Arcane Specials: Top 10 Anime Villains

Top 10 Anime Villains

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to bring you another special. So yeah....no Phantom review. Now before you say anything, I'll let you know that I was going to watch Phantom. But I ended up watching Steins;Gate and Kara no Kyoukai instead. So instead I've decided to give all of you lovely folks my personal favorite villains in anime. This is my list so if you disagree my choices and feel like you have a better list then by all means share you list to me. Also just to let you guys know, I DID NOT MAKE THAT PICTURE UP ABOVE! I borrowed it from a fellow blogger. His name is Vogiir and you can check him out at the link provided at the bottom. Show him some love because he's a cool dude. Also this list will contain spoilers so if you haven't seen the anime that these characters are attached to I recommend that you do before reading this list. Now with all that out of the way let's begin, shall we?

Number 10: Frieza from Dragonball Z

One of the first big villains from the anime classic, Frieza is one of the terrifying villains in anime. He has a special to me and most anime fans seeing as how he was one of the first villains we grew up with. Now even though he has a lot of nostalgic value to him, Frieza is still a really good villain all by himself. I mean the man not only takes over planet after planet but he truly believes that it's the natural order of things! He honestly thinks this is how things should be because he's the strongest so he should get what he wants. Not only that but the man took out an entire planet of crazy strong warriors with one finger. That's pretty damn scary and evil. But that's the reason why we love him. Frieza, not only is he one of the strongest monsters in the universe but he knows it and he'll damn sure flaunt it.

Number 9: Makoto Waltz Segai from Guilty Crown

Now I'll be honest here, as much crap as I've talked about Guilty Crown I will say that there is on character that I loved watching and that's this man right here. Makoto is just so much fun to watch as he does some pretty damn villainous deeds through out the show. He does all of these action with a honest to god smile on his face and that is the beauty in his character. Not only does he enjoy being a villain but he knows he's a villain! Everything he does is just so damn over the top and chews every piece of scenery that he's in. If anything, Makoto leaves a lasting impression on the audience you won't be forgetting him anytime soon. Makoto Waltz Segai, the anime Tim Curry!

Number 8: Love Machine from Summer Wars

Now this guy is a badass. You may laugh at his name but you know what? Love Machine don't give a fuck! You think his name is stupid? Well all he has to do is hack into your bank account and publish all you information all over the net for all to see. Who's stupid now? Love Machine is such an awesome villain simply due to the fact that he can and will hack into anything and everything. But most of all his biggest reason for doing all of this is so simple, he loves trolling people. That's pretty much his only reason for doing everything he does in the movie, he just loves causing trouble and chaos for everybody. He doesn't care who you are or what you've done if he can cause misfortune and grief he'll do it. Why? Because it's fun. Love Machine, the ultimate troll.

Number 7: Orochimaru from Naruto

Okay so if know me you'll know that I do not like Naruto. I've tried to get into it again and again but I for the life of me can't stand it. That being said there is one character that I do love. The first recurring villain in the show is the snake man himself Orochinaru. He's just a nasty, vial, disgusting monster of a man who just love causing pain and anguish to others. One of the best parts to him is that he always has a smile on his face. The man is smiling with everything he does and you just want to smack that evil filled, smug look off his face. He is one the only  real villains in Naruto too. Almost all Naruto villains are usually people that turn evil due to misfortune in their life or because society made into a villain. But Orochimaru isn't like that at all. The man seemed like an evil bastered even before he turned evil and he still had that damn smile too. Not only that but he does some nasty stuff with his body in the show and corrupts one of the main characters to follow him. He is what I think of when I think of a villain and I love it. Orochimaru, The smiling snake monster that we all love to hate.

Number 6: Kirei Kotomine from Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero

All the way from the Fate series we have the man himself, Kirei Kotomine! Kirei is slimier to Orochimaru in that they love seeing people suffer. But in the case of Kirei is a little different, he loves seeing people suffer because he gets a sense of pleasure from it. He absolutely loves seeing people in not only physical pain but he loves seeing them in emotional pain as well. The man married a woman who was terminally ill because he enjoyed watching her as she was slowly and agonizingly dying from her sickness. Not only that but he cried when she died because he didn't get to kill her himself. You also have the events in Fate/Zero were you see him set up Kariya to be framed as the man who killed the husband of the woman he loved. After which she sends him off the deep end and inadvertently causes Kariya to strangle her. Not only does this almost kill her but she survives with massive brain damage and Kariya just about insane and eventually dies a very sad and painful death. I mean damn that's fucked up and how does Kirei react to this? He absolutely loves it and immediately wants to do it again. This man has no soul. Kirei Kotomine, a priest see your sins as his pleasure.

