Fate/Zero: Masterpiece or Messy Mashup?

First of all, I would just like to say that it is scary reviewing a well-loved anime. Seriously, there are animes that get hyped up, and then there are those animes whose fans will hunt you down and kill you if you don’t give it the proper respect.

Fate/Zero is one of the latter.

From Wiki:
Fate/Zero (フェイト/ゼロ Feito/Zero^?) is a light novel by Gen Urobuchi, illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi, and is a prequel to Type-Moon’s visual novel, Fate/stay night. The first volume was released on December 29, 2006, and is a collaboration between Type-Moon and fellow developer Nitroplus.^[2] The second volume was released on March 31, 2007. The third volume was released on July 27, 2007. The fourth and final volume was released on December 29, 2007, along with the Fate/Zero Original Image Soundtrack “Return to Zero”. Four sets of Drama CDs were released from 2008 to 2010. An anime adaptation has been produced by ufotable, the first season of which aired from October 1, 2011 and December 24, 2011 and the second season of which aired from April 7, 2012 to June 23, 2012.

Fate/Zero takes place 10 years prior to the events of Fate/stay night, detailing the events of the 4th Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City.^[2] The War of the Holy Grail is a contest in which seven mages summon seven Heroic Spirits to compete to obtain the power of the “Holy Grail,” which grants a miracle. After three inconclusive wars for the elusive Holy Grail, the Fourth War commences.
Founded by the Einzbern, Makiri, and Tōsaka families centuries ago, the Einzbern family is determined to achieve success after three successive failures, no matter the cost. As a result, they have elected to bring the hated magus killer, Kiritsugu Emiya, into their ranks, despite his methods and reputation as a skilled mercenary and a hitman who employs whatever he can use to accomplish his goals. Though Kiritsugu had once wanted to become a hero who could save everyone, he has long since abandoned this ideal upon realizing that saving one person comes at the cost of another’s life. For the sake of humanity, he will ruthlessly destroy anything and anyone who threatens the peace of others.
However, Kiritsugu finds himself deeply torn between the love he has found for his new family - his wife Irisviel and their daughter Illya - and what he must do to obtain the Holy Grail. Meanwhile, Kiritsugu’s greatest opponent appears in the form of Kirei Kotomine, a priest who cannot find any sense of fulfillment in his life and sets his sights on Kiritsugu as the possible answer to the emptiness he feels.

Basically the gist of this long-ass wiki excerpt is that: this is supposed to be a prequel to a previous series, which was called Fate/Stay Night. FSN is generally agreed upon to be “mediocre, bland, and typically harem”, or something to that effect.

Also, I watched Fate/Zero without having read the visual novels, which according to the fans is something you really SHOULD do since it will make Fate/Zero’s plot lines make more sense.

I have two problems with this:

1. If the previous series was not awesome, I would rather not watch it. I know the Visual Novel exists, but that takes us out of the anime category.

2. You mean I have to watch a mediocre series to make this supposedly good series as good as it really should be perceived?

Na’mean?

This is why the prequel/sequel aspect of the entertainment industry is such a touchy subject amongst fans, and it’s not limited to just anime. It’s very subjective to the viewer (for example, I refuse to believe that Aliens 3 exists, lol).

STORYTELLING:

I understand inevitable paths that a prequel plot needs to take, i.e, if this character isn’t alive in the main story, then he better be dead by the end of the prequel, etc.The problem that I see with Fate/Zero is that it’s caged by Fate/Stay Night. Whatever liberties Urobuchi wanted to take with Fate/Stay Zero, he still couldn’t stray too far from the ultimate place this prequel had to end up in. This makes Fate/Zero an anime that does not stand on its own two feet.

In the end, despite a slow start (i.e drawn out exposition episodes to set the stage) I recognized that Fate/Zero was written very solidly, with a few plot/directing quirks here and there that I can forgive:

“We will circle-walk the shit out of this monologue.” ~Tokiomi

The previously released Fate/Stay Night it had to base itself on made it weaker than it deserved to be, which makes me want to give it a sympathy hug and at the same time judge it. *shrug

HOWEVER. I felt for the most part this anime was well-executed and strived to do one better than the circumstances it had to operate in.

