I thought I had already given up hope after watching Fate/Stay Night and finding myself falling asleep when wind of Fate/Zero reached my ears. Being the very open minded person I am, I decided to run it past myself. Fate/Zero is the prequel to what would be a rather boring Fate/Stay Night, and apparently shows that just before Shirou and company got together, some very epic battles were fought.
But first of all! We MUST mention the girls of Fate/Stay Night (since it was a game about girls!) making appearances as children as the war for the Holy Grail begins. Not only do we see what Sakura has been through since the very beginning, we also see more of her family members now. Something we do not see much of. SAKURA IS SO CUTE AS A CHILD. Well of course, she is a child after all.
She's only a child though, so back off.
Also, we get to see my favorite girl in Fate/Stay Night, Rin!! I have always loved twintails, but Rin just takes it up to eleven by wearing it EVER SINCE CHILDHOOD.
And while we're talking about Rin, I must say that Tokiomi really is Rin's father. I can see where Rin got her good looks from.
Also, it turns out that that crazy guy in gold in Fate/Stay Night that had all those crazy ass swords shot from some crazy watery ripply surface behind him was actually summoned by Tokiomi. He was an archer too! I see Rin follows closely in her father's footsteps.
Next we find Shirou's "dad", Kiritsugu who really doesn't look like he's got a lot of fight in him, though the OP does make him look like a smoking badass. There is little to say about him besides the fact that he's got the same servant Shirou did. Like father like son.
Meet Saber, the older-than-print King of Knights who sit at a round table. Well, back then Kings were girls. True story.
Beyond all that I think the highlight of the first episode of Fate Zero would be its Opening Theme. Some very well animated sequences actually left me anticipating the rest of the series. In short, I cannot wait to see the rest of it.
For example, Saber gets to transform from being in a suit
Into her battledress. Like, literally.
We also get to see some crazy ass wangst coming out of Kariya. I cannot wait to see what he can do with those bugs and his berserker.
and best of all, I think the animators are pretty damn pleased with themselves for making something so awesome again, just when I was about to lose hope in anime.