FATE/ZERO

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionFate/Zero 2nd Season
NOVEL ActionFate/Zero
SPECIAL ComedyFate/Zero: Onegai! Einzbern Soudanshitsu
OVA ComedyCarnival Phantasm
MOVIE ComedyFate/Zero Cafe
MANGA ActionFate/Zero

REVIEWS

• 

  Removed

  93/100
  An extremely solid action-packed Anime with absolutely awesome characters! Watch this before Fate/Stay Night!

  Here's a quick review of Fate/Zero! (Season 1)

  First Impressions: Hmm, I've had this Anime on my computer for a few years now, and due to the dearth of Anime I've watched recently, I thought that (after watching F/SN the week before) I'd continue with the fate series and treat myself to some fine action.

  Story ————- 22/25 ————-
  I really thought the story in Fate/Zero was pretty interesting, and while you get somewhat spoiled in terms of what happens by watching F/SN first, the small interactions between all characters in this anime are just wonderful to watch. For me, anything that has elimination/competition and the fact that your favorite (and least favorite) characters have a high possibility of dying, is just a wonderful idea, and the way this is set up - well, it allows for some insane action scenes to unfold!

  Animation & Art ————- 15/15 ————-
  The art in Fate/Zero is nearly flawless, capturing every detail inside AND outside of battle. All characters are designed beautifully, with their emotions displayed very realistically (in an Anime sense) and in a way, scarily! (Some deaths...) Either way, I wouldn't blame you if you fell for this show just because of the flawless animation - ufotable did a great job

  Sound ————- 18/20 ————-
  The opening is alright, I believe, and the ending is also pretty good - so both musicians did a pretty good job with that, but more onto the OST now. The pieces heard throughout the first season of Fate/Zero are pretty solid, especially the chorus music heard during fight scenes! I felt that the music overall was really good, and found myself listening to the OST after finishing the Anime.

  Characters ————- 23/25 ————-
  This part is one part where Fate/Zero shines - the characters are almost all likable, and because the art and animation is so good, it just becomes hard to not adore some of the characters in this show. The only small bit that may have prevented this from getting a higher score would be that some characters received less development than they should have - or got less time in the action (which I feel they could've been in, at least more). Either way, the characters in Fate/Zero are almost all awesome!

  Enjoyment ————- 15/15 ————-
  Watching the development of the characters, then seeing them fight each other in this war to the death is just one of the redeeming qualities you get from watching Fate/Zero. The first season plays off well, and gives you an introduction to all the servants and masters of the show. Just go watch this! Now!

  Verdict: Want some serious action and awesome characters? Like some really seriously good action and some cool and well animated characters? Yeah - this anime is for you. My recommendation would be to watch this BEFORE F/SN. Even if the quality is higher in this one, you get some serious spoilers from F/SN (about this show).

  Overall: 93/100 A

  Continue on AniList
• 

  ToaHartor

  99/100
  Fate/Zero : A classic of the battle anime genre

  This is a quick review of Fate/Zero, an amazing anime that quickly became a classic of the battle anime genre.

  What is Fate/Zero about ?

  In a few words, Fate/Zero is about seven Historical Figures (whether fictional or not) fighting for the Grail, a relic which has the ability to fulfill any wish. Therefore, their Masters (their summoners) will use anything that are in their power, to obtain it.
  Violence, fight scenes, blood everywhere, this is definitely not your battle shōnen/nekketsu where the teenage boy beats everyone gradually, where his enemies becomes his allies and where he doesn't even think before acting.
  Here, characters are adults, that have to think about every move they do, otherwise they get killed. Enemies can't become allies, as it has to be.

  Trailer :

  Where does Fate/Zero take place in the Fate Timeline ?

  Fate/Zero is the prequel of Fate/stay night. To sum up, Fate/stay night takes place in 2004, but Fate/Zero happens 10 years before the events of the original serie. You get to know some characters that will appear again in Fate/stay night, as well as an awesome backstory of what did happen before.

