Aight here we go, so before I begin, I will say that there will be Spoilers in this review and my review will be about judging this show on its own merit as much as I possibly can do, but since its meant to be a prequel to the F/SN VN and anime, I will compare zero to them as well, it's inevitable. So here I we go.
A) For me, Fate/Zero's characters were a mixed bag, I didn't particularly love any new characters which were introduced (outside of the VN) , simply because they were not as well characterized. It doesn't have anything to do with them being static characters, its just that I wasn't feeling anything towards them. The whole fate series and its source material is known for the meticulous characterization of its characters and exploring their ideals. I believe this statement really only applied to kiritsugu and Rider (Who was not anything astounding, but I enjoyed him and his charismatic nature; also in terms of valuable dialogue, he had a lot to offer as well). Roughly speaking, each character embodied an ideal, theme or philosophy, but none of them were explored in depth. As a result I did feel sad about the tragic events that happened in this anime due to basic human sympathy, but nor was I gravely effected, shocked or bawling out. For a show which closely follows the Greek tragedy structure, its a must for its characters to be well written and the thematic execution to be spot on, Fate/Zero does it pretty well, but it isn't as good as I would've expected.
B) The central protagonist Emiya Kiritsugu however suffers from a totally different problem, his character was thoroughly explored in the anime, but i simply couldn't connect to him due to the lack of screen time given to him. Another issue I had with Fate/Zero was how Lancelot's story was added in. To me it was a bit forced and had very less buildup to it. I believe the most tragic scene in the anime was the last saber vs lancer fight. I was not hugely into lancer nor archibald but what happened to them was truly tragic and felt horrifying, ihowever other characters seemed to lack such moments/ level of buildup and a lot of events which happened, felt as though they were added in- to make the anime feel more nihilistic and depressing. As if they just happened. Maybe I'm nitpicking here, but I felt that for majority of the scenes.
The series is cathartic and is a pretty well made tragedy, with themes of nihilism being employed- but it isn't as impactful.
2.
Now I will talk of the aspect I really liked- and that is the dialogue in Zero and its execution of themes- Fate/Zero's favourite aspect for me was the philosophical exposition it had and the minimal but amazing character interactions. The show delved deep into discussing the themes of hedonism, Kingship, Justice and the Ideals which govern us. It was always nice to see a psychopathic priest regressing his true nature, discuss the nature of pleasure with a hedonistic arrogant king. You can get the idea, whenever such discussions occurred I took a notebook and wrote the key points down. Arguably my favorite moment was the discussion between Kiritsugu and Saber- which effectively conveyed their thought processes, contradictions and flaws as characters to the viewer. Then there was the ever-looming theme of nihilism. Fate/Zero was originally written as an extension to fate/Stay NIGHT- to further prove the point that the holy grail war was a meaningless facade. And Fate Zero proved it, but only to a certain extent. Here I go back to my Greek Tragedy Point- This anime is called as being nihilistic, because everything that happens in this anime is both pointless and hopeless, but tbh its only effectively conveyed through kiritsugu and lancer. Other events are either forced for the sake of creating a depressing atmosphere or just feel like plot devices. All in all though, I liked how the show tackled its themes.
Plot Structure and Execution- It was very arc based, and that too like a shounen. It isn't anything bad per say- but that doesn't make the plot as memorable. However its still enjoyable. Also I believe that the final two fights were pretty anti-climactic. For a series, which is known equally for its fights as well, the last two ones were a bit off-putting. Also Fate/Zero unlike F/SN is a lot more like a battle royale , thus the fights were far more cinematic, uncertain, entertaining and grittier.
As for the animation, well its ufotable. Sublime animation, which felt lavishly created. The colors used were great and well I love the opening and ending songs of zero. So there's that. They were excellent.
Conclusion- I really liked Fate/Zero it was a very enjoyable dark fantasy shounen which tackled complex themes with a varying level of success but had major flaws. This show's score was also affected by the hype it received as, Fate/Zero was made out to be a masterpiece, with few people saying urobuchi-sensei was George Martin of Anime. Well IMO it isn't the case. The show is not a masterpeice, but a great extension to F/SN and was some quality fun.
Thus my final score 78/100________
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