Fate/Zero – 15

Episode 15 –

While I personally loved this episode, I can’t help but notice a big flaw to this arc now that it is finally over. The flaw in question would be how the monstrocity that Caster was controlling didn’t feel terribly threatening at all. The whole point of this arc was to prevent Caster from ravaging the entire world, but the monster in question felt weak, or at least, didn’t feel dangerous. It didn’t really do much damage for something that was supposedly extremely dangerous, and was eventually contained by the other servants. This lack of a “threatening” aura is something I do wish the arc improved upon, because a non-threatening main antagonist isn’t good for building a climax.

Part of the blame for this flaw would probably be from how much of this arc was actually focused on characters other than Caster. We saw a face-off between Tokiomi and Kariya, a suspicious Kirei lurking in the shadows, as well as a high-energy dogfight in the air between Archer and Berserker. Between all that and this week’s focus on Saber and her Excalibur, there was little actual focus on Caster’s own schemes and plotting. The little destruction that Caster’s monster created didn’t really help either.

On the plus side, this focus on others did open up a new level of depth, complexity, and uncertainty to certain characters. There’s Kotomine Kirei, a seemingly detached man who is slowly falling under the influence of Gilgamesh, with the results being that we don’t know what he is trying to accomplish. He seems to be developing some strongly personal motivations in participating in the Grail war, and his enigmatic personality makes it difficult to ascertain what the significance of his actions are. Then there’s Gilgamesh, a man who also seems to be developing some strong motivations towards goals other than the Holy Grail. His relationships with the other Kings have become central to his actions, and his overpowering presence makes him a wildcard in this war. And then there’s Emiya Kiritsugu, whom seems to be dead set on taking advantage of the Caster situation to further his own goal; obtaining the Holy Grail. He will without a doubt continue to interfere in the “chivalrous” rivalry between Saber and Lancer, with potentially disastrous results in the future.

In the end, it seems that Caster was actually a plot device of sorts, where his presence in this series forced a ceasefire that allowed the main cast to interact with each other. The result is a complex web of character relationships and tensions, which undoubtedly laid the foundation for the climactic battles that are to come. This episode was definitely an ominous bit of foreshadowing with regards to future battles, where Saber’s use of her magnificent Holy Sword, Excalibur, signaled the end of the ceasefire and the resumption of the Holy Grail War. It’s a bit ironic that such a stunningly beautiful, overwhelming attack ended up as the flag that resumed this battle royale to the death, and future episodes promise to be even more overwhelming than what we saw here.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.8/5

P.S. I should also mention how I really appreciate how the storywriters attempted to add a sense of complexity to Caster’s persona. While we knew him to be a twisted murderer who tortured other people, this episode also showed that he too had dreams and goals in the past, embodied by the brief flashback to Joan of Arc. The brief flashback implies that Caster at one time had been a good man, but somewhere along his path he went astray, ending up as the twisted man he currently is.

And finally, The Sword of Promised Victory Yuki Kajiura version?!? I already can’t wait for the 2nd season’s OST 😀

Screenshots are later in the post.

Fate/Zero – 08

Episode 08 –

I’d say this was probably one of the best episodes of Fate/Zero so far. The action was in intense 1-4 second bursts, but they did a great job at displaying just how cutthroat some of these battles can get. And not to mention, the music this week was pretty darn good (especially Iri’s theme). There was a bit too much dialogue to explain everything that was going on, but it did help in making each scene have a much more powerful impact. While most of this episode was action, at the same time it did have some buildup of tensions between the characters, mainly Saber and Kiritsugu. The more obvious tensions would obviously be the issues between Kiritsugu and Kirei, but it’s still rather unclear what Kirei is exactly looking for in Kiritsugu.

