Category: Fate/Zero

Hmm, the creators really are putting Saber in the underdog role. In this episode she again gets saved from being killed in the midst of battle, she walks into any trap her opponents throw at her, she has most of the enemies going after her, she is the only one who has gotten handicapped. I mean, if she really is supposed to be the king of kings, then she doesn’t need this. This is why I like Kotomine Kirei: at first he seemed to be the one who was going to play the role of main character, and yet his role in the story is a very interesting one as an observer. In any case though, what I am very happy about is that again the battles are set up so that they can involve as many characters as possible. This episode already gathered three master/servant pairs and that makes things much more interesting than if it was just two characters fighting each other, due to the slow nature of the battles in this series. The intrigue works well, and I especially liked the battle between Emiya and Kayneth and that silver blob of his. Although the climax of the episode was a bit weird, in which Emiya first yelled before shooting, announcing his presence that he masked with so much care, so that Kayneth could react against it… Oh, and by the way: this episode was very good at building up atmosphere. The thing about this season is that the majority of all good series (not counting the usual crap as Maken-Ki of course) are actively building up to something, and they all do this in many different ways and forms. This season has more long shows than any season since Spring 2009. Fate/Zero is a tad slow for my liking, but it has some very good promise on its second half here. Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>

And another episode of building up, although there is one particular scene that really had some gorgeous visuals: the part where Emiya blew up that building. It did unfortunately again follow the golden rule of anime (people aren’t dead unless confirmed. Archer’s master’s death wasn’t confirmed), which does take away a bit of the tension, but that confrontation was my favorite part of this episode. I’m still a bit puzzled about my enjoyment of this show. I mean, this show is definitely the most solid series of the season, but it feels like it’s missing something on the emotional level for me, and I can’t exactly put my finger to what it is. And that while I normally love series that are full of talking . Right now the only thing that I can think of is that at the moment, is this show has too much exposition. The good thing about that is that it’s very solid build-up, and therefore there is plenty that can still happen when the spring season starts and this show enters its second half. In any case though, the people i n this show are smart. Or in any case, quite a few of them. There are a lot of people who know very well to run away from battles they can’t win. I also would have liked to see how Emiya managed to blow up the building: putting explosives in a mage’s tower with god knows how much surveillance is no small feat. Did he use magic for that, or is he just really good at hiding? Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>

Um, people. If an entry of my is delayed, It just means that I’m busy with this thing called life. I really try to update fast, but there are times when I’ll be busy with either work or friends. It doesn’t mean that I’ve dropped something, just because I’m late with it. Now that that’s out of the way, this was a definite improvement over the previous episode due to all of the characters involved. Aside from the Caster-Duo, all of the major master-servant pairs were involved here in this episode, which fits this series much more compared to the previous episode’s duel with lots of talking. There was a lot of stuff that everyone had to take into account, and everyone arrived at the battlefield with a different agenda, and a completely different battle plan. If the rest of the battles are like this the we’re really in for an awesome show. I’m probably not the only one in this, but the one who really stood out for me was Rider. His chivalry along with his air of just not caring to be careful really stood out. Apart from that I also like Kirei and Kiritsugu, as they seem to know what they’re doing the most. There are a few characters who are still a bit too one-sided at the moment, like Caster’s master and Lancer’s master also needs a bit more attention. I also find it a bit of a pity that Saber is being pushed in the underdog category. That just doesn’t fit this series where the themes as chivalry are huge. I also have to praise Ufo-Table for their great work on the CG. I mean, it has the bad luck that it airs in a season with both Last Exile and Guilty Crown, but if those two weren’t there it would without a doubt had the best visuals of the season. Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>