Number 5: Light Yagami from Death Note

No. I don't care what anyone says. Light. Is. A. Villain. The man thinks that he should be the god of the new world as soon as he gets the Death Note. He is power hungry and he just doesn't stop there, he wants more power. He's very much willing to let people that haven't done anything wrong die as long as he sees them as a danger to his plans. Light is the text book definition of a power hungry psycho who only sees people as pawns. Even worse is that the man believes that he's doing the right thing. He justifies every horrible thing he does as means to an end. But to top it all off he does something that fans of the show still can't forgive him for. He kills off one of the main characters in the middle of the show. L was pretty much Light's rival through out the show as they kept playing a game of cat chasing mouse. But in the middle of the series actually kills off L. This was a huge shock to fans and is what I fill solidified him as a true villain. Light Yagami, while you're crying over L's death he'll take a potato chip and eat it.

Number 4: Vicious from Cowboy Bebop

This man is just terrifying. Vicious is a man who doesn't even need to tell you why he's scary. In the show the mere mention of his name is enough to get people afraid. Hell the man doesn't even need a gun to show off how dangerous he is, he just uses a katana to get his point across and he's insanely dangerous with that thing alone. He has history with Spike and knows him better than anyone else which makes him a deadly adversary to our hero. He also has a kickass bird that hangs out on his shoulder. Not only does this make him look cool but that bird is also scary looking too. Simply put, Vicious is played so cool and so toned downed that it makes him stand out more and he ends up leaving a lasting impression with just how cold he is and how ruthless he can be. Vicious, he'll bring a sword to a gun fight and walk out the winner.

Number 3: Knives Millions from Trigun

If you ever thought you had a bad brother just take a look at Knives right here. He is just a dirty person who disregards human life in favor of his own and tries countless time tries to either turn his brother Vash's beliefs on humanity and trying to save all life or is tries to ruin everything he holds dear and turn his life into a living hell. Knives is the complete opposite of Vash is very single way and what makes him so damn evil is that you feel like he doesn't even care if Vash gets killed. This is made very clear when we see him try to break Vash as a person. He will stop at nothing wipe out the entire human race and he'll anyone who gets in his way. Even if it's his own brother. Knives Millions, even though he shot off Vash's arm he did it out of brotherly love.

Number 2: Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Don't be fooled folks. Underneath that cute exterior is a cold, emotionless, calculating creature who will play with your emotions to get what he wants. Now some may say that Kyubey doesn't count as a villain because he doesn't do anything villainous through out the show but I have to disagree. If it wasn't for Kyubey playing on the hearts of all these girls as well as the main cast in Madoka Magica they would all have normal lives. But Kyubey searched for something in their hearts and poked ans yanked at it to the point were they agreed to a contract with this pink-eyed devil. What's even scarier more villainous about Kyubey is that he doesn't think he's doing anything wrong. He's simply just gathering energy from these poor girls emotion so that his race can power themselves and he doesn't even see humans as living creatures. He sees them as batteries that will one out live it's use and when that happens he'll move on to the next girl. Kyubey, you can be angry at him all you want he'll just see that as potential energy.

Number 1: Lio Shirazumi from Kara no Kyoukai

This right here ladies, peoples, and animals is the best anime villain in my opinion. Lio is a very simple person to understand really. He had a thing for the main heroin Shiki. But she wasn't interested in him, she thought he was weak and just brushed him off but little did she know that this would led him down a very dark path. Lio became obsessed with Shiki, he tried to show to her that he wasn't weak and started to kill people to prove to her that he wasn't weak. He dressed just like Shiki because she was all he could think about for four long years. He eats all of the people he kills and leave very little for anyone to recognize as a human being. He knows that Shiki's a killer so he tries to push her into taking a human life she refuses. When he sees this he blames it all on one person ans promises that he'll help her cut her ties with him so she can kill. Even though he failed it still doesn't take away the fact that he almost killed the man that Shiki loves all because he believed that he was holding her back. Lio is so horrifying as a villain because he doesn't want rule the world, he doesn't want to enslave or wipe out all of humanity. All he wants to do is make the woman he's obsessed with into a killer and he could care less about the rest of the world. That is what makes him so iconic as a villain, just how completely sick he is. Lio Shirazumi, my personal favorite anime villain of all time.

