Fate/Zero: "—If I can, I'd prefer nobody to be sad."

[blkmage]

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Fate/Zero is the anime adaptation of the light novel series by the same name, written by Urobuchi Gen.

[SIZE="4"]Story[/SIZE]
Fate/Zero tells the story of the Fourth Holy Grail War, set ten years before the events of Fate/stay night, the visual novel written by Kinoku Nasu. The Holy Grail War is a fight for the Holy Grail which will grant the wish of the victor. The Holy Grail War is fought by seven magi, called Masters and chosen by the Grail, and assisted by seven Servants, who are the spirits of heroes of antiquity. Participating in the Fourth War is a man by the name of Emiya Kiritsugu, a man infamous for particularly brutal and underhanded assassinations of mages. Why does he seek the Grail and what will he do to obtain it?

[SIZE="4"]Staff[/SIZE]
Studio: ufotable (Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!, Kara no Kyoukai)
Director: Aoki Ei (Hourou Musuko, Kara no Kyoukai)
Music: Kajiura Yuki (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Kara no Kyoukai)
Original: Urobuchi Gen (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

[SIZE="4"]I haven't played Fate/stay night so why should I care?[/SIZE]
For you, the biggest draw is a work by this particular mix of creators. I'm sure many of you have been introduced to Urobuchi Gen through Puella Magi Madoka Magica. In Fate/Zero, you'll be seeing a story that's much closer to his original style and something that is a much more serious affair than Madoka. This will be accompanied by ufotable's extraordinary production and Kajiura Yuki's music, both of which will be evocative of what you might've seen in Kara no Kyoukai, which is, incidentally, still the only Type-Moon anime adaptation that is considered good.

[SIZE="4"]I already played Fate/stay night so why should I care?[/SIZE]
Fate/Zero is a very, very good prequel story that fleshes out Kiritsugu's story, which is briefly alluded to at points during F/sn. The big draw for you, however, will be witnessing a Holy Grail War in which all of the participants are deadly serious and know exactly what they're doing. Also, some of your favourite Servants will do some pretty awesome things in this, seriously, why would you not want to watch it?

[SIZE="4"]Important Details[/SIZE]
Length: 25 episodes
How to watch: for free, on Nico Nico Douga
When to watch: the stream goes up on Saturdays at 8:30 am PST (11:30 am EST) immediately after the Japanese broadcast and will be available for free for seven days, after which you will need a Nico Nico Douga premium account to watch back-episodes

[Yamamaya]

KOTOMINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I had no idea nico nico had an english version nor that this show had finally come out.


My body is ready.

[blkmage]

I guess I forgot to talk about the first episode.

Basically, the first episode is an double-length episode that gets through the book's prologue and goes through the setup and the preparation that the participants are going through. I've actually read through this section of the book twice: once before I played Fate/stay night and once after. Going through it in text before playing the visual novel was pretty hard, but I think being able to see what happens makes it a lot easier.

Anyhow, this section covers about ten years before the actual events start (with the summoning of the Servants) and I think they covered everything that needed to be covered. But, it also looks and sounds so good. There wasn't that much animation because of all the infodumping, but I'm definitely anticipating some of the scenes later on. Oh yeah, and they casted everyone perfectly.

This is gonna be good.

[MasterDias]

I liked it quite a bit, even if I only really have a very general knowledge of Fate/stay night. I briefly considered going through the FSN anime beforehand, but that's supposed to be a mediocre-at-best adaptation so...

The soundtrack is pretty awesome (as expected of Kaijura) and adds to the epic feel. The old Matou guy needs to die though.

[Maokun]

Question: Is it recommended I watch F/Sn first? Surprisingly, when it comes to prequels, you rarely want to watch them before the material they are preceding.

[blkmage]

To answer that question, it'll be helpful to understand Fate/stay night's structure. Fate/stay night the visual novel is split up into three parallel routes that tell one meta-narrative. The TV anime covers the first of these, Fate. The anime movie covers the second, Unlimited Blade Works.

Each of these routes plays a different role in the meta-narrative. Fate is largely concerned with Saber and works largely as setup for the world and the other two routes. Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel, the third route, are much more focused on Emiya Shirou, the main character of Fate/stay night. Most of the connections that Fate/Zero has with Fate/stay night are largely contained in the Heaven's Feel route, which has no anime adaptation.

