Fate/Zero – Review

First off, I’d like to apologize to anyone who may actually care for not writing episodic reviews for the last three or so episodes.  I’ve had a lot of stuff to do, and didn’t have an adequate amount of time to sit down and write proper reviews like I like them, so I decided that it would be best to hold off on that and write a big end-all be-all review of the complete series.  So without further ado… let’s begin.

I’ll be honest here, after seeing the first episode of this series… I wasn’t really too pumped up about it.  I had heard a lot of sub-par opinions about it’s sequel, and I already knew that it was a prequel to Fate/Stay Night going into it, so I kind of assumed that having seen that series would be a perquisite to being able to enjoy this series.  At first, that seemed to be the case with this series, as the first episode seemed to me to just be a long-winded exposition-fest filled with characters that  I though I should already be familiar with.  And so after that first hour of dialogue about things that I didn’t understand or comprehend, I didn’t think that I would end up watching any more of the series.  However, because of how good people said the novels were, I decided to go ahead and watch the second episode of the series.  And obviously, I’m glad that I decided to.

The show is about The Holy Grail War, a battle fought between seven Mages and their summoned Servants. The Mages summon a servant with and artifact and the pairs then battle each other in order to obtain the Holy Grail, an object capable of granting the owner of it any wish they desire.  Fate/Zero sounds like a very standard kind of Highlander, “There can be only one”, type of thing on the surface, but it isn’t anywhere close to that at all.  Most series like this would have a very obvious and noble main, one who stands up for what is right no matter what, and who’s only wish is for everyone to be happy or something like that.  Then the other characters would be introduced episodically each posing a new threat that our hero will obviously overcome because… well, he’s the hero, and he’s obviously going to win.  All of the challengers that the hero would face would be impossibly evil, like the type of evil who’s wish would be for everyone in the world to be raped in the ass by an elephant or something just for the hell of it.  Obviously, these people’s malicious and selfish desires would not stand a chance against the unshakable morality of the hero, and they would fall one by one, each breaking under the hero’s unbreakable desire to do good.  But this show isn’t like that in the least.  Which is a good thing if you were actually wondering.

The series, surprisingly has some fairly decent production value and animation.  Although some people may assume this is an action show, given the context of the series, it really isn’t in the end.  It has plenty of good action scenes that are doe fairly well, but a majority of the series consists of dialogue and is more about the beliefs of the characters.  But still, for a show like that, that animation is pretty good.  It generally maintains a rather dark atmosphere most of the time, and the animation complements that very well.  Some of the CGI parts of the series are kind of annoying, but that may just be because I really don’t like CGI in anime.  To be fair, however, there isn’t really a whole lot of it throughout the show, so it wasn’t that big of a problem even to me.  The voice actors are all good, with a few being perfectly cast for their roles, and some being really meh.

The thing that sets this series apart from others are the main characters, or lack thereof.  There isn’t really one true main “Hero” character, although the series obviously favors a few specific ones over others.  Also, each of the characters are given a fairly decent amount of screen time, though it takes the show a while to balance it out evenly amongst everyone.  Almost all of the masters and their servants have very unique personalities instead of the usual stock “do-as-much-bad-as-possible” villains, although the one group that fits that description fits it to a “T”, and they’re badass to say the least.  Some characters have good and selfless motives, while others are either completely unknown or so petty they shouldn’t even be in the War, and because of this there are several characters and pairs that you’ll like.  This is one of the best things about this series; because there is not a true “main character” you root just as much for one pair as you do another, and along the course of the series your opinions about certain people will be changed entirely.  It’s so much better and interesting when you actually give a shit about both sides involved in some big battle, instead of having to say, “Well, I guess I want the Main Good Guy to win”.

The show does take a little while to get started and the better half of the series is spent with the characters running around and talking, but when the series picks up, it really picks up.  And of course because of the fact that there’s no cut-and-dry distinction between who the show wants you to like and who it wants you to hate, the story is open to go a lot of different places and will mean different things for different people.  For example, some people will like a certain character for his selfless goal, but others will hate him for the methods he’s using to achieve it.  Also, while watching this show try not to make any assumptions about who’s going to win the Grail, because they’re just going to get smashed a few episodes later if you do.  As I said before, most other shows in this style simply follow the hero mowing down his evil opponents one at a time, yet this show does not follow such a linear format.  The series isn’t simply ever pair running around and trying to kill the others, and it seems much more realistic because they actually take the time to think about what they want to do, to make alliances with each other and don’t all treat each other as their sworn and mortal enemy.  Well, it makes it as realistic as a bunch of ancient Spirits battling for a magic cup can be.

