Review of Fate/Zero

Where do I begin with Fate/Zero? The first time I watched this series (roughly two years ago) I, admittedly, adored it. However, I recently rewatched it after reading the Fate/Stay Night light novel. It was then that my opinion of the seriess dropped substantially. Don't worry! This won't be a review where I bitch about how Fate/Zero messed up the characters that had been lovingly crafted in Fate/Stay Night! Indeed, I will try my best not to mention that wonderful novel (and godawful fanbase) and will instead focus on analyzing the content at hand. There will, however, be MILD SPOILERS. Consider yourself warned.The key problem with Fate/Zero is, in my mind, its characters, if you can call them that. When it comes to Urobuchi (the writer behind Psycho Pass, Madoka Magica, this, and some other stuff that nobody cares about), the main thing most critics complain about is the lack of good characterization. Urobuchi himself has admitted that when it comes to writing characters, the only way he knows how to develop them is to make them go insane. As a result, most of Urobuchi's characters have a tendency to come across as just tools of the writer rather than actual people. And yet, when it comes to Fate/Zero, the characters are often times given a free pass. The reason behind this is obvious, many of the characters that are present in Fate/Zero were also present Fate/Stay Night (don't worry, I'll talk about Rider and Waver later) and because of this, older watchers have a very positive knee-jerk reaction despte the fact that the characters in question aren't being written very well.
Let's start with the inexplicably popular protagonist of the series, Kiritsugu. Everyone's favorite edgelord. And that's exactly what he is, an edgelord. Kiritsugu is the gritty, badass, nigh-immoral hero who believes that the ends (saving as many people as possible) always justify the means (killing, backstabbinig, etc.). But he has a tragic backstory, is truly a nice person on the inside, and in the end he fully realizes the error of his ways and that by saving one person, he can save himself. And... thats about it. Thats all there is to the hero of this story. He has no funny quirks, no interesting personality traits that make him unique, no sideplots that make him seem more human (unless if you count the robotic and mildly creepy romance that he had going on with Irisviel or the wasted, near meaningless, and still somewhat creepy romance with Maiya). He isn't even a particularly well-developed character. All of his character development happens within the final two episodes of the series, and his entire backstory gets dropped over the course of two episodes 2/3 of the way through the series. Other than his typical stoic badass attitude and capabilities, nothing about Kiritsugu makes him likeable or unique. He's literally Homura.
But what about the side characters? Kariya and Kirei are both good (they fall under Urobuchi's strong point: characters who develop via falling into darkness), but thats about it. Nobody gives a crap about Kayneth or Tokiomi, so I won't mention them. They're completely forgettable. Saber and Gilgamesh are both bland caricatures of what they were in Fate/Stay Night. In this, Gilgamesh's ego seems more like a funny quirk than a defining character trait established by a lifetime of unchallenged supremacy (Fate/Stay Night Gil would never have lost his shit over something as petty as being forced to stand on the same ground as somebody else, nor would he have literally rode Iskander's dick the way he did after Iskander failed. Shirou and Broserker both did one hundred times better than Iskander, and barely got acknowledged). And of course, Urobuchi makes sure to punish Saber for being an honorable person at every possible oppurtunity, even if it means changing the character in order to do so. A good example of this would be the King's Banquet scene, where Saber practically shits herself after Iskander says that she isn't a king because she didn't rule over her people like a tyrant. Now I'm no Seiba-fanboy (I now hate myself for having used that spelling) but the girl's never struck me as stupid. She should have been more than capable of defending herself against Iskander's reasoning, which was quite honestly retarded.
And now we come to Iskander and Waver, the most popular yaoi couple in the anime. Waver isn't much to talk about, pretty much just your standard little-bitch-comes-of-age story. Iskander, on the other hand, is a selfish, two-dimensional Gary Stu prick who recieves hardly any development throughout the series, yet gets praised for his charisma and manliness. The problem with Iskander is that he is essentially the pet of Urobuchi in the story. He's always in the right (even when he's not), and is given lip-service by characters who would normally never do so (did I mention that Gilgamesh, who was originially one of the characterically egotistical characters in the history of anime, rides his dick to the moon?). It should be noted that Iskander's policy for kingship is essentially "REAL LEADERS KNOW THAT LETTING YOUR PEOPLE KILL EACHOTHER IS OKAY BECAUSE IT MEANS YOU HAVE RESPECT FOR INDIVIDUALITY! FUCK THE PEOPLE, KINGS DO WHAT THEY WANT! THAT'S WHAT REAL LEADERSHIP IS!!", and yet all the edgelords and sheep watching (and Urobuchi if the plot is any indicator) praise him for how badass and manly he is. What a joke of a character.
As for the story? Its fine, though it suffers from the same problems that all stories with wish granting magical plot devices suffer from (if you've seen Madoka Magica, you know what I'm talking about). The beginning sort of sucks, as the first two episodes are essentially a massive infodump. Obviously, it would have been better if that info had been dropped at a steadier rate throughout the series. And then there is the jarring two-episode flashback that I mentioned before, but other than that the plot is pretty good.
Art? Sound? Its Ufotable. Next?
All in all, Fate/Zero is a far more enjoyable series than I made it out to be in this review. I focused more on the negatives because practically everyone out there knows the positives. Its a well produced action anime with a good plot and an interesting fantasy element yet mostly boring or irritating characters (except for Kotomine-Goddamn-Badass-Get-Hyped-for-Heaven's-Feel-Greatness-Kirei). Overall, the series deserves 6.5-7. Oh, wait, Ilyasviel doesn't play a major role in this series? For that alone, I'm taking a point off!