I hope you enjoyed this list and I hope look forward to next week because that's when we kick off Romance Month here at Arcane Reviews! Until next, take care.

Link to Vogiir profile.

http://themodernmage.com/author/vogiir 

     

Arcane Reviews: Baccano!

Baccano!

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to bring you a new anime review. You wanna know what I love, when anime does something out of the ordinary. I know anime in of itself does a lot of weird and strange stories and what have you. But it often gets stuck in that stigma of just weird stuff for the sake of weird stuff. The out of ordinary that I'm talking about is when a anime decides to center it's story around a completely different culture, more importantly when they try to portray the western culture. Now there are some anime that do in fact do this with such titles like, Big O and Cowboy Bebop. We also have another anime to add to that list and it's the topic of today's review. I present to today my review of, Baccano. How does Japan portray New York in the 1930's? Well let's find out.

Story:
The story here is what I like the most when it comes to story telling, a very non-linear way. The story starts off pretty much when everything has already happened. Everything is done say for a few unfinished plot lines. Now you may think well doesn't that spoil the whole story? That is where you're wrong because now you're intrigued. You wanna know just how everything went down and who did what and who killed who. But it doesn't stop there because when more characters are introduced then we end up seeing more of their back story, in which the show stops it's already ongoing plot to tell what this character did that lead them to this point in then main story. Then you have all these other stories from different points in time being told. So you'll be watching what's going on in the main plot then jump a year later to see what's happening to a character that lived through the events of the main plot, because they have another story going right afterwards. So in short the story is all over the place, but in a good way. You'll be pulled into the story and you're gonna wanna know what the hell is going on. It's such a insisting way of telling the story which in of it's self is very good. But for the sake of not giving away any spoilers I wont go into detail. Just know that if you're lost the first couple of episodes, it's okay you're not alone.

Animation:
On the technical side of thing this show has a very cool look to it. The art style is very simple as well as the character designs but it matches the feeling that the show portrays. It's a very almost film noir in it's atmosphere and the art style helps it in that aspect. We also have the background and locations that the are in the anime and I'd be lying if I didn't say that they gave them a pretty damn distinct look to it. The show feels like it's the 1930's with just about the way the buildings look to the outfits that the characters wear. The animation is also top notch when it does an action sequence, in fact the show shines when they do a fight scene because they get to show you just how much effort and fluent movement they put into each fight. The animation here is pretty badass and just helps this show to hit that high quality level in anime.

Music:
Music here is also just really damn good. All the tracks sound like, once again like they're from the 1930's. More importantly the music is very much jazz oriented. You have saxophones, bass guitars, violins, drums, and just about everything else that comes with jazz. It does the job perfectly to draw you in and get you immersed into the era of the show. But when the show has to get dark and play some low sounding and eerie music you bet that it produces haunting tunes to match the given situation. The music was portrayed perfectly and I loved it.

Characters:
Now this is the best part of the show. The whole cast of characters is too large for me to properly talk about so I just have to discuss them generally. The characters all very from one another and have there personalities. Each characters feels like an actual person and they all feel very well round out. Now some characters do stand out from others and they are even more fun to watch. The show develops them very well and no one feels like a generic character archetype that often plagues anime. Also on a side note, the English dub is awesome. I usually don't talk much about dubs unless it's necessary and here I do feel as it can up your enjoyment of the show. All the actors do a great job at capturing the voices that you'll hear from that era and it's just sound perfect. So if you watch this show then please watch the English dub.

Nitpicks:
I do have some nitpicks but they're very small. The nitpick being that the story can be a bit confusing at times to follow. It jumps from place t place that you'll end up wondering which story is being told right now, that can end up hindering the enjoyment to some people. Also the ending may turn some off because it end on a very open note, leaving a possibility of a second season. That season hasn't happened and I don't think it ever will. But aside from those complaints the show is great.

 Overall:
Well to sum up my review I'll say that Baccano was a lot of fun to watch. It has a very cool story, interesting and likable characters, and some really good music too. This show is so much fun to watch and I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a little something different then what they usually get from anime.

Arcane Reviews gives Baccano a 9 out of 10.

