Should we talk about the elephant in the room?
What They Say:
“Rail Zeppelin 1/6 A Train Whistle of Departure and the First Murder”
King of Conquerors Iskandar’s Relic was stolen from Lord El-Melloi II’s possession. An invitation from Rail Zeppelin, the train said to have dealings of Mystic Eyes, was left in its place. Lord El-Melloi II, with Gray and Caules in tow, head towards Rail Zeppelin. Various faces have gathered at the train, such as Hishiri Adashino from Policies, Yvette from the El-Melloi Class, Olga-Marie Arsimilat Animusphere who is the daughter of the Lord of Astromancy, and even Karabo Frampton from the Holy Church. The train departs, together with the various agendas of the passengers…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The titular Rail Zeppelin arc has finally begun, halfway through the series. This sounded promising for a number of reasons. Perhaps most important was that, as the arc mentioned in the title of the series, it inevitably has to introduce a story of greater length and consequence. However, the revelation that the catalyst behind Lord El-Melloi II’s involvement would be the theft of the mantle of Iskandar ties it back to the story of the Waver we know and love, and any reminders of his Servant from ten years prior are as welcome to any Fate/Zero fans as they are to him.
In that sense, it really feels like Lord El-Melloi II is a surrogate for the audience in a very different way from the typical protagonist. It’s hard for me to imagine this series landing very successfully as someone’s first foray into the Fate franchise, and I’d extend that a bit more and say that most of the viewers are fans of Fate/Zero who want to see the continuation of Waver’s story and loved his dynamic with Rider. Given that premise, this Waver comes across as any of us – he’s not particularly interested in the events going on around him, but anytime anything comes up about the Holy Grail War or Rider, he is gripped with feelings of nostalgia, regret, and longing. There’s nothing he wants more than to participate in the next Grail War and reunite with Rider, and he’ll drudge through any mediocrity to achieve that end. Sadly, we know that this pair isn’t a team that competes in the original story of Fate/stay night. While there is some intrigue in learning exactly what prevents Lord El-Melloi II from being involved at all, there seems to be a lot more motivation for him to see this pursuit through than for us. After all, we already know we’re never getting the end goal that would make this all worth it.
I don’t know much about the source material, but I do know that Rail Zeppelin is only one of several arcs, so I’m not sure if it’s even the most important one for connecting to the larger Fate universe. For all I know, this series could’ve adapted any piece of the novels and teased the prospect of leading into the next Grail War or a dramatic reunion just as much as this is. As preoccupied as Lord El-Melloi II is with returning to the main stage, the series seems more concerned with working its silly little mysteries into everything, as well as throwing in as many characters from various Fate properties as possible.
This episode is still very introductory for almost its entire run, spending most of it on conversations between the passengers of the train. Much of this deals with Lord El-Melloi II’s obsession with the Holy Grail War, the important mystery of who stole Iskandar’s mantle, and about 100 mentions of Mystic Eyes within a 10-minute stretch. There seems to be a lot of potential lying within these conversations for the future, especially regarding Gray’s character, but most hope of that is deflated when it ends on a cliffhanger of yet another tired whodunit. Maybe this will prove incredibly important and compelling, but if everything else is pushed to the side as Lord El-Melloi II spends the whole next episode or longer going through the same formula to solve this mystery and it isn’t relevant to the rest of the plot, it will be thoroughly disappointing. That’s a fairly pessimistic thought, but it seems a bit unwise to get my hopes up for anything too substantial at this point.
In Summary:
The core arc is here, but the first episode doesn’t do a whole lot to make the show feel like a must-watch. There’s not much more than setup and talking, and while a lot of that seems like it could be very interesting going forward, the return to the whodunit formula for the end undercuts that a great deal. This still isn’t a bad show by any means, but it’s more than halfway through and is losing me a bit more with each episode. That doesn’t give me a lot of hope that it will be a worthwhile entry in the franchise beyond this one initial watch, which is unfortunate for the continuation of Waver’s story.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
LG Electronics OLED65C7P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
