Review of Fate/Zero

First off, let me say that Fate/Zero should be watched as a single series and not split into two seasons. The show was made that way and it is unfortunate that it was split up as the second season is vastly superior than the first. Ufotable has saved most of the good parts of Fate/Zero for it’s second season and it results in a lackluster first season due to no plot progression, barely any exposition concerning magic and how it works, and some weak characterization. Fate/Zero’s main problem comes from the fact that in thirteen episodes (fourteen if you count episode one as two because itwas double the length of a normal episode) nothing happened. We were introduced to the characters, and that was it. There was two major fights during this time, and each amounted to nothing. The fights alone were about four - five episodes wasted. An example of this can be clearly shown in the first fight. While Saber fights Lancer, she is injured and loses the use of one arm. This would make it incredibly harder for her to use her two-handed sword but they do nothing with this. The next fight, Lancer teams up with Saber to defeat the enemy and they win as it is a two versus one. The third fight, which bleeds into the second season, Saber finally recovers from the wound and is back to peak strength. There, that’s it. An element that should have been a huge deal is not used at all. One positive was that the fights, and the show in general looks gorgeous. It was unfortunate that it’s beauty was not backed up by substantial plot progression.

The next problem was that Fate/Zero barely delves into the mechanics of the world. Magic is a huge factor in the universe of Fate, but I feel that the anime adaptations seems to be incredibly light on actual information of what it is and how it works. An excellent example of this is the Crest Worms. We are shown them crawling into a character during the first episode, and another person in the episodes following. After the boring first episode, wondering how the Crest Worms worked was the only reason I continued to watch. By the end of season one, and season two we had still not learned anything about them. I had to go the wiki to learn that Crest Worms was the magic of the Matou Family. While I understand that Fate/Zero is a prequel to the original Fate/stay night, many people will have not have played the visual novel. This is a problem because the 2006 anime adaptation also fails to give much information on magic and the nature of the Holy Grail Wars. It is unfortunate that little information was given in the anime, as I was constantly surprised as characters continued to pull out even more powerful magic and to someone who is new to Fate universe, it looked like they were just randomly pulling thing out of their ass without giving any explanation as to how things worked.

The last major flaw with Fate/Zero was it’s cast of characters. The Holy Grail War consists of fourteen people, seven Masters who control seven Servants. Each Servant is an ancient hero from history or mythology and come in the class of Saber, Archer, Berserker, Rider, Caster, Assassin and Lancer. The abundance of characters resulted in not enough attention being payed to everyone and the characterization that we do receive was weak and mostly basic. This issue is resolved a bit during the second season. One character that I wish got more screentime was Kariya. Kariya Matou hosts many Crest Worms. These worms has eaten parts of his brain, making it hard for him to analyze complex situations and have left half of his limbs dysfunctional. He fights for the Holy Grail so he can trade it for the safety of a little girl named Sakura who will then not have to be implanted with crest worms. Out of all of the characters in Fate/Zero, his story was one that I found the most compelling but was completely sidelined by others which I didn’t care as much about such as the murders caused by Caster and his Master.

Of course, Fate/Zero is not all wasted potential. The art and sound are absolutely amazing; Ufotable truly has brought their A-game. Also, despite their being too much talking for the fights, they still managed to be enjoyable and a fun experience.

Fate/Zero fails to achieve greatness due to it’s lack of plot progression, little exposition given to the rules of magic and the Holy Grail, and it’s overabundance of characters. This leads it to be a disappointing experience if viewed as a single season. While I have brought out many failures of the first season, in the end it still managed to be an enjoyable experience. When combined with the greatness that is season two, the series as a whole becomes highly enjoyable and I highly recommend that everyone watch Fate/Zero. It may not have the best season one, but season two manages to make up for it.

Overall: 7 (Good)

If you would like to see my review on the second season of Fate/Zero, you can find it here: https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=256303