Overall, the competition that Fate/Zero faces this season is larger than what it faced for its first season. But really; the great thing about this season is that every series has its own point at which it really stands out. There really are a lot of well produced shows, but each stands out in its own way: Zetman through its expressive drawings, Lupin with its experimental and artistic style, Apollon through its fluidity and accuracy, Tsuritama with its whimsicality, Eureka Seven with its epic action, and Fate/Zero has the incredible polish that has become even better from what I remember of the first season. Seriously, this was probably the best episode of the series so far.
With this I can understand the need to take a 13 episode break, because the creators really used it. The CG in this episode was amazing, ranging from the dogfights in the air to Saber regaining her noble phantasm. Caster was also used much better than in the last episode, as the focus was much more on the characters fighting out a way to stop it, rather than blindly attacking it. The monster appeared in fewer scenes, which definitely made it more menacing. It’s also good that my least favorite character of the series is gone now, because that now makes way for the rest of the cast to shine.
This episode did particularly interesting things around Saber. With this episode she felt more like the main character of this series, with her Excalibur that allows her to cleave an entire fortress in one blow, but Archer and Rider made it look more like a curse than a blessing at the end of the episode. This will definitely return later.
The best looking scene of this episode was when that bug guy was burning. The animators really went for something different there, but there was a ton of raw emotion in that scene, and I loved what the creators did to him.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
I loved the little glimpse of Jeanne d’Arc. Very nice character design. A shame we’ll never see her again. đ
And this is why Saber is Que…er…King! Issho tsuitekimasu!!!!
Shameless Saber plug: http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gcode=FIG-MOE-5638&page=top
(Guys, support the anime and add this to your collection.)
Dammit. These Servants are at their most awesome when they’re working together. Sigh. I wonder if they’ll do a Fate Hollow Ataraxia anime….
And we finally see Kirei start to fall to the dark side. What an irony that it’s happening as he saves a life with a healing spell.
Seriously, this was probably the best episode of the series so far.
I’m a little bit worried that your words may be prophetic. XD Things are likely to go downhill fast from here on out.
“Things are likely to go downhill fast from here on out.”
Oh no my friend. Things don’t go downhill. In fact it gets better.
I was deeply worried that Yuki wouldn’t play Sword of promised victory but it seems she does know to give the fans some service.
I always wondered why Nasu didn’t use Joan of Arc for Fate/extra. I mean was there really a need for another historical figure to be gender changed into a girl who just so happened to look exactly like saber? If you wanted another saber lookalike then use Joan. Hell I thought Saber was Joan when I first saw her.
I always wondered why Nasu didnât use Joan of Arc for Fate/extra.
Maybe it was too obvious a choice. One of the biggest hooks of this series is trying to figure out who all the Servants are before they actually reveal themselves. I mean, how soon did you figure out who Red Saber was? I would never have guessed. Actually, I have some issues even considering her qualified for the Saber class. Rider….maybe.
But what I meant by downhill is…well, from here on out bodies start to pile up and they’ll probably go into Kirei and Kiritsugi’s pasts. >.>; I suppose the next cameo I might be looking forward to would be Caren. There will be some glorious moments but remember, there can be only one. XD (FYI, I hated the original X ovas.)
Also…I am a bit worried how well the Fate Zero BDs sold. If some reports I’ve been reading are accurate, anime and game sales in Japan have been surprisingly dismal lately. =.=;
Despite being released in bd box set, F/Z 1st half is still the best selling Fall Season shows in japan, surpassed P4&Horizon respectively. The last time I check it’s sales is already reaching 49K&predicted that it’s going to be approximately 50K total overall. And this 2nd half/2nd bd box is also predicted to be the biggest seller of spring season as well, so there’s nothing to worry about Ufotable will drop the quality, since TM fanbase in japan is huge&they’re so loyal+royal, obviously there’s no way that Ufotable is going to dissapointed their fans since they’re the ones who will spend their money to fully support this series/franchise.
@hikari – I hope you’re right. :/ The weird thing is it’s on the top of the charts at 50k. Stuff like K-ON sold in the hundreds of thousands. It’s a strange phenomenon I’m seeing in games too. I wonder whether those hundreds of thousands count as combined sales of individual volumes rather than a full box set but I’m not sure.
