maximillian.weber - 2014-11-17 06:22:21

All of the fate series are amazing. Most of the "Fate/" arcs are action packed with supernatural powers and love story lines. Type moon has a great writing group and have an amazing sense of humor. Anything they get their hands on is great so you can't really go wrong watching it. The animation and character work is really well done. They like to backtrack and get involved with most of the character development, which can be a little confusing at times but worth it in the end.

breitenberg.rodrigo - 2014-05-19 22:55:50

NOTE: This review covers both seasons. Looking back on it, the second season far surpassed the first, but they're both excellent nonetheless. Enjoy. :)

I’m not going to lie; I love entertainment, but as Sturgeon says, “90% of everything is crap.” This applies towards anime as well, and there are times where I lose faith in this medium due to watching so many mediocre shows and not coming across anything noteworthy. So along comes Fate/Zero, an anime that is hyped out to be a complete masterpiece with fantastic characters, an addictive story, incredible animation and music, and a show that is unique and original. With any show that is hyped to the point of being obnoxious, I went into this show with a lot of caution, expecting it to be overrated. Boy, was I mistaken. I am very hard to please when a show is made out to be a masterpiece, as I can easily see how the show does not live up to that expectation most of the time, see Sword Art Online. Fate/Zero, on the other hand, does. This anime deserves every bit of hype surrounding it, because this is one of the best anime that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Sit back, relax, and read on as I explain why I love this anime so much as I review Fate/Zero.

The Setup:

Fate/Zero is the prequel to another anime called Fate/Stay Night, an anime based off of an electronic Japanese adult visual novel, or as gigguk likes to call them, “Hentai Games”. I tried to watch the original Fate/Stay Night a few months ago only to be horribly bored after watching five episodes and dropping it (Future Edit 2/24/14: I actually got around to finishing it and reviewed it). The reason I bring this up is because the setups for the two shows are essentially the same, except Fate/Zero takes place ten years prior to the events of Fate/Stay Night. It follows the Fourth Holy Grail War, a battle royal to the death where seven mages, known as masters, summon their own servants to fight for the Holy Grail, a device that can grant any wish for the obtainer. Each servant is the reincarnation of some legendary hero from history or legend, such as Alexander The Great and King Arthur. While this does sound like nerdy teenage fanfiction, it couldn’t be more of a contrast towards it. This show is very mature, dark, and adult-like, catering towards the intellectual crowd, which is my favorite type of media; those who use intelligence to try to outsmart the audience. Of course, you can’t have a mature show without mature characters, but Fate/Zero does not disappoint in that category.

The Characters:

One of the main aspects that I absolutely adore about this anime is its lack of a true main character. This means that each character gets enough focus and development to establish them as relatable and makes them feel like real people. Normally in anime, or in any story for that matter, most of the character development is saved for only the main character and maybe one or two side characters, but Fate/Zero treats every character equally. It’s almost like reading a story in third person, in a sense, which is actually pretty difficult to pull off. Naturally, seeing how this is a battle royal, people die and some characters gradually gain more focus, but each and every character has enough development to establish them as memorable, even if I can’t remember their names (it’s not the anime’s fault, I have trouble remembering Japanese names). Most people seem to think Kiritsugu, one of the masters and dubbed, “The Mage Killer”, was the main character, and while I can see why someone would make that assumption, I don’t really believe that. It is true that he’s the most important character, but he’s not technically the main character until the final few episodes.

Due to this series having an incredibly large cast, I’m only going to talk about my favorite characters. As for favorites, most people seem to really like Rider, and I can definitely see why. His charisma and bombastic attitude pretty much steals every moment he’s on screen, making him one of the most likable characters I’ve ever seen, and I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t my favorite character too. However, if you had to go by the most interesting character, that would be Kirei Kotomine. This character intrigued me, mainly because of his development throughout the series. SPOILER I guess it’s because you never truly see a character develop into the evil villain, and seeing his downfall due to being corrupted was a very unique experience, turning him into one of the most threatening antagonists that I have ever seen due to his unpredictability. END SPOILER. Now, does that mean that he was the character that I liked the most? No, that still goes to Rider, but Kirei was without a doubt the most intriguing. The final character I want to talk about is Saber. She was the only character that caught my interest in Fate/Stay Night, and she didn’t fail to do so here either, becoming one of my favorite female characters to date. She’s very passionate and believes in fighting in an honorable way, though the experiences she’s put through in this show make her really question her motives and beliefs. Speaking of, another aspect about these characters that makes them and this anime unique are the philosophy discussions that they have with each other. Each character has different motivations, different ethics, and different morals, separating themselves from characters that have a similar personality. For example, I would say that Rider and Archer are both arrogant, but due to their different goals and moralities, they are very different people. Another example is between Saber and Kiritsugou. Saber wants to fight with honor and respect, but Kirisugou would rather get the job done as quickly as possible regardless of the method. This may not sound like a huge difference, but it is a major factor in their relationship with each other. I will admit that the philosophy discussions can go on for a much longer time than needed, but to be perfectly honest, it is these discussions that make this show so brilliant. Each conversation develops each character by either changing their goals or just giving more information about them to the audience, and this is by far one of the most well-rounded casts of characters that I’ve ever seen.