Also, without trying to spoil anything, I actually liked the ending, although I’m sure plenty of people didn’t.  About halfway through this show, I was convinced that there was no way this series could actually have a satisfying ending, given that there were so many characters that I liked, and obviously all of them couldn’t win.  And like most of my other preconceived notions about the show, that idea was proven wrong as well.  The ending was kind of what I expected it to be, but was a lot more satisfying than I thought it would be too.  However, that may just be because I know that the story isn’t over and that it continues on into Fate/Stay Night.

Finally, the sheer epicness of this series makes it that much better.  It really isn’t too often that something with such a simple concept can become so much more than what you expect of it.  It’s a rarity for a show to have so many likable characters, good and evil alike, and for that show to be able to give each of them enough of their own time to show what they bring to the story.  The show does take a little while to get started and the better half of the series is spent with the characters running around and talking, but when the series picks up, it really picks up.  This is one of the best all-around great examples of an anime that I can think of, not really because it does anything terribly new, but because everything it does it does so well.  The series definitely fulfilled all the promises of epicness that a Magic War fought with ancient spirits could fulfill, and on top of that, it gives great characters with great personalities, and a satisfying story.  In my opinion, it’s fucking great.

Fate/Zero Episodes 20 & 21

Oh, God, too much stuff happened.  This probably wasn’t a very good time to miss two episodes, considering how they both had a lot going on in them.  However, even though a lot of new things developed, there isn’t really a whole lot to say about it, or at least not in episode 20.

And look at that, Kariya finally gets some more screen time.  These two episodes combined probably account for about ninety percent of his appearances in the entire series.  I’m sure I’ve said this before, but it seems odd how much the show shits on Kariya, considering that he has one of the more noble goals in the entire show.  Sure Kiritsugu is trying to end all conflict or whatever, but Kariya is risking his life not simply for his ideals, but for a child.  I mean, he’s had bugs infest his body, been mutilated, burned alive, and has been made to eat the thing that took the purity from the very person he’s trying to save.  Speaking of that thing, it seemed like it was censored to me because of how quickly it was shown; but why would they go out of their way to not show too much of it, but show it crawling into his mouth?  Surely the show has to give him some kind of victory in all of this, otherwise he would have pretty much been the punching bag for everyone else the entire time.  Oh yeah, and he strangled the woman he loved after she thought she saw him kill her husband.  That kind of sucks too I guess.  Everything that’s happened to him has made him out to be some kind of weak, pathetic douche bag, which seems kind of an unfair thing to do to a noble character.  But I guess I shouldn’t be complaining that the show isn’t taking the normal road and putting the obvious good guy up on a pedestal; after all Kirei is much more interesting.

The on thing that was kind of pointless in these episodes was Saber and Rider’s fight.  Regardless of how strong Saber is, surely just listlessly using her huge-ass laser-sword-beam whenever she wants can’t be too kind to her mana.  That stupid motorcycle transformation probably didn’t help matters too much either; I don’t know the mana exchange rate on things like that, but I would be willing to bet that making a normal motorcycle go faster that it’s possible for it to move and then transforming it to something out of Akira doesn’t come cheap.  Also she didn’t even stick around to make sure she didn’t waste such a huge move for nothing.  So she just wasted time and energy chasing after Rider and now she’s going to fight Berserker right after she’s used her 1000 MP attack.  In my opinion it probably isn’t the best plan of action.

But Goddamn the best thing about all of this has got to be Kirei.  Although, I do find it kind of odd how quickly he’s changed from a cold and silent servant to a completely ruthless, almost clone of Kiritsugu.  Although Kirei doesn’t’ have any real motivation behind what he’s doing, other than to find out more about himself, I think that’s what makes him interesting.  He doesn’t have some secret agenda, he doesn’t have some ultimate goal, he just wants to do what he wants.  And if the choice ends up coming down to him and Kiritsugu, I many actually find myself rooting for Kirei instead.

Fate/Zero Episode 19 – The Kiritsugu Show

I should have known something was up when masters and servants were getting killed left and right at the beginning of the second part of this series.  As I said before though, I don’t really have any problems with these flashback type of episodes because of what they reveal about Kiritsugu’s character.  However, I do think that with a cast as large as the one in this series, offering too much time to one character isn’t really fair to the rest of the characters; I mean, how long has it been since we’ve seen Waver.  Though if there was one character to focus on, I suppose it should be Kiritsugu, but I still don’t think he should monopolize so much of the show’s time.