  Is Fate/Zero a good entry point to the Fate universe ?

  About the Fate/series watch order, this serie is the entry point that gives the more spoilers for the Fate/stay night animes. Considering that the others Fate animes aren't from the same timeline (not including Today's Menu for Emiya Family and Carnival Phantasm), they aren't good entry points as they don't really explain the origin of the "Original" Holy Grail War.

  Fate/stay night is the main material and the origin of the entire Fate franchise. Therefore the best entry point to the Fate universe is the original material : the Visual Novel. Right now, the three animes aren't the best way to get into it, as each one of them do spoil the others.

  If you want to watch the series chronologically and you don't mind some major spoilers from the three routes of Fate/stay night, then start with Fate/Zero. To be honest, I was in that case and it didn't ruin my Fate experience at all.

  At the time I'm writing this review, only 2 Heaven's feel movies out of 3 are available. So, starting with watching all the three routes before Fate/Zero is quite complicated. If you aim to watch every Fate anime, including Fate/stay night (2006), then start with the latter. You'll get some spoilers from the other routes, but knowing this one is the worst animated Fate anime, your experience can only get better and better. Then continue and watch Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (2014) (not the movie), then the Heaven's feel movie trilogy. You can watch Fate/Zero after the second movie if the third one isn't available yet, as the third movie wouldn't give spoilers for it.

  Notation Time

  Here is my personal notation of the anime, using the advanced system of Anilist. As I became a big fan of the Fate franchise, I might have given too high notes.

  I gave 99/100 for the main reason that I enjoyed every part of the anime. For a 2011 anime, the animation still surpasses most younger shows, Ufotable showed that they were ahead of everyone at that time.
  Usually I'm not a huge fan of tragic stories, but this one did a really good job to keep me interested as well as making me feel contrasted emotions, such as hype, anxiety, happiness, disgust...
  The Original Soundtrack was amazing and added another dimension to every scene of the anime.
  Each character has a distinct personality, especially the Servants. As it was my first Fate anime, I loved their original concept. It gives them an awesome historical-inspired backstory, and you can quickly have historical figures that don't even are from the same era fighting each other.

  And give Gilgamesh an Oscar (wait, he should already have one in his vault)

  Conclusion

  This was my first review on Anilist, I'm considering preparing other reviews of the animes I watched, so that people can either watch them or not. In these reviews, I don't want to only give my opinion on a serie, but I also want people to build their own opinion about it.

  Thanks for reading, and have a good time watching Fate/Zero if you're starting after the review !

  Continue on AniList
• 

  CodeBlazeFate

  71/100
  While it may feel laborious at times, the first season of Fate/Zero is an engaging bit of set-up.

  Fate/Zero will likely go down as one of anime’s best, or at least most famous prequels. Split into two seasons with 3 months between the airing of each, each half essentially becomes one of the highlights of their respective years. Season 1 is the more difficult of the two to tackle, as it’s primarily setting the stage for the tragedy that unfolds later on as it begins planting some of the seeds that would lead into the 3 well-known routes of Fate/Stay Night. It’s easy to praise the cinematic approach the show’s director, Ei Aoki, takes here. Both seasons are more strikingly directed than even the Heaven’s Feel movies, and surely more than the UBW movie that came out a year prior to this. Sadly, that doesn’t mean this first season is perfectly elegant due to factors that many have criticized this installment for, as well as a few aspects of it that have aged. In the battle between 7 masters and the servants they summon, intrigue is not only inevitable but rife with virtues and vices.

