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Apr 17 2012

Categories: episodic review, fate/zero
Tagged: fate/zero

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“Her sword shines, a dream that all warriors scattered in battle, past, present, and future, hold and mournfully exalt as their final moments approach.”

I guess two things stand out for me this episode. One, Ufotable’s animation is excellent. The way the characters move when they’re not moving. The perspective light is handled. The While the blending of CGI and animation assets isn’t as advanced as Nichijou and there’s an occasional quality lapse, Ufotable is one of the top animation studios. They are top tier.

“EXCALIBUR!”

Why isn’t this my new wallpaper?! I like how the worst thing I can say about this scene is that, “Maybe they should have detailed Saber’s teeth and tongue more.” Everything else is fantastic… her scream, the way the focus comes and goes, the bubbles reflecting off her image (well, not 100% accurate, but, hey, they tried), and the movement of her hair and shoulders.

(I like this scene only because it took like three minutes of buildup for Saber to launch her strike. It reminded me a lot of when I watched DBZ when I was in college… I also like how the tentacle monster didn’t move or try to assault her as she spent all this time powering up. Ah anime tropes. You never get old. Except maybe how giant mult-ton robots can dodge pew pew lasers. I can complain about this one all day.)

How not to do quality? This. My gosh, a horse’s front does not look like that. Instead of a horse, that looks like one of those horse costumes where two people dress up as a horse. And, yes, I thought about writing a post for this episode of Shining Hearts MST3K style, but I decided I have better things to do with my time. Then again, I might still do it… gah… this horse. It’s just so terrible.)

Two, “good” and “evil” are defined by people willing to sacrifice pride. Lancer, Saber, Kiritsugu, Waver, and Iskandar want to win, but they want to win with pride. They want to do things the right way paragon way. Gilggy, Kirei, Tokiomi, Sola-Ui, Matou, and Berserker don’t give a fuck and just want to win at any cost. They do things the renegade way. Funny thing is the characters don’t see each other this way. Saber thinks Kiritsugu is renegade when he’s only slightly less paragon than Saber. Kiritsugu will do anything for Irisviel (except boning other hawt women), but that’s still his definition of being paragon. On the other hand, Sola-Ui is pretty much a raging bitch who doesn’t accept, “No!” for an answer. Lancer should have chosen the bro– any bro– than her. Ugh. I don’t think Lancer will be any happier in this series than he is here.

(I like to think about everyone’s Game of Thrones equivalent alignment character. Saber, of course, is Ned Stark since they both are so sickeningly good. Kiritsugu is more like Jon Snow in that he is willing to bend for the situation. Gilggy is like Viserys, right down to the crown of gold. Sola-Ui, of course, is Cersei Lannister.)

Looks like a Reaper minus the eye laser. Does explain Caster and Ryuunosuke… they’ve been indoctrinated.

Awesome phone bro. I am glad Kiritsugu has a Zack Morris phone and that Irisviel doesn’t know how to use it… my question is… where the hell does Irisviel put that? It’s a mystery. I’m also amazed that they get signal during this crisis. I have a hard time getting a signal during any minor event in SF let alone a crisis that crippled a city port.

I should have included Kirei in the bro post… but he was being a bit too homoerotic this episode for me. He’s like brooding between sticking with his original lover, Kirei, or backstabbing him for Gilggy. To do so, he came across a fork in a road. If he were helping Kirei, he would kill Matou with extreme prejudice. Since he didn’t and instead did some weird magical Miyagi palm on him, it’s safe to assume Matou (or at least his command symbols) are now pawns for Kirei.

“There’s no doubt.”

I would imagine Type Moon and Ufotable not wanting this scene to resemble a baby sliding out of a womb… but that’s what it looks like. Saber’s Excalibur is performing an abortion on Caster’s womb tentacle monster. I know. It’s disturbing. But the way they animated this sequence… come on. And with the way the tentacle monster insides room where Caster is? And the light? It’s as clear as Suzaku impaling Lulu.

Jeanne de Arc does look pretty cute and Saber-like… is it possible to get her as a servant for the seventh Holy Grail War? And then give her the personality of Yui from K-On!… it’s about time we get a clumsy, sleepy servant who likes ice cream and guitars.

The F-15 x Protoss Phoenix segments are still the weakest part of the show. The CGI is passable, but the fight just isn’t interesting. How if we had Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer piloting those babies, that would be different.

“That girl never had a happy childhood, never fell in love, but was cursed by her ideals and ended up this way.”

Well, no Iskandar, Type Moon decided to gender swap him into a her and forgot the rest of the backstory and mythos. Also, I miss Iskandar being a bro to Waver. I feel like at the end of every episode, we need to get a Bro Talk (think Lucky Channel) between Iskandar and Waver about topics like women, getting over hangovers, urinal use etiquette, barbequing, women, grooming nose hairs, when to and not to drink mimosas, and women.

“I, Gilgamesh, am the only one in this heaven and earth with the right to love her in her destruction.”

Okay maybe Gilggy is more like Salladhor Saan in that they both love gold… and having sex with powerful women who don’t want to have sex with them.