But really, Type Moon better just go ahead and start production for their Kiritsugu prequel/spinoff thing, because this episode just made me want to see something like that even more than I already did.  I don’t think that too many people would be against the idea of a “Kiritsugu the Vampire Slayer” series.  For the most part this episode seemed to be just an explination for the way Kiritsugu is and how he learned to do what he does.  Plus, we also got to see that scene where Kiritsugu gets his ribs ripped out from way back when in the first season, and we got some context and explanation to it as well.  It’s always nice when things come back around in the end.  I do think some of the things in this episode, such as the Bee dude and what exactly Natalia does were explained a little more, but this is more than likely a one time flashback episode, so It’s understandable that they skipped around a lot.  I do wish that this episode would have been more chronological, but that’s just a minor complaint.

It seemed to me that the main point of this episode was that no matter what, even when faced with losing everything that is important to him, Kiritsugu still holds to his ideals and his desire to save all the people that he can.  I see it as reflecting that old Spock quote, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”, and it seems that Kiritsugu holds very strongly to that.  But even with how strong his convictions are about saving people, he seemed to be trying to justify what he did to Natalia pretty soon after he destroyed that plane.  Obviously allowing the plane to land would pose a huge threat, but it’s not as if it was impossible for him to attempt to control the Bee Zombies and try to save Natalia at the same time.  Although Kiritsugu does try to do all he can to help people, he does it in the harshest and most unflinching way possible.  Could he have possibly save Natalia and stopped the Zombies?  Maybe, but the risk was too great.  Was it cruel to kill Kayneth and his wife after he made Lancer commit suicide?  Yes it was, but if there was even a fraction of a fraction of a chance that Kayneth could reenter the war, Kiritsugu was going to do what he had to do to make sure he didn’t.

Now we’ll probably be going back to the actual story arc of the series, which hopefully means that Archer and Kirei are finally going to come out as partners…. in a Master and Servant kind of way…. no, not like that.  Anyway, with so few servants and Master’s left, I imagine that things will start to get pretty eventful from here on out.  If I had to put money on it, I’d say that Kariya and Berserker will almost certainly be the first ones to go.  After all, leaving the three legendary kings to duke it out seems only fair.  After that, I’d assume that Rider and Waver would be the next to go.  Then, I’d assume that Kiritsugu would win, but the fact that the war happens agina (Stay/Night) kind of seems to contradict that, but maybe his wish just didn’t work right, or something along those lines.  Regardless, I expect an epic showdown between Saber and Archer, and Kiritsugu and Kirei, so don’t let me down here.

Fate Zero Episode 18 – Resident Evil Zero

Okay, so when do we get a separate series about Kiritsugu’s childhood, cause I’d be down for that.  This episode is a lot like the Rin episode a while back, because it shows just how diverse this show can.  The difference being that this episode actually kind of had something to do with the main story.  The episode with Rin felt more like a spin-off, but this felt more like a prequel.  This episode could have honestly been it’s own OVA or something, and it still would have been good without any prior knowledge to anything else in the Fate/Zero series.  I’d be perfectly fine with some Higurashi knockoff with zombies being an actual show, so go ahead and make it happen, Japan.

Even though the episode was good, I think the story it creates is kind of odd.  Supposedly Kiritusugu’s dad was trying to make some kind of something-or-other that would allow people to live forever by stopping them from aging.  For whatever reason he’s doing it, the new character in this episode seems to think that it’s a good thing, because it potentially help people.  Now, we all know that if you ever have an immortal character in some work of fiction, they almost always are looking for a way to die because they’re tired of life, so there’s that to consider.  But also, how the hell is a society of immortal people supposed to work?  Wouldn’t overpopulation become a huge problem?  And how is living forever supposed to help everything and make everyone happy?  Isn’t the fact that life is finite what makes it so special?  And it’s not like it’s everyone’s wish to live until they’re 5,456 or something; as Mr. Neil Young said: “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”.

And how the hell do you expect me to think that those things are vampires?  They’re without a doubt zombies.  Vampire’s aren’t brain-dead flesh eaters who stumble around like an eighty-year-old lady with chronic arthritis looking for people to eat -we call those things “zombies”.  Speaking of the zombies (not vampires) the second part of this episode was really strange.  The part with Shirley killing the chickens was good, but then everything got really crazy; we had zombies running everywhere, members of the Dark Brotherhood running around with knives killing then, the assholes from the Mages Guild burning the everliving shit out of the town, and finally there was Leon Kennedy’s long lost sister.  Perhaps all of this makes more sense in the Fate universe to people who have been exposed to it longer, or have read the novels, but at lot of that stuff kind of went over my head.