In fate/extra it may have been an interesting hook but in fate/stay night Nasu gave away two of the servants identity’s at the moment they were introduced. Archer was obvious they moment you entered his route. Even if he did pick Joan you couldn’t be certain it was her. Her design is very Celtic so you could mistake her for ScĂĄthach. That is if you look deep into mythology. I was rather peeved about Red Sabers Identity. It just felt like Nasu ran out of interesting mythological figures and started fiddling with lesser known ones. Also pairing up Rin and Lancer from fate/stay night and not showing the conversations between them? A hilarious opportunity missed. Also there were some rather questionable choices for servants. I mean Arcueid? Come on Nasu. Making one of your own characters a choice for the grail war? And caster was a rather poor choice. Also Archer I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think it would be him but it turned out it was. The most interesting servant was Gawain and even he was introduced right off the bat.
Ah…sorry for the rant. I liked the game but I wanted to learn about more interesting servants.
@AidanAK47 Haha. Actually I share your feelings about Red Saber. I actually got spoiled about her identity before I ever got the game. (I was waiting for the translated version because Fate Extra is very text heavy and isn’t fully voiced.) and was actually pretty turned off. But after going through the game, I actually like her a lot. And while I’m not sure why Nasu chose this particular personage for her, I wonder if he may have been fascinated with a historical figure with such a self-conflicting reputation. What could have been this figure’s true nature? The other thing is the player character in the game seems to have to make a lot of moral/character choices that may influence the ending. I saw some selfless, selfish and neutral choices. Perhaps Nasu needed a Servant who could connect to this character, no matter what choices they made. Principled characters like Jeanne or even Arturia might have trouble connecting to a character whose choices didn’t align with theirs. Plus there’s the…um…romance thread that works no matter which gender you choose for your character. ^^ Would that work for Arturia or Jeanne?
And about Arcruied, she’s no more surprising than other original Nasuverse characters like Archer or the hidden 2nd playthru boss (who has no business being that powerful – I get she’s got great attack but her defence should be pretty normal). Saver was a bigger surprise to me. Makes me wonder who will show up in CCC.
About this Rin and Lancer…have you finished her route yet?
I will admit that her haughtiness is rather lovable. The choices didn’t really have any effect on the story at all. Only on two of the servants you had to fight. And in the end both routes were pretty much exactly the same except for a switch of characters.So I don’t think it’s necessary to have a servant that can relate to them. As for Joan falling for the character regardless of whether they are male or female he has already gone to the point of changing a historical figure into a woman so I don’t think changing the sexuality of one is a major issue. Besides with Joan it could come off as a more pure love rather than sexual interest. (Besides it’s not as if they get “busy” or anything”)
The Nasuverse sure is getting impossibly convoluted.
I did finish both routes. They are pretty similar to be honest. I am glad that there was another berserker and lancer. Still was disappointed that I didn’t get any of Rin and lancers banter.
Yesss….definetely been waiting for this scene to be animated&Ufotable never dissapointed!!^_^ That NP plus The Sword of Promised Victory by Kajiura Yuki plus an animated Jeanne, good works Ufotable!!>_<
So, 2 servants and masters are down,right?
It seems that way…I don’t wish to be spoiled; I may be wrong and Kariya and Berserker may make a comeback!
2 servants and 1 master, I think. Kirei is still in play. And it’s way too soon for Berserker to go. We still don’t even know who Berserker is. And why this is the second time he’s broken off his current opponent to go after Saber.
Er I thought it was pretty obvious Kirei healed Kariya. Not a spoiler just got this from watching the episode.
So no only 1 servant and Master are out so far.
2 servants. Assassin and Caster.
Ah right I did forget about Assassin from last season (although he never seemed like much of a character so easy to forget).
Yeah I’m not so sure about the whole Assassin thing. I didn’t really get the explanation. So your servant can die but you’re still in the game? Is there a way to steal someone else’s servant?
It’s not really explained. I’m surprised too. It would seem that Assassin was completely destroyed. I was expecting Kirei to have kept one or two especially useful ones as an emergency backup but Kirei himself admitted to Archer that he’d lost his Command Seals last season. There’s just no explanation at all about how he got them back, or perhaps a set of new ones, even though he has no official Servant…yet. Archer may know something about that. He seemed awfully knowing during his conversations with Kirei.
Kirei is certainly one of the two Masters(Kiritsugu)who I think could be fit for using the Grail. That’s why it chooses Kirei. Though this statement of mine is based on heavy background knowledge of both FZ and FSN, so I can’t really elaborate this.