I also really loved how they interpreted legendary characters and made them come alive in this series. Granted some of them were too famous for their own good (King Arthur, Alexander the Great), but the series still took some pretty cool liberties with their interpretation, although they were limited by the public’s preconceived notion of those figures.

CHARACTERIZATION:

More episodes = more development. However, even after 2 seasons, I feel Fate/Zero could have done more to flesh out its characters. A lot of scenes in this show portray the characters going through some really dark emotions and even some making really bad/difficult decisions, but you never really see the character develop, and they remain somewhat flat.

Also, you will regret emotionally investing in me.

It almost seems as though you’re watching actors act out a play - you see them making the emotions, but you don’t really sympathize or relate to them because you know they’re just doing it so things move along and we get closer to the end.

Why? Why can’t I make you care about my issues?

The 2 characters that I felt did NOT fall into this category were Iskandar (Rider) and Waver Velvet, the only Master-Servant duo in the entire series that had a real relationship.

Dat shirt.

Rider is without a doubt one of the best characters I have seen in anime in a long time. Sure, he’s not an uncommon character type (big, not too bright, honorable, loved by many), but the way he was portrayed made him truly indelible in my memory. You could say they succeeded in making him larger than life. In both his short-lived glory and positive, influential appeal, he kind of reminds me of Kamina from Gurren Lagann.

Waver Velvet is like Ringo from Mawaru Penguindrum - you hate him, you finally learn to ignore his annoyingness - and then you end up liking him because of his personal development. That’s character development that I want to see more of in anime!

Gilgamesh is also another interesting character (haughty, condescending, a hedonist, flashy), but he never evolves, which some would say is ideal for a villainous type. However this also creates a character that is predictable to a fault, and that makes him a bit flat. You can always count on Gilgamesh to be, well, Gilgamesh.

I will end all my sentences by referring to you as a canine.

The characters that I had a biggest problem with are no less than the 2 main characters,

Kirei

I’ll wait until the whole series is almost over to do what you expect me to do.

and Kiritsugu.

I’m really, really motivated by something.

These guys should be the ones that we know the most about, care about/think about/love/hate/root for throughout the series. Instead, they are enigmatic/hollow for most of the episodes, and you suspect that toward the end the writers suddenly realized they didn’t have a lot of time to flesh them out and crammed a flashback arc into two episodes.

Suddenly, my childhood. Also, adulthood made my eyes really small. ~ Kiritsugu

ART/ANIMATION

I have no problems whatsoever with the art, though. I really loved the way the fight scenes were executed, and the framing and animation were very fluid.

CG was incorporated quite seamlessly, something I always admire as it’s not often done well.

Actually, I wish they hadn’t done it quite so well in this scene. *shudder

IN CONCLUSION

Despite those storytelling qualms I had, this is still a rare breed of anime and is worth the watch.

The ultimately gray morality shown in this series will probably leave you feeling a bit deflated in the end, especially if you haven’t read the visual novels.

Actually, gray morality is an understatement -]

The meaning of a “hero” is called into question,

the people with the best intentions don’t get rewarded,

You REALLY don’t get rewarded.

The reward kind of sucks

Trolly Grail

and the villains seem to be getting off scot-free.

Surprise!

There isn’t much satisfaction in a traditional story-telling sense, especially if you had an expected resolution in mind, but I feel better knowing that it probably got addressed in the story that follows.

I really wanted to enjoy Fate/Zero by itself, but it is still a good, solid anime with better writing than most, and I’m giving it two thumbs up.

Story: 7/10
Art: 8.5/10
Music: 7/10

Mawaru Penguindrum: Genius or Trainwreck?

From Wiki:

Penguindrum (輪るピングドラム Mawaru Pingudoramu^?) is a 2011 Japanese anime series produced by Brain’s Base. The series is directed and co-written by Kunihiko Ikuhara and was broadcast in Japan from July 8, 2011 through December 23, 2011.^[2]Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series for North America, while Kazé UK has licensed the series in the United Kingdom and Siren Visual has licensed the series in Australia and New Zealand.