I assume that this episode was meant to show how “Kerry” (I don’t really understand what’s so hard about pronouncing Kiritsugu) became who he is now.  Perhaps he wants to save the world form people like his father, and he really wants to try to help the rest of the world, but if this event is supposed to be an excuse as to why he’s so cruel and relentless in attempting to win the Holy Grail War, then I call bullshit.  I mean, come on, the kid shot his own father (after he stabbed him, mind you) without so much as a second thought.  He didn’t try to get him to stop, or ask why he was doing what he was doing, he just killed him.  Granted, his dad was a pretty selfish and apathetic asshole, but still, that’s his dad.  I don’t so much buy this as the reason for Kiritsugu’s ruthlessness, but I can at least understand how it could be used to explain it.

Fate/Zero Episode 17 – Prophecy Fulfilled

God damn, this fucking show, it’s so motherfucking good.  There’s so much stuff going on and so many different ideas and themes, but I can always understand what’s happening at the moment, and I’m always interested in it.  This episode surely put itself high in the running for the best episode so far, and it might just be better than last week’s, but I’ll have to wait a few days and see what I think about it then. But I think the fact that this episode finally brought something that’s been being alluded to for weeks to fruition may help it overcome last week’s in my opinion.

Although this episode was almost exclusively about Kirei, the scene with Irisviel and Maiya was also very good.  Her talking about how she was made only for the war and about how Kiritsugu gave her the scabbard to keep her alive, kind of helped show that he isn’t just some completely self-concerned asshole, even though he may seem like it.  Although Kiritsugu is trying to win the war for his own personal moral convictions, he isn’t completely “Fuck everything else, I’m doing this and only this”; he still cares about his wife and family.  And then, I remembered that there exists a show by the name of Fate/Stay Night, which is a show about the Holy Grail War.  So if that show exists, then logic would lead to the conclusion that Kiritsugu doesn’t win the War, so I pretty much spoiled a potential ending for myself.  But please don’t comment something about how he does or doesn’t win, because I can still hold onto some idea that he may win, and his plan just didn’t work or something.

The real focus of this whole episode is Kirei and how much of a badass he is.  He just may rival Kiritsugu in that field.  The show has done a really good job of developing his character and showing his transformation for a docile pawn in Tokiomi’s plan to his own man who usurps even his own Master.  Perhaps he always was the way he is now and just never really had any freedom to do anything himself – considering how he’s been a servant of the church his whole life.  But either way, I (along with several other people) said that Kirei and Archer were going to get together way back in episode 9 or some shit, so I’m ecstatic that it finally happened.  The reveal about what really happens at the end of the war was kind of weak – not in what actually happens but how it’s told.  There’s no real build up to it or anything, Kirei just says, “You have to die at the end” and Archer doesn’t even bat an eye.  To me it seems odd that the spirits don’t even know the procedure or ramifications of the contest that they’ve been called from beyond the dimensional star gate to participate in, considering that they all at least know why they’ve been summoned in the first place.

The murder scene was also executed very well.  It just goes to show that things like atmosphere and dramatic tension make the difference of any scene, be it in movies, television, or anime.  We all knew that something was going to happen the second Kirei got the knife, but that didn’t make it any less awesome when Kirei actually did what everyone knew he was going to do.  Then Archer and Kirei finally become Servant and Master, and the stage is set for more awesomeness.

Seeing as how everyone who has died so far has had a pretty rough time of it, it makes me kind of worried about what will happen to Waver.  By now, he certainly knows he’s in over his head, but he probably doesn’t realize how much danger his life is in if Kiritsugu targets him.  If he continues his trend of killing the Masters after their Servants are dead, that will make for a pretty sad moment.  I can’t really explain what I mean, but I guess it more goes along with his innocence and youth.  All of the other people in the war are older and more experienced mages, but Waver just seems like a child doomed be killed because of something he didn’t foresee.

Fate/Zero Episode 16 – Machiavellianism

Best episode ever.  No, you cannot argue with this, it is scientifically proven to be one hundred percent true.  This episode was complete and total badassery to the very core, but not only that there was a lot of it.  Awesome dialogue, awesome action, awesome everything; it was simply fucking amazing.  Hopefully, this marks a darker and more violent turning point in the series, because I don’t there’s been this much shit happen collectively in the entire series, let alone in a single episode.

