[This review contains spoilers and concerns the whole Fate/Zero anime because it's hard to analyse each part alone knowing the whole serie, it's also very long if you want to read everything]
I have to say, I'm not a big fan of Fate at all, but the thing that I like with the franchise and the reason why I think it has become so popular is the "promise" of Fate. I haven't read Fate/Zero novel so I'll be covering my experience of the anime, I also haven't read Fate/Stay Night VN but I've watched both F/SN 2006 and UBW (still reading HF's manga)
I mean a battle
...
between 7 masters each commanding a servant based on either History or Mythology with unique abilities including Magic and real weapons in a urban city, with high violence, intense lore, mysteries, mindgame etc. All of that to acquire an artefact which can grant any wish you want, IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES. How many characters and psychologies you can exploit and write with such a concept !
According to MAL, Fate/Zero has an higher score and is overall better than Fate/Stay Night, the reason I often see is because the story is more mature and better written, but is that entirely the case ? Indeed the characters (Masters, Servants and side characters) are way more mature and relatable than Emiya and his Top Tier harem, but concerning the purpose each character has in the story, Stay Night feels way more realistic than Zero.
STORY : 8
Let's start with the plot : It's the same for all Fate series (sorry it just bothers me that people to give an higher score to Zero plot than SN while it's the same story but with different characters and motivation and almost the same goal for some routes). The main difference being that Zero is prequel, so we know HOW the story is going to end, and that said, everything that happen in Zero must properly lead to the start of SN. But it isn't entirely the case. The pacing is good except some slower episodes, it's not the best thing that almost every character dies in the second part and make the whole kind of unbalanced.
CHARACTERS : 7.5
That's also a point that people often use to promote Zero, all characters are different and interesting, with their own backstory, goals and personality. In this iteration, our main protagonist isn't the highschool kid Emiya Shirou but Velvet Wav... I MEAN SHIROU'S FATHER, EMIYA KIRITSUGU ! My bad it's just that usually the main protagonist is supposed to be the one with the highest screentime and which evolve and take decisions all along the serie so I mix them up in my mind ...
That's the biggest problem of Zero, people acclaim it to be like "The mature story which follows adults traumas during a war" but I swear that half of the show is dedicated to the relation between Waver and Iskandar and it's not a bad thing, but why the hell Waver's not designated as "Main" on his MAL description ? To prove me right, everyone's according that the destruction of the grail should technically be the "END" of Fate/Zero, the moment where Kiritsugu discovers Shirou's body in the ruins of Fubuki is instantely the beginning of the "Fate" route of SN. Then, why there is an epilogue of Waver's story arc right after it, okay this is a prequel but let us at least finish the story with our main characters. And we got like this bittersweet boring dialogue between Waver and his uncles and aunts that goes nowhere and feels completely out of tone because it follows a tragic event of the city's destruction, and they're just like "lul idk what happened but i'm proud of you kid".
There is also an epilogue about Kirei's and Rin's future but it's informations we should already have because this is a prequel : we know that Kotomine is hiding Gilgamesh, we know that Rin's will be the head of the Tohsaka family and we know he will be his mentor. So why showing us Tokiomi's funeral if it's useless, just to show us that Rin's mother is alive and braindead ? Incredible, no one cares.
"But we see a dialogue between Shirou and Kiri at the very end of Zero what do you mean" Yeah a dialogue cut straight out of Fate/SN with the exact same lines. There are so much better way the could have shown us the end of Kiri story arc, he could have been doing a inner monologue of his regrets, burning a photo of him with Iri and Illya to represent that he wants to forgot his past, I don't know something original maybe.
