Fate/Zero (review)

Impression – a gilded clod (4/10)

Fall 2011 and spring 2012 (25 episodes)

I think by now I’ve started to solidify my status as the alternative opinion among anime bloggers, but this review of Fate/Zero may be my most controversial so far.  Voicing my opinion at critical times like this is a big part of the reason I started this blog in the first place. I’ve prepared for this by writing at length and in detail the points of contention I have with this series.   Here we go.

Kiritsugu Emiya is a magus who has seen far too much suffering and injustice in the world.  He dreams of being the hero who can rid the world of war and violence and he believes he has found a way to do it.  By entering the Holy Grail War he can pit his skills as a modern assassin against six other magi who are also pursuing the holy relic that can grant the wish of the person who obtains it.  To do this, he must ally himself with a heroic spirit that will fight by his side and share his victory (as must the other participants in this survival game).  With the intention of summoning the spirit of the greatest avatar of justice, King Arthur, Kiritsugu throws his hat into the ring.  But the person who heeds his summons isn’t what he expected.

Inevitably, Fate/Zero has to be compared to Fate/Stay Night since this is a canonical prequel to that story.  And I’m going to be very clear and say that I did not have the same experience with Zero as many other people seem to have had.  The only thing I can see that Zero has going for it is its production values.  Everything else was done much better in Stay Night.

One of my biggest complaints is that the battles are poorly conceived.  Nearly every fight always comes down to some sort of matching of wills pushing towards whoever can level up more, meaning every battle was always a forgone conclusion, possessing nothing dynamic.  Let me compare the action in Fate/Zero to two other recent action series that actually know how to make a fight scene exciting—Shakugan no Shana III and Accel World.  Both of these series understand how to deliver suspense by including strategy that is accomplished either via exploiting weaknesses in the enemy’s plans, or psychological attacks to demoralize the opponent into just giving up.  This kind of intellectual action sequence doesn’t need flashy spectacle to keep your attention because you’re too caught up in the twists of the progression of events to get bored.

There’s two points in this series that solidified for me that the majority of this anime does nothing more than pander to the fans.  The first is in the episode devoted entirely to young Rin that feels completely out of place and ultimately goes absolutely nowhere.  I know Rin is well-liked, but that’s not a good enough reason to just toss her into a filler episode because you know it’ll make people happy.  If you absolutely must do something like that, put it in a bonus episode tucked away on the DVD where it won’t clutter up the main story.

The second point is near the end of the series when Saber chases Rider while riding a motorcycle that she magically enhances to catch up with him.   All I could do during that scene was shake my head and say, “isn’t that something that should have been Rider’s domain?”  There are way too many liberties with what constitutes flavorful powers that needed to be unique to each class.  Otherwise why bother even having them if you’re just going to make the characters’ skills ultimately all up for grabs depending on whatever will tickle the fans?  These beautiful, but empty shenanigans and complete lack of pace that dominate much of the second half could have easily been substituted with watching Saber jump hurtles and taking breaks every once in a while to shoot her sword lasers and miss.

In the absence of Ryuunosuke and Caster, the only two good episodes in Zero are the flashbacks to when Kiritsugu was a child.  Here we are treated to a spectacularly dramatic…or maybe traumatic…procession of unfortunate dilemmas where Kiritsugu must choose between those he loves and respects, or protecting innocent strangers who could never comprehend the danger that he averted or the sacrifice he made to keep them safe.

And as hard as it is to accept (I actually caught myself getting a little choked up) there’s really no room for debate that given the circumstances he made the best decision he possibly could, which serves to only sharpen the pain.  To have Kiritsugu back away from this investment at the final moment, feels completely out of character and devalues everything he had worked for.  Not to mention that you don’t have to watch more than two episodes of Stay Night to see that several key events in the last episode of Zero don’t match.  There’s just no excuse for this kind of oversight from a company that’s in the business of writing stories.  Swiss cheese that’s been blasted with a shotgun has fewer holes in it than Fate/Zero’s conclusion.  Frankly, it’s just disgusting.

