Fate/Zero

I’m fairly confident this review is going to get near as damn 0% helpful marks simply because of my ratings. If anyone feels what I said wasn’t helpful in this review, drop me a message, if you disagree with something I said, drop me a message, thanks.

Story – 3
Oh dear…

Firstly, I think it is a bit of a cheat essentially splitting fate zero into two separate series, so that all the good bits can be condensed into ‘one’ of those series. Nonetheless, I will still assess this as a single series, in terms of setting the stage for the second season.

Fate Zero ... has a great set up. A survival game with some interesting aspects (such as the wish granting prize and the involvement of the church) as well as 7 moderately even teams (in terms of likeability and development). At its earliest points, it is unclear who is going to win this survival game, but, rather disappointingly, this quickly deteriorates into having a clear ultimate winner. This can still be equally as successful however, as long as this group has a stronger underlying connection with the story. Which is more or less covered in the second season.

Fate Zero suffers with a great depravation of detail. Although I’m sure the manga and novels cover this, it can’t be an excuse to not cover anything at all. I am at a loss as to why the church is involved (was Jesus a hero?), why absolutely none of the world gives a single flying shit about entire cities getting threatened with destruction. The same is true with the history of the Holy Grail wars; did they have a single impact on anything we are currently watching? Do the writers have a single bloody clue about the heroes in Fate Zero? (I think not, ie, don’t try and make yourself look clever by saying this is a historical figure, then change their name, characteristics, life story and even gender) Etc. This lack of detail also seems to be confusing the participants of the game, half of them don’t know what is going on. Nor why they are even involved. Lazy.

Lastly, and this is what really grinded my gears, Fate zero (season one) has absolutely no balls. It is never willing to dramatically change the course of the survival game. All we ever see is a series of straight forward fight scenes with no conclusions and loads of conversations on who is the most noble champion. I accept that this is the first season, but with literally no progress and a very basic set up in terms of detail, it raises the question whether the first season was even needed.

Characters – 7
Ideal for this genre. Entertaining and one dimensional.

There is an interesting relationship between the heroes and their respective masters. Each hero is their own individual with their own ambitions, which often conflict with their masters. Three command spells that demand absolute obedience are all the masters have to keep their servants in check. The relationship between the master and servant is crucial in this survival game and is well covered in this anime.

Every character offers a different attitude on the battlefield and character interactions can be quite intense. This is well embodied by the fact that, in the most cases, the servant is nearly a complete opposite of their master. These conflicts make for some interesting interactions seeing that they have to work together to achieve the same goal.

Having such a large cast of characters, and having each character’s attitudes exaggerated (for entertainment purposes) tends to strip the realism of the show. The cliché characters in Fate Zero are largely responsible for the overall childish atmosphere (as well as the fight scenes themselves). Which could well be what you are after, but this is something to keep in mind.

Art and music- 9
outstanding

The art and animation was phenomenal. The fight scenes were choreographed very well and they were truly a sight to behold. If only the scenery was something more stunning than a dockyard. The soundtrack, as you may know was composed by Yuki Kajiura (composer of Sword art online and mahou shoujo madoka magica for example). She has her own distinct style and if you liked any of her other works, I’m sure you will also like this soundtrack.

Personal Enjoyment – 2
Eergh…

If my personal disdain hasn’t already been evident, here is my chance to make it clear. Firstly, I’ve never been a fan of an action based anime. It always gets out of hand and fate zero isn’t an exception. Unfortunately, Fate Zero doesn’t have much else to offer besides the action. This thus limits how intelligent the anime can be. The best it can do is detail certain moves or powers of the heroes, and it tries to do this with the idea of a noble phantasm. This said power is essentially a secret and extremely powerful move that each hero has, that supposedly stems from their history. These end up having such vague connections and meanings and are all RIDICULOUSLY convenient to the situation. Poor effort. Lastly, Fate zero needs to grow some balls. 13 episodes of literally no advancements in the survival game was so frustrating and it felt like a huge waste of time. The fights were nice though.


Overall

Fortunately, Fate Zero 2nd Season advances almost immediately and thus is instantly more enjoyable. Just to be clear, this review isn’t a response to an irrational hatred of the fate zero universe. Far from it, I liked the second season a great deal, and I can see that with the detail that the manga could possibly offer, it can be really great. But as it stands, Fate Zero the anime is a rather pointless and is not needed for the second season.

As this is such a highly rated anime, I would love to hear from those that do think this is amazing, because I need some convincing.

Where do I begin with Fate/Zero? The first time I watched this series (roughly two years ago) I, admittedly, adored it. However, I recently rewatched it after reading the Fate/Stay Night light novel. It was then that my opinion of the seriess dropped substantially. Don't worry! This won't be a review where I bitch about how Fate/Zero messed up the characters that had been lovingly crafted in Fate/Stay Night! Indeed, I will try my best not to mention that wonderful novel (and godawful fanbase) and will instead focus on analyzing the content at hand. There will, however, be MILD SPOILERS. Consider yourself warned.

