Fate/Zero

Episodes 14-15

During the original broadcast, episode 14 (season 2 episode 1 on Netflix) marked the beginning of the second season, after taking a season off in between. (If memory serves, Fate/Zero was one of the earliest series to use this “split-cour” format.) It begins with one of the series' biggest battles, an affair so involved and multifaceted that it requires two full episodes to resolve but does, finally, result in the death of the first Master and second Servant in the Grail War. Characters more deserving of meeting their ends would be hard to find.

The battle – or, perhaps more accurately, three separate, somewhat related battles – are being fought on three fronts: the land, the sky, and the water. On land, Tokiomi spies and goes out to confront Kariya, a face-off which becomes a battle of bugs vs. more sophisticated magic. Tokiomi is more than a bit arrogant here, but he can get away with it: in a battle of magic, he is probably the strongest of the Masters in the tournament. His morals are another story. He finally explains here how neatly he justified sending Sakura away: only Rin could inherit the family magic, so Sakura could only become a Mage by inheriting the line of another family. Either he doesn't have the faintest clue what old man Matou is doing to Sakura or he's so thoroughly convinced himself that it's what's best for Sakura that he overlooks it. Pretty sure his wife had no say in this, either. He may look suave, but he's something of a monster himself. And what, exactly, was Kirei doing to the fallen Kariya in the middle of episode 15? Finishing him off, or does he finally have his own scheme in mind?

Meanwhile, the Servants of the two – Archer and Berserker – duel in the sky, though only after Archer refuses to finish helping defeat Caster's monstrosity. Archer can do this because he has a sleek aircraft, while Berserker manages it by appropriating a jet fighter investigating the monstrosity and turning it into the Noble Phantasm. (We never do find out what happens to the pilot, though.) Their zooming around, chasing each other and shooting each other, is the most active part of the battles, though in some senses also the silliest. It is also the least consequential, to the point that it almost feels like padding.

The most consequential is the battle of Rider, Saber, and Lancer against Caster's monstrosity, though Kiritsugu also gets involved (unseen to those watching on shore) after offing Ryonosuke. The battle is pretty much a stand-off, with Rider and Saber exchanging helping each other out of tight spots, until the revelation that Saber's injury is keeping her “big gun” in check. That Lancer sees Caster as a big enough abomination to destroy his own Noble Phantasm to free Saber from the curse, so that Saber can use her big gun (Excalibur, naturally) to obliterate Caster, is entirely consistent with his established character. (Besides, it's not a power that could be used in the midst of a melee duel anyway.) Berserker temporarily interferes, once again singling Saber out and reaffirming that the two are connected somehow. But that's merely a delaying action to set up the Excalibur release, which is arguably the flashiest power exercise up to this point.

One special note about the resolution of this release: the person Caster sees as he dies, Jeanne d'Arc, has the same character design that will, years later, be used for a Servant of that same name in Fate/Apocrypha. The conversation that Rider and Archer have about Saber after watching her do her thing is also interesting. Archer increasingly shows a sadistic bent, while Rider finds Artoria being imprisoned by her idealism as tragic. They could also be interpreted as chauvinistic, though I suspect that was not the intent.

Episode 14 also introduces both a new opener and a new closer. New opener “to the beginning” is a strong number by Kalafina whose song, visuals, and lyrics all fit well as a lead-in to the series, while both of these episodes end with “Up on the Sky, the Wind Sings” by Luna Haruna. (You can also hear her work in the SAO and Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend franchises, among others.) The song is satisfying as well, but the visuals catch more attention: rather than animation, they consist of a series of stills which play out the relationship between Kiritsugu and Irisviel. I have long thought that an OVA should be made detailing the story shown there, but sadly, that has never happened.

On the whole, I cannot give these two episodes top marks because the battles could be significantly tighter than what they are. However, they still deliver a satisfying burst of action after multiple episodes mostly consisting just of talking.

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Fate/Zero is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix.