The final Servant is brought into play and Archer gets to do a little showboating.
What They Say:
Kiritsugu and his daughter Ilyasviel stroll through the Einzbern woods. As Saber watches the happy parent and child, she ponders why Kiritsugu has not spoken to her since she was summoned. And in Fuyuki City, the battle ground where the Holy Grail War will be fought, the seventh and final hero is summoned.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After the double length episode that introduced the basics of the series, Fate Zero goes for another episode where dialogue is again a bit point to it. And that’s not a bad thing, though it could use a few more names thrown around just to make it a little more accessible The opening of the episode is quite a lot of fun as we see the relationship between Waver and Rider form. The two are quite different to be sure and it’s comical to see this loud, brash and accomplished conqueror deal with Waver. With Rider getting a feel for the world at this point, there are some good moments as he take sin what his past was and the scale of the world itself, and an amusing nod that he’s still interested in conquering it all. So much so that with a bit of a wink, he talks about heading west to start conquering country by country instead of dealing with the Grail at first just because it’d be more fun.
There’s some decent time spent with Saber as well as she watches Kiritsugu and wonders just what kind of person he is. Considering what’s to come and the nature of his wish, she’s definitely uncertain about what to expect with him since at this moment he’s a very kind and warmhearted man that’s spending time with his daughter. Which is in stark contrast to Ryunnosuke, a young man with interest in discovering if demons are real because his ancestors used to research it. He’s kind of cracked in his own way, but he goes through his spiel while talking to a bound and gagged child while explaining later that his hobby is that of being a serial murderer. Which works out well because when the tattoo appears on his hand, it brings into play his Servant, who is just disturbing in his own special way.
Caster is definitely one of the darker members of the group of Servants and he’s ideally paired with Ryunnosuke, which you’d almost not want to see. It’d almost be more interesting pairing him with Waver for example because of their different natures. Caster’s arrival, and the amusing name he takes of Bluebeard for this era, brings the final one of the Servants into play and we see a bit of the big picture view of events with a neat if brief bit involving Archer who is getting his first mission, which of course involves the murder of a particular member of the Tohkasa family.
In Summary:
Fate / Zero moves a bit better in this episode as it shifts between four different stories in a much smaller time frame and lets each of them be distinct. This is one of those kinds of shows where there is just a whole lot involved and going on throughout it and while there will be stronger focuses at times, early on we’ll see it leapfrogging around. That does help to let us get to know the players better, especially as we get the final summoning here, and the pairings are becoming more distinct. I liked the opening episode because of the overall promise, but this one starts to shore it up some while not feeling like it’s dragging out a bit too much. Action is brief but what we do get is spot on as it’s very much in the vein of the characters rather than just pointless battles. Seeing Archer in action and getting a feel for the relationship between Caster and Ryunnosuke was spot on. The best is watching Rider and Waver though just because Rider comes across so well. The show definitely has me still curious, but it’s also going to have to deliver some solid points soon too.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
