Fate/Zero - Episode 1 Discussion / Poll

[Ragna92]

Summoning was awesome, especially Gilgamesh. Heavens feelxUfotable after Fate zero would be awesome. I also want some Fate hollow some day.

[MagicaLideaL]

Saber always like to question the summoner whether they are her master or not.
I felt unfair to other participants when I saw Gilgamesh. He is so goddamn overpower in F/SN.

[zeth006]

Downloading this ep, hope it turns out to be the start of a cool series. Haven't been seeing too many cool anime appear on the scene lately.

[Vicious108]

Originally Posted by chaos_alfa

Will all the episodes be around 45 minutes?

If only. After an episode as good as this, that accomplished everything an exposition/setup episode should strive towards, it's gonna be painful to have the next episodes only last half as long.

Anyway, some impressions... Kariya's definitely the character/Master that I expected the least out of but turned out to be the one that impressed me the most here. Now that's some dedication and altruism. It's great to see a Matou dude who isn't a complete dick and actually makes me wanna root for him.

Waver's definitely the wildcard amongst the remaining clearly much better mentally prepared Masters. Dude definitely feels like he's in way over his head, so it'll be pretty interesting to see how he fares. And him and his Servant definitely look like they'll be an entertaining pair with some nice banter.

Past Kotomine was just like I'd imagined. I was a little worried he'd come off as a slightly different individual with it being written by someone else, but it seems like there's no need to worry about Butch getting the characters right. And it's nice to see how far back his trolling of Rin goes~

I enjoyed all of the chatty exposition scenes that some people seem to have found too slow, but the summoning scene at the end was definitely the highlight and a perfect climax to this 45 minute long introduction. Gil's bored as hell expression was priceless and Saber's line is just a classic by now.

OP playing at the end was an interesting choice, and even though it doesn't amaze, it's still very serviceable. Suit Saber looks awesome, definitely her most appealing image, and hopefully it'll reflect on her personality.

Now for 7 days of very painful waiting.

[Hell_ping]

Originally Posted by Endless Twilight

Now for 7 days of very painful waiting.

And another 20+ episodes after that. Knowing that Urobuchi Gen wrote this before he even did Puella Magi, and seeing the events of Fate/Stay Night, this is more of a foregone conclusion, so spoilers really can't be prevented completely here. But seeing the OP sound so optimistic, you got to wonder whether it would fit later on.

[Triple_R]

Episode 1 thoughts below:

Spoiler for Episode 1 thoughts:

I'm going to break this down into pros and cons. Keep in mind that this is more subjective than objective.


Pros:

1. The artwork is beautiful.

2. The episode did an excellent job of introducing and fleshing out some of the major players in this war before the Holy Grail war begins.

3. Intensity gradually built up well throughout the episode, ending on a nice cliffhanger moment.

4. The Sakura moments were genuinely moving.

5. Dialogue was straight and to the point. It felt realistic given the circumstances in the narrative itself. I didn't find it that hard to get the basic gist of what is going on, for either of the four "camps" focused on here. The fact I found it easy to follow is a bit remarkable given that...


Cons:

1. ...It was very dialogue-heavy. In and of itself, that's not really a negative (especially since it was easy to follow) but it was a bit disappointing to see such a lack of actual animation in this episode, which is probably a side-effect of the "talky" nature of the episode. But then, I suspect future episodes will have much more action and explosive animation in them.

2. I don't like the seeming lack of variety amongst the competing masters so far. They're all adult men so far (Waver is only 19, but he's basically an adult). Furthermore, even their personalities do not appear that diverse from one another (this episode in fact goes to great lengths to demonstrate how very similar two competitors in particular are). One of the strengths of Fate/Stay Night, in my view, was just how diverse - in age, gender, personality, and goals - the various Masters were in that narrative. It gave a nice array of competing perspectives and personality types, serving as a catalyst for good character growth and personality clashes. It also added some real color and dynamism to Fate/Stay Night, imo.

