Hello everyone,
Let's go talk about the new episode of the fall 2011 season anime series named Fate/Zero that after the good fourth episode portraying the battle between Lancer and Saber is going even better with this fifth action packed episode.
I was a bit set back by the massive usage of cg animations in this episode, they looked out of place in the otherwise animated environment. I surely hope they don't plan to use them extensively...
The episode changed the direction of the plot away from Saber and Lancer to focus on the new heroes appearing in the arena namely Berserker and Rider (and a bit of Archer).
This episode confirm us that the battles in this fourth war will be very difficult to predict due to an high concentration of important/unusual heroes appearing on the stage, all with their perks.
The most surprising one was Berserker that was able to imitate "Shirou's plot armor" fighting against Gate of Babylon "unarmed", by reusing Gilgamesh's own weapons with a coordination that should be impossible for a berserker class.
I am suspecting it was just a doll controlled by his master remotely and that crazy behaviour at the very end was his true self. How long Kariya will be able to control him with that precision is not clear as he is slowly dying...
Oh, this is what I call a timely intervention. Rider with his powerful chariot protect Saber and scare off both Berserker and Lancer marking the official end of the first battle of the conflict.
I love how Rider act like the most good-natured character of the whole series, and I'm sure Waver will end up cooperating with Kiritsugu at least temporarily in order to fight bigger enemies...
By the way, I'm finding a lot of parallels between this series and Fate/Stay Night and a lot of them are really evident. For example Saber's cursed wound was caused in both cases by Lancer at the very beginning of the series.
I also liked how Gilgamesh ended up becoming a fool in front of all the other heroes and how Tokiomi was forced to recall him immediately using a command-mark and dirtying his pride.
I am sure Gilgamesh didn't like this and it will have an influence on the future choice of him (as documented in Fate Stay Night extensively) to become Kirei's servant instead of Tokiomi.
Next episode will move again the spotlight of the show and will probably see Saber and Caster clashing one against another. I sure hope Caster is the first hero to die, because he really is creepy...
Concluding, the first real battle of Fate Zero is complete and I'm incredibly curious about how the story will continue now that all the heroes have their own nemesis.
I'll continue to blog regularly about Fate/Zero in the future as well.
See you soon,
feal87