Fate/Zero

With the promise of granting any wish, the omnipotent Holy Grail triggered three wars in the past, each too cruel and fierce to leave a victor. In spite of that, the wealthy Einzbern family is confident that the Fourth Holy Grail War will be different; namely, with a vessel of the Holy Grail now in their grasp. Solely for this reason, the much hated "Magus Killer" Kiritsugu Emiya is hired by the Einzberns, with marriage to their only daughter Irisviel as binding contract.

Kiritsugu now stands at the center of a cutthroat game of survival, facing off against six other participants, each armed with an ancient familiar, and fueled by unique desires and ideals. Accompanied by his own familiar, Saber, the notorious mercenary soon finds his greatest opponent in Kirei Kotomine, a priest who seeks salvation from the emptiness within himself in pursuit of Kiritsugu.

Based on the light novel written by Gen Urobuchi, Fate/Zero depicts the events of the Fourth Holy Grail War—10 years prior to Fate/stay night. Witness a battle royale in which no one is guaranteed to survive.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Saber Main

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Emiya, Kiritsugu Main

Koyama, Rikiya Japanese

Gilgamesh Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Kotomine, Kirei Main

Nakata, Jouji Japanese

von Einzbern, Irisviel Main

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Toosaka, Rin Supporting

Ueda, Kana Japanese

Rider Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

von Einzbern, Illyasviel Supporting

Kadowaki, Mai Japanese

Matou, Sakura Supporting

Shitaya, Noriko Japanese

Velvet, Waver Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Takeuchi, Takashi Producer, Original Character Design

Iwakami, Atsuhiro Producer

Kondou, Hikaru Producer

Mori, Yasunori Producer

Reviews

Mar 29, 2026

MitsotakiShogun

Recommended

Disclaimer: I first watched this many years ago, and rewatched it much later, but now I'm half-drunk as I write this and randomly reminisce about my younger days as I re-watch select scenes from the series, half-cursing that tomorrow is a workday, so feel free to consider most of this review the rumblings of a growing drunk dude.

It really doesn't matter what you think of the Fate series (I mostly don't even understand the point of it, and I might have rated 8 or 9 instead of 10 in my personal Excel file), but it is still a masterpiece. This, together with Unlimited Budget Works, ... are some of the must-watch series any anime-lover should watch. The amazing technicals (animation, sound, VA, ...) are one thing (all of them are great btw, even by 2026 standards!), but the most important thing in my opinion is the influence this has had over many series after it, as well as the breakage of norms. In the beginning, I strongly disliked the genderbending twisting of history and myth, but as I got more and more used to "anime weirdness", I came to appreciate the amount of effort that went into this. You do not watch this for historical accuracy as if it's a documentary, nor do you watch it for it's philosophical musings as if it's a treatise on the concept of utility. You watch this because it is a good balancing act between each of these. I have studied international relations, political science, history, economics, and political philosophy in university, but it seems I could not *fully* appreciate scenes like the dialogue in episode 11 until now (even if the author didn't intend to convey half of the things that I saw). The dialogue between the "king of conquerors" and the "king of knights" (greed vs duty) struck a cord in me after all this time. I first read Machiavelli's Prince and Sun Tzu's Art of War when I was ~16, but now I want to read them again. How should a ruler be?

Anyhow, I recommend this even if you don't like the theme/genre. It's a piece of anime history (together with UBW), and a feast for your eyes, that stands on equal ground with even the modern masterpieces. The review before me called this the poor brother of Demon Slayer, which is also incredible (and I like it more than any Fate series), but I think that reviewer misses a key point: this came a decade before Demon Slayer, and paved the way when there wasn't even a dirt road. This series has scenes so memorable (e.g. Reddie's warrios vs Goldie's treasures) that I remember them many years after last watching it (~2020?) and want to come back to watch them again.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 8, 2023

FAKECROSS97

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Ah yes, Fate/Zero, the anime that everyone seems to love. Let's see, where do I start with this one?

