Fate/Zero

Being a prequel to Fate/Stay night, which I happen to really like, it was a great experience to see what happened in the events mentioned a lot in Fate/stay night.

Fate zero is serious, brutal, unapologetic and mature. It is a character driven and dialogue heavy anime.

Story is good. I like the whole holy grail war scenario and the idea of using past great heroes to fight in them. Storytelling is AWESOME. There are lots and lots of characters in this anime and it manages to give everyone a fair share of screen time and great character development. Each character is complex, varied and distinct. This is where this anime truly shines. The relationship between the Masters and the servants is great and is distinct as well. Some are easy, some are complex, some are downright weird. The dialogue in it is also really great, and there is a lot of it. Every movie a character makes is a calculated one. There are no pointless fights or stupid decisions. It really goes to show how mature this anime is. The protagonist especially, is really clever and plans out everything with perfection. It, at times, gives Baccano and Death note a run for their money. There is some humour in this anime, although all of it comes from Rider and his master's conversations and scenes. The way they handled them was one of my favourite things in the anime, loved it.

Animations/art is without a doubt the best I have seen so far in an anime series. Everything is so detailed, beautiful and fluid. There is a lot of CGI too. Normally, I hate CGI in animes but here, they managed to blend it almost perfectly. On very few occasions did it felt out of place. Watching this anime in HD really just melt your eyes, ITS SO PRETTY!!

Soundtrack is amazing as well. From epic battle music too moving sad moments, it has it all.

The anime is not perfect however. I really wished there were some more dialogue moments between Saber and Kritsigu other than that one epic one. Would have loved if there was more development between them. Also, there aren't many fight scenes in this anime. I get the reason behind it as its a more mature anime, pointless fighting was not gonna be in it. But still, epic ones are few and far between. Would have loved to see some of the characters go all out against one another especially in the quality of its animation.

Overall, it is a great, epic anime which you don't get to see a lot. Its maturity is what sets it apart from other animes like it. It is certainly one of the best anime I have seen in a while and perhaps of all time.

Compared to FS, FZ is way way better. Fate/Stay night is like a younger, annoying, often playful brother. Fate Zero is the older, serious, mature, awesome and somewhat dark brother.

Highly recommended. 9.5/10