Review of Fate/Zero

I am blown away by this anime. When my husband told me about the concept, I was skeptical to say the least. What? Mages that pair themselves with famous heroes from the past in order to pursue the holy grail? Excuse me? But, what I got in this anime was an extraordinarily complex look at the conflict in the human condition. It is a philosophical exploration of age-old questions regarding leadership, servanthood, love, evil, and the salvation of humanity. The action is fantastic and enhances, rather than detracts, from the story and character development. The animation is superb and the use of CG effects istastefully done and combines itself delicately with the animation. The music was BEAUTIFUL and I can't WAIT to get the soundtrack at my next opportunity. The openings and endings were gorgeous and memorable (I frequently get them stuck in my head).

Though there were so many characters present in this show, I very easily grew extremely attached to all of them. There are deaths in this show and each one hit me hard (either in the emotionally vulnerably spots or in the mental pondering). In my opinion, this story is really about two opposing characters when you boil it down to its essence: Emiya Kiritsugu and Kotomine Kirei.

(This is for the ENTIRE series (i.e. Season 1 and 2)

Kiritsugu's backstory episodes, for example, are literally the two best episodes of anime I have ever seen.

If you are going into this expecting a fluffy, light, happy anime with lots of Dragon Ball Z-esque fights, you will be disappointed. This is literally a gold-standard anime that is the BEST of the BEST. I am still reeling over the ending and, though some may find it dark, I was impressed that they held nothing back and the feeling I was left with was one of battered and broken, but still present, hope.