Anime Review: Fate/Zero

Hello. Last month I reviewed Fate Stay Night, the first anime series adapting Type-Moon and Kinoko Nazo's magnum opus, the visual novel Fate Stay Night. This time I'm taking a look at the prequel to the game, adapted from a novel by Gen Urobuchi, who has achieved tremendous acclaim among anime fans for very good reasons. Gen Urobuchi has gotten a tremendous reputation as a writer of animation, particularly through his deconstruction of the magical girl genre that he did with Toela Magi Madoka Magica. In 2011, he did something slightly different by doing a prequel to the hit visual novel Fate Stay Night, covering the events of the previous Holy Grail War, which set the events of the original game and the anime in motion. The show adaptation of that novel shifted animation studios from Studio Deen to Studio Ufotable, who had only a handful of shows under their name at the time, as far as shows they had the lead on, though the animators themselves who made this had years of experience from their time at TMS. While Fate Stay Night, being an adaptation of a visual novel, put its focus on a handful of characters per route, specifically Shiro Emiya and Rin Tosaka, Fate Zero is much more of an ensemble piece. Each of the masters in the fourth Holy Grail War are effectively perspective characters, though some have more focus than others. The five main leads are Waver Velvet, a young student at a magic academy in Britain, the Clocktower, from a bloodline of no real account, who has stolen his teacher's catalyst for writer, Iskandar, or Alexander the Great, in order to get the respect of his masters and peers. There is Kure Kotomine, who people who have seen the first series will recognize, who has summoned Assassin, the old man on the mountain, to assist his master in winning the war. Speaking of which, there's Kirei's master, Tokiomi Tosaka, who has summoned Archer, Gilgamesh. And then there is our guest, what is described as our main protagonist character, Kiritsugu Emiya, and his wife, Arisviel von Einzbern, who have summoned Saber, Arturia Pendragon, the same Saber who will team with Shiro in Fate Stay Night. The other notable characters are Kariya Mato, who had left the Mato family, but returns after his childhood friend, Aoi, and her husband, Tokiomi, send their second daughter, Sakura, to the Mato family, where the leader of the family, Zouken, is indoctrinating her with his worm magic. Zouken himself is an ancient sorcerer who is basically sustained by worms living in his flesh, to such a degree that he's practically a cultist of Kiyos. Kariya receives a magical boost from Zouken through his worms, causing Kariya to become increasingly deranged over the course of the series. Kariya has summoned Berserker, whose identity is not revealed until very late in the series, so I'll leave it unspoiled. While those masters have their sympathetic elements, there are two masters who are clearly antagonistic. There is Caineth el-Melloi Archibald and his wife, Sola Ui, who are from an old magic family, but not as old as the Tosaka, Einzbern, and Mato families, who are all much more deeply involved in the creation of the Grail. They're introduced to Caineth as Waver's teacher, who mocks him due to his lack of a major bloodline, but Caineth never really does anything more to try and make himself sympathetic. He's summoned Lancer, who is Diarmuid of the Love Spot, who proves himself generally more honorable, sympathetic, and enjoyable of a character than his master. And then there is Ryunosuke Ryu, who is voiced in the English dub by a very much cast-against type, Johnny Young Botch, who is a serial killer of children who summons caster Guy Derais, aka Bluebeard. While this duo is not at the forefront of the overall story, they are the primary antagonists of the first half of the series. Now, the issue prequels run into is that the audience knows, ultimately, where a story is going. Thus, you need a journey that is particularly compelling to make that story worth telling, through unanswered questions, compelling characters, or both. Fate Zero manages both. The cast is very well-written, with each group having plenty of chemistry and each character's motivations, except for Ryu and Derais, who are written as stock serial killers and not in the cannibal, lecher, charismatic, charming, and devious sense, all making perfect sense. Additionally, we know from the conclusion of Fate Stay Night that the information we've gotten about the events of the Fourth Grail War are either incomplete, through Shirou and Rin's remembrances, or from questionable sources like Kirei's explanation. The story told here re-contextualizes the information we got from the original game and the Dean anime better. The series ultimately makes me wish the novel was written back when Dean's anime was in production, so that they could include references to the material in the book that would make it worth a rewatch having seen Fate Zero. As it stands, Ufotable also adapted Unlimited Blade Works and are currently adapting Heaven's Feel, the other two routes, and we can expect some nods to Fate Zero in the adaptations of that, and references do also show up in Unlimited Blade Works. Now, speaking of the differences between the two studios, in terms of just raw animation quality, Ufotable blows Dean clean out of the water. Dean's night scenes felt like day-for-night shooting. Ufotable, on the other hand, paints much deeper shadows and creates much more striking night scenes. The fight scenes are also incredibly fluid, with the impacts and movements getting the strength and power of protagonists across to the audience much more strongly than the Dean version did. Facial animations are also much more subtle. Dean tended to go super deformed or stylistic in Fate's day-night for any comedic moments, while Ufotable stays more realistic which fits with the much more grounded material. The character writing also feels so much better, in part because we have Gen Urobuchi handling writing the characters, but also there are adjustments as well, and the first season of the series has what I'd consider one of my favorite moments of television. The penultimate episode of the first season features a scene that I'd call the Council of Kings, where Gilgamesh, Alexander the Great, and Arturia Pendragon sit down over wine and talk about what it means to be a monarch, and you see how each character is defined by where they were at their death. Gilgamesh as triumphant king of the known world, but alone after the death of Enkidu. Alexander as triumphant conqueror, leader of a mighty army, who died of illness before seeing his empire fall apart. And then Arturia, in the wake of the battle of Camlin, broken, beaten, and alone, questioning the path on which her life has taken her. It is a wonderful piece of writing, and if it didn't end with Alexander showing off his noble fantasm, and had I known about it in high school drama class, I would totally have asked if I could have adapted it into my class's single-scene assignment. That said, all about this show is not roses, mainly due to the form in which the show was released, because it was licensed by Aniplex. So, if you want to buy the show on Blu-ray, as of this recording, the show will cost you $300 for the two seasons, and if you buy it on DVD, it'll cost you around $150. And this is a problem because both releases are very barebones. No commentaries, no interviews with the creators, nothing. The show is available for streaming, even with the dub, pretty much everywhere. Hulu, Netflix, what have you. They have it subtitled only on Crunchyroll. But it's only available for streaming on those services for as long as Aniplex deigns to keep it available. So, once they decide to take it down, it's gone and no longer available, which is a shame, because this is a very good show. Now, I appreciate a good prestige release of a series from a studio, but that prestige release needs to have something to merit the extra price point to give it that prestige. Soundtracks, art books, episode commentaries, making of documentaries, going behind the scenes, footage of fan events and interviews with the cast, something. If you're charging Criterion Collection prices or higher, I expect a Criterion Collection quality to the release. Now, should you choose to get a physical copy of the show, referral links to the discs are, from Right Stuff, are in the show notes. The original book also has received a manga adaptation and that has been licensed and is currently being published by Dark Horse, and a referral link to the first volume of that is also in the show notes if you want a physical copy of this story in a way that supports the creators and you don't want to fork show, please like this video and subscribe to the channel to be notified when new videos come out. If there's something in particular you'd like to see me cover, or just want to get your name in the credits or otherwise help the show, please support my Patreon. Once again, thank you very much for watching and see you next time!