A terminally ill girl named Himari Takakura is miraculously saved from death by a strange spirit who resides in a penguin-shaped hat. However, in exchange for extending her life, the spirit tasks Himari’s brothers, Kanba and Shouma, to seek out an item known as the Penguin Drum with assistance from a trio of strange penguins.

This review is not an entirely favorable one. So if you’re an MP fan and dislike anyone saying anything bad about it, please don’t continue reading. :)

cons:

heavy handed symbolism causing viewers to overthink or look for something that isn’t there
 
Glaring plot-holes - M***** is a bitch in the hat, Natsume clan episodes unnecessary, 

Mario in hat unexplained, Child Broiler real or not?, Natsume kisses Kanba, her biological brother! « this is just plain irresponsible storytelling.

 ( I won’t go too much into detail because I don’t want to spoil)

irregular pacing - 24 episodes repeating the same things over and over. We get it, ok?

Let me say this straight off the bat - I enjoyed the art/animation all the way to the end, but I did not enjoy the story past the first few episodes. I always had this niggling feeling as I plowed through the rest of the show that they were wasting valuable air time with repetitive scenes to show symbolism that had already been shown.

Meaningless, insignificant scenes unimportant to the overall message of the show are given too much spotlight or importance, leading viewers on a wild goose chase.

Hi! I’m the Bitch Queen. When you get to the ending episodes, you’ll realize that my whole 80’s act was NOT PART OF THE STORY. At the end I also suddenly change personalities and then you go “ohhhhhh so you really WERE ——-“. You could have realized who I really was right from the start, but that’s no fun!

‘Sup, I’m Mario. What I stand for is really important, but you’ll only see me about 3 times in the entire series. TROLLFACE.JPG

The Child Broiler - real or not? Interpret meeeeeeeee

Hi Kanba! I’m Natsume! I’m your biological sister! Welcome to MY family!

What this does is desensitize the viewer to what is meaningful in the show and what isn’t. It’s exactly like the Takakura house, cluttered and full of clashing colors. I love how the house looks, I hate what it stands for.

It could just as easily have been possible to create this show with the same visuals and even the same heavy handed symbolism, but to have picked out what was important and what wasn’t instead of making every little thing stand out, drowning important details in chaos.

Not everything is nonsense though, and I do appreciate some refreshing visual aids used here. For example, the penguins are not unnecessary and are amazing plot devices. Especially when two characters face off, their penguins (who are like daemons in The Golden Compass) are a barometer of the character’s feelings, motives, intent, or thoughts.

What happens to the penguins happens to the owner, and vice versa. These trash bins are in Episode 1, but the words (recyclable, flammable, non-recyclable) relate to something that happens to their owners in Episode 24 (Kanba turns to glass - recyclable, Shoma burns (flammable), Himari remains (non-recyclable)! I wish this kind of beautiful symbolism was more consistent in the show, because when it makes sense, it’s so awesome.

A little discernment and a bit of directorial compassion, maybe, for less mature/knowledgeable audiences would have made a world of difference and improved the storytelling drastically.

I mean, Watchmen wasn’t something younger comic fans would have gotten, but the recent adaptation made it accessible to them, which is an amazing feat. I don’t particularly love Watchmen, but I admire how the movie was executed because it had finesse and it had that self-awareness. Therefore, it is possible to cram years/decades of meaning and implication into 3 hours without completely ruining it.

Back to MPD. Because this is done in true Ikuhara style, viewers have to expect non-classical interpretations of classical themes like fate, love, rebirth, death and even family. By non classical I mean that what we define fate, love, rebirth and death as -  are are not necessarily the same definitions used for this show.

Suddenly, naked

DEFINITELY NOT THE TRADITIONAL DEFINITION OF FAMILY. “Hi, I’m Himari. I been yer sister for many years. BOOYAH! Loss of innocence! Gonna kiss summady!

Bet you weren’t expecting that one! Welcome to my family!”

From the onset, the premises are skewed, so there is a constant feeling of being unbalanced, the inability to level the plot line and decode the message. Formalistic and nonsensical are the closest words  I can use to describe this. When I say nonsensical, I mean in a literary sense - there is a category for Nonsense Literature popularized by the likes of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, where nonsense is defined as both the lack of sense and an excess of sense - which I assume applies more to this show - an overflow of meaning. 

