Story: Picking were it was left on the first season, the season start strong with one of the best battle scenes of the whole series!! From there on, the story keeps the flow till the end, not letting the viewers get boring or uninterested. One main divergence about the first season, it is the action, there is alot of it here, the quality is the same if not higher that of the previous! Less mysteries, but lots of twists, and there were some episodes (18 and 19 I think) that really nailled it for me, got me very emotional, I could seriously feel the pain of the characters faced with such adversity and cruelty of the reality on their lives... The story was very well done, the only restrain IMO was that I already knew what would happen in the end, because I had seen Fate/Stay Night long ago, and so though there some twists and some pretty sorrowfull things that ocurred, most of them I was expecting them to happen, so there wasnt that suprise factor. Still very well built story, that touchs lots of different ideals and PoV of different characters, itself takes place in fictitious universe of mages, monsters and heroic spirits, BUT there is soo much humanity onto the story, the actions and decisions taken, the dark side of humanity behavior is showed alot (more into the first season though...)!
Humanity at its best, and its worst!! A very dark story.
STORY 9
Art: One of the 2 key points of the anime, I have seen better fighting scenes, more flashy ones, that scream EPIC all the times... BUT for the nature of the anime, it was perfect, I mean you couldnt have whole cities exploding or a epic scale kinda all out war kinda action, though the action itself it is still amazing, great battle scenes, the best of all are the facial animation and feelings of the cast, that perfectly manages to transmit them to the viewers! Be aware that there are some strong scenes that some may not enjoy seeing at all, personally it maximazes the emotions that it was suposed to transmit to the viewer, so it was well used and not exagerated IMO. Definitly one of the best point of the anime!!
ART 10
Sound: Great Op's and End's, mixed with some great music themes for when the scenes call for them, those that see the anime, cant say the sound was bad!! Some of the more emotional parts where very well accomplished, and much of its praise is the result of a great Original Soundtrack, that Fate/Zero comes with, both for the first and for this second season!
SOUND 9
Character: In the Fourth Holy Grail War, 7 masters and 7 servants take part of, and lets not forget about Irisviel and other characters... all great, some better than others, but every one is at least fairly enough developed for the importance of their roles into the story!! Great and distintive personalities, Rider (The King of Conquerors), at first on season 1, views the world as a conquest, but there is alot much deeper meaning for is action latter on, Gilgamesh is an asshole, but he is charismatic, interesting and with Kirei(doesnt knew what entertainement was... dumbass!!), their nasty plots bring much misfortune!! Then you have Kiritsugu and his dark sorrowfull past, that serves to explain this cold mage assassin killer, and his calculative way of seeing and measuring life, Irisviel is more than it seems to be, Saber like in the sequel shares grief for her past life and is on a quest to redeem herself, Berseker master just wants to save a little girl, that he has much affection for, and things just turn worst and worst for his side... And I could keep going on and on (even talking about the Psycho maniac duo Master and Servant)!! What most surprised me were the characters, the sequel doesnt have half the quality seem here, it is wonderfull, to have seen 25 episodes, all interesting and fun, much of it because of the great cast!
It is hard, especially nowadays a show to have this quality of ideals, personalities, valors, ways of thinking and living from and to...
Remarkable!!
CHARACTER 10
Enjoyment: With pretty much of what I said, I had a great time watching season 2, it was very amusing, keep on ride till the end, a great production, surely a great time for the people that spent their time into the anime, you will be reward constantly until the very end!
ENJOYMENT 9
Overall: I said all that, and I would like to give even more praise to the anime, but I cant, I would love to give it a 10, but I want to be true to myself!! For the first time never was so hard for me to review a anime, it deserves more than 9, but less than 10, I m really pissed the scoring couldnt be more sub-divided... and I will explain why.
It is true that the whole anime, both first and second seasons, are full of many great, memorable and enjoyable moments that I wont ever forget, but I come to watch this knowing what would be the end of the anime, like I said the sequel was firstly released (and people insist to see stuff in chronological order), so I came here knowing, these, these and these survive, you, you and you all, ARE DEAD, kinda of thing, most of the surprises for a newbie to the whole series, werent surprises to me, and that downgraded the experience for me!! Also even knowing the ending, I was expecting a better "battle" between the last 2 servants, even though the one of their masters was EPIC, this one failed into my consideration! So what can I say more, I would had give 10 to the anime if I hadnt seen Fate/Stay Night from before(and probably would had give a less score to the sequel be influence of this), and IMO this would had been the best course of action!!
I reccomend to everyone interested, SEE this much better prequel first, and then see the not bad, not so great sequel, knowing the past, it will still be enjoyable, and you wont regret your decision, having had even a better experience with this amazing anime prequel's !!
OVERALL (9+10+9+10+9)/5= 9.4 (cant give it a exact 9 either!! Too low, compared with some other 9's of mine...)
Wishs, miracles, saving the world, it is all "pretty & sweet"!!!... unlike reality.
Some paths you have to take alone, others you have to choose the lesser of both evils! Kiritsugu Emiya goes for both...
This is how prequels are done, if more like these are in the making, I welcome thee for sure!!