About the point that Kayneth shot the priest, I was pretty convinced that shit was about to go down.  However, I certainly didn’t expect it to go down as much as it actually did.  I’m still a little confused as to how Kayneth got the command seal for killing Caster.  First of all, I assumed that he had given all control of Lancer over to his fiance, but apparently he is still technically involved in the contract.  Second, the only part that Lancer actually played in killing Caster was shooting himself in the foot so Saber could one-shot the bastard, so it doesn’t really make sense as to how he should receive the extra command seal.  I guess it doesn’t really matter; if nothing else we can just call it a plot device for the epicness that happens later in the episode.

Everything in the whole last half of the episode was almost flawless, from Kayneth insulting Lancer, to Saber and Lancer’s duel, to Kiritsugu’s bribery of Kayneth, and the aftermath of everything was amazing.  Lancer’s death after all that was the icing on top of the cake, but what happened to Kayneth after that was the icing on top of the icing on top of the cake.  I am kind of upset that Lancer has been eliminated relatively early in the War, but at least he had an awesome death, I don’t think many people can deny that.  As sad as the fact the he didn’t even have any control over it was, his final “Fuck you and fuck the War” speech was pretty damn cool, and it was made even cooler by the fact he was dying as he gave it.  We all know that dying while telling people off is the epitome of badass, that’s why Captain Rhodes’ death inDay of the Dead will always be the most badass thing ever.

Now, everybody is surely going to jump on the “Fuck Kiritsugu” bandwagon, but I for one will do nothing of the sort, as he is still one of the most interesting characters in the show.  For a while, I just assumed him to be a careful and organized who knew how to get what he wanted, but now we all know that he’s pretty much a completely uncaring killer, if only for a greater purpose.  Basically, this whole episode encompassed the main theme of Code Geass better than Code Geass itself did.  In a rather broad sense the idea behind both Kiritsugu’s and Lelouch’s motives was the principle of Machiavellianism, or more simply “The end justifies the means”.  It’s not as this is an unexplored topic in entertainment or even anime – hell, that’s even one of the big ideas in Evangelion – but nonetheless it seems to fit really well in the context of this show.  Seeing as how the Grail can do pretty much anything, it seems like a perfect time to apply that principle in the search for a greater good.

But like always, Saber and her absurdly unflinching pride can’t even seem to comprehend the idea.  Of course what Kiritsugu did was dishonest and cruel, but doesn’t the saying go “All’s fair in love and war”?  Saber still continues to maintain that there absolutely has to be some kind of sacredness to battle and that chivalry must always be upheld, but she seems unable to grasp the concept that things may have extenuating circumstances sometimes.  Even if Lancer was honorable and kind to Saber, even if Kayneth just wanted to save his fiance, their goal in the War is to kill everyone else, even Saber and Kiritsugu.  So does that mean that they must adhere by some vague and self-defined sense of honor in such a situation?  I would say, no, it doesn’t, and even though Kiritsugu may seem like a heartless monster, the goal of the Holy Grail War is: to win, not: to win while being as nice to everyone as you can.

Fate/Zero Episode 15 – Women Can Be GAR Too

Once again; a lot of action, not much dialogue amongst the characters, and some things that didn’t quite make sense in this weeks episode.  But still, it’s Fate/Zero and it was still really good.  At least now both Caster (may his insane soul rest in peace… or wherever he goes back to when he dies) and Ryunosuke have been officially dealt with and now the rest of the servants can finally get back to the real War without having to worry about giant octopi that eat planes and stuff.

There’s one thing that I kind of forgot about for a while that I think is worth mentioning.  For the longest time the fact that this show takes place in our reality kind of slipped my mind.  Well, it takes place in a semi-reality; we don’t really have mages colleges and the like.  And if mages are an open commonplace thing, I would think that seeing the way that this world really worked with the use of magic would be interesting to see.  But still, all this stuff that’s going on has got to be pretty shocking, and I doubt that all these people, no matter how used to magic they are, probably don’t really know much about the Holy Grail War.  And for that matter considering that the Magus college that Waver was attending is a real institute open to the public, exactly how much to the normal residents of this world know about magic and the way it works?