Well anyway, the cast overall is really great but some of them are really put in the shadow. The most developped ones being Waver as I said (even if he's a bunch of clichés but still cool to watch progress), but of course Kiritsugu have a lot of development (recessed in 2 flashback episodes), Kirei is probably the most interesting character of the whole, each of his appearance feels either terrifying/mysterious and make you question yourself of how does this guy thinks and his interactions with Gil are the best dialogues in all of the serie. I agree all of the Masters have good designs and personality but the rest of the cast still basic tropes and really die like a bunch of idiots honestly, even if it's what's good in Fate : you can't escape your destiny, and death can happen at any moment. Tokiomi is handsome but you hate him just because he acts like a coward and his death just make him even more ridiculous but make Kirei more badass, Kayneth is an obnoxious fucker the serie wants you to hate and does this well (Lancer do not deserves him), Ryuunosuke is just a psycopath and dies so quickly it make you think how not a single cop could have shot this guy before (his interactions with Caster stills pretty nasty and fucked up but in a good way). Kariya should have been the most tragic one of the bunch and redempt the honor of the Matou family but ends up failing everything, he failed to honor is name, he choked his only love interest and failed to save Sakura before dying in front of her, good depiction of madness actually. He does not even seem like a Master when you think about how his servant his doing whatever the heck he wants to do and never use a single command spell by himself.
As for the Servants it's way better than Masters, Gilgamesh is sexy and sassy as ever but deserves more screentime with his clever and manipulative side and less moment of showing him as a pretencious OP guy who insults any person he meet. Rider is probably the best character in Fate/Zero, no debate possible : his design is cool, his over-the-top dumb muscle guy makes him funny as hell and badass, he has by far the best voice actor, he starts as a servant, progress as a king, dies as a legend, will be remembered as a friend, perfection. Lancer is such a cool guy with a lot of honor, not the most original of the bunch but his death is the most terrific and heartcrushing one of all. Does Assassin exists ? I'm sorry he was so invisible I thought he haven't done anything cool the whole show, at least he dies first, too bad his Noble Phantasm seemed original. Caster is such a FREAK ?! His voice is obnoxious but fit him so much, his obsession for Jeanne is touching me as French guy with a little patriotic side (If only Jeanne was a big tiddy blonde girl), Ufotable did a great job showing his inhumanity by doing hardcore killing of children. His death almost made me shed a tear while I was hating since his first appeareance, the dramatic end of a man who lost the figure who kept him sane, and so became the very thing he swore to destroy, very good hateful character. The plot twist of Berserker could have been great if done better, according to novel readers they were more flashback of his past, don't know why they cut it, he was really not interesting overall, just your average "ARGHGHGHG KILL EVERYONE" madman (that was not the image I had of Lancelot).
And now we're reaching Saber, the main girl of our story, or the second one, no even the third one ? Wait how many characters were more interesting than her ? Yeah almost all of them ! Once again the part I hate the most about Zero, trying to convince me Saber is a main character while she clearly ISN'T ! She spend most of her screentime being mad for no reason, her interactions with Iri are cute but feel blank, she talked perhaps twice with Kiri ... "Relation with your servant is the most important part to win the grail war" as they say. She's just a shell of SN's Saber, she still has the same "fight with honor" but it's used in just like 2 eps, the kings reunion and after Lancer's death with Kiri. Those are also the best dialogue of the serie but I would have like to see more of her trying to live in Fubuki like Rider, preparing strategies, exposing her weakness and psychology, to be brief, more of the SN Saber, okay perhaps they didn't wanted to exploit Saber as much as in SN but then why is she the biggest character in both covers of s1 and s2, marketing obviously ?
Characters in Fate/Zero are diverse, it's true, but except Kiritsugu and Kirei, none of them feels different than what we already have in other Fate (except Rider best man). Side characters are mostly here to serve the plot and backstory, Iri/Maiya for Kiri (endearing but I expected better of them), Waver's fake family, Sola-Ui for Kayneth, Zouken for Kariya etc ... The show even reach a certain level of fanservice by adding Sakura, Ilya and Rin to the story, just because they also appear in SN. I agree of the backstory utility of Sakura and Ilya but Rin is useless to the main plot, while she even get a whole episode dedicated to her to just show us she was a strong mage since her childhood, no way dude. (saving those kids didn't stopped Ryuu/Caster and improving her relationship with her father while we know he's gonna die anyway is useless). The backstory of Kiritsugu brings a lot of depth to the character and it's truly original, but I can't help but think he just took by himself all the worst decisions that led him change his goal and abandon his past life, the turnover seems a bit drastic considering of what he'd done during the whole serie.
