Review of Fate/Zero
Fate/Zero is one of those anime I had to look up after I finished. Fate/Zero is as complex as things like Lain and Haibane Renmei. In this review, I will talk about the execution of Fate/Zero as well as give some thoughts on the characters and story. Fate/Zero is one of the best-executed anime I’ve seen. The visuals and sound are phenomenal. The animation quality is massive. The art style is beautiful. The backgrounds are stunning. The characters are well designed. The only thing that stands out is a lack of good directing. The directing is very average and mainstream, but not to the pointthat it hinders Fate/Zero. Fate/Zero also contains the best sound of any anime I’ve seen. The voice acting is superb, some of the best I’ve ever heard. The sound effects are intricately detailed and high quality; they’re on a level I didn’t quite know was possible. The music is beautiful. Fate/Zero is just a breathtakingly well-made anime.
As much as the execution carries Fate/Zero, what I enjoyed the most about it were its characters. The shounen style characters like Saber, Lancer, Rider, and Waver Velvet are a grounding force to the sociopaths of the series and supply a stark contrast in both character, and writing. What I mean by that is that they showcase how good the writing is given that the writers could write someone as righteous, simple, and honorable as Saber while simultaneously write someone as empty and depraved as Kirei Kotomine. The simple fact that they could put these two characters in the same anime is an accomplishment of storytelling. The highlight of Fate/Zero though is the sociopaths. Everyone else: Emiya Kiritsugu, Gilgamesh, Berserker, Caster, Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald, Zouken Matou, Ryuunosuke Uryuu, etc. Most of the time, in anime like this, the evil characters tend to be exaggerated like in Fate/Stay Night and Re:Zero, like Zouken Matou. However, Zouten Matou and Caster are the only characters in Fate/Zero that are that kind of pure evil. Everyone else is more of a psychopath or sociopath than just pure evil. People like them do exist. I believe that all those anime with overly exaggerated evil psychopath characters strive to make characters like the ones in Fate/Zero but they all fail. Skirting this fine line between realistically evil characters and unrealistically evil characters is what makes Fate/Zero the masterpiece that it is.
These characters are only given a chance to shine because of the story, however. The plot of Fate/Zero is what allows for these types of characters to exist. I feel like I lack the words to describe how great the story in Fate/Zero is. The best comparison I can make is to imagine Fate/Stay Night if it had been done well. Where Fate/Stay Night failed with cohesiveness and just making sense in general, Fate/Zero excelled. I mean, when you have to pull an Evangelion ending just to explain what is going on, you know the writers are trying. I love that by the way, I haven’t seen it again since Evangelion where we go into the mind of a character and have existential dialogues with omnipotent beings. Not even Lain pulled it off. Lain just had existential dialogues with omnipotent beings in the physical world. I’m rambling. I loved the story.
Fate/Zero is a masterpiece among masterpieces. I hold it with the highest regard. At the time of this writing, it’s the first anime to break my top ten in years. I didn’t even have a top 10. I had a top 9 because I didn’t feel anything else was worthy of being on that list, until now.
PS: The question comes up (I had this question): Do you need to see Fate/Stay Night before Fate/Zero? The answer is quite regrettably yes. I hated Fate/Stay Night (read my review for details) and the entire time I was watching Fate/Zero I was looking for reasons to argue that Fate/Stay Night wasn’t worth watching, even for Fate/Zero’s sake. However, as garbage of an anime as Fate/Stay Night is, I do believe the enhancements it provides to Fate/Zero outweigh the suffering required to make it through Fate/Stay Night.