The Story:

I would like to shout out to the world that Fate/Zero’s story is perfect, but…I can’t. There is one problem that keeps this anime from becoming an absolute masterpiece, and that is the first episode; it is literally a 40-minute long exposition describing what the Holy Grail War is. As someone who was relatively new to the franchise, I am glad that they took some time to explain it, but they did not need 40 minutes to tell me what I was about to watch. Besides that, though, the story is perfectly paced, exciting, enthralling, complex but never to the point where you can’t follow along, and epic, though it’s really hard to describe without giving out spoiler after spoiler. It basically follows the events of the 4^th Holy Grail War, and if you’ve seen Fate/Stay Night, you know where the story will end up.

Animation and Sound:

Produced by ufotable, the the animation was mystical, fluid as water, realistic while still keeping that anime style we all know and love, and the lighting is absolutely breathtaking. The soundtrack is some of Yuki Kajura’s best musical work in my opinion, setting the mood for each scene perfectly. Both of the openings are worth listening to, my personal favorite being the first, and you’ll probably skip the endings because you just want to watch the next episode so they’re not really worth mentioning. As for English vs. Japanese, I highly recommend watching this anime in English. Fate/Zero’s English dub is fantastic, each performance matching the character, and also because I felt it was much easier for me to concentrate on what was going on listening to the complex dialogue rather than reading it. Some of the cast members include Matt Mercer as Kiritsugo, Kari Wahlgren as Saber, Crispin Freeman as Kirei (who does a great job like always, because he’s Crispin Freeman), and Jamieson Price as Rider.

Final Judgment:

Not only does Fate/Zero live up to its hype, it’s one of the best anime I’ve ever seen as of today. It’s absolutely perfect for practically any anime fan that is sick of all of the mediocre anime coming out recently and needs something to help them regain their faith in anime again. Though admittedly, the first episode is pretty boring and if you’re not familiar with the franchise or its history you may be a little lost. If you can get around that, however, Fate/Zero is well-rounded, sports an exceptional character cast, has an enthralling story, looks and sounds out of this world, and will probably satisfy your need for good anime. I give Fate/Zero a 4.85 out of 5, with a recommendation to WATCH IT NOW! Like always, however, this is only my opinion, and it's up to you to judge it for yourself.

okon.bettye - 2014-01-18 21:49:52

The Fate franchise is very well known among the anime community and snowballed into a world-wide hit. This is brilliant considering the creators, type-moon, started it of as a Japanese erotic adult electronic visual novel, aka hentai games. Although it's origins as such is similar to my least favourite anime of all time, School Days- I can safely say that this show is indeed an epic.

Fate/Zero is a prequel towards the pre-existing (and soon to be rebooted) Fate/Stay Night, taking place around 10 years previously. It revolves around 'The Holy Grail War' an ongoing conflict between a group of modern day mages who summon 'Servants ' who are basically historical figures such as King Arthur, The Assassin Order, Gilgamesh and Alexander the Great (who has more manliness in his beard than most do in their entire body.)

The story acts similar to 'Game of Thrones' as all the Mages get similar amounts of screen time so you can see the war from their perspective and find out their back story and motivations so nothing is ever clearcut, adding to the spectacle of the show. Therefore all the characters are fleshed out and enjoyable, even the douche bags in the show.

The quality of the animation is absolutely beautiful, as ufotable apparently had a budget large enough to buy Norway.

In short this is a geniune masterpiece with no faults apart from a few minor ones near the climax of the show in order to set up for the pre-existing sequel. Therefore those who've seen Fate/Stay Night will know the ending of this tale, I can however confirm that you'll love it regardless.

greenholt.erich - 2013-11-13 16:56:04

This is a combined review of both seasons, as I watched it all together, so would be hard pressed to separate up my feelings for this show into two parts. For the record though, I do feel the second season was a tad better than the first, with most of my favourite episodes occurring in the second half of the show, and therefore will get 9/10 overall and the first series 8/10 as I was torn between the two scores anyway, so it seems as good a decision as any.

So, Fate/Zero. Going into this one I had pretty high hopes, and I think it’s fair to say that this wonderful show more than met them. It’s only my third anime that I’m watching for myself (I watch some kid ones with my younger brother), with the previous two being FMA:Brotherhood and Cowboy Bebop, both of which I absolutely adored, so the bar was set sky high. It cleared it though, with space to spare.

Fate/Zero is a series depicting the events of the fourth Holy Grail War. A Holy Grail War is a proxy war, fought by seven magic wielding magus and their legendary servants, heroes from the past reincarnated by their respective magus, with the final victor gaining possession of the eponymous Holy Grail, a so called omnipotent wish granting device.

The series follows the plights and battles of the seven magus and servant combos, both physical battles between each other and battles of ideals with themselves or so called partners. Each servant is classified into a specialist class, and has their own personal strengths and weaknesses, as well as a specific noble phantasm, which is a sort of superpower linked to their legend.

It really had everything: a compelling story, a wide array of characters all with their own motivations that really made sense, gripping action scenes, beautiful design, a soundtrack that complimented the visuals perfectly, a fantastic cast of voice actors (I watched it dubbed)… I could just go on and on.

Even the concept was fantastic. I came into the show without any knowledge of Fate/Stay Night or any other piece of the Fate series as many others did, so I was basically going in bling to the whole concept of the Holy Grail War. It’d be accurate to say I loved it. Seven teams of super powered legends, reincarnated to team up with their own unique mage each with different strengths and weaknesses, all in an epic fight to the death for “an omnipotent wish granting device”! How much cooler can you get than that?

