Who stabbed Izaya? I thought Izaya was finally going to not be the one in control of everything but nope, back to the status quo. Why did he even get stabbed anyway if there was really no importance for it rather than him being reminded that he "loved all humans" or whatever?
Yeah, probably my biggest gripe about xTen.
Each season seems to build up on the next, but so far it's been pretty meh. Not terrible, but nothing shocking, groundbreaking, or overall impressive.
So I finally finished watching Fate/Zero. I would write an absurdly long review in the same way I did for Code Geass, but I feel like I'm not qualified to do so just because I hadn't been exposed to much of Fate/Stay Night. Most of the glaring plot points or questions I had were explained in some way in Fate/Stay Night, and I can hardly blame Fate/Zero for building upon what it is: a prequel. I'll spill my thoughts, but it won't be in significant detail.
Overall, I'd give Fate/Zero an 8.5/10, but I'd imagine I'd rate it even higher if I understood Fate/Stay Night in its entirety and was able to understand the references/connections made to it. In other words, I think it's a fantastic anime, but I don't think it's one you can fully comprehend on it's own, and you do need to expose yourself to Fate/Stay Night in one way or another to truly appreciate Fate/Zero in its entirety.
As it stands on its own, I think it's extremely solid, but I don't think it had much impact or lasting impressions in the same ways that Steins;Gate, FMA, and to an extent Baccano had for me. Like I said though, I wonder how much of that experience was altered by the fact that I watched Fate/Zero first.
To go into more detail on what Fate/Zero did right, I have to commend once again how excellent the characters were. I wouldn't say any of them are my favorite characters evah, but each of them had a distinct yet somewhat believable personality, making the premise of the war more engaging, meaningful, and interesting. The only real exception to this I'd say is maybe Kayneth as he mostly resembles a typical haughty character who was more or less a two-dimensional character up until his death. He's also not the worst character I've seen, and he only slightly detracted the show.
All the servants (with the obvious exception of the Assassin class) were all entertaining characters, but I did think that Lancelot was put in there just for Saber and no reason else and that Caster thinking that Saber was Joan was a borderline patronizingly stupid plot point (Lancelot wasn't terrible though; the design choice and the overall mysterious badassery he had made him a very appealing character). However, Lancer, Saber, and especially Archer and Rider pretty much make up for it as their chemistry with each other, the boldness of their own personalities, and the interpretation of their characters based on history were by far the highlights of the anime and is what makes the Fate series stand out from other fantasy stories. None of the (other) masters or servants ever felt two-dimensional, and many of the characters had enough development where you felt that they were actually characters. In that regard, I'm sort of disappointed that I won't see much of Waver at all in future stories (except presumably in his alternate form, but I just read up on that and have no idea what it means) just because I feel that his development didn't feel completely finished. I was hoping I'd see more of him in Fate/Stay Night if I eventually get to that, but sadly I suppose that won't be the case. I'd imagine I'd be more critical of the servants had I cared more about history, but as far as Fate goes, I really enjoyed the author's interpretations.
I have to wonder though, was Saber's gender bender quality something that was originally designed for Fate/Stay Night? I don't think King Arthur being a women or anything was atrocious to Fate/Zero's story, but I'd be lying if it didn't bother me a little bit. Hypothetically speaking, I'd have liked to see Fate/Zero have an actual King Arthur instead of a female version just to see what it would do for the story simply because I believe King Arthur being a women only felt like a design quality carried from Fate/Stay Night. I'm not trying to be anti-feminist or anything, but I also don't like changing a historical character's qualities just to appeal to guys or what not, and I didn't feel like King Arthur being female really added much to the story of Fate/Zero aside from just being a (very weak) plot point for Caster.
Like I said earlier, I don't want to rag on the plot too much since I'm not sure which plot holes/flaws would be answered by Fate/Stay Night (like Devour mentioned a few pages back). I'd just like to say that I enjoyed it, and while I didn't find it particularly mindblowing, it was unique enough where it felt fresh and developed enough to satisfy most ends of the story.
I will mention this: I don't think this was super intentional knowing how each character transitioned to Fate/Stay Night, but I really enjoyed how it felt like there was no clear protagonist and antagonist since all the masters (w/ the exception of Waver) were ruthless assholes to some extent. I'd love to see this element explored more in future stories in a more deliberate fashion.
Regardless, I enjoyed Fate/Zero a lot, and I'm half-considering going back to the VN to give it another chance. The main thing that's discouraging me is it's sheer size and time commitment I have to put into a single ending that I may not enjoy in the first place, especially considering the experience I remember with the VN were very negative. I'm considering watching UBW some time later, but to my understanding that's only one ending out of three and chronologically speaking the second out of three. I don't mind waiting for the third one to come out, but if I understand this correctly, the original Fate/Stay Night covered the first story, which I heard sucked. Is it even worth my time, or should I just suck it up and deal with the VN?