Formalist is defined as a method of aesthetic analysis that emphasizes structural elements and artistic techniques rather than content. That doesn’t mean I’m into it. 

Suddenly, vaginal canals

Plot twists aplenty negate any sort of logic created by the show, halting progression and impeding development. Promising developments in a previous episode are negated in the next, causing the story to become stagnant and illogical. Foreshadowing exists, but the hints point to a plot line that eventually gets shot down in a plot twist, making you wonder why they did the foreshadowing in the first place.

Trolly Sanetrollshi is trolly. “I think I’ll fake foreshadow something today!”

All in all you get the sinking feeling that the writers suddenly didn’t know how to handle a story that got out of control somewhere in the middle episodes, and instead just stuffed it to the fabulous max with more symbolism.

Suddenly, boxes

Some viewers are worshipping this show, saying it made them think, and that’s why it’s brilliant. To me, however, there is a difference between a show that makes you think and afterwards gain insight, and a show that makes you think purposelessly. My main complaint is that this show has no restraint, turning what could have been a stroke of genius into an intellectual mishmash.

Suddenly, more naked with a different brother

Interpretation free-for-all, y’all!

How do I know viewers are thinking about this show but not really gaining any insight? Because their reviews always start with: “I didn’t really understand this show all that much but….”

I don’t believe in that sort of elitist direction, especially in animated productions. The audience SHOULD be able to access the show’s message (even if they have to work for weeks decoding it), and the message I got from Mawaru Penguindrum (aside from “fate =/= love + punishment) was: “You may try to understand me, but I’m beautiful and hard to comprehend and that’s all the reason I need to exist. So don’t even try to understand me because that’s not the point. It’s the journey not the destination.” 

The moment an anime is self-admittedly inacessible, that’s when it becomes unappealing to me.

Don’t get me wrong, I pretty much got the whole plot-line and I do agree that it seems complex. However, in reality it’s one-sided, flat and self-contradictory despite the attempt to make it seem karmic, all-encompassing and cyclical.

Circles. Karma. 1995. Trains. Apples. Adam and Eve. Pairs. Halves. Fate. Fatefatefatefatefaaaaaaaaaaate. OK ALREADY!

I feel responsible toward anything I watch, so I have a pretty good background on Ikuhara, the relevant real-life incidents/shows/bands/tropes/movies referenced in this show, as well taking the actual time to analyze the mind boggling amount of symbolism in both the art and high-context language.

Also, watching the end is strangely parallel to the ending of Lost - great hype, crappy payoff.

pros:

heavy handed symbolism (yes, I typed it twice intentionally. In the episodes where it was done right, the symbolism was beautiful and compelling.)

beautiful art and animation 

deviates from mainstream storytelling (causing discussion and debate, which is a good thing)

I spent a good amount of time researching just because I don’t review any show without giving it my best shot, and at the end of the day, despite its flaws, 

Mawaru Penguindrum an amazingly animated, ridiculously detailed show that is worth watching for those things alone.

I think I can say that this is one of the most beautiful animes I have ever seen, in my whole life.

The composition of the scenes are absolutely brilliant.

Just look at that.

This kitchen shot blew my mind. You don’t see this kind of composition and framing in many animes.

In conclusion:

It is by no means a cheap piece of fluff, but I don’t believe it’s the genius show everyone is claiming it is. What it is, is DIFFERENT.

 Watch this with a grain of salt, don’t be swayed by the rabid fans and forum posts, and keep your head on your shoulders, lol.

(A funny thing occurred to me: Can you imagine making the people who hated Prometheus watch this show? If they thought that movie had tons of unanswered questions, boy oh boy are they in for a reckoning with Penguindrum!)

I stick with my philosophy that watching anything, anime, movies, cartoons, indie films - should allow the viewer to derive a modicum of satisfaction or enjoyment from the exercise.

 I suggest people don’t overanalyze Mawaru Penguindrum and just sit back and not expect too much out of it, and it will literally open up new worlds to you. 

Whether you like what you see or not is entirely up to you!

