This is more like it! The war is finally getting going.

Problem: Your series is slow and filled with talking heads.

Solutions:

1. Explosions.
2. Murder.
3. Betrayal.

This never fails. Unless you’re Guilty Crown.

Boom!

What a great scene at the hotel. Waver’s teacher is inside, sipping wine in his penthouse suite, confident that no one will reach him through all the traps that have been laid. And no one does. After making sure that everyone has evacuated, Kiritsugu simply levels the entire building. He doesn’t even need his servant or magic to win the Holy Grail war!

Speaking of which, Kirei doesn’t seem to need his servant to win either. If he had gone to fight Gilgamesh himself, I don’t think the result would be quite so one-sided.

I doubt Lancer’s master is dead yet though. Waver’s got to be the one to take down his teacher, and that woman was just introduced. My understanding is that she provides the mana, he provides the command seals. What exactly is their relationship though? They didn’t seem to be on the best of terms. Co-workers at the magic school?

Serial Killers

So Chibinium was right last week: Caster thinks Saber is Joan d’Arc.Why? Is is it just because they look the same?

In a universe where King Arthur is present a thousand years after death, however, I’m inclined to think it isn’t a coincidence. Could Saber have been summoned as a Heroic Spirit in France while Caster was alive?

Speaking of which, I wonder why Caster is so obsessed with Joan. Is it because he loves her and wants to serve her once again, or because he loves her and wants to burn her at the stake himself?

Either way, this “Babel Tower of corpses” is going to be fun.

Betrayal

Gilgamesh’s betrayal of Tohsaka is coming into place now. The reason: because he’s “boring.” I have to agree with Gilgamesh for once. Tohsaka certainly is boring.

Kirei’s conversation with Gilgamesh was pretty interesting. What does Kirei wish for? He doesn’t even know himself.

It looks like we’re in for a session of teaming up on Caster next week. I hope he doesn’t die first. He definitely has the potential to spice things up. The teaming up makes you think about the original Fate / Stay Night though: why didn’t Kirei do the same thing to stop Caster and Rider when they began to murder people? I suppose it speaks to his character.

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Rider is Awesome

‘Nuff said. And he hasn’t even drawn his sword yet. Just trampled people.

The way he defended Waver from his teacher was pretty cool as well.

Get Going Already

This episode (and show) have been entertaining, don’t get me wrong. But it is quite slow. I’m not all that patient with multi-episode battles. This one last two and a half, I think? And most of it was just Saber and Lancer talking to each other and acting honorable.

The actual battles are pretty sweet. The animation is spectacular. Even CG Berserker looked good this episode. But most of the time is spent sitting around and talking. Even Rider wasn’t enough to entirely save the scene where he interrupted the fight, as Saber and Lancer both get insulted, start issuing threats and posing. I do not understand Saber’s appeal.

The interruptions of Rider, Gilgamesh and Berserker were definitely an improvement, though. Being honorable is boring. I can’t wait until Caster gets involved. I guess he’s going to have to duke it out with Gilgamesh for Saber.

Gilgamesh getting cut off the pole was nice. Rider trampling Berserker was amusing as well. I like how Rider has kicked ass so far without even drawing his sword.

And we’ve already had two command seals used! Waver’s teacher’s command was not well thought out. And… why didn’t Berserker just kill Lancer too? I thought he was, well… berserk. I guess the worm guy was controlling him before through sheer willpower, but he claimed to have lost control when it attacked Saber. Why not Lancer too?

Berserker has a pretty convenient Noble Phantasm. It’s quite effective against Gilgamesh.

Tohsaka’s use of his command seal against Gilgamesh was also not a good idea. I predict he’ll get killed by his own servant soon.

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This sure looks pretty.

Plotting

So let me get this straight. The heroic spirit Assassin, who is pretending to be dead, is sent to observe the battle. And he is spotted by a human, without a disguise or anything. To make things even better, Assassin doesn’t spot the other human watching from the roof below him.

I think this goes to show that a) the spirit of the future Kiritsugu should enter the Holy Grail War as the heroic spirit Assassin, and b) Kirei’s servant is grossly incompetent. Their entire trick was blown before the first battle even started? This is not what I would consider a legendary quality of assassin.

Rider

I complained before about Rider and Waver, but really, they’ve been carrying the show for two weeks now. Rider is worried about his opponents losing because he wants to face them himself? He stops right in the middle of the battle with his chariot, and announces his true name to everyone.  Normally a character as pathetic as Waver would be annoying, but it works quite well when he’s paired with someone as outlandish as Rider. Him getting dragged along on top of the bridge was the icing on the cake.

