possible. Shirou promised to become one in his stead. Shrou's excessive desire to follow in his father's ideal of becoming an ally of justice becomes a way of life for him. Through the three routes of Fate/stay night, Shirou undergoes shifts in his view towards that ideal. The events of Fate/stay night start in the Fifth Holy Grail War.

His survivor's guilt is so severe that Ayako has stated that she has never seen Shirou smile, as he believes that he does not deserve to. He feels that, as the only survivor of the fire, it is unfair to the deceased to prioritize his own needs before those of others. He has a distorted sense of values where he only finds self-worth from helping people without any compensation, feeling that the very act "helping people" is its own reward and sees himself as a living sword, meant to be used by others for their own benefit. He believes it is highly unfair that some people survive and others do not. When it comes down to receiving an injury or even giving up his life to help someone, he will do it without a second thought. As such, the novelist Shūsei Sakagami describes him as a robot.[5]

Fate

In the Fate route, Saber is the main heroine and her true identity is King Arthur. When Shirou leaves the church after agreeing to participate in the war, Illyasviel von Einzbern ambushes them and overwhelms Saber with her servant Berserker. Despite his weakness as a mage, he rushes out to save Saber by protecting her from Berserker's strike. Professor Makoto Kuroda of Wayo Women's University describes this action as neglect of a person's primordial survival instincts and his actions as encompassing "selfless philanthropism and a purely boundless sense of moralism."[6]

Saber blames the fall of Britain on herself, so her wish is for a more suitable candidate to pull Excalibur out of the stone to take her place as the king of Britain. Her unwavering ideal serves as a juxtaposition to Shirou's ideal. Despite understanding that their ideals are unreachable, they ignore reality and continue moving on that path. Shirou is able to help Saber face the reality of her ideal, as it is impossible to change the past, but Shirou still embraces his ideas to the very end in this route.[7]

Unlimited Blade Works

"Shirou, your way of living is incredibly twisted... In the first place, you're something "special" that can't weigh his options on a scale. That is to say, you're like the scale itself. So why do you try to destroy that scale to save someone who doesn't matter to you?"

Rin's criticism of Shirou's ideals[8]

In the Unlimited Blade Works route, Rin Tohsaka is the main heroine. Rin notices Shirou's twisted ideal of becoming an ally of justice. She criticizes his lack of self and how little value he places on his own life, as he would gladly die for his ideal. Archer, Rin's servant, is Shirou from the future who suffered greatly from accomplishing the goal of becoming an ally of justice. As such, Archer wishes to kill Shirou in hopes of erasing himself from existence or at least erasing the ideal of being an ally of justice from Shirou's world. Shirou is locked in an ideological conflict with Archer. Archer criticizes Shirou's ideals for simply being borrowed from his father. Shirou denies that he will become like Archer. Through dialogue with Archer, Shirou sees hypocrisy in his ideals. In this route, though he refuses to give them up entirely, he works his way towards a middle ground where he will strive towards fulfilling ideals, despite knowing his idea was borrowed. Shirou accepts that his ideals are borrowed, but he continues to pursue them in this route.[9]

Heaven's Feel

In the Heaven's Feel route, Sakura Matou is the main heroine. She is brought up in a family of mages and is a black shadow that attacks the city every night due to her grandfather's schemes. Shirou faces a dilemma: he can either uphold his ideal by killing Sakura and saving many lives in the process or he can forsake his ideal and save Sakura, his love interest. Shirou abandons his ideals and chooses to become Sakura's ally rather than an ally of justice.[10]

Appearances in other media

Shirou has appeared in the anime and manga versions of Fate/stay night and the movie Unlimited Blade Works. Shirou[11] also appeared in the game Fate/unlimited codes, released on PS2 and PSP. A Shirou also appeared in Fate/tiger colosseum.[12] He, along with other characters from Tsukihime, Melty Blood, and the rest of the cast of Fate/stay night, appears in the 2011 anime Carnival Phantasm. In addition, Shirou briefly appeared in Fate/Zero, the prequel of Fate/stay night, in which he is shown being saved by Kiritsugu at the end of the series. He with other characters from Tsukihime, Melty Blood, and the rest of the cast of Fate/stay night, also appeared in the T-Moon Complex Doujinshi manga and comics.

Reception

Popularity

Merchandise has been modeled after Shirou including rubber straps and figures.[13][14]

Critical reception

Gen Urobuchi believes Saber's relationship with Shirou doesn't seem like a realistic relationship between a male and a female, but a complicated relationship with a boy who became a girl. He further explains that it is not a relationship fueled by instinct like the relationship between a man and a woman, but a romance of logic between two people who need each other from the heart. He thinks the Fate route could have been told as a story through the ancient Greek views on love. Urobuchi, thinks the true heroine of Fate/stay night is Rin Tohsaka. He asserted that Shirou's relationship with Rin was the more realistic relationship. In the "Unlimited Blade Works" route, an equal relationship with a woman who's become stronger than men is depicted. Rin and Shirou mend each other's weaknesses with their own unique strength. Also, Sakura's romance expresses the dark sides that women have, but Shirou's actions show that men can accept that and love them regardless.[15] Charles Cassady says that Shirou is "bloodied so regularly, [Fate/stay night] might well have been titled The Passion of the Shiro[u]."[16]

Kinoko Nasu t's difficult to call the relationship between Shirou and Saber a relationship between a man and a woman. Saber has fought for a long time as the ruler of Britain, but then turned into a girl all of a sudden and fell in love with Shirou. It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it. But I really wanted to push it towards that sort of boy-meets-girl story. So as a last resort, I had Shirou continually say things to her like "But you're a girl," and "Girls aren't supposed to fight," in order to remind the users that "she is really a girl." It's like the author's actually the one trying to convince Saber that she's a girl... I feel like I could have written it a lot better now, but that was the best I could do at the time.

