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)]]>
Fate/Zero – 02
I see. Then what would make an effective gore scene sir? Can you please give me an example because the gore scenes I have seen so far involve blood and more blood and on a note, high pitch screams.
>Berserker in particular is fun to watch,
Berserker didn’t show up yet. I think you meant Rider
As for effectiveness of gore scenes, I find these scenes to be incredibly effective. The insane murderer is teaming up with an insane murderer, so gore is bound to happen there. Since I take it you are unfamiliar with the guy who killed Assassin, he is also an insane murderer. Seeing his violent method of killing just reminded me of F/SN even more.
Good episode 🙂
1: That wasnt beserker, that was rider. Berserker is summoned by that dude who’s hair got turned white and trying to save sakura.
2: If they are killed, they are killed dead. Or to put it like Shirou “People die when they are killed”. I think you should have watched fate/stay to the end. But anyway, this assassin dude got a trick up his sleeve like a true assassin would.
3: Speaking of watching fate/stay, i think you should, but it isnt necessary to understand fate/zero fully. They already explained the purpose in episode 2.
Assassin is the only one who does not stay dead. If any of the others die, it’s game over, no continues. Then again, Assassin doesn’t really “die”.
1. A lot of annoyances in FSN adaptation had to do with Studio DEEN’s choice to skip all the characterization and character-insight. A lot of stuff in vnovel focuses on the characters worldviews and inner thoughts and philosophies of life, however studio DEEN pretty much skipped around ~50 hours of material in order to just push all the action together. Thats why majority of characters felt empty.
2. Thats not Berserker. Thats rider. Berserker was summoned by Kariya in previous episode and did not show up yet.
3. Caster’s gore and violence. To appreciate that one needs to know a bit of real life history as well as who Giles “Bluebeard” De Rais was in real life.
I dont undersant psgels, why complain about the excelent gore escene, the atmosfere, the objetive, and the representation of the madness are rigth an d well executed, to much better than blood C scenes, in my opinion random and weak gore scenes. I think Psgels have a little predisposition based on the series he like and no the content they have.
I agree with you, kazid33.
Anyone else notice that Caster invocation spell for tentacles were: “Cthulu Fhtagn” ??
Assassin is the only spirit that doesn’t die from being killed once. I don’t want to spoil you but just know it’s because of what Assassin is based on. All the other spirits die when their killed.
And as others have said, you’re talking about Rider, not Berserker.
Like kazid33 sometimes I wonder if i’m watching the same thing psgels is because to me the caster scene was one of the most well built up gore scenes in recent memory making it really effective,definitly more so than anything in blood C.
So i’d really like psgels to go into detail about why he thought it wasn’t built up
I don’t think I could will myself to over-analyze Fate/Zero. It’s just too over the top for me to take it seriously, but I still get a chuckle out it in that “teenage violence” kind of way.
I can definitely see it being difficult to reconcile it as anything more than a silly little show for teens, though it’s still leagues better than Stay Night ever was (so far).
@totoum yeah my thoughts exactly!!! Blood c senseless gore carries no meaning compared to this. I was puzzled when psgel criticized on that particular scene since he complimented on scenes from blood c. It does not make much sense to me too. Caster scene shows that the personalty of the servant could be reflected by the master. Psychotic merciless and pure cruelty. Unlike blood c’s gore is just for the sake of gore itself. There isn’t any profound reason behind the gore except …. Nah nothing comes to my mind..
Wow, no continues. for these people called “spirits”, I dunno. Raises the stakes for all I care XD
The episode was well built. I’m not an expert on gore, but compared to Blood C (in a relative sense) this was well built in context. I mean, draining the victim’s blood into a bucket so you can get your drawing right is a creepy attention to detail, both on the part of the fictional character and the STUDIO.
So far, Fate Zero is officially my weekend fix.
It looks like you might be overemphasizing the weaknesses of this show. The younger version of the harem members are not nearly as bad as you write them off to be and your judgment of the importance of death in the show is a little presumptuous.
Rin and Sakura didn’t even appeared this episode and Illya’s role this time was actually quite pleasant, showing how Kiritsugu has another side of him.
Also, don’t jump on conclusions right after a cliffhanger; Kirei’s servant is quite special.
With this episode, Fate/Zero is probably the only show this season worth watching. A gigantic drop in quality after two excellent seasons in a row.
About the gore scene, I think it is unclear because in the anime they’re trying to compress Ryuunosuke part of the story from the novel.
They compensated it with the TV news stating there is serial killer lurking in Fuyuki.
But I think that’s not enough, Ryuunosuke’s (and Caster’s) character building (if there are any in the anime) still didn’t explained as well as in the novel unfortunately.
psgel i have to say your understanding of this series is very limited