Review of Fate/Zero

This review applies for both seasons of Fate/Zero and it is my only experience of the Fate universe, so I will review it from the perspective of a standalone anime, with no universe tie in. I assume that there's a lot of things that were done to show tie ins and could be interesting for Fate fans and the people that have knowledge of the universe and they will have a different appreciation of this. Just know that this series sets the events of its sequel in motion and I think, and this is definitely not a guarantee, merely a suspicion so you might wantto consult someone other than me, that you might want to start off with one of its sequels and then watch this to fill in the gaps if you deemed those any good.

First of all, the first season of Zero and the second season of Zero are not in any way independent and they pretty much feel like they shouldn't be considered separate seasons by any means. Hence expect when picking up Zero to go on a journey of 26 episodes rather than merely 13.

Anyway, let me actually talk about what happens in Fate. So Fate is a story where an omnipotent wish granting device picks seven participants which it arms with spirits which they have to make kill each other. It is not demanded for the people who control the spirits to kill each other because the control will just be sent to a different person but the master provides them with a form and whatnot. Basically, you have a story where people have to kill each other. So in other words, it's a death game. So my problem with Fate is... that pretty much nothing to further this death game happens. More often than not the characters will find a reason to retreat and not commit to the events happening around them or create some reason to approach things in a different way than the most efficient way and what not. And you will be mostly left with one question most of the time.

Why?

Why would an omnipotent wish granting device just... not be taken more seriously? Why are the heroic spirits so free to do whatever the fuck they want? And why does everyone approach the war the way they do? Most of these questions will be answered or at least have some rational explanation you can fill in... in the second half of the season. The first half of the series is basically like a game of Monopoly where every player is in jail. You're constantly rolling the dice but not advancing by any means. And I gotta say, it's pretty annoying. Zero basically stacks up a couple of things and then keeps stacking them up, changes their order a bit and only in the second season, uses anything its build up and somewhat ties it together.

But there are things that are questionable in the logic of the events and the characters, I'll try to be vague as to not spoil you but let me present you some situations. Say you have something that goes through your defense and you're fighting someone that is famous for fighting people mastering the type of defensive technique you own. How do you choose to proceed in your fight? A) Tighten your defense. B) Find some way to dodge the attack in the future. OR another thing, you know magic is a thing right. In order to ensure you kill someone, what do you do? A) Stab them and leave them to bleed out. B) Kill them on the spot so nothing can regenerate them through magic? OR another thing, lets say again, you know magic is a thing. You see someone being able to travel at fast speeds but not through their usual means. What do you assume? A) It's totally that guy. B) It's probably some shapeshift.

Unfortunately, I can honestly go on and on like this. There's so many situations in Zero that are like this that are ridiculous. Thus most fights in the series are either: completely one sided with you knowing the victor from the start because, really? OR Wait why would you do that? Like Zero has nice visuals, but the fights only excel in their looks rather than their content. There were only two fights in the series that I could find entertaining, everything else was just boring. Add the contrived logic for an entire season of rolling dice and nothing happening and then a lot of unsatisfaction ensued.

But to be honest, things become far more understandable and pick up in action in the second season. There are some things that happen by the end that make you realize that the things happening are... different than your expectations of them. What presents itself as a death game, is not a death game. I could explain what it is as vaguely as possible so if you want to have a vague explanation of what it is, read ahead. If not skip the paragraph. I assume since you continued reading you're commited to this paragraph then, okay. The events of Fate are basically a ritual. I won't say what its goal is but certain conditions need to be met in order for something to happen. That's why everyone pretty much can do whatever they want in whichever way they want. Because things aren't really under anyone's control. As I've said, it's gonna be vague. But knowing this would've made me enjoy this for what it is more so there you go.

Now let me talk about the characters. You will understand their motivations and their desires and this is what the anime tackles. The desire and the actions you're willing to take to fulfill said desire. Anyway, since I've described how some of these actions unravel... some turn offs will obviously happen. And considering most of the character archetypes I didn't like, (for the spirits mostly. Isn't limited to just them but yeah) I can say I didn't really like most. But most characters, the important ones anyway, are defined well. You will know who they are and you will dislike them for who they are or like them for who they are. There is only one character that does feel complete and that is Kiritsugu. In Kiritsugu's case you explore his life and desire fully, having even 2 episodes dedicated to his backstory and you will understand what the character does and how he works by the end of the series rather well. I like his character and how he developed. And I liked some other characters and felt they had good focus on but Kiritsugu kinda steals the show which is fair.

As far as visuals and sound goes, Fate looks good and sounds good, I liked the voice acting of the series and the overall OST is decently chosen and even has a noteworthy song from it which was pretty good.

Basically Fate ends up as a series about desire. And the consequence and sacrifice to fulfill it. And understand it. And so on and so forth. And it does justice to what it tries to do. Things won't be obvious at first and the series has plenty of flaws but depending on your expectations and prior knowledge the series, the way this show will be received by you I think will be different. I recommend having some knowledge about the things happening prior like what I said about it not actually being a death game. It suffers of not making its message obvious and I assume this is due to focus on the details around the past of the Fate series. You should watch this if you think you like the theme of deaing with desire or have any knowledge of the series as far as its universe goes. But otherwise I recommend avoiding it. It isn't bad as far as it actually succeeds doing goes but... its bad in building up to it. Which I assume is a result of you not knowing exactly what to expect prior.