... The key problem with Fate/Zero is, in my mind, its characters, if you can call them that. When it comes to Urobuchi (the writer behind Psycho Pass, Madoka Magica, this, and some other stuff that nobody cares about), the main thing most critics complain about is the lack of good characterization. Urobuchi himself has admitted that when it comes to writing characters, the only way he knows how to develop them is to make them go insane. As a result, most of Urobuchi's characters have a tendency to come across as just tools of the writer rather than actual people. And yet, when it comes to Fate/Zero, the characters are often times given a free pass. The reason behind this is obvious, many of the characters that are present in Fate/Zero were also present Fate/Stay Night (don't worry, I'll talk about Rider and Waver later) and because of this, older watchers have a very positive knee-jerk reaction despte the fact that the characters in question aren't being written very well.
Let's start with the inexplicably popular protagonist of the series, Kiritsugu. Everyone's favorite edgelord. And that's exactly what he is, an edgelord. Kiritsugu is the gritty, badass, nigh-immoral hero who believes that the ends (saving as many people as possible) always justify the means (killing, backstabbinig, etc.). But he has a tragic backstory, is truly a nice person on the inside, and in the end he fully realizes the error of his ways and that by saving one person, he can save himself. And... thats about it. Thats all there is to the hero of this story. He has no funny quirks, no interesting personality traits that make him unique, no sideplots that make him seem more human (unless if you count the robotic and mildly creepy romance that he had going on with Irisviel or the wasted, near meaningless, and still somewhat creepy romance with Maiya). He isn't even a particularly well-developed character. All of his character development happens within the final two episodes of the series, and his entire backstory gets dropped over the course of two episodes 2/3 of the way through the series. Other than his typical stoic badass attitude and capabilities, nothing about Kiritsugu makes him likeable or unique. He's literally Homura.
But what about the side characters? Kariya and Kirei are both good (they fall under Urobuchi's strong point: characters who develop via falling into darkness), but thats about it. Nobody gives a crap about Kayneth or Tokiomi, so I won't mention them. They're completely forgettable. Saber and Gilgamesh are both bland caricatures of what they were in Fate/Stay Night. In this, Gilgamesh's ego seems more like a funny quirk than a defining character trait established by a lifetime of unchallenged supremacy (Fate/Stay Night Gil would never have lost his shit over something as petty as being forced to stand on the same ground as somebody else, nor would he have literally rode Iskander's dick the way he did after Iskander failed. Shirou and Broserker both did one hundred times better than Iskander, and barely got acknowledged). And of course, Urobuchi makes sure to punish Saber for being an honorable person at every possible oppurtunity, even if it means changing the character in order to do so. A good example of this would be the King's Banquet scene, where Saber practically shits herself after Iskander says that she isn't a king because she didn't rule over her people like a tyrant. Now I'm no Seiba-fanboy (I now hate myself for having used that spelling) but the girl's never struck me as stupid. She should have been more than capable of defending herself against Iskander's reasoning, which was quite honestly retarded.
And now we come to Iskander and Waver, the most popular yaoi couple in the anime. Waver isn't much to talk about, pretty much just your standard little-bitch-comes-of-age story. Iskander, on the other hand, is a selfish, two-dimensional Gary Stu prick who recieves hardly any development throughout the series, yet gets praised for his charisma and manliness. The problem with Iskander is that he is essentially the pet of Urobuchi in the story. He's always in the right (even when he's not), and is given lip-service by characters who would normally never do so (did I mention that Gilgamesh, who was originially one of the characterically egotistical characters in the history of anime, rides his dick to the moon?). It should be noted that Iskander's policy for kingship is essentially "REAL LEADERS KNOW THAT LETTING YOUR PEOPLE KILL EACHOTHER IS OKAY BECAUSE IT MEANS YOU HAVE RESPECT FOR INDIVIDUALITY! FUCK THE PEOPLE, KINGS DO WHAT THEY WANT! THAT'S WHAT REAL LEADERSHIP IS!!", and yet all the edgelords and sheep watching (and Urobuchi if the plot is any indicator) praise him for how badass and manly he is. What a joke of a character.
As for the story? Its fine, though it suffers from the same problems that all stories with wish granting magical plot devices suffer from (if you've seen Madoka Magica, you know what I'm talking about). The beginning sort of sucks, as the first two episodes are essentially a massive infodump. Obviously, it would have been better if that info had been dropped at a steadier rate throughout the series. And then there is the jarring two-episode flashback that I mentioned before, but other than that the plot is pretty good.
Art? Sound? Its Ufotable. Next?
All in all, Fate/Zero is a far more enjoyable series than I made it out to be in this review. I focused more on the negatives because practically everyone out there knows the positives. Its a well produced action anime with a good plot and an interesting fantasy element yet mostly boring or irritating characters (except for Kotomine-Goddamn-Badass-Get-Hyped-for-Heaven's-Feel-Greatness-Kirei). Overall, the series deserves 6.5-7. Oh, wait, Ilyasviel doesn't play a major role in this series? For that alone, I'm taking a point off!

