.......................................................................................WHAT.
Ok. Fate/Zero. A show that I saw a lot of pictures of for a while and it just had something about it that made me think it would become one of my favorite anime series ever. Did that end up being true? Well, let's see. Now, before I begin the review, let me make it clear that first off, this is a review of BOTH seasons. Not just 1 or 2. Just so we're clear on that. You can't really just stop at the first season, anyway, so I feel this is justified. And second, this review is being done by someone who has ZERO (teehee) experience with ANYTHING else Fate, related. I haven't seen Fate/Stay Night, I haven't seen Unlimited Blade Works. I chose to start with Fate/Zero, because it's first in the timeline. So if my opinions seem a bit strange, due to not knowing anything else that happens in the future, that is why. Ok. Now that that's settled, let's jump into the review.
Now, again. This review is being done, before seeing anything else Fate related. Fate/Zero may be first in the timeline, but it was released after Fate/Stay Night and Unlimited Blade Works. So maybe this complaint would be null and void if I watched it in release order, but I really had a hard time following what was going on, a lot of the time. The first season is very slow, in my opinion. It focuses a lot more on building up the world and characters, but in a bit of a weird, almost awkward sort of way. While the second season completely focus on tearing everything apart, and ripping any and all hope you had for anything and anyone to shreds. The second season was much more intense and engaging to watch, but I still wish that kind of intensity was sprinkled all around the entirety of this show, rather than just solely the second half. For the most part, I knew what was going on. I know who's on whose side. I know which characters I'm rooting for. I know what they're fighting for. I get the main gist of it, but it tends to get a bit convoluted in terms of explaining its history. Stuff like the connections and relations with all the characters in the past, explaining the details of the Holy Grail War, the different classes and creatures and rules of magic in this world. It got better in the second season, which is a lot more action oriented. But then it wen back to being confusing in the ending. And I still don't entirely know what just happened.
The characters either range from very interesting, to not at all. Personally, I much rather preferred watching the servants be on screen and interact with one another, while the master characters were a lot less interesting and overall kinda quiet and bland. It's like, the show knew that they were taking a back seat to the servants, who were the real stars of the show. But still tried to focus the main story elements all on them. The masters have the deep story, while the servants have the fun personalities. If only we could've gotten both traits within both groups. Though, the masters did have their moments. Even if it was usually only when they were interacting with their servants. Specifically Irisveil and Waver. It certainly helped that they had the most interesting servants, out of the bunch.
Now the place where this show REALLY shines, is in its animation. I'll just say it right here. I'm not sure if I'd call Fate/Zero's animation my favorite that I've ever seen. But I'm willing to say that it's one of, if not THE best animation I've ever seen in an anime series, not counting movies. This show is downright gorgeous in every way! Seriously, it looks like it was released just yesterday, it looks so good! I'd go as far as to say that you need to watch this show, only for the amazing visuals. Because it's seriously stellar, 100% of the time. As for the music, I'm pretty much neutral on it. Nothing really jumped out on me, but it certainly wasn't bad, by any means, either. And as for the sub vs dub debate, considering the type of show that this is, with medieval knights and warriors and whatnot, I think it's a bit more appropriate to watch in English. The dub is pretty fantastic, with every single character. The only complaint I could come up with is that Kirei and Kiritsugu had VERY similar voices, and I often got their characters mixed up, because of that. But still, the performances were amazing, nonetheless. Though, I should probably warn you that if you plan on watching the entire Fate series in English, you'll have to watch out for some casting changes. As the main character, Saber, goes through a whopping THREE English voice actors, throughout the series. So if hearing characters lose their voice actors is a turn off for you, then you might wanna stick with the Japanese. The Japanese dub is amazing, as well. And I feel it actually adds to Saber's personality, specifically. Honestly, both the Japanese and English get my complete and total approval. So pick whichever one you like.
So then.... did I like this show? Well.... there were a couple times where I was heavily considering dropping it. The first season is VERY slow, and while the action parts are fun to watch, it was just very rare to see any of those, on top of the story being rather confusing. If it wasn't for the FIRST episode of Season 2 getting REAL intense REAL quickly, I probably would've dropped this show. Season 2 was much more enjoyable, and incredibly intense and mind blowing until the very end. Speaking of the end...... WHAT!? Like, seriously. WHAT!? Ok. If they were planning to get people like me to immediately want to watch Fate/Stay Night, after Zero, they succeeded. You outright can't just watch Fate/Zero. Not with that ending! I am definitely very much intrigued to find out what happens next, now. For those who watched Fate/Zero after Stay Night and UBW, I'm not sure how you'd feel about this show. Personally, I'm sure I would've appreciated learning about the backstory a bit more, but having THIS be the last Fate thing I ever watch would've been very... weird. So I'm glad I decided to watch Zero first. And while it may not be right away, they definitely sold me on eventually watching the rest of the story unfold.
Fate/Zero gets a 7/10