To think that Gen Urobachi wrote both the incredible, gritty epic that is Madoka Magica and the teaspoon shallow, sparkling flop that is Fate/Zero is a sad state of affairs. I would never have guessed these two series to have been written by the same person.  I’m going to throw at least some of the blame on Type-Moon for probably restricting his creativity to follow whatever happened in the visual novel this series took its source from.

All things considered, the heavily weighted majority of Fate/Zero is nothing more than a string of uninvested deepities punctuated by some very nice-looking, substanceless spectacle. Unless you’re the kind of person who gets easily distracted by shiny objects, stick with Fate/Stay Night and don’t ruin your experience with this spoiled, vacuous prequel.  Probably the most I’ve ever been disappointed by an anime.

Fate/Stay Night and Unlimited Blade Works (review)

Fate/Stay Night

Impression – a multifaceted, well-thought campaign (9/10)

Winter 2006 to spring 2006 (24 episodes)

Shirou Emiya is lucky to be alive.  Ten years ago he was the only survivor of a terrible fire that tore through a large suburb of Fuyuki City.  After his near brush with death, it seemed his good fortune couldn’t run out.  Kiritsugu Emiya, his adoptive father, was a magus who discovered Shirou had a talent for a curious kind of magic that involved fixing and reinforcing broken objects.  Even when Kiritsugu passed five years later, he continued to be taken care of by his kind, energetic neighbor, Taiga Fujimura.  But before his death, Kiritsugu didn’t just teach the young Shirou the basics of magic.  He also instilled in him a capacity for kindness and courage, prompting him to declare his goal in life to become a hero of justice.

But the enigmatic calamity that rocked Fuyuki city a decade ago is about to happen again.  Unknown to most, hidden in the shadows, a war is taking place between seven magi who will make use of contracted servants—avatars of heroic figures of the past—all for the purpose of having a chance to ask a wish of the powerful artifact, the Holy Grail.  When Shirou inadvertently witnesses one of the battles, the law of the magi is clear—onlookers must be silenced by any means necessary.  After being stabbed through the heart by the spear of one of the servants, he awakens surprised to find that he’s still alive. After realizing that his quarry survives, the spear-wielding servant makes haste to finish the job again.  But when cornered, Shirou subconsciously summons his own servant who drives back the attacker. However, he’s now become embroiled in the Holy Grail War where only the strong and clever survive and only the strongest and cleverest will attain the ultimate prize.

Even though Fate/Stay Night is often more spectacle than substance, it has an air of refinement about it that creates an atmosphere of nobility.  This feeling is primarily reinforced by “Disillusion,” the gorgeous title track that carries a lot of power in its gentle tones that rise up into extravagance as it finishes and each episode starts.  I know it’s a little strange to open a review about an anime by praising its choice of music, but that’s a fine example of the biggest strength of Stay Night.  Everything has a lot of depth and feels heavy and substantial—a clear indication that this is all part of something that’s much bigger than the sum of its parts.

The story is full of twists, turns and a few smart surprises that keep you on the edge of your seat; always leaving you wondering how things are going to proceed next.  A few of the quirkier events feel a little out of place for my taste, such as the episode where Shirou and Saber go on a date, but whatever.  I take it with good grace because it never feels conciliatory or done simply for the sake of following established formulas—even when I wish it could have been a little more ambitious or a little less obtuse with explaining what’s actually going on.

Yes, the writing takes a page from Evangelion’s playbook by giving the viewer an exercise in observing subtle clues to try and figure out things on their own.  While this isn’t a bad thing, it does mean that you’re probably either going to have to rewatch some of the more confusing episodes a couple of times or just cheat the hole process and read a wiki so you can discern what just happened. Personally, I enjoy this style of storytelling on occasion—something that challenges your intellect to track down the complicated, unseen intricacies that shape events.  But there are others who would prefer a more straightforward approach.  To that, I say this sort of thing fits for Fate/Stay Night and works with the plot rather than against it—a formula that keeps things moving and glosses over the dry parts that it can do without.

One of its main failings is that battles feel a little overpowered and broken, usually relying more on the servants arbitrarily powering up by increasingly roundabout methods that feel conjured out of thin air rather than something that’s actually relevant to their history, legend or personality.  But every so often the unique strengths of the seven different types of servants get played up to great effect and some really good moments of divide and conquer strategies and originally inspired teamwork give a few of the battles a very solid style.

