Shirou Emiya
Shirou Emiya, also written as "Shiro Emiya" in Fate/unlimited codes, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the 2004 Eroge visual novel Fate/stay night, published by Type-Moon. Shirou is a teenager who accidentally participates in the "Holy Grail War" alongside six other mages looking for the eponymous treasure, an all-powerful, wish-granting relic. Shirou was the sole survivor of a fire in a city and was saved by a man named Kiritsugu Emiya who inspired him to become a hero and avoid killing people during fights. While fighting alongside the servant Saber, Shirou develops his own magical skills and, depending on the player's choices; he forms relationships with the novel's other characters. He also appears in the visual novel sequel Fate/hollow ataraxia, the prequel light novel Fate/Zero, and printed and animated adaptations of the original game.
Writer Kinoko Nasu created Shirou and Saber in stories he had written as a teenager. Nasu was worried that the story would not work as a bishōjo game because the main character was a girl. Artist Takashi Takeuchi suggested switching the sexes of the protagonist and Saber to fit into the game market. For the anime adaptations following Fate/Zero, the staff wanted to make the character more serious in his interactions with the other characters while giving him a more cheerful personality in contrast to the original visual novel. Shirou is regularly voiced in Japanese by Noriaki Sugiyama as a teenager and Junko Noda as a child; multiple voice actors have voiced him in the English releases of the anime adaptations.
Critics have commented on Shirou's different characterizations; his role in each part of the original Fate/stay night visual novel has received positive reaction due to his character development and relationship with the character Archer. Shirou's appearance in Studio Deen's first Fate/stay night–based anime received a mixed response; critics initially disliked Shirou but praised how his relationship with Saber evolved. In Ufotable's anime series, based on the visual novel's route Unlimited Blade Works, the character was praised for how he dealt with questions about his ideals. Shirou has also appeared in multiple polls related to Fate and anime in general.
Creation and conception
Shirou's role in the story was meant to highlight parts of his personality and growth based on the paths the player picks. The first Fate storyline shows his slanted mind; the next, Unlimited Blade Works, presents his resolve, and in the last storyline, Heaven's Feel, he becomes Sakura Matou's ally and abandons his life-long passion of becoming a hero. Shirou was created with the idea of being a stubborn man with ideals that would change the way his role in the story based on the different routes, something the Type-Moon originally wanted to make with the protagonist of Tsukihime. Furthermore, Nasu wanted to portray him as a typical teenager while artist Takashi Takeuchi did not want him to have too much individuality in order to make players project themselves into him. By the end of the making of the visual novel, Nasu described Shirou as a joyless hero disinterested in the war, denying himself personal happiness in order to save as many people as possible. Shirou's character theme, "Emiya", while remixes and other themes were created to focus on important scenes related to his character.Design
Before writing Fate/stay night, Kinoko Nasu wrote the Fate route of the visual novel in his spare time as a high school student. Nasu originally imagined Shirou Emiya as a female character named Ayaka Sajyou who wore glasses and Saber as male. Nasu swapped their sexes due to his experience writing the novel Tsukihime and because Type-Moon believed a male protagonist would better fit the target demographic. There have been only small changes to Shirou's physical design since its inception. With red hair and stubborn eyes, Takeuchi aimed for a typical design of a straightforward shōnen manga genre character. He felt that it was too standard, however, so he added more circles in his eyes. Takeuchi has trouble bringing out Shirou's expressions because of his unique eyebrows; as a result, Shirou remains the most difficult Fate/stay night character for him to draw. Their goal of creating "a protagonist without a face" to comply with the nature of bishōjo games in the initial release of Fate/stay night is another reason Takeuchi had trouble drawing Shirou, who only appeared in a handful of scenes. In the re-released Réalta Nua version of the visual novel aimed at teenagers rather than just adults, the importance to show non-adult content was increased. So Takeuchi had to draw Shirou more often. Producer Tomonori Sudou felt that the staff had to draw Shirou more appealingly to bring more success to the anime. New clothing was also given to him.While Shirou retains his usual appearance in the spin-off manga Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!! by author Hiroshi Hiroyama, during parts of his story, Shirou uses a magical card that dresses him in Archer's clothes. Hiroyama originally drew Shirou half-naked but felt this was ridiculous, mostly because the events depicted in the series take place in winter. In his final design, most of Shirou's torso is covered, giving him an appearance like that of his future heroic persona, with the exception of his right arm remaining uncovered. Already experienced in drawing Shirou before he started working on Illya's spin-off manga, Hiroyama had no problems with this version of Shirou, whom he referred to as one of the manga's protagonists due to the focus he gave him during the flashbacks about his past; Similar to the original visual novel, Hiroyama wanted to make Shirou select a route during his flashback chapters as he embarks on a quest to protect his sister, Miyu.
