Review of Fate/Zero
Maturity is something that has become increasingly rare in anime over the years, which is really unfortunate since a fair portion of the best anime ever made either deal with very mature themes or consist of an all adult cast. Take Death Note, Monster, Cowboy Bebop and Steins;Gate as examples of this. I was delighted to see that Fate/Zero both features an all adult cast and is consistently very mature. The show manages to do both of these things spectacularly. Note: To fully understand this review, please read the synopsis of Fate/Zero. (This will obviously not be necessary if you’ve seen the show already.) Whyyou should do this is to fully understand my arguments and opinions since I won’t bother writing a personal synopsis of the entire show. This review will cover both seasons of Fate/Zero and I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I have watched all 25 episodes twice to ensure that my opinions and thoughts after I watched it the first time weren’t biased.
Story: 9 [Fantastic]
In the world of anime, prequel stories are almost completely unheard of due to the risk they bring with them, as a huge amount of people, myself included, believe that the ending can either make or break a show, depending how the ending itself is handled.
First, let’s determine what defines a good ending. Obviously, the answer will vary between individuals, but in my mind a good ending should at least fulfill three out of the four following criteria: It should feel satisfying. It should not be predictable. It should conclude the various character arcs. And last but not least, it should of course wrap up the whole story with a neat little rosette.
The only problem here is that Fate/Zero is the prequel to Fate/Stay Night, and by its nature as a prequel the ending can’t fulfill the vast majority of criteria needed to be a good ending. It can’t be unexpected nor unpredictable since the outcome of the show is already known due to the ladder half of the whole story being released years earlier. Neither can it conclude the story properly since the show must tie into the story of Fate/Stay Night and must thus leave the ending almost completely open. With the ending failing in these two aspects it also automatically fails a third; being satisfying. This is because the ending can’t miss out on two vital aspects and still be considered a satisfying conclusion. The only criteria the show hits is that it does an incredible of job tying up the multiple character arcs, considering how large the cast of Fate/Zero is.
Unfortunately, there are flaws in the storytelling of Fate/Zero other than the ending. People who don’t know anything about the Fate universe might find the story confusing and the show seems to be aware of this as the first episode of the show is basically a 45 minute bog of pure exposition. This is done to make things less overwhelming and confusing to new viewers of the show, but it instead manages to do the opposite in many cases. It pushes people away from the series rather than properly engaging them and capturing their interest. The first episode dumps so much information on you that you don’t really know what to do with it since you have no points of reference to tie it to if you’re new to the Fate universe. However, the show then promptly awards the viewers who had enough patience to sit through the first episode.
As you might have noticed, I rewarded the story of Fate/Zero a nearly perfect score of 9/10, but up until this point I’ve only been talking about the cons of the show. So how did Fate/Zero get awarded such a high score in terms of its story? It’s pretty simple, actually. You fill the 25 episodes to the brim with a surprisingly coherent and engaging plot, impeccable character interactions, fantastic world building and enough backstory to make the entire history of Game of Thrones seem easy to memorize in comparison.
The reason why I didn’t expect the overarching story of Fate/Zero to be as coherent as it turned out to be is due to the plot being told from not one, not two but seven completely different perspectives. These seven are the perspectives of the seven pairs of masters and their servants as they battle it out, Battle Royal style to win the Holy Grail in the “Holy Grail War”. Telling a single story from so many different angles is no easy feat but Fate/Zero pulls this off almost flawlessly.
The story of Fate/Zero manages to be incredibly captivating thanks to its mature nature and clever writing that actually makes the actions and tactics used by the master-servant teams seem well thought out and actually viable in the various situations they’re put in. What’s more the show never assumes that the viewer is too dumb to understand what is going on but still manages to explain everything in a way that felt natural to both the plot and characters. If there was ever a word to describe Fate/Zero, it would be “mature”.
Had Fate/Zero not been connected to Fate/Stay Night both the ending and the show as a whole could’ve benefitted greatly. Unfortunately, it is because of this that the “story” section of the show only receive a 9/10 from me instead of a perfect score.
Art/Animation: 10 [Outstanding]
If there’s anything that’s rarer than seeing a prequel story in the anime world it’s finding a show with such immaculate detail put into each individual frame of each individual scene that every single one of those frames cloud be printed out and used as posters. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s still not far from the truth.