Anime reviews coming up:
Steins;Gate, Fate/Zero, Madoka Magica, Sakamichi no Apollon!

All amazing shows that deserve reviews and I’m pretty daunted about writing about them all. haha.
Ja ne!
My other blogs: 
Davao Food, Places, and General Awesomeness : Davao-Review.blogspot.com
Books, Comics, Movies and Art : Culture-Popp.blogspot.com
Alternative Beauty Reviews: Beautyandthebleep.blogspot.com

Shaman King, Sword Art Online, and Space Brothers

I’ve been checking out a bunch of new AND old anime and this week I watched 3. These won’t be super in-depth reviews, since I haven’t finished all of them, but these posts will be more like a “check out this new anime and let’s watch these together” kind of thing.

SHAMAN KING

This is the oldest shounen/shonen of the bunch. A typical shonen is an anime that is geared towards young boys, but shonen animes are my favorite (which is why I love One Piece, Bleach and Naruto along with the rest of the horde).

Taken from Wiki:

Manta Oyamada, a shrimpy, studious, yet cowardly, middle-school student from Tokyo, attempts a shortcut one night through the graveyard to get home after a late night of cram school. While travelling through it, he encounters Yoh Asakura and his “companions”: a graveyard filled with ghosts. Yoh reveals himself to be a shaman, a medium between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Yoh also demonstrates shamans’ ability to unite with ghosts to achieve a shared goal. Quickly after meeting one another, Yoh and Manta become best friends while Yoh uses his shamanic abilities to help them out through various tasks.
The Shaman Fight is a battle held once every 500 years between competing shamans to choose a winner who will become the highly sought-after “Shaman King”, one who is able to contact the Great Spirit (the spirit that every soul will eventually go back to). The winner gains the ability to reshape the world in any way they want.

The Shaman King manga was serialized in 1998, and the anime began airing in 2003, which tells you that it’s OLD. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this and have gotten to episode 49 out of the total 64. I always enjoy shonen with a relatively small number of episodes because

1. They tend to be better-written
2. The fillers don’t ruin an otherwise perfectly good plot arc
3. They give you a good chunk of story in a relatively short amount of time

Shaman King embodies all of those qualities, but it’s not perfect. For example, some of its humor in the latter episodes include a team member Chocolove (whose seiyuu sounds suspiciously like Naruto) making semantics/pronunciation related jokes (the equivalent of an English Pun). Of course, this is a little hard to get into especially if you don’t watch a lot of anime and Japanese isn’t your first language. Despite this, the characters are easy to sympathize with, and they’re pretty well-developed considering they’re a bunch of shrimpy grade schoolers.

The art is a bit outdated, so prepare yourself for it if you plan to watch this anime. Some themes also tend to get repetitive, since I think the audience they’re targeting must be middle-school aged. Still, this anime remains a strong contender for best shonen even in 2012, so if you’re into shonen like I am, check it out.

Story: 8/10
Art: 6/10
Music: 6/10

—————————————————————————————————

SPACE BROTHERS

I only started watching this anime, and I already love it.

From Wiki:

Space Brothers(宇宙兄弟 Uchū Kyōdai^?) is a Japanese manga series by Chūya Koyama serialized in Weekly Morning. It has been nominated twice for the Manga Taishō, in 2009 and 2010.In 2011, it won the award for best general manga at the 56th Shogakukan Manga Awards^[3] and at the Kodansha Manga Award (shared with Chica Umino’s March Comes in Like a Lion). An anime adaptation by A-1 Pictures began airing in Japan from April 1, 2012. It was adapted into a live action film that premiered on May 5, 2012.
The story follows two brothers, Mutta and Hibito Nanba, who, in the summer of 2006, discovered a UFO which flew to the moon. In 2025, as Hibito has managed to become an astronaut set to go to the moon, Mutta has not been so successful in achieving his dream of going to Mars. That is, until he is accepted to join an astronaut training program.