Fate/Zero - 6/10
Fate/Zero 2nd Season - 7/10
One major let down of Fate/Zero is it's characters. Plain and boring, sometimes they do things for absolutely no reason behind it whatsoever. Only interesting characters are Archer, Kiritsugu Emiya (So Edgy that Matoi Ryuko seems like a fairly balanced person) and Kirei Kotomine (Especially Kirei literally the only reason to watch the show). The rest are just stupid and look like they've been copy-pasted from some saturday morning cartoon. Shitty pacing issues, an actual filler episode (the show is only 13+12 episodes long, get ur shit together). Action scenes look patheticly low-budget and are normally only 20 secs ... long before some fragment with characters talking for hours and hours (witht he exception of bike chase with Saber and Rider, that was epic). The Story is ok, even though it's presentation is shit. In the Pilot episode we are shown how Mato is the guy, the main char and then he is just erased from existence for next 10 episodes. The show then concentrates on telling us how Saber is the strongest class and shit, and yet for the next 20 episodes it's showing us the exact opposite of that. Music in the episodes is ultra shit, didn't even notice there was a soundtrack.
What i liked was the interesting and even somewhat original setting, which was also reduced to nothing in the following episodes. Best moments of this Series is "Wow did he just kill a character off" moments, even though they get you sometimes, mostly you will just brush it off because THE CHARACTERS DO EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO MAKE YOU NOT GIVE THE SLIGHTIEST SHIT ABOUT THEM, though sometimes they fail and you may feel feels at tear inducing moments like in episode 20. Although for another positive comment the show somehow does keep you entertained in a way that "what are these fags gonna do next" but if you're that easily entertained you may aswell watch cheap american comedy series on budget tv channels.
You know what? I just really liked the opening cinematics, i think i literally enjoyed LiSA's singing in the opening more than the actual series. Guess what? They got rid of that.
The characters actions just make you think you're in a trash comedy movie. The Tension only appears in the 2nd half of the series. On the good side there is an original setting and concept aswell as tear-inducing ending which i respect, but the rest is just Naruto-tier, SAO-tier utter trash.

Ok, so as someone partially familiar with the manga of F/SN, and watched all of FSN, and now F/Z, I have to say, this did not at all feel like Fate to me.

If you consider for example "worm girl Sakura," this is one of the most disgusting things I've seen! It's basically the notion of a character who is kind of turned into the perfect weapon by virtue of being kind of permeated with like killer worms or something, or so.

Pretty much everything in F/Z is about people just going into conflict and fighting and then fighting and then they fight and duel ... and it just never added anything that the original FSN anime didn't already have.

Saber and Lancer were pretty fun to follow, basically they have a kind of rivalry where each is determined to best the other in battle. They don't really get too involved in the overall anime.

But then instead we get Waver and Rider, who are sort of cool I guess but they were the focus of the entire show after awhile, I didn't get to see more about the other masters and servants. Assassin basically I honestly didn't even know was in the show hardly, which I guess is part of the theme, but mostly it becomes almost entirely about just going on a random bit about so and so before bringing it back to some dueling.

The original Fate series had more variety and stuff it seems to and also blended the Holy Grail Wars with dating, romance, and that to quest, whereas Fate/Zero decided to pin everything around the mythos of the Grail, the wars, the conflicts, the "nature of heroism," and kind of turn it into a Philosophy class which is I guess fine in a sense, but even Aristotle probably would not have minded a bit more give and take, ebb and flow, yin and yang to the proceedings (which FSN anime did provide)

So yeah, it was very colorful and flashy and had some cool music so it wasn't un-fun per se but a 5 was about right.

This is a very highly reviewed anime and a great deal of people seem to really like it. That means that I am about to accrue a host of.....displeased responses. So, with loins girded, I will say this. I didn't find this anime compelling in the slightest. To begin with the characters are not good. They are all cliched, and most of their time is spent brooding in one manner or the other. Then the brooding is interrupted by fights between more cliched and uninteresting characters. And why is King Arthur a girl? I know that they wanted at least one girl "hero" but was ... finding one so taxing that they just picked one at random? And then they went and made their female character cliched and boring. To compound matters they switched between characters rapidly often giving each of them their own segment in one episode. Which meant that if there is a character that isn't boring, you aren't going to see all that much of them. I admit that the animation is fantastic but other than that I didn't see much worthy of praise.

My point is that here we have an anime that wanted to be dark and serious. But couldn't pull it off because the characters weren't human. They where ridiculous caricatures. Now I am sorry if you don't agree and you loved this show. You are of course entitled to your opinion but the only thing that could have made this more cliched was if a giant robot decided to show up.

I had my doubts when I wanted to watch Fate. I didn't know which series to start with, I chose Fate/Stay Night and to this day i don't regret that choice, I think that way everything became clearer in my head.

Fate/Stay Night didn't become my favourite anime, but I consider it something worth watching.

95% of people I spoke with about the anime said Fate/Zero was a lot better than the previous.
High expectations usually generate bad results, isn't that right?
Without wanting to spoil anything, iI will try to explain the reason I disliked Fate/Zero:

✦The characters even though diverse, don't outshine those of Fate/stay Night. Non of ... them was truly captivating to me. Saber, who is one of the strong points of Fate, doesn't become any more interesting or less prestiged in this anime, and since I already knew her, this became less irrelevant.

✦The action was lacking, and when there was any, it had no purpose in a story development stand point, "LETS FIGHT, LETS KILL EACH OTHER", and then, 5 minutes later they would simply go home and we would go back to zero.

✦There were a bunch of episodes with pointless dialogue that added nothing to the story. It was simply tedious.

I don't consider it a bad anime in the literal sense of the word, I just don't think it was as good or even superior to Fate/Stay Night and/or it surprised me in any way. The fault was mine for placing the anime on a pedestal, and the fall ended up beeing greater.