You can watch "Baccano!" on:
Funimation (Dub and Sub) 

Arcane Reviews: Danganronpa: The Animation

Danganronpa: The Animation

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to bring you a new anime review. So out of all the anime that was released this year it would seem that the weirdest one out the all of the shows is pretty much this one today. This is an adaptation to a popular PS Vita game that goes by the same name as the anime. It's a bit of an odd one mainly because the game itself is odd and very shot out, so making an anime out of it was a surprised to most. I know what you're thinking it's on the lines of "yeah that's all cool but is the anime any good?". Well I guess that's why we're here right? Without further or due I present to you my review for, Danganronpa: The Animation.

Story:
The set up here is pretty simple really. We follow our kind hearted and very fucking bland hero, Naegi Makoto. Naegi has been accepted into a high school simply known as Hope's Peak Academy. A high school that he really has no knowledge of but he's just happy that any high school accepted him. He soon realizes that he's trapped in this place with 14 other students and even worse then that this is no ordinary school. We end up meeting the school principle, a robotic bear known as Monokuma. This little black and white bear tells all the students that the only way to escape the school is easy. The students just have to kill each other off without being caught at all. That's one hell of a graduation ceremony huh? So with such a crazy plot like that just how does the show hold up? Just barely really. You not only have this kids killing each other all Battle Royal style but you also have another part of the show where they hold a class trial to see if they can find out who the killer is. Now saying all that I can see how this would work really well in a game but as an anime it doesn't so much. One of the rules of the trials is that if the students convict the wrong person the the criminal will go free while everyone else gets killed. In a game that put's a lot of pressure on you as you're playing detective all the way and you get to interact with the crime scene and take part of the trial. But in the anime it's all very predicable and not very engaging. In the game you can mess up and convict the wrong person but in the show you know that they're gonna convict the right person so it ends up loosing a lot of the suspense. the one thing I can say is that the show was a little funny at times and I enjoyed myself. Until the really stupid ending that kinda killed everything for me. That really hurt the already not so hot story.

Animation:
Well this is another area where the show isn't so hot either. The animation in the show is very stylized to the point that it can turn some people off. Also character designs just look really weird. Some of them didn't look to good but then again they're designed right off of their game designs so it's a case of one look not translating into a different media. I will say that the animation did increase in quality during the execution scenes. During these parts the show the art style changes drastically and the show has a bit of a unclean and gritty look to it that I personally liked a lot. That being said the rest of the show's animation is just okay and was nothing special.

Music:
Okay here's a spot that I can complement the show greatly in. The music in the show is really fun and pretty catchy. You already have the God awful but amazingly cheesy opening for the show that I freaking love and the ending theme has a very 8-bit tune to it that fits really well. Other tracks do tend to help some of the trial scenes and can really up the ante in the more do or die situations of the anime. A side from that I can't complain about the music at all and I had no problem with it at all so I feel as though it was pretty good.

Characters:
This is a really easy department to pick at in just one sentence. Characters are pretty pointless. With the exception of the two lead roles, all the characters are not very well characterized and fall flat into stereotypes. Now while I will say that some of them where fun to watch I really felt no connection to any of them seeing as how most of them where killed off really quick. The ones that did survive just stayed as the simple character trait they were given and didn't really develop into anything other then the trait that was placed among them. I guess I can say that the villain Monokuma was kinda fun to watch but he too was just a cookie cutter villain with no real reason as to why he doing what it is that he's doing. Well they do explain it but it was a really stupid motivation. You also have the main character Neagi who is generic a fuck. He the good guy that just want's everyone to get along and be friends, yeah he's just full of complex character motivations isn't he? I'll give him credit in that he actually developed though the show and even stopped being a whining wimp at the end. Other than that he was still bland as hell just like the rest of the cast.

Nitpicks:
Seeing as how I just picked the show apart you must be thinking that I can't possibly have a nitpick right? Well I do and it's a big one. The ending. The ending to the anime sucked, plan and simple. The villain's motivation were retarded and they beat the bad guy with hope and friendship. No I'm not kidding. I mean when you have a set up like this you'd think that the end would be this big monster of a climax or at least a dark ending but nope. It's like I finished watching an episode off the Disney channel. They just needed friendship to beat the bad guy. Like seriously what the hell?

Overall:
So as much as I've bad mouth the show I have to say, I don't hate this anime. Now don't get me wrong it's not very good and it has a lot of problems but I never got angry. I never just wanted to stop watching because I was bored or annoyed. I had some sense of fun watching this show and I can say that maybe some people will like it. But would I flat out recommended it? Hell no. If you feel like watching this then by all means go a head but I'd say to just skip this one. You're not missing anything here.