This is not a shonen, but I was surprised to find myself riveted to this anime. I don’t usually like stories with uber specific storylines or themes, since I sometimes feel this creates a limited avenue for storytelling, but that is absolutely not the case with Space Brothers. Even the star of the anime, a 32-year old burnout called Nanba Mutta, is the star simply because he is the least special, most ordinary, most nondescript human being you could meet. That alone already makes this anime seem like it’s going to bore you out of your mind, but it doesn’t. The art isn’t anything amazing either, but what this anime has in spades (that I couldn’t quite put my finger on at the start) is heart. After watching each episode you feel like you just shared in the personal growth that Nanba Mutta achieves, which makes him the best kind of protagonist - a relatable, imperfect human who never stops dreaming and improving.

The humor is also very subtle and not in-your-face, which the art complements perfectly.

Another thing I love about this anime is the MUSIC.

From the intro, outro, and all throughout each episode you get the distinct feeling that whoever directed the episodes put a lot of emphasis on timing the music justright. Which makes a lot of sense, considering this doesn’t have any flashy fights, effects, or anything to take away from each conversation. The music usually consists of woodwinds, orchestra, or piano themes, which are always in movies about space and starry skies. There is also the occasional punk-rock intro, which fits Nanba Mutta’s personality.

I wasn’t surprised to find out that Space Brothers is now a live-action film, because it’s the kind of anime that translates really well into human acting, so much that you forget it’s an anime and sometimes feel like you’re watching a really well-done dramedy.

Story: 9/10
Art: 8/10
Music: 9/10

—————————————————————————————————

SWORD ART ONLINE

Sword Art Online (ソードアート・オンライン Sōdo Āto Onrain^?) is a Japanese light novel series by Reki Kawahara, with illustrations by Abec. It has been adapted into three manga, an anime and a video game.
In the year 2022, the Virtual reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Sword Art Online (SAO), is released. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user’s five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.
On November 6, 2022, all the players log in for the first time, and subsequently discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game’s tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world. The story follows Kirito, a skilled player who is determined to beat the game. As the game progresses, Kirito eventually befriends a female player named Asuna who becomes his partner and lover. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba’s avatar in SAO, they confront and defeat him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.

I just started watching this anime as well, and I love it, despite my misgivings about the latest story arc. I have currently watched up to episode 18, and am waiting with the rest of the world for the next installment.

First thing you notice when you watch this anime is that the art is ridiculously good.

The anime works around a concept that hits surprisingly close to home because MMORPG’s are currently very popular in real life, so it’s not illogical to assume that the next step in gaming is to actually BE your pixelized avatar and do all the role playing yourself, inside your own virtual body. Think of it as a cross between the Matrix, Surrogates, Sims, and Ragnarok all at once.

Also because the anime is about a virtual fantasy world, the art is amazing, and never lazy.

Fight scenes aren’t as flashy as you might expect, even with all the nice sparkly effects, so don’t expect something along the lines of Bleach or Naruto where every scene is a big drawn-out fight. Just like MMORPG’s aren’t always about fighting the bosses on every level, this anime takes advantage of the gamer’s natural tendency to want to explore strange new worlds and discover new things rather than get into confrontations all the time.

It’s still roughly categorized as a shonen, but it’s also a coming of age and growing up story, so you get a lot of blushing girls, crushes on senpais, romantic themes and the occasional boob-level shot. Nothing as in your face as Fairy Tail or High School of The Dead boob shots, though.

Back to my storyline complaint. So here you have a perfectly good premise, amazing art, pretty good pacing, and you decide to introduce an incestous theme. That’s right, in the latest arc, the protagonist Kirito has a weird underlying incest subplot with his sibling, Suguha (who is actually his cousin). This may seem a little less weird when you know that in Japan, marriage between first cousins is permitted, but it is still unnecessarily gross in my opinion. Also, there’s no real incest in the arc, but it’s implied enough to make you uncomfortable.

However, nothing has yet developed to make that uncomfortable feeling turn into disgust in my case, so I’m willing to give it a chance, especially since the rest of it is so good.

Story: 7/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 8/10

Check back for more anime reviews! Ja ne!








My other blogs:


Davao Food, Places and General Awesomeness Davao-Review.blogspot.com
Books, Comics, Movies and Art : Culture-Popp.blogspot.com
Alternative Beauty Reviews : Beautyandthebleep.blogspot.com