Obviously that watching Fate/stay Night and ignoring Fate/Zero is unthinkable if you really want to understand the story completely..

I still have hope that the second season is better.

Between the high school level philosophy and "knights honor" crap there is a rather decent show to be watched here. For the most part the characters and their motives are rather well thought out and you want most of them to win, but the way they go about achieving that leaves much to be desired. The art is pretty good with the occasional ps2 graphics cg and odd lighting hindering it. The story is rather simple but it incorporates a bunch of arbitrary intricacies that are vaguely explained or are explained in a boring fashion, thus making you think that it was never explained. Also ... the dragged out story with useless details and the fact that the show isn't concluded in the 13 episodes makes me rather disappointed, especially since this story could EASILY be done in 10 episodes or less. As for the sound design, it was pretty on point with the exception of a few Hanna-Barbera sound effects being sprinkled through the show, mediocre outro and the ear exploding vocal range of the younger girls (for the sub, I don't know if the dub is better). Lastly, the enjoyment factor is rather lacking given that there was just a single major fight that wasn't even concluded and the endless amount of pointless details make an interesting juxtaposition to the huge amount of unanswered topics that the show brought up. Also there are a handful of scenes that were rather questionable or just pointless, here's a few:

-The part where they show the berserker's relative (niece?) being "violated" (I don't know what exactly they meant by this but I'm fine with not knowing) by insects. Anyways, I was rather disappointed seeing that and it basically got crossed of my list for shows to share with friends. Also, I know that this doesn't make much of a difference since the whole topic is just weird, why did it have to be a 8-10 year old girl?

-The shows love for showing the kids that caster and his master were killing was rather odd. I get that they're trying to build up a super evil villain, but I feel as if they could've gotten more mileage from making him more of an unknown figure with hints or character reactions explaining what they're doing. Also I thought it was a bit distasteful that they decided that they needed to show that many dead kids. You could easily achieve the same results by just showing basic silhouettes and assume that it's the children that have been kidnapped in the area. I know that this show is 17+ and all, but even most other shows, movies and video games don't do that (at least in America.)

-This is actually a combination of two scenes that offended me, but they're both related to each other. Those scenes are; when the gold armor dude and Iskander ragged on king Arthur's wish being dumb and the "philosophic" discussion between caster and his master. For the scene with king Arthur, the crux of the gold armor dude and Iskander's argument was that Arthur's wish to bring back their kingdom is stupid since a real king shouldn't regret their choices. The only issue is that Iskander's goal of wanting to reincarnate into a real person is practically the same thing as Arthur's wish but with different steps. Arthur wants a second chance for her kingdom to succeed and Iskander want's a second chance to dominate the world. The other discussion with caster and his master is honestly just completely pointless because he went from thinking there is no god and you should do whatever you want to there is a god and you should do whatever you want. As you can see in both "discussions" they're just arguing semantics and essentially do nothing to actually change their beliefs.

-This would be my next issue but I don't want to write another paragraph looking into the stupidity of the show. Just take my word that there are much more examples of stupid crap that the show pulls throughout the story.


Overall, this show gets a rather respectable 5.6. It's like a crushed bag of chips; there are some big chips that are good, but a majority of it is just small crumbs that leave a mess.

Since it's my first foray into the Fate universe (this arc starts the series chronologically), I found the world building, back story and exposition to be quite sparse in the beginning. As the summary explains, a magical war is fought between several prominent mage families for control over a powerful object none other than the Holy Grail, with each side represented by a champion magic user who can summon a servant, generally some powerful warrior based on world mythology, etc. A few extra champions are selected seemingly at random by the Grail itself to take part in the war, adding variety and spice ... to the events. There are no rules in this war: combatants use espionage, political subterfuge, manipulation, etc. to win and have no hesitation to kill. Combat takes place out in the open, with very high stakes and consequences for the world at large. Thus it seems a bit incongruous that so few characters are pulled in. Why don't they mobilise entire armies of mages and non-mage operatives to gain an edge in the war? Why is the war not a continuous attritional grind between these families (who surely have blood feuds to settle at this point) but punctuated by many long decades of peace, before the Grail, like clockwork, mysteriously appears again? Why are civilians left alone and not killed or held as leverage? Why does there seem to be unspoken rules about the way the war is conducted?

On a positive note, I applaud the writer for creating a variety of likeable champions that viewers can root for, knowing all the while that those who lose will most likely pay with their lives. This enables many possibilities in terms of the type of emotional connections viewers form with the characters, rather than the classic good vs. evil showdown. The opening episodes focus on a lot of the private motives behind each mage's respective decision to join the Grail war. The issue I have, however, is that the emphasis on private motives minimises the impact on a global scale and turns this enormous, all-consuming conflict into a kind of battle-royale free for all that feels in fact quite limited and contained. There is also no explanation of the magic system, the role of social institutions (like the church, "sorcerer's academy", etc.) or motives of the families involved beyond wanting to control this thing at all costs. Everything is fine and watchable on its own ... There remains, however, a nagging, bothersome feeling that with more context and proper world building, the anime could be much more than it is.

This review applies for both seasons of Fate/Zero and it is my only experience of the Fate universe, so I will review it from the perspective of a standalone anime, with no universe tie in. I assume that there's a lot of things that were done to show tie ins and could be interesting for Fate fans and the people that have knowledge of the universe and they will have a different appreciation of this. Just know that this series sets the events of its sequel in motion and I think, and this is definitely not a guarantee, merely a suspicion so you might want ... to consult someone other than me, that you might want to start off with one of its sequels and then watch this to fill in the gaps if you deemed those any good.

