Synopsis

Fate/Zero eps 5 – 8:

Ep 5: Berserker enters the fray!

Ep 6: Nobody gives a s*** about Caster. That’s why they aim to kill him off in the next episode.

Ep 7: What was said earlier, plus Rider’s motivations are revealed: pants.

Ep 8: Tentacle monsters explode!

Impressions

• Number of Times Waver Velvet Appears in These Episodes: 1 (each episode counts as one)
• Isn’t there a Joan of Arc in the Netflix Fate/ (Apocrypha)?
• Kirei is basically Wolverine…?
• Is that (so-called “ball of mercury”) a Gantz?
• You can see Ufotable’s much-praised CGI at work here, too.
• I can definitely see (watching Saber and Lancer) why Ufotable was chosen for Katsugeki and why they chose Izuminokami for their protag.
• Had to google Joan to remember what she looks like in this universe, but yeah…she does look like Saber.
• For some reason, I had a fleeting thought that Lancer would be the one to be on the mountain alongside Saber…I was right.
• So basically, the entire Fate/ series is this: who would win? A mage or an assassin? (Or something like this.)
• I still think Kirei is basically Wolverine.
• Kiritsugu = “to cut and tie”. Update: I’m correct in saying the first one meant “to cut”, but now that I look up the second kanji in his name (切嗣) the second one apparently means “to inherit” (where the standard kanji is 継 in the reading tsugu).

Basics of the Battle Royale Genre

By some coincidence, I read the novel Battle Royale (henceforth BR) by Koushun Takami before getting back to F/Z. It’s pretty obvious from the name, but BR gives its name to the entire genre F/Z is part of. So, here are the rules which exist in both series (non-definitive):

• There can only be one winner and the rest have to be killed. The winner will have to go back to everyday life to survive and…maybe something else (in the Fate/ series, it’s a wish, in BR, it’s a lifetime pension and a card from the regime’s dictator).
• It should be set in an isolated area with a “game master” who controls the entire thing, possibly even handing out the prize as well. In the BR novel (set on an island off the coast of Kanagawa), this is Kinpatsu Sakamochi, in F/Z (set in the fictional Fuyuki City) the Church seems to act in such a role.
• Weapons have to be assigned randomly. This isn’t really present in all versions of the battle royale, as F/Z and Juuni Taisen (also an example of the genre) have weapons (in the former’s case, also Noble Phantasms) related to their themes.
• For plot reasons, there has to be a reason why the battle royale is happening. The Fate/ series in general isn’t very good with this as far as I know (although my knowing such justifications might mean diving into spoilers to check) outside the wish, but BR has a dystopia who tries to justify the Program as military training (although it being a dystopia, it’s pretty easy to guess what the real purpose is).

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I’m probably getting a bit too carried away with these humourous synopses, so stop me while the going’s good: Do you like them or not?