With one of the Servant’s now eliminated, the others start to adjust their own plans.
What They Say:
It is the road to zero-the beginning.
Craving for the power of the Holy Grail that enables to do a miracle, seven wizards (Masters) summoned seven heroic spirits (Servants), and make them performing a battle royal— that is, never ends to fight until there left only one winner— Another Duel over the Holy Grail.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
A good part of the fun when it comes to Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night as well is the personalities of the Servants and the way some of them are almost adversarial with their masters. The opening to this episode, in which we see Gilgamesh lay things out clearly for Tokiomi, we get to see that in clear words as he’s just interested in whatever treasures the world has to offer at this point. At least Tokiomi is able to offer up the Grail itself, which should be considered the greatest of the treasures out there when you get down to it. There’s plotting and movement on both sides of that relationship which adds to things rather well, especially in comparison to more pliant Servants. Not that we’ve really seen any like that so far here.
This is also in comparison to the way Waver is with Rider, who is just interested in sampling the world as it stands now in the form of watching movies and eating food. And scratching himself. Even the news of one of the Servants being taken down already doesn’t do much to phase him since he’s dismissive of those that skulk around in shadows like that. And in a way, Rider is even more amusing because of it as he’s just taking in everything he can on TV in order to figure out what the world he wants to conquer is like today. The relationship between the two is pretty well done and it’s the kind where I’d like to see a series just about them, since he’s of the mind that life is meant to be lived to the utmost and things will just work out, which goes against the more planning nature that Waver has.
Through the various movements of the cast, we do get some good knowledge of what’s going on with the Servants and how they exist in the modern world. There’s a neat if small bit when we see Saber arrive by plane and she informs her “substitute” master that she’s able to fly the plane if necessary as Servants gain all relevant knowledge about the modern world every time they appear. It may not be the nuance of the world, as we saw from Rider, but the key pieces that allows them to function and fight at their utmost is imprinted in them. But even though they have this knowledge, there’s still something to be said for experiencing thing, which Saber makes clear as well as just the feel, motion and pulse of the city is something that she wants to experience for herself, rather than to just know of.
There’s definitely some neat maneuvering going on when it comes to Saber’s real master with what he’s working through and it has some of the best technically done animated sequences here. The show works hard to push its visual design as a huge selling point, and for good reason, so when we see him going through the motions with the gun, and then with the woman he’s with, it’s all very smartly done. There’s a lush beauty to all of this that’s built into a sense of the refined. It’s not exactly ornate or ostentatious, but it’s just below the surface in a way which makes it feel all the more appealing. There’s a richness to the animation that exudes atmosphere of its own and that accompanies what the show itself does.
In Summary:
Unsurprisingly, Fate/Zero is all about the atmosphere and build-up here and it does it expertly, if you’re into this particular style of it. There’s a number of personalities involved here between Masters and Servants and those that attend them so it has to balance a lot of things. Especially when there are some little twists along the way as well. Similar to the previous episode, it’s not high on action here but more on character placement and the relationships between a few of the Masters and Servants. But whereas the second episode has some positively disturbing material near the end, it also went into an action mode briefly after that. That’s all set up again here with Saber towards the end, but it’s an action free episode for the most part. But it’s still thoroughly engaging and definitely provides more than enough to keep you coming back to see how much more it will come together.
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.
