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If you haven't seen any episodes from the Fate / Stay Night series, you'll probably need a Wikipedia primer like I did to make sense of what's going on. The 2010 film from Studio Deen (Vampire Knight, Higurashi) is both dense and elliptical with a great deal of backstory for the ongoing battles between Masters in something called the Holy Grail War. Unlimited Bladeworks makes a token attempt at laying out the overall premise of the series, but for the most part it's much too busy whizzing through a plot that introduces characters just before killing them off (often brutally).

It's a lot to take in and you might get a little lost without a scorecard, but let's give it a try, why don't we?

Our hero is Kiritsugu Emiya, a high school student who unwittingly unwittingly stumbles into the middle of a violent conflict between Masters or magi (essentially human summoners) who use their Servants to fight it out for the right to win the Holy Grail, a chalice which grants wishes. Unlimited Bladeworks draws attention to how previous contests occurred infrequently over the centuries while this one seems to have been moved up by outside factors. Add to this the fact that normally there are typically only seven magi and their accompanying Servants while this battle's number fluctuates beyond that number and it's clear something funny is going on here.
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