FATE/ZERO 2ND SEASON

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionFate/Zero
ANIME ActionFate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works
MOVIE ActionFate/stay night [Heaven's Feel] I. presage flower
ANIME ActionFate/stay night
MOVIE ActionFate/stay night Movie: UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS
SPECIAL ComedyFate/Zero: Onegai! Einzbern Soudanshitsu
NOVEL ActionFate/Zero
NOVEL ActionHeart of Freaks
MANGA ActionFate/Zero
ANIME DramaLord El-Melloi II-sei no Jikenbo: "Rail Zeppelin" Grace note

REVIEWS

• 

  CodeBlazeFate

  81/100
  “Glory lies beyond the horizon” -Iskandar, King of Conquerers

  “Glory lies beyond the horizon” -Iskandar, King of Conquerers

  No, it does not. Only tragedy does for fools like you and everyone else! This second season you're all trapped in is a symphony of catastrophe, an exhibition of agony, a work drenched in despair. It’s a modern tragedy where everyone, even the audience’s hearts must suffer, and do so splendidly as a crown of thorns is worn by every character that drinks the poison of their own blood. Almost no one walks away, not happily at least as all ideals are viciously destroyed and the cavalcade of bombastic personalities is ground to dust before the feet of the callous victors.

  After the cinematic yet somewhat laborious and dubious set-up from the first half of this powerful prequel, this second season delivers a farse so devastating that it becomes one the best installments in the franchise to date. Where the characters in the first season wasted every obvious opportunity they had to kill their opponents with drawn-out monologues and poor decision-making, it seems that now everyone’s in the mood to kill with only some delay. After the first season made me feel that Kiritsugu was nowhere near the killing professional the show talked him up to be, the second season amended my statements and capitalized on his tragedy in a way that reminded me why I found him so compelling all those years ago. Where the first season made him seem melodramatic in cases, here his pain is explored in ways that don’t come across as heavyhanded and forced. Not only did it properly reinforce him as a brutal killer thanks to him finally shooting people, but we got to finally see his view challenged. The more people challenge him, the more resolve he has until by the end, the grail simultaneously hardens his beliefs and eradicates his dream. It was a child’s dream, one so foolish that it would naturally end in the catastrophe that would motivate the protagonist of the 3 main Fate/Stay Night routes.

  Kiritsugu’s story is perhaps the most tragic in terms of how it ends and what we learn of him this season, but he’s not the only one elevated in his journey. His foil, Kirei Kotomine, continues his journey from a neutral priest disgusted with the idea of joy to the diabolical and somewhat hedonistic man fans know, one who takes pleasure in people’s struggles and suffering just as his accomplice, Gilgamesh does. The pair takes over as the glorious bastards of the season as the magnificent reign of terror between Ryunosuke and Caster comes to a stunning close. What they realize about themselves at the very end is a lot more profound than one would expect from a duo of eccentric psychopaths who view killing as an art form akin to sculptures. Their bond is almost as endearing as Rider and Waver, whose conclusions are even more bittersweet as one awakens from his lofty dreams while the other carries the torch passed onto him. It’s perhaps the most bittersweet conclusion in the entire show.

  Easily the most bitter would go to Kariya Matou, both because of the downward spiral he takes in his quest to save Sakura and make Aoi --the love of his life and the girl married to his newfound enemy, Tokiomi Toosaka-- happy, but also because it feels rushed. The first season is primarily at fault here for doing such a shoddy job of giving him the time needed for his descent to feel earned. Even at the end with the most painful conclusion to a character’s journey in the entirety of the mainline Fate entries, they still go a bit overboard in some regards. He just cannot catch a break both in terms of his trials and the storytelling surrounding it. I even found the fate of Lancer and his master (as well as his wife) to be better executed, though that is because of the purpose it serves in highlighting how far Kiritsugu is willing to go and driving a final wedge between him and Saber. Even his wife, Ilyasveil isn’t impressed, and this is the only time she gets remotely angry with anyone in the entire show. I still cannot cover every character here, let alone all the people who mean something to Kiritsugu, but suffice it to say, all of them have interesting qualities about them, and how each enhances Kiritsugu’s miserable journey is even more captivating than the characters themselves.