The rules of the Grail Wars have changed so many times(especially in the 4th/5th wars). Caster being summoned in this War was originally impossible, yet he appeared. Kirei getting the Command Spells he lost, when Assassin was killed, before another Master was killed and the Servant survived, does not surprise me anymore.
I so want to know why you said that. XD But I’ll wait til after Fate Zero is over.
Oh, about stealing someone else’s servant, it’s possible. It was done in the Unlimited Blade Works anime. Basically, the original contract between a Master and Servant must be broken somehow. This usually cuts off the supply of mana from the Master to the Servant, so before the Servant runs out of mana and disappears, a new contract must be created between the new Master and Servant. It’s useful to know that some Servant types like Casters can last without a Master because they have a large reserve of mana and have their own ways of obtaining more besides relying on their Masters. Other high mana consumers like Berserker, I think, would disappear pretty quickly once it’s Master is killed or their link severed. Archers also seem to have a unique trait called Independent Action, which makes them autonomous and able to sustain their existence without requiring mana from a Master. I think FSN’s Archer could last for three days without mana from a Master and I think Gil has even better stats. It’s why Tokiomi has such difficulty keeping his Archer under control and has to feign subservience and cajole him into action, with limited success.
If the Master dies, the Servant is gone with them. If the Servant dies, the Master still can live as long as they aren’t killed. They can retain their command seals and contract with another Servant if they wish. Usually what could happen is that a Master dies and a Servant still has some time left in the world before they vanish. Caster and Archer classes deal with this specifically, but there are some others too depending on the Heroic Spirit summoned.
A Master without a servant, or a Master with enough prana power to support two or more servants at once (this is very rare and these types of Masters are normally genetically engineered for such a purpose) can contract with the Servant before they vanish from the world and remain in the game. Ultimately the fight for the Holy Grail is less about the Masters and more about the Servants. When a Servant dies their spirit is put into the Grail’s container. When all seven heroes die, the Grail’s power is charged and the Master of the last Servant standing is the winner.
So for example (and this is just an example) lets say Rider is the last servant remaining. He is the last Servant to be taken in by the Holy Grail and Waver, as the Master of Rider, gets the wish. Waver is Rider’s Master and Rider is the last Heroic Spirit to be put in the Grail, so he gets the wish.
A bit of tl;dr but that is the explanation given in the main source canon. So long as a Master is still alive after their Servant dies, they can always contract with a remaining Servant.
However wasn’t there one example of a master losing their servant and then re-summoning it? In the Heavens feel route of Fate/stay night one servant was killed early in the game and the master was forced to re-summon this servant. I don’t know if this was a special exception or if someone can do it if they have a huge amount of mana. The details are not really given but that was an example of a defeated servant being revived.
The Servant didn’t die, it was swallowed up and turned alignments to the new Master. We were led to believe they died. I think if Masters could just re-summon the Heroic Spirit they lost, the Holy Grail Wars’s premise of being a battle royale would be moot. You could just bring back any Servant that died and it could go on for an infinite amount of time, contrary to belief.
I just took it as the rules being bent/broken to a certain extent. The summoning of this particular Servant was an abnormality to being with, considering who (should I say what) it’s Master was. And it’s new Master had a hand in the original development of the ritual’s system in the first place.
I think you two are mistaken. I wasn’t talking about True Assassin. I was talking about Rider.
Rider was defeated by Saber early in the Heavens feel holy grail war but then Shinji forced the master to re-summon Rider. But as you said, the family had a hand in designing the grail war and this could be considered cheating.
Eh, what, really?! I completely missed that! It’s been some years since I last played FSN but I don’t remember Saber ever even fighting Rider in HF, much less kill her. And how was she re-summoned? It makes no sense. If that was possible, why wasn’t it done in other routes? I don’t doubt you, AidanAK47. Sadly I played it many years ago with a much worse grasp of japanese. Not that it’s much better now. ^^; This is a bit of a shock. I wonder if my PS2 still works…
I recently replayed Fate/stay night so it’s still fresh in my memory but I assure you that it did happen. Though I forgot it too before replying. The battle is really unremarkable. It’s just Rider attacks Saber for a bit and then Saber just kills her in a single strike. It’s actually the very first fight of heavens feel. A rather disappointing beginning. It’s a good thing it had such and excellent finale.