First of all, the first season of Zero and the second season of Zero are not in any way independent and they pretty much feel like they shouldn't be considered separate seasons by any means. Hence expect when picking up Zero to go on a journey of 26 episodes rather than merely 13.

Anyway, let me actually talk about what happens in Fate. So Fate is a story where an omnipotent wish granting device picks seven participants which it arms with spirits which they have to make kill each other. It is not demanded for the people who control the spirits to kill each other because the control will just be sent to a different person but the master provides them with a form and whatnot. Basically, you have a story where people have to kill each other. So in other words, it's a death game. So my problem with Fate is... that pretty much nothing to further this death game happens. More often than not the characters will find a reason to retreat and not commit to the events happening around them or create some reason to approach things in a different way than the most efficient way and what not. And you will be mostly left with one question most of the time.

Why?

Why would an omnipotent wish granting device just... not be taken more seriously? Why are the heroic spirits so free to do whatever the fuck they want? And why does everyone approach the war the way they do? Most of these questions will be answered or at least have some rational explanation you can fill in... in the second half of the season. The first half of the series is basically like a game of Monopoly where every player is in jail. You're constantly rolling the dice but not advancing by any means. And I gotta say, it's pretty annoying. Zero basically stacks up a couple of things and then keeps stacking them up, changes their order a bit and only in the second season, uses anything its build up and somewhat ties it together.

But there are things that are questionable in the logic of the events and the characters, I'll try to be vague as to not spoil you but let me present you some situations. Say you have something that goes through your defense and you're fighting someone that is famous for fighting people mastering the type of defensive technique you own. How do you choose to proceed in your fight? A) Tighten your defense. B) Find some way to dodge the attack in the future. OR another thing, you know magic is a thing right. In order to ensure you kill someone, what do you do? A) Stab them and leave them to bleed out. B) Kill them on the spot so nothing can regenerate them through magic? OR another thing, lets say again, you know magic is a thing. You see someone being able to travel at fast speeds but not through their usual means. What do you assume? A) It's totally that guy. B) It's probably some shapeshift.

Unfortunately, I can honestly go on and on like this. There's so many situations in Zero that are like this that are ridiculous. Thus most fights in the series are either: completely one sided with you knowing the victor from the start because, really? OR Wait why would you do that? Like Zero has nice visuals, but the fights only excel in their looks rather than their content. There were only two fights in the series that I could find entertaining, everything else was just boring. Add the contrived logic for an entire season of rolling dice and nothing happening and then a lot of unsatisfaction ensued.

But to be honest, things become far more understandable and pick up in action in the second season. There are some things that happen by the end that make you realize that the things happening are... different than your expectations of them. What presents itself as a death game, is not a death game. I could explain what it is as vaguely as possible so if you want to have a vague explanation of what it is, read ahead. If not skip the paragraph. I assume since you continued reading you're commited to this paragraph then, okay. The events of Fate are basically a ritual. I won't say what its goal is but certain conditions need to be met in order for something to happen. That's why everyone pretty much can do whatever they want in whichever way they want. Because things aren't really under anyone's control. As I've said, it's gonna be vague. But knowing this would've made me enjoy this for what it is more so there you go.

Now let me talk about the characters. You will understand their motivations and their desires and this is what the anime tackles. The desire and the actions you're willing to take to fulfill said desire. Anyway, since I've described how some of these actions unravel... some turn offs will obviously happen. And considering most of the character archetypes I didn't like, (for the spirits mostly. Isn't limited to just them but yeah) I can say I didn't really like most. But most characters, the important ones anyway, are defined well. You will know who they are and you will dislike them for who they are or like them for who they are. There is only one character that does feel complete and that is Kiritsugu. In Kiritsugu's case you explore his life and desire fully, having even 2 episodes dedicated to his backstory and you will understand what the character does and how he works by the end of the series rather well. I like his character and how he developed. And I liked some other characters and felt they had good focus on but Kiritsugu kinda steals the show which is fair.

As far as visuals and sound goes, Fate looks good and sounds good, I liked the voice acting of the series and the overall OST is decently chosen and even has a noteworthy song from it which was pretty good.

Basically Fate ends up as a series about desire. And the consequence and sacrifice to fulfill it. And understand it. And so on and so forth. And it does justice to what it tries to do. Things won't be obvious at first and the series has plenty of flaws but depending on your expectations and prior knowledge the series, the way this show will be received by you I think will be different. I recommend having some knowledge about the things happening prior like what I said about it not actually being a death game. It suffers of not making its message obvious and I assume this is due to focus on the details around the past of the Fate series. You should watch this if you think you like the theme of deaing with desire or have any knowledge of the series as far as its universe goes. But otherwise I recommend avoiding it. It isn't bad as far as it actually succeeds doing goes but... its bad in building up to it. Which I assume is a result of you not knowing exactly what to expect prior.

Ah yes, Fate/Zero, the anime that everyone seems to love. Let's see, where do I start with this one?

The story is about a bunch of people fighting to the death to get their hands on the Holy Grail. Riveting stuff, really. I mean, who doesn't love a good old-fashioned death match? It's not like we haven't seen that before in every other shounen anime out there.

