Fate/Zero – 10



I am of the opinion that having an episode with a completely different mood or theme once in a while is a good thing for a series, provided that the episode in question isn’t bad, and that the show doesn’t stay in it. It’s a good chance to show a different side of the series, rather than just staying with episodes of the same mood over and over again.

Now, this episode was about a character whose grown up version in the five episodes of Fate/Stay Night was a very annoying character, and traits of that tsundere definitely showed in this episode. Still, this had its merits. I complained about how the deaths of the kids in this series lacked impact because they were just random kids that died. This episode actually showed a bit of the perspective of those kids, and didn’t make them random anymore.

On top of that, this episode finally showed a bit more about two characters who mostly remained in the shadows: that bug guy and Rin’s father (whose names I unfortunately can’t recall at the moment). Especially the former was something I really liked.

As for Rin: well, she’s an impulsive kid and this episode undoubtedly had its annoying moments. The first half of this episode wasn’t exactly exciting, but it did build up to a very good second half here. It’s a bit questionable that Rin already has a huge sense of responsibility despite being what? Nine years old? She was lucky here that Caster’s master sees children as random tools, and therefore in no way expects them to be able to threaten him.

Oh, and Ufo-Table’s CG artists were very good in this episode. That locket or those crystals for example looked really good and refined. The backgrounds when Rin was in the city were also very detailed with a lot of random garbage in the backgrounds.
Rating: * (Good)

15 thoughts on “Fate/Zero – 10

  1. Rin’s father is Tohsaka Tokiomi, in case you were wondering, while the bug guy is Matou Kariya. I think I’m one of the people who didn’t totally hate the F/SN anime, although it’s already been a few years ago since I watched it during the time when I thought Gundam Seed was the pinnacle of the Gundam series lol.

    I also have to disagree with those who just because the episode sidestepped away from the main plot for a bit, derided it as a useless side story. The episode certainly gave some much needed focus on the aforementioned 2 Masters, who we haven’t exactly known much off, especially Kariya. The scene during Rin’s rambling through the shadowy dark alleys of Fuyuki City at night was also superbly realised and well supported by the awesome soundtrack. My heart was in my mouth when Rin made that almighty ruckus while she was shadowing after Uryuu.

    Really looking forward to next episode though, if judging by the preview that its gonna be about “that” scene.

  2. As for me, I was expecting a slice of life. Perhaps addressing Rin’s feelings for her missing sister. But this episode completely blew my expectations out of the water and had me at the edge of my seat right up to the end.

    *SPOILERS*
    I think Rin should be an 8-year old or so kid. This is like 10 years before FSN. Yet she’s already practicing magic. She’s ridiculously reckless. I mean, enough to want to smack her over the head for it. How many times does she almost die in this episode? And she waltzes, ALONE into Fuyuki at night (FYI, when the Servants and Masters are supposed to come out and play. Shirou has alot of dead ends in Fuyuki at night.). I was like OMFG.

    It had occurred to me that Rin was within the Caster’s target range but I thought Tokiomi would have a tighter guard on her. Rin is also smart and has generally good instincts (she’s the Fate series main tactician after all) so I would imagine she wouldn’t be stupid enough to just waltz into a death trap. I mean she’s looking for her friend. Fine. Go to her home address. Bring a Ring of Disintegration or her Kaleido stick or something. NOOOOoooo. She goes walking into a warzone with a magic detector and basically no offensive ability whatsoever. It’s incredibly fortunate that Caster’s Master was so useless. I suppose it’s possible that Caster didn’t intervene because Kariya was already shadowing Rin (shadowed himself by Assassin). She dodged a damn bullet. But, yeah. Miraculous result. Really, really happy Caster got deprived of his latest harvest AND saved her friend. I love Rin even more now. XD This may be the happiest ending this series will ever get.

    PS. Would have loved to have been able to listen in on Kirei’s thoughts as he sent his Assassin to shadow Kamiya instead of watch over Aoi and Rin’s return.

  3. I also have to disagree with those who just because the episode sidestepped away from the main plot for a bit, derided it as a useless side story.

    Agreed. Kirei must have overheard Kamiya’s confession to Aoi about his intentions. I have a feeling he’s going to use it somehow.

    My heart was in my mouth when Rin made that almighty ruckus while she was shadowing after Uryuu.

    Yeah. Very evil. I know she survives all this but damn. I really didn’t want Rin to fall into the hands of Caster and Uryuu.

  4. i think it’s fine. this being the prequel to FSN and all. i always wanted to see how tokiomi was as a father, and there was enough stuff going around to make it not boring. actually, i found this one quite suspenseful.
    for example, knowing that rin will survive while also knowing she probably won’t come out alive by herself. so the whole time i was anticipating for kariya to appear. and when it happened.. boy, that scene certainly delivered. 😀 *epic train passing by in the background*

  5. Kariya meeting Aoi was in the novel. The rage is directed at Rin’s adventure because ufotable changed a few details. She never met Uryu or saved Kotone and was 4-5 pages pretty useless. She was only added in the novel, so Kariya and Aoi could meet and Kirei could track Kariya from now on.