Of course, in battle Kiritsugu proved why he’s known as the “mage killer”. His multi-layered strategy against may seem a bit too simple at first, but it’s the simplicity of the plan that made it effective against Kayneth.  I guess it helps when the opponent underestimates your own capabilities, but Kiritsugu played a few little mind games on Kayneth to get the better of him. And oh man, was Kiritsugu holding one heck of a trump card; I never anticipated him having a conceptual weapon that literally destroys the magic circuits of an opponent when in full contact with the opponent’s magic. It’s like having the ability to literally rip out the nerves of a person, so Kiritsugu’s careful setup towards using this trump card was cunning on his part.

As for the Saber + Lancer vs Caster battle, that ended rather quickly with Saber using her Invisible Air to provide an opening for Lancer to hit Caster’s Noble Phantasm. I’m not sure why Lancer didn’t just stab Caster right there and then, but it did give Caster a chance to get away. What’s more intriguing to note here is how Saber obviously holds a grudge against Kiritsugu, so letting Lancer go help Kayneth was her way of telling Kiritsugu that she will not cooperate with him on matters pertaining to her pride and honor. The dynamic between servant and master is quite unsettling, especially if they need to cooperate more closely in the future.

And finally, we get to see Iri in action as a magus for the first time. I’ll admit right now that her attacks felt a bit lackluster, where she simply stood in place and let her magical bird do the attacking. But I guess magi aren’t supposed to move around, and let their magic do the attacking (kind of like Kayneth’s metal blob). Iri and Maiya’s confrontation does turn out to be a great way to show just how powerful Kirei can be as a fighter, but it also shows how he has some sort of unsettled feelings towards Kiritsugu. Or at least, he feels rather uncomfortable knowing the existence of Kiritsugu is one that closely mimics his own, but with key differences.

All in all, even as an action heavy episode, this was all mere buildup around the relationships around the main cast. The tensions developing between the characters took priority here, where each and every participant in this war is slowly building up some sort of grudge or issue with each other, all while fighting things out in bloody battles. So far, the characters are truly king to this series, where the focus on each character’s motivations and actions produces a very complex web of intrigue. As to how this will affect the outcome of the Holy Grail War, somethings are slowly starting to piece together.

Overall Enjoyment: 4.2/5

P.S. Kirei certainly isn’t kidding around; when he stabbed Iri through the stomach, I flinched for a moment. He’s a man set out on a mission to confront (and maybe kill) Kiritsugu, and it seems he’ll stop at nothing to get there.

Also, the next episode preview hints at the issue between Lancer, Kayneth, and Sola-Ui making a debut; or at least, Kayneth certainly doesn’t sound too happy about it.

Screenshots are later in the post.

Fate/Zero – 03

Episode 03 –

And once again we get a very dialogue heavy episode. I do really appreciate how this series goes out of it’s way to explore characters in more depth, but it would be nice to see a bit more action than the brief attempted assassination last week. On the plus side, the tensions are definitely racketing up this week, where it’s revealed that masters are already spying upon the competing masters, trying to discover each others weak points and motives. It’s already turning out to be a cutthroat competition, where each master is leaving no stone unturned in trying to gain some sort of edge or advantage in this lethal Holy Grail war. Everything has been intense buildup up until this point, and it looks like a fight will finally be breaking out.

That being said, the characters themselves have been getting quite a bit of attention in this episode. Iskander (aka Alexander) and Waver continue with their rather odd master-servant relationship, where it becomes quite obvious that Waver is too impatient and naive to be participating in this Grail war. The character dynamic between Waver and Alexander is loads of fun, but also does an excellent job in highlighting Waver’s flaws and lack of proper judgement and priorities.

Iri and Saber also get their fair bit of development, where we get a more in depth look into Iri’s past, and Saber’s feelings towards Iri as a friend. Iri’s presence in itself adds a rather interesting spin to the story, where Kiritsugu is clearly trying to imply that Iri is Saber’s master, and thus, draw attention away from himself. As Iri had previously mentioned, “use a tool as a tool” is Kiritsugu’s style, and this time he’s using both Iri, and Saber’s chivalry, to create the image of a false master-servant relationship. Thus, Kiritsugu himself can act independently, and freely because nobody will really be looking out for him.