As for the style, well, it's your typical dark and edgy anime with lots of blood and gore. Because nothing says "mature storytelling" like excessive violence, right?

Let's talk about the characters. There's Kiritsugu Emiya, the brooding protagonist who's all about ... the ends justifying the means. Oh, and did I mention he's an assassin? How original. Then there's Saber, the noble warrior who's also a woman because we can't have too many male protagonists in anime. And let's not forget about Rider, the charismatic conqueror who's so over-the-top it's almost comical.

And of course, we can't forget about the music. It's your standard epic orchestral score that's meant to make you feel like you're watching something important. But let's be real, it's just background noise to the same old tropes we've seen a million times before.

So, did I enjoy Fate/Zero? Well, I suppose it was mildly entertaining if you're into that sort of thing. But if you're looking for something truly groundbreaking or original, you might want to look elsewhere.

As a prequel Zero does alot to revitalize the Fate franchise and improves on many aspects of it's predecessor Fate/Stay Night.

Unfortunately while the improvements are many I personally felt some aspects were still overlooked and ultimately held the series back. Primarily the story, which while talked about between the characters in an epic fashion is rather plain and without much structure. The Holy Grail war sounds about as epic as you can imagine and as I say the characters do a good job through dialogue making the whole thing very grandiose sounding but ultimately in this first season it amounts to nothing more than random ... encounters seemingly without much purpose or buildup.

Given the War is a 24/7 affair you would think there would be some real tension in this series but often times the Hero's and their Masters are all too happy to converse with each other and forget about the War between them for now. Across the first season only two real fights of any substance occur and little comes of either in the end. Both also involve the spontaneous arrival of another Hero with again no buildup as to why they have decided to attack now shown to the viewer. I guess what I'm trying to say is where is the plan? The path to victory is seldom discussed between Hero and Master save for a few lofty goals they may hope to achieve upon victory. The Holy Grail War is ultimately a game of Survival, Life for the victor and death upon all other participants. Yet the show doesn't build that aspect up like I hoped.

Fortunately the characters are great which while not enough to excuse the somewhat directionless, tension free story does at least mean the show is entertaining. Rider,Gilgamesh, Lancer and Saber are all enjoyable as the mystic Heroes. Kiritsugu and Waver are both great too albeit in vastly differing ways.

Fate/Zero is still a missed opportunity that fails to really deliver on it's grand promise. First half builds up to nothing and is only a separate season by necessity rather than by design.

why is this anime so highly rated and revered?? i put off this series for a long time due to the sheer size of the entire franchise, which intimidated me, but the fantasy lover in me couldn't let one of anime's most iconic series in recent years just pass me by without even giving it a shot. so i did. and i regret it.

i think a lot of the problem with fate/zero is that it's just so FLAT. 13 episodes in, nothing important enough to get the plot really moving has happened. no machiavellian schemes, no jaw dropping plot twists- not even the most baseline ... requirement for a decent action anime, GOOD FIGHT SCENES. the art and animation are really mediocre to my mind, as are the fight scenes. i don't understand why people keep singing their praises. i thought i might have had unrealistically high expectations for an anime that came out quite a while ago, in 2011-12, but code geass came out in 2008 and far surpassed fate's animation quality imo. not to mention plotwise

character wise, fate/zero has quite the line-up. unfortunately, the protagonists are of the cookie-cutter, paper flat, morally absolute variety, making the show an absolute bore 90% of the time. the antagonists, which include a duo of insane serial killers, are by far 2000% more entertaining, and i might go so far as to say that i'd rather watch an anime focussed on THEM. as most of their appearances feature them in the process of murdering either women, small children, or both, and i am not the kind of person who delights in such sights, that just tells you HOW BORING THE MAIN CHARACTERS ARE. girl king arthur aka arthuria aka saber takes the stage yet again and by the power of excalibur and her omnipresent angst over not having served britain sufficiently as a king succeeds in single-handedly turning me off yet another series under the fate franchise (the other being fate/stay night). she is the servant of Kiritsugu Emiya, a former mage assassin who wants to heal the world, make it a better place, where everyone can laugh and no one will cry again, etcetc, in the exact likeness of the battle cry of a thousand male anime protagonists who have gone before him, EXCEPT unlike most of those dudes he has actually scored a reasonably pretty wife, who, despite having the personality and character development of wet cardboard (she gets a cool backstory which is tragically never taken advantage of), actually seems to agree with his highfalutin ideals! but he chooses to wallow in angst and self-pity due to Backstory reasons which were never really explored in the first season and which i guess i will never know of unless some bizarre twist of fate (ha) convinces me that the second season is worth a shot despite how mind numbingly boring the first season was. and finally, kiritsugu's so-called nemesis, Kotomine Kirei, who targets him for no reason at all, despite them having never met, due to one (scanty) sheet of paper his father gave him on kiritsugu's backstory piquing his interest. apparently this took .5 seconds to spiral into full blown obsession on both sides, and one season later, they pretty much admit to themselves that they're targeting each other, even though they have never so much as MET. at least kotomine is more interesting, by which i mean less morally upright, though you'd never know to look at the guy- in his own way, he's trying to masquerade as part of the saber/kiritsugu gang by force-fitting his personality and motives to fit the role he's chosen for himself in life, a priest. i hear he later grows a pair and ~breaks free~, but 13 eps in he hasn't shown the slightest sign of wanting to erupt from the cocoon of his own weaving, so he gets a thumbs down from me for now.

to be fair to fate/zero, there are a ton of other side characters, and some of them are pretty cool too, but most of this show is just the ten-part tragedy of saber and kiri and koto, so heads up, people. also to be fair to this series, the ost is seriously amazing, but knowing what i do now, i'd just download it from somewhere and skip sitting through the actual series all over again.

maybe if i manage to scrooge up the motivation to watch s2 and find it completely worth the bore of s1, i'll come back to this review and make a few edits, but even if that comes to pass, expect s1 to make any of that so called motivation take a holiday for a good, long time. which is to say. expect nothing of it at all.