The Battle

The battle between Saber and Lancer really was gorgeous. This is probably one of the nicest looking TV anime I’ve ever seen. I love how they handle the lighting.

The true identity of Lancer was revealed, as Diarmuid of the love spot.

One thing that’s kind of odd about Fate / zero is how the characters talk about things like it’s an RPG. Saber has “all A-level abilities”, Lancer has the “charm ability”, and so on. I can’t really think of why they’d want to do that. For me, at least, it breaks the atmosphere.

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I can’t make fun of Waver and Rider too much this week, since the segment with Rider watching TV was hilarious. Buying B-2s, but hating stealth? Bill Clinton, a more formidable foe than Darius III? Riiiight.

Forcing Waver to the top of the bridge was amusing as well, although that may only be because I enjoy watching him suffer.

Conspiracies

So it seems that Tohsaka was in on the plan to send assassin to the mansion. But does he know that assassin isn’t actually dead? I’m guessing yes, the plan is probably to fool the other masters into thinking assassin is gone until they get stabbed in the back.

A bigger question, though, is whether Gilgamesh knows. Tohsaka is acting as Gilgamesh’s servant (which is quite amusing, I might add) but it seems that he isn’t being entirely level with him.

Finally, what is Tohsaka planning with the independent action class skill? For those who aren’t familiar with the original F/SN, the archer class can stick around for a few days without a master, while the other classes disappear more quickly. Is Tohsaka planning to die? I doubt it. But there are other ways to lose your servant. We know that in the end, Kirei will end up as Gilgamesh’s master. So it’s a question of how we get there.

A Date on the Beach

Irisviel continues to annoy me. She’s boring: Ilya but without her cruelty or childishness. Basically she’s too perfect. And with Butler Saber the problems only compound.

I’ll be honest, although saying this is almost heretical: I have never particularly cared for Saber. She’s too perfect. I greatly prefer the horribly broken characters such as Sakura (maybe this is why I like Ringo from Penguindrum so much).

Other Matters

Saber’s riding skill allows her to fly planes like she’s holding onto the reins. OK, whatever. This kind of stuff makes me think that this entire story is fanfiction. Why does it matter?

Kiritsugu is cheating on his wife? Well, the wife is kind of cheating on him too, so…

They could stand to pick up the pace a bit. It’s already the third episode and most of the time has been spent with people standing alone talking to themselves. We’ve had people claim, at the end of the episode, “the war is beginning!” not once but three times. Seriously, just start the war already.

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This is the first show I’m picking up to blog this season. I love everything Type Moon and can’t resist.

This episode picked up the pace significantly from the first episode. We’re still introducing the characters, but they’ve begun with the action.

Wanker and the Orangutan

The servant is even more idiotic than the master. But at least he has some ambition. He doesn’t even care about the holy grail war, just wants to conquer the world. Such a straightforward hero isn’t bad once in a while. And he agrees with me that his master is pathetic.

But still, Alexander the great must be rolling over in his grave.

Bluebeard

Bluebeard and his partner, however, more than made up for Wanker and the Orangutan. We have a team of two serial killers! This should be fun. In Fate / Stay Night, we didn’t have any masters this downright evil. (Shinji’s murder spree was more pathetic than evil, as was Caster’s once her rationale was revealed.)

I liked the way they introduced these two characters. We already have this guy in a middle of a murder, and then this other guy who looks like a monster out of a horror book appears from a circle of blood. The serial killer tells him to eat the kid. Bluebeard approaches the child, bends down, unties his ropes, and tells him how to leave. Wait, maybe he isn’t so bad after all. He could be a character like Shinji’s Rider. Just a kindly old man.

“Sshhh, watch closely,” Bluebeard tells his master. The child looks towards the exit of the house filled with light, and hope lights up his face. Then he’s grabbed by some tentacles and swallowed whole. A great scene, the way it toys with your emotions.

Breaking and Entering

It’s not that surprising that Kirei betrayed Tohsaka, but his Assassin sure was defeated quickly. I doubt it’s dead yet though. The scene where he broke into the house was very well animated.

I’m curious how Kirei is going to get out of this. He must have a backup plan, since he’s got to stick around to the end to fight it out with Emiya. Maybe he’ll take Rin hostage or something.

The Einzberns

Ilya’s mother is pretty dull at the moment. Too passive. I hope she has some dark secret or something. At least we know she’s going to die.

And little Ilya is cute. I love the snow, we need more anime that includes snow. If they replaced every beach episode with a snow episode I would be a happy camper. Snow is so alluring. And it looks so beautiful.

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