Ah, now I’m beginning to see what this show was trying to do with its long build-up: the introductions may be long, but the battles themselves take up a lot of time as well. This entire episode was about the fight between Saber and Lancer, and at the end of the episode it was hinted that things had only just begun. With this set-up, it’s really necessary for this show to not devolve into a string of random battles, but instead give a clear meaning to all of the fights, and not just have them end with everyone retreating and restoring the status quo. A lot of people were involved in this episode: there were a bunch of spectators, and a total of four servants present. This battle needs to have a meaning besides just introducing powers: the previous episodes had enough time to do that. The biggest reason I’m saying this is because this series’s episodes lack one important thing: variety. The individual episodes are very different form each other, but each episode so far has had a pretty homogenous mood, and this show doesn’t make use of sudden plot twists or mood changes. The result is that the fight in this episode took place at the same location for 20 minutes, while the characters stood and talked to each other for more than half of the time. That’s very easy to make boring if you’re not careful. This episode however evaded the Bleach syndrome quite nicely by having enough to make up for it. The animation was excellent. The spectators had interesting potential roles, and the battle itself was really well choreographed, considering that it just took place in one spot and the mages apparently have healing powers. Yuki Kajiura also created a good atmosphere, although I do want to elaborate a bit more on what I said after listening to the first episode: in that the soundtrack of this series isn’t among her best work. The thing with this soundtrack is that, unlike most of Yuki Kajiura’s works in her early days, I don’t think I would listen to it as a standalone soundtrack. It’s great at creating an atmosphere, and the soundtrack definitely has a bigger budget behind it compared to her work when she was younger, but I don’t know. It lacks a bit of creativity compared to those. It’s not just this series; in fact I do consider this soundtrack better than the ones of Madoka Magica (I have to be honest here: I completely forgot what that show sounded like; that’s very unlike her). But back in her days with Bee-Train, she used to use all kinds of interesting instruments, and the contrast with her different tracks in particular made it stand out. Her new work has been much… smoother and to the background, while instead she should make more music that can stand in the foreground. Rating: * (Good)]]>

I like the ED, how it shows the lives of the servants before they became… servants. I do have one major problem with them though: why did they find it a good idea to spoil the looks of the servants before they appear in the story? The OP is like that too. I mean, the whole point of not showing certain characters, while introducing them, especially in such a series where the amount of characters is fixed from the start, is to build up suspense. What will these servants look like? Just showing them takes away part of the suspense. Aaand that’s about the only negative thing I have to say about this episode. The major theme of this Fall Season is taking time to build up your story and characters, with Un-Go and Ben-To being some of the major exceptions. In that area, Fate/Zero is among the best in the building up department. While other series might have more lively characters, a more imaginative setting or a more exciting opening, the dialogue is very well written and presents its exposition in an interesting way, the acting is rock-solid and the build-up is slowly but very solidly creating its atmosphere, helped a lot by Yuki Kajiura (that’s why I’m so disappointed at the OP and ED for trying to go against that). It’s a bit of a shame that there’ll be a 3-month pause in the middle, but at least that will ensure that those episodes too will receive the attention they deserve, rather than rushing through the ending. This episode was solid and promised a lot for the next episode. I hope that like last week, the battles in this series instead of dragging on, they are to the point. Those fit this kind of series much better, when it’s expected of everyone to think smart. Everyone is actually very busy keeping surveillance on each other with the use of familiars (I also like that we don’t exactly see who the four people who watched on last episode’s battle were; again, suspense). My prediction on the first one to fall is Rider. His master so far has been the most naive of the bunch. Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>

I didn’t continue with the Fate/Stay Night anime after its fourth episode or so, and the most annoying parts of these past two episodes were definitely the younger versions of the harem members of that show (with the possible exception of Saber), but apart from that Fate/Zero really is a step above it. This second episode was even better than the first. I like how much dialogue there is in this show, and yet this episode brought in the first action of the series, and the animation really scaled up a notch there. Especially the Assassin part looked really good, but even the quiet scenes were interesting to watch thanks to good acting. Berserker in particular is fun to watch, but I also really like that this series doesn’t really seem to have a main character. There are several villains, but nobody really seems to have enough screen-time to be really called the central character. One complaint I do have is that the gore felt rather unsubstantial. It was a bit… too much here, and not really well built up, especially with the Caster slaughter. I mean, the thing that makes gore effective is not just showing a bunch of people getting murdered in the most brutal ways imaginable. It’s about giving it a solid context in the series and building it up well. This episode also established that for the servants, death is something like a temporary annoyance, rather than actually a big deal (there is no way for Assassin to be really dead at this point), which does take away a bit of the sense of urgency. Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>