And as expected, it turns out that Kirei and Tohsaka really were faking the whole confrontation, with Kirei’s Assassin still alive and kicking. Kirei is also now able to freely move about in this Grail war, which makes him similar to Kiritsugu in some ways.

As of now, there is just a ton of scheming and meticulous planning going on here by the masters and their servant counterparts. In the grand scheme of things, all of this scheming is buildup towards the eventual climactic confrontations between fellow servants and masters. The sense of intrigue and suspense have been integrated really well into the story, which really gets me anticipating where the story will go from here.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.9/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Fate/Zero – 02

Episode 02 –

After the dialogue heavy first episode, Fate zero continues with setting up the basic foundations to the series. Mainly, we finally see the final servant/master combination in the whole Holy Grail war. Not to mention, we get to explore the actual servants themselves, in particular Saber (King Arthur), and Rider (King Iskander). The dialogue here works more towards fleshing out the character relationships and inherent tensions in these relationships, all while maintaining the intrigue that surrounds this illustrious holy grail war. All in all, this does still feel like the prelude/prologue to the actual plot, but it’s still doing a rather good job at building up everything.

As I already mentioned, this episode does go into a bit more depth with regards to two of the servants, Saber and Rider. It’s strange how there already seems to be some sort of rift between Kiritsugu and Saber, mainly because they had practically just met. I’m assuming Kiritsugu’s seemingly heartless personality may be in conflict with Saber’s knightly virtues, but there’s probably more depth to the situation at hand than meets the eye. Iri does try and explain it in a more concrete matter, but as of now all we can say for sure is that Saber and Kiritsugu will probably not get along too well as Master and Servant. Surprisingly enough, though, Kiritsugu acts rather fatherly towards Iliya. As to whether this is indicative of a much more complex persona in Kiritsugu remains to be seen.

At the same time, it looks like Rider and Waver will also have their own set of problems. Considering the prestige and pride that King Iskander has, his overwhelming presence is definitely creating tensions between him and Waver. Waver obviously feels that he is being disrespected by his servant, yet at the same time Rider seems to think of Waver as a bit too weak-willed and immature. It’s quite the conundrum for both Waver and Rider, where one is an overachiever and super-ambitious, while the other is more petty in terms of goals and pride. The fact that Waver almost used one of his command spells on Rider is already a bad sign, especially considering how it was before any battles or such have even begun.

On the other hand, the newest master seems to be quite the awkward dude, especially with his obsession with murder. Considering how the servant he summoned is similar to himself, there definitely seems to be some sort of connection between the summoned servant and the master’s actual personality. That being said, I take it that the artifacts used as catalysts may be biasing the summoning towards specific servants, which seems like it may prove to be an issue in terms of compatibility.

I’d bet that Kotomine summoned his assassin servant without a catalyst, which is why the servant seems so fitting for Kirei. One huge question here is why Kirei ordered his assassin to kill Tohsaka Tokiomi? They are supposed to be allies, so there must be some sort of reason for Kotomine to purposely order an assault. Or perhaps Tokiomi actually made Kotomine issue the order, maybe for to test Archer’s abilities or something. The actual reasoning remains unknown, but it’s a rather odd twist considering how this Holy grail war hasn’t even formally begun yet. On a slightly different note, Archer himself seems like a rather super-powered servant. I wonder how Iskander and Saber will fare against him.

As of now the series still feels like it’s in build-up mode, where it’s continuously adding to the background to the series, as well as fleshing out characters bit by bit. All of this will definitely result in some sort of major conflict or climax, but when that will actually happen still remains to be seen. The atmosphere remains rather intense here, and is pushing the story forward in a well paced manner. As to when the first big battle will commence, that’s still something left for the future.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.9/5

ED and screenshots are later in the post.