    Kariya would have gotten his piece of attention anyway, so I don’t see a reason to “waste” a whole episode for this very little side-story(and I fear, the conversation and the “epic” scene next episode will be cut and added later with the bluray. still, the episode isn’t out yet, so I’ll take care not to complain before it has been released).

    However, the episode itself isn’t that bad and as a VN player, I’m glad to see more scenes with Rin, I just think the timing was wrong.

  6. I feel like I need a playbook to track all the characters. 🙂

    Some very mild Spoilers
    Great episode, I loved the change of pace and the tension was so thick. I was really scared watching the little girl walking into such a dangerous place. They really sucked me in with that first scene of a cute little girl trying to use magic and failing. I liked and cared about Rin right away. A clever bit of writing.

    I loved the danger vs the lighthearted feel of her magic experiments. I really could see how Tokiomi is a good father to Rin and how much he really loved her. At least that what we saw.

    Yet…..why weren’t such dangerous books looked up? instead they are left out in the open where Rin can find them easily? Tokiomi then gives her a compass to find magic? Where the bad reasoning of if the compass goes zpt! don’t touch it? Yeah right.

    Who would give a nine year unsupervised access to explosives?

    Appearances can be very deceiving in this show. Tokiomi is also a very good actor and could be faking how much he loves Rin, why would he bother?, I could think of a lot of ‘plot’ reasons. 🙂 The main one is that he wants her to be a magic user and a strong one. So he is using a push the lion cub over the cliff stratagem.

    Tokiomi is clearly a master strategist and is very good at getting people to do things for him.

    Just thinking out loud. 🙂

  7. @Gandalf : Yeah….n I also be waiting for “THAT” scene too^-^It’ll be an epic way to end the 1st season anyway while keep the interest for the 2nd season high, so I hope that ufotable did the ep justice.
    @ciclov : I’m still positive that ufotable will manage to animate next ep in a great manner, as long they did the pace perfectly&didn’t rush in everything, we still have 3 more ep to close off this season anyway&I’m assuming they’ll cover book3-4 in the 2nd season.

  8. Umm… Rin is 7 years old at most here, not nine. And a magus’ studies should start as early as possible to nurture the necessary mental discipline when dealing with magecraft. If Tokiomi doesn’t let her hurt herself slightly at this point, she may end up hurting herself badly much later on.
    I don’t think his behavior is an act or a facade, either. He really is a loving father who wants the best for his daughter. It’s just that “the best” in his mind is her becoming an uberpowerful magus.

  9. Tokiomi is clearly a master strategist and is very good at getting people to do things for him.

    No idea. Never read the novels so I’m still trying to get a read on him. On one hand there is this gentle nurturing hand we see here guiding Rin. He’s surprisingly passive, even in a situation where Rin almost gets herself killed messing around with his books. I would have expected Rin to have taken more than a little flak for almost getting herself killed like that if he really cared so I’m not quite sure what to make of it. And then this is also the guy who hands over one of his daughters to undergo Matou treatment. Refinement and elegance?

  10. @Jzar : And I still think that Tokiomi is not THAT bad of a father, there’s a reason for what he did with sakura, but explain it here will definetely be spoiler anyway.

  11. pretty much, frankly Tokiomi had little choice in giving Sakura away, given the circumstances and the choices he had.

  12. This episode was nothing but lolicon fanservice for Rin fans.

    If they had stuck to the original novel scene, Rin would have been only successful in nearly gotten herself killed. There was no grand rescue. Nothing gratuitous but to display a moronic kid being reckless and then being saved by an adult from death.

  13. Well built up from an anime standpoint. Nice to see the stakes go higher.

    *******Spoiler Alert*******
    Is it me or nobody saw what dropped from the sky spewing blood before being eating by those bugs?!! It looked like those tentacled things Caster summoned against Saber. Could there have been a confrontation between caster and the bug guy? interesting…..
    *******Spoiler Alert*******

  14. @Carbine
    That’s my read as well. But I was expecting that a mile away. Actually I was expecting Caster to just show up behind Rin, grab her from behind and fade to black. I think Rin was being shadowed by Kariya for quite awhile since she entered the city and the both of them were being magically watched by Caster, which explains why he didn’t show himself. Tossing a familiar at her was all he was willing to risk.

    Nothing gratuitous but to display a moronic kid being reckless and then being saved by an adult from death.

    Riiiiiight..that sounds so much better than the loli fanservice we got. XD

  15. I thought I was going to hate this episode but I didn’t.
    First off I really empathise with Kariya and Sakura, so I guess the knowledge of the hell they got put through, contrasted with Tokoimi spouting bs about elegance and Rin seeming to have forgotten all about her sister, means that I don’t generally have good feelings for neither, and Rin is to typically loloservice that well, yeah.

    Anyways, this was made better by how it linked in with the disappearing children, so it worked in fitting with the main storyline and added extra to the kidnapped children storyline

    And wow the animation of Fuyuki at night was fantastic, I loved the colours of the shots, the attention to detail, and the ambience created by the music. Leaving aside how Rin managed to sneak out on her own, which uh.. should be pretty impossible considering her position, so it can only be surmised that it was allowed.

    So much to love about Fate/Zero really makes me wish a hack job hadn’t been made of Fate stay night.

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