Fate/Zero (フェイト/ゼロ)
The Fate/Stay Night franchise is fairly well known in the anime community, so the high levels of interest in Fate/Zero (FSN’s prequel) wasn’t unexpected. The icing on the cake was probably how the writer of Fate/Zero was also the writer for Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, the surprise hit series of the Winter 2011 season. That being said, Fate/Zero is a series that is much more mature in tone than it’s Visual Novel predecessor, and if anything, surpasses the original in virtually every aspect. The character dialogue, the visuals, the choreographed battle scenes, and the character relationships all weave together to create a compelling, multi-layered tale that is really engrossing as a series.
For those that are unfamiliar with the Fate Franchise, Fate/Zero’s overarching premise actually seems rather simple. There is a omnipotent wishgranting object called the Holy Grail, which reveals itself every 60 years. A war to claim this grail unravels amongst seven magi and the servants they summon, with each servant being a figure of legends and myth (such as King Arthur, etc).
Ufotable, the animation studio for this series, obviously set a high standard for actual production quality. Each and every episode has borderline movie quality animation, with fantastic, highly detailed visuals. Music is also solid, with the famous Yuki Kajiura scoring the at times bone-chilling soundtrack.
The studio also made sure to ensure high quality action sequences, where each action sequence was clearly designed with a lot of thought. You could easily see how the warriors had a sense of heft and weight to their attacks, where each attack was planned out while weighing the pros and cons of their actions. The level of thought put into each and every attack made the battles exhilarating, mainly because it felt as if even one wrong move could prove to be the fatal mistake that gets you killed.
However, while the action was great, Fate/Zero is fundamentally a series about it’s characters. Fate/Zero is a series that is extremely dialogue heavy, yet each line of dialogue is intellectually intriguing. This dialogue-heavy setup allows for in depth exploration of a lot of the main cast’s aspirations, character flaws, and life philosophies. And this development isn’t limited to just the main characters; each and every member of the cast gets a compelling level of development, where you gain some unique insights into their motivations and goals. Considering how all these people are fighting over a wish-granting artifact, seeing their motivations and desires makes watching the main cast a very engrossing ordeal.
The only real issue here that is noteworthy is how the entire series so far (1st half of the show) is purely about developing the characters. The first half is obviously trying to set a solid foundation for all the conflicts that are brewing, where every underlying issue between the members of the cast will explode onto the scene in the second half of the series. I personally think that this is a great setup, but this is also a setup for those very much invested in seeing the fate of each character to this series.
Fate/Zero is very dialogue heavy, which means it may not have much appeal for those that want the mindless brawling of your typical shounen series. But aside from that, a blogger I know wrote that Fate Zero is a series that “makes me marvel at how it makes 20 minute episodes seem like 5”, and I feel that his comment is spot on. Fate/Zero is an engrossing, intelligent and thought provoking series that displays a level of detail not seen in most anime nowadays.
Animation/Art: 9.5/10
Music: 9.0/10
Setting: 8.0/10
Characters: 8.5/10
Story: 8.5/10
Overall Enjoyment: 8.7/10
Distant Paradise 