All in all, Fate/Stay Night is a judicious anime and overall is very well-rounded in almost every aspect.  Tone-setting music, a diverse cast of characters with hard-to-read motives and some suitably epic battles all come together to form a complete work with little to complain about (unless you’re a hopeless fanboy who can’t let go that this is a for-TV anime that can’t stay true to every detail of the  visual novel).

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

Impression – an action-packed, side-adventure (8/10)

Winter 2010 (movie)

Unlimited Blade Works follows an alternate storyline in the Fate/Stay Night visual novel that focuses on Rin’s Archer as a more important, main-ish character than the role he played in the anime’s TV plot, while very much downplaying the importance of Saber.  So if you’re one of those people who never figured out who Archer was in the original anime and you’ve managed not to spoil yourself in the intervening time since the series ended, you should definitely check this out.

I liked Unlimited Blade Works just about as much as I liked Stay Night TV.  It’s done in the spirit of the series, so pretty much everything good and bad about the anime can be said about the movie with a few caveats.  Namely, it’s a movie rather than a twenty-four episode series, so there’s some serious crunch time with the fine details that made Stay Night so polished.  I can overlook that because it manages to keep things tight and stays focused on the important details that drive the plot.  The unfortunate consequence of this is that it pushes a bit too hard and fast to get to the content that deviates from the original series.  This won’t be a problem for people who already know what’s going on, but that means Unlimited Blade Works doesn’t work too well as a standalone story.

I don’t really think it’s worth saying much more than that.  If you liked Fate/Stay Night, Unlimited Blade Works is likely to satisfy (unless you’re one of the aforementioned purist fanboys).  If treated as a supplementary companion, it is a wonderful alternative ending to a great series.

Fate/Zero (ongoing)

Impression – superbly grand, but hampered by some problems

Autumn 2011 and spring 2012 (more info / part 2)

I’m of the opinion that a little more time could have been spent waiting to get the series released in one 24 episode block without this huge lapse in pace, especially when it ends on such a big cliffhanger.  Because Fate/Zero is a prequel, it also means that in order to keep consistency with canon, the story needs to conform to some rigid guidelines to fit what comes after.  Knowing that none of this is going to end well puts an emotional barrier between the viewer and a lot of the characters, prohibiting real attachment.  The result is that the viewer feels like an outside observer waiting for the inevitable, rather than wanting to get invested in something that’s ultimately going to be futile.  It’s sad because the new side characters are colorful and there’s a lot of spirit in their personalities.  But I don’t want to suggest that Fate/Zero is a waste of time.  It’s gorgeous and emotional, but also deeply thought provoking; delving into some really fun, dark corners of the human psyche.  The twisted personalities of Ryuunosuke and Caster manage to contort morality to match their own ambitions and that’s always an interesting exercise of mental gymnastics.  However, the fact that this survival game that is the Holy Grail War has thus far resulted in no casualties for the participants is a telling sign that the writers are pandering to the fanbase rather than thinking things through organically.  Fate/Zero is beautiful and epic to watch in the way that Type Moon always puts forward, but it’s not nearly as immersive as I’d hoped it would be.

Fate/Zero Ep. 1

Initial impression – smooth

Autumn 2011 to winter 2012 (25 episodes) (more info)

Given that Fate/Zero is a prequel to Fate/Stay Night, a well-reviewed anime that had a huge viewership, most of us already know how Zero is going to end.  That being said, attention to detail and a plot that flows seamlessly are going to be of utmost importance.  I’m very pleased to find that this is already the case in the first episode.  I especially liked that this first episode was double in length from a normal episode in order to adequately get everyone introduced without squishing content into an allotted amount of time.  However, unlike FSN, Zero goes right away and introduces all of the characters from the outset.  After that kind of setup, I want to see clarity of the characters’ motives and the same cleverly devised twists in the battles that made Fate/Stay Night a great anime to watch.  Type-Moon has been well established as the people who make some of the classiest anime, and I’m expecting Fate/Zero to be no different.