One of the real strengths of this show was that it didn’t focus on one particular character or side of the Holy Grail War, but instead took time to develop the motivations and emotions of the fourteen characters. There was nobody who was a bad guy just for the sake of being a bad guy, and every character had their own reason for wanting the Holy Grail. This really paid off in the long run as you cared about every single character, and so every single death or near-death felt like a major event. It also helped the show avoid a problem that many tournament styles shows fall into, and one that it could have easily fallen into itself: predictability. When a show has a defined and obvious main character, and he or she is in anything even vaguely resembling a tournament, then you know at the very least he or she is going to be in the final two. By having all seven competitors feel like “main characters” Fate/Zero finds its way around that. Although a single main team does eventually come to the forefront, there is still enough focus put upon the other groups to make you care about them enough that there’s still no certainty there at all, and, while avoiding spoilers, I’d say that that feel of unpredictability really pays off at the end; but I’ll get to that later.

As an example, my favourite character was Kariya Matou and his servant Berserker. At its core, Kariya’s motivation for wanting to win the grail is to save a little girl from an unimaginable pain. In doing this, he has to endure the same unimaginable pain himself just to give himself a small chance of winning the Grail in order to save the girl. He fully knows that he will almost certainly die, and even if he wins he’ll only be aiding his grandfather, one of his greatest enemies. If that’s not a noble motivation, I don’t know what is. So when, er… what happened er… happened, it made for an extremely powerful moment. I’m avoiding spoilers there, but once you’ve watched it you’ll know which bit I mean. It’s the one in the church.

But the best bit is that ALL SEVEN sides have this level of emotion. I’ve heard of people having their favourites be every single one of the seven sides, and if that doesn’t tell you how good the characters are, I don’t know what does. Every character had their own story, and the way they intertwined was fascinating to watch unfold. Ever character had real depth, and it lead to a brilliant show.

Now the way I’m gushing about this show probably makes you think that I’m on my way to giving it a full five stars. So you may be surprised when you glance down to the bottom (or wherever the score happens to be on the specific site you’re reading this on) and see that I’ve only given it ****1/4. That’s because I had a few little gripes.

Now overall this show looked great. The character designs were both varied and beautiful, the animation was very smooth, and the action scenes were fantastic, being both gripping to watch and stunning visuals too. So don’t get me wrong, I thought Ufotable did a fantastic job, as this anime was an absolute pleasure to look at. However, there were three fairly minor things that annoyed me, and strangely enough two of the involved eyes.

I’ll start with the first of the eye things. For some strange reason, whenever the hair of a character covered their eyes partially, you could still see the outline of the characters eyes over the top of their hair. It’s such a minor thing, but it annoyed the hell out of me, and it made me break immersion, , which is one of the worst things an anime can ever do. It occurred almost continuously throughout the series, but maybe I got used to it a bit, as I noticed it less towards the end.

The second eye thing was how anybody looked when they got stabbed/ Their eyes went really bulgy and looked as if they were going to pop out of their skull. I get that they were looking to go for an effect with this, but it really didn’t work for me.

Finally, the non-eye thing was how anybody looked whenever they were on fire. It only happened a couple of times, but the art style completely changed for the character while everything else in the scene remained the same. It’s hard to explain really, but when you see it you’ll understand. I just found it a bit strange.

Now the second thing that I found detracted from the show, and on this point I’ll probably have a lot of people who disagree, was the noble phantasms. Now I won’t deny that they made for some awesome visuals. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy seeing a vast army marching through an imaginary plain, or an almost unlimited amount of swords being fired through portals at a target. However, once you get past the coolness of it all, and start thinking about it, then, for me at least, they took away from the show as a whole. I had two main gripes with them: they ruined the balance of the show, and retrospectively they made the early battles feel very unimportant.

So let me just say, I don’t have anything against the concept of the noble phantasm. In fact I quite liked the fact that each hero had their personal super attack. My problem was with the vast variance in how powerful each hero’s phantasm was. I get that some of the heroes are more powerful than others, but the void in power took away from the show for me. I mean, one person has a spear that causes wounds that can’t be healed, while another has an unlimited supply of swords that can be fired out of the thin air on his cue. It just means you realise some of the characters never had a real chance in the first place.

If I had the opportunity to change them, this is how I’d do it:

Sabre – Just have Avalon, but scale down its healing power

Archer – Unlimited supply of weapons, but can’t be fired from the sky

Lancer – Spear that inflicts wounds that can’t be healed

Caster – Ability to summon monsters

Berserker – Amazing agility

Rider – Badass Ox Chariot

Assassin – Multiple copies of him/herself

Those powers would balance out all the characters, and make every battle seem important, and make every character feel like they had an actual chance of winning.

The other problem I had was that the early fights never featured the use of the phantasms, so looking back retrospectively they felt rather unimportant. Almost as if the servants weren’t trying.

So yeah, that’s quite enough negatives, because this show was awesome. Another thing this show did really well was pacing. Towards the beginning some episodes are sometimes a little slower, but at episode 16 it really hits its stride, and then just keeps building and building until it reaches its fantastic climax. From episode 16-23 the standard really is five star, but it’s only able to be that because of the previous 15 have got you so invested in the characters. The last run of eight episodes is so good; it left me begging for more.

Speaking of begging for more, how about that ending! Now I’m going to be honest, at first the ending confused the hell out of me. But sometimes that’s a good thing; I like an ending that makes me think. And I did think, and after a good think I’d say that I understood what happened. There are still a few questions I have, but at the end of the day this was a prequel, it’s supposed to leave questions for its successor to answer. As I have said, I haven’t seen the old Fate/Stay Night, so I didn’t have the answers. Now I’m sure all the answers are out there if I wanted to give it a quick google, but I didn’t really, I wanted to reach my own conclusion from the material that was presented to me. Then if I’d got it wrong, all would be explained to me when I watched the sequel.

