Now I understand that fans of the visual novel must be thrilled. I've been told this adaptation has been completely faithful. Which is what I was afraid of.
By being faithful to the Fate/Stay Night canon are completely undoing everything the Zero canon set the table with. Now please grant me the time to explain why that is.
;Story~!
I've said it before I'll say it again. The Fate concept is one of the greatest I've seen. Previous to this series I thought it was impossible to mess up. That was before I knew how much typical shounen tropes and weird harems could wound such an amazing idea.
The idea itself isn't bad here. It is the execution, the way this all was handled left me scratching my head. Now I know that FSN came first but I was hoping this series would go a different route. I sincerely thought they'd do something fresh to accommodate the Zero canon.
I was wrong.
You see instead of the groundbreaking storytelling that helped this genre immensely we got with Zero this time... Well. We got a slice of life show with some flashy fight scenes every episode or so.
Even with that said I can admit there was some amazing dialogue, few and far between as it was it was there. Mostly from Archer.
Surprisingly nothing memorable from Saber.... Oh we will get to that.
I generously give this story a total rating of!
Rating: 4
____
;Art/Animation~!
I don't really need to go in-depth here. Completely amazing stuff, breathtaking visuals, fantastic animation.
When Illyasviel did the little sway as she said, "Ba-Ser-Ka~!" I died a little inside it was so good.
There was animation put to Rin Tohsaka fanservice as well which I hated. This series doesn't need it, but animation is animation and it looked pretty.
As always ufotable is top of the line.
Rating: 9
____
;Soundtrack~!
Pretty average here, nothing really stands out. This isn't just be being negative, I would say the same thing about Zero. Average doesn't mean bad I just wasn't blown away.
For what it was it was good. The music tracks were placed at the correct times. It enjoyed it for what it was.
Rating: 6
____
;Characters~!
This where we have out biggest problem ladies and gentlemen.
I didn't hate all these characters, in fact I love some of them. The problem is the characters I enjoy the most don't get a lot of screen time. I suppose I should start with our protagonist and heroine.
Coming into this series I was most excited to see how Rin Tohsoka turned out. I mean after all that has happened to her there has to be some lingering affects. At the very least inner conflict!
As of the first season there is none of that, not even one mention that I recall. Instead of the brave, headstrong young mage I remember from Fate/Zero this Rin is completely different. Annoying and clueless, also part of a ridiculous harem.
Let's turn to her partner in crime Shirou Emiya! I wasn't as excited for him but carrying around the name Emiya I had hopes. All of those hopes were thoroughly crushed.
Shirou is what I would call the typical gary-sue targeted to young teenage boys who have powertrip fantasies. Flocked to by all the girls around him, overpowered to the point he can take on a servant.
I don't care about the twist either, that is also stupid. It just strengthens my believe that Shirou is an overpowered gary-sue.
Sakura Matou showing no ill effects to the torture she was put through was completely ridiculous. Cooking for Shirou was far more important for her character than any actual development.
Let us all turn to the most crushing blow of all, Saber. Fate/Zero was not only groundbreaking for the genre but also for women in anime and manga. Unfortunately this sequel has completely taken five steps back in that regard. Because you know women have to do dishes and make Shirou sandwiches.
Saber was strong with internal battles and demons. Her dialogues were thought provoking on so many different levels with so many underlining themes. Saber was the figurehead of the Fate series. Every time someone thinks of Fate it is very likely Saber is the first thing that pops into their mind.
This series completely undoes all of that amazing dialogue in Zero. Saber the regal king is just another piece in Shirou's harem box. I was shocked when she could pass for a highschool student, I was always under the impression she was a lot older.
In those amazing conversations with Gilgamesh and Rider, Saber was completely unmoved. Apparently it takes the idealistic talk of a Japanese student to sway Saber.
Saber goes on dates and even has fanservice throughout. Whether it be that a king forgot her manners and can't eat with getting stuff on her cheeks. There was even a fanservice scene involving glasses.
Throughout all these shenanigans Saber feels a lot less special. Every time she spoke in the previous series it meant something, here it just feels like wasted breath.
One of my favorite characters was completely butchered.
There were rays of light throughout. Like Illyasviel and Archer, there were others not even worth mentioning since they had even less screen time. The bad greatly outweighs the good here.
Rating: 3
____
;Overall~!
If you are one of the people overjoyed with this series well... I'm so happy you were able to find enjoyment where I couldn't.
I was so ridiculously excited for this series and so thoroughly let down it hurts.
Fate/Zero is one of my favorite animes of all time. The Zero canon while it is fantasy was grounded in a dark reality. FSN is just campy and completely ignorant. This sequel targets a completely different audience and it hurts itself for that.
In the end the Holy Grail War felt like a game for these kids. Hell, they were even comfortable enough to keep going to school. Even after finding out that someone was trying to put up barriers around it.
For some reason these two masters walk around like two kid detectives in a gag manga. Then when something actually escalates into a dangerous situation they are both shocked.
There were some amazing fight scenes in between all the silliest but that doesn't change anything for me. Flashy scenes without substance are nothing that special. Imagine that groundbreaking animation in Cowboy Bebop only with terrible dialogue and story in between, I don't think we'd be talking as fondly about it today.
I expect the second season will step it up at least a little. I hope it fares better than this outing.
This one has been the biggest disappointment of 2014 for me.
Final Verdict: 3/10~!
