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