Beautiful but lacking
And it is lacking in the most fundamental part of the genre it identifies with. As a power/action/magic and fantasy anime, the fight scenes are rather lackluster. The hand to hand combat part of the fights were meh, and the special abilities the servants possessed (noble phantasms) were without range/depth. On can easily predict the winner of a fight by weighing how powerful one servant’s noble phantasm is against another’s. However, I dare say that the three masters that could fight were not terrible. Keyneth’s fight with Kiritsu besides being a big tease was fun to watch and Kiritsu’s fight with Kirei put a small smile on my face after I had lost hope. It wasn’t mind-blowing but compared to all the mehs the anime had given us for 23 episodes, it was something.
That said, I should commend the anime for its strengths. The plot and the story were award-winning level good. The plot was one of the most original I have seen since Naruto. Character development was well done. I’m especially grateful they knitted the stories of three of the major players (masters) together. This made their stake in the war personal and related. I’m probably beating this horse into the ground but I am again very grateful for how layered the story is.
In all, Fate/Zero is a really good anime. Would have ranked above demon slayer if the fight scenes were better.