Problem was, I’d heard the sequel was terrible. It was made by a different company quite a while ago, and all of my favourite reviews whose opinions I value highly said it wasn’t worth watching. This put me at a dilemma somewhat. Did I watch a subpar show that would sour my memories of this great show by association, or should I not watch it and have to get my closure via google. I wasn’t happy with either option, so you can imagine my ecstasy when I heard on an anime podcast which I was listening to (shout out to Podtaku) that Ufotable were going to be making a sequel to Fate/Zero by remaking Fate/Stay Night. It’s over a year away, likely even longer for the dub, and I’m counting down the days. If that doesn’t tell you how much I loved this show, then I don’t know what does.

So yeah, I should probably start wrapping up this review, as I’m coming to the end of my fifth A4 page and I’m running out of paper to write on. I haven’t even mentioned the music, which is divine, or the fantastic openings and endings, nor the brilliance of the voice actors’ performances. At the end of the day this show is fantastic in so many ways. Sure I have a few minor gripes, but nothing is perfect (except FMA:B). If you haven’t seen this show already then go watch it, you won’t regret it. And if you have then I’m sure you’re with me eagerly awaiting the sequel.

This show filled the void I’ve had ever since finishing Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Now I just need to find the show that’ll fill the void for this.

Star Rating ****1/4

alice66 - 2013-08-23 07:59:37

How should I start this?

Well, Fate/Zero is my "Rediscovery of Anime", meaning it is the first anime I watched after several years of not watching one. I did watch some anime shows casually, usually to pass the time and not care how it ends and how the boo-- I mean the plot thickens, as it is aired in the local channels back in the Philippines. I was busy with college to pick-up one to watch a full series as most of the series I watch are in the category of long-running animes with hundreds of episodes with nowhere in its sight planning to end. So, after graduating in college (2011), I had a lot of time in my hands to do anything I want. The time that the passing month that gave me that year went to watching Korean dramas, variety shows, and listen to K-pop. As months passed by the following year, with a lot of time still in my hands, I got tired of overused plot lines of Korean dramas and boring shows, with the exception of some, in the American cable channels that I decided to waste my time in YouTube. During that boredom stage, the entertainment that is called "Anime" re-lit in my mind and decide to search for it on YouTube. After scrolling down countless of search pages, I somehow clicked on one video by a well-known - not known during the time by me - personality among the Anime community named Gigguk. I have no idea what made me interested to click that thumbnail (blonde girl with a sword) of that video. Well, before I stray away from what I am suppose to write, lets write something about this Fate/Zero.

What is it about?

Read the synopsis.

Story

I have no prior knowledge of the Fate series franchise with the exception of an obvious kid that has a philosophy of "People died when they are killed" - FACT! that son! - that was repeatedly mentioned in Gigguk's review. Also, gave me an idea that it was from a "Hentai Game" a.k.a Visual Novels, that made me think their might be some "sex" scenes. My take on its story from Episode 1 to Episode 13 was a fresh view after watching (Korean dramas) predictable plot lines and story recycling of episodes as if they are trying to keep the planet Earth clean from the garbage that they piled up in an attempt to prolong their shows. It was fresh because there was an interesting system in its world that was explained in that 40-plus minutes of Episode 1. Though not liked by others ( Fate series fans and Gigguk), the information dump of an episode, I actually favor it. That information dump played a big part in me staying interested to watch the anime for more episodes as it also reminded me of the system and story line that are portrayed in one of the type of anime I used to watch and a fan of several years prior, which is Shounen - the beat them ups and power-ups. With the explanation of the "Holy Grail War" and the summoning of the Servants at the end of Episode 1 brings me back to my childhood cup of tea of a show. As I have mentioned before I love me some information and what Fate/Zero did was that in the sense of the real world historical stories and notable fables even though I have to search some of them (Servants) myself. But at least the show got me interested in actually searching and reading about them. The idea of the show having a battle of Ideology instead of the most usual battle of Good vs Evil as mentioned by Gigguk, was also something new for me seen in anime, as I was used to Good triumphing over Evil with super power-ups through the magic of friendship because friendship is magic. Thus, one of my favorite scene was when the "3 Kings" had a "tea" in a garden and discuss about Leadership and Management as if they are having a group study. Overall the story was good: explanation of the happenings in its world, introduction of characters through their personal beliefs and retelling their history as if you were in History class but have that hated part of researching more about them for homework, which I did not mind because I love me some information. Also, some plot twist from here and there in which was not much of an impact to the story.

Score: 8

Animation

Ok, I have a confession to make, I do not have an idea the concept of production companies, I only care about me having fun what I am watching. Also, another confession, since I practically grew up in the era of anime and cartoons where most of the animated series that came out were presented as hand drawn that as a kid give me hope that I can copy the very character I like that I am watching through drawing in my class notebook. Why am I confessing this? It is because of what technology gave animators to make their animation look good called CG, which to this day I have no idea what the acronym of it really is - Cell Generated or is it Computer Generated - I do not know. I actually encountered the term during the question portion of my high school Senior Project presentation on Anime. If you are interested on what I wrote read it here: Senior Project: Anime (Note: I have limited access to information back then so pretty much its like me retelling what I see in Anime with limited resources to back it up) One of the panel asked me on which style I preferred, the hand drawn one or the computer generated one in which I answer the former, the hand drawn ones. Enough about the back story, the animation in Fate/Zero were superb. As much I prefer hand drawn the CG in this anime was a fine quality. Though different from each other, the combination of manual drawing and computer quality blended wonderfully. One thing I noticed though and nitpick on and its that most of the time Berserker came into the screen, his whole body is CG or maybe I'm wrong but I could not see an ounce of a talented artist drawing it - well maybe its just me. Oh yeah its by Ufotable. All in all the animation was fluid, movie-quality, and amazing to watch in HD. Oh yeah the Opening and Ending theme animation was amazingly synchronized with the song.

Score: 10

Sound

The days where I see Classical and Instrumentals as a use for showing a drop of my musical talent using a Recorder playing Ode to Joy, the days where I use it to make myself sleep, the days where its rock/hip hop version were the best version, the days where I actually download it because of a certain Korean Rom-Com movie, and the days where its only cool to hear them as background in movies. Yes those were the days and now I can add it to the days where it was always prominent in Anime. Fate/Zero being the first show that I have watched as a comeback to the anime world, its Original Soundtrack a.k.a OSTs was just as what I liked about Classical and Instrumentals as I grew up showing appreciation. As Gigguk says, "the use of choir to make battles epic" the use of music was excellent.

J-Rock we met again! Asian Kung-fu Generation's "Haruka Kanata", Flow's "Go", and Snowkel's "Namikaze Satellite" - yes I'm a Narutard - after all those years not hearing them and listened to Fate/Zero's Opening by a girl named LiSa brings back them memories and the choir sisters (the 3 are not related) Kalafina. The use of instrumentals - oh yeah Instrumental - mixed with the band - wooo!!!.

Sound effects was exceptionally placed especially during the aerial fight, you can hear the engines and missiles.

The Japanese voice actors/actresses synced well with the characters personality. Props to the guy who made Berserker's growls - if he actually did that. BTW, loved Saber's voice actress, that sexy semi-deep serious voice.

Score: 10

Character

Having characters that are tied with the real world (our world) history and legends one might say that it is unoriginal as there are basis of ones personality and the story teller would just copy-paste like a middle school student cramming on his book report and write of from that. But by having this, the characters would not be as cliche' as what is popular on anime story telling in particular Shounen series. As far as I know a loudmouth, get beat first heal later, and signature attack/weapon yelling is rare to become a notable hero in history. Well you can not really call it unoriginal as one of them is a supposed King that is a ____ and a little bit of cheating in the height and muscle department. Plus I learned a lot more of this historical/fabled characters in this anime than in History or Literature class in high school - did not really pay attention though. The characters in this series have their own colors through their stories, beliefs and agendas that clashes with each other instead of having a black and white battle where you know who would win in the end. The characters were introduced as their present self and retold through their history or their back story so for a character development to happen the character needs to move forward which most of the Fate/Zero characters lacks with them stagnating through their past self, along with their beliefs and ideals.

Score: 8

Enjoyment

Did I enjoy it? Yeah! It took me out of the "Cancer"/"Amnesia" as a plot point in a story - them Korean dramas - and reintroduced me to what I liked watching as a kid, SUPERPOWERS and MAGICS! Having grown to love and be a fan of reading and watching something with a good story and a world with a system, I was able to enjoy them through Fate/Zero.

Score: 10

Overall

The battle of beliefs instead of the good old Good vs Evil scenario, the use of well known historical and fabled heroes as its character to keep up with History and Literature, the use of CG even though I liked hand drawings was amazing, the world system usage to lessen overpowered-ness (though one shiny one is too stronk), and the iTunes worthy Openings and Endings.

Score: 9

larson.jayson - 2013-08-05 12:31:52

I like to be straightforward, so I will be. Fate/Zero is my second favourite/best anime of all time.

• Story:

Fate/Zero has a really deep story and a very deep history revolves around it. Most of the people who watched this show probably aren't familiar with the fate series, which mean they haven't watched Fate/Stay Night. But I am not familiar with the fate series at all and Fate/Zero is my first fate series anime. Even though I have no idea what the fate series was about, after I watched episode 1 which is the most epic first episode ever, I was able to grasp hold of the basic concept. This show how well done their attempt to welcome the new comer. The best part about Fate/Zero is the level of maturity this show displayed as there are no comedy relieve and fan service. I would not like to spoil anything, I just wanted to say that even a beginner to the fate series, you can understand and like this show.

• Animation:

Fate/Zero has the BEST animation. It is done by studio ufotable, the creator of Kara no Kyoukai another series by Type-Moon (creator of Fate/Zero). The animation isn't perfect but it is the best among all anime that has existed to date. The selling point is the lighting, the lighting really reflect a sense of realism and beauty. The only part that is lacking is the background, which sometimes lack details. Compare to majority of anime, it's still really amazing.

• Sound:

Voice acting in this anime is okay but not great, what's amazing is the OST. Fate/Zero has one of the best OST, each and every soundtrack makes the scene more epic and emotional. The opening is just pure amazing especially the second one. Fate/Zero OP2 is one of the best anime opening for me, Kalafina is just amazing. The ED is also great, not the greatest though. This is one of those few anime with all of the OP and ED being amazing.

• Character:

I love every single characters in this anime, there is not one character that I did not like. The reason is because all of them have realistic motive wether it is for good or bad. They all of originality, some are pure epic, some are pure evil and some are just pure awesome. Fate/Zero give details to each characters, showing their motivation and desire, and making it less bias to the main character. My favourite character in the show is Emiya Kiritsugu. Though through majority, rider seems to be the most popular character of the show.

• Enjoyment:

I really enjoyed this anime lot, probably my second most enjoyed anime of all time. From the start to the finale, it's like an non-stop train of action. Although there are some part where I could't find it really enjoying, such as when Gilgamesh and Kirei had that conversation. It took them half an episode to talk about things that aren't important to the show. There are also many moments where it can be quite boring but that's just like 5% of the whole show.

• Overall:

Fate/Zero is a near-perfect show, but it just didn't seem right to give this show a 10/10, maybe because of my enjoyment. But in term of quality, this show is definitely 10/10

Fate/Zero - 9.6/10

Time Alter - Emiya Kiritsugu

itzel63 - 2013-07-16 02:03:42

This was originally a video review, but if you wish to read the transcript I have made it reader friendly!

Written Review:

The Fate Franchise is a series of games and novels made by Japanese game developer type moon, whose most notable works include kara no kyokai, tsukihime and of course the fate series – with Fate/stay night being the most popular of the series. So popular in fact that it spawned an anime adaptation in 2006 despite the original source material actually being an electronic Japanese adult visual novel.

My first run in with fate series was with the Fate Stay/Night anime – a solid action show set in modern times starring a red headed protagonists so full of shit, ­­­he could have taken the award for worlds most cliched dickriding hero if not for him spouting out epic inspirational speeches about how PEOPLE DIE IF THEY ARE KILLED. The whole anime was entertaining but mediocre at best with nothing really standing out except an interesting concept and an exceptionally naïve main character. So when I first heard of Fate/Zero, I was rather reluctant to give it a go in fear of encountering more mediocre characters, predictable stories and cheesy heroic philosophy that at times borders heroic retardedness. Oh how wrong I was.

Fate Zero is the prequel of Fate Stay/Night made by Ufotable and is set 10 years before the events of that anime. It follows the stories of seven different mages as they battle each other in a conflict dubbed the holy grail war. Each mage in the war is able to summon a single servant to assist in battle– a legendary hero that has become famous through the ages either from real historic events or through notable legends. The winner of the holy grail war is able to obtain the holy grail, a magical vessel that is able to grant any wish for both the winning master and servant. That's right it’s a seven on seven tag team battle royal with historic heroes passed down through legends.

The main characters in this anime come in two categories, the 7 mages ranging from an assassin to a priest to a serial killer to a pussy and the 7 servants including such heroes as king Arthur and Alexander the great - they are split into 7 classes called Caster, Assassin, lancer, berserker, saber, rider and archer, each with their own personalities and special abilities that they can use in battle.

Yes there are many battles throughout the series ranging from all out free for all’s to one on one duels to complex mind games which all look absolutely fantastic considering this series seems to be made with a budget that could buy Belgium resulting in near cinematic quality animation, but the one thing that makes the tournament work so well is the lack of an obvious main character and thus final winner - and this is why I'm avoiding any character descriptions. Ok, characters will die off as PEOPLE DIE IF THEY ARE KILLED and some characters get more focus as the story progresses with this being a battle royal, but on the outset careful attention is given with each character - everyone has different agenda’s, motivations along with a multitude of tactics to win the war, and show does well to portray that there is no right way to win the war.

It becomes less of a clash between good and evil as we are so used to seeing but it’s more of a clash of ideology, where every character has different ideals including all the masters and their servants. A big theme with the series is the concept of chivalry and what it means to be a hero. Do you become a hero of justice, upholding your codes of honor and fighting for the good of...well good, do you take all the blood shed on your own shoulders as a dark lone wolf and become the hero that Gotham deserves or do you simply sit around being an arrogant prick in your glowing gold armor like the worlds most glamorous douche bag.

Because all the characters are so well written it’s entertaining to see the relationships and interactions of the cast due to everyones own ideals. Some Master – Servant combo’s become instant BFFs, some hate each other when they are forced to work together, others form secret alliances with each other and one involves the worlds first bromance between enemies where one of the bros is a errr.... Girl. Every character is given a purpose and becomes part of the intricate web of relations with every other character that just makes every interaction all the more interesting, not to mention the way they develop over the course of the show.

Of course there are some stand out characters in the show - most notably being rider who's charisma steals every moment he's on screen and has more awesome stored in his beard alone than any character to come out of recent anime (most interesting man). Not to demerits the battle scenes in the show as the action in fate zero is a thrilling spectacle in it's own right, and for those looking just for some awesome action scenes will not be disappointed with some of the amazing set pieces in fate zero.

The soundtrack is also great getting your heart racing during action scenes and of course doing an amazing job of giving the entire series a grand scale and epic feel during its high points, which it does by using the oldest trick in the book of adding EPIC CHOIRS to everything which is a trick which works so well you could basically add the soundtrack to basically brawl and it’ll sound epic.

It’s a rare anime indeed breaking out of a lot of the tropes set by recent anime - redefining what it means to be a hero, having basically minimal fan service and being an anime set in modern times, where no single character has anything to do with highschool.

No seriously. If there’s one word you could use to describe fate zero is that it’s mature - all the characters baring one are adults and it never assumes the audience is stupid. The tactics used are actually smarter than anything portrayed in other shows such as Code Geass, but is done in a much subtler way and is not so obviously spelt out for the audience to fawn over it – but is definitely smart enough to make this series feel like a 7 way mind game with an exciting story full of twist and turns. Couple this with the scales of the battles and you have yourself an epic. Yes this series is epic, a word that has been lost in the internet generation ever since some kid with a keyboard decided that anything more entertaining than a fucking cat could be dubbed epic.

Fate Zero excels in basically every aspect with animation and action out of this world, a great soundtrack, an engaging story with memorable characters and clever writing that it almost reaches its ambitious scale and becomes the perfect anime….almost. While the series could have been a complete masterpiece there is one glaring fault that cannot be overlooked especially considering everything that it’s trying to achieve – and that is its unfortunate shackle to the fate series itself. The entire world of the of the holy grail war is a complex deep backdrop with enough rules to make the death note look like a colouring book and it can get quite confusing at times for those not already familiar with the franchise.

Each character has enough back story to warrant a lecture and because fate zero tried to appeal to newbies of the franchise, they take the term story telling quite literally as the first episode is a 40 minute boring exposition where the series so unsubtly tells you the entire back story, they might as well have just hired david attenbourough and made a bloody documentary of the holy grail war.Even then that wasn't enough since there were times in the latter part of the show where I couldn't fully appreciate everything that was happening on screen and didn't know the full backstory of some of the servants which the series assumes you should know.

This shackle unfortunately also transfers to the ending since the show is forced to set things up for the pre-existing sequel fate stay/night rather than having an awesome climactic ending of it's own, which is a shame because i thought it would benefit from being a stand alone project. It's as if during the final episode the series was trying to tell us "guys I know we made something amazing here but in case you've forgotten - we're still related to that retarded half brother of ours k thx bye" leaving us with quite an anti-climactic ending.

Overall fate zero is not only one of the best anime to come out in recent years, but is one of the most all around balanced anime I've ever seen. It has such a wide appeal i could recommend it to basically anyone sine almost every aspect of it gets top marks baring the info dump of a first episode and the anti-climactic last episode which could prevent it from getting a perfect score, but it dances so close to perfection with such an ambitious and difficult series to pull of that I could almost forgive it.

bryon63 - 2013-07-07 21:04:41

Before reading, please bear in mind that I consider both the first and second season of Fate/Zero as a whole, and this is a review about the complete work.From the very first minutes of its premiere, Fate/Zero grabbed my attention. No, that’s not correct. I’d be lying if I denied being hyped for this way before it started airing. However, it still managed to surpass my expectations with that double-sized first episode that not only sported movie-like animation quality, but also managed to make exposition exciting rather than boring. In sum, once it got my attention, it never let go. 9 episodes in, and I had already finished the light novels, which became one of my favorite books to date and took the anticipation for what was about to come in animated form even further.Being a prequel to Fate/Stay Night, it shares its premise of the Holy Grail War – a battle royale between seven magi, who each summons a Servant – a Heroic Sprit that’s essentially the embodiment of a legend from another age - in order to obtain the Holy Grail, a wish-granting instrument capable of realizing miracles. It’s a rather simple premise, but it is one with a great potential, for it can develop in really any way you can imagine.While the premise isn’t new, the execution is top notch, its presentation exceeding most of what we’ve seen in the latest years. With the jaw-dropping action scenes and overall excellent animation (it did have its not-so-good moments, but in a whole it was simply amazing), ufotable have outdone themselves, delivering a visual quality hardly ever scene in a TV series.But Fate/Zero isn’t all about action. In fact, the action frequently takes a backseat, reminding us what this series is all about – the characters and their pursuit and struggle for their ideals and innermost wishes. In this 4th Holy Grail War, instead of teenagers who were unwillingly dragged into it (mostly), we have mature adults who each have their reasons to fight and wishes they’d give their life for. Adding to that the Servants and some other relevant characters, we have a great and varied cast to explore. And does the series succeed in doing so? I believe it does. A bigger cast often means less time available for each character to be presented and developed. I won’t say Fate/Zero completely surpassed this problem, since time was, in fact, a real issue, and this is the one and only reason I find the novels slightly better. However, it did manage to create believable characters and show us a bit of each point of view. But most of all, their characterization was great, to the point that even if we didn’t get much time to sympathize with some of the characters themselves, we got to understand what drove their actions.And here is where one of the biggest strengths in Fate/Zero lies. Through each character’s mindset, we’re presented one different mindset, one different way of life. The focus on this contrast and on the arguments about what one should pursue and the right way to do it makes this series an engaging and thought-provoking one like not many others can boast of. It's ultimately a story of pursuing one's ideals, and screwing one's own life for blindly doing so. But the questions it raises along the way are nowhere near discreditable, as it presses the viewers' to analyze the characters' views on life and trying to realize their own, since neither of the mindsets portrayed are presented as being the correct one. That lack of a pure white, each character having its good and bad traits and its moments of morally questionable decisions, pulls this series away from the dichotomous division we've grown so accustomed to. That's also something to be taken into account, since it makes the characters, those we end up liking and those we don't, feel more human and more believable.The soundtrack, which plays a big part in the spectators' immersion, always stroke the right notes, managing to be ever-present and elevating the emotional impact. However, it managed to do so without feeling forced, which is a big plus on my books, seeing as there are series in which it feels so manipulative you could cry on the music alone. It is, in fact, missing a song that most people wanted, but that point alone doesn’t detract it from being an excellent musical score, which is complimented by both likable OPs and EDs, which fit the theme and mood of the series in their particular moments.Fate/Zero is a series that can be brutal and heartwrenching to watch, for at its core lies tragedy and despair. Despite all that, or should I say, because to all that, it managed to be both intellectually and emotionally compelling. It’s a healthy mix between realism and fantasy, honorable heroes from other age and ruthless man from the modern world who’ll stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Of course that inside these two generalized divides, there are great differences as well and with this varied a cast, there’s bound to be something for everyone.As a prequel to Fate/Stay Night, it had its fated shortcomings, such as the fact that most viewers already knew its ending, or that the ending couldn’t be as conclusive and wrap every plot point. However, due to its impressive writing, the knowledge of how it ended became anticipation to see how it would get there, and the finale was conclusive enough to get a nearly perfect closure on the characters and the outcome of the 4th Holy Grail, if nothing else, resulting in a satisfying conclusion which still put many of the half-assed endings we see to shame. With this in mind, Fate/Zero is a prequel to Fate/Stay Night, which means it’s better appreciated with knowledge of its continuation, but still manages to stand on its own as a great narrative I will not forget in a long, long time.