It's true that Rin is different from Saber. Rin is written as a completely different gender. She also has a sort of pride in the fact that she's a beautiful girl. With a girl like that by his side, even an unsociable person like Shirou loses his presence of mind.[15]

Mania Entertainment's Chris Beveridge, however, stated that he liked the development of Shirou across the series, particularly his team-ups with Saber.[17] He shared similar comments when talking about the romantic relationship between him and Saber.[18] Similarly, DVDTalk enjoyed this and claimed, "The Master/Servant relationship is an interesting one."[19]

IGN's Jeff Harris said that Shirou and Saber's growing relationship was Fate/stay night's most interesting plot line and that the romantic tension there between the two is something to look forward to over the course of the rest of the game and animated series.[20]

  • In the first Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2004, Shirou was ranked 7th.
  • In the second Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2006, Shirou was ranked 11th.
  • In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll in 2012, Shirou was ranked 12th.

References

  1. ↑ "The First Day". Fate/stay night. Series 1. Episode 1.
  2. ↑ Nasu, Kinoko; Takeuchi, Takashi (2006). "The Fate/stay night Staffs Interview". website (Interview). Dengeki Online. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  3. ↑ Fate/complete material II Character material (in Japanese). 12 July 2010.
  4. ↑ Green, Scott (3 October 2017). "Aniplex of America Begins Ticket Sales for Nationwide Theatrical Release of "Fate/stay night [Heaven's Feel] THE MOVIE I. presage flower"". Crunchyroll. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  5. ↑ Shūsei, Sakagami (2017). TYPE-MOONの軌跡. Tokyo: Seikaisha. p. 84. ISBN 9784065105573. OCLC 1013875576.
  6. ↑ Kuroda, Makoto (March 2013). "召喚魔法と個人存在 ─『Fate/stay night』における存在・現象・人格概念" [Identity of Summoned Heroes: Aspects of Psyche and Phases of Persona in Fate/stay night]. 和洋女子大学英文学会誌 (in Japanese). 和洋女子大学英文学会 (47): 83. ISSN 0289-3940. OCLC 835633973.
  7. ↑ Shūsei, Sakagami (2017). TYPE-MOONの軌跡. Tokyo: Seikaisha. pp. 79–80. ISBN 9784065105573. OCLC 1013875576.
  8. ↑ Untranslated quote: 「……そう。前から異常だと思ってたけど、今ので確信したわ。士郎。貴方の生き方は、ひどく歪よ」「そりゃ他人が一番のヤツだっている。けど、そもそも自分っていうのは秤にかけられない“別格”なのよ。言うなれば秤そのものでしょう。なのにアンタは、その秤を壊してどうでもいい他人を助けようとする」Type-Moon (January 30, 2004). Fate/stay night (in Japanese). Type-Moon.
  9. ↑ Shūsei, Sakagami (2017). TYPE-MOONの軌跡. Tokyo: Seikaisha. pp. 80–81. ISBN 9784065105573. OCLC 1013875576.
  10. ↑ Shūsei, Sakagami (2017). TYPE-MOONの軌跡. Tokyo: Seikaisha. pp. 81–82. ISBN 9784065105573. OCLC 1013875576.
  11. ↑ "Fate/Unlimited Codes - PlayStation Portable - IGN". Psp.ign.com. 2009-08-21. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
  12. ↑ "Fate/tiger colosseum". www.capcom.co.jp. Archived from the original on January 23, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  13. ↑ "『劇場版「Fate/stay night ［Heaven's Feel］」』一番くじPART2の全ラインナップ公開！描きおろし掛式（かけしき）アートポスターなどが登場!!" (in Japanese). Dengeki Hobby. 28 March 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  14. ↑ "「RAH 衛宮士郎」が、RAHシリーズに満を持して登場！" (in Japanese). Dengeki Hobby. 25 August 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  15. 1 2 TYPE-MOON Ace 7 - 10 year Anniversary interview: Nasu Kinoko X Takeuchi Takashi X Urobuchi Gen
  16. ↑ Cassady, Charles (1 September 2012). "Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. (Video recording review)". Video Librarian. Vol. 27 no. 5. Bremerton, Wa: Randy Pitman. p. 85. ISSN 0887-6851.
  17. ↑ "Fate / Stay Night Vol. #5". Mania Entertainment. Archived from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Fate / Stay Night Vol. #4". Mania Entertainment. Archived from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Fate/Stay Night 3: Master & Servant". DVD Talk. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  20. ↑ Harris, Jeff (September 6, 2007). "Fate/Stay Night: Volume 3 - Master and Servant". IGN. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  • "Shirou Emiya". The Visual Novel Database.
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