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Book Reviews: Fate/Zero and F/Z: Heart of Freaks, Urobuchi; The Crow, O'Barr
I reread some of my favorite stories in the world and, defying every expectation, actually wrote reviews of them this time. Bad things are easy to talk about, good things are challenging to talk about, best-beloved things are all but impossible to talk about—because those elements which make them superlative tend to be something other-than-technical, like web of relationships in Fate/Zero, like the piercing grief in The Crow, it's a narrative/thematic element unique to the work, difficult to describe without the work ... or, apparently, without three paragraphs. But I'm trying not to worry about editing myself down when I have that much to say, mostly for time/sanity, but also because my experience with these works I love best is larger & has its own internal narrative.
Title: Fate/Zero
Author: Gen Urobuchi
Illustrator: Takashi Takeuchi
Published: 2006-2007
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 1620
Total Page Count: 334,950
Text Number: 1214-1217
Read Because: personal enjoyment
Review: A war for possession of the wish-granting grail draws seven competing teams to Japan. This is my second time reading the books and my fourth-and-a-half time with the story, and that certainly says something about me but I hope it also says something about Fate/Zero. This is a story where, against all the odds, the serial killer self-actualizing with the help of his monsterbuddy isn't my favorite bit; my favorite is the complex, fractal web of motives and relationships that grows around the dichotomy between the central characters—it reaches deep into the plot and as distant as minor supporting characters, it's complicated and provoking and offers me more with each revisit.
The joy of the books in particular is that this medium allows for interior glimpses which aren't possible in the anime. I love Ryuunosuke's final scene, but even more distinctive is that Kirei is framed more as protagonist than antagonist, despite that Kiritsugu ostensibly occupies that role. His early characterization is surprising vulnerable, his relationship with Gilgamesh more intimate, his moments of revelation dynamic and central both to the climax and the setup for Fate/stay night.
All this despite that I'm so familiar now with the narrative that the amount of space given to worldbuilding and game rules is oppressive and slows the first half of the story, and despite that there's no official translation and the existing English fan translation is incredibly clunky. This isn't a perfect story and for non-Japanese readers this isn't the perfect way to access it, but I love it anyway—I love it profoundly.
Title: Fate/Zero: Heart of Freaks
Author: Gen Urobuchi
Published: 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 334,565
Text Number: 1218
Read Because: personal enjoyment
Review: Kiritsugu and Natalia track down a rogue mage. This is interesting as a glimpse into their relationship, which appears only briefly in the series—it's a complicated relationship and this refuses to resolve that, instead indicating longterm distrust/differing motives that speak to their characters and Kiritsugu's larger arc. The villain has great body horror, but the general plot and pacing is unremarkable; if it weren't tied to Fate/Zero, this would be largely forgettable.
Title: The Crow
Author: James O'Barr
Published: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993 (1989)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 245
Total Page Count: 335,425
Text Number: 1220
Read Because: rewatched the film on Halloween, paperback from my personal library
Review: After he and his girlfriend are murdered, a man returns to exact revenge. Approaching the original comic when familiar with the film adaptation can feel like a disappointment: there's less narrative here and the structure is more disjointed. Mostly this is a sign of a strong adaptation, because the film manages to take a slew of elements and build them into a more coherent structure—sometimes seen slantwise, sometimes a direct page-to-screen translation—while including a dozen easter eggs that reference scenes in the comic which aren't included in the film.
But the comic isn't just the same story, unrefined. The comic and film share an aesthetic but the comic is messier, more chaotic, unrelenting in harsh black and white. The tone is crazed, littered with non sequiturs and quotations, rich with introspective moments that explore Eric's unresolved grief. The lack of structure is a thematic echo: the Crow's violence is perpetuating and destructive—like the film it has catharsis, but it offers so little resolution. These two versions are for me inextricable. O'Barr said in an interview:
and the comic and film reflect this. The comic is painful and unfulfilling; it's less successful as a stand-alone work, but the film couldn't exist—or say so much—without its predecessor and without the cumulative interplay between the versions, and the metaknowledge of O'Barr and of Brandon Lee. I love both versions; the comic is less fun to revisit, but it always gives me a deeper appreciation of the work entire.