caden67 - 2013-06-28 08:18:31

This Review is out of 100. 35/100 for Story, 35/100 for Characters, 15/100 for Sound, 15/100 for AnimationStory - 31/35 -Just when you thought Fate/Zero couldn't be more epic. Everything gets better in this series. More action, some unexpected plot twists, and much more. The story continues where season 1 stopped, and it uses the buildup to its advantage. The story flowed along nicely, and I especially liked the ending. The ending itself was good, but what I really liked was how the last episode was more like an epilogue to the series. I like that everyone and everything seemed to get wrapped up after episode 25, and the only loose ends are the ones explained in Fate/Stay Night. The problems with the show are the fact thats you needed to know some stuff about the Fate Franchise to understand everything that happened, and if you know about the franchise odds are you saw Stay Night, which means the ending came as no surprise to you. It's one of those problems that comes from being a prequel. Also, it sets the stage for Fate/Stay Night, so you will have to watch it to get the "complete story", and that anime is garbage (compared to this). Characters - 32/35 - When I said everything get better, I meant it. The main characters all got more developed, especially Kiritsugu and Kirei. While we see Kirei develop the most out of the cast, we learn little about his past. For Kiritsugu, we learn a lot about his past (2 full episodes worth), and he doesn't start changing until the end. This show likes making the characters break down, and I must say it is really effective. The endings for each character is different, some get good endings, others are more bittersweet, while others are just sad. All of the characters (the ones that lived anyway) get more interesting compared to season 1. Sound - 14/15 - I still found the openings and endings to be lackluster. While the score is still great, this is not the composers best work (really good, just not the best). As I said before the dub sounds acceptable (for people who prefer dubs) but if you are like me and don't really care I say pick the sub on this one.Animation 15/15 - I want to give it more, like a 16 because it STILL looks this good after 2 season. Most shows start to deteriorate a little after a while, but this show looks great up until the very last scene. Overall - 92/100 - I gave Season 1 a 86/100, which would put this show around the 89 to 90 mark. A great series indeed. Not perfect, but easily one of the best I have seen and one of the best of 2012.

zelda.bogisich - 2013-06-23 20:05:19

TYPE-Moon, The masterpieces created by this one studio and yet another one can be added, Fate/Zero 2nd Season starts out exactly where the first left us off and continues the fight for the Holy Grail.What you immediately notice after watching the first episode is that it became more dark, they don't mind letting people die and the overall theme is creepy and mysterious, to me a big improvement. This continues in the rest of this anime and more action than in its prequel, which is good, not to say I disliked hearing them talk and learning about the background of the characters, but with talking nobody will win the Holy Grail.A maybe small and trivial thing about this what I liked was that it wasn't really focused on one pair, every master/servant had their reasons for fighting and most of them weren't wrong, I liked it how we saw parts of every pair's actions and thoughts, this was well done and this is one of the many things which makes this better than Fate stay/night.The episodes itself are divided fairly well, although two episodes of Kiritsugu's or Kerry's past might just be too much. The others consist of lots of fighting which the first season lacked a bit.What played a small part in people's minds who already watched Fate stay/night is: How are they going to connect this to the Fate stay/night, the answer was a little disappointing, I would have loved to see some more drama added to it, all of it seemed a bit rushed towards the end. Though that is the only bad thing I have to say about this fantastic anime.The animations are done very well, the action and slashing and special moves look nice and the character look vivid. Nothing changed from the first season, which is a good thing since that also had amazing visuals.With the amazing opening and ending theme of the first season expectations are high, but they did a great job of creating a new opening, it feels more creepy/dark, exactly how the new season feels and its theme. They didn't add a lot of new VA's/seiyuu, only thing I can say is that Shirou's VA sounded rather cheeky, a bit conceited if you ask me, not completely reflecting Shirou's personality, nothing too major to actually care about though.With the second season having a way higher pace of story than the first, character don't need to be explained that much more, with the exception of Kiritsugu, we get to see the past of the famed "Magus Killer" which was a nice addition, not too satisfying though, could have shown a bit more of Kiritsugu being ruthless and all. Lastly I thought how Kiritsugu acted was nice and refreshing to see, it was a nice break from the typical shounen/naive boy who wins things with his willpower, he wasn't a typical hero, none of them were it was war and the strongest survived that was all there was to it, no good guy vs bad guy, just two ideals.Best thing in this anime:- The action and the new general feel of this anime.Worst thing in this anime:- The rather disappointing/(maybe) rushed end.Life lesson learnt: Gaining things with wishes are fake, things are gained by effort.