I read up on which series to start with and Fate/Zero was a general consensus for where to start. So I started watching and found myself very confused. I had some sort of idea of the broad story but couldn't put the pieces of the puzzle together. I stuck it out though and I made it to episode 17 and couldn't take anymore. It was just too painful to watch.
My takeaway is this:
1) I felt that the story had the framework of what could be a great show but that's about all it had, and it seemed unfinished at that. As a result I had to give the story a 1, it was too fragmented.
2) I couldn't keep track of some of the characters and actually had to look up who was who even after 17 episodes. This is inexcusable and pathetic.
3) The production quality was excellent, so at least it had that going for it.
Summary:
Unless I'm missing something, and perhaps I need guidance from a true fan, this was very confusing and I had no clue what was going on half the time. Some of the battles were great but there were many instances that didn't make sense and a true masterpiece shouldn't need to be explained. The content that existed seemed polished but show seemed unfinished. Having questions while watching can be a good thing but questions and confusion are two different things.
Rider and Saber are the only redeeming qualities in this, and Lancer to a lesser extent.
