Fate/Zero 01
I was hesitant about watching this one compared to Stay/night for a few reasons. Now, I have a healthy respect for Urobuchi. Madoka (even Rebellion) is one of my favorite anime, both for how it examines and reaffirms what I love about magical girls, and Kamen Rider Gaim is fantastic. I liked Gargantia too, though I often sided with the Gargantians in forum debates. So why the wait on this one?
1. It's a prequel. And prequels often have storytelling hurdles that are more restrictive than allowing for free form creativity. The problem of dramatic tension, mostly. Also the fact that Stay/night already gave plenty of backstory relevant to its events. Expanding on that satisfies the fans, but I was doubtful it could be a good story beyond that. I've never been big into Type-Moon, or any other big universe for that matter. The disbelief that a prequel could actively reshape its parent story baffled me, but was also what forced my hand into watching it.
2. This one is pettier and entirely subjective, but Saber being the only girl participating in the Grail War. Stay/night had much better female representation among Masters and Servants, and, well, cute girls are a large part of why I watch anime. Though I realize the same argument could also apply to Gaim (and Yoko/Malika's not quite as.. stable as Saber is), but I expect that for toku. My expectations for anime are somewhat different. (Also, the harem/high school arguments against Stay/night never bothered me. Those are what I expect from anime, and blending genres has produced a lot of what makes anime work.)
3. I associated ufotable with Manabi Straight and Futakoi Alternative (and Shinobuden, which I need to see), and was wondering how the studio suddenly became known for things outside the genres I associated it with, and also hugely popular. This last one is more curiosity compared to the other two.
But I watched all of the first episode, and a lot of the exposition was stuff I already knew, but it went down a lot easier than this evening's Mahouka. The show does look very pretty and it has a good grasp of cinematography (walking in circles scene aside), but the whole feel of it overall is more.... gritty than the stuff I usually watch. Assassins and worms that look like they came out of the shadier class of eroge and whatnot. It doesn't reach the "cool and sunglasses" level where it becomes laughable, but there's very little levity to be found.
I can already see a few parallels. The Micchi of the group, the Takatora, the Kaito. I know the war really kicks off next time, and while most of the girls are small roles, I hope there's at least an Alt-Mai in their ranks, someone to keep everyone else grounded. It's not bad, but I'm still unsure going into it.