I personally don’t like only giving praise, be it to an anime, video game or even a person. This is because I don’t believe that anything or anyone can be completely flawless. With other words, that nothing is perfect.
Honestly, I had to try my very hardest to find anything, something, some small detail that I could talk about in a negative light in this section, but even after watching the show twice I couldn’t for the life of me find anything that was worth mentioning. Of course, if I really wanted to I could be incredibly picky and talk about how that one character had a kinda wonky facial expression in that one frame in that one scene, but that’s how far I’d have to go to find anything to complain about when it comes to the art/animation of Fate/Zero.
Everything from the incredibly smooth and fluid movements of the characters to the particle effects and lighting looks so good it’s almost unimaginable to think that the show is not a movie, but a 25 part series. The CGI and 3D animation used in Fate/Zero seamlessly blends with the rest and never seems out of place which produces some of the most spectacular action scenes I’ve ever laid my eyes upon.
It’s actually fairly hard to describe in words how fantastic the show really looks as I do believe that it’s only possible to completely grasp by seeing it for yourself. If I had to use words to describe it I’d simply tell you that it looks absolutely stunning, but since that word has been uncontrollably beaten and kicked by people who’d use it to describe the ham sandwich they ate for breakfast two weeks ago, it doesn’t retain much meaning.
The reason why Fate/Zero manages to look so good is because it was made entirely in-house by studio Ufotable. This means that the different departments had much better communication between each other and a clearer vision of what they wanted the show to be than if they had made use of freelancers, which something that happens way more often than not in the world of anime production.
This is the kind of show that looks so good you’d be delighted to watch it even if every other aspect of Fate/Zero would’ve been completely appalling.
Overall, Fate/Zero is by far the best looking show that I’ve watched with the exception of Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works, which was also made entirely by Ufotable, only it’s 4 years newer.
Sound: 8 [Great]
Every show has got to have a “weak” point, and for Fate/Zero, that weak point is the sound. When it comes to the soundtrack, there really isn’t much to mention. I’ve always believed that a truly great soundtrack should emphasize the emotions a certain scene is trying to convey. Unfortunately for the soundtrack, Fate/Zero does such a great job with conveying emotions by itself that the music isn’t necessary to help out with that at most times. However this doesn’t mean that the soundtrack of Fate/Zero is neither bland, boring nor bad. The music in the show is actually highly enjoyable and helps the show set up its epic theme. Certain tracks undeniably had a huge presence during some of the show’s most dramatic and emotional scenes and in said scenes the music really did complement the show as a flawless soundtrack should do and it did make those scenes that much more interesting. However, these moments are fairly few and thinly spread out over the 25 episodes of the show.
As mentioned earlier, the soundtrack is by no means bad but there isn’t anything great enough there that it’d be worth listening to outside of the show. This is with the exception of all of the show’s intros and outros, all of which instantly made it to my “Favorite OPs and EDs” playlist.
In terms of sound design and sound effects, it truly is fantastic. Everything from footsteps to the clashing of swords to massive explosions all sound detailed and clear while also being varied enough to not get annoying, which it can get whenever a show reuses the same sound effect over and over.
The voice acting in Fate/Zero is also top-notch. None of the voices seemed to be out of place or clash with their character and they all sounded very convincing. There definitely is a standout performance in with the rest of the cast. Jouji Nakata, the voice of Kirei Kotomine, truly stole the show whenever he spoke. I don’t want to waste your time simply telling you how good he was, you simply need to experience it for yourself.
Characters: 9 [Fantastic]
Oh boy… Where to start with this one. The cast of Fate/Zero is massive for being a 25 part series with a total of 14 “main” characters and some 10 – 12 minor side characters. The thing that makes this huge cast work so well is that Fate/Zero doesn’t have a single or a small group of main characters, which means that the show can spend an almost equal amount of time with each master-servant pair, thus enforcing the feeling of this being a free for all battle to the death and that anyone can be the last one to stand since no clear victor is given. By its nature as a Battle Royale, the further into the show you go certain characters do get more focus as the cast of characters starts to shrink for obvious reasons.
Each of the seven masters are magic users who have the ability to summon a servant to fight for them, an ability which is granted to them by the Holy Grail. What makes this interesting is that the servants are either great historical figures or ancient legendary heroes. This means that the viewer probably already has a general idea of the backstory of at least some of the characters which can make the reasoning behind the character’s actions easier to understand.