Personality
Nasu believes Shirou and Ryougi Shiki in The Garden of Sinners light novels are characters who face personal problems with narrow perspectives. Shirou was conceived as an amateur magician to create a strong contrast with the skilled heroes from the visual novel. Nevertheless, Nasu stated that Shirou was a weaker fighter in the Fate route, but the character's magical skills developed significantly in the Unlimited Blade Works storyline beyond the capability of an average person. Initially, Nasu said it is difficult to call Shirou's relationship with Saber a relationship between a man and a woman because after ruling Britain under the pretenses of being a male, she "turned into a girl all of a sudden and fell in love with Shirou". While, Takeuchi on the other hand stated that the relationship is still workable and even realistic as it is part of Saber regaining a part of her humanity that had long been suppressed, which in turn becomes integral to part of Shirou's own growth in understanding both the flaws in Saber's and his own ideals.Shirou and Saber's first meeting, the team of writers included a dream sequence in which the latter's sword, Excalibur, is seen by the former. Since Shirou possessed the scabbard, Avalon, from Excalibur, Nasu wrote this to explain how the two became Master and Servant. Nasu originally had an idea to extend the Fate routes, involving an alternative Fifth Holy Grail War where Shirou fought alongside Saber, but the two did not have a romantic relationship; following their separation, the Shirou of this timeline would end up bonding with Rin in a similar way to how it happened in Unlimited Blade Workss "True Ending", but would still end up becoming the Counter Guardian EMIYA.
Takeuchi described Shirou as a strange character based on his personality. Nasu wrote the younger Shirou as a shy child, whom he deemed fun as he grows up and becomes more straightforward. While the Ufotable Unlimited Blade Works series generated multiple questions regarding Shirou becoming his future self, the warrior Archer. Originally, Shirou's future persona would turn out to be the antagonist Gilgamesh but the staff changed him to Archer Nasu said that Shirou still has potential to become a Heroic Spirit. Nevertheless, Nasu still intended from the beginning of the making of the novel that both Shirou and Gilgamesh would oppose one another. In the Heaven's Feel route from the original visual novel, he did not specify whether Shirou would become the same Archer. In another interview, Nasu stated that the Unlimited Blade Works kept sending hints that Shirou might become Archer and Rin would be with him to support him emotionally. Shirou's fate in the Heaven's Feel route was left up to the players' interpretation because of Shirou's apparent resurrection.
Handling by Ufotable
During the production of the anime series Unlimited Blade Works, Ufotable said that they wished to develop Shirou to better fit with other characters in Fate/Zero and the anime's darker tone. Nasu explained that Shirou was made more comical to become a more enjoyable character; this proved to be difficult as his interactions with the other characters were modified, making Nasu feel pressure during the creation of the series. Nevertheless, Ufotable kept the idea of Shirou not being able to smile too much due to his harsh past, with characters telling Shirou that he rarely expresses joy in some episodes. The staff, including series director Takahiro Miura, found this idea fitting. Miura wished the staff to make this Shirou's coming-of-age story; despite this, Nasu stated Shirou does not go through a character arc in the story, which left Miura with a different opinion regarding the character's writing. Miura pointed out that in future work he would prefer to focus more on revealing the character of Shirou as a character rather than women associated with him, which is why the producer Aniplex was firmly established in his choice since the mainline of the arch with Archer based on following the ideals of his father. The CEO of Type-Moon believed that only Nasu himself could convey all the ideas he put into Shirou, help them reflect on the screen correctly and deepen the public perception of the hero.According to the scriptwriter, the main problem of adaptation was the transfer of the culminating battle between Shirou and Archer, which, due to the great emphasis on the inner thoughts of the heroes, could not be transmitted as clearly as in the source and, according to the creators, would be boring for the audience. For this reason, Nasu independently rewrote the entire course of the battle. In addition, since the format of the visual novel did not set the task to demonstrate the mimic expression of the protagonist's emotions, only during this scene did Nasu realize and prescribe the necessary range of feelings of the protagonist to reflect it during animation. According to Takeuchi, the final meeting between Nasu and Miura for the approval of the scenario of this battle lasted more than five hours. The choice of the epilogue was delayed for three months, and as a result, Nasu decided to write a script for a separate series telling about the future of Shirou and Rin, who went to study in London.
For the release of the first Heaven's Feel film, director Tomonori Sudou said he wanted to explore Shirou and Sakura Matou's past further because he believes their relationship is the most important part of the story. Producer Yuma Takahashi had a similar opinion, feeling some scenes that symbolized the romance between Shirou and Sakura were needed. Ufotable mostly included these scenes; Takahashi believes people might want to watch the film again due to the significance it makes in early scenes. Sakura's Japanese voice actor, Noriko Shitaya, stated that the staff's biggest desire was to show the audience the scenes between Shirou and Sakura, with Sudou wishing to explore how the two met and became close. Aimer's theme song "I Beg You" was written to explore the relationship between these characters as Aimer wants to show Sakura's dark personality as she aims to be loved by Shirou but does not want him to know about her secrets. The author of the printed adaptation of Heaven's Feel noted that for the serialization of the manga he wanted to start the story between Shirou and Sakura with the first time the latter met the former and fell for him in contrast to the original visual novel which left this scene until some scenes more in the route.
For the film Oath Under Snow, singer ChouCho made two songs that focused on the relationship between Shirou and Miyu, who are the center of the plot describing it as heartwarming due to the close bond the siblings have. The song "Kaleidoscope" primarily focuses on Shirou's point of view when first meeting Miyu, and she becomes one of the most important people he has ever met. However, due to the film's plot, the lyrics were written to show darker tone in regards to the development of what happens to the two siblings. While not being a song about Shirou, Choucho states that viewers will find a bigger standing to the character by listening to it.