Title: Fate/Zero
Author: Gen Urobuchi
Illustrator: Takashi Takeuchi
Published: 2006-2007
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 1620
Total Page Count: 334,950
Text Number: 1214-1217
Read Because: personal enjoyment
Review: A war for possession of the wish-granting grail draws seven competing teams to Japan. This is my second time reading the books and my fourth-and-a-half time with the story, and that certainly says something about me but I hope it also says something about Fate/Zero. This is a story where, against all the odds, the serial killer self-actualizing with the help of his monsterbuddy isn't my favorite bit; my favorite is the complex, fractal web of motives and relationships that grows around the dichotomy between the central characters—it reaches deep into the plot and as distant as minor supporting characters, it's complicated and provoking and offers me more with each revisit.
The joy of the books in particular is that this medium allows for interior glimpses which aren't possible in the anime. I love Ryuunosuke's final scene, but even more distinctive is that Kirei is framed more as protagonist than antagonist, despite that Kiritsugu ostensibly occupies that role. His early characterization is surprising vulnerable, his relationship with Gilgamesh more intimate, his moments of revelation dynamic and central both to the climax and the setup for Fate/stay night.
All this despite that I'm so familiar now with the narrative that the amount of space given to worldbuilding and game rules is oppressive and slows the first half of the story, and despite that there's no official translation and the existing English fan translation is incredibly clunky. This isn't a perfect story and for non-Japanese readers this isn't the perfect way to access it, but I love it anyway—I love it profoundly.
Title: Fate/Zero: Heart of Freaks
Author: Gen Urobuchi
Published: 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 334,565
Text Number: 1218
Read Because: personal enjoyment
Review: Kiritsugu and Natalia track down a rogue mage. This is interesting as a glimpse into their relationship, which appears only briefly in the series—it's a complicated relationship and this refuses to resolve that, instead indicating longterm distrust/differing motives that speak to their characters and Kiritsugu's larger arc. The villain has great body horror, but the general plot and pacing is unremarkable; if it weren't tied to Fate/Zero, this would be largely forgettable.
Title: The Crow
Author: James O'Barr
Published: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993 (1989)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 245
Total Page Count: 335,425
Text Number: 1220
Read Because: rewatched the film on Halloween, paperback from my personal library
Review: After he and his girlfriend are murdered, a man returns to exact revenge. Approaching the original comic when familiar with the film adaptation can feel like a disappointment: there's less narrative here and the structure is more disjointed. Mostly this is a sign of a strong adaptation, because the film manages to take a slew of elements and build them into a more coherent structure—sometimes seen slantwise, sometimes a direct page-to-screen translation—while including a dozen easter eggs that reference scenes in the comic which aren't included in the film.
But the comic isn't just the same story, unrefined. The comic and film share an aesthetic but the comic is messier, more chaotic, unrelenting in harsh black and white. The tone is crazed, littered with non sequiturs and quotations, rich with introspective moments that explore Eric's unresolved grief. The lack of structure is a thematic echo: the Crow's violence is perpetuating and destructive—like the film it has catharsis, but it offers so little resolution. These two versions are for me inextricable. O'Barr said in an interview:
Basically, when I was 18, my fiancé was killed by a drunk driver. I was really hurt, frustrated, and angry. I thought that by putting some of this anger and hate down on paper that I could purge it from my system. But, in fact, all I was doing was intensifying it—I was focusing on all this negativity. As I worked on it, things just got worse and worse, darker and darker. So, it really didn't have the desired effect—I was probably more fucked up afterwards than before I started. It was only after becoming friends with Brandon, experiencing his death, and seeing the film—perhaps 17 times now—that I finally reached what is currently called "closure" while visiting his grave in Seattle.
and the comic and film reflect this. The comic is painful and unfulfilling; it's less successful as a stand-alone work, but the film couldn't exist—or say so much—without its predecessor and without the cumulative interplay between the versions, and the metaknowledge of O'Barr and of Brandon Lee. I love both versions; the comic is less fun to revisit, but it always gives me a deeper appreciation of the work entire.