  Speaking of enhancements, the visuals of this second season are significantly better than the first. While there are a few moments where the frame rate dips, the overall integration of CGI has vastly improved. No more CGI corridors or magic globs. Instead, we have Caster’s gigantic beast from the end of the previous season, a few flying vehicles, Berserker and whatever he touches, and the disastrous red liquid that spills from the Holy Grail. These either look great, or they carry the off-putting feeling they are meant to given the circumstances of their existence. The camera also tries some flashy moves this time, most notably in the inevitable battle between Kirei and Kiritsugu, and in Kirei’s first betrayal. The fight scenes are just as well-animated as ever, and they don’t contain nearly as much drawn-out dialogue to drag things out. Sequences like the “EXCALIBUR” scene at the end of the second episode make for some exquisite highlights of stunning animation. Barring a few off-model moments towards the end, the visuals in this are practically top notch. It’s amazing how much better this looks than the already nice first season when the entirety of Fate/Zero is a split-cour production.

  Another aspect that is even greater than the first season is the OST. Most of Yuki Kajiura’s best offerings to the series can be found here, such as “This Day and Never Again”, “Fate to Zero”, “Painful”, and “The Sword of Promised Victory”. These are some of the grandest and most emotional pieces in the franchise, as they truly elevate this soundtrack to its lofty heights as the best Fate OST. The OP, "to the beginning" by Kalafina is a stern yet emotional track, truly signifying Kiritsugu’s wish and painful journey through life and the Holy Grain War. While the first ED theme isn’t that engaging in my eyes, the second one (“Manten by Kalafina) which plays during the flashback episodes of the show, is a much more somber piece. It’s one of my personal favorite ending themes of the decade, and it pains me to not know what to say about it other than how it’s probably my favorite piece of music in the whole show.

  Fate/Zero is a beautifully vicious tragedy, where ideals are weaknesses and dreams are destroyed. This second season is leaps and bounds above its predecessor not just due to the generally visceral payoffs it has to several engaging character stories, but also due to the substantial improvements in audiovisuals. No serious Fate title has surpassed this second season at the time of writing, and I doubt anything stands a chance of doing so, even 8 years later. Even with a few blemishes, this is the grandest, most powerful any installment has ever been, and it warrants itself as one of the decade’s most iconic prequels and tragedies.

  “This ill-conceived and disappointing play remained a meaningless farce until the very end.” -Gilgamesh, King of Heroes

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• 

  Igiveyouheadpat

  93/100
  “Justice cannot save the world. It is useless.” – Kiritsugu Emiya

  Brace yourselves, because this review will be chock full of spoilers of both Fate/Zero Season 1 and 2.

  It's not often you get a show so captivating and entertaining as Fate/zero. With its battle royale plot, where 7 masters and servants fight in order to attain the holy grail that can grant any wish. It includes a variety of adrenaline-pumping and fierce fight scenes, as well as it's many remarks to philosophy, history, mythologies and old legends, including f.ex alexander the great from ancient greece (Rider) ,the legend of King Arthur from Great britain (Saber), etc. It’s safe to say that Fate/Zero is a show that pushed both my intellectual and emotional buttons.

  Fate/zero has many great things that I value in anime, like f.ex stunning and vivid visuals from Ufotable, entertaining and charming dialogue from the its writer Gen Urobuchi and a slow-paced but exciting and entertaining plot by Type-Moon. If there is one single person who was the reason for me watching this in the first place, then that would be both the infamous and famous writer Gen Urobuchi, who has made a well known name for himself as "butcher" since his shows often contains dark material, like f.ex gore, dystopian and even rape and severed heads, etc.

  Overall, I would define Fate/Zero as a shocking tragedy. The biggest tragedy in Fate/zero was the journey of one man's realization that his idealistic worldview was skewed from the beginning and caused more damage than good. The other being one man's repressed and unknown desires that where actualized in a corrupted and evil way at the very last episode, his wishes could’ve been done differently if he had integrated it rather then repressed it for so long. These two men, Kiritsugu Emiya and Kotomine Kirei where made to be rivals. Kirei being a christian mage who is a traditionalist who tries to be a “good man” by executing those that in his eyes perform evil and Kiritsugu, a merciless killer who tires to execute every single mage out there from childhood trauma that lead to utilitarismen. In banal terms, the bad guys won and the good guys lost.

  Speaking of Kiritsugu, he was easily my favourite character in this show and the one who I wanted to see win the most. His philosophy of the world is similar to mine, i.e in order to save the whole human race, you have to sacrifice few people. As a viewer, I can admit to many of his actions going too far. As to f.ex killing his own father and his caregiver, Natalia Kaminski. But, I do empathize with him.

  Apart from him, Gilgamesh and Iksander where also great characters in the story. Both being servants who were overall had the strongest personalities. Gilgamesh being a arrogant guy who called everyone “morgels” and Iksander being the reincarnation of Alexander the great. What I really liked about this was how these two where legendary kings who tried to integrate with modern society. Seeing f.ex Iksander commenting on books about him and watching war movies was really fun to see. Gilgamesh also appeared in a human form, who gave advice to Kotomine Kirei.

