In a post-Fate/Zero world, when most people think of Fate/Stay Night in anime form, they think of Ufotable, even with the myriad spinoffs produced by Production I.G., A1 Pictures, etc. Ever since the success of the Garden of Sinners films and their early Fate works, Ufotable's style and digital effects works has become intertwined with the universe and its legacy.
The three routes of Fate/Stay Night - Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel - have all been adapted to animation in the time since the VN was released in 2004. However, only the last two have been adapted by Ufotable, whereas the first route of the beloved story was only put to animation once in 2006 by Studio Deen.
Now, going into 2023, in the time since Heaven's Feel's theatrical trilogy concluded, fans have been clamoring more than ever for a revisit of the Fate route. But with that want comes a minefield of logistical quandaries, the biggest of which being whether it needs to be made and if anything is lost by not remaking it.
Deen/Stay Night
Studio Deen's take on Fate/Stay Night has often been treated unfairly as the ugly stepchild of the series, primarily for its far more dated look compared to Ufotable's iconic style. So many will be introduced to the franchise through later works that the 2006 anime's aesthetic can be a hard hump to get over in order to give the series a chance.
But it goes without saying that Deen/Stay Night came out at a very different time for Visual Novel adaptations, where the anime would tend to decide on a canon route while adding pieces from other ones. For instance, Clannad decided that Nagisa would be the final girl, but they also added tons of episodes meant to flesh out other characters, making it a full adaptation.
Deen/Stay Night does something similar, adapting the Fate route while inserting elements of UBW and Heaven's Feel to create a more complete, all-encompassing idea of the story. It made sense to pick the route with Saber as the main heroine because she is the most iconic woman in the Fate series. Deen later adapted UBW as a similar film, kinda similar to what Ufotable later did with Heaven's Feel.
The Ufotable Fate Universe
The Fate route is often considered, perhaps reductively, as an expository route meant to explain the mechanics of the Grail War and set up the key characters of the story. From Ufotable's perspective, it might not have felt necessary to retread old ground after Fate/Zero itself was an excellent introduction to the world.
Looking up the production history of the UBW series more or less confirms this. Ufotable was eager to adapt Stay Night, but they were uncertain how to go about it, with some wanting to readapt the Fate route. In the end, it was decided that Studio Deen's adaptation had already done the job. Furthermore, they argued that a UBW TV series thematically tie well as a sequel to Fate/Zero.
In a way, they were quite correct. If the original Fate/Stay Night went like this: 1. Fate 2. UBW 3. Heaven's Feel, then Ufotable's take on the universe was: 1. Zero 2. UBW 3. Heaven's Feel. While this has created a cohesive and tonally consistent story over the years, it has come at some cost to the mainstream audience.
Saber's Route
A primary goal of Unlimited Blade Works' TV anime was for the creative team to explore Shirou's character more without relying too much on how he was reflected through romantic interests. This is an understandable approach, born out of a desire to do right by Shirou while respecting the female characters in their own right. With that said, many fans still characterize the routes by their female leads, and the romance is a large draw for the story.
Even with this renewed mindset, Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Matou were definitely Shirou's romantic partners in UBW and Heaven's Feel respectively. Sakura's relationship with Shirou is far more blatant as per the necessity of HF's plot, but plenty of fans swooned over Shirou x Rin as well. And yet, it wasn't so easy to do that for Saber.
For fans who've only watched Ufotable's adaptations, Saber has had quite a rough go of it. In Fate/Zero her story is one of tragedy but also an example of Gen Urobuchi's less-than-stellar treatment of her as a character. In UBW, Saber is stolen from Shirou halfway through and is made a prisoner of Caster for a while. In Heaven's Feel, she is quickly replaced with the evil Saber Alter for the duration of the route
As she plays a smaller role in the other two routes, Saber can feel like a somewhat secondary character when looking at the whole of Ufotable's universe. The best ending fans could hope for was in the OVA titled "Sunny Day," named after the ending in the VN where Rin makes Saber her familiar, allowing her to keep on living.
But Saber is more than just a supporting character. Artoria Pendragon is the most iconic Fate character and one of the trifecta of strong women at the center of Kinoko Nasu's most celebrated story. It is true that Shirou's story in UBW feels a lot stronger if consumed right after Fate/Zero. But Kiritsugu Emiya wasn't the only character with an unfulfilled legacy.
By the end of Zero, Saber went through hell just like Kiritsugu did, banking everything on acquiring the Grail, only to have it snatched from her because of revelations she wasn't privy to. All she was left with was the pain of believing that she'd failed the Round Table when she was alive. She deserved closure, the kind of closure that the Fate route could have provided.
Rewatch or Remake?
It isn't as if that closure is lost to fans who want to look for it. After all, Studio Deen did adapt it, and the show is worth watching, especially for what it offers that a lot of the other adaptations don't. There are elements of levity that don't often get the credit they deserve for fleshing out the characters and these aspects echo the qualities that made the Visual Novel so sensational.
Fans could also obviously read the VN, although it's never been sold outside of Japan. Through the VN, fans not only could experience the Fate route, but they could witness things that not even Ufotable was able to translate perfectly, like Shirou's survivor's guilt. Still, among the options available, there remains a strong desire for an Ufotable remake of the Fate route.
Ufotable is the studio that has more or less defined the franchise today: the creators at Type-Moon, the executives at Ufotable, and the fans who have watched for ages understand that. It was only because of the new animated openings for the PS Vita release of Fate/Stay Night that UBW was even considered for a series. This studio is good at what they do.
They have also adapted works from the Nasuverse beyond Fate, such as Garden of Sinners, the upcoming Mahoyo film, and if there's a Tsukihime anime remake, it's safe to say they'll make it. Years from now when Ufotable's recurring controversies with tax evasion catch up with them, it'll be really silly if - in the end - they somehow adapted everything except for the Fate route.