[4] The original idea was limited to the prototype of the Fate arc, where the main characters were the female master and her Servant Saber (the embodiment of King Arthur as a man).
[6] About a third of the scenario of the future Fate arc (up to the battle with Sasaki Kojiro) was completed at that time, but for several personal reasons, Nasu could not write further for more than ten years.
However, Shirō is a deeply scarred human being orphaned after a fire destroyed part of his hometown when he was seven and caused him to lose all memory of the first seven years of his life.
Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi[11] (Japanese); Kate Higgins (Fate/stay night),[11][12] Michelle Ruff (UBW film, Fate/Apocrypha),[12] Kari Wahlgren (Zero, UBW TV, Heaven's Feel film) (English) The main heroine of the Fate route and the mascot of the franchise, Saber is an honorable swordsman whose true identity is the King of Knights Artoria Pendragon (アルトリア・ペンドラゴン, Arutoria Pendoragon) who sought the Holy Grail to prevent the events that doomed her homeland with someone else ruling Britain in her stead.
Because of their incompatible methods, Kiritsugu arranges Saber to serve as Irisviel's bodyguard, while she questions her master's tactics before being forced into attempting to destroy the Holy Grail.
Saber is frustrated by Shirō's "protective" tendencies, believing his erratic and reckless behavior will jeopardize their chances of winning the Holy Grail War services as a Heroic Spirit.
Due to his experience as an elite assassin for the Church, Kirei is an expert practitioner in Chinese martial arts whose proficiency is magnified by his monstrous physical strength and numerous Command Seals.
During the events of Fate/Zero, Kirei apprenticed himself to Tokiomi Tōsaka at his father's behest in order to secretly serve as his spy and ally against the other Masters in the Fourth Holy Grail War.
In the first route of Fate/Stay Night simply called Fate, Kirei Kotomine emerges as the story arc's main antagonist after kidnapping Ilya to use her as a vessel for the Grail's cursed contents.
By prolonging Sakura Matō's life [21] and facilitating her growth as the Black Grail,[22][23] he plays a crucial role in ensuring her corruption by Angra Mainyu.
As the fully developed Angra Mainyu prepares to enter the world, a mortally wounded Kirei surfaces to prevent Shirou from getting in its way.
Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama, Miyu Irino (childhood) (Japanese); Kirk Thornton (Fate/stay night), Matthew Mercer (Zero, UBW TV), Marin Miller (childhood) (English) Kiritsugu Emiya (衛宮切嗣, Emiya Kiritsugu) is Shirō's adoptive father who died before the events of Fate/stay night and is only seen in flashback and the protagonist of Fate/Zero, known as the Mage Slayer for his unconventional methods of killing.
Born in Fuyuki City, Kiritsugu was raised on Alimango Island by his father Norikata Emiya, a magus who specializes in time magic.
But Kiritsugu's life took a nasty turn when his friend Shirley, a local girl working as his father's aide, accidentally got vampirized and his hesitance to kill her resulted in the entire island being comprised.
But Kiritsugu discovered that the Grail had become corrupted and attempted to destroy it by using a Command Spell on Saber which devastated the surrounding area, inflicted with a curse that shorted his lifespan and raising Shirō after being cast out by the Einzbern family.
Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese); Bridget Hoffman[24] (English) Irisviel von Einzbern (アイリスフィール・フォン・アインツベルン, Airisufīru fon Aintsuberun) is the main heroine of the story and Kiritsugu's wife.
Her weapons are thin, long and flexible wires, which she uses to produce an instantaneous homunculus with alchemy that attacks the enemy while changing itself into numerous shapes.
She was left for dead before she was discovered by Avenger, who created the time loop inside of Bazett's mind, so that she could stay alive from her fatal injuries.
Bazett can directly fight and defeat Servants due to her family's combat-based magecraft and her ancestral Noble Phantasm: the sacred dagger Fragarach, which reverses time so that it always strikes first in response to her opponent's ultimate attack.
[37][38] Uno Tsunehiro from Kyoto University compared Shirou's traumatic background in regards the city's fire to survivors from the September 11 attacks while also showing different ways the Japanese society used to take care of their lives in such time.
[39] A large number of sudden deaths, coupled with a sharp effect of losing control over the situation, according to the authors of the monograph, gave the gameplay an additional emotional coloring and motivated players to continue playing the game, aided by well-developed plot twists.
[40] In his analysis of the magical system and details of the personalities of the characters, Makoto Kuroda sees in the idea of Shirou to become a “champion of justice” a direct analogy with the traditional view of the life of bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism, seeking to save other people at the cost of their own efforts and suffering.
[41] In Kuroda's view, Buddhist concepts are opposed to the elements of Christian ethics contained in the plot through the opposition of Shirou and Kirei Kotomine in the form of the main character's rejection of the interpretation of Angra Mainyu as a creature who accepted the sins of others in the name of salvation.
Thus, many reviewers recognized that the psychologically deepest arc is "Heaven's Feel", which is largely due to the sharp and versatile disclosure of the image of Sakura Matou,[43][44] and her romantic line with Shirou is the most "adult" among all the heroines.
[51][52] The Fandom Post and Blu-ray enjoyed Shirou's characterization in the film, in which his ideals contrast with those of Archer and Kiritusgu, making him notably mature in the story.