  In terms of presentation, Fate/Zero remains notable almost a decade later. Ei Aoki and studio Ufotable take a grand approach to this production. There are tons of wide shots and moments where the camera lingers on an object or character while someone else is talking. Some of it feels jarring, as if to save on time and animation, but a lot of it contributes to the striking direction the show takes. Episode 1 alone contains several noteworthy moments, like when two characters slowly circle around the main subject of the scene, Kirei Kotomine, and the scene employs several long overhead shots showing the two rope him into a task he finds himself questioning. There are several interesting masking shots and other moments that highlight Ei Aoki’s skill as a director such as towards the end of the first season when a giant monster is summoned and several characters are at the bottom of the frame as this behemoth looms over them. The visual atmosphere the show oozes with, contributes to this feeling as the night sky is often overwhelmed with green or purple mist, and the majority of the battles take place in the darkened sky. The studio’s well-known digital effects add a texture to the moody lighting and ambient colors, adding to the stark, often oppressive atmosphere that the darker, more nerve-racking moments of the show bathe in.

  The show’s fight scenes are lovingly animated, with a sense of flashiness and fluidity that still adheres to the show’s usage of tactics, as opposed to the explosive, god mode skirmishes the likes of Unlimited Blade Works and Fate/Apocrypha employ on a regular basis. Powerful attacks are given extreme impact, not just with the flashy moves that the more powerful servants employ, but also physical blows characters land on one another. While the show’s new character designs aren’t as iconic as those of Fate/Stay Night (including the characters that make a return for Zero), they’re still great. Of the new servants, Iskandar is the best as his gargantuan stature and glorious red cape give off an imposing yet admirable vibe. In terms of the non-servant characters, we get tons of lovely outfits with identifiable and contrasting colors, like how Kiritsugu and franchise mainstay, Saber often wear black leather jackets and suits respectively, as opposed to Illyasvei’s regal, all-white outfit. The artwork, while not without its off-model moments, is more attractive and interesting than even what this same studio would do for subsequent installments in the franchise despite them all being based on the now well-known Type Moon art style.

  Not everything about the show has aged well. There are several moments of genuinely poor CGI found in the show, including the room that Kirei and the two characters circling around him are in when they discuss matters during the first episode. Nothing ever looks quite as bad as that PS2 hellscape of a location, but it’s safe to say Ufotable’s usage of CGI environments weren’t as “refined” (read: acceptable) as they are now with the likes of Kimetsu no Yaiba and the Heaven’s Feel movies. There’s quite the liberal usage of CG in the show, and there are only two cases where it works well. The first is whenever Berserker appears on screen, as the aura he emanates gives this wrong, off-kilter vibe that his shrouded CGI armor supports as he corrupts anything he touches and moves in a turbulent manner that his armor is forced to restrain. The second comes during the final episode where Caster summons the aforementioned behemoth cloaked in purple mist. Unfortunately, the problems don’t stop there, as there are plenty of moments where the frame rate slows down to a crawl. For a show rife with exposition scenes and moments of characters standing around and talking (we’ll get to that), it’s disturbing how often the frame rate dies whenever CG environments are employed half the time. As mentioned before, there are also several moments where the camera lingers for up to 20 seconds. Like with the infamous Evangelion, its usage can be hit or miss.

  Speaking of hit or miss and characters talking, that’s more of a pain than it has any right to be. There are several interesting dialogue-driven exchanges, such as in episode 12 where Kirei Kotomine is being psycho-analyzed by the iconic bastard Gilgamesh. As long as they are, they never feel overly redundant or wasteful. It’s easy to find some of them rather laborious, though. Then we get moments where the characters, especially Kiritsugu, just stand around instead of shooting their damn guns at unsuspecting foes or actually finishing off weak or incapacitated opponents for no reason. This makes it hard to believe that characters like Kiritsugu and Kirei are actually skilled killers when they waste every opportunity they have. At least with some of the servants, they have their own codes of conduct preventing them from just finishing off or ganging up on their opponents, unless the target is Caster since he is one of the most vile characters in the franchise. It’s a problem that persists throughout every major encounter, and as a result, not only are almost all of the deaths saved for the next season, but only three encounters have any lasting consequences. The pacing of certain seems can feel awkward with how certain scenes go from difficult and grim to lighthearted to action-oriented and then back again without any breathing room. Other scenes can feel rushed and unprompted, like when Kiritsugu starts bemoaning his circumstances to Irisviel and saying that they could opt out of this in episode 4, apropos of nothing. On top of that, even some of the action scenes can drag on as characters excessively spout their ideals or other idle chit chat. While these are often battles of ideals where the combatants get to understand each other in fights to the death, they certainly know how to drag their feet. With the runtime of episodes generally being around 27-28 minutes this season as opposed to the standard 24-25 (if you include the credits sequences), it does leave a laborious, almost draining feel to the show at times. There are minor holes and seemingly inexplicable, out of nowhere scenes (can someone explain what the beginning of episode 7 was all about cuz it doesn’t seem to connect to anything) as well, but they aren’t the main issues I have with the show.