Arcane Reviews give Danganronpa: The Animation a 6 out of 10                      

Arcane Reviews: Carnival Phantasm

Carnival Phantasm

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to bring you a new anime review. Well if you haven't guessed it yet I'm kind of a Type-Moon fanboy. What with all of my ranting about poor quality of the Fate/Stay Night anime and all my parsing of the Fate/Zero one too. So now I decided to bring to you probably one of my favorite comedy anime ever. Which is also a Type-Moon based show so yeah. Shut up, I'm a fanboy let me be! I bring to you my review of, Carnival Phantasm. Is it any good? Well let me enlighten you.

Story:

Story here is gonna be a bit tricky to talk about. Mainly because there is no story here to begin with. Carnival Phantasm is pretty much just one big mash up of Type-Moon's most popular visual novels in one anime. The visual novels being Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime. So with all these characters put together what is that they do? Well they do some of the most hilarious stuff I've ever seen. The episodes usually go from a two to three skit with smaller gags in between. These jokes are pretty well written and if you're really into your Type-Moon lore it makes it even funnier. Also the scenarios they set up are just ridiculous. Like you have an episode where for some unknown reason they make the Holy Grail Wars a Mario Party like game show. You also have another episode where Illya's batteries for her gaming controller dies, so what does she do? She sends Berserker, a giant monster of a man who can't speak any word of English and is prone to destroy everything in his path. She sends him out to buy batteries. Oh my God it was freaking funny to watch this. The show is just insane and fun to watch.

Animation:

On the technical side this show looks nice. Animation quality isn't the biggest thing here but it never looks ugly at any point. You pretty much get what you've come to expect from a comedy anime. Anytime the show requires anything to look over dramatic and over the top it gets the job done. But I will say that there are jokes thrown at the animators a few times in the show and as you'd expect, it's really funny.

Music:

Well now I'm at a bit of a bump here. Once again as you would expect the music here is just okay. Nothing here really had a a lot of  note worthy stuff to mention. Now in the show's defense it did have some tunes that are fun to listen to and some of them did make the jokes funnier. Also the opening song and the ending song are awesome and are just really catchy. But aside from that I can't really say much else about the show's soundtrack so I'll say that it's just okay.

Characters:

Oh man this is gonna be fun. The characters here are just a joy to watch. Now all the characters here are from their respective visual novels. But seeing these characters interact with each other is where the show shines. The show takes their personalities and character traits and just overly exaggerates them. One example here is Caster from Fate/Stay Night. In the visual novel she wants to kidnap Saber so that she can force her to be her servant. Simple right? Well in Carnival Phantasm she's not only obsessed with Saber, she's a full blown fangirl! I mean she has figurines, posters, cosplay outfits, and even pictures of her that she's taken herself. I mean what the hell? That's pretty much how all the characters act in the show, they're all just crazy and they're put into even crazier situations.

Nitpicks: 

Now for as much as I love this show I have to say that it has a pretty big flaw. If you've never played or even read anything Type-Moon related you're not gonna get any of the jokes. It's pretty sad but it's very true, the show is pretty much meant for fans only so any new comer is just gonna be lost and confused as to why people think this is funny. While some joke required no background information you do kinda lose it's charm in the processes.

Overall:

So in the end the best thing I can say is this. If you're like me and you love Type-Moon and everything related to it you're gonna really like this show. But if you have no clue what Type-Moon even is then I'd suggest that you stir clear of this one.

Arcane Reviews gives Carnival Phantasm a 8 out of 10.                        

Arcane Reviews Update

Upcoming Reviews!

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to bring you a little update. Now I have reviews planned for the rest of this month but I also have some specials set up for the months February and March. So without further or due I present to you the upcoming Arcane Reviews for the next three months.

January Reviews

8th: Carnival Phantasm

 15th: Danganronpa

22nd: Baccano

29th: Phantom: Requiem for a Phantom

February: Romance Month!

5th: Chobits

12th: Tenchi in Tokyo

19th: Fruits Basket

26th: Toradora!

March: Movie Month!

5th: Luipn the 3rd:The Castle of Cagliosto  

12th: Perfect Blue

19th: Ghost in the Shell

26th: Princess Mononoke 

Hope you guys look forward to these next three month!

