And it was awesome! Truly, this had everything I wanted from the series to showcase and delve into and it managed to execute on almost all aspects meritoriously.
First of all, the story. The whole concept of the Holy Grail War as a plot point has the perfect narrative means for it to be the object of contention, and while I found Stay Night didn't manage to execute on this regard, Zero does it marvelously! When you have an all out battle between seven contestants fighting through different methods and for different purposes for an ultimate reward, while having no one being the immediate central character that the plot relies on, it is key to give the show proper exposition to work on and I am glad that Fate/Zero knows how to put everything it needs to showcase into the limelight and execute on them in such a spectacular fashion. With elaborate schemes, fragile alliances, conspiracies, gamesmanship, questions of morality, ideologies, philosophy, etc. does not only makes the show unpredictable--especially how well it manages to unravel everything in a smart and competent manner--but also mature in its approach.
And don't get me started with the characters in this show! Character developments and interactions in the series are the shows highlights for me, especially watching the vastly varying natures and complexity of the relationships between Masters and Servants and the way they develop over the series and how well portrayed they all were (with variation in quality of course, but were all executed properly). Motivations are explored and contrasted, relationships grow and are expanded upon and gives it all in the grand narrative context and meaning. A very important factor that I would Stay Night lacked (or rather didn't manage to properly convey) was the multidimensional approach between the Servants interactions with each other and the Masters. Zero is astute in the manner that it managed to contrast on fundamentally opposing beliefs on different aspects and how it clashes with another. Emiya Kiritsugu and Saber are prime examples, with one having an utilitarian / pragmatic outlook on the world and the other a very romantic / deontological pursuit of what is right, and how the friction eventually grows between them over their vastly differing approaches to the same basic ideology. And not to forget the episode with Raider, Saber and Gilgamesh sitting down together for drinks while discussing their conflicting philosophies on what it means to be a king, which was my favorite episode in the show. Something like this was what I exactly wanted from a show like this! Different historical figures interacting with each other and coming into conflict on a psychological level, exploring different ideas and values that were brought up in their time and how different their point of view is. Not only is it interesting to witness the characters behavior during the conversation, but also for the viewer to explore and contrast on their set of ideas. Simply glorious!
The animation and action scenes are visually stunning and choreographically astute to be sure and the technical merits are strong. Rich, appealing character designs, excellent background art, and impressive feats are highlighted by vivid, nicely-toned use of color. The musical front is great, and I found several soundtracks which I started to listen to on YT after I had finished watching. I believe Yuki Kaijura is some sort of a legend when it comes to musical score in anime.
Of course, Zate/Zero is not without its fare share of flaws. While not a problem per see for me, it does suffer from an overly use of exposition in the beginning and its pacing can be a bit uneven throughout the show. Also for characters that weren't given proper screen time, they were more excessively philosophizing which made them more ideological centered characters rather than actually having any valuable characterization on their part, but thankfully this is only for a small portion of the characters included (which were quite many to be sure). Had Zero been a few more episodes longer I am certain it could have fixed these issues.
One thing I like to point out is how cleverly Fate/Zero works as a prequel and how it establishes a critical context for Fate/Stay Night. What happens to Saber over the course of this series provides a much clearer explanation for why she behaves the way she does in Stay Night and makes the resolution of her story vastly more satisfying in the end, while Emiya Shirou's obsessiveness over the concept of being a hero suddenly becomes far less irritating when looked at as a counterbalance to what Kiritsugu thinks and does in Zero. After all Shirou is the embodiment of what Kiritsugu lost in his quest for heroic pragmatism and what he was seeking from the Grail, which makes the choices for Zero's final scene and line to be particularly powerful and poignant. The progression of Kirei's development over the course of this series--along with the influence and manipulative side of Gilgamesh--also goes a long way towards explaining Kirei's behavior in F/SN. While not that praiseworthy in its approach, it is still a commending aspect. That Zero is actively doing this throughout the show is a poignant and makes the experiences of both shows that much more enjoyable (to some extent at least with F/SN).
Honestly, I truly fell in love with this show and there is so much more I would like to write about on this, but don't want to make this post longer than what it already is. If I find the proper time I would definitely like to write several blogs on certain aspects. fate/Zero is definitely one of my favorite animes I've seen and I am much looking forward for the upcoming ufotable's representation of F/SN that is just around the corner, which I hope will be a lot better in its approach than the previous version.