To be honest, Fate/Zero's premise sounded rather cheesy to me at first. But I'll promise you, the execution is fantastic, thrilling, and mature. That ranges from the fantastic visuals to the excellent soundtrack, the interesting and intriguing characters, their dialogues, as well as to the very well realized fight scenes in between.
The story is set place in an alternate reality, in which Magis (mages) exist, magic can be studied and used to bring back old heroic personalities from across the history, such as King Arthur or Alexander the Great, to fight in a battle royal to the death with the goal of obtaining the "omnipotent-wish granting device" called the "Holy Grail", said to grant one miracle to the winner of said battle royal. This battle is called "The Holy Grail War" and takes place in Fuyuki City every 60 years. Seven Mages (“Masters”) are chosen, and each of them get a Servant to join the fight. These Servants are separated into seven different classes; Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Assassin, Caster and Berserker. Each Servant is, as already mentioned, a Heroic Spirit from the history books, brought back to life to fight for honor and the power, which the Holy Grail supposedly possesses. After three failed attempts, the 4th Holy Grail War takes place and that's where the story of Fate/Zero begins.
The backstory of the Fate series is huge and could literally fill books. The very first episode plays it nice and safe for everyone not familiar with the franchise and takes a 50 minute long, almost exposition dump, on you, explaining some important details about the history of the war, the main families involved in it, their connections and so on. We also get introduced to the several different Mages and get a small glimpse of what they are fighting for. While I agree that it was necessary to understand what the hell is going on, it also was one of the less entertaining parts of the show, but I personally didn't have a problem with that. I'd rather “suffer” a huge info dump instead of having to scratch my head at everything that's happening during the show any time. The story of the show flows pretty well actually and the balance between lengthy dialogues and impressive battles was handled really nicely. The cliffhanger at the end of the season was really nasty though. I still don't see why this was split into two halves anyways…
Each Servant gets a different Master of course, and each Master has different reasons to participate in this battle alongside different tactics to win it. Some are playing it out honorable in a traditional fashion and others are going on rampages with their new best friends because they can and feel like it. That makes every one of the different characters never feel really dull and especially as the cast of characters mostly consists only of fully grown adults (meaning no high school-girls, tsunderes, no token lolis and so on) very refreshing and it also includes no random fan service to ruin the otherwise serious and dark mood of the show. Fate/Zero is a mature anime but it can seem a bit “edgy” sometimes, especially as one Master is a psycho who loves to torture and kill children with his new Servant and said Master doesn't really get much explanation for his behavior, other than "It's art and so coooooool!". The characters are a mixed bag; on one hand some are intriguing and on the other hand some were barely fleshed out or just contribute nothing to the main story then sitting around and talking. I’m looking at you, Tokiomi! But my overall impression of the characters was genuinely positive though and I rooted for a lot of them. They weren't perfect though and tend to act stupid at times, but nothing that would make me upset or dock a lot of points for.
So with being a battle royal in its core you might think that it's quite obvious who is the winner because there is a main character and everything, but it's really not. Yes, there are some characters that get (a lot) more screen time and dialogue than others, but among the main ones it's always a struggle because every Servant and Master has different strengths and weaknesses and especially one fight between two Servants in the early parts of the show was really gripping to watch. But sadly, most battles between Servants boil down to dialogues and speeches about honor and chivalry and it makes the characters appear a bit dumb at times, when they let the enemy get away for like the 10th time instead of just finishing them off. It may be necessary for the continuation of the plot, but as a viewer it wasn't that enjoyable all the time and I sometimes ended up shaking my head. But some fights between the Masters and their use of magic and weapons are where shit really hits the fan. You really feel the difference when watching the Masters and Servants fight. The Masters act a bit more realistic and out to really win the war and have their wish granted, while the Servants mostly fight in and for their honor. It makes a real nice change of pace to see the Heroic Spirits fight one another in a duel like fashion and the Masters fighting one another like it was an extermination, so the action doesn't get old fast and some Master/Servant combos even have a clash of ideologies sometimes as they don't agree on their methods used in the war. It was really interesting to watch how some relationships between Master and Servant didn't bloom perfectly but were also spread with doubt and hatred for each other.
Speaking of relationships between Master and Servant... What also spiced the whole thing up more were these different interactions between some Masters and their Servants. Especially the duo of Waver and Rider made for two solid developed and likeable characters, the same goes for Irisviel and Saber. Sadly that’s not true for all of them; those two groups definitely took the cake in this first season for me. Another honorable mention goes to Archer helping Kotomine Kirei to develop as a character and changing his view on the whole situation he is in. While their interactions mostly consisted of talking and can be boring for some, I found them to be interesting and necessary to get a better view on the character of Kirei, who starts of as a pawn by Tokiomi but becomes a strong and more confident stand-alone character later on. But the character interactions didn’t just consist of the Master and Servants, but dialogues and discussions between some multiple Servants as well. They also get to talk with each other, share their thoughts and ideals – and not always for the better. For some people Fate/Zero may be too much talking and too less fighting and I would agree with those to an extent. But all in all I was pleasantly surprised with the aforementioned balance between dialogues and crossing swords this show has to offer, especially since the pacing in Season 1 is a slow, steady build-up, only to have it all tumbling down in Season 2. It was a worthy pay-off and I really loved the ending, though some scenes might confuse people not familiar with anything else Fate related.
Another thing which made this already well executed story even more stand-out was the great animation done by ufotable, which most notable works include the famous Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of Sinners movie series. Everyone who saw their films know how they make an anime appealing and exciting, this is also helped by the excellent visual and sound direction the show has. The art is detailed; the animation smooth and fluent, the use of lighting and shadows brilliant and even the obligatory ufotable 3DCG looks really good. The quality got even stepped up in Season 2 and it looks even more impressive. Truly a sight to behold.
The soundtrack was made by Yuki Kajiura and if you already listened to a soundtrack done by her, you know how most of her music sounds; epic choirs, orchestra and so on - Fate/Zero is no exception. At some points I could have sworn I was listening to a Madoka Magica or Kara no Kyoukai OST instead, they really sound that familiar. While that's a good thing to those fond of her style of music, it's also off putting for those, who don't like the “typical Kajiura flair” that much. I personally like her style and tracks like "Point Zero", "the beginning of the end", "fate to zero", "this day, and never again" or "The Battle is to the Strong" made a lasting impression on me and got into my favorites on iTunes. The rest of the audio design is fantastic as well, with good sound effects and the voice actors did a solid job as well. They really made the characters feel alive. I can't speak for the English dub, but the German dub was slightly above average. To all German speaking readers: Stick to the subs please, it’s not worth the money. All in all Fate/Zero is one of the best looking and sounding anime I had the pleasure with yet, it was a feast for my eyes and ears in 1080p Blu-Ray quality. It was a great experience to say the least.
Let's get to the verdict of Fate/Zero:
I really had a good time with this show, I like it a lot. But as much as I enjoyed the intriguing characters, the well animated fight scenes and the dialogues, it of course felt rather incomplete and the cliffhanger at the end of Season 1 left a bad taste in my mouth. I can just imagine all the disappointed faces when they had to wait for so long for this to continue airing back in the days. But I didn't have that much of a problem with it. Another thing which put me off was some of the decisions some Masters and/or Servants made during important fights. If they wanted to, they could have ended this all in one season, but no. Also, some characters didn't get any real light shed at all, but I think everyone will have someone to root for at the end. Another thing which could be a bummer is the extremely slow pacing at times, especially in Season 1 and compared to the very dynamic events in the "Second Season”. In my opinion, though, that’s what makes the whole watch of Fate/Zero all the more rewarding. The first season is the slow and careful buildup while in the second one everything comes crashing down (in a good way). All in all, Fate/Zero is a fantastic anime with few misteps here and there and a rather week plot. I still recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different from the generic moe-blobs and ecchi harems we usually get these days. It's worth checking out for this reason alone. And on top of that it's well made and exectued and you get an interesting story with great looking action.
STORY SECTION: 6/10
Premise 1/2 (not that mindblowing)
Pacing 1/2 (kind of slow in S1, too fast in S2)
Complexity 2/2 (a lot of mindgames, intrigue etc.)
Plausibility 0/2 (all the technobabbling still amounts to lose rules)
Conclusion 2/2 (great setup for Fate/stay night)
CHARACTER SECTION: 7/10
Presence 2/2 (cool and strong)
Personality 2/2 (well founded for the most part)
Backdrop 2/2 (a bit forced but fits well and rounds the characters a lot)
Development 1/2 (only a few get it)
Catharsis 1/2 (overblown, but it's there)
ART SECTION: 9/10
General Artwork 2/2 (very detailed and creative)
Character Figures 2/2 (stand-out and distinct)
Backgrounds 1/2 (great looking, but very samey)
Animation 2/2 (very fluent)
Visual Effects 2/2 (great for a TV series)
SOUND SECTION: 9/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (solid)
Music Themes 4/4 (all around great and fit the show very well)
Sound Effects 3/3 (great for a TV series)
ENJOYMENT SECTION: 8/10
Art 1/1 (looks great)
Sound 2/2 (sounds amazing)
Story 2/3 (lots of intrigue and the grand scale of things felt epic)
Characters 3/4 (I liked and rooted for most of them, but some are weak)
VERDICT: 7,8/10 (putting it up to 8/10)