The story is about a bunch of people fighting to the death to get their hands on the Holy Grail. Riveting stuff, really. I mean, who doesn't love a good old-fashioned death match? It's not like we haven't seen that before in every other shounen anime out there.

As for the style, well, it's your typical dark and edgy anime with lots of blood and gore. Because nothing says "mature storytelling" like excessive violence, right?

Let's talk about the characters. There's Kiritsugu Emiya, the brooding protagonist who's all about ... the ends justifying the means. Oh, and did I mention he's an assassin? How original. Then there's Saber, the noble warrior who's also a woman because we can't have too many male protagonists in anime. And let's not forget about Rider, the charismatic conqueror who's so over-the-top it's almost comical.

And of course, we can't forget about the music. It's your standard epic orchestral score that's meant to make you feel like you're watching something important. But let's be real, it's just background noise to the same old tropes we've seen a million times before.

So, did I enjoy Fate/Zero? Well, I suppose it was mildly entertaining if you're into that sort of thing. But if you're looking for something truly groundbreaking or original, you might want to look elsewhere.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 24, 2026

PAIN67

Not Recommended

Funny

Fate series is another more overrated pieces of garbages which was used to be peak during old days but now its just untalented brother of demon slayer.People often claim demon slayer to be carried by ufotable's animation but they don't have same case with fate series and how its carried by ufotable's animations more than anything ufotable has ever produced,fate zero is simply atrocious piece of trash that should have been cancelled from episode 1


A)Premise-Ten years before the events of Fate/stay night, the Fourth Holy Grail War is about to begin in the Japanese city of Fuyuki. This is a secret, bloody battle royale between ... seven magi, known as Masters. Each Master summons a legendary historical or mythological figure, a Servant, to fight for them. The last Master-Servant pair standing wins the Holy Grail, a magical artifact said to grant any wish.
basically a boring pokemon battle.


B)Characters-Easily one of the worst aspect of fate zero
1)Emiya, Kiritsugu-The only saving grace the main character who is interesting has a good goal and cool personality
2)Saber-pretty okay her personality is changed for other characters philosophy
3)Lancer and his master-Piece of trash lancer wanted to play with saber with being warrior and got his ess whopped and it was the best scene in entire anime same like askellad killing thorfins trash father loved that
4)Caster and his servants-Literal bums of the series how can a small girl can beat you absolute trash characters got defeated so easily.both of them don't even care about the grail, they simply spend their time killing kids and talking about how they enjoy killing kids, they're too delusional to even see the possible consequences
5)Kotomine Kirei-starts as a normal guy who works with tokiomi but after archer tells him that he seems interested in kariya's tragedy he gets rewritten into a one-dimensional villain due to something
6)Gilgamesh-who doesn't have to worry about anything thanks to his hax powers, which lets him remain as an egotistical asshole with zero character development till the end
7)Matou Kariya: who suffers to join the war so he can save sakura, but fails to do so and suffers even more, the only reason he exists is because the writer is obsessed with tragedy, kariya's story has no point, no meaning, it's a complete waste of time.


C)Story-Story of fate zero is written so badly this anime easily could have been 18 episode including those preschooler level philosophy and mid fights there's no way for it to be 25 episodes long it's literally a chore to watch it through and get to the interesting stuff.
because of this I often found myself bored with whatever they were talking about, mainly because the plot was boring and all the characters had many unappealing traits which made me not care about them.


D)Fights-As most of the characters are not at all charismatic and their fights are not exciting Fights are mediocre to okay to absolutely bad its just disgrace to good animation If I am being honest because of due to terrible direction and uninteresting/generic powers to see.There is only one good fight somewhere in the middle other than that you want to skip all of them and don't wish to watch

E)Themes- It's done by a preschooler that's it

Character designs are pretty dope other than that there is no quality to be found

Overall one of the most overrated fiction ever read just watch jjk or demon slayer at least it has better fights and is never boring

Score-4.5/10(C-)

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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