I was amazed by how great Fate/Zero handled its characters, mostly because I didn’t expect the level of character development and careful detail that was put into each and every individual. Almost all the characters have unique and intriguing personalities and they all have their own agendas, morals, ideologies, goals and ways to deal with their current situation. This all makes for some of the most interesting and well written character interactions I’ve seen in a long while. This is especially true when it comes to the master-servant pairs. Most of the pairs presents an interesting dynamic and they are deliberately paired to enforce this dynamic. To improve this further, all pairs feel completely unique and have little to no similarities with each other. I’ll bring up two pairs as examples of this.
The first pair consists of a master named Ryuunosuke Uryuu and his servant; Gille de Rais, otherwise known only as his servant role, “Caster”. Ryuunosuke is a carefree guy whose only goal in life is to entertain himself. The way he entertains himself is quite *ahem* unorthodox, to say the least. In layman’s terms, he kills people for entertainment and finds joy in the despair of others. We get a fairly clear look at his personality straight away as just moments before we are introduced to him for the first time he murdered a young boy’s parents straight in front of him. We then see him painting the summoning circle for a servant with his toes in the dead parents’ blood, while believing that the circle was to be used to summon some kind of daemon. He then unintentionally summons Gille de Rais, a.k.a Caster. Ryuunosuke agrees to partake in the Holy Grail War, not because he’s particularly interested in the Grail nor the war itself, but because he believes that both that war and Caster will be entertaining to him. These two really go hand in hand since they pay little attention to the Holy Grail War as they only want to entertain themselves. It’s truly in the way that these two differ from all the other pairs that makes them all the more interesting.
Pair number two is made up of the master Kiritsugu Emiya and his servant, Saber. As both of them have the same goal, to win the War, they decide that it’d be best to cooperate as much as they can. This turns out to be easier said than done however since neither of them can come to terms with the other persons preferred methods of winning the war. Kiritsugu is the type of man who values the needs of them many above the needs of the few. This means that he would bare handedly kill 100 people to save the lives of 200. This might seem like the “obvious” right choice, but the way he’d go to the edge of the world to see this through, without question, time and time again is what makes him such an interesting morally gray character. Every decision he faces is weighed by his personal moral scale, and he’ll fight with unquestionable determination for the heavier side of that scale every single time. This determination is displayed multiple times throughout the show.
Saber, on the other hand, is on the opposite side of the spectrum from Kiritsugu. She, being a medieval knight, values honor above all and would die for her ideals. She considers Kiritsugu’s methods to be disgraceful and dishonorable and refuses to fully cooperate with him due to their clash of ideologies. Saber would never take advantage of an injured or unaware opponent to win a fight while these opportunities are exactly what Kiritsugu searchers for any time he can. This friction between them is ultimately what makes their pairing so intriguing and makes them stand out from the rest of the teams.
As you might’ve noticed, I never said ALL the pairs or ALL the characters while giving the characters of Fate/Zero praise. This is because the show intentionally ignores one of two of the 14 masters and servants to make further room for the rest of the cast. While I do think that this was the best decision I would’ve wanted the show to truly give all characters the same opportunity to develop. This would’ve been impossible to do without lengthening the show.
Enjoyment: 10 [Outstanding]
If you’ve been paying attention throughout the review you should already know that there is hardly anything I didn’t enjoy throughout Fate/Zero. I never once felt bored or that what I was watching was unnecessary. I loved close to every second of it.
Overall: 9 [Fantastic]
With a fantastic story and even better characters and world class animation to go along with it, there’s not much here to complain about. The music fits perfectly to the story and sets the right tone every single time without fail, but isn’t quite good enough to stand on its own without the rest of the show. The first and last episodes of Fate/Zero are definitely the “worst” in the series, but still manages to be leagues better than the best episodes of most other shows. It should also be important to note that the show is confident enough in its story and characters to carry it that it never tries to gain viewership and attention with unnecessary and disturbing fan service. Yet another sign of maturity.
Fate/Zero is as close to a masterpiece as it can be without actually reaching that oh so desirable title of “masterpiece”. It has truly become a new staple of maturity in anime and I wish there were more like it.