Disclaimer: This review will count for both seasons of the series.

I’m sure anyone who is genuinely reading this review knows what Fate/Zero is, as it has gained a large following in the anime community, from, what only I could discern being the high quality of the animation and the fanbase it has already received from its predecessor series, what many often refer to as Deen/Stay Night. It has been generally positively reviewed by the community, but, as one could most definitely tell from my score of it, I don’t particularly follow that train of thought. This is due, in a brief exposition for those who ... don’t have the patience for long reviews, to the uselessness of many of its character, the somewhat pretentious philosophy of said characters, and the general slow and not well executed thought. However, I will say that it does have good ideas, they are just not properly fleshed out to the point where I can award the show points for it. The premise means nothing if there is bad execution. With that being said, allow me to get into the actual review.

Characters:
Many characters in the show have their backstory shown and their goals explained (if not drastically then at least in part), however, this in and of itself does not justify being warranted as having good characters. The first main point against the quality of these characters is there general uselessness. Many, such as Lancer, Archibald, Sola-Ui, Irisviel, Waver, etc., do not have any main role to serve in the show. That is not to say that all characters should make a considerable donation to the plot, but they should at least be used in a way where they felt they had some limited impact. Tokiomi, for instance, was said to have had an infallible plan and was pushed to be one of the main contributors to the story, but never did anything except burn Kariya and get killed by Kirei.
There are also instances in the show where character development is shown. Waver developed the most in the show and got a surprising amount of screentime considering he was one of the lesser mages in the main characters. Saber also had character development, however, it didn’t really feel like it made much sense. She let a few sentence speech by Rider change her views on her philosophy that she had followed for many years, and could have easily been told of her oversight by Lancelot, who seemingly left the roundtable instead of just telling Saber how he really felt. The worst offender of bad character development is Kirei, who basically got told by Gilgamesh what to do, and then ended in desiring to make people suffer, a very bland and typical villainesc goal for a series that is supposed to have grey characters.
The historical inconsistencies, such as Arthur’s Gender, his existence as a whole, and Iskander’s height were a little off-putting, but that is just a nitpick. It also bugs me that they had so many better historical figures to chose from then what they chose. Wouldn’t it be better to have Arthuria face off against, say, William the Conqueror. That sure would be interesting. Wasted potential, I suppose.
The character’s sense of philosophy is always annoying. Irisviel basically has no reason for adhering to Emiya’s philosophy, and Emiya himself has a very silly goal, considering that he wants to save humanity by killing all who stand in his way, a thing a normal human being would clearly find to be repulsive. The whole honor thing as spouted by Lancer and Saber is basically a time waster and a method from the authors to make the characters “dance their dance” as they say. There is also Caster’s philosophy, which is so stupid it doesn’t even deserve mentioning. There should always a motive that would be befitting of a human to do their own actions, which is certainly not what I see here. Anyway, that is enough rambling about the characters, let us move onward.

The Plot:
The Plot drags its feet along in the first season and then shoots off like a rocket towards the end of the second season. The first season was almost entirely skippable, with the only things missing being the death of Assassin (not that they mattered to the show anyway), and the near death of Archibald, which I guess mattered but he instead died in the 2nd season after an entire sequence with Emiya that didn’t really matter. The conversation between Gilgamesh, Iskander, and Arthuria was also important in some ways.
A minor thing was that they shoved in Emiya’s backstory in the middle of the 2nd season for practically no reason, considering that it had absolutely nothing to do with the events that were conspiring in the present. It was also boring as it moved far too fast and was basically edge lord material in the first episode. The 2nd episode was good for what it was, but if was still far too rushed.
Another thing that bothered me was the powers that the characters were using. The masters were said to be all strong with magic (excluding Ryuunosuke and Waver), but the only people to ever show it were Tokiomi, Kariya, Archibald, and Emiya (and Kirei slightly but that doesn’t really count). Even when they did show their magical powers, it only mattered to the story and only caused damage when they were being used by Emiya. It made it feel like Emiya was so much powerful than everyone else and it killed the tension. If that were the case, all of the noble houses should’ve hired people like him instead of wasting times with these useless fools. The Servants also had the power to teleport and ride any vehicle they so desire (as explained by Arthuria in the first season), however, they never did. Gilgamesh could’ve easily wiped the competition and Rider could’ve defeated Saber if he didn’t just simply run away and actually decided to fight. It really kills the tension when you know that these characters could instantly defeat opponents but don’t due to the plot demanding so.
The whole setting of the show also irks me. Why would the houses agree to send only a few men into battle when they could gather a literal magical army in order to claim the holy grail. Also, the holy grail was used before, in which case, what wishes did it grant and why doesn’t one magical family rule over the world at this point. Something like Emiya’s and the royal families’ ambitions should have already been carried out if the grail truly has unlimited power like the legend states. Also, everyone should already know that the grail has bad intentions if people have seen the wishes fulfilled before. There also very little possibility that the ever attentive governments of the world would not know about these magical abilities. It also doesn’t make sense why the Church would allow magic considering it was heavily panned by early church philosophers as being the work of the devil and his followers.
My other gripes with the story were already listed in the character section, so I will not bother to repeat them here, but I am sure I missed some and will have to come back to this later.