 

 

 

 

   

Arcane Reviews: Fate/Zero

Fate/Zero

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to bring you a new anime review. I hope you lovely people have enjoyed your New Years, I know I did. So what better way to kick the new year of 2014 then with a anime review? You all know my love for the Fate/Stay Night visual novel as well as my dislike for the anime of the same name. Will now all of my dreams have come true as I present to you a anime that truly captures the weight and story of the Holy Grail Wars from the Fate franchise. I present my review for 2012's smash hit, Fate/Zero. Let's begin shall we?

Story:

Once again if you've read my review for Fate/Stay Night then you'll more or less know the set up to this anime. Only difference is that Fate/Zero is based after a light novel of the same name and this is a prequel to Fate/Stay Night. Set 10 years before Fate/Stay Night, the forth Holy Grail War is just starting to commence. We follow all seven mages and all seven servants as they all fight it out in one big battle royal to see who is deemed worthy enough to win the Holy Grail. This story is just magnificent, not only do you have all the mages have their own agenda but you see some mages and servants make pacts with other masters and servants. Everyone having something planned and you see the relationship between the masters and servants. Some get along, some don't trust each other, and some become full on bros. The masters themselves are all pretty interesting too. Some masters have a selfish reason for the Grail while others have good reasons but do questionable methods to achieve them. The battles are also not just the typical good versus evil as well, you have some servants fighting each other out of pure honor and ideals. What they think a hero or a king should have to actually be able to call them a Heroic Spirit. The story is told in such a mature way and has some of the best dialog and writing in an anime that I've ever seen in an anime since Cowboy Bebop. The story is such a gem in today's anime and I just love it.

Animation:

My God this show looks good. Ufotable is in charge of animation here and I have to say that they've become one of my favorite studios in the anime world. The animation looks simply beautiful and all the fight scenes are almost cinematic at points. They go all out to make the fights so much fun to watch and at points even really brutal. Another thing that I've notice is that the show has a lot of CGI in use. Now while some anime has some pretty bad to just alright CGI I have to say, the CGI looked really good here. Some may say that they overuse it a bit but I personally felt as though it was never overused and it actually fit in a lot of places too. Simple things like a motorcycle to jets, cars, and sometimes the magic in use during a scene. I thought it was put to good use and it gave the show it's own original look to it. So in short, this is one damn pretty show.

Music:

When a show has a badass soundtrack a part of me just dies and goes to heaven. This show's soundtrack is on par with Madoka Magica when it comes to epic sounding music. Every track has the perfect sound to put you in the right mood for what ever is happening on screen. A heart-warming talk between a father and his daughter? They got a song for that. A maniac mage unleashing a giant monster to kill everybody? They got a song for that. A epic one on one battle between Alexander the Great and Gilgamesh the King of Heroes? You bet your ass they got a one hell of a song for that! The music just helps push this shows epicness so far that I couldn't get enough of it. Music here is a win.

Characters:

But how good can a show be if the characters aren't good? Well thankfully this show has some pretty damn well written characters. Though some characters have some more screen time then others I have to say that almost all of them feel like an actual person and they all have a point to them as well. Some of the most stand out characters from the show are Kiritsugu Emiya, Kiri Kotomine, Saber, Rider, and Kariya Matou. These characters are just so well written and given a huge amount of care when it comes to developing them and it executed extremely well too. This is some of the best writing I've seen for characters in any anime and it just a beauty to see how they come out at the end of the series.

Nitpicks:

Now seeing as how I've talked up a storm about this show you're probably thinking that I have no nitpicks right? Actually I have a few. The anime tries to appeal to new audiences and does a bit of a sloppy job at it. The first tow episodes (Episode one being the most guilty of the two) are a bit of a exposition dump. They go into full fledged detail about telling you all of the rules about the Holy Grail War and I must admit that it's kinda silly to watch. Also if you know nothing about the Fate/Stay Night franchise and any of the legends about Alexander the Great or King Aurther you can get a little lost at points. I was never really lost at all but that because I am a fan of the Fate series so I knew half of the stuff that was going on before I watched this show. Also the ending is may turn some people off as well. Without giving away any spoilers I will say that the ending is just a set a ending. It's supposed to set up the events that will take place in Fate/Stay Night so the ending my seem anticlimactic to some people.

Overall:

Well what else can I say about this show. Oh I know. GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! Fate/Zero is one of the most mature and well written anime that I seen in a while and I feel that it is a crime for any anime fan not to check it out. Also Ufotable is remaking Fate/Stay Night so yeah you'll that to forward to after you watch this amazing anime.

Arcane Reviews gives Fate/Zero a 10 out of 10.