Unless you're planning on reading the Fate/stay night visual novel, watching Fate/Zero first won't matter. Even if you are planning on reading it, I don't think it'll matter that much except for some surprises that won't be surprises anymore. And now that I think about it, watching the Fate/stay night anime won't help that much.

[Maokun]

Uhh... thanks, I guess. So basically the best I can do (I don't plan on getting the visual novel) is to watch it as a self-contained story and not worry much about its relation to other stories?

[blkmage]

Yes. If you're worried about not understanding anything, Fate/Zero does a pretty good job of being self-contained (what with it being set ten years before F/sn) and all of the lore and mechanics are explained.

[Yamamaya]

An important point to make is that the Fate route was probably the most mediocre of all the Fate/stay night routes other than the fact that it has Saber in it(best character ever). And the anime adaptation is a mediocre adaptation of the Fate route, hence you get a very mediocre anime.

[Wallachia]

Question: Is it recommended I watch F/Sn first? Surprisingly, when it comes to prequels, you rarely want to watch them before the material they are preceding.

Actually, I believe Fate/zero will spoil most of Fate/Stay Night for you. I'd honestly recommend you read the visual novel, but it doesn't seem as though you're up for that. If you decide to watch Fate/Stay Night and the Unlimited Blade Works movie, please bare in mind you'll be heading into a show that is generally considered inferior to the original work and is really only a meager adaption. Especially because the main character will come off quite differently to the viewers when not exposed to his inner thoughts or the clear explanations of his ideals that were present in the visual novel.

As a side note, plenty of people think Fate/Stay Night had gorgeous animation. I honestly think the TV series' battles were pretty bland most of the time, so if anything it was just the artwork that looked kind of nice. The UBW movie definitely improves the battle choreography a lot, but some of DEEN's QUALITY moments slip through in some important scenes to ruin things (not the in-between animations, real problems.)

[MasterDias]

I think they are probably aiming for a wider audience than just series fans with this show. At least, I'm not sure if they would have taken all that time explaining the mechanics in the first episode if they were just expecting FSN fans to watch it.

[blkmage]

All of the stuff in the first episode was in the F/Z novel.

I don't think it's entirely right to say that F/Z will spoil all of Fate/stay night. All it'll spoil is some reveals, most of them in Heaven's Feel. And let's be honest, most people here are not going to go through the trouble of finding Fate/stay night, getting the English patch to work, and then read a 50 hour visual novel.

So don't worry, Fate/Zero holds up very well as a standalone story.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

So, I watched the first episode, and it was kind of boring until the end, to be honest. I am going to stick with it, because I eagerly await the rest of it being awesome, but this was definitely a harder forty minutes to stick through. Saber's seiyuu is totally awesome, though, just from what little I heard this episode.

[Yamamaya]

. The UBW movie definitely improves the battle choreography a lot, but some of DEEN's QUALITY moments slip through in some important scenes to ruin things (not the in-between animations, real problems.)

Also the UBW movie is almost pointless to watch unless you've read the VN. The storyline is incredibly butchered. It's only real merit is the fight scenes.


Speaking of which, I must watch the first episode...

after work tommorrow.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Great first episode.

I really liked the cutting back and forth between characters (who for the most part ARE ADULTS! HOLY CRAP, ANIME, WHERE DID THIS GLORIOUS DEVELOPMENT COME FROM?!?) who all seem very, very interesting.

The episode was well-written and does a good job at hinting at the depth of the world while still holding the hand of neophytes. To be honest, it reminded me of the fact that I actually enjoyed watching parts of F/SN until the ending sort of cast a dark cloud over the entire show, for me.

The summoning at the end was excellent. Very exciting.

Also: Kariya, you poor man. The Matou family is a pretty damaged bunch, to say the least.

[MightiMidget]

For some reason I was kind of "eh whatever" about Fate/Zero, but had the desire to watch the first episode anyways.

Loved it. Though those bugs are going to haunt me in my sleep.