The Art/Animation:
Despite the lack of good choreography in many of the fight scenes, the animation was good for the most part. The art style didn’t really fit the dark tone that the story was going for, but considering that the original Fate/Stay Night has these types of designs, there was really no way around that so I won’t fault them too much for that. It has good detail on most of everything and does sometimes give the impression that the surroundings could be an actual place while not losing the stylistic look of the original. Animation, however, can not save this series from being the disaster that it was.

The Soundtrack:
Nothing really to say here, I, personally, didn’t notice any pieces that were too memorable or too forgettable. The music fit well with the series, I suppose, and there was never a time where I thought the music was misplaced. The sound effects for the series are also fairly good. However, this should not be considered a major category to logically find the quality of any show, at least not to the same extent that the Story and Characters are.

Conclusion:
Fate/Zero was a series that certainly had potential, but failed to capitalize on it. The plot felt contrived at points, and stupid at others. The characters had the potential to be written well, as the writers seem to have known what they were doing with a few of them, however, most were completely useless and felt as if they were more of an excuse to elongate the anime rather than to be genuinely good. The sound and animation are great, for the most part, and is probably the reason why you should watch this show if you decide to do so after reading this review. It certainly could have been a fantastic anime to have been remembered for years after, but instead ended up as another overhyped show that pops up once ever couple of years. At least, that is my educated opinion. I have been Kakorat859, and this has been Kakorat’s review of Fate/Zero. Be sure to be safe and have a nice day.

Fate/Zero pits historical heroes and their contemporary human partners against each other in a slow-burning battle for the holy grail.

This anime focuses on the different motivations for ambition, how rulers see the world around them, and the personal relationships between legends and their partners. Although the series has philosophical undertones, there are several fight scenes between the opposing teams. The anime falls somewhere between anime for college students and anime geared towards teenagers.

The first season introduces the characters, and the second season develops the two primary antagonists. I group both seasons together in this review. Although this anime is part of a larger universe, you ... do not need to be familiar with other Fate works to enjoy this anime.

One strength of the show is the way in which the anime develops the historical legends. The author takes characters that are well known---such as Alexander the Great and King Arthur---and introduces something new to their characters so that they move beyond their traditional depictions. The series also touches on gender roles / gender fluidity, and has an interesting philosophical conflict between utilitarianism and individualism. I recommend looking up the backstory for Gilles de Rais if you are unfamiliar (as I was), it's totally wild. The production and art quality is high.

My concerns with this show revolve around the pacing. I thought that the first season was unnecessarily slow, and---in my opinion---the ending to the second season became very rushed. Some episodes focused on side stories that were not important for the central plot. I wonder if the narrative could have been improved by having fewer teams fighting for the grail, or fewer overall characters within the show.

I recommend this anime to viewers who are interested in philosophical themes, historically inspired characters, and strong inter-character relationships. If you are looking for a more faced-paced story, or are not interested in fight scenes, try elsewhere.

it was pretty good. i have yet to see the main series and im halfway through the second season.

The Art and Sound is good - as should be average.
I liked the Characters and trying to figure out if they have a future and what else might make for a great backstory. Its what i enjoyed most.
The Story isnt weak. There is often a lot of philosophical exposition which is fine but is more about the Characters and not the Story itself.


since this is the prequel i was kinda trying to figure out whod win the war. cant be the guy trying to prevent Sakuras tragic ... backstory and the overly evil guys are out of the question as well. feels kind of weird that it goes on to a second season a prequel should be short in my opinion.

there was an exposition scene at the beginning i absolutely loved. basically those two men tried to convince that other one to team up
it only showed their heads in the frame repeating in this walking motion while talking. it was a looong exposition and it kept transitioning from one person talking while walking to the next while the convincee was just standing around doing nothing.
and then we have the shot with all of them in it and the two guys are literally just walking around him in circles like thats the most normal thing to do. it was so absurdly overdramatic i fucking loved it best scene.

I really wanted to like this show. The OP was good, the animation was dope, the fights were decent. But it just felt like the show expected me to like and understand the characters so early on. I really wouldn't of understood who some of the servants had I not watched it with a fate veteran. Understanding who some of the servants were gave me some enjoyment because then i knew some of their backstory.

The summoners really hurt me the most. As a GoT/ASOIaF fan I expected to enjoy getting to know the summoners and who they represent. Instead we got right into the ... fight for the holy grail, and while this introduced us to the servants early on it felt like the summoners got the shaft till s2.

It is probably obvious now that i started fate with fate/zero because of my complaints about the lack of backstory. Writing this review before watching more of fate because i think its kind of odd how highly held this series is when its is really difficult to get into.