  One of my biggest problems with Fate/Zero was the anti-climactic nature of many of its spectacular and enthralling fights. There are surprisingly few fights in this show that leads to a death in this battle royale, but like I stated in my introduction, almost all of the fights here are really cool to watch thanks to the clear and high-budget animation by ufotable. What also bugged me was that almost every single servant was so friendly with each other. F.ex in Episode 11 of Season 1, they have a wine meeting where they talk like they’re close friends, but they had the intentions of wanting to kill each other for a price! The dialogue however thankfully saves a lot of things about Fate/zero, with Rider and Saber f.ex in that episode talking about their experiences with their own kingdoms and their motives for the war, tying again into the glorious philosophical side of this anime.
  I can’t also forget the 40-minute long first episode was also too much of an exposition dump, they could’ve spaced out the theory parts a bit more into the later episodes where we got to know the characters a bit more and not introduced almost every single character in the exact same episode. I think this makes the show hard to get into by not really inviting the audience, instead just blasting exposition at you.

  Overall, Fate/Zero was a show that pushed both the intellectual and emotional sides of me. It started out slow, but got more entertaining and interesting the longer it went on. The philosophical aspects of the show where its virtue, with its many anti-climactic fight scenes being its vice. Kiritsugu Emiya was my favourite character, and I liked seeing every character and their perspective and what desires they had on winning the holy grail.

  VERDICT: 9/10

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• 

  ThePieGod7

  38/100
  I understand the Urobuchi haters now

  There's a very eye-opening moment in this show. Near the beginning, in the third episode (I think) Ryuunosuke, a serial child murderer, accidentally summons a servant named Bluebeard whilst Ryuunosuke was in the middle of killing a child. Bluebeard stops Ryuunosuke, and lets the child walk out the front door. The child, scared but relieved, walks towards the hallway, and opens the door. Right as he begins to open it, and see the light of the outside world, a giant monster thing comes from behind the kid and eats him whole. Bluebeard turns to Ryuunosuke and tells him how you can only see the greatest of despair right when you steal hope away. If you think that sounds like some stupid, overly-edgy, misery-pandering bullcrap, don't watch Fate/Zero. Because that philosophy is employed throughout the entire anime.

  In a sentence, Fate/Zero is a fucking garbage show where none of the characters are capable of making intelligent decisions and death is constant for no good reason. I've never seen a show that actively infuriated me to this degree, even shows that are technically 'worse'. It's like this show wants you to hate it. It's not sad, it's not tragic, it's just stupid. I don't need Kiritsugu to be asked if he would sacrifice 200 people to save 300 when I basically saw him blow up a plane to stop 9/11. This isn't 'nuance' or whatever.

  It's kinda funny how death is the only consistent thing in this show and yet there's only a single good death. Natalia getting offed is without a doubt the single best scene in this anime, as well as the only good part of Kiritsugu's backstory. Also, there are way too many characters, and the focus on them shifts way too much. Kiritsugu is technically the mc, but there are only three points where the story really focuses in on him. Waver and Kotomine are much more enjoyable as characters and have a similar amount of screentime. Waver starts out as some annoying femboy bussy bitch, but in the end, he grows into a legitimately likeable man who overcame his flaws. On the flipside, I'm sort of biased towards Kotomine because I think he's really funny, but him and his relationship with Gilgamesh is very enjoyable to see play out. I like their talks on philosophy and desires, and it's strangely believable that this mongrel-hating king would take interest in a very normal catholic priest that definitely doesn't have anything wrong with him. His weird six-sword Wolverine-grip thing is also very raw. Kiritsugu is just boring ass doomer dad, it sucks.

  This might sound nitpicky, there are some parts that felt like kinobait. For example, Gil and Berserker's weird spaceship plane fight thing. Sure, it's cool, but am I the only one that felt it doesn't belong? Same thing with Kiritsugu's time accel. I really like time powers, but Kiritsugu just kinda has time accel for no real reason, and he only uses it four times. For one of the coolest abilities in this show, (which, I'll admit, is saying a lot) it sure goes underused.

  The fact that some people consider this to be a good starting point for Fate baffles me. There is a whole episode dedicated to Rin, and Kariya's motives literally revolve around Sakura. Sakura and Rin are fan favorites FROM Fate/Stay Night, and you would not care about them without that context. Also, Shinji's dad appears for all of two seconds, and that would be a very confusing two seconds if i didn't know who Shinji was.

  In conclusion, Fate/Zero is self-indulgent cry porn that doesn't make you cry and it doesn't hold up to critical analysis. Also Gil and Kotomine should've fucked

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