Fate Zero is a prequel written by Gen Urobuchi. The creators of Type Moon placed it as canon and it has been sought out to be animated ever since. However, there is a distinct difference between the Fate Stay Night anime and Fate Zero:
Fate Zero is more depressing and pointless than it has to be.
Really, the big problem is how pointless the show is. Fate Zero is supposed to explain the previous grail war. After all, the grail had to be corrupted somehow to explain why in Fate Stay Night servants such as Medea could be summoned. The problem is that it never really makes much else.
The animation is probably be better than Deen. Fate Zero was animated by Ufotable, the studio that made the eye candy of Kara No Kyoukai's seven films. I personally like a lot of their work, but the animation wasn't that much of a draw for me. No matter how pretty, a plot needs to make sense and flow.
Which brings me to it. Often, the plot is eh. I often saw it just pushing to try and make you care. For example, a lot of the fights in the beginning are rather out of place. Having four servants fighting at once practically shows how over powered they are. Most of the plot follows Kiritsugu Emiya, the mage hunter. We often see exchanges between him, Irisville, Maiya, and Saber. However, the other characters are far more interesting.
The plot around some of the other characters could have been expanded on. However, since Kiritsugu and Kotomine were the main draw, they really stayed on those characters. It made the flow awkward and often the episode content seemed out of order. For example, the background episodes came at some point that reminded me a bit of Natsuki Takaya's Fruits Basket issues.
Which reminds me, action. The action of Fate Zero is well animated, but... Often the fights seem too short or matrix like. For example, there's a whole fight between Kiritsugu and Kotomine that reminds me of the Matrix. There aren't that many fights during the series that are big. And often the issue is how many fights are going on at once.
Characters are also a big problem. They range from interesting to barely even touched. A few of my favorites was the Caster team (which was probably the most fun loving character dynamic), the Rider team (I admire how well they developed them.), and some of the Beserker team.
The reason I didn't have a lot is the way they were portrayed and developed. Some of them just got a slight amount of development, like lancer's team. Some got far too much, such as team Saber and Team Assassin/Gilgamesh. And often the reason is story. For example, there's a whole episode with Rin that feels like it was entirely pointless. The only reason it's there is for fan popularity and she barely does anything.
As for voice acting, I never saw the dub. Granted, the dub for Fate Stay Night was a mixed bag, but bearable if you like certain characters. The sub was interesting enough, and I liked the energy in some of the conversations. Overall, Fate Zero is worth one or two watches. The action is nice, but I'm not always there for the action.
7.5/10
This is the spoiler part of the review.
1. This is so much better than Fate Stay Night!
Okay, Fate Stay Night had the issue of too much material. Visual novel adaptations ALWAYS have this issue. Fate Zero has material from a novel that got well liked. The problem being most of the new characters were made by the author, rather than the main TYPE MOON creator. I found Fate Zero less interesting for that reason. FSN was better planned and had better pacing in regards to characters.
2. The animation is so much better!
DEEN is not a bad studio. Granted, not every studio can do that well. Ufotable is just known for having less shows, but better presentation. And even now people complain about various cells looking off. Seriously, both were good, just stop... stop thinking one has to be better.
3. Rin's episode was necessary!
Rin's character existed to be put away during this outing. The episode featuring her getting herself in danger and getting rescued by the guy who is trying to saver her sister is pointless. Kariya's character is suffering most of the show and his only thanks is to practically break apart to save someone that Rin's father doesn't even seem to care about after she's adopted off... I'll end there.
4. Kiritsugu is a hero!
Background wise... He's rather eh as a hero. Seriously, he has very little going for him. He wants to be hero, but he takes the masses over the small fry. He even kills his mentor when she could have been saved. All because the mass of people arriving could have died.
5. You should like Saber over all the servants!
Saber is actually the most pointless character in Fate Zero. You have to believe that she took all these lessons and decided to not care about them until Fate Stay night. Fate Zero is one huge continuity killer.