ART/ANIMATION : 9
It's hell of good, I don't know what else I should say, it's just beautiful for 2010. Close-ups are always perfecly drawn, fighting scenes are epic, particle effect are used just as enough to make the magic feels real, Ufotable shows everyone CGI can look good if you know how to use it : Berserker, monsters, vehicles, spells, weapons looks gorgeous even in 3D (except a small problem of framerate sometimes). My only complain would that background art aren't that great and characters ESPECIALLY WAVER seems off-model with messed-up face half of the time during panoramic shots.
MUSIC/SOUNDS : 8.5
I'm not an expert, but I can say music fits every situation perfectly. Dramatic when it needs to be, sad, mysterious, disturbing and most importantly COMPLETELY EPIC with all these chorus singing together. Not a single sound effects seems off if I remember well, but it's not the most important part of a serie dedicated on plot and characters. They could have more thrilling sound effect during death scenes though. Openings and endings are especially good and epic, I think I prefer the first Opening more than the second one because the animation and clips used feels more "FATE", second season's ed is one of the saddest Eds I've heard, no need to put flashback of Kiri/Iri relationship, just show all of it in a single ED and every shot is palpable, fantastic job. Voice acting is on point, all voices fit and do their job perfectly (especially Rider), Kirei and Kiri feels like empty human weapon, Iri is sweet and brainwashed, Caster and Kayneth sounds like sadistic fuckers, Waver is a relatable crying kid but a smart one, Saber and Gilgamesh put their all their throat into actions, and once again Iskandar the great is a badass omg !
ENJOYMENT : 9.5
Even after everything I said, I enjoyed the majority of Fate/Zero, but mostly the second season more than the first one, more dramatic, it contains better dialogues, better fight scenes and conclusion of character arcs (and doesn't have a filler episode).
Of coures the second season feels better because it use properly all elements the first season set up. But the anticlimatic ending is probably the reason why I could never give Fate/Zero a 10. For those still thinking you can start the Fate franchise by Zero : Absolutely not in any case. It was created as a prequel and SN's plot twists are more interesting than Zero's plot twists, the main reason a part of the old cast is still there is because the serie is adressed to Fate fans and not newcomers. Fate/Stay Night starts with a colossal fight of 2 hidden figures which you think have destroyed the city, but at the end of Zero it tells you that they never fought at all and city's fire is due to the grail's implosion. And thus Maiya, Ilya and Saber died for nothing because Kiritsugu turned back his mind. It becomes a story about how someone can fail because of him ambitions but it's not the kind of story that appeal to me, I'm sorry, or at least not this way.
This is not the most analytical review possible but I put in what I wanted to say about Fate/Zero (or what I could remember about a week after finishing it).
English is not my first language so I hope it's still readable by any audience (otherwise I'll be pissed)
FINAL SCORE : 9
Perhaps I will come back to Zero years later and take it down to 8, or perhaps take it up to 10 I don't know. A rewatch is always possible and I'll do it when I find the time, thank you if you have read this (because it took me some time and is kind of messed up)
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Mar 4, 2019
Fate/Zero 2nd Season
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[This review contains spoilers and concerns the whole Fate/Zero anime because it's hard to analyse each part alone knowing the whole serie, it's also very long if you want to read everything]
I have to say, I'm not a big fan of Fate at all, but the thing that I like with the franchise and the reason why I think it has become so popular is the "promise" of Fate. I haven't read Fate/Zero novel so I'll be covering my experience of the anime, I also haven't read Fate/Stay Night VN but I've watched both F/SN 2006 and UBW (still reading HF's manga) I mean a battle ... |