I'm not sure if Gen was locked into using these particular characters based on established Fate/Stay Night lore, but if not, I have to really question why he'd go with such a seemingly non-diverse cast on the Master side.



As for the OP, I thought it was very nice. Standard anime style, but delivered with such beauty and finesse that it still came across as well above average for an anime OP, imo.

On the whole, a pretty good start. There's more positives than negatives here, as my lists above makes clear. 8/10 for this episode, for me.

[larethian]

This is pretty much an exposition episode. The exposition is important to the plot but it's not easy to make an exposition heavy episode in anime. I would say the appropriate BGMs help somewhat. This seldom happens, but it follows nearly exactly the novel. And in order as well.

[Tiresias]

The Matou segments broke my heart into tiny pieces. God, the "this won't end well" foreboding is strong in this one!

[ThereminVox]

Holy infodump, Batman.

I had trouble deciding at first if I was gratified or irritated that Fate/Zero had the stones to leave the station going full steam, with little interest in whether the viewer was actually aboard or not. By 20 minutes in I decided that I was glad for it, but my Fate knowledge is still sufficiently incomplete that I can imagine what a clusterduck this show must seem to any neophyte who was just introduced to (literally) over 20 characters, while the show nudges them, going "hey, you know THIS guy, right? Oh man! Remember how he's gonna do the thing with the stuff later? Sure you do!"

We have quite the collection of masters this time around. Very little fodder, should make for a far more interesting dynamic than we saw in Stay Night. I can't wait to see some sparks fly now that there are some legitimate warriors involved.

Armed with only the limited familiarity with the universe that comes from watching and vaguely recalling the Stay Night series and movie, I've been looking forward to this season of anime in part because of this series. So far it looks like it's going to come through. My biggest fear is that I'll start to feel that I didn't take the required correspondence class to know what in god's name is going on .

[Hooves]

The first episode is already killing me with having to remember all these details, masters, relics, families, etc... But so far I'm already loving this, 48 minutes just like Memochou on the first episode is plenty to give this anime a good start that it needs.

[patnam]

the countdown before end credit sure like '24'...!! ^^

P.S: hope each episode is 1 hour running instead of half hour...

[serenade_beta]

A good first episode?! *head explodes*

But anyways, great. Very interesting.
I hope that the anime will allow people who have never played the game or watched the anime to keep up with it. (Though I have watched the anime)

Kiriya-san...

Weber-kun, kawaii yo, Weber-kun.
Still, Ichijou's voice... Great voice actor, so I have high hopes. And to top it off, the President's voice is in this anime too. Playing another crazy old man.

[jeroz]

watching the 7 CMs for maybe 100 times prior to this series really helps. Don't worry about the relics, the families ties (which will probably go through a bit more in later episodes) at the moment.

really curious as to how the english dude and the caster's master gonna factor in this fight, probably the ones no one is rooting for. Won't like the fact that the naive Waver is going to be thrown into the deep end. Hopefully Rider can cover his back well.

Will cry for Kariya.

[DarkLordOfkichiku]

.. A great episode, 'nuff said! . Hope they can keep things up though.

Looking forward to see Rider/Waver... And of course Saber!

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Episode 1 thoughts below:

Spoiler for Episode 1 thoughts:

2. I don't like the seeming lack of variety amongst the competing masters so far. They're all adult men so far (Waver is only 19, but he's basically an adult). Furthermore, even their personalities do not appear that diverse from one another (this episode in fact goes to great lengths to demonstrate how very similar two competitors in particular are). One of the strengths of Fate/Stay Night, in my view, was just how diverse - in age, gender, personality, and goals - the various Masters were in that narrative. It gave a nice array of competing perspectives and personality types, serving as a catalyst for good character growth and personality clashes. It also added some real color and dynamism to Fate/Stay Night, imo.

I'm not sure if Gen was locked into using these particular characters based on established Fate/Stay Night lore, but if not, I have to really question why he'd go with such a seemingly non-diverse cast on the Master side.