Other than Caster’s death one of the other big things that happened this episode was Kariya’s supposed “death” by the hands of Tokiomi.  First of all, he was fucking set ablaze and was burning alive for at least thirty seconds before throwing himself off of a god-damn two story rooftop.  The possibility that he wouldn’t have really died is probably less than zero, and the likelihood of him having such minor burns are even less than less than zero.  I guess his weird magically sick body protected him from that, but an explanation for that really needs to be offered.  It was kind of surprising that Kirei didn’t kill him and from what I assume, tried to heal him instead.  Perhaps all of his conversations with Archer are paying off and changing him from the stoic Wolverine fan that he is into a much more important character in the show.  I think that going against order that were probably given to him by the Church or Tokiomi is a good way to start becoming your own man.

And finally we have Saber’s big epic ray-gun laser-beam Noble Phantasm.  By the way, what the hell does “Anti Fortress” mean?  It’s used to destroy castles or something?  Anyway, her not even telling everyone else about it once again asserts her almost selfish pride that Rider and Archer look down upon so much.  It’s not as if her having pride is necessarily a bad thing, but she was willing to put everyone else at risk and attempt to solve the problem another way.  That’s like digging a ditch using a hoe because you don’t want to ask your next-door neighbor to borrow his shovel.  Just like Rider stated earlier, she was willing to shoulder everything herself and not receive assistance from anyone until it was forced upon her.   And Lancer continues to be a badass in this episode.  It probably sucks giving up half of your weaponry in a war like this, but he was willing to do it if it could help Caster be stopped.  In my opinion he’s really much more worthy of the title of “King” than Saber.  It’s kind of a shame that there really is no chance of him actually winning the war.

With all that solved, it’s finally time to get things moving in the real battle stages of the war.  Two Servants have been eliminated, and now there rest are ready to duke it out.  But more than anything I’m looking forward to Archer and Kirei teaming up, because I just know that it’s going to happen.  Everyone knows that it’s always cool to see the underling of an organization usurp his leader, even more so when he usurps him by stealing his super-powerful legendary magical Servant from another dimension.  Kirei and Archer need to get together ASAP.  No homo.

Fate/Zero Episode 14 – Season Two

Kind of late, but better late than never I guess.  Anyway, finally after around four months of waiting Fate/Zero makes it’s return to computer screens everywhere.  However, it didn’t really feel like it warranted the huge break in between the two parts of the series.  What I mean by that is, this doesn’t really feel like the start of a new season, and it probably isn’t supposed to (seeing as how it’s been called episode 14 everywhere I looked), but I still that the gap between the last episode and this one warranted something bigger.  This isn’t really anything to criticize, because it’s not like the show cut off right before they fought Caster and we had to wait to see if there would be another season, but still, another forty-five minute  episode would have been fine by me.

This episode contained a lot of action, which is fine by me, but some of it did seem a little over the top, such as the dogfight between Berserker and Archer.  Speaking of Berserker, it’s about damn time he finally came back – him and Kariya both.  Karyia and Tokiomi’s conversation was one of the few things in this episode that wasn’t all out action, and I was really glad that Kariya finally got to have some time in the spotlight.  Seeing as how he’s entered into the war for completely selfless reasons, it seems kind of odd how downplayed he’s been so far, especially with his badass Servant.  For a standard show, it would stand to reason that someone with such a noble cause would be the main hero, but Fate/Zero isn’t really a standard show, which is a good thing.  Maybe he’ll come into the show more now, especially since Ryunosuke is dead.

But other than a series of brief conversations between Archer and Tokiomi, not much else really happened in this episode.  Even though Caster’s master is dead, he could still technically find another master before all of this is over, assuming that the other servant’s don’t find a way to beat him somehow.  But I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Caster’s going to be out of the money pretty soon here, seeing as how it’s a kind of common trait in anime for a villain pull his biggest gun right before he dies.  That and the fact that I don’t think Caster could bear to go on without his oh-so-amazing master Ryunosuke.  Who will slaughter children and make artwork out of entrails with him?  Who could possibly find the same joy in the screams of innocent women having their flesh torn from their body?  Only Ryunosuke….

Anyway, there isn’t a whole lot to say about this episode, considering about half of it was taken up with Caster tearing shit up, Archer not wanting to kill him, and Berserker flying around on some demon-possessed jet.  This show has been plenty good so far, so I don’t really have a reason to believe that that’s going to change any time soon, I think I just felt that this episode was a little underwhelming as a big epic come-back episode, but perhaps that was just my presupposition of what it should have been.  Hopefully next week, we’ll finally get to see the first servant fall, even though it will be a little sad to say goodbye to Caster and all of his craziness.