  Luckily, the characters are less of a hit and miss case than everything mentioned prior. White Kiritsugu isn’t very interesting this season and we do have a few characters like Kayneth who are only barely any more layered and interesting than “prickbag”, some of the characters, dynamics, and personalities present here are the best in the franchise. Saber herself isn’t an especially compelling character on her own, but the way the show juxtaposes her views on kinghood to the views of the Kings of Conquerers and Heroes (Iskandar and Gilgamesh) respectively in the banquet episode they share is astounding. Said characters are the most boisterous and charismatic characters in Fate, with Gilgamesh being a glorious pompous wretch of a person, and Iskandar being the embodiment of the phrase “larger than life”. His dynamic with his puny, inexperienced, bitchy, and in over his head master, Waver, is perhaps the most entertaining and endearing aspect of the series. The only dynamic that comes close is that of Caster and his master, Ryunosuke, who are as eccentric and fascinating in their philosophies on life and God as they are vile. Make no mistake, these are the two sickest people in any Fate title, but the show still manages to make them fairly interesting, with a friendship that’s far more authentic and endearing than it has any right to be. Some characters do get less personality and screen time than others --Kariya is as screwed over by the show’s events as he is by the show itself with how borderline nonexistent his screentime is past the first episode-- but there are a lot of interesting dynamics and conflicting ideologies at play here. It’s crazy how many characters manage to remain compelling and properly fleshed out with even this first season.

  That just leaves the show’s music. Yuki Kajiura’s soundtrack, while featuring a few somewhat overplayed tracks, is still rocking several outstanding songs. “In the Battlefield” and “This Battle Goes to the Strong” are some of the more notably grandiose battle tracks, and “If You Leave Me” makes for a powerful, emotional piece. The first track is one of the series’ best, though a lot of Fate/Zero’s most incredible pieces are saved for the second season. The OP, “Oath Sign” is one of LiSA’s better anime songs before SAO made the band widely recognizable to everyone, while the ED isn’t that interesting. Still, it’s no significant mark against the music of the show overall.

  The first season of Fate/Zero is an engaging bit of set-up. While it may feel laborious at times with characters acting stupid or dragging things out, the more engaging bits of intrigue and glorious character dynamics make this a worthwhile series to watch regardless. The visuals may feel a bit dated in places, but are still better and filled with more interesting direction than most. With a powerful soundtrack gracing all of this, it’s hard not to say that the show doesn’t have anything to hold you over even if you do find yourself bored by it. Still, it’s the second season that carries most of the highlights, though this first endeavor was still a necessary and worthwhile investment to get there.

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• ANIME

  ActionThunderbolt Fantasy: Touriken Yuuki
• ANIME

  ActionRe:CREATORS
• MOVIE

  ActionKara no Kyoukai: Fukan Fuukei
• ANIME

  ActionPSYCHO-PASS
• ANIME

  ActionFate/Grand Order: Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia
• ANIME

  DramaLord El-Melloi II-sei no Jikenbo: "Rail Zeppelin" Grace note
• ANIME

  ActionJuuni Taisen
• ANIME

  ActionMahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica
• MOVIE

  ActionKara no Kyoukai: Mujun Rasen
• ANIME

  ActionAkame ga Kill!
• ANIME

  ActionFate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei Herz!
• ANIME

  ActionSword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld Part 2