I personally think characters of the masters in Fate/Stay Night were just too immature. I like serious and mature fight, rather than Chu-ni-byou fight.

[DarkLordOfkichiku]

Originally Posted by applejuice

I personally think characters of the masters in Fate/Stay Night were just too immature. I like serious and mature fight, rather than Chu-ni-byou fight.

Hey, Caster was serious enough. And so was Rin, as long as it didn't directly involve Shirou (as Archer says "My great master becomes immature as soon as you enter the picture") . And of course, Zouken and Kotomine...

[alumnox]

first command spell to berserker... kill that old bag of worms as many times as necessary... this was my first thought but I suddenly got a DEAD END bcs I forgot the piece of %&$ keeps his main worm underground inside the great grial grounds.

[Reckoner]

I proclaim with no shame being a Nasu/Type-moon/urobuchi gen/fate/stay night/ufotable/kaijura fanboy. This anime is like a dream come true...

The animation was very good, though there were certain scenes that weren't that remarkable (Like when Kirei's father and Tohsaka Rin's father were walking around him in a circle). Still very good despite that, and clearly leaps and bounds over shitty DEEN.

Honestly for me, this was a perfect episode. My pick for anime of the year if it keeps this up. And yes, I am a fanboy.

[Yuna Amakura]

Originally Posted by applejuice

I personally think characters of the masters in Fate/Stay Night were just too immature. I like serious and mature fight, rather than Chu-ni-byou fight.

This, and this again. The masters of F/Z are much more interesting and appealing, at least to me.

[hoarfrost]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

2. I don't like the seeming lack of variety amongst the competing masters so far. They're all adult men so far (Waver is only 19, but he's basically an adult). Furthermore, even their personalities do not appear that diverse from one another (this episode in fact goes to great lengths to demonstrate how very similar two competitors in particular are). One of the strengths of Fate/Stay Night, in my view, was just how diverse - in age, gender, personality, and goals - the various Masters were in that narrative. It gave a nice array of competing perspectives and personality types, serving as a catalyst for good character growth and personality clashes. It also added some real color and dynamism to Fate/Stay Night, imo.

I'm not sure if Gen was locked into using these particular characters based on established Fate/Stay Night lore, but if not, I have to really question why he'd go with such a seemingly non-diverse cast on the Master side.

I have to say, I'm very much refreshed by the lack of teenage boys and girls, particularly girls, in every setting in which they can be squeezed. It seeps into settings that are supposed to be grave and it becomes more of a handicap. One of the reasons I can take Zero so seriously is the near total lack of pandering, especially for the prequel to an eroge. 2/7 of the cast are hitmen, another 2/7 are members of an apparently patriarchal, conservative organization, and 1/3 of the remainder is an established character. They are all assembled to inflict violence on one another. So it makes sense to me for there to be a lack of gender diversity.

Hell, one of the already small female cast is a gender bent King Arthur.

Spoiler for Maiya:

One is a child soldier, and making that character female already strikes me as a big reach.

So they've gone pretty far just to include women already.

As for goals and motivation, I have yet to see any two masters who share the same. Rest assured, there will be personality clashes. Of the non Ryunosuke master cast, we can already begin to see them file into three groups of two diametrically opposed to one another.

Kayneth, blue blood representing the establishment and the in-group, nepotism and respect for hierarchy - Waver, representing the newcomer on the margins, the bottom of the totem pole, emphasis on merit and character

Tokiomi, the archetypal magus and alpha male character type - Kariya, the one who ran form the lifestyle of magi, the nice friend who didn't get the girl

Kiritsugu, defined by his sense of purpose - Kotomine, defined by his utter lack of direction but the insane lengths he is willing to go without one

Then you've got sub contrasts between the conservative magi like Tokiomi and Kayneth who believe absolutely in the rule of mage society and gentlemanly conflict and the brazen and utilitarian methods of Kiritsugu and Kirei.