[blkmage]

If you're worried about missing out on Fate/Zero because you can't watch the episode in the one week window that Nico Nico Douga is giving you, it'll be on Crunchyroll for a few territories as well with a one week delay, which means that for free users, it'll be a two week delay, but it won't disappear after that.

[blkmage]

News seems to be out indicating that Fate/Zero will be a split 2-cours, meaning the first half will air now, in fall 2011, and the second half will air in spring 2012. Also, instead of the usual monthly BD releases, they'll be releasing two BD-BOXes instead, with one for each season. With their international streaming push and having all the subs done already, I suspect that there's a strong chance that they'll be offering the BD-BOXes worldwide. Note that this doesn't necessarily imply that the BD-BOXes will be offered much cheaper than current loljapan prices.

[blkmage]

The ED gives you some clues as to who each of the Servants are if you didn't already know.

Rider and Waver have such great chemistry. Kiritsugu and Ilya was nice, but sadface. Great scene with Assassin being all cool dodging traps before running into Archer. But the winning scene this week is probably Ryuunosuke's and Caster's introductions, which was appropriately executed.

[Fish and Chips]

Episode 1 - Words words words words what are emotions.

Episode 2 - Rider why are you so awesome. And Kiritsugu, suddenly human.

I had some misgivings with the way the first episode was handled, but trusted that it was a necessary evil in the greater scheme of things. The second episode proves my faith was well placed. I expect good things from this.

There's another compliment I want to pay here, but I think it might be premature, so I'll hold off for another couple episodes before giving it completely.

[Wallachia]

It's looking good so far. I actually really enjoyed the first episode, while the second didn't seem quite as good to me. Not by much, though. In reality I'm sure that's simply because it was a bit shorter and I felt like I didn't get as much out of it.

I've only read the first 2 novels, so it'll be interesting to get to the point where I don't know what's going to happen. Even then, things are pretty fuzzy so mostly everything seems new to me.

[Yamamaya]

Okay so episode 1

THERE IS STILL HOPE FOR MAN.

This episode, just this episode. I have a feeling I'm going to love Kariya and his quest will bring me much manly tears, especially since..well...

[SPOILER] If you know anything about Heaven's Feel, you know that Kariya will fail, and Sakura will continue to be subjected to the worms and worse...[/SPOILER]

The fact that most of the Masters seem to know what they're doing will make the battles even better.

Now to watch Episode 2...my body is ready.

I think this is the first time I've seen a 47 minute long anime episode that wasn't an OVA. Excellent job.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Bluebeard and his master can die now.

[blkmage]

If you needed more hints to who each Servant is, 2ch dug up some neat historical art that the ED is based on.

Bluebeard and his master can die now.

Urobuchi uses the cards that history has dealt him.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

RIDER RIDER RIDER



Seriously guys where was this last week.

[Yamamaya]

Bluebeard and his master can die now.

When Bluebeard said, "Cthulhu" I was like yeah...
but then he killed a kid.

Yeah, I hope Saber rips him a new one.

It did encourage me to wikipedia Bluebeard.

RIDER RIDER RIDER



Seriously guys where was this last week.

Rider is awesome, but...I have a problem with him being Alexander the Great. I hope they don't showcase him as being an idiot. Alexander the Great was a tactical genius. He was the Sun Tzu of Macedonia.

But he appears to have some appreciation for study which is historically accurate.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

I hope they don't showcase him as being an idiot. Alexander the Great was a tactical genius. He was the Sun Tzu of Macedonia.

Totally second this.

I am all for creative license, but the level of flexibility is lessened when dealing with such icons of western culture, IMO. There are counter-examples aplenty, but we are talking about my tastes here (i.e. the only thing that matters =)).

[Yamamaya]

Totally second this.

I am all for creative license, but the level of flexibility is lessened when dealing with such icons of western culture, IMO. There are counter-examples aplenty, but we are talking about my tastes here (i.e. the only thing that matters =)).

I don't think this will be the end result. Rider appears to display some intelligence and his first activity is to look at a map.

Saber makes for an amazing King Arthur.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Rider, if you ever desired children, I would be more than happy to have them.

Also SABER AT THE END AWWW YEAH WHEN IS THE NEXT EPISODE OUT

[blkmage]

Clinton can kill servants. Discuss.